CONSUETUDO CARNALIS IN AUGUSTINE'S CONFESSIONS: Confessing Identity/Belonging to Difference

The political theorist William E. Connolly reads Augustine's Confessions as an exhortation to deny the paradox of identity/difference. The paradox for Connolly is this: if one confesses a true identity, one must be false to difference, but if one is true to difference, one must sacrifice the promise of true identity. I revisit Augustine's Confessions here in order to offer a reading of their paradoxical character that contrasts with Connolly's. I will argue that Augustine's confession does not deny the paradox of identity/difference but exemplifies what it means to struggle within it. I turn to James Wetzel's work on Augustine's idea of free will and Catherine Keller's work on the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo to suggest that treating Augustine's confession as confession reveals this struggle.     

Inspection times, the change task, and the rapid-response selection task

Three experiments are reported, which are based upon the Wason four-card selection task inspection time paradigm, in which subjects solve computer-presented trials while using a mouse to indicate the card currently under consideration. Evans (1996) had shown that selected cards were inspected for longer than non-selected cards, and this was taken as support for the existence of pre-conscious heuristic processes that direct attention towards relevant aspects of a problem. However, Roberts (1998b) suggested that this inspection time effect is artefactual, due to task format induced biases. Experiment 1 utilized a "change" task: Cards were presented either as selected or not selected, and subjects changed these where necessary. This demonstrated an association between card selection and inspection time independently of one between the act of response and inspection time. Experiment 2 utilized a standard selection task, but subjects either responded within 2 s of each card presentation, or made selections with no time pressure. The curtailment of thinking time increased matching behaviour—more cards matching the terms in the rules were selected—and was replicated in Experiment 3 using a within-subjects design. Overall, the data support Evans' heuristic-analytic framework albeit with some caveats.     

Differences in nonfatal suicide behaviors among Mexican and European American middle school children.

This report describes ethnic and gender differences in suicide ideation among two large samples of middle school students in New Mexico (n = 2,140) and Texas (n = 1,302). Students completed a self-administered questionnaire on suicide ideation and psychosocial risk factors. Mexican Americans in both samples reported significantly higher prevalence of suicide ideation than did their European American counterparts. Mexican Americans were 1.8 times more likely to have high suicide ideation than European Americans. The suicide ideation risk for Mexican Americans remained unchanged in both samples after adjusting for gender, age, family structure, depression, low social support, and self-esteem. This study indicates that ethnicity plays an important role in suicidal ideation, but the mechanism remains unclear.     

Mothers’ Trait Verbal Aggressiveness as a Predictor of Maternal and Child Behavior During Playtime Interactions

This article explores associations between mothers’ trait verbal aggressiveness (VA) and maternal and child behavior during playtime interactions. Forty mothers completed a 10‐minute play period with one of their children (range = 3–8 years) and then responded to D. A. Infante and C. J. Wigley’s (1986) trait VA scale. Mothers’ trait VA was associated positively (r = .48) with their rate of directing and inversely (r =?.44) with their child’s rated cooperation. Qualitative analyses of a subset (n = 8) of interactions suggest that mothers high in trait VA used directives to control the choice, rate, and duration of activities, and used physical negative touch along with directives, more than low‐VA mothers. Behaviors associated with trait VA occur even during brief mother–child interactions in which triggers for aggressive behavior largely are absent.     

UK students and sex work: current knowledge and research issues

Available evidence, largely arecdotal suggests that students are turning to quick ways of making money such as work in the sex industry in order to balance their finances, a trend seen in other countries with similar student support and tuition fee policies. Further research is urgently needed to understand the scale of student involvement in sex work and to clarify our understanding of the factors that influence the decision to engage in it. Unfortunately a number of methodological, practical and political problems stand in the way of such research. These are discussed together with preliminary findings from an exploratory study. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self-harm prevalence and ideation in a community sample of cis,trans and other youth

Abstract

Background: Trans youth have been reported to have high rates of self-harm, depression and bullying, and find it difficult to seek support. However, much of this research comes from gender identity clinics; non-clinical samples and those who reject gender binaries remain under-researched.

Aims: This study investigated the experiences of a community school-based sample of Trans, identifying youth, Other, and cis-gendered adolescents in relation to their experiences of low mood, bullying, associated support, self-harm ideation and peer-related self-harm.

Methods: An online survey was completed by 8440 13–17?year olds (3625 male, 4361 female, 227 Other, and 55 Trans).

Results: Trans and Other students had significantly higher rates of self-harm ideation and peer self-harm, in comparison to cis-gendered students. These Trans and Other students reported significantly higher rates of bullying and self-reported depression and significantly less support from teachers and staff at school, in fact these students did not know where to go to access help.

Discussion: This community sample confirms findings of high rates of self-harm ideation, self-reported depression and bullying for Trans youth as previously reported in clinic-based samples. However, by accessing a community sample, the salience of the category “Other” was established for young people today. While Other and Trans identified students both struggled to find support, those who identified as Trans were more likely to have been bullied, and have experienced self-reported depression and thoughts of self-harm. Thus, those who identify as transgender represent a high-risk group that needs targeted support within schools and by statutory and nonstatutory community services. Unpacking the category of Other would be beneficial for future research, as well as exploring resilience within this group and intersecting identities such as sexuality, Autism, or experiences such as earlier abuse.