Passionate Gods and Desiring Women: Jeanette Winterson, Faith, and Sexuality

Throughout her literary works, Jeanette Winterson describes sexual passion in the language and with the understanding of a parallel and informing spiritual faith and compassion. Winterson's narratives of romantic love and sexual passion seek in a different form the experience of perfect union with another demonstrated in the ecstatic practices of charismatic Christianity. From her first book, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985), to her most recent fictions, Winterson has consistently drawn on Biblical language and religious experience to produce her own exalted discourse of passion. In drawing on Biblical language to express erotic passion, Winterson resists the popular cultural image of perfect rapprochement, the merging of self and other typically ascribed to the lesbian couple. Rather, she emphasizes the challenge of union in love, using the language of faith to indicate the elusive qualities of passionate connection. The language she borrows from her Pentecostal childhood allows her to describe a kind of charismatic experience of meeting between self and lover while recognizing the essential difference between partners, the foreignness of the beloved.     

Predictors of Readiness for Mobility Transition in Older Drivers

We administered the Assessment of Readiness for Mobility Transition (ARMT) to 301 older drivers and compared total scores with participant characteristics. Overall, 18% of participants were not attitudinally ready for mobility transition, while 19% were very ready. Notably, participants with hospitalizations in the past year were either very ready for mobility transition (20% vs 14% without hospitalizations) or not ready at all (30% vs 17%). Significant health events may polarize reactions towards mobility transition. Individualizing communication about driving cessation readiness could help address such differing views. To further consider its effectiveness, ARMT could be utilized in mobility transition counseling interventions.     

Disproportionality in education and employment outcomes of adult foster care alumni

Racial similarities and disparities in the education and employment of 134 African American and 574 White adults placed in foster care as children were examined. Logistic regression was used to compare differences among these young adult alumni who were served by a voluntary foster care agency in 23 U.S. communities. When controlling for demographic background, risk factors, and foster care experiences, race/ethnicity was a significant factor only in the increased odds of White alumni having income at or above poverty level, three times poverty level, and home/apartment ownership compared to African Americans.     

Authentic Leadership: Getting Back to the Roots of the ‘Root Construct’?

In their 2011 review paper, Gardner et al. (Authentic Leadership: a review of the literature and research agenda. Leadership Quarterly, 22, pp. 1120–1145) concluded that the authentic leadership (AL) construct was still in the first stage of evolution, that of concept introduction and evaluation. At that time, the field was characterized by two types of contribution: conceptual expositions and largely quantitative research seeking to map out its antecedents and consequences, moderators and mediators. The current review aims to: (1) critically evaluate the development of the AL construct to the present time; and (2) taking this evaluation as a point of departure, propose the need for a radical re‐grounding of understanding of AL aimed at countering what the authors believe to be the substantive flaws in both its philosophical underpinnings and empirical grounding. The authors propose that these shortcomings have arisen owing to the failure of existential and other critiques of the dominant (normative and functionalist) discourse of AL to gain traction, and owing to an absence of practice‐based, qualitative research. As a strategic platform for the potential re‐grounding and relaunch of AL, the authors propose a radical return to the existential and practice roots of authenticity as the basis for a broader understanding of ‘authentic leadership’ as a ‘central organizing principle’ in leadership studies. Despite the flaws identified in the AL construct, the authors suggest that the notion of authenticity may still have a valuable role to play in the study of leadership: that role, however, can only be determined through a thorough understanding of AL as a practice‐based phenomenon.     

Sexual Preferences and Partnerships of Transgender Persons Mid- or Post-Transition

The process of gender transition has varying effects on various aspects of sexuality. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of transitioning on transgender persons’ sexual preferences and partnerships. Data were collected through an anonymous online survey. Questions focused on timing of gender transition in relation to change in sexual preference. Transgender individuals have a variety of sexual partners, predominantly cisgender, and may change sexual preference when they transition. Transitioning can be associated with having no primary sexual partner, despite past sexual partnerships. Length of time between identifying as transgender and starting the transition might be associated with changing sexual partner preference, particularly in transgender women. The emerging trends of sexual partnerships and changing sexual preferences related to the transition in this study warrant further investigation. These data provide more understanding of the relationship between transitioning and sexual preferences and partnerships.     

Informed Consent Agreements: Standards of Care for Digital Social Work Practices

The inclusion of remote digital practices (e-mail, texting, blogging, social media) to deliver social work services raises unique ethical and legal challenges for client and practitioner. Competent care necessitates providing clients with information that would materially affect clients’ decisions whether to assume the risks, benefits, and conditions associated with e-practices. As standards of care for distance service provision have not been firmly established, social workers are duty bound to be well-informed about current laws, duties, and obligations including specific rules governing the practice of social work in the states where they deliver remote services. This article identifies distinct threats to privacy and confidentiality associated with e-practices and offers suggested content for a comprehensive informed consent policy.