Changes in Mothering Ideology After Childbirth and Maternal Mental Health in French Women

Sex Roles - The prevailing dominant discourse about motherhood in western societies reflects a set of interconnected beliefs referred to as intensive mothering ideology. Little is known about how...     

Factor analysis of the heterosexist harassment,rejection, and discrimination scale in lesbian,gay, bisexual,transgender, and queer people of colour

The factor structure of the Heterosexist Harassment, Rejection, and Discrimination Scale (HHRDS) was examined in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people of colour. Two hundred participants completed a survey with the HHRDS and several mental health scales. A confirmatory factor analysis suggested the original HHRDS structure fit the data poorly. Exploratory factor analyses found a different 2-factor structure, consisting of harassment/rejection and family discrimination. Convergent validity analyses demonstrated that family discrimination had the largest association with depression and anxiety, indicating that family discrimination may be particularly salient among LGBTQ people of colour. This study supports the use of the HHRDS in racially/ethnically diverse samples, but with a slightly different factor structure. Examining discriminatory experiences from family members is an important direction for future research in LGBTQ people of colour.     

Parents Will Be Parents: Conceptualizing and Measuring Nonoffending Parent and Other Caregiver Support Following Disclosure of Sexual Abuse

A gap exists in the literature with regard to the theoretical conceptualization of nonoffending parental and other caregiver (NOC) support of sexually abused children. Measures need to be developed that appropriately capture this construct. The purpose of this article is to present a qualitative study that asked 17 NOCs in different ways how they supported their sexually abused children after the disclosure of the sexual abuse. The multiple different types of support were coded and, using grounded theory, the structure of NOC support emerged from the data. The final structure of NOC support had 8 dimensions, including basic needs, safety and protection, decision making, active parenting, instrumental support, availability, sensitivity to child, and affirmation.     

Category priming with aliens: analysing the influence of targets' prototypicality on the centre surround inhibition mechanism

Marginally perceptible prototypes as primes lead to slowed reactions to related category exemplars as compared to unrelated ones. This at first glance counterintuitive finding has been interpreted as evidence for a particular mechanism of lateral inhibition, namely the centre surround inhibition mechanism. We investigated the semantic surround of category labels by experimentally manipulating the prototypicality of stimuli. Participants first learned two new categories of fantasy creatures in a 5-day-long learning phase before they worked through a semantic priming task with the category prototypes as primes and category exemplars as targets. For high-prototypical targets we observed benefit effects from related primes, whereas for low-prototypical targets we observed cost effects. The results define when the centre surround inhibition mechanism is applied, and furthermore might explain why previous studies with word stimuli (i.e., material that prevents experimental manipulation of prototypicality) observed mixed results concerning the prototypicality of targets.     

Impact of Youth Strengths and Objective Strain on the Experiences of Subjective Strain Among Caregivers of Youth with Behavioral Health Conditions

Caregivers of youth with behavioral health conditions often experience significant and chronic caregiving strain. Caregiving strain is thought to consist of three dimensions: objective strain (observable negative events), subjective internalized strain (negative feelings directed inwardly), and subjective externalized strain (negative feelings directed outwardly). Based on a modified stress process model, the aims of this study were to: (1) examine whether the association between youth emotional-behavioral problem severity (measured with the Child Behavior Checklist/6–18) and subjective internalized and subjective externalized caregiving strain is mediated by objective strain for caregivers, and; (2) identify other predictors of subjective internalized and subjective externalized strain, particularly related to youth emotional-behavioral strengths as measured by the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale-Parent Rating Scale. We also explored the extent to which the association between youth emotional-behavioral problem severity and subjective internalized and subjective externalized strain may be moderated by perceived youth emotional-behavioral strengths. One-hundred and eighty-five (N = 185) caregivers of youth served by a community-based system of care participated in structured survey interviews at program enrollment. Regression analyses indicated that objective strain was found to fully mediate the association between youth emotional-behavioral problem severity and subjective externalized strain. Greater youth strengths related to family involvement were also associated with lower subjective externalized strain. Higher caregiver age, lower education, biological parent relationship to youth, greater youth emotional-behavioral problem severity, higher objective strain, and lower youth strengths related to school functioning were associated with higher subjective internalized strain. A significant interaction was found between youth problem severity, youth affective strengths, and subjective internalized strain such that caregivers who reported higher levels of youth affective strengths experienced stronger effects from youth emotional-behavioral problem severity on subjective internalized strain. These findings shed light upon the complex set of circumstances that may lead caregivers of youth with behavioral health conditions to experience subjective internalized and subjective externalized strain.     

Lightness differences and the perceived segregation of regions and populations

A striking finding reported by Beck, Sutter, and Ivry (1987) was that, in textures composed of regions differentiated by the arrangement (checks and stripes) of two texture elements (light and dark squares), a large lightness difference between the squares could fail to yield segregation between the regions, whereas a smaller lightness difference could sometimes yield strong segregation. In the experiments reported here, we compared the segregation of striped and checked arrangements of light and dark squares into regions with the segregation of two randomly interspersed populations of light and dark squares into subpopuiations. Perceived lightnesses are the same for a given set of squares, whether they are arranged in regions or in intermixed populations. Perceived population segregation is approximately a single-valued function of the lightness differences of the squares, but perceived region segregation is not. The reason for the difference between population segregation and region segregation may be that region segregation is mediated by detectors’ having large oriented receptive fields (large bar detectors) that are sensitive to the fundamental spatial frequency and orientation of the texture region as defined by the arrangement of the squares (Beck et al., 1987; Sutter, Beck, & Graham, 1989). These detectors cannot be responsible for population segregation, because the light and dark squares are distributed randomly throughout these patterns and therefore do not define a consistent arrangement of any particular spatial frequency or orientation. The light and dark squares in the population patterns fall equally on excitatory and inhibitory regions of large bar detectors. A plausible explanation for population segregation is to suppose that the segregation is the result of similarity grouping of the light and dark squares.     

Graduate trends for one marriage and family therapy program in an interdisciplinary setting

This research compared trends from 1981 to 1993 in several mental health professional training programs at the University of Houston Clear Lake, surveying graduates from three professional mental health master's programs—clinical psychology, school psychology, and family therapy—with the goal of identifying trends in the status of their professional credentialing and current employment. Four mental health groups have attained licensure since a 1981 survey, resulting in graduates now seeking professional licenses and perform psychotherapy more exclusively than other mental health activities. Interdisciplinary training has become increasingly important due to the introduction of managed care and other insurance regulating entities.     

Contrast and spatial variables in texture segregation: testing a simple spatial-frequency channels model

Observers were shown patterns composed of two textures in which each texture contained two types of elements. The elements were arranged in a striped pattern in the top and bottom regions and in a checked pattern in the center region. Observers rated the degree to which the three regions were seen as distinct. When the elements were squares or lines, perceived segregation resulting from differences in element size could be canceled by differences in element contrast. Minimal perceived segregation occurred when the products of the area and the contrast (areal contrasts) of the elements were equal. This dependence of perceived segregation on the areal contrasts of the elements is consistent with a simple model based on the hypothesis that the perceived segregation of the regions is a function of their differential stimulation of spatial-frequency channels. Two aspects of the data were not consistent with quantitative predictions of the model. First, as the size difference between the large and small elements increased, the ratings at the point of minimum perceived segregation increased. Second, some effects of changing the fundamental frequency of the textures were not predicted by the model. These discrepancies may be explained by a more complex model in which a rectification or similar nonlinearity occurs between two stages of orientation- and spatial-frequency-selective linear filters.     

The Media’s Sexual Objectification of Women,Rape Myth Acceptance,and Interpersonal Violence

A new trend has emerged in print advertisements by which women’s bodies are literally morphed into objects. This study begins to explore this phenomenon by examining the effects of viewing these types of advertisements on attitudes toward rape and violence, as well as rape likelihood. In addition, this study examined the degree to which moral disengagement and dehumanization influences rape likelihood through rape myth acceptance. Three hundred eighty participants viewed 1 of 3 conditions—control, sexual objectification of women, or women as objects—and then filled out a number of questionnaires to assess their rape myth acceptance, acceptance of interpersonal violence, rape likelihood, and moral disengagement. Results indicated that although viewing sexually objectified women in advertising did not increase any of the dependent variables for individuals in the experimental conditions compared to the control condition, there was a main effect of sex for several dependent measures, as well as a full mediation of moral disengagement and rape likelihood by rape myth acceptance in male participants. These findings suggest that education aimed at correcting men’s endorsement of rape myths might be a key pathway to decreasing rape likelihood. Despite these conclusions, this study’s primary limitation was that it was conducted with collegiate participants with an unequal gender distribution.