Correlates in Children's Experiences of Parents' Racial Socialization Behaviors

This study examined racial socialization processes among 94 African American parents of third‐, fourth‐, and fifth‐grade children as they were predicted by children's ethnic identity exploration and unfair treatment as well as by parents' ethnic identity and discrimination experiences. Findings indicated that children's ethnic identity exploration and parents' perceptions that their children had been treated unfairly by an adult because of their race were both significantly associated with the frequency of messages to children regarding discrimination (Preparation for Bias). Parents' perceptions of children's unfair treatment from an adult and children's perceptions that they had been treated unfairly by peers were significantly associated with parents' cautions and warnings to children about intergroup relations (Promotion of Mistrust). Moreover, the influence of parents' perceptions on Promotion of Mistrust were especially pronounced when children also reported unfair treatment from adults. Children's identity exploration and unfair treatment were not associated with parents' emphasis on ethnic pride, heritage, and diversity (Cultural Socialization/Pluralism). Thus, findings suggest that parental factors are most central in the racial socialization messages that children receive. However, children's perceptions of discrimination and information seeking regarding their own history appear to have some influence on parental messages about race.     

Ageing in a foreign country: voices of Iranian women ageing in Canada

Older Iranian women, who immigrated to Canada in later adulthood, experience unique issues as they age. In order to better understand this experience, in-depth, personal and semi-structured interviews were conducted with five immigrant/refugee Iranian women who immigrated to Canada in their later life. Analysis revealed that although each woman's story conveyed individual differences and idiosyncrasies, all the stories highlighted the critical interweaving of the aging experience and the immigration experience: neither experience could be understood in isolation of the other; each aspect gave meaning to the other experience. Two interrelated messages dominated the women's stories: first was the importance of each woman's immigration story for grounding her experience of the aging process in Canada. Second, each woman's personal story suggested that the immigration experiences were accorded priority for accounting for her experiences in Canada. Specifically, cultural identity (i.e., social class, education, religious affiliation and immigration status) offered a valuable cloak for overshadowing the force of the aging process and the aging process emerged as an elusive force that lurked in the background without ever being fully acknowledged or given power in their lives. The implications of these findings in relation to theory development on intersectionality and professional practice are discussed.     

The Use of Body Movements and Gestures as Cues to Emotions in Younger and Older Adults

Eighty-two younger and older adults participated in a two-part study of the decoding of emotion through body movements and gestures. In the first part, younger and older adults identified emotions depicted in brief videotaped displays of young adult actors portraying emotional situations. In each display, the actors were silent and their faces were electronically blurred in order to isolate the body cues to emotion. Although both groups made accurate emotion identifications well above chance levels, older adults made more overall errors, and this was especially true for negative emotions. Moreover, their errors were more likely to reflect the misidentification of emotional displays as neutral in content. In the second part, younger and older adults rated the videotaped displays using scales reflecting several movement dimensions (e.g., form, tempo, force, and movement). The ratings of both age groups were in high agreement and provided reliable information about particular body cues to emotion. The errors made by older adults were linked to reactions to exaggerated or ambiguous body cues.     

LANGUAGE, experience and history: 'What happened' in World War II

Sociolinguistics can contribute to our understanding of history by showing how language helps to develop and maintain a sense of a communal past. This paper focuses on the referring terms for the World War II experiences of European Jews and of Japanese Americans, as evinced through various sources of public discourse (newspapers, library cataloguing systems, book titles). The analysis of linguistic form and function combines with discussion of the social and cultural history of Holocaust awareness in the U.S. to show how the word Holocaust (as a referring term for the experience of European Jews) became part of an American lexicon. A comparison of this stable term with the variety of nouns and verbal expressions used to index the Japanese American experience allows us to more fully consider how language helps to create and preserve collective memory.     

Parenting Stress in Employed and At-Home Mothers in Italy

In Italy, there has been strong cultural support for motherhood as the ideal female role. As increasing numbers of Italian mothers enter the workforce, little is known about the effects of maternal employment. An examination of parenting stress that included work status and Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP) was conducted with 174 employed and at-home mothers in Italy. Higher TABP was associated with higher maternal stress in employed mothers and more stressful parent-child interactions for at-home mothers. The strength of the relationship between parenting stress and TABP varies by maternal work status and parenting stress domain. Considering these results, personality characteristics that are incongruent with feminine gender schema may be especially relevant to the prediction of parenting stress.     

Adolescent Girls' Alcohol Use as a Risk Factor for Relationship Violence

This research examined the relation between female adolescents' general alcohol use and their experience of relationship violence. This relation was examined both cross‐sectionally and longitudinally, controlling for the proximal (i.e., situational) effects of alcohol use. One hundred and six female high school students reported on their experiences of physical violence and sexual coercion by boyfriends, general patterns of alcohol use, victimization experiences while drinking, and hypothesized covariates including demographic and relationship variables and illicit drug use. Variables were assessed at 2 time points 4 months apart. Results indicated that general alcohol use was related to victimization both cross‐sectionally and longitudinally, but different findings emerged for different forms of victimization (physical‐only victimization vs. both physical and sexual victimization).     

The desire to date and remarry among older widows and widowers

This study explores gender differences in older widowed persons' interest in dating and remarriage, and the implications of these desires for psychological adjustment to loss. Analyses are based on the Changing Lives of Older Couples study (N = 210). Men's interest in dating and remarriage is conditional upon the amount of social support received from friends. Six months after spousal loss, only those men with low or average levels of social support from friends are more likely than women to report interest in remarrying someday. Similar patterns emerge for interest in dating 18 months after loss. Persons who both want and have a romantic relationship report significantly fewer depressive symptoms 18 months after loss, yet this relationship is attributable to their greater socioeconomic resources.     

Discovering Sex: Medical Science, Feminism and Intersexuality

Dans cet article, l'auteure explore le rôle de la science médicale dans la production et la représentation de catégories du sexe biologique que Ton tient pour acquises. L'accent est mis sur les deafinitions obstétrique et gynécologique de l'intersexualité dans les années 1950. Elle examine comment la science biomédicale a eu recours aux concepts culturels et sociaux de sexe biologique et de l'«apparte-nance sexuelle>> dans la differentiation binaire du sexe pour en arriver à un diagnostic de sexe biologique «véritable>>. Pour conclure, elle évalue les résultats de ses recherches à la lumière des écrits féministes et non féministes dans le domaine de la sociologie de la médecine, des sciences et de l'appartenance sexuelle.
This article explores the role of medical science in producing and reflecting taken-for-granted categories of biological sex. It focusses on obstetric and gynecologic definitions of intersexuality in the 1950s, and examines how biomedical science used cultural and social concepts of biological sex and gender as resources in dichotomizing sex, and creating diagnoses of "true" biological sex. The article concludes with an assessment of the author's findings in light of feminist and non-feminist writings in the sociology of medicine, science, and gender.