Best friends: the role of confidantes in older women's health

This article explores personal, network, and community contexts in older women's friendships and health. Twenty-six older women (mean age, 67; range 55-85 years) in San Francisco were asked to choose the one individual to whom they felt the closest and then discuss how this individual contributed to their health. Their choices were numerous, diverse, contextual, and circumstantial. Other women were chosen most often; however, this belies the complexity of their choices. Confidants were chosen primarily for expressive reasons, but instrumental reasons proved important too, particularly for lower class women. Older women called upon their closest ties with physical, social, and emotional problems; they were less likely to call upon them with mental, financial, or spiritual concerns. Family members were preferred to friends for direct caregiving; however, some older women felt they would call upon their friends as well. Confidants kept older women healthy by offering advice and encouragement about diet and exercise; by providing meals and transportation; by laughing, talking, and joking with them; by keeping them happy and feeling good about themselves; and, on rare occasions, by offering spiritual guidance. Practical and policy considerations of their choices were discussed.     

The influence of psychological and situational factors on the contraceptive behavior of single men: A review of the literature

The study of contraceptive behavior has focused on women with relatively few studies examining the psychological and situational factors that influence male contraceptive behavior. A review of empirical studies indicates the importance of the personality variable of sexual anxiety and the cognitive variables of attitudes toward contraception and sex roles in influencing the contraceptive behavior of single males. However, the situational variable of having an established sexual relationship is the best predictor of whether contraception is used. Although the contributions of attitude and utility theorists have been of substantial assistance in understanding the contraceptive behavior of married couples, the affect-reinforcement theory appears to be more applicable to contraceptive behavior in general. An analysis of the socialization of males and females in terms of utility theory also helps explain the relative failure of adolescent couples in contraception.This research was funded by team grants from Health and Welfare, Family Planning Division, Canada and from Ministère des Affaires Sociales, Quebec. In addition, the second author was supported by a Bourse de I'Enseignement Superieur from the Quebec Government. Address reprint requests to Dolores Gold, Psychology Department, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Boulevard West, Montréal, Québec, H3G 1M8.     

Core American values and the structure of antigay prejudice

This work presents a new scale to measure conflicting attitudes toward sexual minorities. This scale parallels existing measures of conflicting racial attitudes (anti-Black and pro-Black attitudes; Katz & Hass, 1988). After constructing and validating measures of antigay and progay attitudes, we tested relationships among core American values with racial and sexual minority attitudes. We examined relations among the Protestant Work Ethic (PWE), Traditional Family Ideology (TFI), and egalitarian values with attitudes toward racial outgroups and sexual minorities. The results revealed that both PWE values and egalitarian values predicted anti-Black attitudes. By contrast, endorsement of egalitarian values, but not PWE values, predicted pro-Black attitudes. Results also revealed a similar but distinct pattern among values and heterosexuals' attitudes toward sexual minorities. TFI, but not egalitarian value endorsement, predicted antigay attitudes, whereas both TFI and egalitarian value endorsement predicted progay attitudes. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

The effects of death reminders on sex differences in prejudice toward gay men and lesbians

Terror management research shows that death reminders (mortality salience) increase prejudice toward worldview violators. Two studies investigated whether death reminders exacerbated differences in heterosexual men's and women's reports of sexual prejudice (negative attitudes based on sexual orientation). Results showed that following death reminders, sex differences in anti-gay discrimination and affective prejudice toward gay men (but not toward lesbians) were larger, and that these increased sex differences were mediated by gender role beliefs. The current studies suggest that researchers may attenuate the effects of death reminders by lessening the perceived worldview violation in addition to alleviating the existential terror of death.     

Culture and contact in the promotion and reduction of anti-gay prejudice: evidence from Jamaica and Britain

Jamaica has been called "the most homophobic place on Earth" ( Padgett, 2006 , p. 1), and has been involved in numerous international incidents with Britain, and other countries, concerning anti-gay prejudice. However, neither the severity of Jamaican anti-gay prejudice, nor any means of reducing this prejudice has ever been empirically investigated. Intergroup contact-social interaction with a person from another group-is one of the most successful and widely used social-psychological interventions to reduce prejudice and improve intergroup relations. In this article, we compared sexual prejudice in Jamaica to that in Britain and investigated the relationship between contact and sexual prejudice in both countries. Jamaican participants reported more negative attitudes toward gay men than did British participants, but contact was more strongly associated with reduced sexual prejudice for Jamaican participants than for British participants. Implications for reducing Jamaican sexual prejudice are discussed.     

Spousal agreement on the value of children and fertility behavior

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between the level of spousal agreement on the value of children and fertility behavior. Interviews with 441 once married couples from a probability sample in Robeson County, North Carolina, provide the data for testing the hypothesized relationships. The results indicate that the level of spousal agreement on the value of children is significantly related to live births, family size expectations and fertility planning. The introduction of duration of marriage and wife's education as controls did not significantly alter these relationships. An important implication of the findings is the need for research on the family formation process to focus on both the husband and wife.Paper No. 11446 of the Journal Series of the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service, Raleigh, North Carolina. The research for this study was initially supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (1 ROLH005321-02).     

The influence of the family on premarital sexual attitudes and behavior

This research has expanded our understanding of the determinants of adolescent sexuality in several directions. We have used a study of mothers and children to construct and estimate a model of the intergenerational transmission of sexual attitudes and behavior. With data collected from both mothers and children, we were able to proceed further than most past research and to consider both the attitudes and behaviors of mothers as reported by the mothers themselves. These data permitted an investigation of the determinants of maternal attitudes concerning adolescent sexuality as well as an examination of the influences of the attitudes and experiences of mothers on the attitudes, perceptions, and behavior of children. Obviously, limiting the study to white families prevents generalization of our findings to other subgroups of the population. The findings demonstrate the importance and relevance of parental and adolescent attitudes in understanding adolescent sexuality. Premarital sexuality is a salient issue to both young people and their parents. There are, however, very important and substantial differences in the attitudes of parents and children. On average, the attitudes of young people today are much less restrictive than those of their parents, reflecting either life cycle differences or the impact of social change. The intergenerational difference is recognized by young people themselves and probably affects the ability of parents to assist their maturing children in adjusting to and dealing with their sexuality--a difficulty likely to be reflected in the relative lack of success sexually active young people have in preventing pregnancy. Our findings also add to the research literature in demonstrating that although children, on average, have more permissive attitudes than their parents, the attitudes of individual parents tend to be reflected in the attitudes of individual children. Children whose mothers have less restrictive attitudes have, on average, less restrictive attitudes themselves. Further, the attitudes of mothers are also reflected in the behavior of their children, so on average, mothers with more permissive attitudes have children who are more sexually active. The influence of maternal attitudes, however, is stronger for children's attitudes than for their behavior. Of course, variability in children's attitudes and behavior--and even their perceptions of maternal attitudes--can only be partially explained by the attitudes of their mothers; but presumably, if the attitudes of other important family members, including fathers and siblings, were known, the prediction of adolescent attitudes would improve.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Perceived neighborhood social disorder as a predictor of depressive symptoms among unmarried older women and the stress-buffering effect of friends support

ABSTRACT

The current study examined whether perceived neighborhood social disorder predicted depressive symptoms among unmarried older women (N = 823) drawn from the 2016 Health and Retirement Study. This study also tested the stress-buffering effect of friends support. A negative binomial regression model showed that higher perceived neighborhood social disorder was associated with higher depressive symptoms. The number of close friends was a significant factor, but no stress-buffering effect of friends support was identified. This study highlights the adverse effect of negative perceptions of the neighborhood social environment on unmarried older women’s depressive symptoms.     

Public support for Hispanic deportation in the United States: the effects of ethnic prejudice and perceptions of economic competition in a period of economic distress

This paper investigates the effect of ethnic prejudice and perceived economic competition on support for deportation and alternative policy options concerning the handling of undocumented immigrants. Using a national survey conducted in early 2009, data are analysed using bivariate and multinomial regression techniques. Ethnic prejudice and perceived economic competition were found to be significantly related to support for deportation in the face of alternative options, controlling for the effects of age, sex, employment status, nativity, race, party identification, and education. Furthermore, majority support for deportation was found among conservatives, moderates, Republicans, and Independents. Even among liberals and Democrats, substantial numbers supported deportation. During the recent economic recession, perceived economic competition and ethnic prejudice were dominant influences on deportation preferences, and deportation appears to have become a mainstream policy option. However, we speculate that deportation preferences are relatively shallow and unstable owing partly to the dependence of immigration public opinion on economic cycles, and, ultimately, the unfeasibility of deportation as a policy option.     

Public pensions. The role of public choice and expectations

In this paper the public-choice approach to explaining the evolution of public pension schemes is surveyed. Emphasis is laid on the relation between expectations on future political decisions and future demographic and economic developments, on the one hand, and current political and economic decisions, on the other hand.Revised version of an invited lecture given at the Sixth ESPE-Conference, June 11–13, 1992, Gmunden in Austria.     

Walk like a man: enactments and embodiments of masculinity and the potential for multiple genders

With this chapter, I explore the potential of drag king performance as a tool of deconstructing gender. I begin with a brief examination of the ways that gender is constructed as natural through the repetition of a set of norms, noting the pervasiveness of these norms and their location at the center of cultural imagination. I then turn to the idea of drag as a practice of subverting these norms through breaking their repetition. I argue that drag king performance, through its failure to approximate the "natural male," draws attention to the very constructedness of the category, and thus of all naturalized categories of gender. Using the budding Edmonton drag king scene as a case example, I discuss some of the ways that drag kings take queer theory and gender deconstruction out of the classroom and into practice. I speculate as to the effectiveness of such practices in the realm of queer theory, pointing to the ways that these performances may be read to reinforce rather than subvert gender norms. I also look at the complexities of "passing" gender performances, such as transsexual or transgendered practices, and the ways that these practices align or do not align with performances intending to fail. I propose that the emergence of these practices is in itself a beginning step toward a reevaluation of normative gender, and toward a radical reinvention of new gender possibilities.     

Report on the Construct Validity of the Temporal Satisfaction With Life Scale

This study evaluated the factorial and convergent validity of theTemporal Satisfaction With Life Scale (TSWLS; Pavot, Diener andSuh, 1998), which was designed to measure past, present, andfuture life satisfaction. A sample of psychology undergraduates(N = 223) was administered a questionnaire containing the TSWLSand a global measure of past, present, and future subjectivewell-being (SWB), the Self-Anchoring Striving Scale (SASS;Kilpatrick and Cantril, 1960). Results of covariance structureanalyses supported a 3-factor model (past, present, and futurelife satisfaction as distinct, yet correlated, factors) for theTSWLS, demonstrated that item responding was only slightlycontaminated by an acquiescence bias, and showed that each of thepast, present, and future dimensions of the TSWLS was moststrongly related to its corresponding global SWB rating on theSASS. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

关于中国特色社会主义人口理论建设的思考

我们应当建设起中国特色社会主义人口理论。以“两种生产革命实践”论对马克思主义人口理论作较全面的理解是建设这一理论的关键一环。当前,这个理论的主要任务是：对社会主义初级阶段人口特征作理论分析,论证此阶段中诸如“统筹解决人口问题”等的人口社会管理政策措施和提出符合中国国情实际的应对人口社会问题的策略。     

Impact of health and fitness-related behavior on quality of life

While the relationships between (a) health behavior and health status and (b) health status and perceived quality of life (QOL) have received some attention, the association between health behaviors and QOL has not been determined. The primary objective of this study was to assess the effects of health behaviors on QOL that are independent of the effects of health status. A sample of approximately 5 000 randomly selected U.S. Navy personnel was split into halves and analyses performed on each to establish the replicability of the findings. At step one of a multiple regression procedure, health status variables were forced into the equation; next, health behavior variables were entered. As expected, the block of health status variables was significantly related to QOL: self-assessed health and fitness status and lower reporting of physical symptoms accounted for 16% and 18% of the variance in QOL for the two subsamples. After controlling for health status, two behavioral measures made unique contributions to the prediction of QOL: behaviors related to avoiding unnecessary risks as a driver or pedestrain and avoiding or minimizing accidents. Wellness maintenance behaviors also were associated with QOL in one subsample. After controlling for health status, health behavior measures contributed an additional 11% and 6% of the explained variance in QOL for the two subsamples. Results indicate that health behaviors influence QOL independently of health status.     

The impact of age vs. life experience on the gender role attitudes of women in different cohorts

Much research has concluded that the gender role attitudes of older women are more traditional in orientation. This line of research, however, has often confounded the impact of age and cohort. Consequently, cohort differences in life experiences have not been systematically explored. This study addresses the relationship between age and gender role attitudes, taking into account the potential mediating effects of life experiences and controlling for cohort. The conclusions suggest that the impact of age on gender role attitudes is not as strong as might be expected. Rather, the results show that the life experiences of different cohorts are better predictors of gender role attitudes among older women, though such experiences do not have the same impact on all women.