Women's sexual experience during the menstrual cycle: identification of the sexual phase by noninvasive measurement of luteinizing hormone

Imprecise measures of ovulation obscure the relationship between women's sexuality and the menstrual cycle, as does studying women with different contraceptive goals in different social contexts. Here we present a novel noninvasive method to precisely pinpoint the preovulatory surge of Luteinizing Hormone (LH), demarcating hormonally distinct cycle phases with greater than 95% reliability. Women were more sexually active on days prior to and including the preovulatory (LH) surge. This pattern was evident only when women initiated sexual activity and not when their partners did, indicating an increase in women's sexual motivation rather than attractiveness. A second study replicated the 6-day increase in sexual activity beginning 3 days before the LH surge, accompanied by stronger sexual desire and more sexual fantasies. We propose the term 'sexual phase' of the cycle, since follicular phase is over inclusive and ovulatory phase is not sufficient. These findings are striking because the women were avoiding pregnancy and were kept blind to the hypotheses, preventing expectation bias. The sexual phase was more robust in women with regular sexual partners, although the increase in sexual desire was just as great in nonpartnered women, who also reported feeling less lonely at this time. We use these results to evaluate potential neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying women's sexual motivation and activity.     

Disrupting the status quo: exploring culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies for young diverse learners

This article highlights four qualitative studies that examine young diverse populations (i.e. middle-class African-American learners, Latinx immigrant children, emergent bilingual writers, and teachers of low-socioeconomic African-American learners) using culturally relevant and culturally sustaining pedagogies as our theoretical lens. The research questions are (1) What are the features of classrooms that support culturally sustaining learning for young children? (2) What social, cultural, and linguistic resources do learners draw upon when engaging in culturally sustaining spaces? Findings in this paper indicate that (a) children need critical safe spaces to foster CSP (b) children draw knowledge from varied resources and (c) teachers’ must be able to navigate policies to implement practices that utilize students’ cultural referents.     

The Transformative Power of Youth Grants: Sparks and Ripples of Change Affecting Marginalised Youth and their Communities

This study, based on research into a youth empowerment initiative in Canada, examines the transformational power of youth grants for marginalised youth and their communities. The positive changes on individual youth included increased confidence and skills, as well as strengthened social interactions between youth, and involved adults and organisations. To leverage grant impact, we identify the critical role of creating accountability at multiple levels, promoting sharing among grantees, and fostering allies and system thinkers. The evaluation points to the potential of grants for changing community's perception that youth are incapable of fostering community youth development.     

Lasting Disadvantage? Comparing Career Trajectories of Matched Temporary and Permanent Workers in Canada

Is the economic insecurity associated with temporary employment transitory or lasting? What accounts for differences in medium‐run earnings trajectories for workers first observed in temporary and permanent jobs? Although there is now a considerable body of research investigating mobility outcomes for temporary workers, most studies focus on single transition points and pay little attention to the quality of subsequent employment beyond its temporary or permanent status. In this paper, we compare income trajectories for a nationally representative sample of Canadian temporary workers and a set of permanent workers selected to match them as closely as possible on personal, job, and work‐history characteristics. We find that temporary workers start out with lower incomes and fail to catch up to their permanent counterparts over the next five years. Differences are more pronounced for women. L'insécurité économique associée à l'emploi temporaire est‐elle passagère ou durable ? Comment peut‐on expliquer les différences de trajectoires des revenus à moyen terme entre les travailleurs dans des emplois temporaires et ceux dans des emplois permanents au début de l'étude ? Bien qu'il y ait maintenant une masse considérable de recherche portant sur la mobilité économique des intérimaires, la plupart des études se concentrent sur un seul point de transition et accordent peu d'attention à la qualité de l'emploi par la suite, mis à part son statut temporaire ou permanent. Dans cet article, nous comparons les trajectoires de revenu pour un échantillon national représentatif d'intérimaires canadiens ainsi qu'un ensemble de travailleurs permanents choisis avec le plus de précision possible sur la base de leurs similarités avec l'échantillon d'intérimaires en ce qui concernent leurs données démographiques, leur emploi, et leur historique de travail. Nous concluons que les intérimaires commencent avec des revenus inférieurs et ne parviennent pas à rattraper le groupe des travailleurs permanents sur une période de cinq ans. Les différences sont plus prononcées pour les femmes.     

Material Hardship and Child Socioemotional Behaviors: Differences by Types of Hardship, Timing, and Duration

Child behavior problems are associated with long-term detrimental effects. A large body of literature looks at the association between income and child behavior but few studies examine this association with material hardship, an alternative economic indicator. We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine the following questions: (a) Is material hardship associated with child socioemotional behavior and are there differences by developmental timing, (b) Are particular hardships (bills, utilities, food, housing, medical) more strongly associated with child behavior, and (c) Are there differences in the association between short-term and long-term material hardship and child behavior? We find that children in households experiencing material hardship score significantly higher on externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Additionally, we find that a mother's inability to pay bills, experience of utility interruption, and housing instability are adversely related to child behavior. We also find that the association between material hardship and child behaviors is stronger at age 5 and that chronic aggregate hardship has a stronger association with child behavior.     

The Effects of a Family Systems Intervention on Co‐Occurring Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors of Children with Substance Abusing Mothers: A Latent Transition Analysis

Children of substance abusing parents are at heightened risk to develop problem behaviors, yet little is known about the co‐occurring patterns of internalizing and externalizing behaviors among this population. With 183 children (M age = 11.54 years, SD = 2.55, range 8–16) whose mothers were diagnosed with a substance use disorder, the current study identified subgroups/classes of children that were clinically distinct in their co‐occurring patterns of internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and examined how children in different clinical subgroups responded to a family systems intervention. Latent class analyses identified four classes of internalizing and externalizing behaviors: internalizing only, externalizing only, comorbid, and normative. Latent transition analyses showed that participation in family systems therapy resulted in an increased likelihood of transitioning from the externalizing class at baseline to the normative class at 18 months post‐baseline, and from the comorbid class at baseline to the internalizing class at 18 months post‐baseline as well. The findings support the effectiveness of family systems therapy in interrupting the stability of children's problem behaviors and improving children's behavioral outcomes.     

The Roles of Love and Happiness in Divorce Decision Making

Little is known about divorce decision making, the process of deciding whether to divorce when a marriage is distressed. The focus of this qualitative study was to explore the roles of love and happiness—two Western ideals that govern contemporary marital processes—in divorce decision making. Married participants (N = 30) with recent thoughts about divorce were interviewed about their conceptions of love and happiness in their decision-making processes. The resulting categories for love included: (a) importance of love, (b) change over time, and (c) marital love. The categories for happiness included: (a) fluidity of happiness and (b) balancing happiness. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Comprehensive assessment of youth violence in five Caribbean countries: Gender and age differences

Differences in gender and age have been established in the context of crime, violence, and prevalence of risk and protective factors. These studies are often notable only in the Western Hemisphere. Despite growth in crime and violence in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), relatively little understanding of violence in CARICOM member states exists. In light of these concerns, the major purposes of this study include: (1) comprehensively assessing the scope of the four behaviors (i.e., engagement, victimization, witness, and report) in relation to violence and youth’s perceptions of risk and protective factors in family and school domains, and (2) examining how they differ by youth’s gender and age. This study draws on assessment data on youth violence in five CARICOM Member States: Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago using a completed 51-item quantitative questionnaire from approximately 512 students. The results suggest that violence engagement, victimization, witness, and report significantly differed by gender and age. Male students were more likely to engage in violence, but less likely to report such violence to adults. Similarly, older students reported that they were more likely to engage in and witness violence. For risk and protective factors, female students reported significantly higher scores on domestic violence, whereas male students had higher scores on the access to drugs/weapons. Older students also tended to report higher levels of some school risk factors and lower levels of some protective factors in both family and school.