Fat is a Feminist Issue, but it is Complicated: Commentary on Fikkan and Rothblum

Fikkan and Rothblum (2011) review the literature on discrimination and bias against overweight and obese (fat) women. They provide convincing evidence that fat women face discrimination in the workplace, are treated disparately in medical, mental health, and educational settings, are at a disadvantage in social and romantic situations, and are either absent or portrayed negatively in the media. They conclude with the observation that feminists have largely ignored this issue that disproportionately affects women. While I agree that fat is a feminist issue, I also argue that the issue of gender differences in the experience of weight discrimination is more complicated than suggested in the Fikkan and Rothblum review. The commentary concludes with some possible explanations for why feminists have neglected this issue, emphasizing the historical changes in the feminist movement which have taken the focus off of issues primarily related to White middle-class women.     

Social Disconnection and Hazardous Drinking Mediate the Link Between Perfectionistic Attitudes and Depressive Symptoms

According to the perfectionism social disconnection model (PSDM), perfectionism leads to social disconnection (e.g., isolation, loneliness, and alienation) which brings about depressive symptoms. The present study extended the PSDM by testing a dual-pathway mediation model wherein social disconnection and hazardous drinking were hypothesized to explain why perfectionistic attitudes (e.g., intense self-criticism, evaluative concerns, and unrealistic goal-setting) result in depressive symptoms. A sample of 216 college students participated. The present study utilized a cross-sectional design and self-report questionnaires. The hypothesized model fit the data well, with social disconnection and hazardous drinking mediating the perfectionistic attitudes-depressive symptoms link. Students high in perfectionistic attitudes report feeling isolated, lonely, and alienated. To escape this powerful sense of not belonging, these students turn to alcohol in a self-destructive way. Suffering from the ill effects of social disconnection and hazardous drinking, students high in perfectionistic attitudes are vulnerable to depressive symptoms.     

Linguistic Predictors of Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms Following 11 September 2001

Prior research has linked content analysis drawn from text narratives to psychopathology in trauma survivors. This study used a longitudinal design to determine whether linguistic elements of narrative memories of first hearing about the events of 11 September 2001 predict later post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Narratives and self‐report PTSD symptoms were collected within 1 week and again 5 months after 9/11 in 40 undergraduates. People who used more “we” words at Time 1 had fewer acute PTSD symptoms. Use of more cognitive mechanism words, more religion words, more first‐person singular pronouns, and fewer anxiety words at Time 1 were related to more chronic PTSD symptoms. Linguistic characteristics accounted for variance in chronic PTSD symptoms above and beyond acute PTSD symptoms. This study provides evidence that lasting PTSD symptoms can be predicted through language in the immediate aftermath of the trauma. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How Children’s Cognitive and Affective Responses to a Novel Task Relate to the Dimensions of Perfectionism

The current study examined how the Maladaptive Evaluative Concerns (MEC) versus Positive Achievement Striving (PAS) dimensions of perfectionism relate to anxiety, goal-setting, and cognitive appraisal in third-grade to sixth-grade students who completed an object-naming task under three goal-demand conditions: self-set goals, and low and high experimenter goals. The results indicated that children high on a measure of socially prescribed perfectionism (SPP; a measure of MEC) experienced more anxiety across all conditions than children low in SPP. Children scoring high on SPP also rated performing well on the task as more important and were more likely to say they should have performed better than their low SPP counterparts, despite no significant differences in performance or standard-setting. The PAS component of perfectionism was unrelated to children??s responses. These results are consistent with Beck??s cognitive theory and support the utility of the maladaptive evaluative concerns dimension of perfectionism in predicting children??s cognitive and affective responses to new tasks.     

Task practice differentially modulates task-switching performance across the adult lifespan

Cued-trials task-switching paradigms have been used extensively to examine ageing-related changes in cognitive control. Many studies report an increase in mixing cost (i.e., cost of repeating the same task in a single-task vs. a mixed-task block) and a less reliable increase in switch cost (i.e., cost of switching vs. repeating tasks in a mixed-task block) in old as compared to young adults. However, there is substantial variability between studies in the emergence and size of age effects on mixing and/or switch cost. In this study, we examined variation in mixing cost and switch cost as a function of task practice and preparation interval across the adult lifespan (18-79 years) using a paradigm that promotes advance preparation and reduces cue encoding differences between switch and repeat trials. Both preparation interval and task practice modulated mixing cost and switch cost-but task practice mediated the effects of preparation interval and age differentially for mixing cost and switch cost. Mixing cost was consistently larger in older participants, reduced with preparation and varied little with task practice. In contrast, the effect of preparation interval on switch cost varied with task practice. Reduction in switch cost with preparation interval emerged in younger participants by the second practice session and even later in older participants. When fully practiced, older participants showed greater mixing cost but less switch cost than younger participants. Age effects on both mixing cost and switch cost were mediated by changes in processing of repeat trials, indicative of reduced differentiation between switch and repeat trials in mixed-task blocks. This is consistent with reduced cognitive flexibility with increasing age.     

Genetic and environmental influences on executive functions and intelligence in middle childhood

Executive functions (EFs) and intelligence (IQ) are phenotypically correlated. In twin studies, latent variables for EFs and IQ display moderate to high heritability estimates; however, they show variable genetic correlations in twin studies spanning childhood to middle age. We analyzed data from over 11,000 children (9- to 10-year-olds, including 749 twin pairs) in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study to examine the phenotypic and genetic relations between EFs and IQ in childhood. We identified two EF factors—Common EF and Updating-Specific—which were both related to IQ (rs = 0.64–0.81). Common EF and IQ were heritable (53%–67%), and their genetic correlation (rG = 0.86) was not significantly different than 1. These results suggest that EFs and IQ are phenotypically but not genetically separable in middle childhood, meaning that this phenotypic separability may be influenced by environmental factors.     

Saints as the ‘Living Gospel’: Von Balthasar's Revealers of the Revealer,Rahner's Mediators of the Mediator

The theologies of the saints of Hans Urs Von Balthasar and Karl Rahner are grounded in the theologians' distinct articulations of the relationship between nature and grace, Rahner's shaped by his response to the Nouvelle Théologie and Von Balthasar's influenced by his engagement with Henri De Lubac and Karl Barth. It is a generalization, but one useful for drawing contrasts, that for Rahner the saints are mediators of the Mediator and that for Von Balthasar they are revealers of the Revealer. While the theologies can be reconciled, a richer understanding of the function of saints can emerge by maintaining the contrasts. The symbolic capacity of saints in Rahner's thought and the saints' exemplary abandonment to personal mission in Von Balthasar's thought are each an emphasis valuable in communicating saints' instructional and efficacious presence for others in the ecclesial Body.     

Evangelism as Discipleship

This article gives attention to the challenges that the missional and conversational relationship of the church poses in the intercourse between evangelism, discipleship, theological education and leadership formation in its ministry and mission. This multi‐faceted and complex process brings together competing interests with different agendas that, in a number of contexts, have resulted in mis‐evangelization. This has called into question issues about human dignity and respect and the need for reciprocity to inform all missional response of the churches. The article argues that an appropriate model of theological education is needed to equip leaders for effective witness to the gospel. This necessitates the recruitment and mentoring of emerging leaders who have had a life‐changing encounter with the life‐giving Spirit of Jesus that controls their identity, vocation and witness. Some experiences of formal and informal theological education and formation within the Anglo‐Caribbean context were identified that disconnected and disorientated leaders from the Church's missional task of bearing effective witness to the gospel. This article calls for an overhaul of seminary‐ and university‐based theological education careerism, because they serve as an encumbrance to nurturing effective contextual witness of churches. The article argues that if Jesus calls and makes us into his disciples, then faithfulness in discipleship necessitates that (1) authentic evangelism must be grounded in humility and respect for all, (2) leadership formation must be infectiously relational, and (3) the gospel must be communicated through genuine interpersonal and community‐affirming relationships. The article ends with an invitation to all churches to embrace a missional model of witnessing that invests in living with, learning from and sharing with people in communities depending on the Spirit of God in Christ to lead and bear fruit in God's time.     

The Relationship Between Religious Service Attendance and Coronary Heart Disease and Related Risk Factors in Saskatchewan, Canada

Research suggests that attending religious services could provide small yet important protective benefits against coronary heart disease (CHD) and CHD risk factors (e.g., diabetes, hypertension). The extent to which these benefits apply to Canada deserves study because approximately one-third of adult Canadians attend religious services at least monthly. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the association between frequency of religious service attendance and prevalence of (1) CHD, (2) diabetes, and (3) hypertension in Canada. We used the Saskatchewan sample (n = 5,442) of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS-4.1) and built multivariable logistic regression models to evaluate associations between religious service attendance and self-reported CHD, diabetes, and hypertension. After controlling for demographic, socioeconomic and health behavior variables, the association between religious service attendance and prevalence of CHD was not significant (OR = 0.82; 95 % CI 0.61–1.11). However, persons who attended religious services more than once a week exhibited lower prevalence odds of diabetes (OR = 0.60; 95 % CI 0.45–0.80) and hypertension (OR = 0.82; 95 % CI 0.68–0.99) compared to persons who attended less than once a year. The findings of this study are the first to suggest religious service attendance may be associated with a lower prevalence of CHD risk factors in Canada.