Association Between Employment and Sexual Risk-Taking Behaviors Among Public High School Adolescents

We examined the relationship between adolescent after school and weekend employment and sexual intercourse behavior in a cross-sectional sample of public high school students in South Carolina. The CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey was used to secure usable data from 4,800 subjects. Thirty-nine percent of the sample worked at a job for pay during the academic year of the study. The majority of all race/gender groups reported having sexual intercourse in their lifetime and during the past 3 months prior, with the exception of Caucasian females. For Caucasian males employment ranging from 1-5 to 31+ hours per week was associated with sexual risk-taking. Caucasian female employment was associated with sexual risk-taking at 16-20 and 21-25 hours of work per week. For African American males, the relationship between employment and sexual risk-taking was evidenced at the 1-5 and 26-30 hours of work per week levels. Similar trends were determined for Caucasians (males and females) regarding sexual intercourse in the past 3 months prior and working for pay during the academic year. Youth working above 10 hours per week during high school may have an increased risk for unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.     

A six-month follow-up of adolescents' sexual risk-taking,HIV/AIDS knowledge,and attitudes to condoms

A follow-up study was conducted to investigate change in sexual behaviour, knowledge about HIV/AIDS transmission, and attitudes to condoms over a 6-month period in a sample of late-adolescent students. The study also obtained subjective reports of HIV/AIDS-relevant change. Overall there was a decrease in sexual risk-taking behaviour with casual partners but no change occurred in sexual behaviour with regular partners, knowledge about HIV/AIDS, attitude towards condoms, or intention to use a condom on next sexual encounter. Examination of individual data revealed that, for some adolescents where behavioural change had occurred, this was in the direction of less safe sex. There were few self-reports of change in sexual behaviour, intention to take precautions against HIV/AIDS, or concern about HIV/AIDS over the preceding 6 months. Subjective reports of behaviour change did not correspond with reports of actual behaviour. Low rates of behaviour change are attributed to the failure of adolescents to personalize the threat of AIDS and to their trust in the safety of sex with a regular partner as well as to the lack of relevance of HIV/AIDS education campaigns to this group.     

Toward Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Sexual Minority Women: Voices From Stakeholders and Community Members

Sexual minority women (SMW) experience an elevated risk of mental health problems compared to heterosexual women. However, knowledge gaps remain regarding whether cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) interventions meet SMW’s mental health needs. Further, virtually no studies have integrated stakeholder (i.e., researchers with content expertise in SMW’s health and clinical providers who work with SMW) and community member (i.e., SMW) perspectives to identify CBT approaches that address SMW-specific issues. This study used qualitative data gathered from 39 SMW who reported depression, anxiety, suicidality, and heavy drinking in the past 3 months and 16 content experts and clinical providers to obtain information relevant to enhancing CBT for SMW. In addition, we used thematic analysis to identify themes related to the adaptation and delivery of CBT for SMW. Building on prior literature, this study’s findings revealed seven considerations for delivering mental health services to SMW: (1) attending to SMW’s diverse gender identities and expressions; (2) focusing on SMW’s nonbinary stressors; (3) formulating SMW’s gender-based stressors within a feminist framework; (4) applying intersectionality frameworks; (5) incorporating issues of diversity, multiculturalism, and social justice; (6) addressing the role of trauma exposure; and (7) addressing the role of alcohol use in SMW’s lives. These considerations are reviewed in terms of their implications for clinical practice, with a focus on enhancing applications of existing CBT interventions to best respond to the unique needs of this population.     

“Shame: The Misplaced Debt of Structural Sin”

Although sexual violence and economic distress are often understood and responded to as individual problems, they are rooted in and must be understood within the social systems of patriarchy and advanced global capitalism, both of which normalize these traumas. The problem is that social systems divert guilt for structural sin onto individuals in the form of shame, which I argue is the misplaced debt of structural sin. Through narrative and analysis, I demonstrate the problems of silence, judgement, and death associated with the misplaced debt of shame in structural sin. Preliminarily, I suggest that the theology of the cross enables Christians to name structural sin for what it actually is; judge who or what is truly guilty; and remove shame and guilt from survivors to foster flourishing.     

Is sexual-aggressive vocal communication related to asymmetric mechanisms in the brain?

In Mongolian gerbil males, a reliable asymmetric relationship has been discovered between a stereotyped ultrasonic vocalizattion and the volume of a discrete nucleus within the preoptic-anterior hypothalamic area, the sexually dimorphic area, pars compacta (SDApc). The steroid-sensitive ultrasonic, emitted at high levels during courtship interactions, is associated with the absence of aggressive encounters and appears to be necessary for the formation and maintenance of pair-bonds with females. Interactions between unfamilliar, non-pair-bonded adult male and estrous female gerbils result in male aggression, reduction of male ultrasonic calling, and disruption of normal female dartmale follow sociosexual sequences. Castration further reduces ultrasonic calling, inhibits normal sociosexual sequences, and increses aggression in interaction between unfamiliar compared to pair-bonded individuals. Bothg brain structure and lateralization of vocal function in males depend on the action of sex steroids during sexual differentiation and in adulthood. Thus, the gerbil provides a new model to study steroid-dependent lateralization of brain mechanisms of vocal behavior mediating aggressive-sexual relationships. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Legitimized aggression and sexual coercion: Individual differences in cultural spillover

Correlations between aggressive attitudes and sexual coercion have consistently been found in numerous empirical studies across social science disciplines. Extrapolating from sociological research linking indices of legitimate aggression by state to statewide frequencies of rape, we have extended the investigation of legitimate aggression and coercive sexuality to the individual level. The specific purposes of this research were to index the breadth and level of endorsement of legitimized aggression at the individual level and to measure the association between such an index and coercive sexual behavior. These purposes were achieved across the course of three studies in which we created a new dispositional measure, the Proclivity for Legitimized Aggression Questionnaire (PLAQ), and replicated a sociocultural level correlation with coercive sexual behavior (Study 1); assessed the individual differences level construct validity of the PLAQ (Study 2); and tested whether endorsement of items on the PLAQ were related to content‐relevant behaviors (Study 3). The PLAQ was internally consistent, modestly but significantly correlated with a measure of self‐reported coercive sexual behavior, and characterized by promising construct validity. Aggr. Behav. 27:26–43, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

How Do Religion and Sexual Orientation Affect Support for U.S. Presidential Candidates? Evidence from a Survey Experiment

A growing body of research has examined how candidates’ religion or sexual orientation affect voting likelihood among the U.S. public. No systematic study, however, has focused on the combined effect of these traits. We draw on the intersectionality literature to develop and test hypotheses for this neglected, but important, combination. Results from an original survey experiment conducted in late June 2019 demonstrate that all respondents, as well as the Republican subgroup, tend to disapprove of a gay, religious candidate relative to other options (i.e., gay, nonreligious; straight, religious; and straight, nonreligious). Even Democrats expressed little support except when a straight, religious candidate was the alternative. Our findings underscore the need to study how overlapping—rather than discrete—traits influence political views and behaviors. They also raise important questions about the future of U.S. identity politics. Efforts to rally Republican and Democrat voters by mixing particular types of traits may not be a very effective strategy.     

Longitudinal associations between relational and sexual well-being in couples transitioning to parenthood

There is limited understanding of the dynamic between relational and sexual well-being as couples adjust to new parenthood, despite this being a vulnerable period for couples' relationships. This study was aimed at examining the bidirectional links between relationship quality and sexual well-being (i.e., sexual satisfaction, sexual distress) across the transition to parenthood. We assessed new parent couples (N = 257) across four time points (two prenatal) from mid-pregnancy through 6 months postpartum. Parallel dyadic latent growth curve modeling was employed to examine the associations between trajectories of perceived relationship quality, sexual satisfaction, and sexual distress. New parents' declines in relationship quality were associated with declines in own and partners' sexual satisfaction and with increases in own sexual distress. Mothers' prenatal relationship quality and sexual distress predicted subsequent changes in own sexual distress and fathers' relationship quality, respectively. Results indicate that changes to new parents' relational and sexual well-being mutually influence each other over time. Current results indicate that the impact of the transition on couples' relationships is partly determined by own and partners' prenatal factors, to which clinicians and researchers can attend to early on. Cross-domain links between relational and sexual well-being should be considered in research and clinical practice.     

Retrieval inhibition of trauma-related words in women reporting repressed or recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse

Several authors have argued that survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) who report to have repressed their traumatic memories are more skilled in forgetting emotional stimuli than survivors who have always remembered the abuse. The current experiment employed a list-wise directed forgetting task to investigate whether women reporting repressed (n = 16) or recovered (n = 23) memories of CSA are better at forgetting disturbing material, relative to women reporting having always remembered their abuse (n = 55) or reporting no history of abuse (n = 20). We found no support for the hypothesis that women reporting repressed or recovered memories of CSA are especially versed in inhibiting retrieval of trauma-related words. Additional analyses revealed that participants characterized by a repressive coping style did not display a superior retrieval inhibition mechanism for negative material.