Resolving Identity Conflict: Gay,Lesbian, and Queer Individuals with a Christian Upbringing

Gay, lesbian, and queer individuals with a Christian upbringing often experience conflict between religion and sexual identity. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to understand how gay, lesbian, and queer-identified individuals with a Christian upbringing resolve conflict between sexual identity and religious beliefs. Analysis of in-depth interviews with 15 participants led to 3 conclusions. First, resolving the discord between sexual identity and religious beliefs is a five-stage process of internal conflict resolution. Second, personal and contextual factors affect every aspect of the resolution process. Finally, faith development and sexual identity development are intertwined and fluid constructions.     

I Love What I Do,But… A Relationship Management Survey of Millennial Generation Public Relations Agency Employees

Millennials, those born in 1982 or later, represent the largest and most racially diverse generation, as well as the fastest-growing segment of the workforce. They have been characterized in the popular press as being entitled and lacking a strong work ethic. Millennial agency practitioners were surveyed to determine how they rate their relationships with their employers. We also explored the role of gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. We asked respondents to identify the stresses they experience in those relationships and to suggest ways in which their employers could improve relations. We find that respondents love what they do, but…     

Women's Schooling and Other Ecocultural Shifts: A Longitudinal Study of Historical Change Among the Zinacantec Maya

Women's schooling has been lauded as having a large, important impact on child socialization. Although there may be positive effects of schooling, there may also be effects from concomitant cultural changes that come with modernization. In this article we examine the findings that changes in textile production among the Zinacantec Maya over the past several decades have been coordinated with several cultural changes, including increased schooling for women, involvement in a growing commercial economy, and television. Understanding these various changes leads to a more nuanced picture of the effects of cultural change on women's activities. Our findings indicate that research on globalization and social change should consider multiple possible effects on cultural practices.     

Embracing inclusive excellence: Asian and Asian American college students

ABSTRACT

This study aims to understand the importance of embracing and promoting inclusiveness in higher education as a path to academic excellence. As student populations become increasingly diverse and higher education faces significant challenges at home and abroad, cultural competence – understanding the specific culture, language, social, and economic status of people-, becomes more important than ever before because a sense of belonging is essential for students. This study is to re-envision diversity and practice our commitment to inclusive excellence-both preparing students with a quality learning opportunity and facilitating a sense of belonging by providing an embracing environment on campus.     

Perceptions of Sources of Sex Education and Targets of Sex Communication: Sociodemographic and Cohort Effects

As part of a larger survey study on young adult sexuality conducted over a 17-year period at a Midwest U.S. university, more than 6,000 college students completed questions on the sources of their sex education and the degree to which they have communicated about sex with various types of individuals. Participants reported receiving more sex education from peers and media than from parents (and mothers more than fathers). Respondents also reported communicating more about sex with peers than with parents or any other categories of individuals. Differences were found in the degree of sex education from various sources and in communication with various targets based on gender, ethnic background, and social class. Furthermore, changes were found over the 17-year period. More recent cohorts of students perceived that they received more sex education from media, peers, and professionals, and communicated more about sex with professionals, relative to earlier cohorts.     

A support group for individuals recently testing HIV positive: A psycho‐educational group model

The present paper describes an eight‐week psycho‐educational group model that is easily adaptable to any agency that is concerned with a comprehensive package of services for counseling HIV + persons, as well as for others involved in the long‐term management of issues related to the health threat presented by HIV infection.     

Race and the Religious Contexts of Violence: Linking Religion and White,Black, and Latino Violent Crime

Research has demonstrated that concentrated disadvantage and other measures are strongly associated with aggregate‐level rates of violence, including across racial and ethnic groups. Less studied is the impact of cultural factors, including religious contextual measures. The current study addresses several key gaps in prior literature by utilizing race/ethnic‐specific arrest data from California, New York, and Texas paired with religious contextual data from the Religious Congregations and Memberships Survey. Results suggest that, net of important controls, (1) religious contextual measures have significant crime‐reducing associations with violence; (2) these associations are race/ethnic specific; and (3) religious contextual measures moderate the criminogenic association between disadvantage and violence for blacks. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Gender and Exploitation: Resources,Structure, and Rewards in Cross-Sex Social Exchange

Abstract

The effects of resources imbalance on reward allocation strategies are studied in 136 mixed-sex dyads to determine the extent to which the allocator rewards his or her partner on an equal basis with self. Three predictions are tested: (1) Subjects with a resource advantage will reward themselves more so than they will reward their partners; (2) Subjects with a resource advantage in a certain (versus uncertain) structural situation will reward self and other more equally than subjects with a resource advantage in an uncertain situation will; and (3) females with a resource advantage will reward self and other more equally than males with a resource advantage will Clear-cut support is observed for the first prediction only. Other results reveal significant interaction effects between structural condition and gender of allocator. Prediction 2 is supported for males only while Prediction 3 holds only for the uncertain structural condition. The discussion focuses on the importance of social structural conditions for explaining similarities and differences in the allocational behavior of men and women toward each other in social exchange relations.