Using the Theory of Gender and Power to Examine Experiences of Partner Violence,Sexual Negotiation,and Risk of HIV/AIDS Among Economically Disadvantaged Women in Southern India

This article uses the Theory of Gender and Power to examine women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in order to: understand the vulnerability of female sex workers/poor women due to poverty and lack of educational resources; explore women's vulnerability in the context of client/partner violence, alcohol use, male partner's high-risk behaviors, and women's lack of control in their intimate relationships; and explore the role of traditional heterosexual gender norms in the outcomes of sexual negotiation. Ethnographic data were collected from 32 women and 38 men in India as part of an ongoing National Institute of Mental Health study. Results highlighted women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS stemming from partner violence, alcohol use, poverty, dangers of sex work environments, and tacit acceptance of cultural/gender norms.     

Advocates Speak Out on Adult Sexual Assault: A Unique Crime Demands a Unique Response

Research documents the challenges presented to victims of sexual assault whose cases move through the criminal justice system. One key vantage point from which to understand how survivors experience the criminal justice system is from the perspective of the crisis center advocates who work with them. Graduate student research teams conducted semistructured interviews with rape crisis advocates across one Northeastern state. The voices of crisis center advocates raise key points that might help in the development of new procedures and processes for how adult sexual assault cases are handled in the justice system.     

Trajectories of relationship satisfaction: Independent contributions of capitalization and support perceptions

Associations among perceptions of partner responses to disclosures about capitalization and support experiences and relationship satisfaction were examined over 1 year in 268 individuals in romantic relationships. Multilevel modeling indicated that capitalization and support perceptions covaried over 1 year, but they independently predicted contemporaneous relationship satisfaction and appeared to be compensatory processes. However, with increasing relationship duration, support perceptions became more strongly associated with relationship satisfaction, whereas capitalization perceptions became less strongly associated with relationship satisfaction, suggesting that capitalization perceptions may play less of a buffering role with time. Results suggested that perceiving partners as interested and enthusiastic in the face of triumph, and as caring and supportive in the face of difficulties, serve important and independent relationship maintenance functions.     

Local and global processing biases fail to influence face,object, and word recognition

Three studies investigated whether encouraging people to use either global or local processing using the Navon task (Navon, 1977 Navon, D. 1977. Forest before the trees: The precedence of global features in visual perception. Cognitive Psychology, 9: 353–383. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) influenced recognition memory for upright and inverted pictures of faces, objects, and words. Contrary to the striking results of Macrae and Lewis (2002 Macrae, C. N. and Lewis, H. L. 2002. Do I know you? Processing orientation and face recognition. Psychological Science, 13: 194–196. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), no effect of such cross-task processing biases were found. In particular, encouraging global processing did not improve the recognition of upright faces, whilst encouraging local processing failed to improve the recognition of words. These results suggest that using the Navon task to manipulate people's processing strategy typically does not have a large, consistent effect on recognition memory. Instead, prior performance of an unrelated task may only influence subsequent recognition memory under restricted circumstances. Therefore, the cross-task processing bias effect does not provide researchers with a powerful, reliable tool with which to investigate the relative importance of local versus global, configural processing of visual stimuli.     

The Impact of Emotional Dissonance on Organizational Commitment and Intention to Turnover

In the workplace, emotional dissonance is the conflict between experienced emotions and emotions expressed to conform to display rules. This study is an empirical examination of the impact of emotional dissonance on organizational criteria and its moderation by self-monitoring and social support. Emotional dissonance was theorized to stimulate turnover intentions, either solely through job dissatisfaction or through both job dissatisfaction and reduced organizational commitment. Job dissatisfaction was found to be the sole mediator. Emotional dissonance resulted in job dissatisfaction, which, in turn, stimulated withdrawal intentions. Self-monitoring and social support exerted moderator effects, albeit in opposing directions. Emotional dissonance aroused feelings of job dissatisfaction and reduced organizational commitment among high self-monitors. In contrast, social support lessened the negative impact of emotional dissonance on organizational commitment.     

Assessment of Multiple Membership Multilevel Models: An Application to Interviewer Effects on Nonresponse

Multilevel multiple membership models account for situations where lower level units are nested within multiple higher level units from the same classification. Not accounting correctly for such multiple membership structures leads to biased results. The use of a multiple membership model requires selection of weights reflecting the hypothesized contribution of each level two unit and their relationship to the level one outcome. The Deviance Information Criterion (DIC) has been proposed to identify such weights. For the case of logistic regression, this study assesses, through simulation, the model identification rates of the DIC to detect the correct multiple membership weights, and the properties of model variance estimators for different weight specifications across a range of scenarios. The study is motivated by analyzing interviewer effects across waves in a longitudinal study. Interviewers can substantially influence the behavior of sample survey respondents, including their decision to participate in the survey. In the case of a longitudinal survey several interviewers may contact sample members to participate across different waves. Multilevel multiple membership models are suitable to account for the inclusion of higher-level random effects for interviewers at various waves, and to assess, for example, the relative importance of previous and current wave interviewers on current wave nonresponse. To illustrate the application, multiple membership models are applied to the UK Family and Children Survey to identify interviewer effects in a longitudinal study. The paper takes a critical view on the substantive interpretation of the model weights and provides practical guidance to statistical modelers. The main recommendation is that it is best to specify the weights in a multiple membership model by exploring different weight specifications based on the DIC, rather than prespecifying the weights.     

Is Social Justice Relative When It Comes to Oral Health? The Realities of a Complex Health Issue

For decades pastoral theology has emphasized care for the whole person and, more recently, this focus has been expanded to include caring for the physical health of parishioners. However, an overlooked area of general fitness has been the importance of oral health. Dental caries and periodontal disease are among the most common chronic diseases that disproportionately affect the most vulnerable populations. Despite significant progress in preventing and managing these oral diseases, there is a large segment of the population that have not experienced the same gains. This paper seeks to begin to fill this gap by identifying key epidemiological, professional and ethical issues related to social justice and oral health. Disparities of oral disease and access to oral health care in the United States will be addressed by examining questions and issues related to social justice. Critical problems are identified, including inadequate financial resources, a disjointed infrastructure of care, separation from the general medical care system, and poor understanding of important oral health determinants. Furthermore, if oral health is integral to one’s overall health and general well-being, then the concept of a basic human right should be entertained. Faith-based groups could provide a link for bridging this disparity gap in oral health among their parishioners through active listening, advocacy and targeted educational programs.     

Do core self‐evaluations and trait emotional intelligence predict subjective well‐being in dental students?

We examined unique associations between surface personality traits of emotional intelligence, core self‐evaluations, and subjective well‐being in dental students. A cross‐sectional study of 218 undergraduates showed that trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) and core self‐evaluations (CSE) predicted subjective well‐being controlling the Big Five personality traits. Structural equation modeling showed that trait EI and the neuroticism component of CSE better predicted affective components of subjective well‐being, and cognitive CSE traits (self‐esteem, self‐efficacy, and locus of control) better predicted life satisfaction, the cognitive component of subjective well‐being. These findings demonstrate the utility of a parallel‐process approach that specifies differential prediction of cognitive and affective subjective well‐being components.     

Teenage Drug and Alcohol Use: Comparing Individual and Contextual Effects

While both macro- and micro-level studies have identified important correlates of substance use, multi-level models may explain more than each level alone. Drawing on extant research and Akers' (1998 Akers , Ronald L. 1998 . Social Learning and Social Structure: A General Theory of Crime and Deviance . Boston : Northeastern University Press . [Google Scholar]) Social Structure-Social Learning model, we offer hypotheses about the relationship between contextual- and individual-level explanatory variables and substance use. The sample included 85,000 students in 202 school districts. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed low socioeconomic status, percent rural, and racial composition directly affected use of some substances net individuals' characteristics. Further, the effects of gender, age, and class were substantially mediated by differential association and school bonds, which significantly influenced alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy, and methamphetamine use.     

Cultural aspects of male sex aggression

Sex aggression is the forceful pursuit of a sexual goal that offends the victim. Most college women report encountering sex aggression, and about one quarter of college males admit forcefully persisting in their pursuit of a sexual goal after they realize that it is disagreeable and offensive to the female. Three explanations for the existence of this substantial number of sex aggressors are discussed and tested. The data are not consistent with the explanation that the young men are responding to feelings of powerlessness. The data are consistent with the explanation that sex aggression is a socially learned aggressive behavior. The data are also consistent with the explanation that sex aggression is a response to structural strain (Merton's anomie) that is mediated by cultural legitimations.