Black Girl Magic? The Influence of the Strong Black Woman Schema on the Mental Health of Black Women in the United States

The Strong Black Woman Schema (SBWS) refers to the collective believes, behaviors, resources and responses Black women are socialized to embody. The SBWS was developed as a positive counterimage to the negative stereotypes of Black women, such as the mammy or the jezebel, and is an important image among Black women. Observations suggest that the SBWS may affect how Black women experience and interpret stress and mental illness. I assert the SBWS may serve as one comprehensive explanation for the mental health outcomes observed for Black women. Qualitative and quantitative studies have identified a set of characteristics (i.e. strength, emotion regulation, caretaking) related to the schema. However, scales developed to measure the schema lack the ability to isolate adequately a unique typology for Black women. I argue that the SBWS is representative of a specific compilation of psychosocial resources (i.e. mastery, self-efficacy, resilience, self-esteem) representative of the cultural response to historical experiences of racism and sexism. I explore how the SBWS influences the reporting of depressive symptoms, depression and anxiety through a secondary data analysis of African American, Caribbean Black and White American women using data from the National Survey of American Life. Through a three part analysis, I answer the following questions: 1) Is a compilation of psychosocial measures an appropriate measure of the Strong Black Woman Schema? 2) What sociodemographic factors influence distinct typologies reflective of at least one uniquely Black form of the Strong Black Woman Schema? And 3) Does the Strong Black Woman Schema influence depressive symptons, depression, and anxiety? Results of this study clarify how socio-cultural aspects of oppression influence the mental health of Black women

Idiom Comprehension Skills of Adult Struggling Readers

Idioms such as break a leg and piece of cake make up a significant portion of spoken and written discourse. Like other linguistic expressions stemming from conceptual metaphor (e.g., metaphors, similes), idioms serve to provide understanding of one concept in relation to a different concept (e.g., love is a journey). The ability to comprehend figurative expressions has an extended developmental period that begins as young as 5 years and continues into adulthood. The Language Experience Hypothesis attributes figurative language competence to meaningful exposure to figurative expressions. The Global Elaboration Hypothesis, however, proposes that figurative language comprehension depends upon skills needed for general text comprehension (e.g., ability to make inferences, semantic knowledge). Studies with children and adolescents have shown that reading comprehension relates to both idiom familiarity and comprehension. Similar studies have not been conducted with adult struggling readers. This study examined idiom familiarity and comprehension of adult struggling readers (N = 60; M age = 41 years) in relation to their reading skills. The Idiom Familiarity and Idiom Comprehension tasks developed by Nippold and colleagues (1993, 2001) were used, which allowed for comparisons between the performance of adult struggling readers in this study and past research. Participants’ idiom comprehension scores were lower than those of adults studied in previous research, and comparable to those of children reading at similar levels. Their familiarity rankings of individual idioms aligned with the levels established by Nippold and Rudzinski (1993); however, they were less familiar with idioms than the twelfth grade group. Results from a familiarity (high, moderate, low) x context (isolation, story) ANOVA showed story context helped adult struggling readers comprehend more high-familiarity idioms, but hindered comprehension of low-familiarity idioms. Hierarchical regressions revealed that reading comprehension accounted for unique variance over and beyond idiom familiarity and word reading skills for idioms presented in both isolation and story contexts. Findings from this study contribute to the study of figurative language comprehension by examining adults with limited literacy skills. Similarly, these findings contribute to the field of adult literacy by providing initial evidence of adult struggling readers’ familiarity and comprehension of idioms

Three measures of nothing

This thesis tells a story in poems, my true story; the people write about are people now or formerly in my fife. The events took place in my life and the thoughts expressed are or have been, at some point, my real thoughts. In this respect you are reading a particular form of my autobiography. The autobiographical nature of my poetry is the largest reason I might be called a confessional poet, but not the only reason. Scholars of the American confessional tradition generally note several other characteristics in what they identify as confessional poetry. Kathleen Ossip, in a recent issue of The Writer\u27s Chronicle (Feb 2001), noted the following in relation to famous confessionals including Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell and John Berryman: * Autobiographical content tending toward the shameful and traumatic, including emotional breakdown and institutionalization, divorce and separation from children, infidelity, hatred of parents, and suicide.;*The treatment of personal material uncovered by psychoanalysis; and * A stance that assumed the poet\u27s heightened sensibilities bruised by a repressive, alienating society. It\u27s a bit hard to be proud of the fact that these characteristics can be found in my poetry too. However, it is true that the autobiographical content Ossip speaks of is, in so many ways, the content of my life history, and I have written what I know. Whether I ever wished to know it is a different matter. Because I am telling a story, the poems are carefully ordered so that each one builds upon the previous in a narrative manner, introducing new information, new characters, new events, etc. Each poem continues and embellishes the story so that in the end the story follows the traditional narrative triangle, offering setting and backstory first, building up to a climax, and then ending with falling action, or the denouement-what happens after the climactic action. The three sections I\u27ve divided the thesis into represent these three major narrative moves

Counselor Educators\u27 Perceptions of their Doctoral Level Teaching Preparation

This study examined experiences in doctoral counselor education programs that prepare graduates to teach at the university level, and perceptions of the effectiveness of those experiences. There is an abundance of research in the field of higher education that raises the concern that many Ph.D. graduates are aptly prepared researchers, but are not able to teach effectively. Despite the fact that research in the field points to the problem of inadequate teaching preparation, there has been no known research conducted to examine what experiences in doctoral training are perceived as effective for teaching preparation. The major contribution of this research is that it is the first known empirical work that addresses activities aimed at teaching preparation in counselor education doctoral programs. A researcher designed instrument, the Preparation For Teaching Scale, was used in this study. Pearson product moment correlations were computed to examine relationships between frequency of experiences and ratings of perceived overall preparedness for teaching. Results of this study confirm the assumptions present in the literature; several of which include that observation and feedback from faculty, teaching under supervision, being mentored to teach and attending seminars on college teaching are all positively correlated with participants’ perceptions of overall teaching preparedness. The collective findings of this research provide a foundation for considerable future research endeavors in both quantitative and qualitative modes. Implications for counselor education and recommendations for further research are presented

Increased SOD2 in the Diaphragm Contributes to Exercise-Induced Protection Against Ventilator-Induced Diaphragm Dysfunction

Mechanical ventilation (MV) is a life-saving intervention for many critically ill patients. Unfortunately, prolonged MV results in rapid diaphragmatic atrophy and contractile dysfunction, collectively termed ventilator-induced diaphragm dysfunction (VIDD). Recent evidence reveals that endurance exercise training, performed prior to MV, protects the diaphragm against VIDD. While the mechanism(s) responsible for this exercise-induced protection against VIDD remain unknown, increased diaphragm antioxidant expression may be required. To investigate the role that increased antioxidants play in this protection, we tested the hypothesis that elevated levels of the mitochondrial antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2) is required to achieve exercise-induced protection against VIDD. Cause and effect was investigated in two ways. First, we prevented the exercise-induced increase in diaphragmatic SOD2 via delivery of an antisense oligonucleotide targeted against SOD2 post-exercise. Second, using transgene overexpression of SOD2, we determined the effects of increased SOD2 in the diaphragm independent of exercise training. Results from these experiments revealed that prevention of the exercise-induced increases in diaphragmatic SOD2 results in a loss of exercise-mediated protection against MV-induced diaphragm atrophy and a partial loss of protection against MV-induced diaphragmatic contractile dysfunction. In contrast, transgenic overexpression of SOD2 in the diaphragm, independent of exercise, did not protect against MV-induced diaphragmatic atrophy and provided only partial protection against MV-induced diaphragmatic contractile dysfunction. Collectively, these results demonstrate that increased diaphragmatic levels of SOD2 are essential to achieve the full benefit of exercise-induced protection against VIDD

Tips : resources for teachers

This small booklet is designed as a ready reference for teachers who are confronted with a problem or engaged in a particular activitity in the primary school. All books which are listed are considered useful. However, those with annotations are considered more useful in the general classroom

Perceptions of Doctoral Level Teaching Preparation in Counselor Education

This study explores counselor educators‟ perceptions of their doctoral level teaching preparation. Results indicate that observation and feedback from faculty, teaching under supervision, being mentored to teach, and attending seminars on college teaching are positively correlated with participants‟ perceptions of overall teaching preparedness. Implications for counselor education doctoral training and recommendations for further research are presented

Taking Justification Seriously: Proportionality, Strict Scrutiny, and the Substance of Religious Liberty

Last term, five Justices on the Supreme Court flirted with the possibility of revisiting the Court’s First Amendment test for when governments must provide an exemption to a religious objector. But Justice Barrett raised an obvious, yet all-important question: If the received test were to be revised, what new test should take its place? The competing interests behind this question have become even more acute in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a moment rife with lofty rhetoric about religious liberty but riven by fierce debates about what it means in practice, this Article revisits a fundamental question common to virtually all approaches to the issue: What must a government do to justify restrictions on religious exercise? Every extant adjudicatory framework—including proportionality and strict scrutiny approaches—purports to require such governmental justification. But they do so through different frameworks and with dramatically different degrees of rigor. In our view, it is rigor and not labels that really counts—the rigor with which courts require governments to justify religious restrictions. Differences in rigor cannot be explained in terms of the underlying adjudicatory framework. Neither the proportionality framework that prevails internationally nor the strict scrutiny framework prominent in the United States suffices, standing alone, to require governments to meaningfully justify restrictions on religious exercise. To require genuine justification, courts must: (1) require governments to treat religiously-motivated conduct in an evenhanded way vis-à-vis analogous secular conduct; (2) oblige governments to show, with evidence, that the religious restrictions are necessary; and (3) avoid redefining a controversy’s theological stakes in ways that minimize the religious claimant’s dilemma. Proportionality and strict scrutiny are both capable of incorporating these three factors, but courts applying the two tests do not always do so. In this Article, we survey how courts across several jurisdictions have succeeded or failed in this regard, paying particular attention to conflicts arising in the COVID-19 context. We also suggest some possibilities of convergence that will help both proportionality courts and strict scrutiny courts to better protect the core substance of religious liberty

Perceptions of doctoral level teaching preparation in counselor education

This study explores counselor educators‟ perceptions of their doctoral level teaching preparation. Results indicate that observation and feedback from faculty, teaching under supervision, being mentored to teach, and attending seminars on college teaching are positively correlated with participants‟ perceptions of overall teaching preparedness. Implications for counselor education doctoral training and recommendations for further research are presented