“My iPhone Changed My Life”: How Digital Technologies Can Enable Women’s Consumption of Online Sexually Explicit Materials

Digital technologies continue to change the ways women can access and consume sexual materials online, including pornography. Yet, limited research has considered the possibilities of digital technologies to enhance women’s access and consumption of online pornographic materials. In this paper, we use a cyberfeminist lens to examine women’s experiences consuming online sexually explicit materials, which most women defined as pornography including videos and images. In particular, we consider the ways women who identify as porn consumers can use digital technologies to enable and enhance their consumption of these pornographic materials. Drawing on qualitative, in-depth interviews with 11 women, our findings illustrate the ways women can use digital technologies to consume pornography online in ways that help them to fulfill their sexual needs, embrace and explore their sexual selves, connect in sexual relationships, and normalize their sexual desires.     

Changes Over Time in the Comprehension of <Emphasis Type="Italic">He</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">They</Emphasis> as Epicene Pronouns

An epicene pronoun is a gender-neutral singular pronoun used in sentences when the gender of the subject is unknown or unspecified. In English, he and they are commonly-used epicene pronouns. Until recently, he has been widely accepted as being grammatically correct. However, many have argued that he is sexist because it may bias people to think about males. Two experiments were performed using a lexical decision task in which participants reacted to gendered words (e.g., aunt and uncle) after reading sentences using he, they, or unrelated epicene pronouns. We conducted the experiments 15 years apart in order to explore whether change in pronoun usage and the social significance of pronouns would be associated with different priming effects. Both experiments demonstrated that pronouns influence the processing of gendered nouns. However, in Experiment 1 they facilitated the processing of feminine nouns whereas in Experiment 2, he slowed the processing of feminine nouns. We discuss these results with respect to language change and conclude that they is a more effective epicene.     

Intra- and Inter-Individual Differences in Adolescent Depressive Mood: the Role of Relationships with Parents and Friends

Utilizing four waves of data from 1126 secondary school Dutch adolescents (Mage = 13.95 at the first wave; 53% boys), the current study examined the interplay between parent-adolescent and friend-adolescent relationship quality (satisfaction and conflict) in relation to adolescents’ depressive mood. Using multilevel analyses, the interacting effects of parent/friend relationship quality on depressive mood were tested at both the intra- and inter-individual level. Analyses at the intra-individual level investigated whether individual depressive mood fluctuated along with changes in their social relationships regardless of one’s general level of depressive mood; and analyses at the inter-individual level examined whether the average differences in depressive mood between adolescents were associated with different qualities of social relationships. We interpreted the patterns of interactions between parent and friend relationships using four theoretical models: the reinforcement, toxic friends, compensation, and additive model. The results demonstrate the covariation of parent- and friend- relationship quality with adolescents’ depressive mood, and highlight that parent and peer effects are not independent from each other—affirming the compensation and additive models at the intra-individual and the reinforcement and additive models at the inter-individual level. The findings highlight the robustness of the protective effects of parent and peer support and the deleterious effects of conflictual relationships for adolescent mental health. The results have implications for both the theoretical and practical design of (preventive) interventions aimed at decreasing adolescents’ depressive mood.     

Project STARS (Studies on Trajectories of Adolescent Relationships and Sexuality): A longitudinal,multi-domain study on sexual development of Dutch adolescents

This study gives an overview of Project STARS (Studies on Trajectories of Adolescent Relationships and Sexuality), a four-wave longitudinal study of 1297 Dutch adolescents. First, the sample, measures and four sub-projects are described. Second, hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine how key variables from the individual domain (impulsivity), parent domain (parent–adolescent relationship quality), peer domain (involvement with peers) and media domain (time spent on social networking sites), and their interactions predict changes in the experience with sexual behaviour of adolescents across time. Results showed that higher levels of impulsivity, lower quality of relation with parents, more frequent involvement with peers and more time spent on social networking sites at baseline predicted increases in sexual experience of adolescents over a subsequent 1.5-year time period. No interaction effects among the domains were found. The findings highlight the significance of a multi-domain approach to the study of adolescent sexual development.     

Longitudinal Impact of a Family Critical Time Intervention on Children in High-Risk Families Experiencing Homelessness: A Randomized Trial

A randomized trial compared effects of a Family Critical Time Intervention (FCTI) to usual care for children in 200 newly homeless families in which mothers had diagnosable mental illness or substance problems. Adapted from an evidence‐based practice to prevent chronic homelessness for adults with mental illnesses, FCTI combines housing and structured, time‐limited case management to connect families leaving shelter with community services. Families were followed at five time points over 24 months. Data on 311 children—99 ages 1.5–5 years, 113 ages 6–10 years, and 99 ages 11–16 years—included mother‐, teacher‐, and child‐reports of mental health, school experiences, and psychosocial well‐being. Analyses used hierarchical linear modeling to investigate intervention effects and changes in child functioning over time. Referral to FCTI reduced internalizing and externalizing problems in preschool‐aged children and externalizing for adolescents 11–16. The intervention led to declines in self‐reported school troubles for children 6–10 and 11–16. Both experimental and control children in all age groups showed reductions in symptoms over time. Although experimental results were scattered, they suggest that FCTI has the potential to improve mental health and school outcomes for children experiencing homelessness.     

Cultural Competence and School Counselor Training: A Collective Case Study

This collective case study investigated the experiences of bilingual counselors‐in‐training who assessed school‐wide cultural competence in public schools. Analysis and interpretation of data resulted in the identification of 5 themes: eye‐opening experiences, recognition of strengths, the role of school leaders, road maps for change, and empowering marginalized groups. Implications and recommendations are discussed. Este estudio de caso colectivo investigó las experiencias de consejeros bilingües en formación que evaluaron la competencia cultural institucional en escuelas públicas. El análisis e interpretación de los datos dieron como resultado la identificación de 5 temas: experiencias reveladoras, reconocimiento de puntos fuertes, el papel de los líderes académicos, hojas de ruta para el cambio y empoderamiento de grupos marginalizados. Se discuten las implicaciones y recomendaciones.     

Investing Even in Uneven Contests: Effects of Asymmetry on Investment in Contests

Many competitions, such as political campaigns, innovative endeavors, sports, or courting rituals, require investment of nonrefundable resources: One contestant wins the prize for the invested amount, whereas all others lose their investments without receiving compensation. Frequently, contests are asymmetric, because of differing resources or prize valuations. Does asymmetry discourage the weaker contestants from investing? Do stronger contestants take this into account and also invest less? Or does the desire to win abolish these differences? Two experiments explored the effects of asymmetry between the contestants—arising from their resources or prizes—on nonrefundable investments. Subjects repeatedly competed in both symmetric and asymmetric contests, enabling within‐subject comparisons. We observed an effect of asymmetry only when it concerned resources: Subjects overall invested less when their resources were unequal, whereas inequality in the prizes did not influence investments. This pattern suggests that winning itself is motivating. The changes between consecutive investments can be explained by reactions to the previous outcome (win or loss): Across all contests, investment decreased following a win and increased following a loss. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Not all semantics: Similarities and differences in reminiscing function and content between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians

This study explored why and how Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians remember the past. Indigenous Australians traditionally share a strong oral tradition in which customs, personal and cultural histories, and other narratives are passed across groups and between generations by word of mouth. Drawing on this tradition, in which inherent value is placed on sharing knowledge and maintaining connectedness with others, we hypothesised that Indigenous Australians would be more likely than non-Indigenous Australians to report reminiscing to fulfil social functions (but not self or directive functions). Furthermore, we hypothesised that Indigenous Australians would recall personal past experiences more elaborately than would non-Indigenous Australians. In Study 1, 33 Indigenous Australians and 76 non-Indigenous Australians completed Webster's Reminiscence Functions Scale. As predicted, Indigenous participants reported higher scores on subscales related to social functions than did non-Indigenous Australians: particularly “Teach/Inform” and “Intimacy Maintenance”. They also scored higher on the “Identity” subscale. In Study 2, 15 Indigenous and 14 non-Indigenous Australians shared three memories from the distant and recent past. While Indigenous and non-Indigenous narratives did not differ in either emotion or elaboration, Indigenous Australians provided more memory context and detail by including a greater proportion of semantic memory content. Taken together, these findings suggest differences in both why and how Australians remember.