SELF-ESTEEM AND SEX-ROLE ATTITUDES

Two groups of 15-year-old girls, one Italian-Australian (IA, n = 60), and one Anglo-Australian (AA, n = 48), were compared on self-esteem and a wide range of measures associated with sex roles, including sex-role satisfaction, sex-role orientation, and assessment of and attitudes toward sex-role differentiation in the family and the culture. Self-esteem and sex-role satisfaction did not differ in the two groups. Nor were there differences in attitudes toward sex-role differentiation, even though cultural and familial differentiation were greater in the IA group and males were accorded relatively more value. However, the groups did differ in the pattern of variables associated with self-esteem and with these sex-role measures. In the more traditional IA subculture, girls' sex-role attitudes correlated with situational constraints. Unlike the AA girls, self-esteem was, in part, associated with stereotypic feminine attributes and preoccupations, and conformed to the androgyny model of well-being. In the AA group, sex-role attitudes and self-esteem were associated with perceptions of personal qualities valued in the broader, more egalitarian culture, such as intellectual ability and masculinity, thus confirming the masculinity model.     

The Continuum of “Survivorship”: Definitional Issues in the Aftermath of Suicide

In light of prevailing confusion over the meaning of the term “suicide survivor,” we propose a more exact terminology for designating different levels of impact on those left behind by suicide, ranging on a continuum from those exposed to suicide through those who are affected by it and finally to those who are bereaved by suicide in the short‐ or long‐term, as a function of their loss of a close emotional attachment through this tragic form of loss. We briefly note the possible utility of this terminological specificity in promoting more clearly targeted research and intervention efforts, and call for closer investigation of various categories of “survivorship” in future studies.