Mainstreaming Gender in Theological Education

This article identifies themes and strategies for mainstreaming gender in theological education, based on the author's experience with theological education in Jamaica, the US, and Canada. It begins with the need to “visit the wounds” in such a way that realism about suffering can be accompanied by strategies for healing, transformation, and celebration of the reign of God already with us and in celebration of our agency to work toward it on earth as it is in heaven.     

Is it in your face?: Exploring the effects of sexual dimorphism on perception of leadership potential

Perceptions of a leader in a work environment is important from 2 perspectives: the leader themselves and more importantly the external observer. But what information does the observer use when making these judgments of leadership potential? Many studies on role congruity have demonstrated that gender stereotyping and perceived leadership ability is strongly tied to gender role incongruity. The role of facial appearance has been associated with leadership status and potential and becomes essentially relevant in military settings. Thus, the manner in which an individual’s face is perceived and evaluated may impact perceptions of his or her leadership ability and subsequent success. The present study seeks to extend research on how sex and gender characteristics of an individual’s face may possibly influence the perception of leadership abilities in a military service academy. Findings indicated that participants preferred individuals with gender congruent faces, which may reflect a preference for physical prowess and abilities.     

Children lose confidence in their potential to “be scientists,” but not in their capacity to “do science”

Over the course of middle childhood, children's interest and beliefs about their own capacities for success in science often decline. This pernicious decline is especially evident among underrepresented groups, including girls, members of some racial and ethnic minorities, and children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The present research (N = 306, ages 6–11) found that while children lose interest and feelings of efficacy about their potential to “be scientists” across middle childhood, they maintain more robust interest and efficacy about “doing science.” These patterns were confirmed in both longitudinal and cross‐sectional analyses; effects were stable or increased across time and age. Mediation analyses revealed that the positive effect of action framing is partially accounted for by children's views that the group of people who do science is more inclusive than the category of scientists. These findings suggest that using action‐focused language to encourage children in science is more inclusive and may lead to more science engagement across middle childhood than language that emphasizes scientists as an identity category. Implications for educational practices will be discussed.     

The analysis and treatment of vocal stereotypy in a child with autism

This study examined procedures for the assessment and treatment of automatically reinforced vocal stereotypy of a 6‐year‐old girl with autism. Stimulus assessments were conducted to identify toys that were correlated with higher rates of vocal stereotypy and toys that were not. A concurrent operants assessment identified preferred stimuli (toys that produced auditory stimulation), which were then used as reinforcers for the non‐occurrence of vocal stereotypy. A reversal design was used to compare the effects of a fixed time schedule of reinforcement (FT 1‐min) to differential reinforcement for the non‐occurrence of behavior (DRO) to reduce vocal stereotypy. Implementation of the FT schedule revealed no effect, whereas the DRO schedule led to a reduction in the target behavior during treatment sessions and across the school day. This study adds to the body of literature supporting the identification of matched stimuli to reduce non‐socially mediated problem behavior. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Making human research safe: Why we cannot afford to fail

This paper was given as a keynote address at the international conference on Ethics of Intellectual Property Rights and Patents held in Warsaw, Poland on April 23–24, 2004. The address was the introductory presentation to the important topic of protecting individuals who participate in research as research subjects.     

Postural muscle responses following changing balance threats in young, stable older, and unstable older adults

The authors determined the postural muscle response to support surface perturbations, in relation to aging and level of stability of 16 young adults and 32 older adults who were classified into stable (SOA) and unstable (UOA) groups on the basis of their functional balance abilities. Forward and backward support surface translations of various amplitudes and velocities were used so that postural responses of the standing adults could be elicited. The thigh and leg postural muscle responses were recorded with surface electromyography (EMG). The older groups had significantly longer onset latency in the anterior postural muscles, smaller integrated EMG in the posterior muscles, and greater extent of integrated EMG attenuation over time. The UOA showed longer onset latency in the gastrocnemius following slow backward perturbation and used a greater percentage of the functional capacity of the gastrocnemius muscle than the SOA did. Those findings indicate that the SOA and UOA had limited ability to adapt to changing balance threats; the UOA were more limited than the SOA. When designing balance training programs, therefore, therapists should consider the adult's level of functional stability.     

Effects of Enforcement of Youth Access Laws on Smoking Prevalence

Smoking is the primary preventable cause of death, and yet 3,000 adolescents become smokers each day. Most adult smokers begin this deadly habit when they are under the age of 18, which is the minimum legal age for the purchase of cigarettes. The majority of adolescent smokers are able to purchase cigarettes even though laws prohibit the sale of cigarettes to minors. In the late 1980s, Woodridge, IL, became one of the first towns in the nation to demonstrate a significant reduction in the ability of youth to purchase cigarettes. Almost 2 years after passage of this legislation, the percentage of regular smokers among 7th- and 8th-grade students had been reduced from 16 to 5%. Seven-year follow-up data in a sample of high school youths indicate that youths living in communities with regular enforcement had significantly less smoking than those living in communities without regular enforcement. In particular, rates of regular smoking were 8.1% in communities with regular enforcement versus 15.5% in communities without regular enforcement. It is possible that adolescents who had restricted access to tobacco products were less likely to become regular smokers. These findings have important public health implications, particularly in light of recent federal legislation mandating that all states develop programs to reduce access of youth to tobacco products.     

MATERNITY LEAVE, ROLE QUALITY, WORK INVOLVEMENT, AND MENTAL HEALTH ONE YEAR AFTER DELIVERY

Employment status, maternity leave, and role quality were investigated as predictors of women's mental health one year after delivery. Homemakers and part-time and full-time employees did not differ on measures of depression, anxiety, anger, or self-esteem. There were no main effects of leave length. Distress was associated with job overload, role restriction, and infant distress. Leave length interacted with the relative salience of work and family, and employment status interacted with employment preference to predict distress. Depression was greatest among women relatively high in work salience when leaves were long. Anxiety and anger were greatest among women whose employment status was not congruent with their preferences. These interactions underscore the importance of individual differences in responses to leave and work.     

TRAINING PARENTS TO USE THE NATURAL LANGUAGE PARADIGM TO INCREASE THEIR AUTISTIC CHILDREN'S SPEECH

Parents of four nonverbal and four echolalic autistic children were trained to increase their children's speech by using the Natural Language Paradigm (NLP), a loosely structured procedure conducted in a play environment with a variety of toys. Parents were initially trained to use the NLP in a clinic setting, with subsequent parent-child speech sessions occurring at home. The results indicated that following training, parents increased the frequency with which they required their children to speak (i.e., modeled words and phrases, prompted answers to questions). Correspondingly, all children increased the frequency of their verbalizations in three nontraining settings. Thus, the NLP appears to be an efficacious program for parents to learn and use in the home to increase their children's speech.