A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality

The Convergence of Social Identities and Environmental Contexts in Facilitating Latino Male Resilience

While Latino/as are the largest racial/ethnic group in the United States, they continue to face challenges throughout their educational careers. Latino males, in particular, are said to be vanishing from higher education, earning fewer degrees than their female counterparts. Using in-depth interviews with 24 Latino male collegians, we sought to understand the process of resilience for this population, looking specifically at the factors that enhance their educational access and success within postsecondary institutions. The data demonstrate the social identities and environmental contexts that foster resilience for Latino males, despite adversities they may face. Four main themes arose, illuminating the challenges Latino males may face in their path to college and elucidating the ways they use their identities as motivation and the educational contexts that support their resilience. We highlight resilience as a process, calling for educators to consider the ways in which they can support Latino males’ aspirations into and through college.

Acts of Resistance: Student (In)visibility

This paper argues that public school structures are oppressive for all students. Because of racial, class and gender biases, school environments are often especially problematic for African American and working-class/working-poor students. Boys and girls also experience school differently because of gender roles. These intersecting problems include facing dominant narratives based on stereotypes and discrimination. The current study took place in a school building that serves predominately African American and low-income students. The questions examined include: how does school silence children, and how do children resist being silenced? Observational and interview data indicate that children are disciplined into invisibility by treating them stereotypically and consequently demanding uniformity in their behavior as a way to control their mostly colored bodies. Children resist such treatment through creative and collaborative acts that promote their voice and visibility and which critique the dominant narrative. In general, students attempt to construct an alternative view that allows another, student-generated narrative to emerge.

Challenging Racial Silences in Studies of Emotion Work: Contributions from Anti-Racist Feminist Theory

Little or no attention has been paid to the racialized dimensions of the emotion work done by individuals as part of their paid jobs. I argue that this exclusion of racial analyses is symptomatic of a static conceptualization of the subject underlying many studies of emotion work. While theorists illuminate the different forms of emotion work required by women and men, and by individuals in various professions, there is little understanding of the relationship between the emotion work people do and their social locations within interactive race, class and gender hierarchies. Drawing on feminist anti-racist theory I propose a multidimensional approach to difference and stratification, which would allow us to illuminate new forms of emotion work done by people living in today's heterogeneous social and economic context. The theoretical discussion in this article is complemented by an analysis of the experiences of an ethnically diverse group of women who are small-business owners in Halifax, Canada.

Integrating Gender and Ethnicity into Psychology Courses

In this introduction to the special issue on teaching about gender and ethnicity in psychology, we consider the assumptions underlying an inclusive curriculum that pays attention to gender and ethnicity and address why such a curriculum has merit. We review empirical studies, assessing whether existing curricula are inclusive, and present an overview of the articles and the recurrent themes. These themes include the complexity of the interaction between ethnicity and gender; the difficulty of deciding which of the many possible ethnic groups to include in course material; the dominance of evaluative comparison in discussions of differences among groups; the interdisciplinary nature of research on ethnicity; and the tendency in psychology to ignore the importance of the power differences that confound analyses of the effect of ethnicity and gender.

Where are the Latinas?

The inclusion of scholarship about Latinas into psychology courses is considered by answering two questions: (1) How do we evaluate the scholarship that should be included? (2) What factors should be considered for inclusion? To answer the first question on the evaluation of scholarship, six criteria are presented. The factors to be considered for the inclusion of scholarship about Latinas are illustrated in a discussion of three topics that are often presented in introductory psychology courses: identity, gender role socialization, and educational achievement and aspirations. Our discussion questions the validity of the conceptualization of these three topics when Latinas and other ethno-racial groups are excluded and offers evidence of the possibilities for clarification and expansion of theory and knowledge when they are included.

From Death to Life

Experiences of 17 female Iraq War veterans were explored to understand the challenges of reintegrating into civilian life and the impact on mental health. All respondents completed preliminary electronic surveys and participated in one of two focus groups. High levels of distress exist among veterans who are caught between military and civilian cultures, coping with war experiences, feeling alienated from family and friends, and attempting to negotiate gender and identity. Narrative is identified as a means of resolution. Recommendations include development of social support and transition groups; military cultural competence training for therapists, social workers, and college counselors; and further research to identify appropriate military response and paths to successful reintegration into society.

The problem with the phrase women and minorities: intersectionality-an important theoretical framework for public health

Intersectionality is a theoretical framework that posits that multiple social categories (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status) intersect at the micro level of individual experience to reflect multiple interlocking systems of privilege and oppression at the macro, social-structural level (e.g., racism, sexism, heterosexism). Public health's commitment to social justice makes it a natural fit with intersectionality's focus on multiple historically oppressed populations. Yet despite a plethora of research focused on these populations, public health studies that reflect intersectionality in their theoretical frameworks, designs, analyses, or interpretations are rare. Accordingly, I describe the history and central tenets of intersectionality, address some theoretical and methodological challenges, and highlight the benefits of intersectionality for public health theory, research, and policy.

He Says, She Says: Gender and Cohabitation

Cohabitation has become the modal path to marriage in the United States. However, little is known about what cohabitation means to young adults today. Drawing on data from 18 focus groups (N=138) and 54 in-depth interviews with young adults, this exploratory study investigates motivations to cohabit, and examines potential gender differences in those motivations and the meanings attached to them. We find that primary motives to cohabit include spending time together, sharing expenses, and evaluating compatibility. Strong gender differences emerge in how respondents discuss these themes and how they characterize the drawbacks of cohabitation, with men more concerned about loss of freedom and women with delays in marriage. Overall, our findings suggest that gendered cultural norms governing intimate relationships extend to cohabiting unions, and point to gender differences in the perceived role of cohabitation in union formation processes.

[Research on social determinants of health and health inequalities: evidence for health in all policies]

This article aims to review conceptual frameworks and some principles to be considered in research on social determinants of health and health inequalities. Some indicators of research on these issues in Spain are described. General expenditure on research and development in Spain is far from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development mean. In addition, both globally and within Spain, the scientific production on health inequalities is very low, especially compared with other research areas. The budget for research on health inequalities is also reduced. A striking example is provided by analysis of the projects funded by the Marató de TV3, which seems to have little interest in funding research on health inequalities. However, both the scientific production and project financing on health inequalities have increased in the last decade. Finally, to advance research on health inequalities and its contribution to the incorporation of health in all policies, recommendations are made, which include redefining priorities, ensuring resources and promoting knowledge translation.

Integrating intersectionality and biomedicine in health disparities research

Persisting health disparities have lead to calls for an increase in health research to address them. Biomedical scientists call for research that stratifies individual indicators associated with health disparities, for example, ethnicity. Feminist social scientists recommend feminist intersectionality research. Intersectionality is the multiplicative effect of inequalities experienced by nondominant marginalized groups, for example, ethnic minorities, women, and the poor. The elimination of health disparities necessitates integration of both paradigms in health research. This study provides a practical application of the integration of biomedical and feminist intersectionality paradigms in nursing research, using a psychiatric intervention study with battered Latino women as an example.

Being silenced: the impact of negative social reactions on the disclosure of rape

Rape survivors who speak out about their assault experiences are often punished for doing so when they are subjected to negative reactions from support providers. These negative reactions may thereby serve a silencing function, leading some rape survivors to stop talking about their experiences to anyone at all. The current study sought to examine this worst case scenario. Focusing on the qualitative narratives of eight rape survivors who initially disclosed the assault but then stopped disclosing for a significant period of time, this study sought to provide an in-depth description of how negative reactions silenced these survivors. Three routes to silence were identified: 1) negative reactions from professionals led survivors to question whether future disclosures would be effective; 2) negative reactions from friends and family reinforced feelings of self-blame; and 3) negative reactions from either source reinforced uncertainty about whether their experiences qualified as rape. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.