Untersuchung über den frühkindlichen Trotz

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Reformation,Africa, and Diakonia

What does the inheritance of Reformation mean for Africa in church and in society in the context of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace of the World Council of Churches? This article argues that the commemoration of the Reformation provides important markers for the global and ecumenical context drawing from the three dimensions of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace; namely, celebrating the gifts of the Reformation, visiting the wounds of injustices, and identifying areas that require transformation or have already showed signs of hope for transformation toward justice for all. Throughout the conversation, there is constant questioning of what the Reformation should look like in the context of Africa to reject distortion of truth and embrace the experience of justice for all. For the way forward, the proposal is made that focusing on action through diakonia will bring meaningful transformation in the church and society in a way that promotes ecumenism and life in fullness for all the children of God and God's creation.     

The Unique Relationship of Emotion Regulation and Alexithymia in Predicting Somatization Versus PTSD Symptoms

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has received considerable attention in the field of trauma studies. Yet trauma survivors suffer from other psychological and physical symptoms including somatic complaints, or somatization. The extent to which the same emotional processes that predict PTSD are implicated in somatization has remained relatively unexamined. We contend that emotion regulation difficulties and alexithymia are also implicated in somatization, and the way in which these factors interact differentially place one at risk for somatization or PTSD. Regression analyses revealed that emotion regulation difficulties were more highly correlated with somatization for individuals who also reported greater alexithymia. This interaction was not observed for PTSD symptoms where both alexithymia and emotion regulation difficulties uniquely predicted PTSD symptoms.     

“In the Image of God”: Reconstructing and Developing a Grassroots African Queer Theology from Urban Zambia

This article is a contribution towards the development of queer theologies in contemporary African contexts. Based on fieldwork in the gay community in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia, the article explores the significance of the theological notion of the Imago Dei, the image of God, in the self-understanding of Zambian gay men as being gay and Christian. Bringing this incipient grassroots theology into conversation with broader theological discourses, in particular African theology (including African women's theology) and queer theology, we interrogate current understandings of the Imago Dei that either ignore sexuality or exclude same-sex loving people (in African theology) or that conceptualize queerness from white Western privileged perspectives (in queer theology). Hence we develop the notion of the Imago Dei as a stepping stone towards an African queer theology.     

Thought Control: Is It Ability, Strategies, or Both That Predicts Posttraumatic Symptomatology in Victims of Interpersonal Trauma?

Cognitive models of PTSD have implicated thought control in the development, maintenance, and recovery from PTSD. The present study extends previous research on thought control (ability and strategies) and it’s relation to posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in a sample of interpersonal trauma (IPT) survivors. Results revealed that weak thought control ability mediated the relationship between accumulated discrete IPT experiences and PTSS severity. Weak thought control ability was associated with greater use of thought control strategies, and thought control strategies of punishment and suppression added significant variance over and above the effects of accumulated IPT experiences and thought control ability in predicting PTSS severity. Furthermore, weak thought control ability was related to greater PTSS severity through the use of punishment and suppression thought control strategies. The present findings extend previous research and provide further support for theoretical assumptions of current treatment approaches for PTSD.     

Culture-specific models of men's sexual aggression: intra- and interpersonal determinants

The role of intra- and interpersonal variables was examined in samples of Asian American (N = 91) and European American (N = 377) men. A path model for Asian American men suggested 2 interpersonal paths and 1 intrapersonal path to sexual aggression. For Asian Americans, concern about social standing is a risk factor among those who hold misogynous beliefs and who use alcohol before sex. Concern about the negative reputational impact of sexual aggression is a protective factor among Asian Americans who do not hold these negative attitudes. A European American model suggested only an intrapersonal path to sexual aggression consisting of misogynous beliefs, with interpersonal variables not being predictive of sexual aggression. These results suggest both individualist and collectivist determinants of Asian American sexual aggression, whereas only individualist determinants were found for European American sexual aggression.     

Major Challenges for African Women Theologians in Theological Education (1989–2008)

The paper reflects on the major challenges for African women theologians in theological education as presented and experienced in the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians (“Circle”) which was launched in Ghana in 1989 as a community of African women theologians who come together to reflect on what it means to them to be women of faith within their experiences of religion, culture, politics and social‐economic structures in Africa. Four major challenges are identified that African women theologians have had to contend with and which are still present, namely (1) re‐defining the identity of African women theologians; (2) promoting more women to study theology and be on permanent staff; (3) inclusion of African women's theology in the theological curriculum; and (4) collaboration with male theologians.     

Conflict frequency with mothers and fathers from middle childhood to late adolescence: within- and between-families comparisons

The authors examined siblings' dyadic and differential conflict frequency with mothers and fathers from 7 to 19 years of age. Participants were first- and second-borns from 201 families who reported their conflict with each parent in 4 home interviews spaced over 5 years. Multilevel models examining trajectories of conflict frequency across age and year of study revealed that (a) consistent with a spillover hypothesis, elevation in parent-offspring conflict frequency was timed to firstborns' transition to adolescence for both siblings; and (b) consistent with a learning-from-experience hypothesis, there was no increase in conflict frequency at second-borns' transition to adolescence. These findings highlight the importance of studying the development of parent-offspring conflict within the larger family system.     

Online daters' reactions to sexually explicit initiation messages

This study used expectancy violations theory and uses and gratifications theory to conduct an experiment investigating how the content of relationship initiation messages, recipients' gender, and recipients' motives for using online dating applications shape whether and how the initiation message violates recipients' expectations. Participants (N = 275) were recruited through an emergent adult population at a large Midwestern university and identified primarily as women (66.7%), heterosexual (79%), and white (64.5%). Participants were randomly assigned to imagine matching with someone through online dating who sent either a traditional greeting or sexually explicit content in their initial message. As predicted, receiving a sexually explicit message was more unexpected and perceived more negatively than receiving an ordinary greeting, but the intensity of that negative reaction was moderated by users' motives for using online dating apps and gender. Negative reactions to receiving sexually explicit content were amplified for women and individuals interested in long-term relationships. Negative reactions were dampened for men and online daters interested in casual sexual relationships. The implications of the findings are discussed in relation to expectancy violations theory and research on relationship initiation in online contexts.