Inside scientology : the stiry of Americas most secretive religion

This book tells full story in the first objective modern history of Scientology, at last revealing the astonishing truth about life within the controversial religion for its members and ex-members. Based on five years of research, confidential documents, and extensive interviews with current and former Scientologists, this is an utterly compelling work of nonfiction and the defining work on an elusive faith

Factor Structure and Validation of an Adolescent Version of the Condom Attitude Scale: An Instrument for Measuring Adolescents\u27 Attitudes Toward Condoms.

The Condom Attitude Scale (W. P. Sacco, B. Levine, D. L. Reed, & K. Thompson, 1991) was modified for use with adolescents. In Study 1, a modified 35-item version, pilot tested with 195 African American adolescents, achieved a Cronbach\u27s alpha of .88. In Study 2, convergent validity was assessed with a sample of 312 African American adolescents. Psychometric properties were evaluated with item analysis, factor analysis, and reliability estimation. The scale was refined to 23 items with a full scale Cronbach\u27s alpha of .80. In Study 3, temporal stability was assessed with 88 African American adolescents. In Study 4, a cross-validation sample of predominantly White adolescents (N = 2) assessed whether the measure\u27s psychometric properties and factor structure replicated in a more heterogeneous adolescent sample

Factors Influencing Condom Use Among African-American Women: Implications for Risk Reduction Interventions.

Examined factors associated with condom use in a community-based sample of 423 sexually active African American women. Measures were selected to reflect the components in prevailing models of health behavior. Condom users were higher on AIDS health priority, prevention attitudes, stage of change, behavioral intentions, reported more frequent and comfortable sexual communication with partners, perceived greater partner and peer approval for condom use, and reported that peers also used condoms. Women in exclusive relationships evidenced earlier stage of change, lower intentions to use condoms, fewer peers who engaged in preventive behaviors, perceived themselves to have lower risk, and had lower rates of condom use, higher education, and family income. Women in fluid relationships were at particularly high risk, with lower rates of condom use relative to women not in a relationship and greater sexual risk for HIV. Implications for HIV-risk reduction interventions with African American women are discussed

Coercion, consent and the forced marriage debate in the UK

An examination of case law on forced marriage reveals that in addition to physical force, the role of emotional pressure is now taken into consideration. However, in both legal and policy discourse, the difference between arranged and forced marriage continues to be framed in binary terms and hinges on the concept of consent: the context in which consent is constructed largely remains unexplored. By examining the socio-cultural construction of personhood, especially womanhood, and the intersecting structural inequalities that constrain particular groups of South Asian women in the UK, we argue that consent and coercion in relation to marriage can be better understood as two ends of a continuum, between which lie degrees of socio-cultural expectation, control, persuasion, pressure, threat and force. Women who face these constraints exercise their agency in complex and contradictory ways that are not always recognised by the existing exit-centred state initiatives designed to tackle this problem