The present thesis explored the experiences and correlates of victimization among Chinese gay men and lesbians in Hong Kong with the aim at reducing their victimization experiences in future. This thesis had two studies. Study One was a cross-sectional study to examine correlates of victimization experiences. Based on the stress and coping paradigm, an integrated model on victimization experiences was developed. The model composed of three predicting factors of victimization experiences: predispositional stressors including gender role atypicality and internalized homophobia, cognitive appraisal variables including perceived discrimination and gay/lesbian community involvement, and sexual identity management strategies including counterfeiting, integration, and confrontation. A total of 645 Chinese gay men and lesbians in Hong Kong participated in this study. Results of path analyses showed that sexual identity management strategy of confrontation was the immediate correlate of victimization. Cognitive appraisal variables, including perceived discrimination and gay/lesbian community involvement, were also directly related to victimization experiences. Predisposition stressors, including gender role atypicality and internalized homophobia, were related to cognitive appraisal variables and sexual identity management strategies, which in turn predicted victimization experiences. The cross-sectional model was examined with four types of victimization experiences, including verbal insults, physical attacks, sexual assaults, and unfair treatment; and with gay men and lesbians separately. Results showed that the model was more predictive of physical attacks and sexual assaults of gay men. Based on the final cross-sectional model, a longitudinal model on victimization experiences and a psychoeducational program on sexual identity management strategies were developed. Study Two was a three-month follow-up study to examine the longitudinal model and to evaluate the effectiveness of the psychoeducational program on reducing future victimization experiences. A random sample of 392 participants from Study One was recruited to Study Two. Results of path analyses showed that victimization experiences at T2 (Time Two) were predicted by three longitudinal paths. Confrontation at T1 (Time One) had direct impact on confrontation at T2, which was linked to victimization experiences at T2. Victimization experiences at T1 predicted confrontation at T2, which was related to victimization experiences at T2. Victimization experiences at T1 had direct effects on victimization experiences at T2. Similar to the cross-sectional model, the longitudinal model was more predictive of physical attacks and sexual assaults of gay men. Results also showed that the psychoeducational program was effective in reducing participants' victimization experiences in future. Compared with the control group, participants of the psychoeducational program used less confrontation strategy, more counterfeiting and integration strategies from T1 to T2. Participants showed greater reduction in victimization experiences than the control group from T1 to T2. Compared with lesbians, gay men demonstrated greater reduction in victimization experiences after the psychoeducational program. Limitations and service implications of the studies were discussed. / Wong Chi Yan. / "August 2005." / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: B, page: 0566. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 262-291). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

The sociocultural mythology of the South homogenizes it as a site of abjection. To counter the regionalist discourse, the dissertation intersects queer sexualities with gender and race and focuses on exploring identity and spatial formation among Black lesbian and queer women. The dissertation seeks to challenge the monolith of the South and place the region into multiple contexts and to map Black geographies through an intentional intersectional account of Black queer women. The dissertation utilizes qualitative research methods to ascertain understandings of lived experiences in the production of space. The dissertation argues that an idea of Progress has been indoctrinated as a synonym for the lgbtq civil rights movement and subsequently provides an analysis of progress discourses and queer sexualities and political campaigns of equality in the South. Analyses revealed different ways to situate progress utilizing the public contributions of three Black women interviewed for the dissertation. Moreover, the dissertation utilizes six Black queer and lesbian women to explain the multifarious nature of identities and their construction in place. Black queer and lesbian women produce spaces that deconstruct the normativity of stasis and physicality, and the dissertation explores the consequential realities of being a body in space. These consequences are particularly highlighted in the dissertation by discussions of the processes of racialization in the bounded and unbounded senses of space and place and the impacts of religious institutions, specifically Christianity. The dissertation concluded that no space is without complication. Other considerations should be made in the advancement of alleviating oppression deeply embedded in United States landscapes. Black women’s geographies offer epistemological and ontological renderings that enrich analyses of space, place, and landscape. The dissertation also concludes that Black women’s bodies represent sites for the production of geographic knowledge through narrating their spaces of material trajectories of interlocking, multiscalar lives.

Social learning is a key element in the methodology used in the Mexican telenovela Ultimo año, and suggest that people can adopt behaviour from watching television. An important aspect of social learning are role models to identify with and/or learn their behaviour, hopefully changing their behaviour. Entertainment Education is a tool to educate through entertainment like TV shows, and are often used to teach about health issues. Mexico legalized same sex marriages in the first state only five years ago. The culture is characterized by the “macho” machisimo culture. Therefore the study aims to treat homosexual youth in Mexico. The study investigates the Mexican gay’s youth reception on the show “Ultimo año”. This show aims to reach behaviour changes concerning issues such as reproductive health, gender based violence, violence and other health related issues. The study finds that the respondents are unable to identify with the characters and events to a large extent in Ultimo año. However, they can recognize some events in the show, as well as some characteristics that are portrayed. Our study shows that homosexuality is poorly represented in the show and the characters are too wealthy to appeal to our respondents. According to our respondents the show does not reflect Mexican youth in the correct way. Respondents thought that homosexuality was portrayed in a negative way, which did not support being gay or “coming out”. The lack of identifying negative feelings of the heteronormative narrative, along with the representation of homosexuality, therefore affecting the respondents in a way the effect would be no participation in social learning. Therefor unable to achieve the behaviour change that the show is aiming towards. The study is based on one focus group and three personal interviews. The theoretical background for this study contains Stuart Halls encoding/decoding model, Albert Banduras theory about social learning, Miguel Sabido´s Methodology and previous research on reception studies by Martina Ladenorf, Thomas Tufte and Sonia Livingstone.

Social institutions in rural communities tend to be highly interrelated and social ties tend to be dense and multiplex. Human ecological theoretical models posit that all institutions in which an individual is embedded interact in complex ways. As such, this dissertation examines the influences of school, faith, family, and risk contexts on the grade point averages of students who attended school in nonmetropolitan counties in Appalachian Kentucky. Using data disaggregated by gender from nearly 5,000 adolescents, I identified risk and protective factors on grade point averages by attraction type (exclusively opposite-sex attracted, same-sex attracted, and unsure of attraction), identified differences in grade point averages between attraction types, and identified mediators and moderators of the relationship between attraction type and grade point average. School belonging positively influenced the grade point averages of unsure males and religious belief negatively influenced the grade point averages of same-sex attracted males. In general, sexual minority students reported lower grade point averages than their exclusively opposite-sex attracted peers. Among same-sex attracted males and females, this disparity in grade point average was mediated by school belonging. Among unsure males the variation in grade point average was largely explained by engagement in risk behaviors. The relationship between sexual attraction and grade point average was moderated by religiosity, marijuana use, and labor market optimism.

It has only been in recent years that eating disorder researchers have begun focusing on sexual orientation as a variable that may affect prevalence rates. Heeding the call for studies that extend beyond identification of fixed eating disorder risk factors (e.g., gender), this study was designed to explore factors that contribute to the development of disordered eating among lesbians. In this study, a hypothesized Lesbian Model of Disordered Eating was tested using structural equation modeling. Lesbian Sexual Identity and Social Supports were hypothesized to positively influence Psychological Health. In addition, Internalization of U.S. Societal Norms of beauty and attractiveness was hypothesized to negatively affect Psychological Health. Psychological Health, in turn, was hypothesized to negatively influence Body Image Concerns. Body Image Concerns was then hypothesized to positively affect Disordered Eating. The fit of the model was evaluated and one of the hypothesized pathways, Internalization of Norms was moved to directly predict Body Image Concerns. After adjusting the model, the model accounted for 54% of the variance in disordered eating. Most notably, the results highlight the potential affects of adopting a positive lesbian identity on disordered eating and underscore the importance of including sexual identity as a demographic variable in studies of body image and disordered eating. Implications for counseling and directions for future research are discussed.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:30:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernanda Calderaro.pdf: 2658096 bytes, checksum: dc0707ad41c33c2e00393622a2b41699 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-10-17 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / The aim of this research was to understand how the federal government, the social movements and the academy constructed health policies orientated to lesbians and how they appear in these actions. These actions are heterogeneous social products which include the interaction of human and non-human elements and form a socio-technical network. Among the elements of this network, we focused on the actions held by the federal government, the lesbian social movements and the academy. In this interaction, academy made itself present through the production of knowledge that lay the foundation for the lesbian social movement´s actions and demands; the government positioned itself as the interlocutor and receptor of those demands and transformed them into public policies. The procedures used in this research included the analysis of public domain documents that were the federal government s responsibility, interviews with some actresses that participated on the network formed around the lesbian s health, and field notes. The analysis were based on Actor- Network Theory and the discursive practices approach. The results show us that the claims for health are part of the lesbian social movement s organization and visibility strategies, which generated new norms and forms of pathologization of their sexual practices. The demarcation of the limits of normality by the federal government´s health policies occured through the focus on vulnerabilities to infection by STD/HVI/ Aids and viral hepatitis, through breast and cervical cancer, through the (domestic, sexual and institution) violence committed against lesbians and through the experiences of prejudice and discrimination / Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo compreender como se deu a atuação do governo federal, dos movimentos sociais e da academia na construção de políticas de saúde destinadas às lésbicas e como estas aparecem nessas ações. Tais ações são produtos sociais heterogêneos que englobam elementos humanos e não-humanos em interação, formando uma rede sociotécnica. Dentre os elementos dessa rede, tivemos por foco a atuação do governo federal, dos movimentos sociais lésbicos e da academia. Nesta interação, a academia se fez presente na produção de conhecimentos que embasam as ações e demandas dos movimentos sociais lésbicos e o governo se posiciona como interlocutor e receptor de tais demandas, as transformando em políticas públicas. Os procedimentos para a realização desta pesquisa incluíram a análise de documentos de domínio público de responsabilidade do governo federal, entrevistas com algumas atrizes que fazem parte da rede formada em torno da saúde de lésbicas e anotações em diário de campo. As análises realizadas tiveram como aportes teóricos a Teoria Ator-Rede e a abordagem das práticas discursivas. Os resultados mostraram que as reivindicações por saúde fazem parte das estratégias de visibilidade e organização dos movimentos sociais lésbicos, que, por sua vez, engendram novas normatizações e formas de patologização de suas práticas sexuais. A demarcação dos limites da normalidade pelas políticas de saúde do governo federal se dão por meio das vulnerabilidades de infecção DST/HIV/Aids e hepatites virais, câncer de mama e colo de útero, pelas violências a que estão submetidas as lésbicas (doméstica, sexual, institucional), e pela vivência de situações de discriminação e preconceito

<p>The general aim of the project was to describe the situation of lesbians and gay men in a nursing environment by studying the attitudes of nursing staff and students, and the experiences of gay nursing staff in their work environment and of gay patients and partners in their encounters with nursing. The study for papers I and II had a descriptive, comparative design. Nurses, assistant nurses, and nursing students completed the Attitudes Toward Homosexuality Scale (ATHS), the Causes of Homosexuality Questionnaire (CHQ), and the Affect Adjective Checklist (AAC), along with the Nursing Behaviour Questionnaire (NBQ). In general, the participating nursing staff and students expressed positive attitudes, though some subjects reported very negative attitudes toward gay people. The participants also expressed a full spectrum of emotions from delight to anger. The studies for papers III and IV had a descriptive, explorative design. Here, the data collection was performed by semi-structured interviews. The informants were gay nursing staff, gay patients and partners of patients. The gay personnel reported fear and concern about heterosexuals' reactions when these informants 'come out', and were constantly assesing the risk being open about their sexual orientation among their workmates. Nearly all patients and partners described several situations where heteronormative assumptions were communicated by the nursing staff. Almost all informants offered recommendations for nursing staff to facilitate communication. According to the presented findings, probably only a small minority in Swedish nursing have negative attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. However, the informants told of heteronormative language and behaviour in nursing contexts that were percieved as insensitive, insulting and humaliating. Nursing staff need to learn how to communicate in a more natural way and to be aware of the norms they communicate through the language and behaviour they use.</p>

Bakgrund: Lesbiska och bisexuella kvinnor har sämre fysisk och psykisk hälsa än heterosexuella kvinnor. De är en osynliggjord grupp inom vården. Inom kvinnosjukvården (gynekologi och obstetrik) finns en tradition av heterosexualitet i och med dess fokus på reproduktion. Tidigare studier har visat att lesbiska och bisexuella undviker gynekologisk vård på grund av dåligt bemötande. Obstetriken kommer framöver att få ta emot alltfler samkönade par. Det blir därför viktigt att förstå hur kvinnosjukvården upplevs av lesbiska och bisexuella kvinnor. Syftet är att belysa lesbiska och bisexuella kvinnors upplevelser av kvinnosjukvården. Metod: Litteraturöversikt av 13 forskningsstudier. Textanalys med beskrivande sammanställning av inkluderade studiers resultat. Teoretiska referensramar är vårdrelation och heteronormativitet. Resultat: Det finns heteronormativitet och homofobi inom kvinnosjukvården på både individuell och strukturell nivå. Brister i bemötandet handlade om att bli exkluderad, samt att mötas av fientlighet, omedvetenhet eller okunskap. Detta fick negativa konsekvenser för studiernas deltagare, och ledde till olika strategier för att hantera och förebygga negativa vårdsituationer. Positiva upplevelser av vården relaterades till medvetenhet och kunskap kring sexuell läggning i form av öppenhet och kommunikation, samt när vårdpersonal signalerade acceptans och positiva attityder. Små förändringar i bemötandet kunde göra stor skillnad i mötet. Diskussion: Förutsättningarna för en god vårdrelation försvåras av heteronormativitet, och vårdpersonal behöver bli medvetna om på vilka särskilda sätt som lesbiska och bisexuella kvinnor behöver bekräftelse i form av acceptans och inkluderande. Enskild vårdpersonal kan göra stor skillnad i upplevelsen av bemötandet, och på så sätt också vara del av en större förändring kring minskad heteronormativitet inom kvinnosjukvården. / Background. Lesbian and bisexual women have worse physical and mental health than heterosexual women. They are an invisible group in health care. Within women's health care, (gynecology and obstetrics) there is a tradition of heterosexuality due to the focus on reproduction. Previous studies have shown that lesbians and bisexuals avoid gynecological care due to the way they are received. Obstetrics will now be receiving more and more same-sex couples. That makes it important to understand how lesbian and bisexual women experience women’s health care. The aim is to highlight lesbian and bisexual women's experiences of women's health care. Method. Literature review of 13 research studies. Text analysis with descriptive summary of included studies' results. The theoretical frameworks are the nurse-patient relationship and heteronormativity. Results. Heteronormativity and homophobia exist within women's health care. Deficiencies in the the ways lesbians and bisexual women were received involved being excluded and encountering hostility, unawareness or ignorance. This led to the need for various strategies to manage and prevent adverse health situations. Positive experiences of care related to awareness and knowledge of sexual orientation in terms of openness and communication, as well as health professionals signaling acceptance and positive attitudes. Marginal changes in health professionals’ response could make a big difference for the lesbian and bisexual women. Discussions. The prospects of a good caring relationship is complicated by heteronormativity. Health professionals need to be aware of the specific ways in which lesbian and bisexual women may need confirmation. Individual health professionals can make a big difference to the way lesbian and bisexual women experience health care, and thereby also contribute to a wider improvement related to reduced heteronormativity in women’s healthcare.

Little has been written about women's career development that specifically addresses the process of women becoming successful in their occupations. As well, the literature has neglected to include the experiences of lesbians. Yet there is reason to believe that lesbians, by virtue of their lesbian identity, may have unique work experiences that are different from heterosexual women, leading to different paths to occupational success. The purpose of this study was to investigate the process of lesbians becoming successful in their occupations by utilizing a grounded theory approach. Fifteen women (age range 35 to 69 years) who were identified as successful in their occupations (i.e., they were perceived as leaders in their fields) and who represented a variety of occupational fields, were interviewed about their experience of becoming successful in their careers. The grounded theory analysis of the data led to conceptual development, ordering, and a description of a psychological process "striving for holistic integration." The central process begins by these women "managing their lesbian identities in the workplace." The process involved women "taking risks and being out" at work along a continuum that represented women "working 'in' silence," "working quietly," and being "boldly 'out' spoken." Other salient categories in this central process included: facing ongoing fear, handling homophobia, and fighting for social change. Holistic integration involved participants integrating their lesbian and work "worlds." This integration facilitated enhanced working relationships based on honesty, and, for many participants, holistic integration became transformational as they became empowered by being open and disclosing their lesbian identities in the workplace. This process involved a dynamic, synergistic interaction between the influencing conditions (i.e., changing social times, personal background, serendipitous conditions, love and support, and a gay friendly work environment) and the unfolding of the process of striving for holistic integration. This research contributes to our understanding of lesbians' occupational success and is an important first step for further research. The women in this sample were primarily out in their respective fields and experienced benefits from doing so, despite the barriers many of them encountered along the way. The findings of this study provide guidance for future research in the area of lesbian career development and success.

Magister Legum - LLM