Not available / text

The process involved in deciding to submit my publications for examination for a PhD by Published Works' has been a peculiar one. The peculiarity has been the separateness of the two endeavours, namelyihewriting of the publications and the submission for a PhD. When I wrote each of the submitted publications the idea that they would become part of a PhD submission had not occurred to me. They were publications primarily for practice, with the hoped for intention of improving practice and practice outcomes for service users. They were written during the last ten years during the time that I had entered academia and had become a hybrid academic/practitioner. The 'research' process involved in the publications was inductive; the writing was the culmination of ten years in social work practice as a social worker and as a team leader of a generic team in an -inner-L-ondon-socral-servrees -department during the'decade of the 1980s. The writing was a synthesis of my reflections on practice experience and literature reviews, the culmination of which were the submitted publications. The submitted works fall within what Fullerand Petch-refer tCfas"'practitionerrese-arch' -(Fuller and Petch, 1995) and what Buchanan refers to as 'practice experience' (Buchanan, 1999). The publications, at the time, were a record of my practice experience, reflections, contribution to and learning from practice, a way of giving back' something to my colleagues and my clients of ten years. However, even though my intentions when writing the publications did not include a PhD, here I am writing my ~ntext statement with the pursuit of a PhD as the goal in mind. This has involved considerable reflective critical analysis about the 1 processes and thinking I engaged in, in relation to each publication and the body of work as a whole. It has also involved analysis of myself as the researcher and my part in the creation of 'knowledge'. The 'reflexive journey' involved in this submission has helped me position my work but also to some extent myself and has helped me feel slightly less antagonistically ambivalent to the role of academic.

No description available.

Domestic violence is considered a serious health and social problem in the United States and around the world. Annually, domestic violence costs in the U.S. are estimated at 8.3 billion dollars. Domestic violence issues first came to modern attention with the women’s movement of the 1970’s. Much of the literature focuses on domestic violence within heterosexual relationships. There has not been much attention directed towards domestic violence in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. This report reviews information about domestic violence, its causes, theories, and how domestic violence affects individuals in the LGBT community. / text

Depression is being diagnosed worldwide at rapidly increasing rates. The World Health Organization has identified depression as the second leading cause of disability worldwide. Women are diagnosed with depression at twice the rate of men. Although much research has been conducted on depression in women, there is very little research on depression in lesbians. The impact of living within a heteronormative society upon lesbians' experiences of depression is unknown. The purpose of this study was to explore lesbians' subjective experiences of depression. Critical ethnographic methods were used to study the ways that lesbians construct their experiences of depression. Twelve self-identified lesbians participated in up to three in-depth interviews conducted over an eight month period. Social constructionism and critical theories underpinned the study's methodology. Thematic analysis led to a schema of themes, domains, and categories that described the participants' experiences. The analysis found no commonalities across the narratives linking being a lesbian with experiences of depression. However, many patterns did emerge describing the ways that the participants construct their experiences of depression. Four themes were identified: Being depressed: Describing the experience, The roots of depression: Emotional dissonance, Managing depression: Desire for relief, and Explaining depression: Needing to know why . The dominant discourses of depression forwarded by psychiatry and psychology have penetrated the popular culture and shaped the participants' understandings of their feelings of depression. These discourses assist in the maintenance of social hegemonies. Further analysis of the study themes led to the discovery that experiences of depression are class-mediated, with study outliers offering glimpses into alternative class-based constructions of depression. The participants shared a number of constructs in formulations of their sexuality. Lesbian identity and radical-cultural feminist discourses underpinned the participants' narratives of identity. Class privilege was identified as significant in these women's abilities to comfortably negotiate their marginalized sexuality within a heteronormative society. Implications of the study for nursing practice, education and research include the formulation of new understandings of lesbianism and sexuality. Findings indicate future depression research must explore of the ways social class influences experiences and perceptions of depression.

The goal of this dissertation is to examine minority stress in the lives of gay and lesbian individuals and couples. To do this I conducted three separate, but empirically and conceptually related studies using data from 68 self-identified gay men and lesbians. Of these, 38 participants were coupled (n = 19 couples). All three studies were informed by minority stress theory. In the first study I examined individual (N = 68) and partner (n = 38) correlates and associations with concern for safety because of sexual orientation and harassment because of sexual orientation. Comfort with homosexuality was the strongest negative predictor of concern for safety because of sexual orientation. Further, involvement with gay related activities was found to be the strongest positive predictor of harassment because of sexual orientation. In the next two studies I examined the daily influence of minority stress for same-sex couples (n = 19). In the second study I examined how daily public displays (PDA) of affection are associated with daily relationship satisfaction, daily concern for safety because of sexual orientation, and daily harassment because of sexual orientation. I found daily PDA to be positively associated with concurrent and lagged relationship satisfaction, positively associated with concurrent and lagged concern for safety, and concurrent, lagged, and prospective increases in harassment because of sexual orientation. In the third and final study I examined the moderating effect of daily relationship satisfaction on the relationships between daily concern for safety and harassment in predicting daily physical health and well-being. I find that daily concern for safety and harassment are not associated with daily physical health suggesting that the negative effects of minority stress on physical health are more cumulative and do not fluctuate from day-to-day. I also find that daily relationship satisfaction does moderate the relationship between daily concern for safety and harassment and their daily well-being in unexpected ways. Collectively, this dissertation illustrates the complex influence of minority stress in the lives of gay and lesbian individuals and couples in two ways: first, as it pertains to how personal characteristics and behaviors (e.g. involvement with gay related activities and engagement in PDA) are associated with minority stress overall and on a daily basis; second, by illustrating the daily influence of minority stress on daily physical health and well-being. In conclusion, in these studies I highlight the complexity of life and how minority stress, stress that is unique to gay men and lesbian individuals and couples, complicates otherwise beneficial behaviors. Further, I illustrate the long and short term ramifications minority stress has on gay men and lesbian individuals and couples.

This dissertation examines the relationship between gender and language in Japanese through the often ignored lens of sexuality. Although linguists are increasingly examining these issues for American gay, lesbian, and bisexual speakers, little similar research has been done in Japan. Lesbians, in particular, are relatively invisible in Japanese society. Examining these women, who do not fit neatly into the hegemonic gender ideology, illuminates how speakers can project a specific identity by displaying or rejecting prescriptive gender-specific linguistic norms of Japanese.I analyzed data recorded from interviews with both Japanese lesbian/bisexual and heterosexual women, looking for differences in frequency and range of use of pronouns and sentence-final particles and for phonetic differences in terms of average pitch height and width. I also considered the results of a perception experiment undertaken to investigate the effect of pitch height and width on Japanese speakers' perceptions of sexuality.Although Japanese speakers were generally unable to identify a cohesive lesbian stereotype, especially in terms of language use, the perception experiment indicated that both average pitch height and width significantly affect judgments on whether a voice sounds lesbian or heterosexual. Tokens judged to be lesbian were also judged to be more masculine and less emotional than those judged to be heterosexual. Analysis of the interview data showed that lesbian participants produced an average pitch height that was significantly lower than that of heterosexual participants. In terms of gendered morphemes, lesbians were significantly more likely to use masculine morphemes than heterosexual women, both for sentence-final particles and first-person pronouns, and were significantly less likely to use the feminine first-person pronoun <italic>atashi</italic>. Finally, correlations showed that speakers who instantiate gender through the use of gendered-morphemes also do so through manipulations of pitch.Although Japanese lesbians are still fairly closeted and interviewees maintained that there are no cultural stereotypes for this group, significant differences in pitch and gendered-morpheme usage were still apparent. These lesbian/bisexual women did not appear to be mimicking men's language, but instead seemed to be rejecting hegemonic femininity and many of the cultural and linguistic stereotypes that accompany it.

No description available.

No description available.

This study drew on phenomenological constructs to explore the lived experiences of daughters raised in lesbian-headed families. Purposeful sampling methods were employed to attain a sample of five women. During in-depth, individual, audio-taped interviews the participants shared their lived experiences as daughters with lesbian mothers. The interviews were then transcribed and analyzed using Colaizzi's (1978) method of phenomenological analysis. Results of the analysis yielded six common themes: 1) a sense of being different, 2) a sense of being torn, 3) a reclamation of identity, 4) a resistance to socially prescribed femininity, 5) a sense of closeness with their mother, and 6) an enhanced sense of social justice. Validation interviews were conducted to ensure the themes accurately reflected the womens' lived experience. The five daughters in this study appear to have constructed stable lives and to have maintained good relationships with friends, partners, and family. The results also indicate that age related developmental stages and the environment may have influenced the participants' experiences. All participants recalled experiencing feelings of being different from others, feelings of shame or embarrassment about their family, and feelings of pride in themselves and their family form. These findings indicate there may be a commonality between the experiences of these women and the experiences of other minority group members as outlined in minority identity development models such as the Minority Identity Development Model of Atkinson, Morten, and Sue (1993).