Adverse mental health outcomes associated with emotional abuse in young rural South African women: a cross-sectional study

There is a lack of data on the prevalence of emotional abuse in youth. The aim of this study was thus to estimate the prevalence of emotional abuse in intimate partnerships among young women in rural South Africa and to measure the association between lifetime experience of emotional abuse (with and without the combined experience of physical and/or sexual abuse) and adverse health outcomes. Between 2002 and 2003, young women from 70 villages were recruited to participate in the cluster randomized controlled trial of an HIV behavioral intervention, Stepping Stones. Data was obtained through the administration of a questionnaire at baseline. Of the 1,293 women who had ever been partnered, 189 (14.6%) had experienced only emotional abuse in their lifetimes. Three hundred sixty-six women (28.3%) experienced emotional abuse with physical and/or sexual abuse in their lifetimes, and one hundred forty-four women (11.1%) experienced physical and/or sexual abuse without emotional abuse. Hazardous drinking was associated with the experience of physical and/or sexual abuse, with (OR 6.0, 95% CI [1.0, 36.6]) and without emotional abuse (OR 5.8, 95% CI [1.1, 29.4]). Illicit drug use (OR 5.6, 95% CI [2.4, 12.6]), having depressive symptoms (OR 2.9, 95% CI [1.2, 4.2]), having psychological distress (OR 1.9, 95% CI [1.4, 2.6]), and suicidality (OR 79.0, 95% CI [17.3, 359.6]) was associated with the experience of emotional abuse with physical and/or sexual abuse. Suicidality was also strongly associated with having experienced emotional abuse alone (OR 79.5, 95% CI [16.7, 377.4]). This study showed that emotionally abused young women had a greater risk of suicidality than those experiencing no abuse and that the combined experience of emotional with physical and/or sexual abuse was strongly associated with poor mental health outcomes.     

Women’s Exposure to Psychological Abuse: Does That Experience Predict Mental Health Outcomes?

Women’s experience with psychological abuse was examined as a predictor of symptoms and clinical levels of depression, anxiety, and somatization, as well as suicidal ideation and life functioning. A national sample of 361 women reporting themselves to be in a problematic or conflictual relationship completed an online survey assessing psychological abuse, pre-existing risk factors, risk factors related to exposure of psychological abuse and mental health indicators. The results indicated that while psychological abuse does predict mental health outcomes, perceived negative changes in one’s traits, problematic relationship schemas, and response styles more strongly predict mental health outcomes than the reported abuse. Implications discussed include the importance of identifying women in psychologically abusive relationships who are at risk for mental health problems, prevention of development of mental health problems, and the need for mediation path analysis of the factors explored in this study.     

Sex industry exposure over the life course on the onset and frequency of sex offending

Purpose

Research has examined pornography use on the extent of offending. However, virtually no work has tested whether other sex industry experiences affect sex crime. By extension, the cumulative effect of these exposures is unknown. Social learning theory predicts that exposure should amplify offending. Separately, the developmental perspective highlights that the timing of exposure matters.

Methods

Drawing on retrospective longitudinal data, we first test whether exposure during adolescence is associated with a younger age of onset; we also examine whether adulthood exposure is linked with greater frequency of offending.

Results

Findings indicate that most types of adolescent exposures as well as total exposures were related to an earlier age of onset. Exposure during adulthood was also associated with an overall increase in sex offending, but effects were dependent on “type.”

Conclusion

There are nuances in the effect of sex industry exposure on offending patterns. Implications of results are discussed.     

Imagining the modern city: Miyamoto [Chūjō] Yuriko in Moscow and London, 1927–1930

After her life-changing sojourn in the Soviet Union and Europe in the late 1920s, Miyamoto [Chūjō] Yuriko (1899–1951) devoted herself to the cause of communism. Her ideological conversion was rooted in the context of the modern city – in particular, Moscow and London – and the close interrelation between literary and filmic modernism and the modern city is evident in two key articles she wrote during her time abroad. In this article I will analyse how Yuriko represented her profoundly political experience and interpretation of two cities embodying alternative, opposed modernities – communism and capitalism – through modernist literary techniques and the new artistic technology of film.     

Emerging combatants, war crimes and the future of international humanitarian law

The purpose of this paper is to examine the traditional paradigm of international law that regulates warfare and defines criminal behavior,and examine how the emergence of new actors has changed the environmentof armed conflict. The existing paradigm takes into account state actorsand insurgents who have recognizable political goals. All such combatantshave some stake in the existing international political system and somemeans are available (military intervention, war crimes trials) to compeltheir compliance with the law. However, new categories of combatants areemerging. They are not connected to states, may have no political goalsand are difficult to reach or persuade with time-tested methods.Compelling or persuading them to better compliance with the law is essential to protect vulnerable populations from their depredations.The paper concludes by identifying some contributions that criminologistscan make toward understanding these groups and devising strategies to meetthe challenge of war crimes. Those contributions by criminologists wouldbe equally valuable in dealing with the problem of war crimes and ``traditional' combatants.     

The Deserving Worker: Decisions about Workplace Accommodation by Judges and Laypeople

Employment civil rights laws require employers to make reasonable accommodations for certain workers so that they can perform their jobs. The “reasonableness” of an accommodation request should be based largely on the cost of the accommodation relative to the company's resources, but how do people really evaluate such requests? This study examines determinations of the reasonableness of workplace accommodation requests made by trial judges and ordinary people. Using a 2 × 3 × 3 between‐subjects factorial design, we test the effect of worker identity (nursing‐mother worker, transgender worker, and Muslim worker) and cost on determinations of reasonableness. We find that (1) the identity category of the requesting worker impacts determinations of reasonableness by both judges and laypeople, (2) the cost of the accommodation impacts determinations of reasonableness, (3) judges are more likely to think that accommodation requests are reasonable than are laypeople, (4) there is a complicated relationship between accommodation cost and employee identity, and (5) the cost of the requested accommodation mitigates the effect of identity significantly for judges but less so for ordinary citizens. While judges are less influenced by the identity category of the employee‐requestor than are their lay‐counterparts, social status plays a role in determining what constitutes “reasonable accommodation.”     

Professionalizing Arts Management in Healthcare Facilities

An urgent need exists for trained specialists to manage organizational policies and practices involving arts programs and activities in healthcare facilities. This article introduces the field of arts in health and argues for what is currently needed within the academic and professional field of arts management to advance this emerging arena of arts management theory and practice. The authors integrate key references from existing scholarship alongside additional survey data to offer recommendations for developing professional management of the arts in healthcare facilities like hospitals, hospices, and long-term care centers. The article provides an overview of the responsibilities of arts managers in healthcare institutions, as well as insight into the knowledge, competencies, and skills that arts managers require to effectively work in these settings. The article concludes with articulating a conceptual framework for a long-term research trajectory to inform further advancement of this distinct sub-field of arts management.     

Performance Reporting: Assessing the Annual Reports of Malaysian Local Authorities

There have been calls for Malaysian local authorities to be more transparent and accountable in the discharge of their functional responsibilities. This study empirically evaluates the extent and quality of current performance reporting by local authorities. The disclosure of relevant information for discharging accountability obligations, as defined by a broad range of stakeholders, falls short of best practice. Therefore, the performance of Malaysian local authorities lacks transparency. The findings could assist in the development of more comprehensive guidelines for local authority reporting and raise awareness of information stakeholders expect to be reported in the context of accountability.