BDSM Disclosure and Stigma Management: Identifying Opportunities for Sex Education

While participation in the activities like bondage, domination, submission/sadism, masochism that fall under the umbrella term BDSM is widespread, stigma surrounding BDSM poses risks to practitioners who wish to disclose their interest. We examined risk factors involved with disclosure to posit how sex education might diffuse stigma and warn of risks. Semi-structured interviews asked 20 adults reporting an interest in BDSM about their disclosure experiences. Most respondents reported their BDSM interests starting before age 15, sometimes creating a phase of anxiety and shame in the absence of reassuring information. As adults, respondents often considered BDSM central to their sexuality, thus disclosure was integral to dating. Disclosure decisions in nondating situations were often complex considerations balancing desire for appropriateness with a desire for connection and honesty. Some respondents wondered whether their interests being found out would jeopardize their jobs. Experiences with stigma varied widely.     

Temperament Predicts Processing Speed in Low Socioeconomic Status Rural Preschoolers

Extreme poverty all over the world is concentrated in rural settings. However, studies about cognition in low socioeconomic status (SES) children are for the most part conducted in urban populations. This paper investigates, in a poor rural sample, what are the individual and socioenvironmental variables that make the difference in performance in a processing speed task. Forty four 5‐year‐old children were evaluated with a processing speed task; individual and socioenvironmental information was obtained from parents' interviews. Higher scores in the effortful control dimension of temperament were associated with higher performance in the processing speed task. No other individual or socioenvironmental variable predicted the performance. These results showed that effortful control is important in processing speed and suggest that in low SES rural contexts, low effortful control children would require stronger interventions.     

ABD or EdD? A Model of Library Training for Distance Doctoral Students

ABSTRACT

Libraries have been struggling for years to move beyond 1-shot library training. In spite of efforts in the last decade to promote information literacy for undergraduate and graduate students alike, libraries more often than not are still not reaching the goals articulated in the Association of College & Research Libraries's information literacy standards. The problems are compounded when institutions serve students who also happen to be taking part or all of their classes online or at field-based sites. The model for providing a library training program for students in the Doctor of Education (EdD) program in a distance program focuses on providing students with training that builds sequentially and developmentally at the points of need for students in the 1st year of classes and provides additional support for students once they have completed their course work. This multistepped approach is designed to help doctoral students throughout the doctoral process.     

Evidence-Based Collection Management: A Discipline-Specific Usage Analysis of PsycBOOKS

This study examines usage patterns of psychology e-books and equivalent print titles held in Texas A&M University (TAMU) Libraries collections. The authors sought to determine how well PsycBOOKS, a specialized subject-based collection, serves users' needs. Results support evidence-based collection acquisition and management decisions of books in print and electronic formats. Major findings indicate that PsycBOOKS is a critical and cost-effective resource supporting the TAMU user community and that hybrid print and electronic collections should coexist to support a variety of user information needs.     

OPINIONS OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE DEANS REGARDING PRINCIPLES OF CONTINUOUS QUALITY IMPROVEMENT

The ways in which the Education Pilot Criteria for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award were adapted for use in institutional self-assessment are summarized. Research results are based on self-reported perceptions of academic deans in the North Carolina Community College System regarding current and future applications of continuous quality improvement principles in the academic setting.     

Plasma ß‐endorphin immunoreactivity: Response to resistance exercise

Previous research investigating the response of plasma ß‐endorphins (ß‐EP) to resistance exercise has resulted in equivocal findings. To further examine the effects of resistance exercise on ß‐endorphin immunoreactivity, six resistance‐trained athletes participated in a three‐set series of eight repetitions of isotonic exercise. All exercises were performed at 80% maximal effort. Blood was sampled from the group by venepuncture, both prior to and following the exercise bout, and ß‐endorphin concentration was determined by radioimmunoassay. The results indicated that mean ( ± S.E.) plasma levels of ß‐endorphins following exercise (18.04 ± 3.4 pg ß‐EP ml^‐1) were not significantly changed from pre‐exercise (control) levels (19.59 ± 2.4 pg ß‐EP ml^‐1), although there was considerable inter‐individual variability. Our results support previous research which has reported no significant changes in ß‐endorphin immunoreactivity following resistance exercise, as well as reported findings of considerable variability in the ß‐endorphin response to exercise.