Perception of Sexual Violence Against Women in Asian American Communities

Abstract

The study was a cross-sectional survey using a convenient sample of 186 respondents to examine the perception of sexual violence against women and help-seeking responses to sexual victimization among four Asian groups; Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Southeast Asian (Cambodian, Laotians, and Vietnamese). The authors examined respondents' perception of the severity of the problem of sexual violence against women for Asian American populations, the perceived relationships between perpetrators and victims, the preferred preventive measures, and help-seeking responses. Findings indicated a split opinion among the four Asian groups regarding the perceived severity of the problem. There was a perceived insignificant role of family members in inflicting sexual violence, a general tendency of not choosing an immediate, confrontative stance against the perpetrator to stop sexual violence, and a preference to utilize help from the private domain in situations of sexual victimization. In addition, findings of the study supported the role of shame in deterring individuals from seeking outside professional help and demonstrated the existence of inter-group differences among various ethnic groups. At the same time, findings of the study raise important questions pertaining to the role of family members in sexual victimization of women, changing perceptions, inter-group differences, and the importance of localized knowledge in generating intervention efforts. In addition, findings of the study challenge a simplistic view of the reluctance of Asian American populations to utilize outside professional help. Implications for developing culturally relevant interventions for prevention and treatment as well as future research are discussed.     

Response to the Kris Poasa Article The Samoan Fa'afafine: One Case Study and Discussion of Transsexualism

No abstract available for this article.     

Making Sexuality Visible in Australian Social Work Education

As a social axis of analysis, sexuality has not received the same level of recent attention from social work educators in Australia as it has from its counterparts in the northern hemisphere. Following McNay's notion of ‘situated intersubjectivity’ as a theoretical framework, this paper sets out a socio-cultural approach to making sexuality visible. It details a teaching exemplar, demonstrating a number of experiential exercises designed to enhance final year social work student investigations of cultural discourses and social practices of people's everyday sexual lives, including sexual diversity, homophobia, heterosexuality and heteronormativity.     

Sexual Self-Concept and Sexually Abused Males: Early Data on the Development of a Scale

ABSTRACT

This article describes the early development and psychometric piloting of the Sexual Self-Concept Scale for Sexually Abused Males, a one-dimensional measure assessing the gender-based self-perceptions of males with histories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). A sample of 459 males with histories of CSA completed a demographic survey and responded to a pool of items using a Likert-type scale. Strong and promising evidence was rendered for face validity, content validity, convergent validity, criterion validity, discriminant validity, test-retest reliability, split-half reliability, internal consistency and item-total correlations. The scale may be used by helping professionals and clients to identify beliefs, emotions and behavior emanating from CSA with respect to gender-based sexual self-concept, design interventions to modify or ameliorate such effects, and to mark progress across phases of treatment.     

The Victim Advocacy and Research Group: Serving a Growing Need to Provide Rape Victims with Personal Legal Representation to Protect Privacy Rights and to Fight Gender Bias in the Criminal Justice System

The Constitutional guarantee of procedural “due process,” arguably the most essential principle of the American justice system, provides that no person should be deprived of their rights without, at a minimum, notice and an opportunity for a meaningful hearing. Yet the personal rights of crime victims and other third parties are often violated in criminal proceedings in the absence of even minimal respect for due process. The problem persists, in part, because the system does not provide victims with personal legal advocacy and prosecutors are neither obligated nor empowered to serve as the victim’s lawyer. This lack of systematic zealous advocacy for victimsproduces harmful common law principles that depend on andperpetuate false and prejudicial notions about the credibility of rape victims, and women as a class. This article calls for the creation of public and privately supported lawyers for victims at both the trial and appellate levels of the criminaljustice system in an effort to ensure respect for fundamental constitutional principles, and to identify and eradicate gender bias in the criminal common law.     

Gay Men and HIV

SUMMARY

This paper reports on the results of qualitative studies examining the personal experiences of sex and sexual negotiation for British gay men who are diagnosed HIV positive and those who know or presume themselves to be uninfected. These are contrasted with the results of a study of representations of HIV and AIDS within an international review of community health promotion literature aimed at gay men. The paper highlights the disparity between specific community responses to the epidemic as engendered in the cultural production of health promotion materials and the individual experience of HIV, suggesting a! paradigm for a community response to the epidemic which reflects the personal experience of gay men both infected and uninfected.     

The Evolutionary Psychology of Human Mate Choice

Abstract

The recent incorporation of sexual selection theories into the rubric of evolutionary psychology has produced an important framework from which to examine human mating behavior. Here we review the extant empirical and theoretical work regarding heterosexual human mating preferences and reproductive strategies. Initially, we review contemporary evolutionary psychology's adaptationism, including the incorporation of modern theories of sexual selection, adaptive genetic variation, and mate choice. Next, we examine women's and men's mating preferences, focusing on the adaptive significance of material, genetic and fertility benefits, and their relationship to environmental characteristics. Following this, we consider human mate choice in relation to non-adaptive preferences. This discussion ends with a look at context effects for individual differences in mate-preferences and reproductive strategies.     

The Psychosexual Development and Behavior of University Students

Abstract

This article surveyed the psychosexual development and behavior of Greek university students. The respondents were 3584 university students (f309 male and 2275 female). They were selected proportionally from all the universities of Greece and were given an anonymous questionnaire to fill in. A considerable percentage of students (9%) did not report a first kiss or hug. Virginity was much higher (50%) for women than for men (27%). Same gender sexual experiences presented quite low rates (3.4% of the respondents). Most of the respondents (72%) manifested an agreement with their parents' mentality. There are indications that university students keep on following this mentality and consequently face their relationships, as modern couples, in a quite traditional way.     

Emotional Well-Being Factors Associated with Sexual Dysfunction in Adults with Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes: Results from Diabetes MILES—Australia

Abstract

Objective: Diabetes is a chronic health condition that requires daily self-management activities to prevent or delay the onset of serious long-term complications. The two main types of diabetes are Type 1 (T1D) and Type 2 diabetes (T2D). Although both differ in their etiology, they share similar challenges of self-management of blood glucose levels, which, if are persistently high over time can lead to serious long-term complications. Sexual dysfunction (SD) is a common complication of both types of diabetes and affects both men and women. Although the physical aspects of SD are established, less is known about the emotional factors that may also impact SD in adults with diabetes. This study explored the emotional well-being factors associated with SD among 3,338 men and women with T1D and T2D. Methods: The relationships between self-reported SD and depressive and anxiety symptoms, and diabetes-specific distress, were examined using logistic regression modelling. Results: SD was associated with depressive symptoms (all sub-groups), anxiety (men/T2D; women/T1D/T2D), and diabetes-specific distress (women/T1D/T2D). Diabetes-specific distress was significantly higher in those with T2D who believed their SD was caused by their diabetes. Conclusions: SD impacts both men and women with T1D/T2D and is associated with emotional distress. Evaluation of SD and emotional problems should form part of routine clinical assessment.     

Everybody's Doin' It (Right?): Neighborhood Norms and Sexual Activity in Adolescence

A neighborhood’s normative climate is linked to, but conceptually distinct from, its structural characteristics such as poverty and racial/ethnic composition. Given the deleterious consequences of early sexual activity for adolescent health and well-being, it is important to assess normative influences on youth behaviors such as sexual debut, number of sex partners, and involvement in casual sexual experiences. The current study moves beyond prior research by constructing a measure of normative climate that more fully captures neighborhood norms, and analyzing the influence of normative climate on behavior in a longitudinal framework. Using recently geo-coded data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS), we analyze the effect of normative climate on adolescents’ sexual behaviors. Results indicate that variation in neighborhood normative climates increases adolescents’ odds of sexual debut and casual sex, and is associated with their number of sex partners, even after accounting for neighborhood structural disadvantage and demographic risk factors.