Sexual Harassment and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms among Asian and White Women

Sexual harassment is a prevalent problem that has been associated with negative psychological and physical health outcomes. Although sexual harassment has been linked to posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms, little is known about how PTS symptoms that arose from sexual harassment experiences might be associated with psychological and physical health. This study examined the associations among sexual harassment, PTS symptoms, and psychological and physical well-being in a sample of Asian and White women. In addition, given the lack of research on sexual harassment among Asian women, we investigated the moderating role of ethnicity. Results indicated that greater sexual harassment frequency and PTS symptom severity predicted more depression, overall psychological distress, and physical symptoms. PTS symptom severity and ethnicity moderated the relationship between sexual harassment frequency and physical symptoms. We discuss the implications of these findings and directions for further research.     

Exploring Gender Differences in the Association Between Childhood Physical Abuse and Thyroid Disorders

This study used a regional subsample (n = 13,070) from the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey to explore the independent contribution of childhood physical abuse to thyroid conditions in adulthood. Gender-specific logistic regression analyses controlled for age and race, in addition to 5 clusters of variables: childhood stressors, health behaviors, general stress levels, mental health, and socioeconomic status. No significant relationship between childhood abuse and thyroid conditions was found in men; however, childhood physical abuse was associated with higher odds of thyroid conditions among women, independent of a wide range of factors. In a fully adjusted model, abused women had 40% higher odds of thyroid conditions compared to their non abused peers, 95% CI [1.05, 1.87]. Future research on gender differences in the abuse–thyroid relationship is warranted.     

Predicting Prosocial Behavior Toward Sex-Trafficked Persons: The Roles of Empathy,Belief in a Just World,and Attitudes Toward Prostitution

Human trafficking has been identified as a global human rights violation. This study aimed to investigate the predictors of prosocial behaviors toward sex-trafficked persons. Participants were 223 undergraduates randomly assigned to read a vignette and answer follow-up questions along with measures of empathy, just world belief, attitudes toward prostitution, and proactive behavior. Empathy was highest for trafficked women, regardless of citizenship status. Trafficked foreign women received the highest empathy, and U.S. prostitutes received the least. Path analysis results indicate just world belief, beliefs about prostitutes, and family values relating to prostitution had direct effects on empathic concern; in turn, empathic concern had a direct effect on proactive behavior. Explanations for the results are discussed, along with educational and clinical implications.     

Lecturers' faces fatigue their students: Face identity aftereffects for dynamic and static faces

Face adaptation has been used as a tool to probe our representations for facial identity. It has also been claimed to play a functional role in face processing, perhaps calibrating the visual system towards encountered faces. However, for this to be so, face aftereffects must be observable following adaptation to ecologically valid moving stimuli, not just after prolonged viewing of static images. We adapted our participants to videos, static image sequences or single images of the faces of lecturers who were personally familiar to them. All three stimulus types produced significant, and equivalent, face identity aftereffects, demonstrating that aftereffects are not confined to static images but can occur after exposure to more naturalistic stimuli. It is also further evidence against explanations of face adaptation effects solely in terms of low-level visual processing.     

Desistance from intimate partner violence: A critical review

Evidence suggests that a significant proportion of men who have been violent towards their partners desist from such violent behaviors; yet, research examining desistance from intimate partner violence (IPV) is limited. This omission is surprising given that an understanding of desistance processes is required to inform evidence-based IPV interventions. In this critical review of the empirical literature, eligible studies included 15 publications, identified through electronic databases and hand searches of bibliographies that directly investigated the cessation of physical violence against an intimate partner, by heterosexual men. No single theory was identified that explains desistance from IPV. However, empirical studies reveal that the severity and frequency of violence is associated with desistance, with those using moderate levels of violence being more likely to desist than those who engage in severe violence. Typology research suggests differences in individual characteristics (e.g., low psychopathology and impulsivity) can distinguish desisters from persisters. In addition, the nature of the dyad within which the violence occurs is also influential in desistance processes. It is concluded that much more research is needed to inform practice and in particular to examine the role of protective factors in mitigating risk and enabling individuals to desist from IPV.     

Spiritual pathology and religious coping as predictors of forgiveness

Spiritual pathology, religious coping, and dispositional forgiveness were investigated in two studies with graduate students at a Christian university-based seminary. Spiritual pathology was operationalised using measures of spiritual instability and spiritual grandiosity. Study 1 (N?=?194) examined patterns of correlation between positive and negative religious coping items, spiritual pathology, and dispositional forgiveness. Spiritual instability correlated with numerous positive and negative religious coping items while spiritual grandiosity did not. Dispositional forgiveness correlated with more positive than negative religious coping items. Study 2 (N?=?214) tested regression models with these variables. Spiritual grandiosity showed a significant quadratic (concave down) effect in predicting dispositional forgiveness while the linear effect was not significant. A hierarchical regression model showed positive religious coping, spiritual instability, and the quadratic effect for spiritual grandiosity each predicted unique variance in dispositional forgiveness after controlling for spiritual impression management. Negative religious coping was not related to dispositional forgiveness when included with these variables.     

The Development of New Tests of Source Memory and a New Approach to the Testing of Equivalence of Parallel Versions

The principal aim of this study was to develop tests of source memory in both the verbal and visuo-spatial domains, which would be brief and easy to use in clinical and population settings. Source memory, that is, memory for context or attributes, is very vulnerable to the effects of ageing and to the early stages of dementia. Because longitudinal studies of cognitive function, including clinical trials, involve repeat testing, practice effects may hamper interpretation when identical tests are administered on each occasion. Accordingly, we developed parallel versions of each of the source memory tests. Rather than assuming equivalence by design, we tested the parallel versions to determine whether they were in fact equivalent in difficulty. We also explored the use of different analytic approaches to establishing equivalence. We report the results of a study in which we compared within- and between-subject performance on three parallel versions of visuo-spatial and verbal source memory tests, as well as three parallel versions of standard tests of episodic memory (word list recall) and executive function (letter fluency, category fluency, ideational fluency) in a sample of healthy elderly volunteers. Participants were tested on three occasions separated by 1 week, and test versions were counterbalanced across test sessions. We also examined performance in a group of participants tested on one occasion only, with test versions being allocated at random. We found that for a number of tests, versions which were designed to be parallel, failed to produce equivalent performance in our sample. We show how the results of this study may be of general use to researchers wishing to select particular versions of the tests in our battery. We also urge researchers to be cautious when using parallel versions of other tests. The careful matching or random allocation of items to parallel versions of a test is no guarantee that performance on the different versions will be equivalent.     

Parent Education in Youth Sport: A Community Case Study of Parents,Coaches, and Administrators

The present community case study was designed to highlight parent, coach, and administrator perceptions of community-based parent education in a youth sport community in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States. Interviews with parents (n?=?12), coaches (n?=?13), and administrators (n?=?11) were interpreted inductively using constructivist thematic analysis. Nine emergent categories are highlighted, including parents’ sport goals for their children, parents’ involvement in youth sport including impacts of involvement on children, and barriers to implementing parent education, as well as potential content for parent education. A proposed sequential framework informing community-based parent education, as well as suggestions for further action, and study limitations are included.     

Foreword--As Per Verse: The Queer in the Clinic in the Poem

This essay introduces a series of poems by six authors: Rafael Campo, Susan Holbrook, Katie Price, Trish Salah, Qwo-Li Driskill, and Brian Teare. I argue that the poems demonstrate that a queer bioethics, whether literary or medical, must dispense with commonplace assumptions about the ways in which selves, especially queer selves, are represented in language. Instead, poetry’s sound-sense and avoidance of language-as-usual can serve as an analogy for modes of approach, analysis, and even recognition that do not receive official sanction; the non-linear modes of reading required by contemporary poetry can serve as methodological models for a queer bioethics.     

Object Relations in Borderlines,Depressives, and Normals: An Examination of Human Responses on the Rorschach

Recently, researchers and clinicians have become increasingly interested in diagnostic distinctions between borderline and mood disorders. Object relations theory provides a useful framework for the comparison of these two overlapping diagnostic categories. In our study, a measure of object relations as represented on the Rorschach, developed by Blatt, Brenneis, Schimeck, and Glick (1976), was applied to data produced by borderline and depressive inpatients and by normal comparison subjects. Portions of the Blatt measure that tap the subject's experience of human action and interaction distinguish among the three diagnostic groups. Specifically, borderlines tend to understand human action as more highly motivated and human interaction as more malevolent in nature than do either depressives or normals. The data indicate that borderlines experience the object-relational world in a way that is fundamentally different from the way normals and depressives perceive it. implications are discussed for theories of borderline object relations.