Pathways to pleasure: Older adult women’s reflections on being sexual beings

Older adult women make up a growing part of the population, and yet literature on the sexual activity over their life spans is lacking. This qualitative interview study explored the experience of 16 women aged 57–91 to better understand sexual pleasure over a lifetime. The participants described having to challenge cultural rules to create a supportive environment for sexual expression. Having access to Novel contexts in which to learn, cultivating Intimacy with partners and with oneself, being Creative with sexual activities, and Extending one’s sense of sexual possibility into advanced age (NICE) supported sexual pleasure as women aged.     

The Vulnerability of the Nevada Visitor Economy to a Repository at Yucca Mountain

This article reviews the studies commissioned by the Nevada Nuclear Waste Project Office to estimate the economic impact of a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. Case studies found that visitor impacts occur for some analogous facilities, but not for others. Assessments of behavioral intent indicate that at least some economic agents would avoid visiting Nevada under repository scenarios. A third set of studies tested the risk-aversion and negative-imagery models of visitor decision making; people avoid visiting places associated with either a significant health risk or negative imagery, but it has yet to be shown that a repository would induce these perceptions in nearby places. In sum, the NWPO-sponsored studies suggest the potential for visitor impacts, but do confirm that these effects will occur.     

Evaluation of free to grow: head start partnerships to promote substance-free communities

Free to Grow: Head Start Partnerships to Promote Substance-free Communities (FTG) was a national initiative in which local Head Start (HS) agencies, in partnership with other community organizations, implemented a mix of evidence-based family-strengthening and community-strengthening strategies. The evaluation of FTG used a quasi-experimental design to compare 14 communities that participated in the FTG intervention with 14 matched comparison communities. Telephone surveys were conducted with two cohorts of the primary caregivers of children in HS at baseline and then annually for 2 years. The survey was also administered to repeated cross-sectional samples of primary caregivers of young children who were not enrolled in HS. No consistent evidence was found in changes in family functioning or neighborhood conditions when the 14 FTG sites were compared to 14 matched sites. However, caregivers of young children who were not in HS in three high-implementing FTG sites showed evidence of improvements in neighborhood organization, neighborhood norms against substance abuse, and child disciplinary practices. Results provide highly limited support for the concept that family and neighborhood conditions that are likely to affect child development and well-being can be changed through organized efforts implemented by local HS programs.     

Building a Social Movement for America's Children

Americans are concerned with the conditions of children and young people, and this concern has proven to be pervasive, intense, and enduring. But it has also largely proven to be politically anemic. Beyond the consensus that children's well-being is threatened, there is little public agreement over who bears responsibility for these problems or what we should do about them. As a result, public unease has failed to translate into a coherent and widespread demand for political change. What explains this gap between public concern and political action when it comes to children's well-being? This paper addresses four aspects of this question: First, in what ways is the public concerned for the well-being of children? Second, why has this concern failed to lead to political mobilization? Third, what factors helped to translate public concern with children in earlier eras into political movements, and why were those movements able to contribute to the policy-making process? Fourth, what might contemporary children's advocacy—reconfigured in light of these insights—look like? Answering these questions sheds light on how collective public will develops and how and when it translates into collective political action benefiting children.     

REVIEWS

Hardy, K. V., & Laszloffy, T. A. (2005). Teens who hurt: Clinical interventions to break the cycle of adolescent violence .
Hayes, S. C., Follette, V. M., & Linehan, M. M. (Eds.). (2004). Mindfulness and acceptance: Expanding the cognitive–behavioral tradition .
Swenson, C. C., Henggeler, S., Taylor, I., & Addison, O. (2005). Multisystemic therapy and neighborhood partnerships: Reducing adolescent violence and substance abuse .
Derrig-Palumbo, K., & Zeine, F. (2005). Online therapy: A therapist's guide to expanding your practice .     

Correlates of partner abuse in male same-sex relationships

We investigated correlates of partner abuse in male same-sex relationships in a randomly selected community sample (N = 186). We included factors associated with abuse in heterosexual relationships, as well as factors of relevance to gay relationships. We assessed perpetration and receipt of partner abuse to examine whether variables were associated independently with abuse perpetration and/or receipt. Correlates of same-sex partner abuse were largely parallel to established correlates of heterosexual abuse. Income, education, and attachment orientation were associated with bidirectional partner abuse, and family violence and substance use were uniquely associated with victimization. Further, there were factors unique to same-sex partner abuse; HIV status and public outness were associated with bidirectional partner abuse, and internalized homophobia was uniquely associated with abuse perpetration.