“Clean and Fresh”: Understanding Women’s use of Vaginal Hygiene Products

We explore Canadian women’s use of vaginal hygiene products including feminine washes, douches, sprays, deodorants, wipes, and powders. Vaginal hygiene products in North America are part of a two billion dollar industry, which focuses on cleanliness and freshness in their advertising toward women. In interviewing women who were currently using or had previously used vaginal hygiene products, we found that vaginal cleanliness and freshness were also frequently brought up as reasons for using these products. Using an inductive thematic analysis informed by Braun and Clarke (2013) we explore how attaining a clean-and-fresh vagina has become a subjective physical need for the participants in our study. In a society where female genitalia are constructed as unclean, we argue the marketing of vaginal hygiene products contributes to the problematization of women’s genitalia by suggesting women need to use these products to attain an ideal (i.e., clean and fresh) vagina. The reliance on vaginal hygiene products reported by participants in attaining sensations of vaginal cleanliness and freshness raises concerns in the context of medical literature suggesting adverse health risks that may result from using some of these products. Potential risks include bacterial vaginosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, and a higher susceptibility to sexually transmitted infections, among others. We believe that companies that advertise these products as beneficial for vaginal health and hygiene can be perceived as not just misinforming women but also profiting from products that are harmful.     

Characterizing neurocognitive late effects in childhood leukemia survivors using a combination of neuropsychological and cognitive neuroscience measures

Knowledge about cognitive late effects in survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is largely based on standardized neuropsychological measures and parent reports. To examine whether cognitive neuroscience paradigms provided additional insights into neurocognitive and behavioral late effects in ALL survivors, we assessed cognition and behavior using a selection of cognitive neuroscience tasks and standardized measures probing domains previously demonstrated to be affected by chemotherapy.

130 ALL survivors and 158 control subjects, between 8 and 18 years old at time of testing, completed the n-back (working memory) and stop-signal (response inhibition) tasks. ALL survivors also completed standardized measures of intelligence (Wechsler Intelligence Scales [WISC-IV]), motor skills (Grooved Pegboard), math abilities (WIAT-III), and executive functions (Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System). Parents completed behavioral measures of executive functions (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function [BRIEF]) and attention (Conners-3).

ALL survivors exhibited deficiencies in working memory and response inhibition compared with controls. ALL survivors also exhibited deficits on WISC-IV working memory and processing speed, Grooved Pegboard, WIAT-III addition and subtraction fluency, and numerical operations, as well as DKEFS number-letter switching. Parent reports suggested more attention deficits (Conners-3) and behavioral difficulties (BRIEF) in ALL survivors compared with referenced norms. Low correspondence between standardized and experimental measures of working memory and response inhibition was noted.

The use of cognitive neuroscience paradigms complements our understanding of the cognitive deficits evident after treatment of ALL. These measures could further delineate cognitive processes involved in neurocognitive late effects, providing opportunities to explore their underlying mechanisms.     

Perfectionistic Cognitions Pre-Pandemic Predict Greater Anxiety Symptoms During the Pandemic Among Emerging Adults: A Two-Wave Cross-Lagged Study

Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy - This study employed a two-wave cross-lagged panel analysis to examine associations between perfectionistic cognitions, anxiety, and...     

Sexual Harassment in Educational Institutions in Delhi’ NCR (India): Level of Awareness,Perception and Experience

This study examined the level of awareness of sexual harassment in educational institutions in Delhi NCR (India). This paper grouped the results of all respondents into two categories, i.e. Private and State institutions, wherein a total number of 430 respondents were selected from ten private and state universities by simple random sampling from their respective law faculties. The statistical tools used in analyzing the data collected were frequency and chi square which revealed that the level of awareness of private or individually owned institutions is relatively high but lacks clarity, and boils down to a lower level of awareness as compared with state or government owned institutions. The findings also revealed that private universities experience sexual harassment just like state universities. Based on these results, the author recommends the augmentation of awareness programs in all universities, especially private ones. Compulsory sexual education courses for new intakes could be arranged, and final year students could also be re-oriented before they graduate.     

Actual Memory Ability Significantly Predicts Self-Evaluations of Memory

A number of researchers have suggested that confidence in one's memory is extremely flexible and that self-evaluations may actually reflect the difficulty of the memory task - rather than one's actual memory skill. This study examined this effect and related confidence in one's memory to actual memory skill, as measured by standardized neuropsychological tests of memory. We found that, indeed, confidence in one's memory can be altered. However, we observed that the best predictor of self-evaluation of memory was, in fact, actual memory skill as measured by standardized tests. We suggest that self-evaluation of memory and confidence in one's memory accurately reflects memory skill,although this evaluation can be slightly affected by the difficulty with which the memory is retrieved. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Can I Do It? Will I Try? Personal Efficacy,Assigned Goals,and Performance Norms as Motivators of Individual Performance1

This study tested concurrent influences of personal efficacy, assigned goals, and performance norms on individual performance, mediated by personal goals and task‐specific self‐efficacy. Seventy‐seven undergraduate students performed a verbal task in this laboratory experiment that manipulated assigned goal level (low, high) and information about the performance of others (low, high). Relations among variables, including general, domain, and task‐specific self‐efficacy, as well as performance were examined through structural equation modeling. Results demonstrated simultaneous effects of assigned goals and normative information on self‐efficacy, personal goals, and subsequent performance, as well as mediated effects of domain efficacy on performance.     

Longitudinal associations between television viewing patterns and adolescent body satisfaction

This study addressed profiles of adolescent television use and associations between television viewing profiles and the development of body satisfaction. A sample of 841 adolescent boys and girls, ages 11-17, was recruited for participation in a longitudinal study of adolescent media use. Prior research established eight adolescent television profiles among this sample, reflecting unique patterns of consumption of certain genres, character types, and themes (e.g., romance). This study examined whether an adolescent's television profile predicted Time 2 body satisfaction, after controlling for Time 1 body satisfaction. Among boys, television viewing was unrelated to Time 2 body satisfaction. After controlling for initial body satisfaction, hours spent watching television marginally predicted lower Time 2 body satisfaction among girls. After including television profiles alongside television hours, however, television profile emerged as the stronger predictor. Specifically, a group of girls who watched television frequently and indiscriminately reported the most severe drop in body satisfaction.     

Distinguishing among nondirect forms of aggression

This study explored the relationships and differences among two measures of indirect aggression [Bjorkqvist et al., 1994; Richardson and Green, 1997] and one of relational aggression [Crick and Grotpeter, 1995]. Over 300 students (mean age 22.8 years; 61.5% female) from two colleges in the Southeastern United States completed measures of indirect and relational aggression and related constructs (e.g., empathy, anger expression, direct aggression). Although there were subtle differences among the three measures with regard to their relationships with associated variables, overall the patterns of relationships were similar as well as distinct from the pattern for direct aggression. Factor analysis of scores for measures of aggression revealed that the indirect and relational measures composed a single factor of nondirect aggression, separate from direct aggression. Further factor analysis of all unique items from the nondirect scales found the overall construct of nondirect aggression to comprise six distinct factors. Implications for applications and further research are discussed.