Young Bisexual People’s Experiences of Sexual Violence: A Mixed-Methods Study

Bisexual people are at an increased vulnerability for sexual victimization in comparison to heterosexual people, as well as gay and lesbian people. As the majority of first sexual violence experiences happen prior to age 25 for bisexual women, young bisexual people are particularly vulnerable. Despite consistent evidence of this health disparity, little is known about what factors might increase young bisexual people’s risk for sexual victimization, or how they access support post-victimization. The current study addresses this gap through a mixed-method investigation of young bisexual people’s experiences of sexual violence with a sample of 245 bisexual people age 18–25. Quantitative results indicate that bisexual stigma significantly predicts a greater likelihood of reporting an experience of sexual violence. Qualitative findings support that while not all participants felt bisexual stigma related to their experience of sexual violence, some felt negative bisexual stereotypes were substantial factors. Interview participants found connecting with other survivors, particularly LGBTQ + and bisexual survivors, to be beneficial. Some participants encountered barriers to accessing support, such as discrimination in schools. Sexual violence researchers should consider bisexual stigma as an important factor, and support services the potential positive impact of bisexual-specific survivor support

Searching for hidden assumptions: a critical discourse analysis of British Columbia’s Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreement policy

There exists persistent disparity in the achievement of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal public school students in British Columbia (BC), Canada. The international literature stresses that education has the power to improve the lives and futures of indigenous peoples through the use of government policy. With that in mind, this study sets out to critically analyse BC’s Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreement (EA) policy texts to better understand how Aboriginal education in BC is shaped, formed and reformed in the production and interpretation of the province’s policy discourses. The study makes use of interviews and Fairclough’s (2015) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to uncover the discursive and social factors at play in the production and interpretation of BC’s EA policy from the time of its creation in 1999 through to the Ministry of Education announcing their withdrawal from directly supporting the policy in 2016. The study concludes that the processes involved in EA policy production and interpretation within the broad social conditions and specific institutional settings of BC education may combine to sustain the current power relationships within Aboriginal education in BC. However, in some cases, the agency of policy interpreters does allow them to resist those aspects of the policy’s discourses which place western educational value over traditional cultural understandings. Thus, the production and interpretation of BC’s EA policy discourse is both normative and creative and acts to both sustain and subvert the current power relationships between those producing and interpreting the policy

Differences in Rape Acknowledgement and Mental Health Outcomes across Transgender, Non-binary, and Cisgender Bisexual Youth

The purpose of this study was to document the rates of rape acknowledgment (labeling rape as rape rather than using a minimizing label) and the corresponding mental health correlates using the minority stress framework in a unique and vulnerable sample: racially diverse sexual and gender minority young adults. Participants were 245 young adults who identified their sexual orientation as under the bisexual umbrella. A total of 159 of these participants (65.2%) identified their gender identity as nonbinary. All participants completed a series of online questionnaires regarding their sexual victimization history, mental health outcomes (depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD]), and constructs relevant to minority stress theory (level of outness, internalized bisexual negativity, connection to LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning] community). Rape acknowledgment was significantly greater among gender nonbinary participants (79.9%) than among trans and cisgender male participants (17.9%). Lack of rape acknowledgment was associated with increased anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Outness was significantly associated with greater rape acknowledgment. Despite the highly increased vulnerability for sexual violence among sexual and gender minorities, very little is understood about the mechanisms of this increased vulnerability or their unique needs for recovery. The results of this study strongly suggest the importance of a minority stress framework for understanding this increased vulnerability and for designing sexual violence prevention and recovery interventions for sexual and gender minority populations

Locating Community among People with Schizophrenia living in a Diverse Urban Environment

Increasing the community participation of people with severe mental illness is a primary goal of recovery-oriented services. Despite this emphasis, the construct of community remains understudied and poorly articulated. This study provides an in-depth examination of the experiences, beliefs, behaviors, and spaces that constitute community participation for a highly diverse group of people with schizophrenia who are urban dwellers. An in-depth, longitudinal qualitative design was employed with 30 individuals with schizophrenia residing in inner-city neighborhoods in Canada’s largest city. For these individuals, community participation is a dynamic process, shaped by illness and non-illness-associated social relationships and spaces, self-concept, and the resources accessible to the person. The complexity of factors that are associated with “community” for people with schizophrenia, with overlays of culture, poverty, victimization, and discrimination, calls for a critical examination of the community rhetoric employed in practice and policy contexts

A Qualitative Description of Community Service, Business and Organization Perspectives on Mental Illness and Inclusion

While stigma associated with mental illness is pervasive, less is known about community stakeholder perspectives on inclusion and exclusion. This study provides a qualitative analysis of the mental-illness related experiences and perspectives of individuals who form much of the fabric of 'community' for individuals with severe mental illness. In-depth interviews were conducted with a diverse group of 94 key community stakeholders in 5 neighbourhoods in a large Canadian urban centre. Qualitative analysis revealed a range of strategies that were used to foster inclusive spaces, the dilemmas that attended more severe forms of mental illness, and the importance of the meanings ascribed to mental illness in determining responses. revealed emphases placed upon positioning mental illness in determining responses, efforts made to foster inclusive spaces, and the dilemmas that attend more severe representations of mental illness in community spaces. Differences in response as a function of stakeholder group were also explored. There exist very promising resources and diverse perspectives on inclusion in urban communities that warrant further investigation given the intensive emphasis upon ‘community’ in policy and practice dialogues

Respiratory function and mechanics in pinnipeds and cetaceans

Author Posting. © Company of Biologists, 2017. This article is posted here by permission of Company of Biologists for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Experimental Biology 220 (2017): 1761-1773, doi:10.1242/jeb.126870.In this Review, we focus on the functional properties of the respiratory system of pinnipeds and cetaceans, and briefly summarize the underlying anatomy; in doing so, we provide an overview of what is currently known about their respiratory physiology and mechanics. While exposure to high pressure is a common challenge among breath-hold divers, there is a large variation in respiratory anatomy, function and capacity between species – how are these traits adapted to allow the animals to withstand the physiological challenges faced during dives? The ultra-deep diving feats of some marine mammals defy our current understanding of respiratory physiology and lung mechanics. These animals cope daily with lung compression, alveolar collapse, transient hyperoxia and extreme hypoxia. By improving our understanding of respiratory physiology under these conditions, we will be better able to define the physiological constraints imposed on these animals, and how these limitations may affect the survival of marine mammals in a changing environment. Many of the respiratory traits to survive exposure to an extreme environment may inspire novel treatments for a variety of respiratory problems in humans.Funding for this project was provided by the Office of Naval Research (ONR YIP Award no. N000141410563).2018-05-1