Changing Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Marriage: A Three-Wave Panel Study

Political Behavior - Opinions toward gay marriage, also known as same-sex marriage, have become dramatically more favorable in the last 20 years. Given the more accepting attitudes of...     

All Male Panels? Representation and Democratic Legitimacy

What does women's presence in political decision‐making bodies signal to citizens? Do these signals differ based on the body's policy decisions? And do women and men respond to women's presence similarly? Though scholars have demonstrated the substantive and symbolic benefits of women's representation, little work has examined how women's presence affects citizens' perceptions of democratic legitimacy. We test the relationship between representation and legitimacy beliefs through survey experiments on a nationally representative sample of U.S. citizens. First, we find that women's equal presence legitimizes decisions that go against women's interests. We show suggestive evidence that this effect is particularly pronounced among men, who tend to hold less certain views on women's rights. Second, across decision outcomes and issue areas, women's equal presence legitimizes decision‐making processes and confers institutional trust and acquiescence. These findings add new theoretical insights into how, when, and for whom inclusive representation increases perceptions of democratic legitimacy.     

Y chromosome STR haplotypes in the Caribbean city of Cartagena (Colombia)

Haplotype data were obtained from a sample of 173 unrelated male individuals from Cartagena (Colombia), for 16 Y-chromosome STRs (DYS19, DYS385, DYS389 I, DYS389 II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS460, DYS461, DYS635, GATA H4 and GATA A10). No shared haplotypes were observed, demonstrating the usefulness and informative power of these Y-STRs in male lineage identification in Cartagena. Genetic distances were calculated using previously published haplotype data and the lowest values were found for the comparisons with samples of Iberian origin.     

Dysfunctional Parenting and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration and Victimization among College Women: the Mediating Role of Schemas

Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMS) are negative cognitions about self and relationships that develop early in life, distort our perceptions of life experiences and are sustained via confirmatory information processing (Young et al. 2003). Although empirical evidence supports the relationship between EMS and psychopathology, there is a relative paucity of research regarding the relationship between EMS and intimate partner violence (IPV). The goal of the present study was to elucidate the complex relations between recollections of dysfunctional parenting, EMS, and IPV victimization and perpetration in adulthood. A sample of 305 women college students completed measures of perceptions of parental bonding, EMS, and relationship conflict behaviors. Results revealed that the EMS of subjugation and self-sacrifice accounted for 13.9% of the variance in IPV victimization; however, the EMS of subjugation was the only significant predictor of IPV victimization and mediated the relationship between recollections of dysfunctional parenting and IPV victimization. Additionally, although the EMS of entitlement, insufficient self-control, mistrust/abuse, abandonment, and social isolation accounted for 11.3% of the variance in IPV perpetration, only the EMS of insufficient self-control and mistrust/abuse were significant predictors of IPV perpetration and mediated the relationship between recollections of dysfunctional parenting and IPV perpetration. Results suggest that these cognitive schemas may be the mechanism through which dysfunctional parenting renders one vulnerable to violence in relationships.