Predictors of Satisfaction Among College-Educated African American Women in Midlife

There has been little theorizing or empirical research on satisfaction among African American women at midlife. This study addresses this gap by examining predictors of satisfaction in 3 cohorts (N = 202) of midlife college-educated African American women. Specifically, 3 domains of satisfaction were examined: overall life satisfaction, personal satisfaction, and work satisfaction. Results revealed that the women were highly satisfied with their work situation, their personal life, and generally with how their life had turned out so far. Overall life satisfaction was predicted by the women's perceptions of personal control, role quality, household burden, and their cohort status. Work satisfaction was best predicted by the women's sense of personal control and role quality. Lastly, household burden and physical well-being emerged as significant predictors of personal satisfaction. Implications of the findings and recommendations for future research are offered.     

Mothers’ physical interventions in toddler play in a low-income,African American sample

This mixed method study examined 28 low-income African American mothers’ physical interventions in their 14-month-old toddlers’ play. Inductive methods were used to identify six physical intervention behaviors, the affect accompanying physical interventions, and apparent reasons for intervening. Nonparametric statistical analyses determined that toddlers experienced physical intervention largely in the context of positive maternal affect. Mothers of boys expressed highly positive affect while physically intervening more than mothers of girls. Most physically intervening acts seemed to be motivated by maternal intent to show or tell children how to play or to correct play deemed incorrect. Neutral affect was the most common toddler affect type following physical intervention, but boys were more likely than girls to be upset immediately after physical interventions. Physical interventions intended to protect health and safety seemed the least likely to elicit toddler upset.     

Reviews

Thomas Ryba, The Essence of Phenomenology and Its Meaning for the Scientific Study of Religion
Daniel C. Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Life
Edited by Clifford N. Matthews and Roy A. Varghese, Cosmic Beginnings and Human Ends: Where Science and Religion Meet     

“We're Fighting Two Different Battles Here”: An Exploration of African American Women's Definitions of Self at Predominately White Schools

Using Black feminist thought and the sociocultural model of the self, this paper explores the relationship between race and gender in the self-definitions of African American women attending predominately white colleges and universities. The African American women who participated in the study, suggest that knowledge generated about the self pushes us beyond the categorical thinking that limits our ability to understand the complexity of the self. Data from 13 interviews conducted at two predominately white schools is presented and analyzed. Using this data, I present a way of thinking about the identity of African American women that demonstrates the complexity of defining self within the narrow confines of race and gender.     

Scientific limitations and ethical ramifications of a non-representative Human Genome Project: African American response

The Human Genome Project (HGP) represents a massive merging of science and technology in the name of all humanity. While the disease aspects of HGP-generated data have received the greatest publicity and are the strongest rationale for the project, it should be remembered that the HGP has, as its goal the sequencing of all 100,000 human genes and the accurate depiction of the ancestral and functional relationships among these genes. The HGP will thus be constructing the molecular taxonomic norm for humanity. Currently the HGP genomic baseline is almost exclusively skewed toward North Atlantic European lineages through the extensive use of the Centre d’études du Polymorphisme Humaine (CEPH) data set. More recently, the HGP has shifted to the use of volunteer donors since adequate informed consent had not been secured from the CEPH families. No evidence exists that either the CEPH families or the current volunteers are the most appropriate demographic or evolutionary lineages for the functional genomic studies that will guide production of new DNA based drugs, targeted therapeutics and gene-based diagnostics. The lack of scientific representativeness of the HGP is a serious impediment to its broad applicability. Yet this can be remedied, and five alternative sampling strategies are presented. In response to the current exclusionary design of the HGP, there is noteworthy caution and skepticism in the African American community concerning genetic studies. The Manifesto on Genomic Studies Among African Americans reflects both a desire to be systematically included in federally funded genomic studies and a desire to maintain some control over the interpretation and application of research results. Representative sampling in the HGP is seen as an international human rights issue with domestic ethical implications.     

“These Things Took Place as Examples for Us”: On the Theological and Ecumenical Significance of the Lutheran Sola Scriptura

The principle of sola Scriptura does not suggest a reading of the Bible in a room void of context, but points to the fact that the unity of church, canon, and confession defines the identity of the Christian church. The Lutheran Reformation was an attempt to retrieve this perspective at a time when it had become obscure. This retrieval corresponds to certain tendencies on the contemporary scene; it remains to be seen, however, how far convincing answers in this way can be provided for today's burning issues.     

Sect‐to‐Church Movement in Globalization: Transforming Pentecostalism and Coastal Intermediaries in Contemporary China

After eight months of itinerant fieldwork across 17 provinces, I elaborate on how the largest Pentecostal group deeply localized in China, the True Jesus Church, has undergone sect‐to‐church movement through interactions among overseas, coastal, and inland churches in globalizing China. A critical intermediary role in this process has been taken by emerging coastal Fujian leaders, who have been successfully reforming not only their churches but also inland counterparts by tactfully utilizing overseas churches as stimuli, resources providers, and legitimizers for the transformation project. The Chinese fever of integration into the world and high status granted to the overseas are keys to smooth away the barriers of the traditionalist old guard. Accordingly, the originally enclosed, anti‐political, sectarian, spirit‐led group has turned more institutionalized, laity‐oriented, text‐based, and welcoming to the government and mainstream Protestantism.     

The American Girl: Playing with the Wrong Dollie?

This essay explores the American Girl Just Like You doll through a variety of feminist lenses. It was inspired by my experiences chaperoning my friend Grace (aged eleven) to the American Girl Store in New York City, and returning to the store to shop for my own doll. I returned to the store because I was not sure why I was so extremely disturbed by this doll. The doll is not emaciated, not overtly sexy, and marketed along with outfits that supposedly send girls the message that they can achieve their goals. She comes in a variety of skin, eye, and hair colors, and the line is therefore marketed as racially and ethnically sensitive. I argue that although the Just Like You line appears to be empowering and racially sensitive on a superficial level, an in‐depth feminist analysis indicates that it is not. In fact, the Just Like You line is highly problematic from a feminist perspective.     

Marital Conflicts and the Reformation in Geneva, 1542–1555

This paper is based on research of the published records of Genevan Consistory cases from 1542 to 1555, a time of religious and social upheaval. The Consistory was a church and moral discipline body. This article highlights select marital conflict cases, demonstrating that many people used the Consistory as a forum in which to express their demands and complaints about their partners. In some instances, parties were successful in getting the Consistory to grant them divorces. Thus some Genevans fell short of the ideals of harmonious and permanent matrimony that their reformers proclaimed. The majority were told to remain in their problematic marital unions. This study sheds light on Reformation marriage theology and law, the successes and failures of the Genevan Consistory, the impact of the Protestant Reformation on the population, and gender relations in early-modern Europe.     

The ideological manipulation of Hebrew literature in English translation in the 1970s and 1980s

In the past two decades, the field of translation studies has increasingly focused on the role of ideology in literary translation and cross-cultural transfer. This paper presents findings from the close textual comparison of original works of Hebrew literature and their English translations published in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. I specify translation strategies that have had ideological effects on the source texts, and demonstrate how historically or ethically charged subject matter was manipulated so as to subdue “problematic” aspects of the text for the (largely Jewish) target audience. The two major categories of manipulations had to do with the moral dimension of the portrayal of Israel and Israeli society, particularly in subject matter related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; and with the relationship between Israel and other nations, and between Israel and Diaspora Jews. As stressed by recent sociological studies of translation, the translations can be seen both as reflective of contemporary socio-political trends of thought, and as practices playing an unseen role in strengthening these trends.