“We Don’t Get Into All That”: An Analysis of How Teachers Uphold Heteronormative Sex and Relationship Education

Legislation that applies to UK SRE currently advocates inclusive provision. Given the nonstatutory status of SRE, however, it is unclear how teachers incorporate sexual inclusivity, especially as research has shown that teachers’ discursive practices can promote a heteronormative SRE climate (Renn, 2010). Using a discursive psychological approach to analyze interview data, this study examined how teachers account for their provision as inclusive. It was revealed that even when promoting their inclusivity, teachers’ SRE provision upholds heteronormativity. In doing this, they positioned LGB and same-sex practices outside of the classroom, potentially leaving these young people without a sufficient sex education.     

Predicting Intentions to Report Administrative and Disciplinary Infractions: Applying the Reasoned Action Model

The present study focuses on the reporting ofadministrative and disciplinary irregularities. Thereasoned action model (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) isapplied to predict officers' intentions to report illegal or irregular activities in the IsraeliDefense Forces. The findings show that although themodel's two predictors (attitude toward reporting andsubjective norm) significantly predicted intention to report, the effect of subjective norm wasmuch stronger than the effect of the attitude component.In spite of the military's strong formal system andalthough social forces have great potential to impose the reporting norm on an organization'smembers, actual reporting does not meet expectations.The results are discussed in light of the organizationalculture that develops as the combat unit struggles to survive in an extremely turbulentenvironment.     

Civilizing Northumberland: Representations of Englishness in the Tudor State

Taking Northumberland as a case study, this paper explores the wider implications of the Tudor strategy of reform by centralization, uniformity, and cultural imperialism. It reappraises the notion that the growth of centralized government at the expense of regional magnates was unambiguously a form of modernization; and argues that the essential character of the Tudor state and the radical nature of Tudor reform have been obscured by the historians' practice of viewing developments in terms of the rise of the nation.     

Menopause and sexual desire: the role of testosterone

The present short review underlines the role of testosterone (T) in the motivational and satisfaction components of women's sexuality and critically discusses the strategies to treat hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), a condition of low desire associated with personal and/or interpersonal difficulties, which is more common in surgical menopausal women. There are multiple ways androgens target the brain regions (hypothalamic, limbic and cortical) involved in sexual function and behaviour. Even though circulating available androgens have been implicated in several domains of sexual response, they seem to be related weakly to symptoms, such as low sexual desire, poor sexual arousal, orgasm and diminished well-being in postmenopausal women. The possibilities of treating low sexual desire/HSDD are multifaceted and should include the combination of pharmacological treatments able to maximize biological signals driving the sexual response, and individualized psychosocial therapies in order to overcome personal and relational difficulties. Transdermal T has been shown to be effective at a dose of 300 μg/day both in surgically and naturally menopausal women replaced with estrogen or not, without any relevant side-effects. However, the decision to treat postmenopausal women with HSDD with T is mainly based on clinical judgement, after informed consent regarding the unknown long-term risks.     

Who needs RDD? Combining directory listings with cell phone exchanges for an alternative telephone sampling frame

The traditional Random Digit Dialing method (list-assisted RDD using a frame of landline phone numbers) is clearly under threat. The difficulty and costs of completing telephone surveys have increased due to rising rates of refusal and non-contact. The completeness of coverage of list-assisted RDD samples has diminished due to the proliferation of cell-phone only households. The ability of list-assisted RDD to capture young, mobile, unmarried, and minority households is thus diminishing as well. Increasingly, survey researchers have been adding a cell phone component to their sampling frames for telephone surveys, despite the increased costs and other issues associated with RDD calling of cell phones.Recent research by Guterbock, Oldendick, and others has explored the extent to which “electronic white pages” (EWP) samples really differ from RDD samples. Oldendick et al. and Guterbock, Diop and Holian have emphasized that minority households are seriously underrepresented in EWP samples. Nevertheless, EWP samples have distinct advantages whenever a survey is aimed at a restricted geographic area.This paper considers the feasibility of combining EWP samples with cell-phone RDD, eliminating the ordinary RDD component from the sampling frame. We analyze the components of the telephone population, showing that the proposed method would fail to cover only one segment of the telephone population: unlisted landline households that have no cell phone. We analyze data from the 2006 National Health Interview Study to estimate the size of this segment, its demographic profile, the degree to which selected demographic and health behavior characteristics are different from those in the segments that this sampling strategy would capture, and what biases are present in the various sampling frames of interest. Trend data from the NHIS are used to assess how these biases are changing. A simple cost comparison is made among the RDD, RDD + cell and EWP + cell frames. The proposed alternative “EWP + cell” sampling frame provides relatively small bias compared to RDD + cell at costs comparable to RDD-only designs. The portion of the telephone universe that is excluded in the EWP + cell design is getting smaller all the time, therefore its bias relative to the RDD + cell design is decreasing over time. Overall, the EWP + cell design seems to be a useful alternative.     

Effective services for improving education and employment outcomes for children and alumni of foster care service: correlates and educational and employment outcomes

Outcomes for youth from foster care have been found to be poor. The education and employment outcomes of youth and alumni of foster care served by transition programmes located in five major US cities were examined. Data were collected by case managers and reported to evaluators quarterly on 1058 youth from foster care for over 2 years. Job preparation, transportation, child care, education support services and life skills were the most common services provided to youth. During the 2‐year study period, 35% of participants obtained employment, 23% obtained a General Education Development or diploma, and 17% enrolled in post‐secondary education. It was found that the longer the youth were enrolled, the more education and employment outcomes they achieved. Further, job preparation and income support services were associated significantly with achieving any positive education or employment outcome. Results indicated that certain services provided over an extended period of time can improve outcomes for youth placed in foster care. For youth to achieve positive outcomes as they transition to adulthood, additional services are necessary. Other implications are discussed.     

Sexual orientation of human offspring may be altered by severe maternal stress during pregnancy

To test the hypotheses that maternal stress during pregnancy may alter the sexual orientation of offspring, 285 women with offspring 19 years of age and older provided retrospective accounts of stressful experiences they had, beginning 12 months prior to pregnancy up to the point of giving birth, and indicated how severe they recalled each event being. When weighted according to severity, stressful experiences helped to predict sexual orientation of male offspring. While most of the variance in sexual orientation remained unexplained, the data suggest that the most critical time in gestation for influencing human sexual orientation of male offspring is during the second trimester, although the first and possibly the third trimesters may be of secondary importance. For female offspring, no significant relationships between maternal stress and sexual orientation were found, although mothers of lesbians did report slightly higher average levels of stress throughout gestation than mothers of female heterosexuals.