From Damsels in Distress to Sexy Superheroes

Video games are an important form of media that have the potential to impact gender role attitudes. Sexist portrayals of characters may affect gender behaviors and attitudes. As such, it is important to discover how characters, particularly females, are portrayed in video games. The current study examined video game magazines analyzing the portrayal of female video game characters and how this portrayal has changed in the last twenty years. Results indicate a growing trend toward a decreased benevolent sexism portrayal and an increase in a hostile sexism portrayal over time.     

The effects of preconception desires and intentions on pregnancy wantedness

Do preconception intentions to conceive add to the prediction of pregnancy wantedness beyond the effect of preconception desires? This paper addresses that question, using data regarding the most recent pregnancy of 2,299 women respondents to the 2002 U.S. National Survey of Family Growth. We test a structural equation model predicting a woman’s pregnancy wantedness with her preconception desires, her perception of her partner’s preconception desires, and her preconception intentions. In this multivariate setting, preconception intentions do not predict pregnancy wantedness in the overall sample. However, they do predict wantedness in certain demographic contexts. We identify three patterns of change in our model that occur in selected contexts. We then use these patterns to hypothesize three psychosocial mechanisms by which preconception intentions may increase the wantedness of a pregnancy beyond that resulting from the woman’s preconception desires to get pregnant and her perception of her partner’s preconception desires.     

Wins,Winning and Winners: The Commercial Advertising of Lottery Gambling

This study analyzed a sample of 920 lottery ads that were placed or played in Atlantic Canada from January 2005 to December 2006. A content analysis, involving quantitative and qualitative techniques, was conducted to examine the design features, exposure profiles and focal messages of these ads and to explore the connections between lottery advertising and consumer culture. We found that there was an “ethos of winning” in these commercials that provided the embedded words, signs, myths, and symbols surrounding lottery gambling and conveyed a powerful imagery of plentitude and certitude in a world of potential loss where there was little reference to the actual odds of winning. The tangible and emotional qualities in the ads were especially inviting to young people creating a positive orientation to wins, winning and winners, and lottery products that, in turn, reinforced this form of gambling as part of youthful consumption practices. We concluded that enticing people with the prospects of huge jackpots, attractive consumer goods and easy wins, showcasing top prize winners, and providing dubious depictions that winning is life-changing was narrow and misleading and exploited some of the factors associated with at-risk gambling.     

Assessing the Reliability of the Gambling Functional Assessment

Dixon and Johnson (Analysis of Gambling Behavior 2007, 1:44–49) introduced the Gambling Functional Assessment (GFA), which attempts to identify the consequences that may be maintaining a person’s gambling behavior. The present study had 949 introductory psychology students complete the GFA, with 124 of them completing the measure a second time 12 weeks later. Measures of internal consistency were quite good regardless of whether “non-gamblers” were included or excluded. Test–retest reliability was somewhat mixed, with Escape scores yielding substandard coefficients, especially among females. Both internal and test–retest reliability were typically poorer for female respondents. In general, the GFA performed within the limits of acceptable reliability, and coefficients compared favorably with similar measures. Future investigations will need to determine the reliability and validity of the instrument, especially as it pertains to its intended population, pathological gamblers.     

Giving to the Good and the Needy: Parental Support of Grown Children

Parents may provide many types of support to their grown children. Parents age 40 to 60 (N = 633) reported the support they exchange with each child over age 18 (N = 1,384). Mothers and fathers differentiated among children within families, but provided emotional, financial, and practical help on average every few weeks to each child. Offspring received most assistance when they (a) had greater needs (because of problems or younger age) or (b) were perceived as more successful. Parents received more from high achieving offspring. Findings support contingency theory; parents give more material and financial support to children in need. Motivation to enhance the self or to assure support later in life may explain support to high achieving offspring.     

Career Aspirations and Perceived Level of Preparedness Among Marriage and Family Therapy Doctoral Students

The authors conducted a survey of marriage and family therapy (MFT) doctoral students in programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE). MFT doctoral students ( N  = 82) from across the United States responded to a web-based survey that focused on career aspirations, training opportunities, and the level of preparedness they experienced during their doctoral education. Results of this survey indicated that students felt they were well prepared for many aspects of their chosen career path. Some respondents desired more training to prepare them for careers in academia. More men than women indicated a career in academia as their primary career aspiration. While most of the respondents perceived that their internship experiences were beneficial, some expressed the desire for more opportunities to supervise master's-level students, to write grants, and to teach graduate-level MFT courses. The authors conclude with a discussion of how these findings may influence the development of core competencies specific to doctoral education in MFT.     

The Contribution of Assisted Reproduction to Completed Fertility: An Analysis of Danish Data

Assisted reproduction has a minor but increasing influence on childbearing trends in advanced societies. In Denmark, the use of assisted reproduction technology (ART) has become particularly widespread. At the same time, Danish women born in the late 1950s and the 1960s experienced stabilization or even a slight increase in their mean number of children. Broad availability and widespread use of assisted reproduction may become important factors contributing to maintaining relatively high completed fertility among the younger cohorts of Danish women. To explore this idea, we analyze and project cohort trends in fertility rates among native Danish women born in 1960‐78 and examine the likely contribution of assisted reproduction to these trends. The projected proportion of children born after ART treatment shows a substantial increase from 2.1 percent among women born in 1965 to 4‐5 percent among women born in 1978, with an estimated net impact of ART (as compared with the hypothetical situation where no ART treatment was available) on the order of 3‐4 percent. When intrauterine inseminations are included, this implies that up to 7 percent of children of those native Danish women born in 1975 and later will likely be conceived by infertility treatment.     

“We walk on eggshells”: A phenomenological inquiry of wives’ experiences of living with active-duty Marine husbands with PTSD

ABSTRACT

In this qualitative study, the authors explored the lived experiences of wives married to active-duty male Marines who have a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The first author and primary investigator conducted in-depth interviews with eight women, all of whom had been married more than 3 years and experienced at least one deployment while married. Transcendental phenomenology was used to gain an understanding of each woman’s experience. The central research question in this study was “What is it like to live with an active-duty male Marine with PTSD?” Findings demonstrated five essential themes: (1) the unpredictability of living with someone with PTSD, (2) the spouse had to take on different roles, (3) the wives felt unprepared to handle PTSD, (4) the wives received different messages when trying to seek help for their husbands, and (5) the wives wanted to send messages to other wives living with Marines with PTSD.