Appropriate sex education for black teens

This article is based on a year-long study of 207 low-income black youths. The major purpose of the research was twofold: (1) to study black teens' perceptions of family relationships in an effort to identify family member(s) who had the most potential for encouraging greater contraceptive responsibility and influencing teens' decisions about being or becoming sexually active, and (2) to study dating and sexual behavior, attitudes toward contraception, and sources of information, in an effort to identify more specific sex education needs of black teens and provide a basis for delineating pertinent characteristics of an effective sex education curriculum.     

Mary and the Vocation of Philosophers

Pope John Paul II, in Fides et ratio #108, states that there is a deep harmony between the vocation of true philosophy and the Blessed Virgin Mary. This intriguing claim, so different from the usual link of Mary with faith, is developed in this article. Drawing analogical implications from selected events in Mary's life, two questions will be asked: How do philosophers "philosophize in Mary?;" and how could this way of philosophizing help us today to renew the vocation to be a philosopher? The following authors are considered: Thomas Aquinas, Edith Stein, Jacques and Raïssa Maritain, Bernard Lonergan, Josef Ratzinger, Mary Daly, Robert Sokolowski, Norris Clarke, Søren Kierkegaard, Karol Wojtyla, John Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Judy Chicago, and John Henry Newman.     

Examining social-cognitive determinants of intention and physical activity among black and white adolescent girls using structural equation modeling.

Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate components within the theories of reasoned action (TRA), planned behavior (TPB), and self-efficacy (SET) for understanding moderate and vigorous physical activity among 1,797 Black and White adolescent girls. Modest to strong support was provided for components of TPB and SET; weak support was provided for components of TRA. Perceived behavioral control was related to vigorous physical activity. Self-efficacy was related to moderate and vigorous physical activity, and it accounted for the effect of intention on physical activity. The observed relationships were similar between Black and White girls. Self-efficacy and perceived behavioral control are independent influences on physical activity among Black and White adolescent girls and warrant study as potential mediators in physical activity interventions.     

The Image of Mary

Abstract

This article explores the significance of the shifting styles of image by which Mary has been presented in the history of Christian devotion. It begins with an account of how power became attached to static forms of her iconography and their association with a miraculous character as not made by human hand. In Western devotion the impact of artistic imagination on this convention opened the way for exploration of more creative modes of interpretation that offer other expressions of ambiguity, but that are also capable of manipulation. The ambiguity revealed by artistic imagination and manipulated in the Counter-Reformation is explored as a subversion of social and ecclesiastical structures of power in nineteenth-century Europe. Finally, images of human identity that belong to the nature of what is assumed from Mary in the incarnation are considered in questions about how her image might function disturbingly today as a source of power.     

Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Mary Wollstonecraft on the imagination

The article compares Rousseau’s and Wollstonecraft’s views on the imagination. It is argued that though Wollstonecraft was evidently influenced by Rousseau, there are significant differences between their views. These differences are grounded in their different views on the faculty of reason and its relation to the passions. Whereas Rousseau characterizes reason as a derivative faculty, grounded in the more primary faculty of perfectibility, Wollstonecraft perceives reason as the faculty defining human nature. It is argued that contrary to what is often assumed, Wollstonecraft’s conception of the imagination is not primarily characterized by its Romantic features, but rather by the close affinity she posits between reason and the imagination. This close affinity has several consequences. One consequence is that she is less worried than Rousseau about the imagination wandering without external constrains, because she believes in reason’s ability to guide the imagination by choosing its objects. Ultimately the difference between Rousseau’s and Wollstonecraft’s views on the imagination helps us understand why she was a passionate philosopher of the Enlightenment while he was one of its first, perceptive and most articulate critics.     

Math anxiety, mother's education, and the mathematics performance of adolescent boys and girls: evidence from the United States and Thailand

In this study, I investigated the relationship of mathematics performance to math anxiety, mother's education, and gender. A secondary analysis was conducted using nationally representative samples of 13-year-old children in the United States (N = 4,091) and Thailand (N = 3,613) collected as a part of the Second International Mathematics Study (Garden, 1987). Separate ANOVAs (Math Anxiety x Mother's Education x Gender) were run within each country using a 40-item math performance test as the dependent variable. Math anxiety has an inverse relationship with mathematics performance in the United States (r = -.24) and in Thailand (r = -.14). The relationship between math anxiety and mathematics performance is significant in both countries after controlling for previous achievement, mother's education, and gender, although the data suggest that there is a three-way interaction between math anxiety, mother's education, and gender in Thailand.     

The dynamics and impact of affirmative action processes on higher education,the curriculum,and black women

Affirmative action is perceived as a tool that can bring about significant social change. In higher education, it has yet to produce the desired results for which its policies were designed. In whatever stage of the affirmative action process colleges and universities find themselves, it can be observed that there are complex dynamics of formulating, implementing, and enforcing affirmative action goals that affect all participants in the process. The complex dynamics of achieving affirmative action goals within higher education deserve attention because they forecast the interactions between black women and higher education that we may expect to see in the future.     

Mary,dogma, and psychoanalysis

Why does Mary hold her prominent place in Catholic theology to the extent that five specific dogmas have developed around her? Psychoanalytic theory suggests dogma arises out of the psychic needs of people and psychic needs of people are expressed in dogma. The early views of Erich Fromm, a disciple of Freud, are presented to demonstrate that Marian dogma arose from the psychic needs of the people. The views of both Catholic and Protestant thinkers are presented, as well as theological and psychiatric views.     

Mary Magdalene: Lover of the Dying and Resurrecting God-Man

Like Isis, Ishtar, and Inanna, Mary Magdalene mourns the death of the god she loves, and when he resurrects, she celebrates his renewal. Through her intense feeling experience of personal and spiritual love, she represents the feminine side of the death and resurrection phenomenon that plays a realizing role in the humanization of the god-image and likewise of individuation.

Although the Judeo-Christian fathers excluded any sign in their orthodoxy that Yahweh and Christ may have had love partners, archeological evidence and Gnostic texts point to the possibility that they did. In our era, with the psychological perspective that C. G. Jung heralded, we can reconsider and integrate the role of the Eros principle that was split off from our god-image, concretized, and banned along with the “evil” of the flesh.

The emergence of Mary Magdalene in popular culture as the “Holy Grail” or vessel of Christ's child reflects the intense yearning in the psyche for the feminine principle to participate in the continuing incarnation of the god-image, and for the divine feminine–masculine partnership to realize itself in personal, human experience.     

Computers and girls: Rethinking the issues

A perspective is developed about emerging sex differences in the use of computer technology in education. Computers tend to be conceptually assimilated to the category of science/mathematics/technology, and thus acquire some of the traditional qualities of differentiated interest among boys and girls. Findings from several research projects are reported which point to patterns of difference in educational settings. It is argued that sex differences emerge in relation to the functions computers serve and the organization of learning settings of which they are a part.The preparation of this article and the research reported was supported by the Spencer Foundation, the Department of Education, and the National Institute of Education. The author would like to thank Kathy Clement, Carla Freeman, Peggy Heide, Moni Homolsky, Midian Kurland, Ron Mawby, Roy Pea, and Karen Sheingold for their comments and suggestions about the perspective presented here.     

Effects of body fat on weight concerns, dating, and sexual activity: a longitudinal analysis of black and white adolescent girls.

Using data from a 2-year longitudinal study of 200 Black and White adolescent girls (mean age was 13.8 years at study entry), the authors investigated the implications of differences in body fat for dating and sexual activity and the implications of heterosexual activity for dieting and weight concerns. Among White girls, and Black girls with college-educated mothers, more body fat was associated with a lower probability of dating, even among nonobese girls. However, dating and sexual experience were unrelated to subsequent dieting and weight concerns. For both Blacks and Whites, body fat was the key determinant of dieting, weight dissatisfaction, and eating concerns. These findings indicate that adolescent girls' concerns about weight have a basis in real experiential differences, and efforts to promote healthy attitudes and eating habits may be more effective if the experiential implications of weight differences are taken into account.