Behavioral Sciences

Commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) is a complex form of interpersonal victimization characterized by force, fraud, and coercion in which individuals engage in sexual activities that generate financial, material, or other benefits for third parties. Although trauma bonding has increasingly been used to explain why victims remain attached to exploiters, less attention has been devoted to the role of peer relationships in shaping pathways into and out of exploitation. This study examined how peer socialization and trauma bonding may influence victim pathways through a secondary qualitative analysis of 78 child sex trafficking investigative case files and 114 application files of adult women voluntarily seeking admission to a residential recovery program serving women currently or formerly involved in the sex industry or identifying as sexually exploited and/or trafficked. Using a theory-building thematic approach, four themes emerged: (1) relationship-based pathways into exploitation through peers, romantic partners, family members, and online contacts; (2) trauma bonding within exploitative relationships and social networks; (3) barriers to exit, including attachment to exploitative networks, substance use, homelessness, and trauma; and (4) recovery supported by recovery-oriented peers, family members, friends, and other supportive relationships. The findings indicate that peer relationships may function as both risk and protective factors. They also raise the possibility that trauma bonding processes may extend beyond trafficker–victim dyads to broader exploitative social networks, although this interpretation remains exploratory and warrants further empirical investigation.

This study examined the relationship between family conflict and problematic social media use among adolescents, and tested the serial mediating roles of social exclusion and executive function deficits. A cluster sampling approach was utilized to recruit 1129 adolescents aged 15–19 years, who completed a battery of standardized questionnaires. The results showed that: (1) Family conflict was significantly and positively correlated with social exclusion (r = 0.35, p < 0.01), executive function deficits (r = 0.38, p < 0.01), and PSMU (r = 0.22, p < 0.01). (2) The total effect of family conflict on PSMU was significant (b = 0.28, p < 0.001), whereas the direct effect was not (b = 0.07, p = 0.06). The serial mediation pathway “family conflict → social exclusion → executive function deficits → PSMU” yielded a significant effect (b = 0.02, 95% CI [0.01, 0.04]). Additionally, both social exclusion (b = 0.05, 95% CI [0.01, 0.08]) and executive function deficits (b = 0.14, 95% CI [0.09, 0.17]) exhibited significant independent mediating effects. These results suggest an association pathway from family conflict to adolescents’ peer relationships, then to impaired cognitive control, and ultimately to heightened risk for PSMU. The findings have practical implications for adolescent digital literacy programs and cognitive training interventions.

This study examined the longitudinal reciprocal associations between social network site appearance comparison and exercise adherence among female university students using a three-wave cross-lagged panel design. A total of 1053 female undergraduates from four universities in Jiangxi Province, China, provided valid baseline data, and 916 of these participants completed all three assessments conducted at approximately three-month intervals and were included in the final analyses. Both constructs were assessed using validated self-report questionnaires, and analyses were conducted using SPSS 26.0 and Mplus 8.3. Social network site appearance comparison was negatively correlated with exercise adherence across waves (r = −0.383 to −0.237, all p < 0.001). Cross-lagged analyses revealed reciprocal negative prospective associations: higher appearance comparison was associated with lower subsequent exercise adherence from T1 to T2 (β = −0.158, p < 0.001) and from T2 to T3 (β = −0.156, p < 0.001), while higher exercise adherence was associated with lower subsequent appearance comparison from T1 to T2 (β = −0.181, p < 0.001) and from T2 to T3 (β = −0.178, p < 0.001). These longitudinal associations did not significantly differ across family residence or academic year groups. The findings indicate reciprocal longitudinal associations between appearance comparison on social network sites and exercise adherence among female university students, highlighting the potential relevance of both constructs to understanding their changes over time.