Controlling birth: science, politics, and public policy

Reproductive technologies raise a host of social and legal issues that challenge basic values and create intense controversy. If researchers wish to inform public policies related to reproductive technologies, they must understand how the scientific enterprise is being manipulated and research findings are being misrepresented to justify a particular social agenda and restrict access to contraception and abortion. To counter these distortions, scientists must defend the science advisory process, be involved in dissemination of their research findings beyond simple publication in scientific journals, and actively work to ensure that the findings are not misrepresented to the public .     

Taking Care of Later Life: A Matter of Justice?

Correspondence to: Julia Johnson, Senior Lecturer, School of Health and Social Welfare, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK. E-mail: j.s.johnson{at}open.ac.uk Summary This paper reviews current policies and practices regardingthe provision of long-term care for older people. In particularit focuses on three aspects which are central to social workand care management: current developments in residential andnursing home care; charging for care; and the shifting boundarybetween health and social care. It argues that, in all respects,these policies and the ways in which they are being implementedare incompatible with the notion of social justice. Over thelast fifty years, the older generation has invested heavilyin the welfare state and continues to make a significant contributionto it. The security and well-being of those in need of long-termcare is, however, being threatened by the marketization andcommodification of care provision.     

Family influences on adolescent male sexuality: the mediational role of self-restraint

To assess childhood family influences on adolescent sexual activity, 69 boys were studied in sixth grade and again in tenth grade. Boys' self-restraint in sixth grade was hypothesized to mediate the effects of family influences on number of sexual partners four years later. Family scores included observed family interaction patterns, sons' reports of parents' child-rearing practices (rejection, support, child-centered/indulgence), and household composition. In different models, Time 1 family scores and sons' self-restraint accounts for 34 and 48 percent of the variance in sons' subsequent sexuality. As predicted, regression analysis revealed that restraint mediated family influence at Time 1 on the number of sexual partners at Time 2. Notably, intact family, supportive family and child-centred/indulgent parenting were associated with T1 restraint which in turn, was associated with sexual activity. Additionally, family/parenting scores were directly associated with adolescents' sexuality. In discriminant analyses, family scores predicted boys' status as virgins/nonvirgins four year later with greater than 70% success. Discussion focuses on the nature of the family influences and the mechanisms by which they relate to adolescent male sexuality.     

Bathing and the Politics of Care

Though providing baths in the community for disabled and older people has long been an area of service dispute, it has received little academic or policy attention. This is partly because bathing and washing are assumed to be common-sense activities. This paper suggests instead that washing and bathing are far from straightforward or common-sense and that specific meanings attach to them in ways that affect how people experience the receiving of help in these areas. It explores the history of bathing and washing and the significance of touch and nakedness in service provision. It then turns to the service providers who have traditionally undertaken such work—the community nursing and home care services—exploring the rationales that underlie such patterns and the implications of current changes in community care.     

Teaching qualitative research to BSW students through exposure to aging

This article describes one rural program's efforts to expose students to gerontology through teaching qualitative research methodology. A collaborative research pilot project was developed with a local nursing home. BSW students worked in two groups to conduct and present qualitative research projects by the course's completion. This article describes the research project and evaluates the project's success from student and instructor viewpoints. Significant differences were found in self-reported student knowledge of key concepts at the project's completion, compared with pre-test knowledge. Student comments revealed value in this teaching approach. Implications for further engaging students in gerontological research are discussed.     

Are Public Expenditures Associated with Better Child Outcomes in the U.S.? A Comparison across 50 States

Our article utilizes variation across the 50 U.S. states to examine the relationship between public expenditures on children and child outcomes. We find that public expenditures on children are related to better child outcomes across a wide range of indicators including measures of child mortality, elementary school test scores, and adolescent behavioral outcomes. States that spend more on children have better child outcomes even after taking into account a number of potential confounding influences. Our results are robust to numerous variations in model specifications and to the inclusion of proxies for unobserved characteristics of states. Our sensitivity analyses suggest that the results we present may be conservative, yet our findings reveal a strong relationship between state generosity toward children and children's well-being.     

Interactions Among Sexual Activity,Menstrual Cycle Phase,and Immune Function in Healthy Women

Past research has found menstrual-cycle-related changes in functional immune response; we examined if sexual activity also changed markers of immune defense. We followed 32 naturally cycling women (15 sexually active with a partner ≥ 1 time/week, 17 sexually abstinent for the last four months) over one menstrual cycle. Participants provided serum and saliva samples at menses and ovulation, and additional saliva samples at midfollicular and midluteal phases. At each phase, participants also self-reported symptoms associated with colds, flu, pain, menstrual discomfort, and premenstrual syndrome. We tested saliva and serum for ability to kill Escherichia coli or Candida albicans, and serum for complement protein activity. For serum-mediated pathogen killing, among sexually active women only, there was a significant midcycle decrease in killing of E. coli. For saliva-mediated pathogen killing, among abstinent women only, there was a significant midcycle decrease in killing of E. coli, and midcycle increase in killing of C. albicans. Sexually active women had significantly lower complement activity than abstinent women overall. Finally, both groups reported lower physical symptoms at midcycle and higher symptoms at menses. There may be important differences in immune function between healthy women who are sexually active versus abstinent. Further replication is warranted.