Perceptions of Shared Power, Gender Conformity, and Marital Quality in Same- and Different-Sex Marriages

Marriage is a key institutional context for the study of gender and gender inequality. One way in which gender inequality is maintained in marriage is through gender norms, which are often upheld by hegemonic masculinity—the pattern of practices that legitimize men’s dominance over women. While studies have focused on how gender conformity (i.e., women embody femininity and men embody masculinity) affects different-sex unions, they have not considered how gender conformity might shape inequalities and marital quality within same-sex unions. Marriage is a key institutional context for the study of gender and gender inequality. This research brief, led by PRC postdoctoral fellow Amanda Pollitt, examines the relationships between gender conformity (i.e., women embody femininity and men embody masculinity), perceptions of shared power, and marital quality in same- and different-sex marriages.This research was supported, in part, by Grant R21AG044585 from the National Institute on Aging (PI, Debra Umberson); Grant P2CHD042849 awarded to the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD); and Grant T32 HD007081, Training Program in Population Studies, awarded to the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin by NICHD.Population Research Cente

Profiles and Predictors of Dating Violence Among Sexual and Gender Minority Adolescents

Purpose: Sexual and gender minority adolescents report higher levels of dating violence compared with their heterosexual and cisgender peers. The objectives of the present study were to (1) identify latent profiles of dating violence; (2) examine if sexual and gender minority adolescents were particularly vulnerable to certain profiles of dating violence; and (3) explore how experiences of peer victimization, discrimination, and parental maltreatment explained this greater vulnerability. Methods: High school students in Grades 9 and 11 from the 2016 Minnesota Student Survey (N = 87,532; mean age = 15.29 years, SD = 1.23) were asked about their sexual and gender identities, their gender nonconformity, their experiences of verbal, physical, and sexual dating violence victimization and perpetration, as well their experiences of childhood maltreatment, peer victimization, and gender-based and sexual minority status–based discrimination. Results: Multinomial logistic regression analysis in a three-step latent class analysis procedure suggested five profiles of dating violence victimization and perpetration across the entire sample. Sexual and gender minority adolescents were generally more likely to be in classes high in dating violence victimization, perpetration, or both, compared with their heterosexual and cisgender peers. Gender nonconformity was also associated with greater risk for being in high dating violence classes. These differences, however, were generally nonsignificant when the social stressors of childhood maltreatment, peer victimization, and experiences of discrimination were accounted for. Conclusions: Although findings suggested greater vulnerability for dating violence among sexual and gender minority adolescents, they underscore the importance of how minority stressors generally accounted for this greater vulnerability for dating violence

Characteristics of schools with and without Gay-Straight Alliances

Research shows that Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) are associated with school climate and student well-being, but it is unclear what school characteristics may account for some of these findings. The current study describes characteristics of schools with and without GSAs. Using a population-based sample of 1,360 California public high schools, inferential statistics show that schools with larger enrollment, more experienced teachers, and lower pupil/teacher ratios were more likely to have GSAs. In addition, among schools with GSAs, larger enrollment, more experienced teachers, fewer socioeconomically disadvantaged students, and higher academic achievement are among the factors related to a longer presence of GSAs. Implications for GSA and policy implementation, as well as the importance of accounting for school characteristics in research on GSAs are discussed

Interspecies differences in protein expression do not impact the spatiotemporal regulation of glycoprotein VI mediated activation

Background Accurate protein quantification is a vital prerequisite for generating meaningful predictions when using systems biology approaches, a method that is increasingly being used to unravel the complexities of sub cellular interactions and as part of the drug discovery process. Quantitative proteomics, flow cytometry and western blotting have been extensively used to define human platelet protein copy numbers, yet for mouse platelets, a model widely used for platelet research, evidence is largely limited to a single proteomic dataset in which the total amount of proteins were generally comparatively higher than those found in human platelets. Objectives To investigate the functional implications of discrepancies between levels of mouse and human proteins in the GPVI signalling pathway using a systems pharmacology model of GPVI Methods The protein copy number of mouse platelet receptors was determined using flow cytometry. The Virtual Platelet, a mathematical model of Glycoprotein VI (GPVI) signalling, was used to determine the consequences of protein copy number differences observed between human and mouse platelets. Results and conclusion Despite the small size of mouse platelets compared to human platelets they possessed a greater density of surface receptors alongside a higher concentration of intracellular signalling proteins. Surprisingly the predicted temporal profile of Syk activity was similar in both species with predictions supported experimentally. Super resolution microscopy demonstrates that the spatial distribution of Syk is similar between species, suggesting that the spatial distribution of receptors and signalling molecules in activated platelets, rather than their copy number, is important for signalling pathway regulation

Depression and Sexual Orientation During Young Adulthood: Diversity Among Sexual Minority Subgroups and the Role of Gender Nonconformity.

Sexual minority individuals are at an elevated risk for depression compared to their heterosexual counterparts, yet less is known about how depression status varies across sexual minority subgroups (i.e., mostly heterosexuals, bisexuals, and lesbians and gay men). Moreover, studies on the role of young adult gender nonconformity in the relation between sexual orientation and depression are scarce and have yielded mixed findings. The current study examined the disparities between sexual minorities and heterosexuals during young adulthood in concurrent depression near the beginning of young adulthood and prospective depression 6 years later, paying attention to the diversity within sexual minority subgroups and the role of gender nonconformity. Drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 9421), we found that after accounting for demographics, sampling weight, and sampling design, self-identified mostly heterosexual and bisexual young adults, but not lesbians and gay men, reported significantly higher concurrent depression compared to heterosexuals; moreover, only mostly heterosexual young adults were more depressed than heterosexuals 6 years later. Furthermore, while young adult gender nonconforming behavior was associated with more concurrent depression regardless of sexual orientation, its negative impact on mental health decreased over time. Surprisingly, previous gender nonconformity predicted decreased prospective depression among lesbians and gay men whereas, among heterosexual individuals, increased gender nonconformity was not associated with prospective depression. Together, the results suggested the importance of investigating diversity and the influence of young adult gender nonconformity in future research on the mental health of sexual minorities.The authors acknowledge support for this research: the University of Arizona Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences Fitch Nesbitt Endowment and a University of Arizona Graduate Access Fellowship to the second author. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://​www.​cpc.​unc.​edu/​addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis. The authors thank Noel Card and Susan Stryker for comments on the previous versions of this article and Richard Lippa and Katerina Sinclair for methodological and statistical consult. The authors also thank the anonymous reviewers and the Editor for their helpful comments.This is the accepted manuscript of a paper published in Archives of Sexual Behavior (Li G, Pollitt AM, Russell ST, Archives of Sexual Behavior 2015, doi:10.1007/s10508-015-0515-3). The final version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10508-015-0515-3

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Disclosing a Sexual Identity Is a Persistent Stressor Throughout the Lives of Sexual Minority Youth That Has Important Implications for Their Mental Health

Youth who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual – known collectively as sexual minority youth – experience stress associated with their nonheterosexual identity. Disclosing a sexual minority identity can be stressful and can negatively affect the mental health of sexual minority youth. Former PRC graduate research trainee and current OSU Presidential Postdoctoral Scholar, along with former PRC postdoctoral fellow Amanda Pollitt, current PRC GRA Meg Bishop and PRC faculty scholar Stephen Russell report on one of the first longitudinal studies to explore disclosure stress and depression among sexual minority youth and young adults. They found that high levels of disclosure stress was correlated with higher depression symptoms and that stressful disclosures may matter more for depression symptoms at younger ages.Population Research Cente

Emotion Work Exacts a Psychological Toll on the Emotion Worker in Both Same-Sex and Different-Sex Marriages, But the Toll Is Highest When the Spouse is a Depressed Man

Emotion work, or devoting effort toward assessing and managing another person’s emotional needs to support their emotional well-being, is a common dynamic in intimate relationships that helps foster intimacy and closeness between spouses. While emotion work generally benefits the well-being of the recipient, providing it can be stressful and might undermine the emotion worker’s psychological well-being. Previous research on heterosexual couples suggests that emotion work may more strongly undermine psychological well-being for women than for men. In the brief, PRC director Debra Umberson, former PRC trainee Meike Thomeer, and PRC postdoctoral fellows Amanda Pollitt and Sara Mernitz use diary data with individuals in same-sex and different-sex marriages and find that emotion work exacts a psychological toll on the emotion worker in both same- and different-sex marriages, but the toll is highest when the spouse is a man with depressive symptoms.Population Research Cente

Transgender Youth Allowed to Use Their Chosen Name Have Fewer Mental Health Problems

This brief, from PRC researchers Stephen Russell and Amanda Pollitt and colleagues, examines the relationship between chosen name use—which is a proxy for youths’ gender affirmation in various contexts—and mental health among transgender youth. The authors find that transgender youth who were able to use their chosen names at home, in school, at work, and with friends had lower levels of severe depression, suicidal ideation, and suicidal behavior.Population Research Cente