Competing Priorities: Partner-Specific Relationship Characteristics and Motives for Condom Use Among At-Risk Young Adults

Condoms protect against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unintended pregnancy and are essential to sexual health efforts targeting young adults, who are disproportionately affected by both outcomes. Understanding condom use motives is critical to increasing condom use. Research in this area is limited, particularly regarding the roles of partners and relationship factors. Using a longitudinal sample of 441 young adults and 684 reported partnerships we examined associations between relationship factors and condom use motives (pregnancy prevention, disease prevention, or dual protection). Simultaneous multilevel models identified variables associated with motives; level-specific models identified the levels (individual, partnership, time) variables impacted motives. Participants reported choosing condoms for pregnancy prevention, disease prevention, and dual protection in 51%, 17%, and 33% of partnerships, respectively. Partner-specific factors varied, to a differing degree, across the three levels. Seven variables (duration, condom self-efficacy, commitment, sexual decision-making, power, and vulnerability to harm [HIV/STIs] and pregnancy) distinguished condom use motives. The level of this association varied but was most pronounced at the partner and individual levels. Researchers and practitioners should consider the impact of both individual- and partner-level factors on condom use motives, in both research and sexual health programs.     

A small sociology of maternal memory

Memory is an enormously important resource for the social sciences. This paper takes the subject of maternal memory to examine a corpus of work in the sociology of childbirth concerned with how women remember the experience of childbirth. It suggests that the sociology of memory has been more concerned with collective than individual experiences, and that women's memories of childbirth have generally been treated as a special case, rather than as a route to enhanced understandings of how memory works in relation to the all‐important topics of time, identity and social change. Drawing on data from a 37‐year follow‐up to a study of childbirth conducted in the 1970s, it argues that maternal memory shares key characteristics with other kinds of memory, but can be significant in allowing women to reposition themselves as active social selves in a process that is remembered as not allowing much agency or autonomy.     

Agenda Setting and State Policy Diffusion: The Effects of Media Attention,State Court Decisions,and Policy Learning on Fetal Killing Policy*

Objectives. This study combines theories on agenda setting, policy innovation, and policy learning to develop an improved model of state policy change. The case of fetal killing policy change in the states is used to develop a model that incorporates national media attention and the decisions of state courts, in addition to policy learning variables that account for the policy changes of neighboring states and the passage of time. Methods. I test the effect of national media attention, decisions by the courts, and the actions of neighboring states on the likelihood that states will change their fetal homicide policies. Using time‐series cross‐sectional data from 1970 to 2002, the model is tested using logistic regression analysis. In addition to testing the theories mentioned above, control variables in the model include citizen and government ideology and the percentage of state residents who are fundamentalist Protestants. Results. Three of the four research hypotheses are supported by the statistical analysis. The results demonstrate that increased media attention to fetal homicide in a given year increases the likelihood that a state will change its policy the next year. Support is also found for the hypothesis that state court decisions will affect policy change. One of the control variables, government liberalism, is also found to decrease the likelihood that states will change their fetal homicide policies. Conclusions. This study lends insight into why states change their policies by including agenda‐setting variables such as media attention and decisions made by the courts. States do react to the actions of the courts by making changes to policies affected by the decisions.     

The Rheumatoid Arthritis Drug Development Model: a case study in Bayesian clinical trial simulation

The development of a new drug is a major undertaking and it is important to consider carefully the key decisions in the development process. Decisions are made in the presence of uncertainty and outcomes such as the probability of successful drug registration depend on the clinical development programmme. The Rheumatoid Arthritis Drug Development Model was developed to support key decisions for drugs in development for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. It is configured to simulate Phase 2b and 3 trials based on the efficacy of new drugs at the end of Phase 2a, evidence about the efficacy of existing treatments, and expert opinion regarding key safety criteria. The model evaluates the performance of different development programmes with respect to the duration of disease of the target population, Phase 2b and 3 sample sizes, the dose(s) of the experimental treatment, the choice of comparator, the duration of the Phase 2b clinical trial, the primary efficacy outcome and decision criteria for successfully passing Phases 2b and 3. It uses Bayesian clinical trial simulation to calculate the probability of successful drug registration based on the uncertainty about parameters of interest, thereby providing a more realistic assessment of the likely outcomes of individual trials and sequences of trials for the purpose of decision making. In this case study, the results show that, depending on the trial design, the new treatment has assurances of successful drug registration in the range 0.044–0.142 for an ACR20 outcome and 0.057–0.213 for an ACR50 outcome. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Same-Sex Parent Socialization: Understanding Gay and Lesbian Parenting Practices as Cultural Socialization

ABSTRACT

Cultural socialization refers to the processes by which parents communicate cultural values, beliefs, customs, and behaviors to their children. To date, research on cultural socialization has focused primarily on racial- and ethnic-minority families, and more contemporary studies have examined these practices among international and transracial adoptive families. In general, four main themes have emerged in the literature: Cultural Socialization, Preparation for Bias, Promotion of Mistrust, and Egalitarianism. Since families with same-sex parents continue to experience stigma in society, there is reason to believe these parents engage in cultural socialization strategies specifically around issues of sexual orientation. Yet, current research on cultural socialization has not explicitly investigated same-sex parenting. Thus, the present study examined same-sex parent socialization among families headed by sexual-minority parents (52 fathers, 43 mothers) using a preexisting socialization framework. Findings revealed that the majority of parents endorsed behaviors designed to promote children's awareness of diverse family structures and prepare them for potential stigma-related barriers socialization along three dimensions: Cultural Socialization, Preparation for Bias, and Proactive Parenting. These results contribute to our empirical understanding of same-sex parenting and justify the need to broaden our conceptualization of cultural socialization to be more inclusive of these diverse family structures.     

The social science of biographical life‐writing: some methodological and ethical issues

The enterprise of biography inhabits a liminal world at the intersections of fact and fiction, (social) science and art, objective narrative and personal life story. While social scientists write, use and are the subjects of, biographies, there is relatively little discussion in the methodological literature as to the nature of biography as a form of life‐writing. This paper discusses some of the issues of method and of ethics and reflexivity encountered during the research and writing of a biography of the prominent social scientist Barbara Wootton (1897–1988). It considers questions of consent and responsibility, the ‘triangulation’ of data derived from different sources (e.g. interviews, archives, autobiographical accounts; letters, published work and references to, and about, it), the relationship between biographer and biographee, the legitimacy of links between the private and the public, and issues of ‘bias’ and interpretation in the production of biographical narrative.     

Effects of Interview Mode on Assessments of Erectile and Ejaculatory Dysfunction among Men with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH)

In a randomized experiment (N = 249; age 50 + years), this study examined if self-reports of erectile dysfunction (ED) and ejaculatory dysfunction (EjD) symptomatology were influenced by the mode of interview administration (computer-assisted self-interview [CASI], audio computer-assisted self-interview [ACASI], or computer-assisted personal interview [CAPI; involving an interviewer]). This study also examined if mode moderated person variables hypothesized to impact self-reports (social desirability, age, or depressive mood). No main or moderating effects of mode were found for self-reports of EjD symptoms. However, mode effects on reports of ED symptoms were observed, and these moderated age and social desirability effects on self-reports. Significantly more older (relative to younger) men reported high levels of ED symptoms when interview administration was by a live interviewer (CAPI) than with self-administration. Alternatively, significantly more younger men reported high levels of ED symptoms when administration was by an interviewer (CAPI) or by ACASI (vs. CASI). The Mode × Social Desirability effects were complex (see the Discussion section), showing hypothesized effects under ACASI and CAPI conditions, but an opposite effect under the CASI condition. The stability of self-reported ED symptoms did not vary by mode (based on test–retest comparisons); test–retest was significantly higher for EjD symptoms within the ACASI condition. The impact of mode of administration on self-reports of ED/EjD symptoms is less predictable and dramatic than one might conclude from prior research with other types of self-report outcomes. The findings are consistent with a small, but growing, body of studies that illustrate highly situational effects of interviewing, which may depend on a complex interplay between modes, person variables, and the interview topic/target items. Self-administered methods, in particular, may not be a universal solution to response bias.     

Using research questionnaires with young people in schools: the influence of the social context

Whilst there is an extensive literature on the use of self-completion questionnaires as a research tool, very little attention has been paid to the influence of the social context in determining the ways in which questionnaires are used in practice. This paper describes our experiences of working with 27 English, mixed sex, state schools to carry out a questionnaire survey with 4754 students aged 13–14 years. The survey was part of a randomized controlled trial of peer led sex education. Using data from the questionnaires and from researcher fieldnotes, we highlight ways in which aspects of the social context affected the administration of the questionnaire, students' participation in the survey and the quality of the data collected.