Homophobic beliefs and attitudes among mid-adolescent boys: exploring the ideas of hybrid masculinities.

Introduction: Homophobia is well-documented as key to social regulation of masculine behavior and practices in Western settings. Yet, empirical data from a number of Western settings has shown a decline in overt homophobic attitudes in the past decade, leading some to suggest that the nature of masculinities is also changing. However, theorizing on the changing nature of masculinities among adolescents has received limited quantitative attention. Research is needed to better understand shifts in adolescent masculinities in contemporary Western settings. Methods: In this paper, we investigate the application of one newer approach to explore masculinities in context - hybrid masculinities - in a sample of cisgender, heterosexual, mid-adolescent boys in one province in Western Canada (N = 873, mean age (SD) = 14.39 (0.37)). Data were collected from nine cohorts of grade 9 youth over a 10-year period (2013-2022) as part of the baseline survey of an ongoing evaluation of a gender-transformative healthy relationships program. Results and discussion: We hypothesized that if the ideas of hybrid masculinities held in our sample, we would find that overt homophobic attitudes and adherence to related patriarchal norms (e.g., avoidance of femininity) would decline over this period, but that the use of homophobic name-calling would remain differentiated in terms of to whom it was directed (e.g., a friend, someone they thought was gay). We did find a significant decline in homophobic attitudes and norms related to emotional restriction and avoidance of femininity over the 10-year period, but also found that homophobic name-calling remained differentiated, with significantly higher name-calling toward a friend than toward someone the youth thought was gay. Thus, our hypotheses were supported. We discuss the implications of our findings for future theory and research on understanding adolescent masculinities in context.

A Scoping Review on the Use of Experiential Learning in Professional Education on Intimate Partner Violence.

Purpose: Intimate partner violence (IPV) involves any form of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse including controlling behaviors by an intimate partner. Front line service workers such as social workers, nurses, lawyers, and physicians are often the first professionals to come into contact with individuals experiencing IPV but are often inadequately prepared to respond appropriately as IPV education is highly variable. Experiential learning (EL), also known as learning by doing, has gained much attention from educators; however, the extent and type of EL strategies used to teach IPV competencies has not yet been explored. Our aim was to extract what is known from the literature about the use of EL strategies to teach IPV competencies to front line service providers. Methods: We conducted a search from May 2021 through November 2021. Reviewers independently screened citations in duplicate using pre-determined eligibility criteria. Data collected included study demographics (publication year, country, etc.), study participants, and information about the IPV EL. Results: Of 5216 identified studies, 61 were included. Medicine and nursing represented the majority of learners in the included literature. Graduate students were the targeted learners in 48% of articles. Low fidelity EL was used most frequently in 48% of the articles; and role play was the EL mode most frequently utilized (39%) overall. Conclusions: This scoping review provides a comprehensive overview of the limited literature on how EL is used to teach IPV competencies and identifies significant gaps related to the lack of intersectional analysis within educational interventions. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10896-023-00552-4.

Understanding Sexually Victimized Male Adolescents With Sexually Abusive Behaviors: A Narrative Review and Clinical Implications.

A high percentage of adolescents with sexually abusive behaviors have been found to have a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). The purpose of this review is to synthesize literature specific to adolescents with sexually abusive behaviors who have histories of CSA. This review will explore characteristics of this subset of adolescents with sexually abusive behaviors, risk factors, etiological theories that aim to explain the pathway from childhood sexual victimization to sexually abusive behavior in adolescence, and the clinical implications of this literature. Using Kiteley and Stogdon's narrative review framework, findings from 66 peer-reviewed articles published between 1990 and 2017 that included male adolescent participants with sexually abusive behaviors were integrated to inform the purpose of this review. The literature presented that different characteristics of CSA experiences, such as a younger age at the time of abuse and a longer period of abuse, were more prevalent among adolescents with sexually abusive behaviors. The CSA experiences of these adolescents could act as triggers for their sexual offenses, and the Trauma Outcome Process Assessment model addresses the importance of processing past trauma in treatment with adolescents with sexually abusive behaviors. This review concludes with clinical recommendations for how the reviewed literature could be applied within trauma-informed interventions with adolescents with sexually abusive behaviors with a history of CSA.

"Like Opening Up Old Wounds": Conceptualizing Intersectional Trauma Among Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence.

Despite increasing acknowledgment of intimate partner violence (IPV) as a potentially traumatic experience, there is a gap in research investigating women's perspectives of trauma related to their experiences of IPV from an intersectional lens. Intersectionality, which illuminates interconnected inequalities due to constructions of race, gender, sexuality, class, and culture, is particularly important for exploring the broader contexts of women's experiences of IPV and trauma. In response to this dearth in research, this paper presents qualitative findings from a constructivist grounded theory study of 15 women's experiences of IPV and trauma. To conceptualize IPV-related trauma from an intersectional lens, this study addressed the following research questions: (a) How do women who have experienced IPV understand and view trauma? (b) What do women who have experienced IPV indicate are experiences of trauma? and (c) How do women's differing identities, experiences of oppression, or other hardships or adversities relate to their experiences of IPV? Through analysis, six distinct themes were identified: (a) changing perceptions of trauma; (b) the pain of trauma; (c) fear, anxiety, and triggers; (d) lasting impact of trauma; (e) struggle for acceptance; and (f) growth and insight. Implications from these findings illustrate the pervasiveness of IPV and other forms of trauma among women who have been abused by a partner, the long-lasting traumatic impacts of IPV, and the multiple experiences of being blamed and not believed that many women have experienced. These findings represent first steps in understanding the relationship between IPV and trauma from the perspectives of women who have survived IPV, offering an important contribution to previous knowledge on IPV. As well, this study provides first steps in understanding the interacting, intersectional effects of multiple forms of adversity, oppression, and IPV, and their relationships to trauma.

Conducting evaluation research with children exposed to violence: How technological innovations in methodologies and data collection may enhance the process.

Research and program evaluation processes that engage children and youth are becoming much more common due to influences from children's rights and the acknowledgement that children have the capacity to contribute to research, both as participants and co-researchers (Roberts, 2017). Recent technological advances in the form of tablet and internet-based applications have provided researchers with additional methodological tools to better capture the voices and experiences of children and their caregivers (Livingstone & Blum-Ross, 2017). However, little has been written on the ways in which these new technological advances can improve research experiences for children who have been exposed to intimate partner and family violence, as well as other forms of traumatic experiences. This paper provides a review of current literature and a case study example of how one children's mental health agency has implemented tablet-based data collection procedures.

Survivor's Costs of Saying No: Exploring the Experience of Accessing Services for Intimate Partner Violence.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a crucial public health concern with substantial detrimental effects, including poorer physical and mental health as well as increased difficulties accessing formal services. Most research to date has focused on frequencies, barriers, and facilitators of service use among IPV survivors. However, what remains poorly understood is the perspectives of IPV survivors on their experiences of accessing multiple services after leaving the abusive situations. To answer this, six one-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with survivors using expanded definition of "services," which included social services, shelters, health care, police, legal assistance, and so forth. Data were analyzed using Constant Comparison. Four resulting themes were (a) Positive Aspects, (b) Negative Aspects, (c) Impact of Experiences With Services, and (d) Contextual Factors. Within each of these categories, several sub-categories emerged and are discussed within the context of the literature and recommendations are made for improving services for IPV survivors.

Dilemmas and tensions facing a faith-based organisation promoting HIVprevention among young people in South Africa.

Faith-based organisations (FBOs) are receiving growing attention for their roles in addressing HIV and AIDS in southern Africa. These roles, however, are not without philosophical challenges. Yet, to date, most references to the successes or limitations of FBOs have remained the domain of theoretical and, often, ideological debate. In this context, discussions about the roles of faith and FBOs in responding to HIV and AIDS often evoke extreme positions-either advocating for or critiquing their involvement. In place of this there is a need for empirical evidence and analyses that shed light on both the challenges and opportunities of faith-based HIV-prevention programming. This article presents a critical sociological analysis of the complexities confronting one FBO in its effort to deliver an abstinence-focused HIV-prevention programme to school-going adolescents in a poor peri-urban area of South Africa. As one aspect of a larger mixed-methods evaluation, this analysis is based on 11 focus group discussions, variously held with parents, teachers, learners and programme facilitators, in an effort to determine how and why the participants perceived the programme to work. We present and analyse four sources of tension appearing within the data which relate to the programme's faith-based orientation: a) enthusiasm for sexual abstinence despite awareness of the structural constraints; b) a dichotomous framing of behaviours (i.e. good versus bad); c) mixed messages about condoms; and d) administering faith-based programming within secular public schools. Through this analysis we aim to identify opportunities and challenges for faith-based HIV-prevention efforts more broadly. We argue that any assessment of faith-based HIV-prevention programming ought to respect and reflect its complexity as well as the complexity of the context within which it operates.