Gender Role and Gender as Predictors of Behavior Problems in Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

Children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) are likely to develop behavior problems, but findings are mixed regarding whether girls and boys are differentially affected. Bem (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 634–643, 1975) argued that gender role is an important predictor of mental health, and this relationship may differ for males and females due to societal gender norms. Given the gendered nature of IPV, we examined whether gender role interacted with gender to predict behavior problems in IPV-exposed children (n = 176). Among four-year-old children, gender-typed gender roles were a risk factor for girls but not boys, and androgynous gender roles were protective for both boys and girls on average. However, post hoc analyses indicated the amount of IPV exposure mattered; androgynous girls exposed to chronic IPV had more behavior problems. Results illustrate the importance of societal and family gender norms in determining children’s risk for behavior problems following exposure to IPV.     

Effect of Enabling Resources and Risk Factors on the Relationship between Intimate Partner Violence and Anxiety in Ever-Married Women in Minya,Egypt

The effect of intimate partner violence (IPV) on mental health remains understudied in the Arab world. Using data from 608 ever-married women in rural Minya, Egypt who took part in the 2005 Egypt Demographic Health Survey (EDHS) and a 2012 follow-up survey, we assessed how a woman’s enabling resources and risk factors influenced the association of her exposure to IPV with her generalized anxiety. Results from multivariate regression models showed that proximity to natal kin, prior schooling, and engagement in market work 12 months before marriage had protective effects on generalized anxiety associated with IPV. Childhood abuse from mother also had a protective effect on this relationship. Similar abuse from the brother exacerbated the effects of anxiety when a woman was exposed to IPV. Empowerment programs can encourage women to attend school and engage in market or subsistence work, while suggesting strategies to improve the relationship of women with natal kin.     

The WORSHIP II study: a pilot of psychodynamic interpersonal therapy with women offenders who self-harm

Abstract

The Women Offenders Self Harm Intervention Pilot II (WORSHIP II) study was conducted in three female prisons in England and piloted a treatment intervention for self-harm. WORSHIP II specifically aimed to reduce thoughts and actions of self-harm and suicide risk, through an evidence-based intervention Psychodynamic Interpersonal Therapy (PIT), which is also known as the conversational model. This paper provides an outline of this pilot evaluation of using the PIT approach in prison settings. Therapeutic obstacles associated with implementing WORSHIP II in a correctional environment are discussed, together with successful strategies to overcome these difficulties. Finally, examination of some of the quantitative outcomes suggests that WORSHIP II is a promising approach for this difficult area.     

Exit, voice, and loyalty in international organizations: US involvement in the League of Nations

Recent challenges to traditional international relations theory have questioned the nature of international organizations (IOs) as agents of powerful state-members and have examined various conduits through which non-state actors can voice their concerns. Yet little work has focused on participation in IOs when a powerful state’s official position contradicts the goals of actors within it. This article examines the archival record of American involvement in the League of Nations’ economic section to explore such a circumstance. I correct the prevailing historical view of American isolationism in the interwar period and argue that participation by advanced, industrial democracies can better be understood as combinations of exit, voice, and loyalty on the part of individual components of state and civil societies.

Whose shortage of affordable housing?

Abstract

Shortfalls of low‐rent units are repeatedly cited as the rationale for programs to expand the supply of affordable housing. But the poverty‐level rents studied fall well below those of major supply programs. To reassess whether HOME and the low‐income housing tax credit (LIHTC) address actual shortfalls, this article compares numbers of units with renters by measuring both affordability and incomes with the median‐income‐based metric used for all federal rental programs.

During the 1980s, there were growing surpluses of units affordable to renters with incomes between 50 and 80 percent of their area's median income, a “low‐income” range that includes most HOME and LIHTC rents. By contrast, shortages were severe and growing only at rents affordable to households with incomes below 30 percent of area median. Examination of these shortfalls and the problems they create implies that programs to expand supply are not widely needed.