Examining the Psychometric Properties of the Sexual Excitation/Sexual Inhibition Inventory for Women (SESII-W) in a Sample of Lesbian and Bisexual Women

The Sexual Excitation/Sexual Inhibition Inventory for Women (SESII-W) assesses propensities for sexual excitation (SE) and inhibition (SI). Previous research utilizing the SESII-W included samples comprised exclusively or almost entirely of heterosexual women. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the SESII-W and assess its relation to aspects of sexual function within a sample of lesbian and bisexual women. The sample included 974 self-identified bisexual (n = 733) or lesbian/homosexual (n = 241) women who completed an online survey including items assessing women’s sexual behaviors, feelings, and functioning, sociodemographics, and the SESII-W. The sample was split; exploratory factor analyses were conducted on the first half, yielding eight lower-order factors with two higher-order factors. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the second half and suggested reasonable model fit. SI was positively correlated with sexual problems and negatively correlated with sexual pleasure; the correlations were significant but small. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between SESII-W scores and sexual problems/sexual pleasure, controlling for age, relationship duration, and relationship status. Four lower-order factors predicted reports of sexual problems. Findings indicated the SESII-W has similar psychometric properties among sexual minority women as it does among heterosexual women.     

Inferences About Sexual Orientation: The Roles of Stereotypes,Faces, and The Gaydar Myth

In the present work, we investigated the pop cultural idea that people have a sixth sense, called “gaydar,” to detect who is gay. We propose that “gaydar” is an alternate label for using stereotypes to infer orientation (e.g., inferring that fashionable men are gay). Another account, however, argues that people possess a facial perception process that enables them to identify sexual orientation from facial structure. We report five experiments testing these accounts. Participants made gay-or-straight judgments about fictional targets that were constructed using experimentally manipulated stereotypic cues and real gay/straight people's face cues. These studies revealed that orientation is not visible from the face—purportedly “face-based” gaydar arises from a third-variable confound. People do, however, readily infer orientation from stereotypic attributes (e.g., fashion, career). Furthermore, the folk concept of gaydar serves as a legitimizing myth: Compared to a control group, people stereotyped more often when led to believe in gaydar, whereas people stereotyped less when told gaydar is an alternate label for stereotyping. Discussion focuses on the implications of the gaydar myth and why, contrary to some prior claims, stereotyping is highly unlikely to result in accurate judgments about orientation.     

Patterns of Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Risk Behavior among Young Heterosexually Active Men

Intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization is linked to sexual risk exposure among women. However, less is known about the intersection of IPV perpetration and sexual risk behavior among men. This study used data from a diverse, community sample of 334 heterosexually active young men, aged 18 to 25, across the United States to examine whether and how men with distinct IPV-related behavior patterns differed in sexual risk–related behavior and attitudes. Participants were recruited and surveyed online, and grouped conceptually based on the types of IPV perpetration behavior(s) used in a current or recent romantic relationship. Groups were then compared on relevant sexual risk variables. Men reporting both physical abuse and sexual coercion against intimate partners reported significantly higher numbers of lifetime partners, higher rates of nonmonogamy, greater endorsement of nonmonogamy, and less frequent condom use relative to nonabusive men or those reporting controlling behavior only. This group also had higher sexually transmitted infection (STI) exposure compared to men who used controlling behavior only and men who used sexual coercion only. Findings suggest that interventions with men who use physical and sexual violence need to account for not only the physical and psychological harm of this behavior but also the sexual risk to which men may expose their partners.     

Reconfigured Everyday Lives of Children from Divorced-Parent Families in Singapore

With the termination of a marriage, children involved inevitably experience dramatic changes in different facets of their lives. This article makes use of narrative accounts of divorced single parents to investigate how their marital dissolution has impacted and changed their children's lives. Empirical data was collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 25 Singaporean divorced parents. Within the policy and social context of Singapore society, I highlight transformations in three specific aspects of the children's lives: one, the reconfigurations of familial relationships and formation of a new family unit; two, the creation of and adaptation to new family practices and routine; three, the adoption of new social identity following parental divorce. This article hopes to present a more nuanced understanding of the divorce experience by emphasizing both the precarious and productive aspects in the children's lives, contra to the existing divorce literature that typically focuses on the former.     

Women Elite Leaders Doing Respectable Business Femininity: How Privilege is Conferred,Contested and Defended through the Body

This paper offers a theory of respectable business femininity. Respectable business femininity is theorized as a discursive and relational process that explains tensions women elite leaders experience at the nexus of being both One and Other and sometimes privileged, embedded notions of leadership as masculine and wider expectations of acceptable embodied femininity. Such tensions manifest through a disciplining of women leaders’ bodies and appearance by self‐and‐others, as a means of appraising women as credible elite leaders and respectable women. Through a qualitative study we show how, within sites of ambiguity, embodied leadership and subjectivities are both enabled and constrained. Accounts highlight how privilege is fluid and (de)stabilized in that it is conferred, contested and defended through women's bodies and appearance. We advance understandings of contemporary respectable femininity, privilege at work, and body work, and consider practical implications for women leaders and management education.     

100 key research questions for the post‐2015 development agenda

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) herald a new phase for international development. This article presents the results of a consultative exercise to collaboratively identify 100 research questions of critical importance for the post‐2015 international development agenda. The final shortlist is grouped into nine thematic areas and was selected by 21 representatives of international and non‐governmental organisations and consultancies, and 14 academics with diverse disciplinary expertise from an initial pool of 704 questions submitted by 110 organisations based in 34 countries. The shortlist includes questions addressing long‐standing problems, new challenges and broader issues related to development policies, practices and institutions. Collectively, these questions are relevant for future development‐related research priorities of governmental and non‐governmental organisations worldwide and could act as focal points for transdisciplinary research collaborations.     

Doubling up when times are tough: A study of obligations to share a home in response to economic hardship

This study uses a factorial vignette design embedded in an Internet survey to investigate attitudes toward an adult child and parent living together in response to economic hardship. Over half of Americans said the desirability of intergenerational co-residence depends on particularistic aspects of the family, notably the quality of family relationships. Support for co-residence is greatest when the adult child is single rather than partnered. Support is weaker if the adult child is cohabiting rather than married to the partner, although groups with greater exposure to cohabitation make less of a distinction between cohabitation and marriage. Presence of a grandchild does not affect views about co-residence. There is more support for sharing a home when a mother needs a place to live than when the adult child does. Responses to open-ended questions show that individuals invoke both universalistic family obligations and particularistic qualities of family relationships to explain their attitudes.