Romantic Relationships and Health: An Examination of Individuals’ Perceptions of their Romantic Partners’ Influences on their Health

This study examines individuals’ perceptions of the impact their significant others have on their health and the extent to which these perceptions are associated with relationship quality and actual health. Two-hundred and ten participants (105 U.S. couples; mean age = 24.93) completed measures of their relationship quality and health along with an open-ended measure asking them to indicate how they felt their partner influenced their health. Results indicated that participants perceived their romantic partners to be primarily positive health influences, women believed their partners were more influential than did men, and eating and physical activity behaviors were believed to be most affected by partners. Participants’ relationship quality and health were associated with their reports of their perceived partners’ health influences. The research described in this report was supported by an award to Charlotte Markey from Rutgers University.     

Sexual Consent in Heterosexual Relationships: Development of a New Measure

The extensive research on date rape attitudes and experiences has left sexual consent itself largely unexamined. The objective of this study was to develop a measure to assess women’s and men’s attitudes and behaviors regarding sexual consent. Using both focus groups (N = 18) and a mail survey (N = 514) of undergraduate students at a Canadian university, two scales of sexual consent were developed: (1) a Sexual Consent Attitudes Scale, and (2) a Sexual Consent Behaviors Scale. Preliminary psychometric evidence suggested good reliability and validity. As hypothesized, women, more than men, preferred a more cautious approach to sexual consent by stressing the need to obtain consent more explicitly. Multiple regression analyses supported a reciprocal relationship between sexual consent attitudes and sexual consent behaviors.     

Gender and ethnic differences in body image and opposite sex figure preferences of rural adolescents

This study examined whether rural adolescents would report gender and ethnic differences in body image similar to those that have been observed in urban samples. Data were analyzed for 384 rural adolescents (57% African American, 43% Caucasian, mean age 13 years) to determine gender and ethnic differences in body dissatisfaction, body size discrepancy, and current and ideal figure ratings. Females wanted to be smaller and reported more body dissatisfaction than did males. Caucasian females reported the most body dissatisfaction. African Americans reported larger current and ideal figure ratings than did Caucasians. African Americans preferred larger opposite sex figures than did Caucasians. Both African American and Caucasian males selected a larger female figure as ideal than was selected by females. Results demonstrated that gender and ethnic differences exist in body image for rural adolescents. This frequently overlooked population may benefit from further study. Implications of findings and limitations of the study are also discussed.     

Ten-year-old girls' and boys' body composition and peer victimization experiences: prospective associations with body satisfaction

This study examined prospective associations between 10-year-olds’ weight and height, their perception of shape and stature, frequent experiences of peer victimization, and different aspects of body esteem at age 13. Participants were 474 girls and 400 boys participating in a two-wave longitudinal questionnaire study. Main results were that whereas actually being heavier built at age 10 was associated with girls’ increments in body dissatisfaction, the mere perception of being too heavy was associated with boys’ poorer body satisfaction. Also, boys who believed that they were too short were more dissatisfied at follow-up. Whereas frequent peer victimization had long-term associations with girls’ weight-esteem, teasing targeted towards appearance was associated with boys’ more negative beliefs about what others think about their appearance. Finally, participants had become significantly more dissatisfied at age 13, suggesting that this is a time in life when both girls and boys risk becoming increasingly critical towards their appearance.     

When men and women differ in self-esteem and when they don’t: A meta-analysis

A meta-analysis of gender differences in self-esteem (1148 studies from 2009 to 2013; total N = 1,170,935) found a small difference, g = 0.11 (95% CI = 0.10–0.13), favoring males. Additionally, (1) the gender difference increased with age until late adolescence, and declined afterwards; (2) Whites, Hispanics, and Asian Americans showed the same gender difference whereas African Americans and marginal groups (e.g., immigrants) did not show any difference; (3) the gender difference was larger in more developed countries characterized by values that espouse equality and freedom; and (4) inspection of previous reviews showed that the gender difference emerged after the 1970s, increased until 1995, and declined afterwards. A three-stage model of comparison processes was proposed to account for these results.     

Exploring the psychometric properties of the CES-D-10 and its practicality in detecting depressive symptomatology in 27 low- and middle-income countries

The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression-10 (CES-D-10) scale is known for its good psychometric properties in measuring depressive symptoms, however, some researchers question its applicability across various settings. This study explored the factor structure of the CES-D-10 in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This cross-sectional survey consisted of 16,723 university students across 27 LMICs that completed self-report instruments assessing socio-demographic information and depressive symptoms using the CES-D-10. Data analysis included: exploratory factor analysis, item response theory and differential item functioning. Results indicate that a two-factor model (depressive affect and positive affect) had the best fit for this population and accounted for 52% of the total observed variance with an internal consistency, α = .77 for the depressive affect items and α = .57 for the positive affect items. The graded response model (GRM), however, indicated that the depressive affect factor had a good fit, unlike the positive affect factor. The depressive affect factor was found to consistently model depression for females better than males. Relative to their Asian counterparts, African, Caribbean and South American participants of similar depressive affect responded differently on all items of the depressive affect factor. The depressive affect factor seems most ideal for LMICs and shows gender and cross-cultural variability.     

Sublexical and Lexical Influences on Gender Assignment in French

Two experiments showed that French native speakers rely on sublexical and lexical cues to allocate gender during word recognition. Sublexical cues were based on whether the word ending was typical for a particular gender rather than neutral with regard to gender. Lexical cues were based on whether the associated definite article was informative (for words beginning with a consonant) or uninformative (for words beginning with a vowel). Classification of single nouns and verification of grammatical combinations of indefinite article and noun led to longer times when both sublexical and lexical cues were uninformative compared with when one or both cues were informative. Verification of ungrammatical combinations of indefinite article and noun yielded separate effects of both cues, though only when monitoring for both semantic and syntactic unacceptability in meaningful phrases did people attend to both cues independently. It was argued that people became more cautious in their gender assignments as task requirements became deeper. If strategic changes as a function of task demands are incorporated, the results are compatible with connectionist models proposing that gender decisions are computed from strength of past associations of the word and gender-specifying elements.     

Intersections of spirituality,religion and gender in children’s literature

This paper explores the intersections of spirituality, religion and gender in contemporary children’s books published in the United States. Background for the discussion includes a history of religion in children’s literature and the history of women’s roles in the Christian tradition. Representative works of realistic fiction – historical and contemporary – and one work of science fiction are discussed.     

Do young boys and girls have distinct and different approaches and needs in relation to spiritual development?

Difficulties are outlined in how to consider whether boys and girls have distinctive approaches and needs in relation to spiritual development, especially the lack of any agreed definition of spiritual development and the nature of the research literature relating to gender. I explore this without presupposing, or excluding, any particular definition, arguing that, whatever one's assumptions and beliefs about spirituality, these influence, and are influenced by, assumptions and beliefs about gender, and vice versa. I present empirical evidence on aspects associated with personal well‐being indicating outcomes strongly differentiated by gender. I examine research evidence in relation to gender within a range of areas commonly associated with spirituality and highlight some gaps. I argue that considering spiritual development through the lens of gender and gender through that of spiritual development can illuminate one's understanding of both concepts. I suggest some possible implications for future research and for teachers of young children.     

Perception of symmetry in infancy: the salience of vertical symmetry and the perception of pattern wholes

Four experiments were conducted to assess converging aspects of 4-month-old infants' perception of symmetry in visual patterns. Experiments 1 and 2 manipulated the structure and orientation of comparable patterns in order to evaluate the specialty of vertical symmetry. Infants showed no preference among vertically symmetrical, vertically repeated, and obliquely symmetrical patterns, but they processed vertically symmetrical patterns more efficiently than either vertically repeated patterns or obliquely symmetrical patterns. Experiment 3 manipulated the spatial separation of pattern components in order to determine the ability of young infants to integrate and coalesce information in visual patterns that is distributed in space. Infants processed vertically symmetrical patterns whose components were contiguous or nearly contiguous about the vertical axis (0 to 2.5 degrees separations) more efficiently than discontiguous patterns (5 and 10 degrees separations). Thus, extreme spatial separation about the vertical meridian caused infants to lose the advantage for vertical symmetry, and by inference their holistic perception of the visual pattern. Experiment 4 manipulated the organization of individual components of a vertical pattern in order to examine further infants' sensitivity to perceptual organization and synthesis of pattern form. Infants discriminated vertically symmetrical patterns from asymmetrical patterns with a vertical organization, thereby demonstrating sensitivity to the symmetrical organization of the pattern above their perception of components in the pattern. The results of these four experiments together corroborate and extend previous findings that vertical symmetry has a special status in early perceptual development and that infants can perceive pattern wholes.