Community Gender Norms Change as a Part of a Multilevel Approach to Sexual Health Among Married Women in Mumbai,India

Inequitable gender norms in societies and communities negatively contribute to women’s sexual and reproductive health. While the need for change in gender norms is well recognized, the task is highly challenging in terms of intervention design, implementation and assessment of impact. This paper describes a methodology for identification of gender norms, the design of community level intervention, community participation and the assessment of intervention impact in a low income, predominately Muslim community of 600,000 people in Mumbai, India. Formative research focused on in‐depth interviews with women, men and couples yielding gender normative statements and assessment of community resources to facilitate change. A Gender Equity Scale (GES) based on this formative research was developed and administered annually for a three‐year period to random, cross‐sectional samples in the intervention and control communities, and to community based, non‐governmental organizations (NGO) staff and Imams (religious leaders) in the intervention community. NGO staff disseminated gender oriented messages to their female constituency through their regular outreach activities and through special events and festivals in the community. Imams disseminated gender messages through lectures on social issues for men attending Friday prayers. The results showed that the NGO staff and Imams, assumed more gender equitable attitudes across time. The intervention was associated with a significant improvement in attitudes towards gender equity in the intervention relative to the control community. Men showed a dramatic change in more positive gender attitudes, while women lagged behind in their GES scores. The meaning of these results are explored and the implications assessed for the generalizability of the methodology for other countries, cultures and communities.     

The experience and effects of emotional support: What the study of cultural and gender differences can tell us about close relationships,emotion, and interpersonal communication

Theorists claim that emotional support is one of the most significant provisions of close relationships, and studies suggest that the receipt of sensitive emotional support is associated with diverse indices of well–being. Research highlighting the beneficial outcomes of emotional support raises several important questions: Does emotional support play a similar role in the personal relationships of both men and women and those representing different ethnicities and nationalities? Is what counts as effective, sensitive, emotional support the same for everyone? And when seeking to provide emotional support, do members of distinct social groups pursue similar or different goals? This article reviews and synthesizes empirical research assessing gender, ethnic, and cultural differences in emotional support in the effort to ascertain the extent and import of these differences. Particular attention is given to demographic differences in (a) the value placed on the emotional support skills of relationship partners, (b) the intentions or goals viewed as especially relevant in emotional support situations, and (c) the evaluation of distinct approaches to providing emotional support. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of the findings are explored.     

Effects of decisional control and work orientation on persistence in preventive health behavior

Examined persistence in the daily use of fluoride mouthrinse among adolescents as a function of an induced-choice manipulation concerning self-management strategies and freedom to participate in the program. Seventh-grade boys and girls from urban and suburban schools were randomly assigned to a series of either high- or low-choice decisional control manipulations; their daily, home use of fluoride was monitored over a 20-week period. In order to ameliorate the relatively lower persistence rates found previously among suburban (vs. urban) students, all students were given self-management and action instructions as per previous studies. Although suburban students still declined in persistence relative to urban students, female students who received high choice persisted at a higher rate than girls who received low choice. Boys, for the most part, were unaffected by the manipulation. In addition, students' self-reported work orientation was also positively associated with persistence.     

Stress-related immune changes in middle-aged and older women: 1-year consistency of individual differences.

This study reviews prior research and reports longer-term consistency of stress-related immune variables in middle-aged and older women who performed mental math and speech tasks 2 times 1 year apart. Leukocyte subsets, mitogen-induced lymphocyte proliferation, and natural killer cell activity were measured at baseline, after tasks, and after 30-min recovery. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) antibody titers were assessed at baseline. Pearson coefficients and standardized maximum-likelihood estimates of year-to-year covariances for leukocyte subsets and EBV titers showed moderately high to high baseline and posttask consistency and lower recovery consistency; consistency for other functional immune assays and reactivity scores for all variables was moderate to low. Results support longitudinal study of psychosocial context effects on tonic immune function and posttask scores.     

Effects of Sex,Culture, and Support Type on Perceptions of Spousal Social Support: An Assessment of the “Support Gap” Hypothesis in Early Marriage

Several writers have suggested that a “support gap” characterizes modern marriages, with women receiving less support from their spouses than men receive from theirs. Although this support gap hypothesis (SGH) is used increasingly to explain marital interaction and satisfaction, there have been few rigorous evaluations of this hypothesis. In particular, existing research on the support gap has not systematically considered (a) different types of social support; (b) differences in provided vs. received support; (c) differences in reported levels of support desire, experience, and satisfaction; or (d) differences in distinct cultural groups with respect to social support in marriage. The present study provided a multidimensional assessment of desired and experienced spousal social support. Participants were recently married men and women (100 Americans and 102 Chinese) who completed questionnaires providing assessments of desired and experienced levels of spousal support for each of 5 support types. Men and women did not differ systematically with respect to the levels of support they experienced from their spouses; however, women reported desiring significantly higher levels of support from their spouses than did men for all 5 types of support. Evaluation of support satisfaction indicated that both American and Chinese women experience gaps with respect to emotional and esteem support; Chinese women additionally experience a gap in network support. These results specify the nature of marital support gaps much more precisely than previous work and suggest several issues to be addressed in future work.     

Loneliness in everyday life: cardiovascular activity,psychosocial context,and health behaviors

Prior lab research revealed higher basal total peripheral resistance (TPR) and lower cardiac output (CO) in lonely than in nonlonely young adults. In this study, experience sampling was used to obtain ambulatory blood pressure; impedance cardiography: and reports of activities, appraisals, interactions, and health behaviors. Results confirmed that loneliness predicted higher TPR and lower CO during a normal day. Loneliness did not predict differences in time spent alone, daily activities, or health behaviors but did predict higher stress appraisals and poorer social interactions. Independent of loneliness, interaction quality contributed to TPR. Loneliness differences were not mediated by depressed affect or neuroticism. Social support mediated loneliness differences in stress and threat. Concomitants of loneliness were comparable for men and women.     

Effects of Helper and Recipient Sex on the Experience and Outcomes of Comforting Messages: An Experimental Investigation

The purpose of this experimental study was to examine whether and in what ways the sex of the helper and the recipient moderate the effects of comforting messages in face-to-face interactions. A total of 216 participants disclosed an emotionally upsetting event to a confederate trained to display different levels of nonverbal immediacy and verbal person centeredness. Men and women responded very similarly to comforting messages that exhibited different levels of verbal person centeredness and nonverbal immediacy, and this response similarity was not moderated by the sex of the helper. Both men and women were most comforted by messages that exhibited high levels of person centeredness and nonverbal immediacy, and they were least comforted by messages that exhibited low levels of these qualities. Moreover, both sexes viewed highly person-centered and immediate messages as exhibiting the highest comforting quality, and, with one minor exception, both sexes viewed helpers who used these messages as the most competent.     

Effects of Cognitive Complexity and Emotional Upset on Processing Supportive Messages: Two Tests of a Dual‐Process Theory of Supportive Communication Outcomes

We report tests of hypotheses derived from a theory of supportive communication outcomes that maintains the effects of supportive messages are moderated by factors influencing the motivation and ability to process these messages. Participants in two studies completed a measure of cognitive complexity, which provided an assessment of processing ability, and reported their degree of upset with a problem situation, which was hypothesized to impact both motivation and ability; they subsequently evaluated the helpfulness of comforting messages that varied in person centeredness. Consistent with predictions, an index of message processing depth—the degree to which participants discriminated between the helpfulness of better and worse supportive messages—was associated with the factors additively in both studies and interactively in one study.     

Jung in Africa: the historical record

Blake Burleson's ninety-minute presentation was part one of 'A Passage to Africa' moderated by John Beebe. Eight individual filmed sequences from home movies taken by Helton Godwin Baynes during Jung's 1925 expedition to East Africa were shown. In addition to placing these clips in their historical, geographic, and cultural context, Burleson introduced the following cultural complexes revealed in the film and in travelling companion Ruth Bailey's commentary on the film: romantic primitivism, 'going black', self-conscious élite, 'furor Africanus', the 'black man's burden', racial inferiority, and the 'curse of Ham'.