Feasibility and acceptability of using a web-based contraceptive support tool in a university health clinic

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate feasibility of integrating Bedsider.org, a web-based contraceptive decision support tool, at a university health clinic (UHC). Participants: Female students (ages 18–29) seeking contraceptive care at the UHC were enrolled in September 2015 (n?=?46). Methods: Providers recruited eligible patients during reproductive healthcare visits and introduced Bedsider. Surveys were administered immediately following the visit and a follow-up 2–4?weeks later. Electronic health records through 6?weeks post-enrollment were extracted. Results: Most patients had positive views toward Bedsider and appreciated receiving information during their UHC encounters. None were using long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC) at enrollment. At follow-up, two patients self-reported IUD use. Among those recently sexually active, use of more effective contraceptive methods increased from 65% to 74%; 11% had initiated or were scheduled to receive a LARC. Conclusion: Bedsider can be feasibly integrated into UHC visits and may support women’s selection of more effective contraceptive methods, including LARCs.     

How Older People Position Their Late‐Life Childlessness: A Qualitative Study

This research explored how older people describe their paths to late‐life childlessness. In‐depth accounts from 38 childless older people, age 63–93, highlight the complex journeys and diverse meanings of childlessness for male and female participants, single and partnered, including some who had outlived children. Positioning theory is used to show how the conventional voluntary – involuntary binary is insufficient for capturing their experiences. Childlessness was for some an active choice to break a family violence cycle; for others, it was an outcome of social upheaval. It evoked feelings of both grief and relief over time, it was seen as evidence of discernment in being unwilling to parent at any price, or it was something that felt “natural” within a meaningful life. Rates of childlessness are increasing; this research highlights the fact that pathways and meanings of childlessness vary so much that it is unwise to assume that people have similar experiences of nonparenthood, especially in later life.     

The Utility of a Gender-Specific Definition of Binge Drinking on the AUDIT

Abstract

Objective: Although binge drinking is commonly defined as the consumption of at least 5 drinks in 1 sitting for men and 4 for women, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) defines binge drinking as the consumption of 6 or more drinks in 1 sitting for both men and women. This study examined the effect of using gender-specific binge drinking definitions on overall AUDIT scores. Participants: Participants were 331 college men and 1224 college women. Methods: Participants completed a self-report questionnaire, which included the AUDIT. Results: Findings showed that defining binge drinking as 4 or more drinks for women, rather than 6 or more, does impact their AUDIT scores and could affect the percentage of women classified as hazardous users. Among men, AUDIT scores were unaffected by the use of a gender-specific definition of binge drinking. Conclusions: Results suggest that the AUDIT might be underidentifying hazardous users among college women.     

Sex, Age, and the Implementation of the Motor Voter Act: The 1996 Presidential Election

Objective . Among the existing studies of political participation, few discuss differences between men and women. Of those published, most have focused upon substantive policy preferences, perhaps noting women's newly dominant electoral presence but not probing its characteristics or limits. In this analysis we build on the work of Schlozman, Burns, and Verba (1994) by examining the compound effects of closing dates, state National Voter Registration Act implementation delay, and age upon women and men. Methods . Using the 1996 Current Population Survey Voter Supplement we compare the impact of legal obstacles among different age groups of men and women in the 1996 presidential election. Results . We find that legal restrictions do have a different impact on men and women, especially the youngest and oldest members of the latter group. Conclusions . The most significant implication of our work is that policy efforts aimed at further reducing legal barriers to political participation may facilitate women's growing electoral dominance.     

Jill Meagher CCTV

“Jill Meagher CCTV,” the security camera recording of Melbourne woman Jill Meagher's last minutes alive, registered more than 677,000 views on YouTube by early 2014. Little happens for most of its 232 seconds and, as would be expected with surveillance footage, there is no sound. In Australia, “Jill Meagher CCTV” forms part of a haunting iconography of a rape and murder victim that not only resonates with fictional narratives in other places, but also influences the way the Jill Meagher story, as a whole, is read. As Melissa Jane Hardie (2010) suggests of the “true crime” story (citing Bronski 2005, 29), the public reaction to high profile stories of violent crime “is often an emblematic cultural citation that represents a social problem or fixation.” This article considers “Jill Meagher CCTV” as such a cultural citation and goes further by highlighting its gothic tendencies. Highlighting the gothic aspects of “Jill Meagher CCTV” resonates with surrounding narratives of violence and gender justice, which have material consequences for women in the way that the most prevalent forms of violence against women continue to be downplayed in those narratives.     

The medicalization of women's sexual pain

The medicalization of women's sexual problems under the overall rubric of female sexual dysfunction (FSD) has been thoroughly critiqued by feminist scholars, health practitioners, and sex therapists. However, there has been much less commentary on the medicalization of women's sexual pain-currently, a subset of an official FSD diagnosis. This article critically examines interdisciplinary understandings and ways of addressing sexual pain. It analyzes these frameworks in relation to feminist theories on medicalization, heteronormativity, and the reciprocal relationship between these two processes. We argue that many women who experience sexual pain have been eager for medicalization as a path to minimizing pain during sexual activity and reinstating normative heterosexual practices and identities. These goals have been lobbied for by patient advocacy groups and noted by professionals in the field. Although there are some clear benefits to this case for medicalization, there are also theoretical, personal, and political costs. Guided by a growing body of feminist theoretical and qualitative, empirical research on this topic, as well as the first author's personal experience of sexual pain, this article highlights some alternatives to medicalization and makes suggestions for change.     

SUGAR AND SPICE, TOADS AND MICE: GENDER ISSUES IN FAMILY THERAPY TRAINING

Whereas family therapists have become increasingly aware of gender as a central organizing principle in how we think about families, few methods have been presented to help trainees and clinicians articulate how to adress gender. Four experiential exercises (including gender survival messages, gender framed circular questions, and process observation sheets) that can be used in training and adapted for use with clients are described. What we have learned about gender from our families of origin, the larger culture, and in the construction of family therapy models can be examined with these activities.     

Determinanten der Lebensqualität psychisch kranker Personen

Not only chronic mental disease, but also psycho-social factors limit the quality of life (QoL) of mentally ill persons. From three theoretical explanation models of QoL — the medical model, labeling theory, and stress process model — we deduced three hypotheses. To test our hypotheses, we re-analysed data from the study “Social integration and quality of life of mentally ill people”. Data were derived from structured interviews with 305 in-patients in psychiatric institutions in the Canton of Zurich (Switzerland), and completed with few informations from their doctors’ files. Various QoL dimensions entered the statistical analyses as dependent variables. Results indicate varied explanation power of the models under investigation depending on the dimension of QoL: psychic symptoms highly influence the health-related QoL, but have only small effects on social and material QoL. Social as well as material QoL are strongly influenced by social support as well as, though to a lesser extent, by life stress events. Chronification of mental illness and perceived discrimination because of the mental disease indirectly affect QoL through reduced social support and increased psychic symptoms. From our results we conclude that social integration and rehabilitation of mentally ill people require a bio-psycho-social treatment approach.     

The role of individual and organizational characteristics in feedback seeking behaviour in the initial career stage

The present study investigates whether the frequency by which employees seek informal feedback and the quality of the self-initiated feedback influences perceived career development. Furthermore, we investigated goal orientation and perceived learning culture, as antecedents of feedback seeking behaviour. Data were collected from 116 financial experts from various multinational corporations worldwide. Results show that particularly the quality of self-initiated feedback from supervisors positively affects perceived career development. The quality of self-initiated feedback from supervisors mediates the relation between the perceived learning culture and perceived career development. Furthermore, learning goal orientation directly relates to perceived career development. Last, our results highlight the significance of creating a learning culture in which informal feedback is stimulated. Implications of these findings are discussed.