Queering Data Collection: Using the Life History Calendar Method With Sexual-Minority Youth

ABSTRACT

A challenge for research with sexual-minority youth is to capture their unique stories in a way that heightens understanding of lived experience and promotes the development of culturally relevant programs and policies tailored for this population. One data collection approach that may be particularly useful for research with sexual-minority youth is the life history calendar (LHC) method. The LHC provides a visual, calendar-based assessment of life events and behaviors anchored by contextual cues to enhance retrospective recall. The purpose of this article is to examine the utility of the LHC method with sexual-minority youth and its potential to address three methodological and conceptual challenges: developmental complexity, shifting and evolving identities, and timing. The LHC method is illustrated using three studies conducted by the author as case examples. Findings suggest that the LHC offers several potential benefits for research with sexual-minority youth including its adaptable and flexible structure, capacity to assess event timing and sequence, mixed-methods capability, and its ability to engage and empower youth to co-create the interview process. Strengths and limitations of the LHC method and implications for research and practice with sexual-minority youth in a range of social service settings are discussed.     

Male Bisexualities

Abstract

Data from 18–30 year-old behaviorally bisexual men were cluster analyzed using variables derived from the triad model of sexuality. Individuals were grouped based on the three dimensions: (a) sexual-orientation self-identity, (b) orientation of erotic fantasies, and (c) sexual experience and relationship history. Significant differences were found among the eight clusters that emerged for many important features, including demographic, psychosocial, and mental-health variables, as well as HIV-risk behavior with men and women. Although the clusters could be collapsed to conform to the trichotomous social construct of sexual orientation (gay, bisexual, and straight), grouping the men into eight clusters allowed relatively small subtypes with extreme characteristics. Cluster membership accounted for the variance in the criterion variables above and beyond the contribution of any single dimension from the triad model, providing further support for the usefulness of the clusters.     

Male and Female Sexuality During Pregnancy:

We studied male and female sexual behavior and satisfaction during pregnancy. Expectant fathers were less emotionally satisfied than their wives through the pregnancy. Relative to their husbands, women experienced more conflict and guilt, but reported feeling peaceful and fulfilled in pregnancy, more self-accepting sexually, and derived more pleasure from sex. Both women and men underestimated how attractive their partner found the woman's pregnant body, with men finding their wives more attractive. There were no significant differences in level of sexual desire or sexual satisfaction between men and women. A series of multiple regressions identified a number of variables as predictive of male and female sexual satisfaction. Comparing pregnant couples expecting their first child with normative da:a, we found that expectant couples were less satisfied with the frequency of sex and also derived less sexual pleasure than nonpregnant couples.     

Women's Perceptions of Alcohol-Related Sexual Disinhibition: Personality and Sexually-Related Alcohol Expectancies

ABSTRACT

Scales assessing attitude toward condoms typically focus on their use for a specific context or outcome (sexually transmitted diseases/HIV prevention or pregnancy prevention) and not the characteristics of a condom itself. To assess the psychometrics of the Multi-Factor Attitude toward Condoms Scale, data from 1,832 U.S. men were analyzed. Internal consistency was acceptable (α= .816) with three factors accounting for 61.44% of the variance (affective, perceived effectiveness, and manageability). Additional validity assessments demonstrated construct validity for this new attitude toward condoms scale that focuses on the properties of the condom and not a specific behavioral or outcome-focused context.     

Healthy Sexual Development: A Multidisciplinary Framework for Research

ABSTRACT

A group of Australian researchers from a range of disciplines involved in studying children's sexual development developed a framework for researching healthy sexual development that was acceptable to all disciplines involved. The 15 domains identified were: freedom from unwanted activity; an understanding of consent; education about biological aspects; understanding of safety; relationship skills; agency; lifelong learning; resilience; open communication; sexual development should not be “aggressive, coercive or joyless;” self-acceptance; awareness and acceptance that sex is pleasurable; understanding of parental and societal values; awareness of public/private boundaries; and being competent in mediated sexuality.     

Standards of Care for the Treatment of Adult Sex Offenders

Summary

A proposed version of these standards was first produced and published in the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation through input from professional meetings (Coleman and Dwyer, 1990). Since that time, The Standards of Care were reviewed and revised by a group of professionals and unanimously endorsed by voice vote by the participants in the Third International Congress on the Treatment of Sex Offenders held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 20–22, 1994. These Standards were again published in the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation (Coleman, Dwyer, Abel, Berner, Breiling, Hindman, Honey-Knopp, Langevin, and Pfäfflin, 1996). Those Standards have been subsequently reviewed by the current authors at the Fifth International Conference on the Treatment of Sex Offenders held in Caracas, Venezuela, March 22–27, 1998 and minor modifications and changes were incorporated into this version. The authors invite feedback from readers. Further revisions are anticipated and will be reviewed by current committee members and at future International Conferences on the Treatment of Sexual Offenders.     

The Use of a Physician-Social Worker Team in the Evaluation of Child Sexual Abuse

No abstract available for this article.     

The Relationship Between Sexual Minority Verbal Harassment and Utilization of Health Services: Results from Countywide Risk Assessment Survey (CRAS) 2004

In this article we examine the prevalence of and associations between sexual orientation–based verbal harassment and reported utilization of health services across levels of sexual orientation in a diverse sample of adult recipients of Los Angeles County–funded HIV-related health and social services. Thirty-two percent reported they had experienced verbal harassment, the majority (80.3%) of whom identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB). Those who reported being verbally harassed received significantly more services overall than those who were not verbally harassed, and service utilization varied by sexual orientation. These findings inform future efforts to identify and assess social discrimination in health and social service settings.