Conditional Families and Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,Transgender, and Queer Youth Homelessness: Gender,Sexuality, Family Instability,and Rejection

Existing research on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth homelessness identifies family rejection as a main pathway into homelessness for the youth. This finding, however, can depict people of color or poor people as more prejudiced than White, middle‐class families. In this 18‐month ethnographic study, the author complicates this rejection paradigm through documenting the narratives of 40 LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness. The author examines how poverty and family instability shaped the conditions that the youth perceived as their being rejected because of their gender and sexuality. This rejection generated strained familial ties within families wherein the ties were already fragile. Likewise, the author shows how being gender expansive marked many youth's experiences of familial abuse and strain. This study proposes the concept of conditional families to capture the social processes of how poverty and family instability shape experiences of gender, sexuality, and rejection for some LGBTQ youth.     

Myth,Romance, Philosophizing,and Irony,and the Social Studies Curriculum

Sixth-grade students are challenged in understanding social studies content relevant to particular contexts, then connecting the content and context to their contemporary lives while communicating new knowledge to peers and teachers. Using political cartoons published after September 11, 2001, one sixth-grade social studies teacher designed probing questions and developed meaningful learning experiences relating historical events to current concerns of the students supplementing their curriculum and textbook. Through verbal and written interactions, the students demonstrated in-depth understanding of September 11, 2001, and consequential global ramifications. Subsequently, this teacher used the same strategy to engage learners in additional historical events effectively integrating social studies and literacy to introduce conflict analysis, increase critical thinking, expand text connections, and enhance literacy skills.     

Religion,Spirituality, and Thriving: Transcendent Narrative,Virtue, and Telos

A theory is proposed to explain how religion/spirituality (R/S) is related to positive youth development and thriving. The concept of telos is employed to define thriving as continued growth through strength‐based living that leads to contributing to one's communities and living out one's ethical ideals. Virtue development is proposed as a primary process by which R/S promotes thriving. Virtues are defined as hybrid personality units emerging when characteristic adaptations are given meaning by a transcendent narrative identity. R/S contributes to virtue formation through the ideological, social, and transcendent contexts embedded within religion by providing opportunities to grow both the characteristic adaptations and transcendent narrative identities necessary for virtue formation in youth and, ultimately, thriving. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Lesbian,gay, bisexual,and transgender families and health

Research consistently demonstrates that family relationships are key determinants of health, but most research on health and families focuses on a heterosexual and cisgender context. Sexual and gender identities often are overlooked or erased in family and health research. We present an overview of the current state of research on LGBT families and health, using a life course approach and pointing to the ways that LGBT people's experiences of families occur within a broader social structural context, with implications for their health and the health of their family members. We focus on parenthood, parent–child ties, intimate relationships, and caregiving. We also identify two theoretical obstacles for studies of LGBT families and health as well as important research areas for moving forward, such as the inclusion of non‐binary and queer identities in our studies of family and health. Incorporation of LGBT and other queer families and family forms into our health research interrogates assumptions within family and health research and offers insight into how to move the field forward.     

Digitization,the Internet,and the Arts: eBay,Napster, SAG,and e-Books

Via four case studies we explore the extent to which digitization is transforming how people access and engage with the arts. The first case study is the online auction house eBay. We focus on a unique system whereby millions of users rate each other's integrity and reputations in a digital venue via a transparent system open to all users and visitors alike. The second case study examines the Screen Actors Guild strike against the advertising industry, which drew attention to the potential for and limitation of the replacement of human actors by digitized replicas. Third, we focus on e-books in the context of the prediction that most books, music and film entertainment will eventually be distributed electronically to the average household. The fourth case study analyzes the Napster debate over file sharing and duplication of online music. We focus on the ability of Napster to create a huge community of users sharing their own copies of digital music. From this point of view Napster represented a uniquely efficient and large-scale dream, a modern form of the cooperation and sharing of property envisaged by classical anarchist philosophers of the nineteenth century. On the other hand, and as always in anarchistic uprisings, another class claimed proprietary ownership in the material being shared and saw in Napster mostly collective theft on the part of ordinary citizens. Three of these four case studies centrally involve ordinary people using the digital media in creative and innovative ways. We conclude by arguing, against those who are skeptical about the transforming power of digitization, that even in the short time that it has been widely available digitization has so increased people's ability to interact creatively with products that this amounts to a qualitative change which, over the next few decades, is likely to develop so far as to justify the label revolution.     

Science,Critique, Authority,and Accountability

This essay is written in response to Fujimura and Holmes’s piece “Staying the Course,” published in the December 2019 special issue of Sociological Forum—Resistance in the Twenty-First Century     

Distance,Transnational Arrangements,and Return Decisions of Senegalese,Ghanaian, and Congolese Migrants

This article examines the determinants of return of Senegalese, Ghanaian and Congolese migrants in Europe, and the extent to which their return decisions were linked to reasons and circumstances of their initial migration to Europe. We utilize the retrospective life history data collected by the MAFE Project in Senegal, Ghana and DR Congo and six European countries in order to understand whether and how changing conditions in both origin and destination countries, including policies, affect the migration dynamics between Sub‐Saharan Africa and Europe. The results show how the high cost entailed by this type of transcontinental long distance migration, reinforced by restrictive immigration policies, tend to delay and reduce return in comparison to shorter‐distance moves. In addition, brain circulation and transnational family arrangements seem to be at work and seriously question the dominant approach to admission and circulation policies in Europe.     

Inheritance,poverty, and disability

Inheritance is a significant means of transferring wealth from one generation to the next, and therefore increasingly attracts attention from researchers and policy-makers working on intergenerational and multidimensional poverty. However, until now disabled persons have been overlooked in these discussions. This oversight is particularly unfortunate because, as a group, the estimated one billion people with disabilities (some 15% of the world’s population) are among the poorest and most marginalized of the global population. Over the past decade, a small but growing literature has examined the recursive connections between poverty and disability throughout the developing world. In this paper, we argue that disabled individuals are routinely denied inheritance rights in many low-income and middle-income countries, and that this is a significant and largely unrecognized contributor to their indigence. The denial of inheritance is both a social justice issue and a practice that can no longer be overlooked if disabled persons are to be brought into the development mainstream.     

Legitimation,Consent, and Antifeminism

Antifeminists have developed a legitimation theory that justifies, informs, and enhances their politics. Whereas early American conservatives opposed consent theory because it justified political equality, contemporary antifeminists have adopted and adapted consent theory to articulate and promote different rights and responsibilities for women and men. This article traces the history of consent theory in sexual politics. It suggests that the social contract philosophers and the Founding Fathers systematically excluded women from consent. Early American feminists adopted consent theory to legitimate political equality between the sexes only to discover that political equality stopped far short of gender equality. The innovation of the antifeminists today lies in their use of consent theory to justify the political inclusion of women in politics in order to legitimate their subordination in the social realm.     

School Order,Justice, and Education: Climate,Discipline Practices,and Dropping Out

There is a growing body of research that explores how school climate, order, and procedural justice are related to violence within American public schools. What remains in the background, however, is how school climate, order, and justice are related to aspects of education such as dropping out. This study uses multilevel analysis, drawing from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, to examine the effect of school climate, order, and justice on dropping out. Results indicate that, when considering the various dimensions of school climate, order, and justice, a student receiving a formal school sanction remains the strongest factor related to the likelihood of a student dropping out of school. These results underscore the importance of careful design and implementation of school discipline and safety policies.     

Men, masculinity, and cancer: risk-factor behaviors, early detection, and psychosocial adaptation

Men and women experience cancer differently. More men than women get cancer, more men than women die from cancer, and men usually adapt less well than women after a cancer diagnosis. In this article, the author suggests that the consequences of male gender-role socialization may explain some of these differences. The focus of the article is on (a) cancer risk-factor behaviors; (b) screening, early detection, symptom recognition, and help seeking; and (c) psychosocial adaptation. Research that has identified gender differences is reviewed and the impact of male gender-role socialization is offered as a potential explanation for these differences. In addition, practice implications for college health professionals are offered.     

Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,and Transgender Families

This article reviews new scholarship on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender families. The past decade witnessed rapid expansion of data and strong research designs. The most notable advance was in studies on variation among mostly planned lesbian comother families. Cumulative evidence suggests that although many of these families have comparatively high levels of shared labor and parental investment, they may not be as “genderless” as previously depicted. Gay men's diverse paths to family formation and planned parenthood have also been explored, but almost no research studies their children's experiences. Conceptualizations of sexual orientation expanded to include bisexuals and others, and some understanding of the experiences of transgender people has begun to emerge. Future work should explore relationships among members of the families they create.     

Men,Masculinity, and Cancer: Risk-factor Behaviors,Early Detection,and Psychosocial Adaptation

Abstract

Men and women experience cancer differently. More men than women get cancer, more men than women die from cancer, and men usually adapt less well than women after a cancer diagnosis. In this article, the author suggests that the consequences of male gender-role socialization may explain some of these differences. The focus of the article is on (a) cancer risk-factor behaviors; (b) screening, early detection, symptom recognition, and help seeking; and (c) psychosocial adaptation. Research that has identified gender differences is reviewed and the impact of male gender-role socialization is offered as a potential explanation for these differences. In addition, practice implications for college health professionals are offered.     

Health,wellness, and workplace experiences of lesbian,gay, and bisexual social workers

Abstract

Using data from an online survey of 6,112 licensed social workers in 13?U.S. states, rates of reported behavioral health problems and service utilization, physical health problems, adverse childhood experiences, workplace stress, and compassion satisfaction were compared between heterosexual male, heterosexual female, gay/bisexual male, and lesbian/bisexual female respondents. Sexual minority workers reported far higher rates of mental health problems and service utilization, higher rates of physical problems, more frequent reporting of adverse childhood experiences, with no differences found between groups regarding workplace stress and compassion satisfaction. Minority stress theory and historical trauma are used as frameworks to conceptualize the findings.     

Views,events, and debates

Welcome to Gender & Development's Views, events, and debates section. We’d like to invite readers to respond to any of the views expressed in this section, to contact us with reports of events, and to suggest debates on issues relevant to the journal's concern: to inspire and strengthen development initiatives which support the goals of gender equality and women's empowerment.

We’d also like to invite you to send us your feedback on Gender & Development, and suggestions for future issues, to: gadeditor@oxfam.org.uk     

Zoning, accessory dwelling units, and family caregiving: issues, trends, and recommendations

This article explores the relationship between zoning regulations and co-residential family caregiving in the United States. It first provides an overview of U.S. housing policies, especially zoning. We then describe major changes in family structure and composition in the United States with their implications for caregiving and discuss how multigenerational housing options, particularly accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in single-family homes, can help support family caregiving. After an overview of zoning policies and actions that inhibit ADU production, we document current trends, incorporating information from a small non-random study of ADU activity we conducted in 2004. Finally, we present recommendations for promoting more multigenerational housing as a supplement to other family support programs (e.g., dependent care assistance, family caregiver payments) and as a source of affordable, supportive housing for those families choosing co-residence as their eldercare solution.     

Urbanization,migration, and development

This paper looks at the effect of the new international division of labor on urbanization in developing countries. Previous histories, particularly of insertion into the world economy, affect responses to the new order. Also, previous phases in the organization of the world economy, particularly those associated with import-substitution industrialization, have shaped the urban systems and urban social organization of developing countries in particular ways. By comparing the tendencies of the import-substituting period with those of the new international division of labor, contrasts are brought out in the patterns of migration, the shape of the urban system, labor markets, and in urban social organization. The overall change is likely to be an increasing divergence, both within developing countries and between them, in their urban organization.     

Forgiveness,Attachment, and Divorce

The aim of this work is to explore the place of forgiveness in the dynamics of divorce and the relation among forgiveness, demographics (gender, age and income, length of marriage, time passed since divorce, and the capacity to rebuild one's life), initiative and attitudes toward divorce, and attachment style and loneliness in a sample of divorced persons. A total of 40 divorced persons (18 men and 22 women) participated in this study. No differences in participants´ attachment style, forgiveness (yes–no), or forgiveness level related to gender were found. Forgiveness was related to age, years married, years divorced, income level, secure attachment, and romantic loneliness. Level of forgiveness was related to having remarried or lived with someone after the divorce, secure attachment, romantic loneliness, and unfavorable attitudes toward divorce. We found a negative association between initiative in the divorce and forgiveness and forgiveness level, and none with dependence—emotional or instrumental. Linear regression analysis showed that, in our sample, 37.4% of the variance of forgiveness was explained by security of attachment and age. Level of forgiveness was explained in 28.3% of its variance by initiative (negatively), secure attachment, and romantic loneliness.     

Time,Space, and Memories

ABSTRACT

This article traces the ways that gendered and generational family practices were remembered across time in the context of working-class homes in Victorian Britain. Two everyday domestic objects—the father's chair and the grandfather clock—are examined and analyzed, drawing on John Gillis' work on ritualized family spaces and contested notions of time (Gillis 1996). Both these objects resonate with the contested use of domestic space and the layered meanings of family time in working-class lives, not least because both are often remembered in autobiographical accounts of home and family. The special place of the father's chair highlighted the feminizing of the home and accompanying development of rituals to welcome and ensconce the father in his domestic domain each day. The sound of clocks underpinned the bringing together of industrial time, separating leisure and work for those at school or employment away from home, and at the same time conveying the cyclical nature of family life and its everyday routines from day to day, year to year, and generation to generation. Memories of chairs and clocks embedded in autobiographies offer important evidence about the images, sounds, and sensory experiences that resonated most powerfully when remembering and composing the hierarchies and tensions of working-class family life.