Psychiatric Disorder Dramaturgically Considered*

This paper reports the results of an investigation into the empirical applicability of conceptualizing mental illness as dramaturgic incompetence and a corresponding attempt to operationalize dramaturgical thought. It was found that dramaturgic incompetence and subsidiary components were strongly associated with degree of psychiatric disturbance and general diagnosis as determined by psychiatric staff. It also was found that attainment of psychiatric identities proceeded through a series of stages consisting of performative incompetence, empathic incompetence, motive incompetence, meaning loss, and identity loss. This sequence was particularly evident in cases of psychosis.     

Correlates of physical activity in a community sample of older adults in Appalachia

Although much has been learned about the global determinants of physical activity in adults, there has been a lack of specific focus on gender, age, and urban/rural differences. In this church-based community sample of Appalachian adults (N = 1,239), the primary correlates of physical activity included age, gender, obesity, and self-efficacy. Overall, 42% of all participants and 31% of adults age 65 years or older met recommended guidelines for physical activity, which suggests that most participants do not engage in adequate levels of physical activity. Of participants who met physical activity guidelines, the most common modes of moderate and vigorous activity were walking briskly or uphill, heavy housework or gardening, light strength training, and biking. These particular activities that focus on building self-efficacy might be viable targets for intervention among older adults in rural communities.     

How discrimination in adoptive,foster, and medical systems harms LGBTQ+ families: Research on the experiences of prospective parents

Abstract

LGBTQ+?people face multiple challenges to parenthood because of barriers such as discriminatory legislation and policies influencing foster parenting, adoption, and reproductive health services. This study documents these obstacles and examines their impact through a grounded theory analysis of interviews of LGBTQ+?prospective parents. Stressors included social isolation, unnecessary medicalization, prohibitive financial costs related to accessing social and medical services (sometimes across state lines), and being denied services, parental leave, and insurance coverage. Findings indicate that heteronormative attitudes and discrimination can lead to debilitating and enduring harm upon the economic, emotional, and relational well-being of growing LGBTQ+?families.     

A Study of Interval Censoring in Parametric Regression Models

Parametric models for interval censored data can now easily be fitted with minimal programming in certain standard statistical software packages. Regression equations can be introduced, both for the location and for the dispersion parameters. Finite mixture models can also be fitted, with a point mass on right (or left) censored observations, to allow for individuals who cannot have the event (or already have it). This mixing probability can also be allowed to follow a regression equation.Here, models based on nine different distributions are compared for three examples of heavily censored data as well as a set of simulated data. We find that, for parametric models, interval censoring can often be ignored and that the density, at centres of intervals, can be used instead in the likelihood function, although the approximation is not always reliable. In the context of heavily interval censored data, the conclusions from parametric models are remarkably robust with changing distributional assumptions and generally more informative than the corresponding non-parametric models.     

Solo-living and childless professional women: Navigating the ‘balanced mother ideal’ over the fertile years

One in five women are childless at midlife, and for an estimated 90 percent of these women, childlessness is not actively chosen. In this article, we explore how solo-living and childless professional women navigate the ‘balanced mother ideal’ over their fertile years and what this means for organizations and organization studies. Drawing on biographical narrative interview data from solo-living professional women in the UK, we argue that identifications with the balanced mother ideal change over the life course as a result of futurity, ambivalence, and suppression of negative emotions—part of the logic of both postfeminism and neoliberal feminism—and the ‘disenfranchized grief’ of contingent childlessness. At the point of late fertility, the absence of alternative social narratives to the balanced mother ideal appears to create a crisis point for childless women, including in the workplace. We conclude our article with recommendations for how organizations can better cater to the needs of this significant, yet largely silenced, demographic group.