Sexual Esteem in Emerging Adulthood: Associations with Sexual Behavior,Contraception Use,and Romantic Relationships

Sexual esteem is an integral psychological aspect of sexual health (Snell &; Papini, 1989 Snell, W. E. Jr., &; Papini, D. R. (1989). The Sexuality Scale: An instrument to measure sexual‐esteem, sexual‐depression, and sexual‐preoccupation. Journal of Sex Research, 26, 256–263. doi:10.1080/00224498909551510[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), yet it is unclear whether sexual esteem is associated with sexual health behavior among heterosexual men and women. The current analysis used a normative framework for sexual development (Lefkowitz &; Gillen, 2006 Lefkowitz, E. S., &; Gillen, M. M. (2006). “Sex is just a normal part of life”: Sexuality in emerging adulthood. In J. J. Arnett &; J. L. Tanner (Eds.), Emerging adults in America: Coming of age in the 21st century (pp. 235–256). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Tolman &; McClelland, 2011 Tolman, D. L., &; McClelland, S. I. (2011). Normative sexuality development in adolescence: A decade in review, 2000–2009. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21, 242–255. doi:10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00726.x[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) by examining the association of sexual esteem with sexual behavior, contraception use, and romantic relationship characteristics. Participants (N = 518; 56.0% female; mean age = 20.43 years; 26.8% identified as Hispanic/Latino; among non-Hispanic/Latinos, 27.2% of the full sample identified as European American, 22.4% Asian American, 14.9% African American, and 8.7% multiracial) completed Web-based surveys at a large Northeastern university. Participants who had oral sex more frequently, recently had more oral and penetrative sex partners (particularly for male participants), and spent more college semesters in romantic relationships tended to have higher sexual esteem than those who had sex less frequently, with fewer partners, or spent more semesters without romantic partners. Sexually active male emerging adults who never used contraception during recent penetrative sex tended to have higher sexual esteem than those who did use it, whereas female emerging adults who never used contraception tended to have lower sexual esteem than those who did use it. Implications of these results for the development of a healthy sexual self-concept in emerging adulthood are discussed.     

Ritual slaughter and animal welfare in interwar Poland

This articles examines the ritual slaughter debates in the Polish Second Republic (1918 to 1939) from the perspective of the organized animal welfare movement, and argues that animal welfarists both supplied and reinforced antisemitic arguments for banning ritual slaughter; Poland partially banned the Jewish rite in 1936. Animal protectionists in Poland subscribed to the view that the level of civilization reached by a people was best measured by their attitudes towards animals, the most defenseless of living creatures; compassion and humanitarianism, they believed, were defining feature of modern civility. Animal protectionists understood ritual slaughter to be unusually cruel, and as such they saw it as violating the imperatives of the modern and rational era. Given that Jews were the ones who practiced ritual slaughter, they in turn were described as a cruel anachronism that jeopardized animal protectionists' goal of establishing Poland's place in a civilized Europe.     

Muslim women between secular state and religion

The main thesis of this paper assumes that, while we are not arguing for a full-fledged personal law system in Italy (which provides Muslims with different legal systems), we assume that diversity-conscious respect for difference and its legal recognition is a better strategy for achieving justice than a blindfolded Eurocentric vision, based on uniformising secular methods. This paper suggests the adoption of a model of legal intervention for integrating Muslims into Italian liberal democracy. I will call this model a ‘pluralistic institutional approach to integration’, based on a ‘a joint governance approach’. It requires a conceptual break with absolute, unlimited and undivided sovereignty and jurisdiction. Such a pluralistic institutional approach to integration encourages the accommodation of some of the most pressing minority demands in some limited areas. In family law – as we will see – there can be different possible solutions available to conduct their private relationship compatible with their understanding of Islam. However, any policy of accommodation needs to pay special attention to the fact that traditional religious Muslim norms contain practices that may cause harm to vulnerable subjects. Therefore the advocacy and introduction of a plural legal order must be based on respect for key liberal values. In this paper I will not use the generic term sharia (Islamic law) but the term Muslim norms, because I would like to underline the fact that some Muslims are calling for accommodation of norms that derive from their understanding of their religion, including not only standards based on or derived from sharia or fiqh (jurisprudence) but also general ethical principles derived from Islamic religious culture (see Nasir 2002). The focus on religious norms or values makes it clear that the main motivation for the accommodation of Muslim norms would be to maximise individual autonomy and minority protection. In this sense, the accommodation of Muslim norms is subject to the ultimate regulation of the Italian constitutional and legal system. The paper is structured in the following way. Section I of the paper deals with the ‘myth of legal centralism’ and presents a general overview of the empirical situation created by the troublesome Muslim integration in Italy. We will provide some quantitative data on Muslim immigration in Italy. Since ‘Muslim’ is a broad category, it needs to be given as much specificity as possible in order to avoid producing images of a monolithic and undifferentiated religious community. Section II sets out the model of what I have labelled ‘a pluralistic institutional approach to integration’. The substantive claim is that this pluralistic institutional approach to integration provides promising options for the incorporation of cultural and religious minorities, challenging the assumption that it is impossible to grant consideration to religious diversity and gender equality at the same time. Of special interest here are those situations in which claims for so-called ‘Muslim Sharia Arbitration Councils’, religious-based arbitration tribunals, interact with public concerns about power disparities between men and women in the resolution of family law disputes. We will demonstrate the possibility of implementing such a vision by reference to a recent decision by the Supreme Court of Canada, Bruker v. Marcovitz (2007), which breaks new ground.     

National day participation among immigrants in the Netherlands: the role of familiarity with commemorating and celebrating

This study explores to what extent varying levels of host national day participation among immigrants can be explained by previous participatory experiences related to their country of origin, in addition to socio-cultural factors related to the current country of residence. Utilising data from a large online immigrant panel, we concentrate on two prominent national days in the Netherlands: Remembrance Day and Liberation Day. On these days, Dutch society commemorates victims of the Second World War and celebrates freedom, respectively. Our results indicate that Dutch national day participation among immigrants is determined largely by previous familiarity with commemorating and celebrating through participation in holidays specific to immigrants’ country of origin. These findings highlight the need to place more emphasis on the role of previous participatory experiences when examining immigrants’ current patterns of participation in the host society.     

Out-of-home care among immigrant children in Sweden: a national cohort study

We used data from several national registers for ten entire birth cohorts ( n  > 1 million) to examine the representation of first generation immigrant children among first time entries into out-of-home care (foster or residential care) at ages 7–12 and 13–17. Logistic regression models were used to adjust results for socioeconomic background factors. Immigrant children were categorised in six groups relating to birth country/continent. Compared with Swedish-born peers, immigrant children from non-European countries had between two- and three-fold sex and birth-year adjusted odds for being placed in care for the first time at ages 7–12. After adjustments for five socioeconomic background variables, none of these overrisks remained. Instead there was a tendency towards immigrant background being associated with reduced risks, statistically significant for immigrant children born in non-Nordic European countries. Immigrant children had between two- and six-fold age and birth-year adjusted odds for entering care for the first time during adolescence. After adjusting the results for socioeconomic background, only immigrant children born in Sub-Saharan Africa or in Asia outside the Middle East had significant overrisks for care entries at ages 13–17 (odds ratio = 1.5).     

The Rise of China: Implications for Latin American Development

This article analyses the implications of the rapid economic rise of China for the development prospects of Latin America. Based on an analysis of the changing trade relations between China and 15 Latin American countries over the period 2000–6, it argues that these relations have significantly exacerbated the subcontinent's dilemma of being caught in the middle‐income trap. At the same time, some of the key drivers behind China's economic success point to a possible solution, first and foremost the lessons provided by its proactive development strategy which has focused on developing domestic technological capabilities and diversifying the productive structure with a move up the value chain.     

The future of universities in a global risk society

This contribution concurs with Mittelman and also considers the quest for truth a core purpose of universities. However, it rejects the idea that there is one panoptical view of the world, one single truth that could guide such a quest. Drawing on a systems-theoretical perspective and its emphasis on specialization and fragmentation, I rather explore the role of universities in a world that can only partially be known. Such a perspective sheds fresh light on the rise of external quality assurances agencies as a second-order observation that enables further specialization of universities. The study of the rise of this remote steering mechanism reminds us of the limits of a country comparison that does not account of the multiscalarity of policy making, particularly in Europe. However, I will also highlight how most recent changes in higher education policy are characterized by a return to a stronger governmental oversight, undoing some of the liberalization steps taken in the late 1990s, early 2000s. This transformation not only indicates that we are moving towards an end of globalization as we know it. It can, but does not have to, undermine the universities capacity to deal with complexity, as I will show.