Fraternity Membership and Sexual Aggression: An Examination of Mediators of the Association

Abstract

Objective: This prospective study examined attitudes (ie, hostility toward women, acceptance of rape myths), peer influences (ie, peer pressure to have sex, peer approval of forced sex), and risky behaviors (ie, high-risk alcohol use, number of sexual partners) as possible mediators of the association between fraternity membership and sexual aggression. Participants: The sample included 424 males recruited as freshmen from a large state university in the southeastern United States. Methods: Respondents completed survey measures in their first, second, and third years of enrollment at the university. Results: Path analyses revealed that the prospective effect of fraternity membership on sexual aggression was mediated by high-risk alcohol use. Conclusions: The findings indicate that high-risk alcohol use accounts for much of the association between fraternity membership and sexual aggression.     

Development of a Measure of College Students' Adherence to Religious Doctrine Concerning Sexual Behavior

Abstract

Objective: The authors developed a 14-item measure of adherence to religious doctrine concerning sexual behavior (ARDSB). The ARDSB psychometric properties were investigated to better understand religious motivations associated with changes in sexual behavior that may provide support for sexual health promotion and prevention programs. Participants: Four hundred eighty-three undergraduates aged 18 to 26. Methods: Data were collected from an online survey during the 2012–2013 academic school year. Results: Principle components factor analysis identified 2 factors: reasons to break religious doctrine and reasons to adhere to religious doctrine concerning sexual behavior. The subscales had good internal consistency. Correlations, t tests, and analyses of variance of the subscales with measures of intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity and self-reported sexual behavior and risk provide support for concurrent validity. Conclusions: The ARDSB could be employed as a measure to better understand sexual behavior; it is inexpensive and relatively easy to employ in both research and campus ministry settings.     

Family Members' Reports of Non-Staff Abuse in Michigan Nursing Homes

Recent research showed that mistreatment of nursing home residents by other residents may be highly prevalent. The present study examined the issue from family members' perspectives. The data came from the 2005 and 2007 random-digit dial telephone surveys of Michigan households with a family member in long-term care. Based on family members' reports, about 10% of nursing home residents aged 60 and over were abused by non-staff in nursing homes (e.g., other residents and visitors) during the past 12 months. Family members were more likely to report non-staff abuse when the nursing home residents were younger, were female, had behavior problems, and had greater level of physical functioning. Family members who reported staff abuse were four times more likely to also report non-staff abuse.     

(Mis)taking policy: Notes on the cultural policy debate

Abstract

The article argues that terms like ‘postcolonialism’ and ‘multiculturalism’ can be totalizing and themselves elide difference. In terms of recent argument in cultural studies in Australia, approaches drawn from postcolonialism referring to Orientalism and race have been contentiously applied to multicultural discourse referring to migration and ethnicity. In such discourse there is a ruling binary distinction between the migrant and Australian society. I seek to complicate the analysis of multiculturalism by pointing to a heterogeneity of shifting centres and margins, for example, between and within ethnic communities, and in diasporic relationships.     

Migration and Intergenerational Replacement in Europe

There are long‐standing concerns over low fertility levels in Europe and an increasingly important debate on the extent to which migration can compensate for below‐replacement fertility. To inform this debate, a wide array of indicators have been developed to assess the joint influence of fertility, mortality, and migration on birth replacement and intergenerational replacement. These indicators are based on various models and assumptions and some are particularly data demanding. In this article we propose a simple method to assess how far migration alters the extent of replacement for a birth cohort as it ages. We term the measure the overall replacement ratio (ORR). It is calculated by taking the size of a female birth cohort at selected ages divided by the average size of the cohorts of mothers in the year of birth. We present estimates of the ORR for a range of European countries representing different replacement regimes. We demonstrate that for many countries net migration has become a key factor in their population trends during the last few decades.     

Alienation as Atrophied Moral Cognition and Its Implications for Political Behavior

I present a theory of alienation that accounts for the cognitive processes involved with moral thinking and political behavior in modern societies. On my account, alienation can be understood as a particular kind of atrophy of moral concepts and moral thinking that affect the ways individuals cognize and legitimate the social world and their place within it. Central to my argument is the thesis that modern forms of social integration—shaped by highly institutionalized, rationalized and hierarchical forms of social life—serve to constrain the moral‐ cognitive powers of subjects leading to a condition of alienation as moral atrophy. This state results from the withering of the subject's internal powers of moral reflection and an overriding predisposition to rely on external value schemas to make sense of moral and political problems. I then present an analysis of alienated moral consciousness and its implications for modern social theory.     

Transitions of Youth in Mental Health Residential Care to Less Restrictive Settings: The Role of Strengths and Gender

ABSTRACT

Changes in youth's behavioral/psychosocial functioning has been found to play an important role in the transitions from mental health residential care to less restrictive settings, and this functioning differs significantly by gender. However, there has been little attention paid to the roles played by psychosocial strength and gender in transitions out of residential care. The current study examined gender differences in the role of strengths in transitions to less restrictive settings using data on 675 youth's admission and discharge records collected from Illinois Residential Treatment Outcome System during 2005–2007 (Mean age = 15 years, SD = 2.0; 57.5% = boys). The results of multivariate logistic regression model indicated that positive recreational activities and lack of chronic illness were related to a higher likelihood of transitions to less restrictive settings among girls, while appropriate sexual development, psychological strengths, and strong spiritual/religious strengths were related to the transitions among boys. This study demonstrates the potential importance of youth strengths in the provision of mental health services and suggests a need to develop models of outcomes that take gender into account. Additional research based on multiple informants including youth self-report is needed to understand the role of gender in transitions out of residential care.     

The social and economic impacts of immigration detention facilities: a South Australian case study

The negative attitudes fostered by political rhetoric against asylum seekers create significant problems when asylum seekers are housed within communities. Much of the community's opposition focuses on the perceived economic and social impacts of large numbers of asylum seekers. However, we currently lack research on the local economic and social impacts of asylum seekers. As a contribution to this evidence base our paper outlines a South Australian case study of the impact of a low security immigration detention facility on the local economy, health services and social cohesion. Our impact assessment found that community concerns were not borne out. There were increases in employment and local expenditure, no reduction in health care services or access, and tensions between residents subsided, as did initially strong reactions against the asylum seekers themselves. The minimal impacts were due to the government and community interventions such as seeking local contracts and providing onsite health services. This case study is used to provide some guidelines for other communities to effectively target the fears that matter most to the community – either through disseminating information that reduces fears and myths, or through planning and interventions that minimise negative impacts and enhance positive benefits. In this way, the arrival of asylum seekers can potentially become one that benefits all community members.     

Struktur und Identität des Nicht-Religiösen: Relationen und soziale Normierungen

With reference to recent research, the article outlines central elements of a sociological analysis of the non-religious. Starting with a definition of the non-religious via its relation towards the religious, we distinguish different forms of this relation and three levels of its analysis. Then we analyze two different societal constellations: a strong religious norm in the US, and a strong non-religious norm in the GDR. We show how an arena of conflicts emerges in the debates over religion, in which religious and non-religious positions struggle for dominance. We analyze different variations of non-religious positions in this context. In both constellations the non-religious position acquires a positive identity by reference to science. In one case this is motivated by the attempt to maintain the borders of the scientific field; in the second case it is motivated by a claim of superiority, which questions the legitimacy of the religious in general.     

Crack ‘Hos and Skeezers: Traumatic experiences of women crack users

The involvement of women in crack cocaine abuse has had a severe impact on their health, the health of their children and the stability of their communities. Of particular concern has been the development of a system of barter in which crack‐for‐sex exchanges are the means through which women obtain the drug. Earlier studies have suggested that drug abuse may be related to and exacerbated by trauma. In the project described herein, we interviewed women crack users in Harlem to study the relationship between trauma, crack use, and crack‐related sexual behavior. Results suggested the existence of three types of trauma: (1) traumas that predate the respondent's onset of crack use; (2) traumas that were the direct sequelae of crack use; and (3) stigma trauma, that is, trauma that results from membership in a despised or oppressed group. We observed a complex inter‐relationship involving crack use, crack‐for‐sex transactions, and these three types of trauma. Treatment of the eventual co‐morbidity of trauma and addiction is an urgent challenge.