The influence of race, ethnicity, class, and sexual politics on lesbians' body image

Based on interviews conducted with eight lesbians, this paper explores how the intersection of gender, sexual identity, race, ethnicity, and class affect lesbians' feelings about their bodies. Their responses suggest that, while being female has a strong effect on lesbians' feelings about their bodies, issues of race, acculturation, and class also affect body image. Lesbian feminism and S/M politics also appear to play a significant role in lesbians' body image. These findings highlight the limitations of existing theories about body image and call for a more complex theory incorporating a more diverse range of experiences.     

Consensus in the Marital Dyad: Couples' Perceptions of Contraception,Communication, and Family Life

Abstract

The present study was based on data collected (separately for husbands and wives) from 365 couples to determine levels of consensus on a series of variables related to the family forming process. Following Scheff (1967), consensus was operationalized as both agreement and coorientation in the marital dyad. The data generally indicated low levels of consensus on such variables as contraceptive efficacy, desired family size, child spacing, unwanted pregnancies, communication with spouse, and levels of alienation. The results are discussed within the framework of family planning and effective fertility control.     

Contraceptive Responsibility among Male University Students

Abstract

This paper assesses the male contribution to contraceptive mismanagement and unwanted pregnancy. The subjects were 109 students at the University of Melbourne. A high incidence of risk-taking was reported, and almost one-fifth of the sexually experienced men stated that they had been involved in an unwanted pregnancy. A small group of these reported more than one such incident. The underlying reasons for poor contraceptive technique seemed to be related to two beliefs: that contraception is a female responsibility, and that sexual intercourse should be entirely spontaneous and unplanned.     

Social Support Networks and School Outcomes: The Centrality of the Teacher

This investigation compares school outcomes for students who differ in the extent to which they perceive their parents, friends, and teachers—each alone and in combination—as important sources of social support. Findings indicate that middle and high school students who perceive high supportiveness from all three sources of support, as opposed to none, one, or two, have better attendance; spend more hours studying; avoid problem behavior more; have higher school satisfaction, engagement, and self-efficacy; and obtain better grades. Positive school outcomes are promoted when teacher support is perceived in combination with perceived support from parents and friends. Implications of the results for human service providers are presented.     

Six‐Month‐Olds' Detection of Clauses Embedded in Continuous Speech: Effects of Prosodic Well‐Formedness

Three experiments investigated the role of prosodic structure for infants' recognition of embedded word sequences. Six‐month‐olds were familiarized with 2 versions of the same sequence, 1 corresponding to a well‐formed prosodic unit and the other to a prosodically ill‐formed sequence (although a successive word series). Next, infants heard 2 test passages. One included the well‐formed unit, and the other included the ill‐formed sequence. In Experiment 1, infants listened longer to the passage containing the well‐formed unit, suggesting that such units, even when they are embedded, are better recognized. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that this better recognition does not depend on an acoustic match between the familiarized sequences and their later embeddings. This suggests that the advantage of the well‐formed unit is at least partially due to infants' use of prosody to parse continuous speech.     

Are dual and single exposures differently associated with clinical levels of trauma symptoms? Examining physical abuse and witnessing intimate partner violence among young children

A significant portion of children living in the United States have experienced trauma. Informed by the developmental traumatology model, we explored the effects of physical abuse and witnessing intimate partner violence (IPV) on childhood trauma symptoms. This study utilizes a convenience sample of 580 high‐risk children between 3 and 12 years who received services from one‐child advocacy centre during a 12‐month period. We performed a series of binary logistic regression analyses to examine if physical abuse, exposure to IPV, and dual exposure (i.e., both physical abuse and IPV) are distinctly associated with six trauma symptoms, including anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress (PTS), dissociation, anger, and sexual concerns. The results indicated that dual exposure was predictive of all trauma symptoms, except for dissociation. Additionally, physical abuse was associated with PTS, anger, and sexual concerns, whereas exposure to IPV was associated with depression, PTS, and sexual concerns. Research and implications for practitioners working with young children are discussed.     

Exploring the essence of enabling child participation within child protection services

The chances that children have to participate in child protection services are largely contingent upon the attitudes and skills of case managers. They have a crucial role in ensuring that a child's voice is being listened to and acknowledged in often sensitive dialogues. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate what case managers need to facilitate child participation. By handing case managers a participation toolbox developed by children and through the use of reflexive monitoring in action, we elaborated on the barriers faced in practice. The results show that the intention to facilitate child participation is quickly overruled by often subconscious thoughts and beliefs, stemming from the complex interplay of child image, protection, and participation. Case managers need to be aware of this interplay and how this unknowingly steers their actions. Therefore, iterative reflection should be facilitated within organizations for an actual change in their daily practice and to amplify the role of children in the decision‐making processes within child protection services.     

Subjective Probabilities on Subjectively Unambiguous Events

This paper suggests a behavioral definition of (subjective) ambiguity in an abstract setting where objects of choice are Savage‐style acts. Then axioms are described that deliver probabilistic sophistication of preference on the set of unambiguous acts. In particular, both the domain and the values of the decision‐maker's probability measure are derived from preference. It is argued that the noted result also provides a decision‐theoretic foundation for the Knightian distinction between risk and ambiguity.