A GENERATIONAL ANALYSIS OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

This article addresses the important issue of intergenerational similarities and differences among women's rights activists. We examined the attitudes, emotions, and experiences of three generations of reproductive rights activists, born between 1925 and 1975. Across generations, the participants were strongly pro-choice and identified as feminists. Despite these similarities, there were several differences that could be explained by considering the sociohistorical circumstances faced by each cohort. For example, the Civil Rights generation activists came of age during the boycotts and marches of the 1950s and showed the highest level of civil rights activism. Reflecting the coincidence of their young adulthood with the 1970s women's movement, the Protest generation activists identified the most with the label "feminist." Finally, the Poshvomen's movement activists, raised in the 1970s and 198Os, were the most likely to have taken college-level women's studies classes.     

Creativity,Acceptance, and the Pause: A Case Example of Mindfulness and Art in Therapy with an Adolescent

ABSTRACT

Mindfulness, defined as nonjudgmental awareness, has been integrated into a variety of therapeutic approaches. The benefits of mindfulness for adults have been demonstrated, and mindful interventions for youth are increasing. Creating a space for mindfulness to arise can be challenging within the hectic and technology-filled lives adolescents often lead. Art in therapy with adolescents can be a beneficial way of creating a pause, thereby helping clients to connect to a mindful state. The use of art in therapy to promote mindfulness can be especially useful for adolescents who can be reluctant to engage in traditional forms of talk therapy. In this article, we use a case example of therapy with a Mexican-American male youth to exemplify the clinical application of a combination of mindfulness and various art modalities.     

Physical activity and body image: Intertwined health priorities identified by transmasculine young people in a non-metropolitan area

Abstract

Background: A dearth of research exists about the health behaviors of transgender young people (TYP). As we seek to learn more about transgender (trans) health, community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches are crucial for incorporating TYP’s needs into the formulation of research questions and development of health behavior programing.

Aim: Explore body image and exercise as priorities among TYP.

Methods: Trans masculine young adults (N?=?16) in a small city in the Midwest took part in semi-structured interviews about their health behaviors and priorities. Theme analysis was used to capture key patterns in participants’ responses. Specific analysis steps included initial and more specific coding, analytical memos, organizational matrices and reports, and discussion about results with participants.

Results: Participants identified exercise and body image as connected primary health concerns. They discussed these issues in terms of three themes: Body shape as motivation for exercise; Poor body image, stigma and fear as exercise barriers, and; Exercise or lack of, as destructive. Participants wanted to exercise to achieve a certain body shape, not for health or as stress relief. They cited gyms as unwelcoming, however. They also worried about discrimination and did not feel sufficiently comfortable with their bodies to exercise. When they could not exercise, they used harmful behaviors, like restricted eating, to achieve a specific male shape.

Conclusions: Using participatory methods allowed us to understand the priorities of a group of Transmasculine young people. Our findings suggest that it is important to continue to explore TYP’s body-related motivations for exercise and understand the balance between exercise as a positive health behavior, and a potentially harmful one, in light of TYP’s complex body image concerns. Trans friendly gyms and gym policies could promote safe exercise and continued anti trans discrimination work and policy advocacy can promote the safety of TYP in all spaces.     

“You Can Catch More Flies with Honey than Vinegar”: Objectification Valence Interacts with Women’s Enjoyment of Sexualization to Influence Social Perceptions

Although objectification is a common experience for women (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), little is understood about how women perceive sources of objectifying commentary and behaviors. The current work provides a novel integration of objectification and consistency theories to understand how valence of sexual objectification and women’s feelings about sexual attention interact to predict perceptions of objectifying sources. In two online vignette studies with 121 and 110 U.S. women recruited through MTurk, female participants were asked to recall an experience of complimentary or critical objectification and report perceptions of source warmth, approach behavioral intentions, perceived overlap between the self and the source, and enjoyment of sexualization. Consistent with hypotheses, regression analyses revealed that reporting experiences of complimentary objectification led to more positive source perceptions among women who reported that they enjoy being sexualized relative to reporting experiences of critical objectification. Furthermore, path analyses revealed that self-other overlap emerged as a mechanism of women’s more positive source perceptions, with a significant indirect effect of self-other overlap emerging for the link between enjoyment of sexualization and warmth and approach in the complimentary objectification condition. The effects were replicated across two studies. The discussion centers on how understanding women’s objectifying source perceptions could illuminate when interpersonal objectification will lead to more experiences of objectification or women’s internalization of objectifying self-perceptions.

     

How well do various types of support buffer psychological distress among transgender and gender nonconforming students?

Background: Transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) individuals experience an increased prevalence of many psychological disorders, leading many to reach out for support from family, friends, mental health professionals, and religious or community networks. Nonetheless, experiences seeking support are often negative, and many psychotherapists report feeling underprepared to work with TGNC clients. To better understand the experiences of TGNC individuals and better equip psychotherapists in their work with TGNC clients, we investigate which sources of support most successfully buffer psychological distress among TGNC individuals.

Aims: This study aims to identify differences in levels of various types of support (social, family, religious, and living-situation) between cisgender and TGNC individuals and examine how these types of support may or may not buffer psychological distress among TGNC individuals.

Method: We used a United States national sample of 3,090 students (1,030 cisgender men; 1,030 cisgender women; 349 transgender; 681 endorsing another gender identity) from the Center for Collegiate Mental Health 2012–2015 database which provided basic demographic information through the Standardized Data Set. Psychological distress was measured through the Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms 34-item questionnaire.

Results: TGNC individuals reported more distress, less family support, more social support, and less frequent religious affiliation than cisgender men and women. Family and social support emerged as the strongest predictors of distress for both TGNC and cisgender individuals. Though religious affiliation and living on-campus buffered distress among cisgender students, they did not buffer distress among TGNC students.

Conclusion: Our study highlights disparities in distress and support between TGNC and cisgender individuals. We found that although religious affiliation and on-campus living are beneficial for cisgender students, neither systematically buffers distress for TGNC students. These findings illustrate the impact minority stress and systemic discrimination may have on TGNC individuals and provide suggestions for therapeutic intervention in work with TGNC individuals.