Do Deaf Individuals’ Dating Scripts Follow the Traditional Sexual Script?

The current study investigated Deaf individuals’ dating expectations. Prior research on dating expectations has identified three common scenes: initiation/meeting, activities, and outcomes/conclusions. Participants were asked to report their expectations for each scene on a typical date. Talking was the most frequently occurring initiation activity. Dinner and a movie were among the top date activities in the activities scene. Activities were often reported as group gatherings. Dating outcomes included a good night kiss and making plans for another date. These expectations do not match prior research with hearing participants where the Traditional Sexual Script could be identified. Comparisons and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Parents’ Experiences of Their Child’s Disclosure of Child Sexual Abuse

A child’s disclosure of sexual victimization is a difficult experience for parents and has been associated with traumatization, disbelief, denial, self-blame, and clinical difficulties. To date, most studies on parents’ responses have been quantitative assessments of the psychological impact of disclosure on parents. A paucity of research has qualitatively explored mothers’ experiences of their child’s disclosure of child sexual abuse (CSA) and fathers’ experiences have been even further neglected. The current study seeks to characterize parents’ experiences of their child’s disclosure of CSA and to uncover the process-oriented nature of parental responses. This qualitative study, using a grounded theory approach to analysis, involved interviews with 10 mothers and four fathers whose children (3–18 years) had experienced sexual abuse. Three themes emerged from the analysis. The first theme—making sense of the abuse in retrospect—captured the process through which parents sought to make sense of their child’s disclosure, focusing on why their child had not disclosed the abuse to them earlier, and how they had noticed something was wrong but misattributed their child’s behavior to other factors. The second theme—negotiating parental identity as protector—reflected how parents’ identity as a protector was challenged, their perception of their world had been forever altered, and they now experienced themselves as hypervigilant and overprotective. The final theme—navigating the services—pertained to parents’ struggle in navigating child protection and police services, and feelings of being isolated and alone. These findings highlight the need for empathy and parental support following child disclosure of sexual victimization.     

Heterosexual Men’s Confrontation of Sexual Prejudice: The Role of Precarious Manhood

Prejudice and discrimination are unfortunate common realities for sexual minorities yet people rarely confront such behavior (Dickter 2012). This is especially problematic because confronting prejudice is one of the most effective weapons against it (e.g., Czopp and Monteith 2003). The present study explores whether men who perceive manhood to be an impermanent state easily taken away by engaging in gender role violations (i.e., precarious manhood; Vandello et al. 2008) are less likely to react negatively to sexually prejudiced interaction partners and therefore less likely to confront sexual prejudice. In addition, we tested whether non-confrontation serves to affirm meta-perceptions of heterosexuality. To test this hypothesis, 88 heterosexual, young adult males, drawn from the undergraduate population of a university in the northeastern U.S., were randomly assigned to either pair with a confederate who expressed blatant sexual prejudice or no blatant prejudice toward a gay applicant in a hiring discussion. Consistent with predictions, precarious manhood predicted lower rates of confronting sexual prejudice, and less negative responses to their interaction partner, while confronting prejudice was associated with believing one would be viewed as gay regardless of individual differences in precarious manhood.     

Adult Attachment and Heterosexual College Women’s Hookup Behaviors: Mediating Effects of Sexual Motives

We investigated sexual motives as mediators of the relationships between adult attachment orientations and women’s casual sexual behavior. Female heterosexual undergraduates (N = 221) provided self-report data on multiple attachment orientations underlying attachment styles, sexual motives, and hookup behavior. Proximity-seeking (i.e., turning toward others to share experiences and in times of need) and self-reliance (i.e., preferring not to ask for help or to depend on others) were both associated with number of hookup partners. Sexual motives mediated some of these relationships. Intimacy motives explained how proximity-seeking positively related to hookup behavior, whereas enhancement motives explained how self-reliance negatively related to hookup behavior. These results suggest that attachment orientations associated with both secure and insecure attachment styles predict women’s casual sexual behavior through different sexual motives. These results also suggest that women’s casual sexual encounters do not necessarily reflect insecurity, dysfunction, psychopathology, or maladaptation. To promote healthy hookup behaviors among women, both emotional as well as sexual needs associated with different attachment orientations should be considered.     

Couples’ Attributions for Work Function Changes in Prodromal Huntington Disease

People who have tested positive for the expanded Huntington disease (HD) gene who are not yet diagnosed (pre-HD) and their companions report subtle changes in ability of people with pre-HD to do their jobs. However, it is not known whether they attribute these changes to HD. Semi-structured telephone interviews were analyzed from seven persons with pre-HD at different estimated points from diagnosis and six companions. Data were analyzed using qualitative analysis methods. Participants made attributions related to health, work, and temperament. Only one participant attributed a change to HD. The process of forming attributions was demonstrated through symptom monitoring and comparison of participants with pre-HD to others with and without HD. Participants also expressed uncertainty regarding how to make attributions. Attributions influence coping procedures, including whether to seek and accept medical treatment. In persons with prodromal HD the relationship between attributions and use of coping strategies for symptoms that interfere with job functioning is unknown.     

Couples’ Experiences of Hope When Participating in the Reflecting Team Process: A Case Study

Hope is believed to be influential to therapeutic change. However, no studies have explored couples’ experiences of hope during participation in a reflecting team process. This exploratory case study attends to this gap in the research literature. Three couples reported on their experiences of hope in relation to participating in the reflecting team process as part of their couple therapy. Themes related to hope were identified during three separate stages of the intervention: anticipating, participating in, and debriefing the reflecting team process. Reflecting team experiences related to hope included: seeking new perspectives, maintaining a positive momentum, identifying strengths, normalizing difficulties, presenting inspiring possibilities, providing support, highlighting growth, and strengthening resolve. These findings serve as a foundation for attending to clients’ hope as an active force during the reflecting team process.     

What Accounts for Heterosexual Women’s Negative Emotional Responses to Lesbians?: Examination of Traditional Gender Role Beliefs and Sexual Prejudice

This study examined a pathway to heterosexual women’s experience of anger and anxiety in response to lesbian interactions. Participants were 149 18–30 year old heterosexual female undergraduates (56% African American) from a southeastern United States university. Participants completed measures of female gender role beliefs, sexual prejudice, and state affect, viewed a video depicting relationship behavior between a female–female or male–female dyad, and again completed a measure of state affect. Results indicated that traditional beliefs about women were associated with higher levels of sexual prejudice toward lesbians. In turn, higher levels of sexual prejudice predicted increased anger (not anxiety) in response to the female–female, but not the male–female, dyad. Findings elucidate determinants of heterosexual women’s anger, and potentially aggression, toward lesbians.     

Social Aspects of Women’s Experiences of Sexual Harassment in Public Places in Iran

Sexual harassment in public places is a forbidden form of sex discrimination that includes both verbal and nonverbal behaviors—such as wolf whistles, leers, winks, grabs, pinches, catcalls, and street remarks—and is often overlooked by social science researchers. The present study, using mixed methods and “exploratory design-instrument development method” was conducted to investigate the aspects of Iranian women’s experiences of sexual harassment in public places using a student sample. Using the grounded theory method, the qualitative part of this study was conducted by face-to-face, in-depth interviews with 16 female students of Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran, which resulted in seven axial categories and one core category. The results of the qualitative part of the study were used to develop the instrument of the quantitative part, the questionnaire. Using the survey technique, the quantitative phase of this study employed a sample of 369 female students of Shiraz University, selected by stratified sampling. Data analysis procedures included a theme analysis of the interviews, a statistical analysis of the survey, and an integrated consideration of the qualitative and quantitative results. We found that experiencing sexual harassment is significantly correlated with presence in public places, acceptance of gender rules, mother’s education and the kind of women’s dressing and make up.     

Linking Family-of-Origin Experiences and Perpetration of Sexual Coercion: College Males’ Sense of Entitlement

Sexual coercion on college campuses has become of major concern in recent decades. In recent years, researchers and policy makers have called for greater attention to this topic in order to reduce the sexual violence on college campuses. Recent research has examined the impact of family-of-origin experiences on the perpetration of sexual coercion. The current study examines the association between family-of-origin experiences, such as warmth and hostility between parents, inconsistent parenting, and overparenting during childhood, and the perpetration of sexual coercion among emerging adult males while examining feelings of entitlement as a possible mediator. Data from 326 male undergraduate students were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results show that warmth and hostility between parents has a significant association with parenting behaviors (i.e., overparenting and inconsistent parenting) and that hostility between parents is associated with the perpetration of sexual coercion by the offspring in young adulthood for males. Also, findings suggest that while overparenting and inconsistent parenting during childhood are not directly associated with the perpetration of sexual coercion during emerging adulthood, they are strongly related to feelings of entitlement, which in turn was found to be associated with the perpetration of sexual coercion for males. These results have important implications for family life education, including relationship and parenting education, and for future research.     

Teen Girls’ Experiences Negotiating the Ubiquitous Dick Pic: Sexual Double Standards and the Normalization of Image Based Sexual Harassment

Sex Roles - A range of important studies have recently explored adult women’s experiences of receiving unwanted dick pics (Amundsen, 2020). However, to date there has been limited research...     

Is Urban Fathers’ Religion Important for Their Children’s Behavior?

Previous research suggests that many men increase their religious involvement after the birth of a new child. Using data on low-income urban fathers from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCW), this study extends this research by examining whether fathers maintain a higher rate of religious participation as children get older and how fathers’ religiosity may influence children’s behavior. Results suggest that although many urban fathers slightly increase their religious involvement after the birth of a child, most fathers attend religious services at a fairly consistent rate during the early years of their child’s life. Although there is only limited evidence suggesting that fathers’ religious involvement directly influences children’s behavior, there is evidence that fathers’ religiosity moderates the influence of other family characteristics on children; parental relationship quality and mothers’ religiosity are associated with fewer problem behaviors among children when fathers believe that religion is important to family life. Results also suggest that having a Black Protestant father is associated with fewer externalizing problem behaviors among young children. Overall, this study suggests that religion may be a source of support that encourages urban fathers to be engaged in their family life and promote positive development among children.     

Coparenting Negotiation During the Transition to Parenthood: A Qualitative Study of Couples’ Experiences as New Parents

Abstract

Coparenting – how couples relate to one another in their joint roles as parents – is predictive of a wide variety of family and child outcomes. The current study used a qualitative, phenomenological approach to understand how couples negotiate the coparenting relationship during the transition to parenthood. The principal researcher interviewed 16 men and women of eight heterosexual, dual-earning, new parent couples. Themes emerged which were both conducive to successful coparenting and inhibitive of successful coparenting. Gender distinctions emerged between men and woman in their experiences of coparenting negotiation. Clinical implications of the themes are discussed.     

African American and White Women’s Experience of Sexual Assault and Services for Sexual Assault

This article presents the results of a study assessing the needs and experiences of African American and White female survivors of sexual assault in the state of Maryland. Eight specific hypotheses regarding differences in the needs and experiences of African American as compared to White women receiving partial or no support through analyses of interview data drawn from 213 survivors (African American survivors, n = 133; White survivors, n = 80) were explored. No differences were reported in medical care received; however, in comparison to their White counterparts, African American women reported decreased use of sexual assault crisis centers and mental health services, and postassault help-seeking through use of sexual assault hotlines. Barriers and facilitators associated with treatment experiences differed by ethnicity. Findings are discussed in relation to future directions for research, and service and policy improvement for survivors of sexual assault.     

Unwanted Sexual Experiences in University Settings: Survivors’ Perspectives on Effective Prevention and Intervention Strategies

Unwanted sexual incidents on university campuses pose significant public health and safety risks for students. This study explored survivors’ perspectives on secondary prevention of campus sexual assault and effective strategies for intervention programs for unwanted sexual incidents in university settings. Twenty-seven student survivors of unwanted sexual experiences participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and a constructionist perspective. The findings were contextualized using the ecological model. Barriers to reporting included concerns about one’s story not being believed, personal minimization of the incident, belief that no action will be taken after reporting, confidentiality concerns, and other perceived costs of reporting. Survivors provided valuable insight on potentially effective prevention and intervention strategies to address the problem of unwanted sexual incidents on university campuses. These findings may be useful for prevention and intervention policies and programs in university settings and for providers who assist survivors of unwanted sexual experiences.     

Are Pre-Assembly Shared Work Experiences Useful for Temporary-Team Assembly Decisions? A Study of Olympic Ice Hockey Team Composition

The purpose of this study was to investigate if pre-assembly shared work experiences among temporary team members facilitate individual and team performance. Archival data from the 2014 Men’s Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament (12 teams, 25 players each) was used in the study. Measures of social network centrality were computed based on the pre-assembly shared work experiences among national team members derived from professional and amateur affiliations. These measures were used to predict objective individual and team performance criteria. Players’ closeness centrality scores, from pre-assembly shared work experience networks, positively predicted their goals, assists, and being involved in more positive than negative plays. Teams with less centralized pre-assembly shared work experience network structures tended to perform better than teams with more centralized pre-assembly shared work experience network structures. Temporary teams are commonly used by organizations to perform tasks that are specific, important, and of short duration. Because temporary teams have little time to develop the shared properties required for effective team functioning, assembly decisions are of paramount importance. The results from this study suggest that centrality measures derived from pre-assembly shared work experiences are useful to consider when assembling temporary teams. Few studies have investigated the impact of pre-assembly shared work experiences on individual and team performance. Using objective data, this study provides evidence that pre-assembly shared work experiences relate to individual and team performance in temporary teams, supporting the need for expanded research in this area.