Older Adolescents’ Self-Determined Motivations to Disclose Their HIV Status

Disclosure of HIV status is an important topic for youth living with HIV/AIDS, yet theoretical frameworks for understanding HIV disclosure motivations have been poorly applied. Self-determination theory (SDT) proposes that people are at optimal functioning when they are engaging in activities that are interesting and enlivening. This study utilized SDT to understand young adults’ motivations to disclose their HIV status. Interviews and observations were conducted with nine youth aged 17–19 and two adult staff. Results indicate that SDT is useful for understanding types of motivation (i.e., amotivation, controlled, and autonomous motivation) to disclose. Amotivation was the most common type of motivation, and came from two recursive sources: fear of stigma and previous experiences of others disclosing without their consent. Controlled motivation to disclose occurred when participants were motivated to disclose because of reasons related to other people, rather than internal or personal reasons, and included the reasons of wanting to gain a closer relationship, reciprocate a shared secret, for psychological or emotional relief, and for attention. Autonomous motivation included two themes: the life perspective that “Having HIV is just part of who I am,” and valuing educating others because education was perceived as important and beneficial to others. This study extends SDT into the domain of HIV disclosure in older adolescents. People providing guidance and support to older adolescents with HIV/AIDS can use SDT to understand different motivations to disclose.     

Mothers’ and Fathers’ Reluctance to Seek Psychological Help for Their Children

We investigated the gap between parents’ willingness to seek help for their children and their willingness to refer other parents to help, and the relationship of this gap to gender. Two hundred and eleven parent couples with elementary-school children reported their willingness to seek help from professional and informal sources for a hypothetical problem with their child, and their willingness to refer a friend’s child with an identical problem to similar help. Attitudes toward help seeking and parental behaviors were also measured. Findings revealed that parents were more willing to refer a friend’s child to professional help than they were to seek such help for their own child, although no gap was found regarding informal help. No gender differences were found regarding willingness to seek help or to refer another, although gender was related to variables that predicted help seeking.     

Predicting People’s Intention to Donate Their Body to Medical Science and Research

Predictors of people’s intention to register with a body bequest program for donating their deceased body to medical science and research were examined using standard theory of planned behavior (TPB) predictors (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control) and adding moral norm, altruism, and knowledge. Australian students (N = 221) at a university with a recently established body bequest program completed measures of the TPB’s underlying beliefs (behavioral, normative, and control beliefs) and standard and extended TPB predictors, with a sub-sample reporting their registration-related behavior 2 months later. The standard TPB accounted for 43.6%, and the extended predictors an additional 15.1% of variance in intention. The significant predictors were attitude, subjective norm, and moral norm, partially supporting an extended TPB in understanding people’s body donation intentions. Further, important underlying beliefs can inform strategies to target prospective donors.     

A Developing Approach to Studying Students’ Learning through Their Mathematical Activity

We discuss an emerging program of research on a particular aspect of mathematics learning, students’ learning through their own mathematical activity as they engage in particular mathematical tasks. Prior research in mathematics education has characterized learning trajectories of students by specifying a series of conceptual steps through which students pass in the context of particular instructional approaches or learning environments. Generally missing from the literature is research that examines the process by which students progress from one of these conceptual steps to a subsequent one. We provide a conceptualization of a program of research designed to elucidate students’ learning processes and describe an emerging methodology for this work. We present data and analysis from an initial teaching experiment that illustrates the methodology and demonstrates the learning that can be fostered using the approach, the data that can be generated, and the analyses that can be done. The approach involves the use of a carefully designed sequence of mathematical tasks intended to promote particular activity that is expected to result in a new concept. Through analysis of students’ activity in the context of the task sequence, accounts of students’ learning processes are developed. Ultimately a large set of such accounts would allow for a cross-account analysis aimed at articulating mechanisms of learning.     

Canadian Immigrants’ Access to a First Job in Their Intended Occupation

Using detailed information on employment trajectory provided by the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada, this study examines the labor market outcomes of recent immigrants in terms of the duration until access to a first job in their intended occupation, as determined by a question in the first wave interview on labor market intentions. The matching between actual and intended occupations is obtained from the first two digits of the National Occupational Classification codes, which consider successively occupation type and skill level. Using a Cox proportional hazards model, the study investigates the roles of factors related to human and social capital in speeding up the matching process between actual and intended occupations. It is found that the initial year in Canada is critical for an immigrant to land a job in the intended field; after that period, the hazards of finding employment in the intended occupation flatten down. In general, those with intention to work in nonprofessional jobs, such as sales and services, trades, transport and equipment operators, primary industry, and processing and manufacturing occupations, enter the first job in the intended occupation more quickly. The results also show that education, English language ability, Canadian work experience, and friend networks facilitate access to the intended occupation.     

Fathers’ and Mothers’ Involvement with Their Adolescents

We explored mothers’ and fathers’ time spent with their adolescents and found that mothers reported spending more time with their adolescents than did fathers. Developmental patterns were found for some aspects of time involvement, with both mothers and fathers reporting higher involvement with younger adolescents. Ratings of time-spent were not associated with adolescents’ self-reported emotional/behavioral problems. Both mothers and fathers agreed that mothers had more responsibility for adolescents’ discipline, daily care, and recreational activities. Mothers and fathers reported comparable levels of satisfaction with this arrangement. Mothers, and to a lesser extent fathers, reported greater satisfaction with the division of labor when fathers showed higher levels of responsibility for adolescents’ activities. Satisfaction with the division of labor was inversely related to interparental conflict. Few differences were found based on adolescent gender for any of these variables. Results are discussed within the context of mother–child and father–child relationships and family functioning.     

Prospective Primary Teachers’ Perceptions About Their Ability to Use and Teach Thinking Skills

Cognitive acceleration programs have been successful in promoting reasoning skills in school students and in changing the pedagogy of the teachers implementing them. For this reason, this study explored if using such approach with a different population—prospective primary teachers—produced changes in relation to their perceptions about their ability to use and teach thinking. The results suggest that, from the participants’ points of view, the course helped them to improve not only their ability to think but also their awareness about their own thinking. However, a single cognitive acceleration in mathematics education (CAME) course was not sufficient to improve their confidence about teaching thinking.     

Children’s Influence on Their Parent’s Adult Development: Mothers’ and Fathers’ Receptivity to Children’s Requests for Change

This mixed-method study examined parents’ experiences of their children’s influence on parent’s continuing adult development. Mothers and fathers from 30 families were separately interviewed regarding two of their children who were between 8 and 14 years old. Parents reported on recent events when their younger and older child successfully requested that parents change their preferences, attitudes, and personal behaviors. Mothers reported more direct child influence than fathers, and both parents reported that they were more receptive to influence from their older children. Thematic analyses revealed that parents were generally comfortable with child influence and constructed their children as actors and agents. Parents attributed their receptivity to agentic qualities of children’s requests, goals for empowering children, and maintaining their mutual relationship. The findings provided insight into the transactional and relational nature of children’s influence and the direct and indirect impact of children on the adult development of parents.     

Why Analysts Need Their Patients’ Transferences

This lead article to the Special Issue of the American Journal of Psychoanalysis, celebrating Charles Rycroft's life and work, was originally published in 1993. It is republished here with the generous encouragement and permission of Rycroft's widow, Jenny Pearson. This article is part of many, written by Rycroft on the psychoanalytic process and the role of projective identification in psychoanalytic training relationships. Here, Rycroft continues his thoughts in his previous paper, “On Ablation of Parental Images” (I965–1973), on the illusion of having created oneself. In the process of ablation of one's parental images and a search for replacement of them, the psychoanalyst is vulnerable to enact grandiose phantasies to become the new omnipotent parent in the analytic relationship. An overemphasis on the role of the transference can contribute to such phantasies of both analysts and their patients, interfere with the healthy growth of candidates, and become a process in which candidates surrender their healthy judgements and individual voices. The challenge in psychoanalytic training relationships is to reach a state of independence of thought, while at the same time achieve an ability to recognize the immense debt all analysts have to their analysts, teachers and even patients.     

Mothers’ Gender-Role Attitudes and Their Responses to Young Children’s Hypothetical Display of Shy and Aggressive Behaviors

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of child gender and maternal gender-role attitudes in mothers’ reactions to hypothetical vignettes depicting their preschool-aged child displaying aggressive and shy behaviors. Participants were 78 mothers of preschool-aged children (43 girls, 35 boys; M _age?=?47.44?months, SD?=?11.00) living in a mid-sized city in Ontario, Canada. Mothers provided reports of their gender-role attitudes and rated their expectancies and emotional/behavioral reactions following hypothetical vignettes depicting their child displaying physically aggressive and shy-withdrawn behaviors. It was hypothesized that mothers would respond with more negative (and less positive) emotions and expectancies in response to children’s gender-incongruent problem behaviors (i.e., shyness among boys, aggression among girls). It was further hypothesized that these gender effects would be more pronounced among mothers espousing more traditional (i.e., less egalitarian) gender-role attitudes. Results of multiple regression analyses indicated that mothers anticipated more negative consequences to aggression among boys than among girls. Several significant interaction effects also emerged between child gender and maternal gender-role attitudes, particularly with regards to children’s shyness. Among mothers of boys, a more egalitarian gender-role attitude was associated with greater anticipated benefits of shyness, and both more positive and more negative emotional responses to shyness. For mothers of girls, however, the opposite pattern emerged. Results provide some support for the notion that mothers may enforce gender-typical social behaviors in their children, particularly if they themselves hold more traditional gender-role attitudes.     

Discernment and Denial: Nanotechnology Researchers’ Recognition of Ethical Responsibilities Related to Their Work

To what extent do nanotechnology researchers discern specific work-related ethical responsibilities that are incumbent upon them? A questionnaire was designed and administered to answer this question. Analysis of responses to 11 ethical responsibility statements (ERSs) by 213 researchers at the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility revealed widespread agreement about a number of work-related ethical responsibilities and substantial divergence in the views about several others. Explanations of this divergence are proposed. A new variable is defined that gauges the respondent’s overall level of discernment of the ethical responsibilities referenced in the ERSs. The mean discernment level score for respondents who had taken a course that included discussion of ethical issues closely related to science, technology, or engineering was significantly higher than for those who had not. Further, among respondents who had taken such a course, the mean discernment level score for those who had taken an ethics course devoted to exploration of ethical issues closely related to science, technology, or engineering was significantly higher than for those who had taken a technical science or engineering course that typically pays only fleeting attention to such issues. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Seventh-Day Adventist Teachers’ Perceptions of Inclusion Classrooms and Identification of Challenges to Their Implementation

This qualitative study investigated the perceptions and challenges of Seventh-day Adventist teachers towards inclusion classrooms in the United States. For this study, 17 participants were interviewed using two 12-item interview protocols. The analysis of the teachers’ responses revealed five key perceptions. First, teachers have positive attitudes towards inclusion. Second, accommodations help students who are mildly disabled succeed in the regular classroom. Third, inclusion classrooms can be Christian based. Fourth, school personnel need to develop policies for accepting students with disabilities. Finally, Adventist teachers can identify children with special needs. Participants identified two challenges for implementing inclusion classrooms, first, developing policies and resources for use by teachers, and second, providing needed training to help teachers succeed in an inclusive classroom. The article concludes with recommendations for developing a successful inclusive educational program in Christian schools and recommendations future study.     

Men and Women Inmates’ Accounts of Their Pathways to Crime: A Gender Analysis

Most of the research on gender differences in crime has been based on quantitative methods and focused on either women or men, but not both. In this qualitative study, we explored the association between gender and perceived pathways to crime. We employed a thematic analysis of 20 interviews with inmates, focusing on how they negotiated notions about femininity and masculinity while constructing their own pathways to crime. Men and women presented different pathways, but both oscillated between pathways guided by victimization and by power seeking. The findings suggest possible new directions regarding the use of gender binaries in criminology research and indicate the heavy toll of gender essentialism on both genders.     

Mismatches between ‘Scientific’ and ‘Non-Scientific’ Ways of Knowing and Their Contributions to Public Understanding of Science

As differentiation within scientific disciplines increases, so does differentiation between the sciences and other ways of knowing. This distancing between ‘scientific’ and ‘non-scientific’ cultures reflects differences in what are considered valid and reliable approaches to acquiring knowledge and has played a major role in recent science-oriented controversies. Scientists’ reluctance to actively engage in science communication, coupled with journalists’ reliance on the norms of balance, conflict, and human interest in covering scientific issues, have combined to exacerbate public mistrust of science on issues like the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. The failure of effective communications between scientists and non-scientists has hindered the progress of both effective science and effective policy. In order to better bridge the gap between the ‘scientific’ and ‘non-scientific’ cultures, renewed efforts must be made to encourage substantive public engagement, with the ultimate goal of facilitating an open, democratic policy-making process.     

Adolescents’ Exposure to a Sexualized Media Environment and Their Notions of Women as Sex Objects

This study was designed to investigate whether adolescents’ exposure to a sexualized media environment is associated with stronger beliefs that women are sex objects. More specifically, we studied whether the association between notions of women as sex objects and exposure to sexual content of varied explicitness (i.e., sexually non-explicit, semi-explicit, or explicit) and in different formats (i.e., visual and audio-visual) can be better described as cumulative or as hierarchical. Further, we investigated whether this association was contingent on gender. Based on data from an on-line survey of 745 Dutch adolescents aged 13 to 18, we found that the relationship between exposure to a sexualized media environment and notions of women as sex objects followed a hierarchical pattern: Starting with adolescents’ exposure to sexually semi-explicit content, the statistical significance of the relationship with notions of women as sex objects moved from semi-explicit to explicit sexual content and from visual to audio-visual formats. Exposure to sexually explicit material in on-line movies was the only exposure measure significantly related to beliefs that women are sex objects in the final regression model, in which exposure to other forms of sexual content was controlled. The relationship between exposure to a sexualized media environment and notions of women as sex objects did not differ for girls and boys.     

How Women’s Nonconscious Association of Sex with Submission Relates to Their Subjective Sexual Arousability and Ability to Reach Orgasm

Common cultural stereotypes promote women’s submission to men, especially within intimate heterosexual relationships. Mirroring these stereotypes, women possess nonconscious associations between sex and submission (Sanchez, Kiefer & Ybarra, 2006). Moreover, women’s sex-submission associations predict greater reports of engagement in submissive sexual behavior (Sanchez et al., 2006). In the present research, we again found that women associate sex with submission at a nonconscious level. Study 1 showed that women’s nonconscious sex-submission associations predict reduced subjective arousability. Study 2 further demonstrated that these associations predict impaired ability to reach orgasm among women. These findings suggest that sex-submission associations may adversely affect women’s sexual functioning.     

God Attachment: Resource or Complication in Women’s and Their Partners’ Adjustment to the Threat of Breast Cancer

Journal of Religion and Health - This study explored the role of adult attachment and God attachment in women’s and their partners’ adjustment to the threat of breast cancer. Women and...     

Patterns of Adolescents’ Beliefs About Fighting and Their Relation to Behavior and Risk Factors for Aggression

This study examined adolescents' patterns of beliefs about aggression, and how these patterns relate to aggressive and prosocial behavior, and to risk factors associated with aggression. A sample of 477 sixth graders from two urban schools and a school in a nearby county completed measures of beliefs, behavior, and individual, peer and parental factors associated with aggression. Teacher ratings of participants' behavior and emotion regulation were also obtained. The urban sample was 84% African American; the county school was in a rural fringe area with a student population that was 45% Caucasian and 40% African American. Latent class analysis of items on a beliefs measure supported hypotheses predicting three groups: (a) a Beliefs Against Fighting (BAGF) group that opposed the use of aggression (31% of the sample); (b) a Fighting is Sometimes Necessary (FSNEC) group that endorsed beliefs that fighting is sometimes necessary or inevitable (41%), and (c) a Beliefs Supporting Fighting (BSUPF) group that supported aggression across multiple contexts (28%). Differences across groups were found on race/ethnicity and family structure, but not on gender. Significant differences were also found such that the FSNEC group fell between levels of the BAGF and BSUPF groups on most measures. In contrast, the FSNEC and BAGF groups both differed from the BSUPF group, but not from each other on measures of empathy, perceived effectiveness of nonviolence and aggression, and parental messages supporting nonviolence. These differences suggest the need for tailoring prevention approaches for subgroups of adolescents who differ in their patterns of beliefs.