Learning to listen to trans and gender diverse children: A Response to Zucker (2018) and Steensma and Cohen-Kettenis (2018)

ABSTRACT

The authors answer recent responses by Steensma & Cohen-Kettenis (2018 Steensma, T. D., & Cohen-Kettenis, P. T. (2018). A critical commentary on “A critical commentary on follow-up studies and “desistence” theories about transgender and gender non-conforming children”. International Journal of Transgenderism. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/15532739.2018.1468292[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Zucker (2018 Zucker, K. (2018). The myth of persistence: Response to AA critical commentary on follow-up studies and “Desistance” theories about transgender and gender non-conforming children. International Journal of Transgenderism. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/15532739.2018.1468293[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) to our critical commentary on “desistance” stereotypes and their underlying research on trans and gender diverse children (Temple Newhook et al., 2018 Temple Newhook, J., Pyne, J., Winters, K., Feder, S., Holmes, C., Tosh, J., … Pickett, S. (2018). A critical commentary on follow-up studies and “desistance” theories about transgender and gender-nonconforming children. International Journal of Transgenderism. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/15532739.2018.1456390[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). We provide clarification in the following areas: (1) the scope of our paper; (2) our support of longitudinal studies; (3) consequences of harm to trans and gender diverse children; (4) clinical practice implications; (5) concerns about validity of research methodology; and (6) the importance of learning to listen to trans and gender diverse children.     

Sex differences in cognition are stable over a 10-year period in adulthood and old age

Sex differences in declarative memory and visuospatial ability are robust in cross-sectional studies. The present longitudinal study examined whether sex differences in cognition were present over a 10-year period, and whether age modified the magnitude of sex differences. Tests assessing episodic and semantic memory, and visuospatial ability were administered to 625 nondemented adults (initially aged 35-80 years), participating in the population-based Betula study at two follow-up occasions. There was stability of sex differences across five age groups and over a 10-year period. Women performed at a higher level than men on episodic recall, face and verbal recognition, and semantic fluency, whereas men performed better than women on a task-assessing, visuospatial ability. Sex differences in cognitive functions are stable over a 10-year period and from 35 to 90 years of age.     

The impact of anxiety on sexual arousal in women

This study examined the impact of state anxiety, trait anxiety, and anxiety sensitivity on physiological and self-report measures of sexual arousal and sexual function in a non-clinical sample of women. Physiological sexual responses to an erotic stimulus were assessed using vaginal photoplethysmography, and subjective reactions were measured using questionnaires. Results suggested a curvilinear relationship between state anxiety and physiological sexual arousal (vaginal pulse amplitude; VPA). Trait anxiety and anxiety sensitivity were correlated with self-reported sexual arousal outside the laboratory. The findings may be interpreted in light of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) influences on sexual arousal and potential cognitive interference mechanisms associated with anxiety.     

Contextual basis of maternal perceptions of infant temperament

To elucidate the differential saliency of infant emotions to mothers across interactive contexts, the authors examined the moderating role of observed infant affect during interactions with mother in the relation between maternal and laboratory-based ratings of infant temperament. Fifty-nine developmentally healthy 9-month-old infants were judged for degree of infant positive, infant negative, and mother-infant mutually positive affect during the course of object-focused and routine home-based activities with mother. Mothers completed the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (M. K. Rothbart, 1981), and infants underwent the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery (H. H. Goldsmith & M. K. Rothbart, 1999). Results revealed that maternal and observer ratings of infant negativity converged when infants manifested high degrees of negative affect during routine home-based activities. Maternal and observer ratings of infant positivity converged when infants experienced low mutually positive affect during play. These findings support the hypothesis that maternal perceptions are based on mothers' experiences with their infants but that the salience of infant temperamental characteristics to mothers varies across emotion and interactive context.     

The Health Behavior of Sri Lankan Buddhist Nuns with Type 2 Diabetes: Duty, Devotion, and Detachment

Sri Lanka has experienced an increase in the rate of type 2 diabetes. Selfmanagement of diabetes among Sri Lanka’s Buddhist nuns, who depend on food donations and limit physical activity in accord with the monastic code of conduct, presents unique challenges and has not been previously studied. The purpose of this focused ethnographic study of 10 Buddhist nuns was to understand how they managed their illness within the restrictions on diet and physical activity. Three themes—duty, devotion, and detachment—explained and described their health behavior regarding type 2 diabetes within the context of their daily routines and obligations.     

Facilitating Collaborative Knowledge Building

This article describes a detailed analysis of knowledge building in a problem-based learning group. Knowledge building involves increasing the collective knowledge of a group through social discourse. For knowledge building to occur in the classroom, the teacher needs to create opportunities for constructive discourse in order to support student learning and collective knowledge building. In problem-based learning, students learn through collaborative problem solving and reflecting on their experiences. The setting for this study is a group of second-year medical students working with an expert facilitator. The analysis was designed to understand how the facilitator provided opportunities for knowledge-building discourse and how the learners accomplished collective knowledge building. We examined episodes of knowledge-building discourse, the questions and statements that the students and facilitator generated throughout the tutorial, the change in their understanding of the problem that they were solving, and the collective knowledge that was constructed. The results indicate that the group worked to progressively improve their ideas through engaging in knowledge-building discourse. The facilitator helped support knowledge building through asking open-ended metacognitive questions and catalyzing group progress. Students took responsibility for advancing the group's understanding as they asked many high-level questions and built on each others thinking to construct collaborative explanations. The results of this study provide suggestions for orchestrating knowledge-building discourse.     

Examining the Relationships Between the Justice Facets and Turnover Intent: The Mediating Roles of Overall Justice and Psychological Strain

We examined how interpersonal justice from coworkers, the traditional justice facets (i.e., distributive, procedural, interpersonal, informational), and overall justice perceptions relate to employee psychological strain and turnover intentions in Canadian Armed Forces personnel. Specifically, we hypothesized that overall justice would mediate the relationships between the justice facets (including coworker justice) and strain, and strain would mediate the relationship between overall justice and turnover intent. We used a cross-sectional correlational design with personnel from 2 military units (total N = 218) as our sample. A 2-step structural equation modeling technique was used to evaluate our hypotheses. Support for our hypotheses was obtained with 1 exception: informational justice did not predict overall justice judgments. Our results suggest that employees’ reactions to individual justice events and different sources of justice exert their effects on strain and turnover intent indirectly through their impact on a global evaluation of justice in their work environment.     

Abusive interactions and burnout: Examining occupation,gender, and the mediating role of community

Abstract

Two studies examined the association of gender and occupational group (nursing versus non-nursing) with perceived risk of abuse (sexual harassment and verbal and physical abuse) as well as the relationship of perceived abuse risk with burnout and sense of community. Study 1, comprising of two settings (tertiary care hospital, N = 3,062; psychiatric hospital, N = 383), found gender and occupational group associated with perceived risk of abuse (women felt greater risk than men; nurses felt greater risk than non-nurses). It also found a gender/occupational group interaction. Study 2, conducted at an Irish tertiary care hospital (N = 892), found nurses felt at greater risk for all three types of abuse than did non-nurses. Further, women perceived themselves at greater risk for sexual harassment and verbal abuse than did men; the study found no gender difference regarding physical abuse. The analysis identified a gender/occupational group interaction for sexual harassment. The study considers methods of reducing perceived risk in regard to the research literature on abuse at work.     

Age Differences in the Magnitude of the Attentional Blink

When people attend to a target in a rapid sequence of items, their perception of a subsequent target is impaired for about 500 ms. This is termed the attentional blink. In the present experiment, a dual task rapid serial presentation task (Raymond, Shapiro & Arnell, 1992) was used as a measure of inhibitory function of younger and older adults. We found that the attentional blink was larger among older adults as compared to younger adults, supporting Hasher and Zacks' (1988) inhibitory deficit hypothesis and current models of the attentional blink.