Identity complexity and integration in lesbian, gay, bisexual and heterosexual adolescents and emerging adults: Implications for clinical practice

The present study aimed at assessing whether differences exist in identity complexity and integration between 31 lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) and 33 heterosexual youths (mean age 21.47, SD = 3.27), both Italian and US. Participants completed a newly created questionnaire, the Identity Labels and Life Contexts Questionnaire (ILLCQ), which assesses the interplay between identity dimensions and life contexts. The ILLCQ assesses identity integration on three levels: (a) integration among the different domains of identity in their intersection with the various life contexts (assessed through salience and centrality); (b) integration between an individual’s self-definition and the definition of self made by others (perceived self-recognition); and (c) the integration between how the person perceives her/himself to be and the way she/he shows her/himself to others. Results suggest that identity salience varies significantly across life contexts for both LGB and heterosexual youths. The only significant difference between the LGB and heterosexual groups was higher salience and centrality of the sexual orientation domain for LGB youths. Sexuality represents a core identity domain for LGB participants, and perhaps less so for heterosexual participants. LGB youths reported lower general identity recognition from other people. Implications for clinical practice are discussed

Embedding A4 into left-right flavor symmetry: Tribimaximal neutrino mixing and fermion hierarchy

We address two fundamental aspects of flavor physics: the mass hierarchy and the large lepton mixing angles. On one side, left-right flavor symmetry realizes the democratic mass matrix patterns and explains why one family is much heavier than the others. On the other side, discrete flavor symmetry such as A4 leads to the observed tribimaximal mixing for the leptons. We show that, by explicitly breaking the left-right flavor symmetry into the diagonal A4, it is possible to explain both the observed charged fermion mass hierarchies and quark and lepton mixing angles. In particular we predict a heavy 3rd family, the tribimaximal mixing for the leptons, and we suggest a possible origin of the Cabibbo and other mixing angles for the quarks.Comment: 9 pages, uses revtex4 and axodraw.st

Neutrino CP violating parameters from nontrivial quark-lepton correlation: a S3xGUT model

We investigate the prediction on the lepton phases in theories with a non trivial correlation between quark (CKM) and lepton (PMNS) mixing matrices. We show that the actual evidence, under the only assumption that the correlation matrix $V^M$ product of $CKM$ and $PMNS$ has a zero in the entry $(1,3)$, gives us a prediction for the three CP-violating invariants $J$, $S_1$, and $S_2$. A better determination of the lepton mixing angles will give a strong prediction of the CP-violating invariants in the lepton sector. These will be tested in the next generation experiments. To clarify how our prediction works, we show how a model based on a Grand Unified Theory and the permutation flavor symmetry $S_3$ predicts $V^M_{13}=0$.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. V2: new figure adde

Sexism, homophobia and transphobia in a sample of Italian pre-service teachers: the role of socio-demographic features

Although recent research has highlighted that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youths represent a resilient population, they still suffer from social stigma and oppression, being potentially at additional risk of developing negative mental health outcomes. One of the main environments where violence and harassment against this population are present is the school. Within school contexts, the impact that teachers can have on the educational experiences of LGBT youths seems to be a crucial point. This paper explored sexist, homophobic and transphobic attitudes among 438 pre-service teachers in relation to specific socio-demographic features. Results indicated that being male, heterosexual, conservative and currently religious were positively associated with sexist, homophobic, and transphobic attitudes and feelings, and having a LGBT friend was negatively associated with homophobic and transphobic attitudes and feelings. These results suggest the need to introduce specific training on the deconstruction of gender and sexual stereotypes and prejudices, to provide teachers with efficient tools to address diversity in the classrooms and to implement inclusive school policies. Suggestions for the implementation of good practices are provided

Vacuum Condensates and Dynamical Mass Generation in Euclidean Yang-Mills Theories

Vacuum condensates of dimension two and their relevance for the dynamical mass generation for gluons in Yang-Mills theories are discussedComment: Talk given at the International Conference on Color Confinement and Hadrons in Quantum Chromodynamics, Confinement 2003, TITech and RIKEN, Tokyo, Japan, July 21-24, 200

Group psychodynamic counselling with final-year undergraduates in clinical psychology: A clinical methodology to reinforce academic identity and psychological well-being

Educational institutions should ensure that students develop a professional identity, as well as safeguarding their well-being and activating awareness and change processes. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of group psychodynamic counselling as a means of reinforcing academic identity–considered the forerunner of professional identity–and psychological well-being in a group of final-year undergraduates studying clinical psychology. Thirty-three final-year-students of clinical psychology who participated in six group psychodynamic counselling sessions were compared with sixteen final-year students of clinical psychology who had never participated in an intervention of this kind. The results suggested that group psychodynamic counselling made students feel more capable of managing their lives and more open to new experiences as well as encouraging them to perceive their relationships as more positive and satisfying, to believe that their life is meaningful, and to achieve greater self-acceptance. The in-depth exploration also prompted students to consider their commitment to their choice of career. Group psychodynamic counselling also reinforced students’ educational choice, as the likelihood of students becoming less committed to this choice was reduced after the intervention. Thus, the study confirmed the efficacy of group psychodynamic counselling as a means of reinforcing both academic identity and promoting well-being and demonstrated that it is a tool clinical psychologists and university teachers could use to activate self-reflection and change within educational settings