Evaluation of a decision-making aid for parents regarding childhood immunizations.

This intervention study evaluates a decision-making aid for parents considering childhood immunizations. Participants (women in 3rd trimester of pregnancy, n = 100) rated likelihood of immunizing their child, anxiety, and perceptions of risk of the diseases and immunizations. Individuals were allocated to intervention group (received a decision aid) or control group (received standard care). Ratings were then repeated, and further ratings were obtained when the infant was 10 weeks old. The intervention compared with the comparison condition was associated with significant increase in likelihood of immunizing the infant on time, decreased perceptions of risks of immunizations, increased perceptions of risk of the diseases, reduced anxiety, and increased satisfaction. This intervention may form a useful basis for decision aids in health care settings.     

Going beyond the Human: Christians and Other Transhumanists

Transhumanism is a Christian concept. Although today's transhumanism has secularized the original Christian promise for divinization or theosis by adding evolution and technological progress, Christians should critically re‐take ownership of the role transhumanism plays in the sanctification process.     

A note on the internal consistency of the sexual orientation method

The S.O.M. was administered to two samples of homosexuals. There was some reduction in the number of inconsistent response patterns when a modified scoring system was used. Further examination of the data indicated that an inconsistent style of response might not be simply an index of faking.     

PREDICTORS AND EFFECTS OF SELF-OBJECTIFICATION IN LESBIANS

The majority of research on self-objectification has focused on heterosexual women's experiences. This study sought to examine experiences of self-objectification in lesbian women. A path model was developed to examine the relationships between participants' feminist self-identification, levels of internalized heterosexism, objectified body consciousness, and the clinically relevant variables of negative eating attitudes and depression. As has been found with heterosexual women, body surveillance led to shame, which led to negative clinical outcomes. A direct path was also found between levels of surveillance and negative eating attitudes, consistent with previous research on self-objectification among lesbians. Feminist self-identification was not significantly related to the other variables, in contrast to previous research with heterosexual women. Internalized heterosexism was related to negative clinical outcomes, both indirectly through objectification variables and directly to depressive symptomatology. These results provide evidence that self-objectification and internalized heterosexism have negative impacts on the mental health of lesbian women.