Chinese Parents’ Perspectives on Adolescent Sexuality Education

ABSTRACT

There is growing interest in China to understand how young people learn about sexuality, but there are few existing studies about the role of parents as sex educators of their children. This study surveyed 694 Chinese parents of adolescents in three cities about their knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding sexuality education for their children. The majority supported sexuality education, yet few parents had provided it. High-income parents had more favorable sexual attitudes and, in turn, were more likely to educate children about sexuality. The findings provide insight into parents’ role in adolescents’ sexual behavior and can be useful to sexuality education professionals.     

Capital Usage in Adverse Situations: Applying Bourdieu’s Theory of Capital to Family Farm Businesses

The paper applies Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of capital to explore how farming family businesses respond to critical changes by using different forms of capital. The paper tells the story of three cases from the United Kingdom (UK): case one lost the entire farm business in the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) crisis; case two the family had to overcome the sudden death of the farmer; and in case three the farmer was diagnosed with a terminal illness. The results indicate that levels of economic capital are adversely affected, whilst social and symbolic capitals are important in assisting family members to cope and continue the business operations. The paper raises questions for future research and provides interesting findings for those involved with family business.     

Mother–Adolescent and Father–Adolescent Relationships After Divorce: Relations with Emerging Adults’ Romantic Attachment

This longitudinal study examined relations between mother–child relationship quality and father support in adolescence (ages 15–19) and emerging adults’ (ages 24–28) romantic anxiety and avoidance in a sample that experienced parental divorce in childhood (n = 72). A significant interactive effect of mother–adolescent relationship quality and father support on romantic anxiety occurred. High levels of father support protected emerging adults from the negative effects of a low quality mother–adolescent relationship. These results highlight the importance of examining effects of one parental relationship in the context of the other and the role that nonresidential fathers play in influencing their offspring’s romantic attachment.     

Undergraduate Students' Attributions of Depicted Adult–Adolescent and Adolescent–Adolescent Sexual Interactions

The grayest areas of defining child sexual abuse appear to involve the age and sex of the individuals involved, resulting in a potential for different attributions regarding child sexual abuse across individuals. As a result, this study examines the responses of 262 male and female college student participants after viewing a series of hypothetical sexual abuse vignettes that depicted a 15-year-old victim that neither resisted nor encouraged the advances of a 15-, 25-, or 35-year-old perpetrator's actions. Gender roles and sexual attitudes were examined as potentially important covariates. Using a series of analyses of covariance, female participants gave more pro-victim ratings than male participants, and younger perpetrators were viewed less negatively than older perpetrators. Gender roles and sexual attitudes served as significant covariates. These findings emphasized the need to educate individuals about child sexual abuse and unwanted sexual contact involving individuals under the age of consent.     

‘Ties that Bind’: A Transactional Approach to Social Capital

Abstract

The last decade has witnessed a renewed interest in the concept of social capital. However, much confusion still exists about the exact meaning of social capital. Thus, to create a foundation for future studies on social capital, this article develops a conceptual and theoretical framework to depict the stocks and flows of social capital. As such, it defines social capital formation in transactional terms so as to exploit fully the capital analogy used to characterise social capital and to place the concept of social capital on par with fixed, financial and human capital.     

Mxolisi Nyezwa’s Poetry of No Sure Place

A change in direction of the journal New Coin during the 1990s saw the emergence of a diverse group of poets who had previously struggled for publication. This article recognises this often overlooked collective and argues that they quickly established their own style of “Poetry of No Sure Place”, which expresses a malaise of sadness within South Africa that is popularly felt but rarely articulated. Focusing on three collections of poetry by Mxolisi Nyezwa, I show how this group’s work rests on a permanent – and possibly worsening – sense of imbalance. The article explores how Nyezwa attempts to reconcile a felt public and private need to write, struggles to find a source of connection and questions the permanence of social change in South Africa. Nyezwa epitomises the marginalisation, apprehension and uncertainty of New Coin’s Poetry of No Sure Place.     

Whither Sociology? Some Reflections on the Ideas of ‘Globalization’ and ‘Social Capital’1

The history of the social sciences provides instructive instances of clairvoyance on the part of some of its principal luminaries as well as periods of general institutional myopia. The 30-year history of the ISA Research Committee on Sociotechnics itself is an interesting representation of the path sociology in its mainstream and less orthodox (or deviant—depending on the perspective of the observer—configurations has traversed in these last decades. I vividly recall meeting Adam Podgorecki first at the meetings of the International Sociological Association in Washington and again, in the spring of 1973, at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. And I remember equally well meeting him again at the first meetings of the Research Committee on Sociotechnics at Loughborough University in England and at a later meeting in 1974, which was convened at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.     

Cohabitation Premium in Men’s Earnings: Testing the Joint Human Capital Hypothesis

This paper provides new evidence on the increase in wage earnings for men due to marriage and cohabitation (in the literature, commonly referred to as marital and cohabitation wage premiums for men). Using data for a sample of white men from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, the paper shows that even after accounting for potential selection bias there is a cohabitation wage premium for men, albeit smaller than the marriage premium. Our analysis shows that a joint human capital hypothesis (a la Benham in J Polit Econ 82(2, Part 2):S57–71, 1974) with intra-household spillover effects of partner’s education can explain the existence of the wage premiums. Our estimates provide some empirical support for the joint human capital hypothesis.     

Discussion of Hughes’ “There’s No Such Thing as a Whole Story”

The discussion of Elizabeth Hughes’ essay “There’s No Such Thing as the Whole Story” seeks to argue that a biopsychosocial perspective can flesh out understanding of what occurs at the level of discourse by adoptees. Underpinning such discourses, it is argued, is an experience-dependent view of the embodied mind. From this perspective understanding of the unconscious is situated biopsychosocially and includes aspects of how an autobiographical sense of self (Damasio, 2011) is embedded in memory.     

Beijing Capital International Airport Opens

Bright and spaciouswaiting hall.One of the restaurantsBaggage claim areaThe new airport will be able to welcome 3 5 million passengers each yearBeijing Capital International Airport Opens     

Translatio Vampyri: Transamerican Vampires and Transnational Capital in Guillermo del Toro’s Cronos

Abstract

‘As an act of disruption’, writes Emily Apter, ‘translation becomes a means of repositioning the subject in the world and in history’. The vampires in Guillermo del Toro’s film Cronos (1993) reveal similar ‘disruptions’, ‘repositionings’,and translations. Del Toro’s reinvented vampires embody on the screen – even as they are caught within – transnational webs of storytelling and neoliberal capitalism. Cronos dramatizes the transamerican exploitation of the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) at the same time as it visually remakes the hemispheric and transatlantic filmic/literary trope of the vampire. Del Toro’s neo-gothic recreations, and socio-economic commentaries, ‘translate’ the vampire from a European backdrop of bloodthirsty counts and ruined castles to a globalized Mexican metropolis full of bustling streets, middle-class life, and grimy assembly plants. That translation reveals and disrupts the vampiric logic of modern transamerican economies.     

Caregivers’ Mental Illness and Adolescent Delinquency Among African Americans in Chicago’s Southside: Exploring Potential Protective Factors

Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal - The aim of the present study is to identify protective factors that buffer the effect of caregiver mental illness on adolescent delinquency. Specifically,...     

The Monster Within: Countertransference Reflections on a Gay Adolescent’s Struggle with Sexual Identity

This paper concerns the author’s countertransference reflections on her work with a gay adolescent who identifies with powerfully destructive internal objects, including Hitler and the Monster. The author describes her countertransference inquiry through which she experiences her own potential destructiveness in order to help accommodate her adolescent patient’s rejected and disowned self states.

Adolescent daughters’ perceptions of their fathers’ levels of communication and care: How these variables influence female adolescent sexual behaviors

This study examines the relationship between female adolescents’ perceptions of their fathers’ level of communication and care, and the influence of these variables on their adolescent daughters’ sexual behaviors. Data was extracted from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health from 1994–2008, which consisted of a sample (N=629) of adolescent girls in grades 7–12 in the United States during the 1994–1995 school year. Study results show fathers’ caring as statistically significant at the .05 level. As fathers’ caring increased, the number of sex partners decreased among adolescent girls. Fathers’ communication was not statistically significant at the .055 level. However, as the daughters’ perception of their fathers’ communication improved, the number of daughters’ sex partners decreased. The high rates of unintended pregnancy, unprotected sex, and sexually transmitted infections (STI’s) among U.S. adolescent females show the need for a greater understanding of how fathers contribute to their daughters sexual risk-taking behaviors. Implications for practice and future research is discussed.     

Examining Two Theoretical Models Predicting American and Dutch Parents’ Mediation of Adolescent Social Media Use

The goal of the present study was to utilize two theoretical models, one based on a mediation approach and the other on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), to understand parents’ mediation of their adolescents’ social media use. Data were collected from parents of adolescents ages 10–18 in two countries, the United States (US) and the Netherlands. Results indicated significant differences between the two samples. Specifically, American parents reported more concern about adolescent social media use, more positive attitudes and perceived subjective norms to control adolescent use, and higher levels of active and restrictive mediation. In general, demographics and parental concern accounted for more explained variance in mediation behaviors among Dutch parents, and the TPB-based variables accounted for more explained variance among American parents. Results suggest important implications for the integration of different theoretical models to explain parent mediation behavior.     

Trafficked by a Friend: A Qualitative Analysis of Adolescent Trafficking Victims’ Archival Case Files

Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal - Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) is the commercial sexual exploitation of a minor citizen within the United States. Previous research suggests that...     

The Clinical Relevance of Divergence in Adolescent–Parent Reports of Adolescent Depression and Anxiety

This study examines associations between adolescent problem behaviors and adolescent–parent disagreement in ratings of adolescent depression and anxiety symptoms. Adolescent–parent dyads (N?=?463; mean age?=?12.68 years; 48.5% female; 78.2% White and 21.8% non-White) reported on adolescent depression and anxiety using parallel scales from the Youth Self Report (Achenbach et al., J Emot Behav Disord 10:194–203, 2002) and the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach and Rescorla, The manual for the ASEBA school-age forms & profiles, University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, and Families, Burlington, 2001) across four waves. Generalized estimating equations were used to examine the relationship between discrepancy scores and adolescent behavioral outcomes: incidence of adolescent past-year substance use (alcohol use, binge drinking, marijuana use, and nonmedical use of controlled medications), delinquency, self-harm behavior, and aggression. Findings showed that larger adolescent–parent divergence scores of depression were associated with higher odds of marijuana use, non-medical use of controlled medications, alcohol use, binge drinking, in-school delinquency, illegal behavior, self-harm behavior, and clinically significant levels of aggressive behavior. Results further revealed that larger divergence scores on anxiety were associated with higher odds of in-school delinquency, illegal behavior, self-harm behavior, and clinically significant levels of aggressive behavior. Adolescent–parent reporting discrepancy on adolescent’s depression and anxiety symptoms may be indicative of adolescent’s social, emotional, and behavioral problems, and the disagreement may signal further need for assessment of the adolescent.     

No Evidence for Treating Friends’ Children Like Kin in Canadian Androphilic Men

Given that same-sex sexual orientation is associated with lower reproductive success, how have genes associated with male androphilia (i.e., male sexual attraction/arousal to adult men) persisted over evolutionary time? The Kin Selection Hypothesis proposes that by directing valuable resources toward kin, androphilic men may enhance their indirect fitness and thereby offset the fitness costs of not reproducing directly. Support for this hypothesis has been garnered from studies conducted in Samoa, but not from studies of “gay” men in industrialized cultures (i.e., Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States). This cross-cultural difference may be due to relatively greater geographic and familial disconnect experienced by androphilic “gay” men in industrialized cultures. This article reasons that in more industrialized settings, friends’ children may serve as non-adaptive proxies for nieces and nephews. Hence, it was predicted that Canadian androphilic men would exhibit elevated altruistic tendencies toward their friends’ children compared with gynephilic men and androphilic women. This prediction was not supported. However, in line with previous research, the results indicated that androphilic women are more likely to behave altruistically toward friends’ children compared to gynephilic men. Other possible explanations for the existing cross-cultural discrepancy in altruistic tendencies toward nieces and nephews are discussed.     

Not Always ‘Left-Behind’: Indonesian Adolescent Women Negotiating Transnational Mobility,Filial Piety and Care

In contrast to current research focusing on how migrant parents provide care for their ‘left-behind’ children, this article highlights how Indonesian adolescent women also migrate (or stay) in order to provide care for their families. Drawing from ethnographic research conducted mainly between 2014 and 2015 in Central Javanese migrant-origin villages, this article discusses how opportunities for transnational labour migration affect young unmarried women’s roles as ‘dutiful daughters’ in diverse ways. By analysing how the (im)mobilities of three young women are mutually shaped by diverse expectations to care for their families, I highlight that care is always relational, showing that the distinction between care-givers and care-receivers is less evident than currently assumed in migration studies. Closer examination of how young persons mutually negotiate mobility and parent–child care expectations brings into focus the new forms of agency, power and vulnerability that they encounter in migration and migrant-origin contexts.     

‘McDonald’s Is Good for My Social Life’. Developing Health Promotion Together with Adolescent Girls from Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods in Amsterdam

There is limited knowledge about key factors that enable adolescent girls with a low socioeconomic position (SEP) to adopt a healthy lifestyle. This paper aims to better understand the complexity of addressing health behaviour of adolescent girls with a low SEP by gaining insights into (i) the perspectives of adolescent girls with a low SEP (n = 26) on a healthy lifestyle, (ii) how to develop health promotion that fits these girls’ daily realities, by using participatory action research (PAR) in which girls developed health promotion materials. The study offers an understanding of girls’ daily lives and how health promotion could be improved.