Fostering Jesuit Queer Inclusivity in a Charged Political Environment: One Campus’s Journey

This paper identifies three specific strategies used to promote queer inclusivity at a small Jesuit Catholic university in a politically charged environment: educating the community via intentionally designed inclusivity trainings; cultivating deep roots through coalition-building and strategic organizing; and foregrounding Catholic social teachings in the conversation. We use a local controversy to contextualize and demonstrate the importance of these strategies when fostering queer inclusivity on Jesuit campuses. We frame our discussion within a larger conversation about LGBTQIA+ issues on college campuses (including Catholic campuses) and the role that Jesuit values in higher education have to play in building inclusive communities

Regional gray matter volumetric changes in autism associated with social and repetitive behavior symptoms.

BackgroundAlthough differences in brain anatomy in autism have been difficult to replicate using manual tracing methods, automated whole brain analyses have begun to find consistent differences in regions of the brain associated with the social cognitive processes that are often impaired in autism. We attempted to replicate these whole brain studies and to correlate regional volume changes with several autism symptom measures.MethodsWe performed MRI scans on 24 individuals diagnosed with DSM-IV autistic disorder and compared those to scans from 23 healthy comparison subjects matched on age. All participants were male. Whole brain, voxel-wise analyses of regional gray matter volume were conducted using voxel-based morphometry (VBM).ResultsControlling for age and total gray matter volume, the volumes of the medial frontal gyri, left pre-central gyrus, right post-central gyrus, right fusiform gyrus, caudate nuclei and the left hippocampus were larger in the autism group relative to controls. Regions exhibiting smaller volumes in the autism group were observed exclusively in the cerebellum. Significant partial correlations were found between the volumes of the caudate nuclei, multiple frontal and temporal regions, the cerebellum and a measure of repetitive behaviors, controlling for total gray matter volume. Social and communication deficits in autism were also associated with caudate, cerebellar, and precuneus volumes, as well as with frontal and temporal lobe regional volumes.ConclusionGray matter enlargement was observed in areas that have been functionally identified as important in social-cognitive processes, such as the medial frontal gyri, sensorimotor cortex and middle temporal gyrus. Additionally, we have shown that VBM is sensitive to associations between social and repetitive behaviors and regional brain volumes in autism

Friendship problems and suicidality in Mexican-American and European-American adolescents: a longitudinal analysis

Department Head: Ernest L. Chavez.2010 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.The influence of friends increases dramatically during adolescence, with different patterns by gender and ethnicity. Yet friendship factors in adolescent suicidality are understudied and not well-understood. Research has found a direct, long-term relationship between friendship problems and suicidality. Specifically, it has documented that factors such as social isolation, more negative friendships, poor quality friendship, and friendship intransitivity predict later suicidal ideation and nonfatal suicidality, with some relationships between friendship factors and suicidality being stronger than depression. However, it is unclear how these findings may apply to ethnic minority youth, particularly those with high rates of suicidality. This study explored the impact of friendship factors in the early teen years on suicidality in the late teen years, and among Mexican-American and European-American girls and boys. Participants included youth in good academic standing and youth at risk of dropping out as well as youth who had dropped out of school. Data collection occurred in two waves from 1989 to 2001, with the second wave beginning about three years after the start of the first wave. The sample consisted of 295 (59% Mexican-American; 41% European-American) adolescents ages 14-20 (M = 16.5) at Time 1, and ages 18-23 years (M = 19.5) at Time 2. The friendship factors measured in this study were having friendship problems such as social isolation (lack of friends) and poor quality friendship as well as having problematic friends such as friends' school disconnectedness and friends' delinquency. These friendship factors were chosen because of their established relationship with adolescent suicidality, in the case of friendship problems such as social isolation and poor quality friendship, as well as their association with other adolescent problem behaviors, as in the case of problematic friends such as friends' school disconnectedness and friends' delinquency. Logistic regression was used to predict suicidality at Time 2 as a function of friendship factors at Time 1 (controlling for suicidal ideation at Time 1). Logistic regression was also used to examine whether depression mediated the relationship between friendship factors and suicidality. This study confirms the role of friendship factors in youth suicidality, with variability by ethnicity and sex, and with an important role for depression as a mediating factor. For European-American youth, depression fully mediated the positive relationship between having friends who were disconnected from school and suicidal ideation. In contrast, having friends who were disconnected from school was negatively associated with suicidal behavior for Mexican-American youth, particularly Mexican-American boys, after controlling for depression. At the same time, for Mexican-American youth, having delinquent friends predicted higher rates of suicidal ideation above and beyond the contribution of depression and initial suicidal ideation. In this study, social isolation and poor quality friendship were not predictors of suicidal thoughts or behavior. Compared to other longitudinal studies of friendship factors and suicidality, the current study found that the relationship varies by ethnicity with different friendship factors predicting suicidality for Mexican- and European-American youth. Additionally, problematic friends were a better predictor of suicidality than having friendship problems. This study begins to articulate what may be ethnic-specific risk factors in adolescent suicidality. If confirmed, the findings have implications for the design of culturally-grounded models of suicide prevention

Proof in the Pudding: Implications of Measure Selection in Academic Outcomes Assessment

Academic outcomes assessment in student affairs is integral for both service improvement and demonstrating the unit’s value to the university’s academic mission. However, identifying the right measures is challenging. We implemented three common measures (pre-post self-reported academicfunctioning, retrospective perceptions of service impact, and semester grades) within a single counseling center client sample (N = 368) and examined the impact of measure selection on the representativeness of client subsamples and the conclusions that might be drawn about serviceeffectiveness. Students’ perceptions of academic outcomes suggested greater impact than pre-post or grade measures overall but all three showed positive effects for clients identified as academically at-risk at baseline. No single measure captured a fully representative sample of clients. Rather than providing evidence for one “best” measure, results point to the importance of using multiple measures to assess academic outcomes. Implications for best practices in service outcomes assessment are discussed

Career Issues and Challenges Viewed Through a Feminist Multicultural Lens: Work-Life Interface and Sexual Harassment

This chapter examines research and theoretical perspectives about the work-life interface and sexual harassment in the workplace. Multiple roles and unwanted social and sexual experiences at work are considered from feminist multicultural and organizational perspectives. The chapter focuses on adaptive and contextual factors when considering how women experience and navigate the work-life interface, and how they respond to sexual harassment. In the context of the review, a new meta-analysis of the relationship between sexual harassment and racial/ethnic harassment and a new quantitative review of sexual harassment measurement are presented. The chapter discusses organizational remedies for sexual harassment in the workplace and strategies for addressing work-family conflict and sexual harassment at the individual level, and presents recommendations for future research

Nontraditional and Struggling: Academic and Financial Distress Among Older Student Clients

Few researchers have examined the mental health needs of nontraditional student clients (age 25 and older) using a multisite counseling center sample. This study (N = 4,499) included 630 nontraditional students (age 25 and older) who sought counseling services across one state university system. Compared with traditional-age student clients, nontraditional clients were more demographically diverse, presented with different concerns and challenges, and were more likely to report financial stress. Financial stress mediated relationships between nontraditional students status and academic dysfunction

Abnormalities in Gamma-band Responses to Language Stimuli in First-degree Relatives of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An MEG Study

Background Synchronous neural oscillatory activity in the gamma range (30–80 Hz) has been shown to be abnormal in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their first-degree relatives in response to simple auditory stimuli. Gamma-band abnormalities in ASD probands have been seen in response to language stimuli, but this has not been investigated in first-degree relatives. This is of particular interest given that language impairments are a core symptom of ASD and may be part of the broad autism phenotype (BAP) seen in relatives. Methods Magnetoencephalography recordings during a continuous word recognition task were obtained for 23 parents of a child with ASD (pASD) and 28 adult control participants. Total and evoked gamma-band activity, as well as inter-trial phase-locking factor (PLF), were measured in response to the task. Beta-band activity was also measured, due to its suggested role in language processing. Participants completed a series of language measures to assess the relationship between brain activity and language function, and lateralization of task-related activity was assessed. Results The pASD group showed increased evoked gamma and beta activity, while controls had decreased evoked activity. Additionally, while both groups showed a reduction in total gamma power (commonly seen in language tasks), this reduction was more prominent in the control group. The pASD group demonstrated significantly worse performance on a measure of phonology compared to controls. Significant but distinct relationships were found between gamma/beta activity and language measures within the two groups. In addition, while the overall task generally elicited left lateralized responses, pASD showed greater left lateralization than controls in some regions of interest. Conclusions Abnormalities in oscillatory responses to language were seen in pASD that are consistent with previous findings in ASD probands. Gamma-band responses to language stimuli have not previously been assessed in first-degree relatives of ASD probands and these findings are supportive of gamma-band activity as a heritable, neurophysiological biomarker of ASD. The possible relationship seen between language function and neural activity in the current study should be investigated further to assess if oscillatory response abnormalities may contribute to behavioural manifestations of the BAP

Building an “old girls’ network” in academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

Over the last decade the University of Wisconsin (UW) System has repeatedly faced budget shortfalls. Reductions in state funding led to increased course loads, class sizes, and turnover of administrators and faculty, producing chronic low morale (e.g., Read 2016). Amidst this turmoil, senior women scientists from campuses across the UW System met annually to offer support, promote retention and achievement of individual members, and build a network of women who could enact systemic change on their individual campuses. The chapter describes the history and components of the 11-campus program, provides examples of the participants’ resiliency and resourcefulness, and identifies ways in which the women’s senior status and disciplinary skills led to effective change

Regional gray matter volumetric changes in autism associated with social and repetitive behavior symptoms.

BackgroundAlthough differences in brain anatomy in autism have been difficult to replicate using manual tracing methods, automated whole brain analyses have begun to find consistent differences in regions of the brain associated with the social cognitive processes that are often impaired in autism. We attempted to replicate these whole brain studies and to correlate regional volume changes with several autism symptom measures.MethodsWe performed MRI scans on 24 individuals diagnosed with DSM-IV autistic disorder and compared those to scans from 23 healthy comparison subjects matched on age. All participants were male. Whole brain, voxel-wise analyses of regional gray matter volume were conducted using voxel-based morphometry (VBM).ResultsControlling for age and total gray matter volume, the volumes of the medial frontal gyri, left pre-central gyrus, right post-central gyrus, right fusiform gyrus, caudate nuclei and the left hippocampus were larger in the autism group relative to controls. Regions exhibiting smaller volumes in the autism group were observed exclusively in the cerebellum. Significant partial correlations were found between the volumes of the caudate nuclei, multiple frontal and temporal regions, the cerebellum and a measure of repetitive behaviors, controlling for total gray matter volume. Social and communication deficits in autism were also associated with caudate, cerebellar, and precuneus volumes, as well as with frontal and temporal lobe regional volumes.ConclusionGray matter enlargement was observed in areas that have been functionally identified as important in social-cognitive processes, such as the medial frontal gyri, sensorimotor cortex and middle temporal gyrus. Additionally, we have shown that VBM is sensitive to associations between social and repetitive behaviors and regional brain volumes in autism