“I'm in this world for a reason”: Resilience and recovery among American Indian and Alaska Native two-spirit women

ABSTRACT

American Indian and Alaska Native sexual minority (two-spirit) women are vulnerable to substance misuse and mental health challenges due to multiple minority oppressed status and exposure to stress and trauma. Yet, these women find pathways toward healing and wellness. We conducted a qualitative data analysis of interviews derived from a national health study and gained an understanding of 11 two-spirit women's resilience and recovery patterns. Emergent from the data, a braided resiliency framework was developed which elucidates multilayered abilities, processes, and resources involved in their resiliency. We recommend that resilience-promoting strategies be incorporated into substance misuse and mental health interventions.     

Infants Associate Praise and Admonishment with Fair and Unfair Individuals

Recent evidence suggests that infants possess a rudimentary sensitivity to fairness: Infants expect resources to be distributed fairly and equally, and prefer individuals that distribute resources fairly over those that do so unfairly. The goal of this work was to determine whether infants' evaluations of fair and unfair individuals also includes an understanding that fair individuals are worthy of praise and unfair individuals are worthy of admonishment. After watching individuals distribute goods fairly or unfairly to recipients, 15‐month‐old (Experiments 1 and 2) and 13‐month‐old (Experiment 3) infants took part in a test phase in which they saw only the distributors' faces accompanied by praise or admonishment. Across all experiments, infants differentially shifted their visual attention to images of the fair and unfair distributors as a function of the accompanying praise or admonishment, although the direction in which they did so varied by age. Thus, by the start of the second year of life, infants appear to perceive fair individuals as morally praiseworthy and unfair individuals as morally blameworthy.     

Gender In/equality in Worker‐owned Businesses

Gender scholars have developed a significant body of scholarship on the reproduction of gender inequality in work organizations. However, the vast majority of that research has been conducted in non‐profit organizations or in employer‐owned businesses. In this article, we review the existing literature on gender in worker‐owned businesses. We begin by defining three distinctly different types of worker‐owned businesses: companies with employee stock ownership plans, worker cooperatives, and communes. Next we review the limited research on gender inequality in each of these organizational forms. The current literature finds that women benefit from working in these alternative organizations, but gender disparities nevertheless persist due to occupational segregation and the devaluation of domestic work. Exceptions are those organizations with strong ties to feminism and those with formal power‐sharing policies. Granted the scarcity of research on this topic, however, these conclusions are tentative. We conclude with a discussion of areas for further research.     

Estimating the Prevalence of Sexual Function Problems: The Impact of Morbidity Criteria

Establishing the clinical significance of symptoms of sexual dysfunction is challenging. To address this, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) introduced two new morbidity criteria (duration and symptom severity) to the existing criteria of distress. This study sought to establish the impact of these three criteria on the population prevalence of sexual function problems. The data come from a national probability survey (Natsal-3) and are based on 11,509 male and female participants aged 16–74, reporting at least one sexual partner in the past year. The key outcomes were: proportion of individuals reporting proxy measures of DSM-5 problems, and the proportion of those meeting morbidity criteria. We found that among sexually active men, the prevalence of reporting one or more of four specific sexual problems was 38.2%, but 4.2% after applying the three morbidity criteria; corresponding figures for women reporting one or more of three specific sexual problems, were 22.8% and 3.6%. Just over a third of men and women reporting a problem meeting all three morbidity criteria had sought help in the last year. We conclude that the DSM-5 morbidity criteria impose a focus on clinically significant symptoms.     

Social work students’ experiences in a Christianity and sexual minority intergroup dialogue

A tension between the lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) and (heterosexual) conservative Christian communities has been documented within social work. This qualitative study explores students’ experiences in a Christianity and LGB sexuality intergroup dialogue at an American graduate social work program. This dialogue was the first known case of intergroup dialogue being used to address these topics in a social work program. Students’ motivations for participating in the dialogue, challenges faced throughout the dialogue, and what they learned are discussed. Pedagogical implications for schools of social work and intergroup dialogue are outlined.     

Students' Experiences of University and an Australian Social Work Program: Coming,Going, Staying

Student engagement, retention, and professional commitment is strongly influenced during the early stages of the university experience. However, a number of factors can undermine engagement, which has implications for the individual, the professional workforce, and university funding and reputation. This paper reports on cooperative inquiry research that explored the beginning experiences of 17 social work students from one regional Australian university. In-depth, qualitative data were collected during six discussions that focused on understanding the experiences that influenced university retention, enjoyment, and success. Data analysis revealed three primary themes: (i) purpose and timing, (ii) balancing commitments, and (iii) a sense of belonging. Findings suggested that students often struggled to balance life, work, and family commitments, while appreciating university processes that reduced stressors and contributed to a sense of belonging.     

Using the Multiple-Choice Procedure to Measure the Relative Reinforcing Efficacy of Gambling: Initial Validity Evidence Among College Students

The multiple choice procedure (MCP) is used to assess the relative reinforcing value of concurrently available stimuli. The MCP was originally developed to assess the reinforcing value of drugs; the current within-subjects study employed the MCP to assess the reinforcing value of gambling behavior. Participants (N = 323) completed six versions of the MCP that presented hypothetical choices between money to be used while gambling ($10 or $25) versus escalating amounts of guaranteed money available immediately or after delays of either 1 week or 1 month. Results suggest that choices on the MCP are correlated with other measures of gambling behavior, thus providing concurrent validity data for using the MCP to quantify the relative reinforcing value of gambling. The MCP for gambling also displayed sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude and delay effects, which provides evidence of criterion validity. The results are consistent with a behavioral economic model of addiction and suggest that the MCP could be a valid tool for future research on gambling behavior.     

Does a Perinatal Infant Mental Health Team Hold the Family in Mind? Opportunities and Challenges for Working Systemically in this Specialised Field

This paper considers whether systemic family therapy frameworks are used in current Perinatal Infant Mental Health (PIMH) practice. PIMH is a field that is, by nature, relational, focusing on enhancing the development of early parent–infant relationships. It is well accepted that the early years of an infant's life are crucial for brain development, and disturbances in early parent–infant relationships can impact negatively upon the child's development. Five clinicians from a PIMH service in a metropolitan area participated in a focus group related to key systemic concepts: genograms, family of origin, transitions, and morphogenesis. Findings suggest that the PIMH team does hold the family in mind, utilising systemic frameworks predominately in the engagement and assessment phase of intervention. They also highlight that PIMH clinicians focus on roles and boundaries occurring within the immediate and extended family unit and support families with the transition to family expansion phase. The application of working systemically differed significantly among participants, suggesting that the use of systemic frameworks in the PIMH field requires further exploration.     

Behavior Skills Training with Voice-Over Video Modeling

The present study used behavior skills training (BST) to teach three adult participants to implement a video modeling intervention aimed at teaching social skills to adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). During baseline trials, participants were given access to written instructions before role-play with two actors (who simulated a quiet conversation) and one confederate (who played the role of an adult with ASD). During treatment, participants were given a video model with voice-over instruction depicting how to implement the video modeling intervention to teach social skills, repeated roleplay trials, and feedback following their performance. All participant scores (percentage of steps correctly implemented in each session) increased from baseline to treatment, and generalization was demonstrated with an actual consumer diagnosed with ASD. Additionally, after training participants to use a video model to teach one social skill, there was generalization to teaching as many as three additional novel social skills. Participants showed maintenance of skills during a treatment study that involved training adult clients with ASD to engage in the social skills.