Religion in Sexual Health: A Staff Perspective

This paper reports data on the complexities of delivering religious/spiritual care in sexual health from a staff perspective. A learning needs analysis, in survey format, was conducted with the nursing staff of a leading London, sexual health clinic. Recruitment took place in May 2011 over a period of 2 weeks. The sample consisted of 25 members of staff which included service support workers and registered nurses. The 25 question survey was conducted and reviewed using Survey Monkey?. The survey was divided into three sections, being population demographics, clinical experience and understanding and education. This article will explore the second section of being clinical experience and understanding. This section used six open-ended questions to investigate participant’s experience of common clinical episodes where religion was an influential part of the patient experience and decision-making. A range of contemporary sexual health and religious issues were extrapolated from the survey findings ranging from homosexuality to termination of pregnancy. Four main areas of complexity identified from participants responses were sexual dysfunction, treatment issues, sexual health knowledge and high-risk behaviour. Findings from the study highlight the diversity of influence of religion has on the sexual health of patients.     

The Sexual Victimization Experiences of Men Attending College: A Mixed Methods Investigation

Sex Roles - Emerging research supports that men attending college are at elevated sexual assault risk. However, research is limited by assessment issues as well as a lack of examination of how men...     

Mixed Methods in Youth Purpose: An Examination of Adolescent Self-Regulation and Purpose

Utilizing a relational developmental systems approach to examining character strengths, this article examines the connection between adolescents’ intentional self-regulation (ISR) with youth sense of purpose, using data from a large-scale evaluation of a youth development program in Scotland. Data were triangulated from multiple sources, including youth surveys and interviews as well as teacher assessments. Surveys were collected from 783 S2 (approximately seventh grade) pupils; teacher survey data were collected for 732 of these pupils. Telephone interviews were conducted with a subset of 29 adolescents. The data were analyzed with an innovative mixed-methods technique that allows qualitative interview data to underscore consistencies and disconnects with quantitative findings from both teacher and adolescent surveys. Results demonstrate a strong connection between ISR and purpose and many consistencies across measures of purpose.     

The Role of Religion in Psychotherapy: A Cross-Cultural Examination

The question of whether religion should be considered in psychotherapy continues to be a point of debate. Many authors, notably Boyd-Franklin and Peck, feel that it is a serious oversight for mental health workers to ignore the role of spirituality in the development of the psyche. The present author offers a training program for mental health workers to aid in their understanding of the psycho-spiritual development of their clients. Moreover, the role of religious folk belief in psychotherapy is highlighted to aid therapists in understanding the explanations that clients from culturally diverse backgrounds may give in attempting to explain the causes of mental illness. Finally, a differential diagnosis of spirit possession versus schizophrenia is discussed. Several case examples are presented.     

Mechanisms for Affect Communication from Dance: A Mixed Methods Study

Dance is a multifaceted creative act that has been used to communicate emotions throughout human evolution. Despite this history, there has been no empirical exploration of components of dance that allow it to communicate emotion. We address this with a mixed methods study in which a quantitative study with dance viewers builds upon qualitative findings with dance artists. Qualitative analysis revealed proposed components of dance responsible for emotion communication are narrative content, social interaction, emotion portrayal intent, and textural quality of movement. These elements were then manipulated using dance video stimuli to quantitatively test viewers' emotion perception accuracy. Results revealed emotion portrayal intent (i.e., expression intent in dance creation) is an important factor for viewers to accurately perceive emotion, regardless of narrative content. While prior studies have focused on the perceiver's role in emotion perception from dance, this is the first study to demonstrate emotions are perceived from dance based on intent during dance creation. Findings highlight the nuanced structure of emotion communication in dance, for which we pose a theoretical framework. Together, dance holds possibilities for studying distinct mechanisms for creative communication that may be important for the study of generalized affect communication outside of creative arts contexts.     

Urban American Indian Youth Spirituality and Religion: A Latent Class Analysis

This article explores the interconnected spiritual, religious, and cultural worlds of the majority of American Indian (AI) youth who live in urban areas: their patterns of involvement in religion and Native spirituality and associated well‐being. Latent class analysis of data from 205 AI middle school students identified five distinctive classes using survey measures of religious affiliation, attendance at services, adherence to Christian and traditional spiritual beliefs, Native spirituality, and Native cultural practices. Two classes were Christian groups: one attending Christian churches and following Christian beliefs but uninvolved with Native beliefs, spirituality, or cultural practices; and a nominal Christian group affiliated with but not attending church and unattached to belief systems. Two groups followed Native beliefs and spiritual practices, one affiliated with the Native American Church and another unaffiliated with any church. The fifth, nonreligious group, had no religious affiliation, followed neither Christian nor traditional beliefs, and was uninvolved in Native spirituality and cultural practices. The two groups embracing AI spirituality reported better academic performance, more reservation contact, higher AI enculturation, and stronger bicultural orientations.     

Preventing Violence among Gang-Involved and High-Risk Youth in El Salvador: The Role of School Motivation and Self-Control

El Salvador, as a country of the Northern Triangle, exhibits significantly higher rates of crime and delinquency than the rest of the Latin American countries (World Bank 2011). Mass media portray transnational youth gangs in marginalized communities in Central American nations, such as El Salvador, as one of the main factors responsible for the high levels of violence. Few studies have empirically studied active youth gang members and high-risk youth in these contexts. Among the studies that have accessed active youth gang members, the focus has been on problem behaviors and risk factors analyses; little is known about what variables appear to serve as protective factors for these youth. Based on a cross-sectional sample of high-risk youth and youth gang members (n = 184) between the ages of 13 and 25 living in 10 urban communities in San Salvador, this study used linear regression modeling to analyze protective factors for three outcome variables: aggression, violence, and delinquency. Results reveal that self-control and school motivation act as important protective factors across the three domains, while school behavior is a protective factor of aggression and delinquency. Implications for community-based prevention and harm reduction policies are discussed.     

Acceptability of Behavioral Activation for Depression Among Latinas: A Mixed Methods Study

Latinxs represent the largest ethnoracial minority population in the United States. Despite having significant rates of depression, Latinxs underutilize behavioral health services. This, combined with the association between gender and depression (women have higher rates of depression than men), underscores the importance of developing an improved understanding of how Latinas view behavioral activation (BA), an empirically supported treatment for depression. In this mixed methods study, participants consisted of 77 Latinas; participants were provided with a vignette depicting a fictional character that underwent BA for depression. Participants in the quantitative study completed a measure of treatment acceptability of BA (n = 60); participants in the qualitative study completed a semistructured interview assessing their views on BA (n = 17). Latinas had generally positive attitudes about BA, although they also identified some elements that they perceived might act as barriers to treatment success. Because we were interested in the interplay of cultural factors and treatment acceptability, we also examined enculturation and acculturation as predictors of treatment acceptability—enculturation only was a significant predictor treatment acceptability. Our sample was relatively small, social desirability may have influenced our responses, and it is not known to what extent our results generalize to Latinx men. Latina women find BA to be an acceptable treatment for depression, which suggests promise with regard to clinical outcomes for depressed Latinas receiving BA. Addressing potential barriers to treatment engagement may improve outcomes for depressed Latinas receiving BA.     

The Role of Families and Care Givers as Risk and Protective Factors in Preventing Youth Violence

This paper reviews research which discusses the risk and protective functions that families and other caregivers provide in influencing the development of aggressive behavior in youth. Currently, there is an emphasis on providing violence prevention programs in the school environment, typically with little parental or caregiver involvement. By enhancing the role of families and caregivers in youth violence prevention programs, we assert that an unique opportunity exists to both address specific risk factors for violence while enhancing the protective features of the family. Relatedly, the risk literature on youth violence indicates that the most influential risk factors (i.e., the family, community, and peers) have their principle impact on youth aggression outside the school. We suggest a shift in the focus of violence prevention programming that is more inclusive of families as both a risk and protective agent. In support of this position, relevant theory and reviews of exemplary family-involved programs are offered. Challenges to involving youth caregivers are identified and recommendations for overcoming those challenges suggested. Last, recommendations for future research and public policy in the prevention of youth violence are offered.     

WINCKELMANN AND CASANOVA IN ROME: A Case Study of Religion and Sexual Politics in Eighteenth‐Century Rome

There are three “scandals” that appear in most discussions of Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768), the so‐called father of modern Art History: his allegedly careerist conversion to Catholicism in 1754; his semi‐secret homoerotic discourse while under Vatican employ in the early‐to‐mid 1760s; and his shocking murder in Trieste in 1768. Of the three, Winckelmann's sexuality has garnered the most attention in recent scholarship. A little‐known story reported by Casanova during his second visit to Rome in 1761 has something to do with that. In this essay, I argue that we make too much of sexuality these days and, in so doing, fail to register the far more radical religious activities in which Winckelmann was involved, most notably the creation and curation of the Vatican Museums, with their almost casual display of naked statues of pagan divinities. Winckelmann's “profanity,” not his sexuality, constitutes the revolutionary core of his life's work and enduring influence. The statues he discussed so passionately were not simply naked; they were pagan.     

Sexual Minority Youth,Social Change,and Health: A Developmental Collision

Few societal attitudes and opinions have changed as quickly as those regarding sexual minority people and rights. In the context of dramatic social change, there have been multiple policy changes toward social inclusion and rights for lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people, and perceptions that the sociocultural context for LGB people—perhaps particularly for youth—has improved. Yet recent evidence from the developmental sciences points to paradoxical findings: in many cases there have been growing rather than shrinking health disparities. The authors suggest that there is a developmental collision between normative adolescent developmental processes and sexual minority youth identities and visibility.     

听障学生与正常学生性别角色识别的比较研究

本研究采用内隐联想测验(IAT),对听障学生和正常学生进行了性别角色识别的比较研究,旨在探究性别角色识别的内隐认知特点及群体差异性。实验表明,听障学生的相容辨别和不相容辨别的反应时都显著高于正常学生,而准确率都低于正常学生,这说明听障学生性别角色识别的认知发展滞后于正常学生。本文认为,性别角色识别是一种内隐社会认知,是各类学生性意识发展的认知基础,教育者应通过各种有效途径,保证各类学生从小时候起就正确地进行性别角色的识别和扮演,以促进其性心理和性道德健康地发展。     

Correction to: Preventing Violence through Participation in Community Building in Youth

Applied Research in Quality of Life -     

Theology, History, and Religious Identification: Hegelian Methods in the Study of Religion

This essay deals with the impact of Hegel's philosophy of religion by examining his positions on religious identity and on the relationship between theology and history. I argue that his criterion for religious identity was socio-historical, and that his philosophical theology was historical rather than normative. These positions help explain some historical peculiarities regarding the effect of his philosophy of religion. Of particular concern is that although Hegel’s own aims were apologetic, his major influence on religious thought was in the development of various historical and critical approaches to religion.