Measuring Loneliness Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: The UCLA and de Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scales

This study examined the measurement and invariance properties of the R-UCLA and de Jong Gierveld loneliness scales for research involving middle-aged and older adults. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) of data from interviews with adults aged 45–84 revealed limited support for the unidimensionality of either scale while subsequent analyses indicated the multidimensionality of both. However, method effects associated with positive and negative item wording were also evident. Multiple group CFAs provided limited support for assumptions of measurement invariance across age groups and from baseline to follow-up with regard to the R-UCLA scale. In contrast, strong measurement invariance across age groups and successive measurements was established for the bi-dimensional dJG scale. Overall, the findings supported the relative utility of the dJG scale for research involving middle-aged and older adults but suggested a need for attention to the implications of method effects associated with item wording and lack of measurement invariance with respect to item residuals.     

Opportunities for woman-initiated HIV prevention methods among female sex workers in southern China

Rapid changes in China over the past two decades have led to significant problems associated with population migration and changing social attitudes, including a growing sex industry and concurrent increases in STIs and HIV. This article reports results of an exploratory study of microbicide acceptability and readiness and current HIV prevention efforts among female sex workers in two rural and one urban town in Hainan and Guangxi Provinces in southern China. The study focused on these women's knowledge and cultural understandings of options for protecting themselves from exposure to STIs and HIV, and the potential viability and acceptability of woman-initiated prevention methods. We report on ethnographic elicitation interviews conducted with women working within informal sex-work establishments (hotels, massage and beauty parlors, roadside restaurants, boarding houses). We discuss implications of these findings for further promotion of woman-initiated prevention methods such as microbicides and female condoms among female sex workers in China.     

Sexual identity distress, social support, and the health of gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth

Sex researchers and mental health clinicians have long recognized that the stigma surrounding homosexuality plays an important role in shaping the social psychological adjustment of gay, lesbian, and bisexual (g/l/b) people. In recent years, researchers have suggested that sexual identity- related distress may influence the physical health status of g/l/b people, primarily because of the ways these self-related feelings and beliefs impact patterns of health-related behavior. This study examines the influence of sexual identity distress and social support on g/l/b youth's drug and alcohol use, psychological distress, and risky sexual behavior. The data come from a services research demonstration program conducted at the Indiana Youth Group, Inc., a g/l/b youth development agency based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Results indicate that sexual identity distress is strongly associated with psychological distress, less frequent use of alcohol, and using fewer types of illegal drugs. Being out to more people in one's support network, however, attenuates the severity of youth's sexual identity-related distress. Youth who report more support ties to g/l/b people indicate engaging in more frequent risky sexual behavior. The implications of these findings for theories of g/l/b youth's sexual identity development are discussed.     

Discrimination of SM-identified individuals

The belief that sadomasochism (SM) is violence or abusive behavior has resulted in harassment, physical attacks, and discrimination against SM-identified individuals. Historically, they were often opposed by self-identified feminists. One reason the women who practiced SM were targeted was the official opposition to sadomasochistic practices promulgated by the National Organization for Women (NOW). Current statistics of incidents of discrimination, harassment and physical attacks against SM-identified individuals and SM groups are compiled by the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF).     

Single-Parenthood and Poverty in Great Britain

ABSTRACT This paper examines empirically the relationship between single-parenthood and absolute poverty in Great Britain. Data from two years of the Family Expenditure Survey are used (1968 and 1986). A poverty measure that is additively decomposable with population share weights, and consistent with Sen's axiomatic approach to poverty measurement, is used to decompose the total amount of poverty into the “shares” accruing to different types of households (i.e. female and male single-parents, two-parent households and “other” types of households). Three main conclusions concerning the poverty experience of British single-parents emerge from the analysis. The first is that poverty rates for single-parent households are generally higher than the average for all households. However, this disadvantage is not as large as one might expect, especially when a comparison is made with two-parent households. The second is that single-parent households are over-represented in the ranks of the poor. That is, their “share” of total poverty is greater than their population share. The third is that increasing single-parenthood has had little impact on the overall trend in absolute poverty in the period 1968 to 1986.     

Identity work in female‐led creative businesses

This study explores the identity work carried out by three female owner‐managers in creative industry businesses, identified in Government reports as a discriminatory industrial sector for women in the UK. Through the development of narratives by the owners and other participants, observation of practice and review of online and offline materials, three cases emerged. These showed overlapping, different identities developed and performed through identity work. Each presented rational and logical persona as business leaders despite observation showing extensive use of intuition and gut feeling in both creative and entrepreneurial aspects of the business. Intuition and gut feeling were seen as inappropriate at work as they belonged to the home sphere, emotionally based and therefore automatically unreliable. While occupying male stereotypes and avoiding the female realm of emotion at work, these women expressed femininity through their emphasis on the maternal, ‘being a good mother' as a desired ideal being embedded in work as well as home practice.     

Women and Their Work on Australian Farms

Traditional definitions of farm work have been narrow and commodity-based, allowing the efforts of women to be discounted because they have not been viewed as directly contributing to production. This paper examines the structural gender arrangements that operate to render farm women powerless and to discount their contributions. Data are presented on the extent of women's economic contribution on Australian farms.     

An audit of received international business corruption literature for logic,consistency, completeness of coverage

This analysis of International Business (IB) corruption literature identifies gaps and inconsistencies in how corruption is perceived or deliberated in top academic journals. The reviewed articles tend to focus on one of the three key themes of IB corruption (Contributing factors, Consequences, and Combating) and are categorised into the six sub-domains of the IB framework. The content of the articles is categorised into the respective themes and discussed in relation to underpinning theories and key constructs. The process is intended to be less a synthesis of the literature than an audit revealing that IB corruption research is weakened by tendencies to: 1) Be siloed within its subtheme and to not cross-tie to work in other key themes—this issue is very severe in the Combating theme; 2) Have a short-term focus that disregards the cumulative effects of total graft, and; 3) Asymmetrically focus (predominantly) on the supply side of corruption. These finding suggest several avenues for further research.     

Harm reduction for cannabis: Factor analysis of a protective behavioral strategies survey

Objective: To examine the psychometric properties of a measure of cannabis-specific Protective Behavioral Strategies (PBS), which assesses ways in which students may reduce cannabis-related risk. Participants: Respondents to the American College Health Association – National College Health Assessment II (N = 580) during Spring 2015. Methods: Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) were used to identify and replicate the factor structure of the measure. Results: Results support a four-factor model (Respiratory Health, Frequency/Quantity, Socializing, and General Health) with close approximate fit (Χ² (310) = 565.96, p < .001, RMSEA = .038 (.033, .043; 90% CI), CFI = .961, TLI = .929, SRMR = .033). Support for the convergent validity and construct validity of the measure was also found. Conclusions: This is the initial step in the development of a standard, psychometrically validated measure of cannabis PBS that has the potential to inform future research and interventions.     

A robust QTL mapping procedure

In quantitative trait linkage studies using experimental crosses, the conventional normal location-shift model or other parameterizations may be unnecessarily restrictive. We generalize the mapping problem to a genuine nonparametric setup and provide a robust estimation procedure for the situation where the underlying phenotype distributions are completely unspecified. Classical Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney statistics are employed for point and interval estimation of QTL positions and effects.