Disabilities and sexual expression: A review of the literature

Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, scholars have sought to advance a more nuanced and robust understanding of the sexual lives of disabled people. In doing so, these scholars have identified some of the barriers to sexual expression that disabled people face as well as some of the positive and pleasurable aspects of disabled people's sexual lives. This article reviews research regarding the sexual expression and activity of disabled people as well as some of the challenges to sexual expression that people with disabilities experience. Persons with disabilities—whether they are acquired, congenital, intellectual, physical, and/or sensorial impairments—continue to encounter alienation, stigmatization, and discrimination, particularly in terms of their sexuality. However, I argue that if proper laws, policies, and adequate supports are in place, people with disabilities can further challenge and push past these barriers to engage in a wide array of sexual and erotic acts. Furthermore, although the amount of disability‐sexuality‐related research has increased over past decades, I argue that many intersections of disability and sexuality remain under‐studied and that further research in this field is necessary.     

The determinants and effects of right-to-work laws: A review of the recent literature

I review the recent literature on the determinants and effects of right-to-work (RTW) laws. The focus is primarily on the econometric studies published since the early 1980s. Five major areas of impact are assessed: unionization, free riding, union organizing activities and successes in NLRB elections, wage structure, and state industrial development. While individual findings are quite sensitive to model specification, the accumulated evidence indicates that RTW laws have at least a significant short-run impact on all of these areas except perhaps wages.     

Mental health and the aging: A review of the literature for clinical social workers

This article is a review of the literature on recent trends in mental health services to the elderly. The focus is on clinical services to elderly living outside of mental hospitals but includes services to residents of community nursing homes and homes for the aged. It is concluded that there is currently a non-system of services failing to meet present mental health needs. Current restrictive government reimbursement policies and national health insurance proposals are focused on treatment for acute episodic illness. This orientation does not permit a broader preventive perspective or a comprehensive mental health care approach.     

Sexual health behaviors and outcomes among current and former foster youth: A review of the literature

This review examines literature related to pregnancy, sexual health outcomes, and sexual risk behaviors for foster youth and youth who are aging/have aged out of foster care. Using the search terms foster youth, aging out, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, sexually transmitted infections, sexual risk, sexual behavior, and sexual health, 26,376 sources were initially identified. After removing duplicate sources and those that did not meet inclusion criteria and adding others identified through the references of identified sources, 53 sources were included in the review. Outcome measures were grouped into broad categories of pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and risky sexual behaviors, with each having several subparts. Implications for social work practice and policy are presented and directions for future research are highlighted.     

Children with problematic sexualized behaviors in the child welfare system

This study assessed the utility of the Child Sexual Behavior Inventory (CSBI) in a child welfare sample. In this study, 97 children from ages 10 to 12 from either foster boarding homes or a residential treatment center participated. Researchers interviewed foster parents or primary therapists about children's sexual behavior, traumatic events, clinical symptoms, and their attitudes toward the child. Findings revealed that problematic sexualized behaviors were more prevalent in the residential treatment center (RTC) sample than they were in a normative sample. The pattern of associations between sexual behavior problems, traumatic events, and clinical syndromes in both the RTC and the foster boarding home (FBH) samples was similar to what has been found in samples in which biological custodial parents were the respondents. Analyses comparing youth who met the criterion for having problematic sexualized behaviors and youth who did not meet the criterion revealed that the two groups differed on clinical symptoms, prior traumatic events, and negative reports by caregivers. Results confirm the utility of the CSBI measure for this population and highlight several important clinical and programmatic concerns for addressing problematic sexual behavior in children in the child welfare system.     

Developing social robots for aging populations: A literature review of recent academic sources

The perception of aging populations is a major factor driving the social robot development movement. A growing body of research reflects the expanding interest in social robots. This paper synthesizes research on the development of social robots with a literature review of academic articles with publication dates ranging from 2006 to 2017. The review is divided into three themes: (a) robots as an aid in treatment; (b) robots as social assistants and home companions; and (c) robots as custodial caregivers that are viewed in terms of ethical implications. This paper outlines the issues surrounding social, commitment, assistive, and companion robots for use in medical treatment, mental health therapy, physiotherapy, care facilities, and private homes. It describes some of the ethical concerns raised by researchers and media, including questions of control, privacy, consent, and the issue of simulated versus human compassion in caregiving. The research also points out that a rhetoric of urgency concerning aging populations drives the development of robots, which frames citizens who will benefit from robots in reductive ways. We argue that the contribution of humanities and social science research, including age studies and critical gerontology, should be better integrated with discourses of social robot development, largely from technical fields.     

College men as perpetrators of acquaintance rape and sexual assault: a review of recent research.

This article reviews literature since 1980 on college men as perpetrators of acquaintance rape and other forms of sexual assault. Topics include (1) the definition and incidence of acquaintance rape and sexual assault; (2) perpetrator characteristics; (3) situations associated with sexual assault; and (4) men's misperception of women's sexual intent. An integrated theory of sexual assault is proposed, along with implications for the development of effective rape-prevention programs for men.     

Religiosity,sexual behaviors,sexual motivations,and gender: A three-year longitudinal study

Longitudinal data are critical for examining associations of religiosity with sexual behaviors and motivations during college. We use hierarchical linear modeling on five semesters of data from a diverse sample of college students (N = 735) to examine within- and between-person associations between religious service attendance and importance of religion and sexual behaviors and motivations for and against sex and consider gender as a moderator. Between-person religiosity was associated with sexual behaviors and motivations whereas within-person religiosity was not. Students' sexual motivations co-varied across semesters with their religious service attendance and importance of religion. Our results indicated more restrictive associations between religiosity and sexual motivations for women than for men.     

Gender differences in sexual attitudes and behaviors: a review of meta-analytic results and large datasets

Gender differences in sexual attitudes and behaviors are typically believed to be large, yet recent evidence suggests that some gender differences in sexuality are much smaller than common knowledge would suggest. This article reviews gender differences in sexual attitudes and behaviors as reported by major meta-analyses and large datasets. In particular, this article reviews gender differences in heterosexual intercourse, masturbation, pornography use, attitudes toward premarital sex, and gender differences in same-gender sexuality. Evolutionary psychology, social cognitive learning theory, and social structural theory are explored as possible explanations for gender differences in sexuality.     

Mental illness,partial hospitalization,and the family

Summary When illness is socially defined, the task of therapy is to enable the patient to move from a sick role to one of maximal social functioning. In a day hospital setting, methods are explored to involve a patient with his family both directly and indirectly. Thus the patient is supported both in the treatment milieu and when he is at home. Not only the patient, but the family, is vulnerable at this time and each must be helped to make parallel and complementary shifts in interpersonal behavior. To view the family solely as a resource for the support of the ill member and his treatment is to fail to accept the need of the family as a whole for reorganization and strengthening.     

Females and illness: recent trends in sex differences in the United States.

Data from the national Health Interview Survey for 1957-72 show that females have higher age-standardized rates of acute conditions, chronic conditions, and disability due to acute conditions, compared to males. More males, however, suffer limitations of activity or mobility due to chronic conditions, Females' excess morbidity for acute conditions persists when reproduction-related events are excluded. From 1957-72, females' disadvantage for acute conditions continues unchanged. But for chronic conditions, males are "catching up" to females in overall prevalence, and their conditions are becoming more severe relative to females'. These trends are compatible with trends in sex mortality differences over the same period. Four types of explanation are advanced to account for females' excess morbidity: interview behavior, illness behavior, acquired health risks, and inherited health risks. Empirical evidence suggests the first two factors inflate female rates compared to males; the last two do the opposite. It is hypothesized that excess female morbidity is due primarily to social and psychological factors, and a procedure to test this is stated.     

Religiosity, sexual behaviors, and sexual attitudes during emerging adulthood

The current study examined associations between religiosity and sexual behaviors and attitudes during emerging adulthood. Two hundred and five emerging adults completed surveys about five aspects of their religiosity (group affiliation, attendance at religious services, attitudes, perceptions of negative sanctions, and adherence to sanctions) and their sexual behaviors (abstinence, age of onset, lifetime partners, condom use) and attitudes (conservative attitudes, perceived vulnerability to HIV, and condom-related beliefs). Associations were found between the measures of religiosity and sexuality, although the patterns differed by measures used. Religious behavior was the strongest predictor of sexual behavior. Many aspects of religiosity were associated with general sexual attitudes, which was not the case for perceived vulnerability to HIV and condom-related beliefs. The findings support reference group theory and highlight the importance of considering the specific constructs of religiosity and sexuality assessed in studies of these topics.     

A review of the epidemiological research on child sexual abuse. Clinical samples

This article reviews the major empirical studies which have been carried out in an attempt to estimate the prevalence of child sexual abuse among females in clinical inpatient and outpatient samples. Along with the earlier review (Pilkington and Kremer, 1995) dealing with community and student samples, this paper likewise highlights a number of unresolved methodological issues which may contribute to the variance in reported prevalence rates. These include a myriad of definitions of child sexual abuse and different methods of eliciting information on possible histories of abuse. These issues are here discussed in the context of the findings of both review articles.     

Religiosity,sexual behaviors,and sexual attitudes during emerging adulthood

The current study examined associations between religiosity and sexual behaviors and attitudes during emerging adulthood. Two hundred and five emerging adults completed surveys about five aspects of their religiosity (group affiliation, attendance at religious services, attitudes, perceptions of negative sanctions, and adherence to sanctions) and their sexual behaviors (abstinence, age of onset, lifetime partners, condom use) and attitudes (conservative attitudes, perceived vulnerability to HIV, and condom‐related beliefs). Associations were found between the measures of religiosity and sexuality, although the patterns differed by measures used. Religious behavior was the strongest predictor of sexual behavior. Many aspects of religiosity were associated with general sexual attitudes, which was not the case for perceived vulnerability to HIV and condom‐related beliefs. The findings support reference group theory and highlight the importance of considering the specific constructs of religiosity and sexuality assessed in studies of these topics.     

Ethnics and minorities: A review of the literature

Summary Numerous studies have suggested that ethnicity has at least as powerful an influence on mental health and mental illness as socio-economic status. The influence of ethnicity becomes particularly significant in those studies where social class is held constant. Yet, while professionals have readily accepted socio-economic differentials, ethnic variation is still often ignored or, worse, denied outright.The studies reviewed here underscore the need for new models of treatment, as well as serious research on the values and attitudes of ethnic groups and their implications for health and illness. Studies such asBlack Rage (Cobb and Grier, 1968) andThe Mental Health of the Poor (Reissman and Pearl, 1964), for example, have already influenced the development of new models and treatment programs. It is becoming increasingly clear that it takes different methods and programs to reach the varied groups within our society, and that we will have to reshape our current mental health policies and programs to make access to services easy for all of them.     

Investigating the impact of inquiry mode on self-reported sexual behavior: theoretical considerations and review of the literature

Measurement of sexual behaviors is typically reliant on retrospective self-reports of behaviors. Historically, self-reported sexual behavior data were primarily collected through face-to-face interviews or paper-and-pencil questionnaires, as these were the only modes of inquiry available. In recent decades, technological innovations such as telephones, computers, and the Internet have expanded the self-report inquiry modes available. The addition of these new inquiry modes further complicates the ability of sex researchers to evaluate the quality of research results and compare findings across studies. Self-report sexual behavior data are vulnerable to participation biases, as well as to sources of bias in individual responses, such as recollection and social desirability bias. This is true regardless of the inquiry mode being used, but some modes may be more vulnerable to bias than others. This review examines the available research regarding self-report sexual behavior research, inquiry mode, and relative bias across modes. The review also provides recommendations for advancing the current understanding of inquiry mode effects within sexual behavior research. Specifically, by shifting the focus away from evaluating specific modes of inquiry toward examination of factors common across all modes, researchers will be better able to interpret existing research and improve the designs of future studies as well.