Deliberations on the development of an intercultural competence curriculum

Committed to developing an institution-wide intercultural competence curriculum for master’s-level students preparing for international careers, a team of nine professors from across disciplines deliberated for a year on their fundamental understandings of intercultural competence and what it would mean to facilitate the development of that competence in students. This article recounts the team’s philosophical debates related to intercultural competence: definitions, effective methods of teaching, intersectionality of identities, Western bias in the literature, power and inequity, and the role of language learning. The deliberations became the foundation for an institution-wide curriculum, focused on helping graduates to be not only effective workers and managers in multicultural settings, but also to be leaders in social change. This article shares the conversations and considerations of the planning process and the breadth and emphasis of the curriculum that emerged. Reflections on students’ learning and recommendations for curriculum developers are offered.     

Sexuality Examined Through the Lens of Attachment Theory: Attachment,Caregiving, and Sexual Satisfaction

Attachment researchers have proposed that the attachment, caregiving, and sexual behavioral systems are interrelated in adult love relationships (Mikulincer &; Shaver, 2007 Mikulincer , M. , &; Shaver , P. R. ( 2007 ). Attachment in adulthood: Structure, dynamics, and change . New York , NY : Guilford . [Google Scholar]). This study examined whether aspects of partners’ caregiving (proximity, sensitivity, control, compulsive caregiving) mediated the association between their attachment insecurities (anxiety and avoidance) and each other's sexual satisfaction in two samples of committed couples (Study 1: 126 cohabiting or married couples from the general community; Study 2: 55 clinically distressed couples). Partners completed the Experiences in Close Relationships measure (Brennan, Clark, &; Shaver, 1998 Brennan , K. A. , Clark , C. L. , &; Shaver , P. R. ( 1998 ). Self-report measurement of adult attachment: An integrative overview . In J. A. Simpson &; W. W. Rholes (Eds.), Attachment theory and close relationships (pp. 46 – 76 ). New York : Guilford .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), the Caregiving Questionnaire (Kunce &; Shaver, 1994 Kunce , L. J. , &; Shaver , P. R. ( 1994 ). An attachment-theoretical approach to caregiving in romantic relationships . In K. Bartholomew &; D. Perlman (Eds.), Advances in personal relationships (pp. 205 – 237 ). London : Kingsley . [Google Scholar]), and the Global Measure of Sexual Satisfaction (Lawrance &; Byers, 1998 Lawrance , K. , &; Byers , E. S. ( 1998 ). Interpersonal Exchange Model of Sexual Satisfaction Questionnaire . In C. M. Davis , W. L. Yarber , R. Bauserman , G. Schreer &; S. L. Davis (Eds.), Sexuality-related measures: A compendium (pp. 514 – 519 ). Thousand Oaks , CA : Sage . [Google Scholar]). Path analyses based on the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) revealed that caregiving proximity mediated the association between low attachment avoidance and partners’ sexual satisfaction in distressed and nondistressed couples. Sensitivity mediated this association in nondistressed couples only. Control mediated the association between men's insecurities (attachment-related avoidance and anxiety) and their partners’ low sexual satisfaction in nondistressed couples. Attachment anxiety predicted compulsive caregiving, but this caregiving dimension was not a significant mediator. These results are discussed in light of attachment theory and their implications for treating distressed couples.     

Family Intervention and Health Care Costs for Kansas Medicaid Patients with Schizophrenia

Despite a number of studies investigating the effect of pharmacotherapy on treatment costs for schizophrenia patients, there has been little attention given to the effect of family intervention. In this study, data from the Kansas Medicaid system were used to analyze healthcare costs for 164 schizophrenia patients who had participated in family intervention. Structural equation modeling was used to test two competing views of the role of family intervention in treatment. The results showed that a model including direct and indirect effects of family intervention provided a better fit to the data. Family intervention had a significant indirect effect on general medical costs (through other psychological treatment) that showed a savings of $586 for each unit increase in the provision of these services. In addition, the total indirect effects for family intervention showed a $580 savings for general medical costs and $796 for hospitalization costs (for each unit increase).     

‘Us’ and ‘them’: the limits and possibilities of a ‘politics of neurodiversity’ in neoliberal times

The neurodiversity movement claims that there are neurological differences in the human population, and that autism is a natural variation among humans – not a disease or a disorder, just ‘a difference’. A ‘politics of neurodiversity’ is based on the claim that the ‘neurodiverse’ population constitutes a political grouping comparable with those of class, gender, sexuality or race. This paper considers the limits and possibilities of neurodiverse political activism, and concludes by calling for a politics of identity that does not depend on a politics of ‘us’ and ‘them’.     

Marriage (In)equality: The Perspectives of Adolescents and Emerging Adults With Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Parents

The debate over whether same‐sex couples should be allowed to enter into civil marriages continues in the United States. Forty‐nine adolescents and emerging adults (ages 14–29) with lesbian, gay, and bisexual parents were interviewed for the current exploratory study, which examined how individuals perceived themselves and their families as being affected by marriage (in)equality, as well as the factors that shaped their perspectives. More than two thirds of participants voiced unequivocal support for marriage equality, citing numerous legal and symbolic benefits that their families were denied. One quarter of participants articulated critical perspectives of marriage or the fight for marriage equality, while also acknowledging the benefits associated with marriage. As the first study to examine the perspectives of individuals with lesbian, gay, and bisexual parents with regard to marriage (in)equality, this research has important implications for the marriage equality debate and provides a springboard for future studies on this topic.     

Mate Availability and Women's Sexual Experiences in China

Data from the 1999-2000 Chinese Health and Family Life Survey were merged with community-level data from the 1982, 1990, and 2000 Chinese censuses to examine the relationship between the local sex ratio (number of men per 100 women) and sexual outcomes among women (N = 1,369). Consistent with hypotheses derived from demographic-opportunity theory, multilevel logistic regression analyses showed that women are more likely to be sexually active, to have had premarital sexual intercourse, to have been forced to have sex, and to test positive for a sexually transmitted infection when there is a relative abundance of age-matched men in their local community. Education, birth cohort, and geographic location also emerged as significant predictors of women's sexual experiences.     

Dominant strategy implementation with a convex product space of valuations

A necessary and sufficient condition for dominant strategy implementability when preferences are quasilinear is that, for every individual i and every choice of the types of the other individuals, all k-cycles in i’s allocation graph have nonnegative length for every integer k ≥ 2. Saks and Yu (Proceedings of the 6th ACM conference on electronic commerce (EC’05), pp 286–293, 2005) have shown that when the number of outcomes is finite and i’s valuation type space is convex, nonnegativity of the length of all 2-cycles is sufficient for the nonnegativity of the length of all k-cycles. In this article, it is shown that if each individual’s valuation type space is a full-dimensional convex product space and a mild domain regularity condition is satisfied, then (i) the nonnegativity of all 2-cycles implies that all k-cycles have zero length and (ii) all 2-cycles having zero length is necessary and sufficient for dominant strategy implementability.     

Condom Use Trajectories in Adolescence and the Transition to Adulthood: The Role of Mother and Father Support

Few studies have investigated how mother and father support differ on predicting youths' sexual risk behavior. We therefore examined the influence of parental support on condom use trajectories and its correlates in a predominantly African American sample [(N=627; 53% female; M = 14.86 years (SD=. 64)] from adolescence to young adulthood. We used hierarchical growth curve modeling to examine the relationship between condom use, substance use, psychological distress and parental support prospectively. We found that consistent condom use decreased over time and was associated negatively with psychological distress and substance use. Furthermore, both maternal and paternal support were associated with more condom use over time. We discuss the implications of our findings for HIV prevention programs.     

Bidirectional Relations Between Authoritative Parenting and Adolescents’ Prosocial Behaviors

This study examined the bidirectional relations between authoritative parenting and adolescents’ prosocial behavior over a 1‐year time period. Data were taken from Time 2 and 3 of the Flourishing Families Project, and included reports from 319 two‐parent families with an adolescent child (M age of child at Time 2 = 12.34, SD = 1.06, 52% girls). Cross‐lag analyses supported bidirectional relations between parenting and prosocial behavior with particular emphasis on the role of the adolescents’ prosocial behavior on subsequent parenting. Results also varied as a function of the reporter. Discussion focuses on the implications for understanding the multifaceted nature of prosocial development in adolescence.