Sexual minorities and selection of a primary care physician in a midwestern U.S. city

How and why sexual minorities select a primary care physician is critical to the development of methods for attracting these clients to a physician's practice. Data obtained from a sample of sexual minorities in a mid-size city in our nation's heartland would indicate that these patients are loyal when the primary care physician has a positive attitude toward their sexual orientation. The data also confirms that most sexual minorities select same sex physicians but not necessarily same sexual orientation physicians because of lack of knowledge of physicians' sexual orientation. Family practice physicians and other primary care physicians can reach out to this population by encouraging word of mouth advertising and by displaying literature on health issues for all sexual orientations in their offices.     

Self-Concept,Attitudes Toward Career Counseling,and Work Readiness of Malaysian Vocational Students

The authors examined the relationship between self-concept, attitudes toward career counseling, and work readiness among 574 Malaysian vocational students. Attitudes toward career counseling have been studied in Western cultures; however, little is known about how career counseling is perceived in Eastern cultures. Attitudes toward career counseling were examined as a potential mediator of the relationship between self-concept and work readiness. The authors applied structural equation modeling to explain these relationships. Value of career counseling was found to significantly mediate the link between self-concept and work readiness. Results supported a direct relationship between positive self-concept and work readiness skills. This may be due, in part, to a heightened value of career counseling among vocational students that increases career awareness and thus enhances work readiness. Future research could include samples with more female participants and additional constructs, such as self-efficacy and career adaptability.     

Mixed marriage among immigrants and their descendants in the United Kingdom: Analysis of longitudinal data with missing information

This study investigates the formation of endogamous and exogamous marriages among immigrants and their descendants in the United Kingdom. We apply event history analysis to data from the Understanding Society study and use multiple imputation to determine the type of marriage for individuals with missing information on the origin of their spouse. The analysis shows, first, significant differences among immigrants and their descendants in the likelihood of marrying within and outside their ethnic groups. While immigrants from European countries have relatively high exogamous marriage rates, South Asians exhibit a high likelihood of marrying a partner from their own ethnic group; Caribbean people hold an intermediate position. Second, the descendants of immigrants have lower endogamous and higher exogamous marriage rates than their parents; however, for some ethnic groups, particularly South Asians, the differences across generations are small, suggesting that changes in marriage patterns have been slower than expected.     

Verbal Communication about Sex in Marriage: Patterns of Language Use and Its Connection with Relational Outcomes

This study examined the vocabulary husbands and wives use for talking to each other about sex, and connections between language use and relational qualities. Married people (n?=?293) responded to a questionnaire about their use of common sex-related terms and about several characteristics of their marriage: sexual communication satisfaction, relational satisfaction, and relational closeness. Cluster analysis based on reported use revealed that sexual terms fell into clusters characterized as clinical terms, slang, or standard English. Results showed an association between use of sexual terms, particularly slang terms, and both satisfaction and closeness. This connection was stronger for women than for men. The findings offer insight into sexual talk and marital relationships.     

Validation of the traumatic sexualization survey for use with heterosexual men

Two studies were conducted to validate the Traumatic Sexualization Survey (TSS) for use with heterosexual men. In Study 1, an online sample of men completed the TSS and measures used to examine convergent and divergent validity. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that the TSS had a similar factor structure in men as previously found in women. The TSS demonstrated adequate reliability and validity with men. In Study 2, male sexually transmitted disease clinic patients completed the TSS and a measure of child maltreatment. Men with a child sexual abuse (CSA) history reported higher levels of traumatic sexualization than men with a history of only physical abuse or no abuse, providing some preliminary evidence of construct validity. The TSS appears to be an adequate measure of maladaptive attitudes that have been conceptually linked to CSA impact in men.     

Investigating the impact of inquiry mode on self-reported sexual behavior: theoretical considerations and review of the literature

Measurement of sexual behaviors is typically reliant on retrospective self-reports of behaviors. Historically, self-reported sexual behavior data were primarily collected through face-to-face interviews or paper-and-pencil questionnaires, as these were the only modes of inquiry available. In recent decades, technological innovations such as telephones, computers, and the Internet have expanded the self-report inquiry modes available. The addition of these new inquiry modes further complicates the ability of sex researchers to evaluate the quality of research results and compare findings across studies. Self-report sexual behavior data are vulnerable to participation biases, as well as to sources of bias in individual responses, such as recollection and social desirability bias. This is true regardless of the inquiry mode being used, but some modes may be more vulnerable to bias than others. This review examines the available research regarding self-report sexual behavior research, inquiry mode, and relative bias across modes. The review also provides recommendations for advancing the current understanding of inquiry mode effects within sexual behavior research. Specifically, by shifting the focus away from evaluating specific modes of inquiry toward examination of factors common across all modes, researchers will be better able to interpret existing research and improve the designs of future studies as well.     

Would You Say You “Had Masturbated” If … ?: The Influence of Situational and Individual Factors on Labeling a Behavior as Masturbation

The term masturbation is often not clearly defined despite its prevalent use in sex education, sex research, and clinical settings. The purpose of this study was to understand what behaviors are typically considered to be masturbation as well as the situational and individual variables that may affect the labeling of a behavior as such. An online study of 564 individuals demonstrated that a wide variety of behaviors were considered to be masturbation by a majority of participants. No difference was found between men and women in the total number of behaviors labeled as masturbation. Both men and women were more likely to label a behavior as masturbation (1) if there was no sexual partner present than if there was and (2) if an orgasm occurred than if it did not. In addition, women were more likely than men to label a behavior as masturbation if they were alone and if no orgasm occurred. Younger age was associated with labeling more behaviors as masturbation, but sexual identity, self-pleasuring experience, partnered sexual experience, and attitudes toward masturbation were not related to the number of behaviors labeled as masturbation. Results speak to the importance of behavioral specificity when discussing masturbation with students, clients, and in sex research.     

Elementary ELA/Social Studies Integration: Challenges and Limitations

Adding instructional time and holding teachers accountable for teaching social studies are touted as practical, logical steps toward reforming the age-old tradition of marginalization. This qualitative case study of an urban elementary school, examines how nine teachers and one administrator enacted district reforms that added 45 minutes to the instructional day and implemented a series of formative and summative assessments. Each participant was treated as a particular case and a within-case analysis was used. Through classroom observations, interviews, time journals, and official school documents, I describe underlying perceptions and priorities that were barriers to any positive impact time or testing might have afforded social studies. Findings suggest that scheduled or mandated ELA/social studies integration does not always materialize and there are reasons for this gap.     

Clubbing masculinities: gender shifts in gay men's dance floor choreographies

This article adopts an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the intersections of gender, sexuality, and dance. It examines the expressions of sexuality among gay males through culturally popular forms of club dancing. Drawing on political and musical history, I outline an account of how gay men's gendered choreographies changed throughout the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. Through a notion of "technologies of the body," I situate these developments in relation to cultural levels of homophobia, exploring how masculine expressions are entangled with and regulated by musical structures. My driving hypothesis is that as perceptions of cultural homophobia decrease, popular choreographies of gay men's dance have become more feminine in expression. Exploring this idea in the context of the first decade of the new millennium, I present a case study of TigerHeat, one of the largest weekly gay dance club events in the United States.