Testosterone,alcohol, and civil and rough conflict resolution strategies in lesbian couples

The present study investigated the relations among testosterone level, acute alcohol consumption, and the use of violent (Rough) or non-violent (Civil) conflict resolution strategies in lesbian couples. The participants were 54 lesbian campers at a women's campground or spectators at a gay pride celebration who each provided a saliva sample for testosterone assay and completed a questionnaire. On the questionnaire, participants indicated whether they used Civil or Rough tactics to deal with domestic discord, and whether or not their use of these tactics varied with their use of alcohol. High testosterone women used Rough tactics equally when drinking as when not drinking, while low testosterone women used Rough tactics far more often when drinking than when not drinking. Alcohol appears to release violent tenden- cies in low testosterone women, who are characteristically restrained under sober conditions, but has little effect on high testosterone women.     

Psychosocial Correlates and Consequences of Adolescents’ Self‐Generated Academic Goals and Appraisals

The current study examined whether characteristics of adolescents (i.e., externalizing problems) and their environments (i.e., social support, adverse childhood experiences) relate to academic goal setting, appraisals, and outcomes. Adolescents (n = 99; 87% Black/African American) 13–16 years old completed baseline interviews, and 80% also completed follow‐up interviews. Adolescents with more externalizing problems set fewer academic goals, and youth with social networks characterized by greater support (and less strain) appraised their academic goals as more supported and achievable. Adolescents’ appraisals of their academic goals, but not how many academic goals they had, predicted grades at follow‐up. Increasing social support (and reducing social strain) may foster adolescents’ positive appraisals of their academic goals, which may promote academic achievement.     

Serving Immigrant Communities: Effectiveness of Nonprofit Legal Aid Organizations in an Age of Heightened Enforcement

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - A burgeoning line of research examines nonprofit advocacy, yet few have examined how nonprofits advocate against policy...     

Achieving permanency for youth in foster care: assessing and strengthening emotional security

For some youth in foster care, the closest family or family‐like relationships are with the foster parents with whom they have lived for extended periods of time. Nonetheless, child welfare agencies often do not explore these relationships and the potential they may hold for youth for legal permanence through adoption or guardianship. Recognizing that social workers often lack resources to help them initiate permanency conversations, Casey Family Services, a direct service child welfare agency in the USA, developed a tool that social workers can use to explore youth's sense of emotional security with their foster parents and foster parents' sense of claiming and attachment with youth in their care. The research literature that suggests that emotional security is a critical component of successful permanence provided the foundation for the development of the Belonging and Emotional Security Tool (BEST). When used with youth and foster parents, the BEST was found to advance meaningful permanency conversations. The authors provide case examples of its use and discuss future directions for using the BEST and broadening its application.     

Moral Emotions and Social Activism: The Case of Animal Rights

Why do some people and not others become involved in social movements? We examined the relationships between a moral emotion—disgust—and animal activism, attitudes toward animal welfare, and consumption of meat. Participants were recruited through two social networking websites and included animal activists, promoters of animal use, and participants not involved in animal-related causes. They took an online survey which included measures of sensitivity to visceral disgust, attitudes toward animal welfare, and frequency of meat eating. Animal activists were more sensitive to visceral disgust than were promoters of animal use or nonaligned participants. Disgust sensitivity was positively correlated with attitudes toward animal welfare but not with meat consumption. The relationship between animal activism and vegetarianism was complex; nearly half of animal activists ate meat, and half of the vegetarians did not consider themselves to be animal activists. We argue that conflicts over the moral status of animals reflect fundamental differences in moral intuitions.     

The fundamental paradox in the grief literature: a critical reflection

A key theme in the bereavement literature is the recognition that every grief experience is unique and dependent on many variables, such as the circumstances of the death, characteristics of the bereaved individual, their relationship with the deceased, the provision and availability of support, and a myriad of sociocultural factors. Concurrently, there are corresponding efforts to define "normal" grief and delineate it from "complicated" grief experiences. The discord between these two potentially opposing statements remains a paradox evident within the three major tensions within the thanatological literature--the dominance of grief theories, the medicalization of grief, and the efficacy of grief interventions. Three recommendations for moving beyond the paradox are discussed--the provision of improved grief education for service providers, the bereaved, and the wider community; the conduct of research that emphasizes the context of grief and is relevant to service provision; and the examination of current grief interventions.     

The KIND Program for Adolescent Family and Dating Violence

Adolescent relational violence has significant and pervasive impacts for young people's current and future relationships. It is known that there is a cross-over between adolescent family violence and other offending behaviour, meaning there is a need for youth justice systems to recognise and respond to these forms of violence. This paper outlines a pilot intervention, the KIND Program, run in Youth Justice South Australia, and aimed at intervening with adolescent family and dating violence. KIND aims to provide tailored systemic intervention to young people and their support network, reducing violence while increasing connection and strength within relationships. The pilot of KIND ran for seven months in 2017, and had eight families participating in the program. Participation in, feedback from, and impact of the program suggest that participation was worthwhile and useful for young people and their families. The KIND Program would benefit from a more extensive pilot period to explore the outcomes of this form of intervention.     

Lability of prenatal stress during the COVID-19 pandemic links to negative affect in infancy

The association between prenatal stress and children's socioemotional development is well established. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a particularly stressful period, which may impact the gestational environment. However, most studies to-date have examined prenatal stress at a single time point, potentially masking the natural variation in stress that occurs over time, especially during a time as uncertain as the pandemic. This study leveraged dense ecological momentary assessments from a prenatal randomized control trial to examine patterns of prenatal stress over a 14-week period (up to four assessments/day) in a U.S. sample of 72 mothers and infants. We first examined whether varied features of stress exposure (lability, mean, and baseline stress) differed depending on whether mothers reported on their stress before or during the pandemic. We next examined which features of stress were associated with 3-month-old infants' negative affect. We did not find differences in stress patterns before and during the pandemic. However, greater stress lability, accounting for baseline and mean stress, was associated with higher infant negative affect. These findings suggest that pathways from prenatal stress exposure to infant socioemotional development are complex, and close attention to stress patterns over time will be important for explicating these pathways.     

The International Monetary Fund,Structural Adjustment,and Women's Health: A Cross‐National Analysis of Maternal Mortality in Sub‐Saharan Africa

We conduct a cross‐national analysis to test the dependency theory hypothesis that International Monetary Fund structural adjustment adversely impacts maternal mortality in sub‐Saharan Africa. We use generalized least square random effects regression models and modified two‐step Heckman models that correct for endogeneity using data on 37 African nations with up to four time points (1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005). We find support for our hypothesis, which indicates that sub‐Saharan African nations that receive an International Monetary Fund structural adjustment loan tend to have higher levels of maternal mortality than sub‐Saharan African nations that do not receive such a loan. This finding remains stable when controlling for endogeneity related to whether or not a sub‐Saharan African nation receives a structural adjustment loan. We conclude by discussing the theoretical implications, methodological implications, policy suggestions, and possible directions for future research.