International students' experiences of living temporarily abroad: Sense of belonging toward community well-being

This article unveils the voices of the international students of the Universiti Sains Malaysia by exploring their belongingness and community well-being in Malaysia. This study was conducted with 14 international students (seven males and seven females) studying at the Universiti Sains Malaysia for at least a year. A qualitative approach was employed using in-depth case interviews to examine the socio-cultural challenges they experienced while studying abroad. The specific challenges reported among the international students are their well-being in distinct aspects such as physical, mental, and emotional. This study seeks to explore the international students' reliability on conational communities for social support. When achieving belongingness with their conational friends, international students can flourish well in their current community in Malaysia, thus achieving social community well-being although they are far away. Besides maintaining established close friendships, the international students develop a sense of comfort and familiarity by forming new friendships with conational and other international students. Sharing similar backgrounds and nationalities, as well as experiences and struggles, are significant for international students in maintaining close friendships and situational harmony. This study highlighted the meaning behind physical and emotional distance, as well as the situation of “being temporarily abroad” and its relations to intimacy practices and belongingness in close friendships. The results presented in this article contribute to an increasing understanding of international students' challenges and the future of social harmony and community well-being while temporarily living in Malaysia. Correspondingly, as a result of this study, students will be more deferential of cultural differences and cross-cultural sensitivity, which will also help to decrease prejudice and discrimination.     

共识社群——简论中国乡村中的国家构造与地方社会

This article deals with the delicate relationship between vernacular practices and offi-cial discourse in rural China .In regards to geo-mancy (fengshui), rituals, gifting, and corruption discourse , f...     

‘Domestic friends’: women's friendships,motherhood and inclusive intimacy

Based on a qualitative, interview‐based study of friendship, this article examines the specificity of ‘domestic friendships’ between women. Forged from the particular experiences, emotions and challenges of motherhood, they are qualitatively different from most friendships which tend to be based on individualistic connection and self‐expression. Domestic friendships facilitate a specific form of ‘inclusive intimacy’ and shape an expansive experience of domestic life beyond the family or household. They help shape mothers’ sense of self as profoundly relational and interconnected with others, and channel a sense of biographical selfhood whose form and temporality is tied firmly to others’ lives.     

Negotiating the boundaries of intimacy: the personal lives of asexual people

This paper uses findings from research diaries to explore the use of practices of intimacy among asexual people. While much of the literature to date has focused on the supposedly transformative and political nature of uniquely asexual practices of intimacy, our findings suggest something different. Rather than seeking to transform the nature of intimate relationships, asexual people make pragmatic adjustments and engage in negotiations to achieve the forms of physical and emotional intimacy they seek. We discuss this in relation to three areas: friendships, sex as a practice of intimacy, and exclusion from intimacy. Our findings suggest the importance of not only considering the social context in which asexual people practise intimacy, but also how the practices in which they engage may be shared with non‐asexual people.     

But it’s not all about the sex: mothering,normalisation and young learning disabled people

This paper is about mothering, young learning disabled people, their sexualised and relationship lives and normalisation – not through the lens of the disabled person, but via a mothers perspective and theoretical discussion. As a mother who has a learning disabled daughter, a feminist and an academic my own mothering experience, my Ph.D. research and social theory are woven throughout this paper with the intention of opening up debate about sex, intimacy and normalisation, and how these impact upon young learning disabled people. I suggest that the relationship between sex, reproduction, intimacy and intellectual impairment and a project to decipher what it means to be human in all its dirty glory are also part of the discourse that needs to be discussed experientially and theoretically. So much so that the messy world within which we all live can be variously and differently constructed.     

Relational Sacrifices about Intimate Behavior and Relationship Quality for Expectant Cohabitors

ABSTRACT

Using interdependence theory, we examined how relational sacrifices specific to intimacy were associated with positive (commitment, satisfaction, love, and maintenance) and negative (ambivalence and conflict) relationship quality among expectant, unmarried cohabitors (n = 69 individuals), because this group may struggle relationally. We examined how often individuals made sacrifices for their partners and their partners’ perceived awareness of their sacrifices (i.e., individuals’ perceptions that their partners are aware that intimate sacrifices had been made for them) for both members of the couple using Actor Partner Independence Models. We controlled for children from previous relationships, unplanned pregnancy, gender, education, and race/ethnicity. Results showed that frequency of intimate sacrifices was not associated with any aspects of relationship quality. Instead, as expected, perceived partner awareness of intimate sacrifice was associated with greater commitment, satisfaction, love, and maintenance for individuals; lower ambivalence for individuals; and lower conflict for both individuals and their partners. These results suggest that for expectant cohabitors, perceived partner awareness of intimate sacrifices is central to achieving more positive, and less negative, relationship quality.     

Social Control of Healthy Behavior Between Intimate College Students

Abstract

Objective: The author examined whether the type of intimacy (ie, emotional, intellectual, sexual, social, recreational) featured in college students’ romantic relationships affects the extent to which a partner's health-related behavior may be influenced by a variety of behavior change appeals. Participants: One hundred and thirteen female and 94 male college students were surveyed. Methods: A questionnaire sought demographic information and included 2 scales to determine intimacy type levels and estimated responses to behavior change appeals. Results: It was determined that emotional and intellectual intimacy had the greatest effects on compliance estimates. The liking strategy was rated as generally most effective, whereas caring fared better in highly intimate relationships, and both threat and responsibility appeals functioned better in relationships featuring lower levels of intimacy. Conclusions: When appropriately qualified as initial findings, the outcomes may suggest routes to successfully inspiring particular health behavior changes, especially among partners in emotionally and intellectually intimate relationships.     

“Life Still Isn't Fair”: Parental Differential Treatment of Young Adult Siblings

Parental differential treatment has been linked to individual well‐being and sibling relationship quality in childhood, adolescence, and middle adulthood but has not been examined in young adulthood. Data were collected from 151 pairs of young adult siblings (N = 302, M age = 23.90, SD = 5.02). Two siblings in each family reported on treatment from mothers and fathers, depressive symptoms, and sibling relationship quality. Using multilevel modeling, analyses examined the role of favoritism and the magnitude of differential treatment from both mothers and fathers. Offspring who reported receiving less support relative to their sibling (i.e., less favored) reported more depressive symptoms. Greater amounts of differential treatment were associated with less sibling intimacy. Several associations, however, varied by parent gender, sibling gender composition, and the magnitude of differential treatment. The results suggest that favoritism and magnitude of differential treatment from both mothers and fathers are salient in young adulthood.     

Sister–Sister Incest: Data from an Anonymous Computerized Survey

Retrospective data were entered anonymously by 1,521 adult women using a computer-assisted self-interview. Thirty-one participants were victims of sister–sister incest, 40 were victims of brother–sister incest, 19 were victims of father–daughter incest, 8 were victims of sexual abuse by an adult female (including one mother), and 232 were victims of sexual abuse by an adult male other than their father before reaching 18 years of age. The rest (1,203) served as controls. The victims of sister–sister incest had significantly more problematic outcomes than controls on many measures as adults. Victims of sister–sister incest were more depressed and more likely than controls to be distant from the perpetrator-sister and to have traded sex for money, experienced an unplanned pregnancy, engaged in four different types of masturbation, and engaged in 13 different same-sex behaviors. Our findings were consistent with other reports of early eroticization and persistent hypereroticization of incest victims.