A Comparison of Actual and Perceived Sexual Risk Among Older Adults

Sexual risk among older adults (OAs) is prevalent, though little is known about the accuracy of sexual risk perceptions. Thus, the aim was to determine the accuracy of sexual risk perceptions among OAs by examining concordance between self-reported sexual risk behaviors and perceived risk. Data on OAs aged 50 to 92 were collected via Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk. Frequency of sexual risk behaviors (past six months) were reported along with perceived risk, namely, sexually transmitted infection (STI) susceptibility. Accuracy categories (accurate, underestimated, overestimated) were established based on dis/concordance between risk levels (low, moderate, high) and perceived risk (not susceptible, somewhat susceptible, very susceptible). Approximately half of the sample reported engaging in vaginal (49%) and/or oral sex (43%) without a condom in the past six months. However, approximately two-thirds of the sample indicated they were “not susceptible” to STIs. No relationship was found between risk behaviors and risk perceptions, and approximately half (48.1%) of OAs in the sample underestimated their risk. Accuracy was found to decrease as sexual risk level increased, with 93.1% of high-risk OAs underestimating their risk. Several sexual risk behaviors are prevalent among OAs, particularly men. However, perception of risk is often inaccurate and warrants attention.     

Zora Neale Hurston’s visual and textual portrait of middle passage survivor Oluale Kossola/Cudjo Lewis

This article examines African American folklorist Zora Neale Hurston’s book-length biography and film of the last known Middle Passage survivor, Oluale Kossola/Cudjo Lewis, to explore her cinematic and literary engagement with slavery and to recover Lewis as a co-author of both documents. Hurston’s literary project, ‘Barracoon’, in which she situated herself merely as Kossola’s amanuensis and foregrounded the ‘inexpressible violence’ and ‘horror’ of his experience, represented an unusually frank twentieth-century record of enslavement and post-slavery life. Such work pre-dated and lacked the patronising tone of much of the WPA Slave Narrative Collection (1936–1938), whose investigators were mainly white and whose subjects’ accounts were often reconstructed loosely from field notes. Moreover, Hurston’s footage of Lewis circumvented literary mediation altogether to provide an Atlantic slavery survivor with an unprecedented visual outlet for self-expression.     

Gender and Women's Employment in the Male-dominated Profession of Dentistry: 1867–1917*

Cet article porte sur les expériences des femmes qui ont pratiqué la dentisterie - profession dominée par les hommes - en Ontario entre 1867 et 1917. L'auteure examine l'entrée des femmes dans cette profession et leurs expériences quant à la formation et à la pratique. La situation des femmes qui entraient en dentisterie et de celles qui optaient pour la médecine était différente: les femmes n'ont jamais été exclues de la profession dentaire. Tant en médecine qu'en dentisterie, une fois dans la pratique professionnelle les femmes étaient marginalisées et incitées à adopter des comportements et des rôles propres à leur sexe. This paper explores women's experiences in the male-dominated profession of dentistry in Ontario between 1867 and 1917. It examines the entrance of women into the dental profession, and their experiences in dental education and dental practice. Circumstances surrounding women's entrance into dentistry were different from those surrounding the entrance of women into medicine: women were never excluded from the dental profession. Nevertheless, once in professional practice, women in the two professions shared experiences of marginalization and of encouragement to pursue sex-typed behaviour and roles.     

Bruce A. Seaman and Dennis R. Young: Handbook of Research on Nonprofit Economics and Management

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Keeping Parents in the Driver's Seat

Parents receive social work services (both voluntary and involuntary) in a variety of settings. Although the parents may have come to need social work interventions for different reasons, one reason is constant: They are experiencing some difficulty with their children. Children are likely to benefit when parenting ability is strengthened. In all settings, social workers have a unique opportunity to assist parents in establishing, restoring, or maintaining healthy family dynamics.     

Developmental deviations in happy victimization across early childhood predict behavioral adjustment in middle childhood

This study examined whether the development of happy victimizing (HV) from early to middle childhood predicted prosocial and aggressive behaviors 3 years later. Participants included 150 children (50% female, M_age at study onset = 4.53 years) and their parents at four annual time points. At each time point, semi-structured interviews were conducted to assess children's emotional expectations after committing hypothetical transgressions. Child and parent reports of children's prosocial behaviors and aggression were provided at the beginning and end of the study. Children who experienced faster declines in HV reported higher prosocial behaviors 3 years later, controlling for initial levels of prosocial behaviors. Children who exhibited increases or lesser declines in HV reported higher aggression at the study end. The development of HV was not related significantly to parent reports of prosocial behaviors and aggression in middle childhood. Findings confirm theorizing on the normative developmental trajectory of HV and suggest that deviations in HV across early childhood may partially explain later behavioral adjustment.     

Differences in Adolescent Experiences of Polyvictimization and Suicide Risk by Sexual Minority Status

Sexual minority adolescents (SMA) report more suicide risk behaviors than heterosexual adolescents. Polyvictimization (co‐occurrence of multiple types of victimization) may be an important, underresearched correlate of this disparity. With the 2017 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (N = 13,179), national estimates of polyvictimization and suicide risk were assessed among high school students by sexual minority status (SM vs. heterosexual), and multivariate relationships between sexual minority status, polyvictimization, and suicide risk were tested. Additionally, risk profiles of those who experienced polyvictimization (2 + types of victimization; n = 1,932) were compared across sexual minority status. Results confirm that SMA are more likely to experience polyvictimization than heterosexual adolescents (31.8% v. 12.9%, respectively); however, also indicate that polyvictimization does not fully explain elevated suicide risk among SMA.