Further Reflections on an Evolutionary Theory of Socialization

In response to Maccoby's and Hinde's thoughtful commentaries, we highlight points of concurrence and disagreement. In particular, we note that mating and reproduction are affected by many factors beyond those to which our theory draws immediate attention; that the data linking socialization experiences and social structural conditions with pubertal timing are not restricted to either correlational studies or investigations of contemporaneous associations; that there may be more reason to question the theory's applicability to males than to females; that the question of whether male behave and develop the way we propose and Maccoby doubts is an empirically testable one; and that the data on relations between antecedent socialization conditions and pubertal timing and on variation in parental investment in the case of females run counter to Maccoby's doubts about the theory's applicability to females. Attention is drawn to the potential benefits of asking questions about proximal and ultimate causation simultaneously, and thus the need for child developmentalists to think both about the how and why of development.     

A meta-analysis of maturation-related variation in adolescent boy athletes’ adaptations to short-term resistance training

This meta-analysis investigated the maturation-related pattern of adaptations to resistance training in boy athletes. We included studies examining the effects of 4–16-week resistance training programmes in healthy boy athletes aged 10–18 years. Pooled estimates of effect size for change in strength across all studies (n = 19) were calculated using the inverse–variance random effects model for meta-analyses. Estimates were also calculated for groups based on likely biological maturity status (“before”, “during” and “after” peak height velocity). Using the standardised mean difference, resistance training increased strength across all groups (effect size = 0.98, [CI: 0.70–1.27]). Strength gains were larger during (1.11 [0.67–1.54]) and after (1.01 [0.56–1.46]) peak height velocity than before (0.5 [?0.06–1.07]). Adaptations to resistance training are greater in adolescent boys during or after peak height velocity. These findings should help coaches to optimise the timing of training programmes that are designed to improve strength in boy athletes.     

Higher prevalence of childhood sexual abuse among Latino men who have sex with men than non-Latino men who have sex with men: data from the Urban Men's Health Study

OBJECTIVE: The prevalence of childhood sexual abuse among Latino adult men who have sex with men who live in the US was estimated because a history of childhood sexual abuse increases HIV sexual risk behaviors and other negative health outcomes in adulthood. METHOD: The Urban Men's Health Study is a random-digit telephone probability survey of 2881 adult men who have sex with men (MSM) aged 18 years or older residing in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Self-reported history of childhood sexual abuse was the main outcome measure gathered from 2692 MSM. RESULTS: A significantly higher proportion of Latino MSM reported sexual abuse before age 13 (22%) than did non-Latino MSM (11%). CONCLUSIONS: Latino MSM are twice as likely to report a history of childhood sexual abuse than are non-Latino MSM. Given the association between childhood sexual abuse and increased risk for HIV and other negative health outcomes, health providers must remain vigilant to the possibility of childhood sexual abuse histories among their Latino patients.     

Contextual cues and depth of processing in short prose passages

Two experiments compared context and depth-of-processing strategies applied to the learning of short aurally presented prose passages. In the first study, contextual orientation led to significantly higher recall than a continue-paragraph condition, and both strategy groups performed significantly better than a nonstrategy control group. In the second experiment, continuing paragraphs was superior to generating contextual theme statements, with both strategies again superior to the controls. These results were discussed in terms of the ways in which processing demands effect memory for connected discourse.     

Can the government really help? Online information for women experiencing violence

Domestic violence against women is a significant social and public health problem that requires a varied social service response for abused women and their children. Increasingly, this service response includes online sources and resources. Using content analysis methods, we examined the Canadian provincial E-Government response to providing information to women exposed to domestic violence. Our overarching question was “if an abused woman went to her province’s government website for information and help and used common search strategies, what would she find?”     

‘Black Is’ and ‘Black Ain’t’: Performative Revisions of Racial ‘Crisis’

Abstract

Race is rigorously policed through, and predicated on, a crisis of maintaining a claim to supposed racial ontology. The language of crisis pervades race; yet crisis is only brought into focus – shows itself – when racial ontology is called into question or threatened as an axiomatic reality. This essay argues, however, that it is crisis, in the form of the imperative regulatory call to race or the intricate operations of racialising discipline that constitutes raced subjects. The crisis is one of belonging or of successfully representing a ‘racial truth’. The objective of this analysis is to demonstrate that it is when race is viewed as performative that crisis becomes evident as the ever‐present condition of racial identity formation. From this vantage point, the concept of crisis as a point of danger can be revised to be seen as a turning point when an important change can take place: then, crisis might be envisaged as a positive means through which to imagine and realise new enactments of racial being.     

A Practical Guide to Scholarly Activity for Health Sciences Librarians

Abstract

This guide to scholarly activities provides early- and mid-career health sciences librarians with a path to immersing in scholarly activities. The four levels walk librarians through increasing stages of scholarship. Early-career librarians will begin at the first level, navigating from discovering mentors and areas of research interest to level two, publishing a resource or book review and finding their first public speaking opportunity. More experienced librarians will find where they are on the path and continue to build their scholarship all the way to conducting and publishing original research and becoming leaders in their field.     

Predicting who will major in a science discipline: Expectancy–value theory as part of an ecological model for studying academic communities

Research on factors that shape recruitment and retention in undergraduate science majors currently is highly fragmented and in need of an integrative research framework. Such a framework should incorporate analyses of the various levels of organization that characterize academic communities (i.e., the broad institutional level, the departmental level, and the student level), and should also provide ways to study the interactions occurring within and between these structural levels. We propose that academic communities are analogous to ecosystems, and that the research paradigms of modern community ecology can provide the necessary framework, as well as new and innovative approaches to a very complex area. This article also presents the results of a pilot study that demonstrates the promise of this approach at the student level. We administered a questionnaire based on expectancy-value theory to undergraduates enrolled in introductory biology courses. Itself an integrative approach, expectancy-value theory views achievement-related behavior as a joint function of the person's expectancy of success in the behavior and the subjective value placed on such success. Our results indicated: (a) significant gender differences in the underlying factor structures of expectations and values related to the discipline of biology, (b) expectancy-value factors significantly distinguished biology majors from nonmajors, and (c) expectancy-value factors significantly predicted students' intent to enroll in future biology courses. We explore the expectancy-value framework as an operationally integrative framework in our ecological model for studying academic communities, especially in the context of assessing the underrepresentation of women and minorities in the sciences. Future research directions as well as practical implications are also discussed.