Saturday, December 28, 2019

He is a Stud, She is a Slut! Meta-Analysis on the Continued Existence of Sexual Double Standards for decades - but the effect is small

He is a Stud, She is a Slut! A Meta-Analysis on the Continued Existence of Sexual Double Standards. Joyce J. Endendijk, Anneloes L. van Baar, Maja Deković. Personality and Social Psychology Review, December 27, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868319891310

Abstract: (Hetero)sexual double standards (SDS) entail that different sexual behaviors are appropriate for men and women. This meta-analysis (k = 99; N = 123,343) tested predictions of evolutionary and biosocial theories regarding the existence of SDS in social cognitions. Databases were searched for studies examining attitudes or stereotypes regarding the sexual behaviors of men versus women. Studies assessing differences in evaluations, or expectations, of men’s and women’s sexual behavior yielded evidence for traditional SDS (d = 0.25). For men, frequent sexual activity was more expected, and evaluated more positively, than for women. Studies using Likert-type-scale questionnaires did not yield evidence of SDS (combined M = −0.09). Effects were moderated by level of gender equality in the country in which the study was conducted, SDS-operationalization (attitudes vs. stereotypes), questionnaire type, and sexual behavior type. Results are consistent with a hybrid model incorporating both evolutionary and sociocultural factors contributing to SDS.

Keywords: sexual double standards, meta-analysis, gender, sexuality, social cognitions


In line with evolutionary theory (Buss & Schmitt, 1993Trivers, 1972) and biosocial theory (Wood & Eagly, 20022012), this meta-analysis demonstrated clear evidence for traditional SDS in studies assessing differences in people’s evaluation, or expectation, of men’s and women’s sexual behavior, although the effect was small. People expected behaviors associated with high sexual activity more from men than from women, and behaviors associated with low sexual activity more from women than from men. Similarly, people evaluated highly sexually active men more positively (or less negatively) than highly sexually active women, and low sexually active women more positively (or less negatively) than low sexually active men. In contrast, the overall set of studies using Likert-type-scale questionnaires for assessing SDS did not yield evidence of SDS.
We found some significant moderator effects in one or both sets of studies. First, existence of traditional SDS was behavior specific. Second, stereotypes about SDS were more traditional than attitudes about SDS. Third, studies using the “sexual double standard scale” (SDSS; Muehlenhard & Quackenbush, 1998) reported more traditional SDS than studies using the “double standard scale” (DSS; Caron et al., 1993) which demonstrated reversed SDS. Fourth, higher levels of gender equality in a country were associated with less traditional SDS. Participant gender and age, publication year, and study design were not significant moderators.

Behavioral Specificity of SDS

Regarding sexual behavior types, we found strongest evidence of SDS for being a victim of sexual coercion, followed by casual sex, and having an early sexual debut. SDS were less evident for sexual infidelity, level of sexual activity, other/mixed sexual behavior types, premarital sex, and being a perpetrator of sexual coercion. The findings for coercion and sexual encounters within a power or age hierarchy were partly in line with the predictions from biosocial theory that SDS would be most prevalent in sexual encounters where there is a power/status difference between men and women (Wood & Eagly, 20022012). However, we only found double standards for victims of sexual coercion, and not for perpetrators. That we did not find differences in the evaluation of male and female perpetrators might be because both male and female perpetrators violate gender role expectations, with men violating chivalry norms, and females violating communal characteristics. Thus, male and female perpetrators might have been evaluated equally negative for their gender-role inconsistent behavior. Moreover, the double standards for victims of sexual coercion, found in person perception studies, indicate that sexual behavior within the context of a power hierarchy is evaluated more negatively (or less positive) for female victims (e.g., more condemned, more perceived damage to reputation) than for male victims (e.g., “positive” experience that will be evaluated by peers as cool; Zaikman & Marks, 2017). Thus, girls might be blamed for being a victim of sexual coercion (Weis, 2009), whereas boys’ experiences of sexual coercion might be trivialized (Weis, 2010). This is inconsistent with the idea that male victims of sexual coercion or rape might be perceived as powerless and not willing to have sex, which violates men’s (hetero)sexual agentic gender role (Weis, 2010). Because only a few studies examined the evaluation of both perpetrator and victim, replication of the existence and direction of SDS for coercion victims is necessary in future studies.
The finding that engaging in casual sex and having an early sexual debut were more expected and rewarded in men than in women, fits partly with predictions from evolutionary theory. In terms of reproductive fitness, men would benefit more than women from having casual sex and by having sex at an early age (Buss & Schmitt, 1993Petersen & Hyde, 2010). However, similar beneficial effects would have been expected for sexual infidelity and high sexual activity with numerous partners, but for those sexual behaviors less traditional SDS were applied. The same was true for other sexual behaviors, such as premarital sex when engaged or when in love. Our findings are in line with previous narrative reviews concluding that premarital sex in particular has become accepted for both men and women (Bordini & Sperb, 2013Crawford & Popp, 2003).

Cross-Cultural Differences in SDS

In line with predictions from biosocial theory (Wood & Eagly, 20022012), and not with evolutionary theory’s perspective of obligate sex differences, SDS were less traditional in countries with higher levels of gender equality. According to biosocial theory, in cultures with bigger differences in the gender roles of men and women, men have more power than women, which translates in traditional SDS (Wood & Eagly, 20022012). However, level of gender equality was only a significant moderator in the meta-analysis conducted on studies using Likert-type-scale questionnaires, and not in the meta-analysis on differential evaluation and expectation of the sexual behavior of men and women. This might be because there was less variation in level of gender equality in the latter meta-analysis, as most studies in that meta-analyses were conducted in the United States. The direction of effect, albeit nonsignificant, was in the same direction as the effect from the meta-analysis on Likert-type scales.

Changes in SDS Over Time

In line with evolutionary theory, and not with biosocial theory, time period in which the study was conducted was no longer significant when controlling for other moderators, which indicated that traditional SDS have existed for decades and are still present. This finding could indicate that stable gender differences in reproductive strategies are underlying SDS. Also, it appears that even though gender roles have become less strict in most modern Western societies (Eagly & Wood, 1999), this did not lead to less differentiation in the norms for the sexual behavior of men and women (Wood & Eagly, 20022012). Possibly, it takes more time for egalitarian gender roles to permeate into the bedroom, than in other domains of life such as the work field, because sexuality is very much a private issue. Furthermore, the content of SDS may have changed over time, because most older studies focused on double standards in premarital sex in different relationship types, whereas newer studies more often focused on double standards in casual sex. Thus, changes in gender roles over time might only be reflected in changes in the behavior specificity of SDS.

Gender Differences in SDS

Regarding gender, we did not find differences between men and women in their cognitions about SDS. In light of male control theory and female control theory (Baumeister & Twenge, 2002), these findings could indicate that both male control and female control contribute equally to the existence of SDS. This means that SDS might provide evolutionary and sociocultural advantages for both genders that they would like to control. Advantages for men that arise from SDS could be improved certainty about paternity (Buss, 1994), patriarchal power over women, prevention of sexual chaos, and reduced male insecurity (Hyde & DeLamater, 1997). The advantages of SDS for women are the high value of sexual favors that they can trade for lower valued favors from men, such as economic provision, monogamous relationships, and parental investment.

Age Differences in SDS

Regarding participants’ age, we did not find support for the predictions of the gender-intensification hypothesis (Hill & Lynch, 1983). It appears that adolescence is not necessarily a period that is characterized by increased gender role pressure and intensification of people’s social cognitions about gender. However, it should be mentioned that most studies were conducted with high-educated college samples, mostly including emerging adults. It may be possible that the relatively small number of studies conducted with adolescents and adults, decreased the power to detect effects of age on SDS.

Implications for Evolutionary Theory and Biosocial Theory

In sum, some of the above findings are in line with evolutionary theory (Buss & Schmitt, 1993Trivers, 1972) whereas others are in line with biosocial theory (Wood & Eagly, 20022012). This converges with the findings of a recent theory-based narrative review, which demonstrated some support for predictions of both evolutionary theory and biosocial theory about the behavioral specificity of SDS, and for predictions of biosocial theory about cultural differences in SDS (Zaikman & Marks, 2017). Each theory suggests a different mechanism that underlies SDS, but these mechanisms might be intertwined. We therefore propose that a hybrid model explaining SDS from the interplay between biological predispositions and sociocultural pressures is most appropriate (Lippa, 2009). According to biosocial theory, different norms for the behavior of men and women may have arisen from societies’ division in gender roles that expects men to be assertive, dominant, and powerful, and women to be submissive, caring, and kind (Wood & Eagly, 20022012). However, the division in gender roles may have a biological or evolutionary origin (Wood & Eagly, 2012), because there are gender differences in adaptive reproductive strategies leading people to view (sexual) behaviors in men and women differently. Also, the predictive power of evolutionary and sociocultural gender role pressures to explain SDS appears to depend on the sexual behavior or context under consideration. Gender roles may have more predictive power in a sexual context characterized by power/status differences. Yet, evolutionary processes might play a larger role in sexual behaviors that increase successful reproduction.

Conceptualization and Measurement of SDS

We also looked at the effects of moderators related to conceptualization and measurement of SDS. Regarding SDS conceptualization, effect sizes were significant for both stereotypes and personal attitudes. This suggests that both stereotyped beliefs about the sexual behavior of men and women and people’s personal attitudes in response to sexual behavior that violates expectancies are underlying SDS. Yet, traditional SDS were more prevalent in collective or personal expectations about the sexual behavior of men and women (i.e., stereotypes) than in people’s personal evaluation of the sexual behavior of men and women (i.e., attitudes). This finding is in line with the idea that people can have knowledge of collectively shared stereotypes with regard to SDS or personal stereotypical expectations about the sexual behavior of men and women, although they do not apply these stereotypes personally when evaluating other people’s sexual behavior (Milhausen & Herold, 2001Signorella et al., 1993). It has been argued that knowledge of collective stereotypes is strong, stable, and does not depend on one’s experience with other people, but on culturally shared and generalized social beliefs (López-Sáez & Lisbona, 2009). Indeed, research in children as well as adults showed that content of collective gender stereotypes has not changed over time, whereas gender attitudes did become more egalitarian (e.g., Ruble, 1983Signorella et al., 1993).
However, our findings with regard to social cognition type need to be interpreted with caution, because the vast majority of studies examined personal SDS attitudes or a mix of stereotypes and attitudes. In studies examining a combination of stereotypes and attitudes, evidence for a reversed double standard was found, a finding that is difficult to disentangle because of the muddled operationalizations of SDS in these studies. Furthermore, in the small number of studies examining stereotypes, it was not possible to distinguish between descriptive and prescriptive aspects, or between personal stereotypes and knowledge of collective stereotypes. Yet, these distinctions are important for future research. For example, knowledge of collectively shared stereotypes is less predictive of one’s own behavior toward men and women than personal stereotypes (Stangor & Schaller, 1996). Furthermore, prescriptive stereotypes (e.g., perceptions of how men and women should behave sexually) might be particularly relevant in the context of SDS as they have been associated with negative evaluations and backlash for people who behave in stereotype-inconsistent ways (Burgess & Borgida, 1999). Indeed, gender stereotypes in general are highly prescriptive in nature (Prentice & Carranza, 2002) and more predictive of people’s personal evaluation of men and women (i.e., attitudes) than descriptive stereotypes (Gill, 2004).
As expected from dual-process models of social cognition (Gawronski & Creighton, 2013), studies using explicit Likert-type-scale questionnaires did not yield evidence for traditional SDS. Yet, studies using more implicit within- or between-subjects designs did yield evidence for SDS. The Likert-type-scale questionnaires often include items such as “It’s worse for a woman to sleep around than it is for a man” in which male and female sexual behavior is explicitly contrasted to each other (Muehlenhard & Quackenbush, 1998). Therefore, in studies using such questionnaires it might have been more clear to participants that personal cognitions about SDS were assessed, leading to social-desirable responding (Greenwald et al., 2009). In between- and within-subjects designs, the focus on SDS is more implicit than in explicit self-report questionnaires. This is because in a between-subject design researchers assessed cognitions about women’s and men’s sexual behavior with separate items or vignettes that they randomly assign to participants, who are generally unaware of the presence of other vignettes presented to other participants. Or in a within-subject design researchers administered separate vignettes or items about women’s and men’s sexual behavior in a counter-balanced way to participants (Jonason & Marks, 2009Reid et al., 2011Weaver et al., 2013). Thus, this finding suggests that traditional SDS might only be present at a more implicit level. Previous research indeed showed that implicit assessments are less prone to social-desirable responding (Gawronski & Bodenhausen, 2006) and more likely to suggest existence of traditional gendered cognitions (Endendijk et al., 2013).
However, SDS were not different between studies using between- or within-subjects designs, or between studies using extensive vignettes/scenarios versus studies using questionnaires with different items about the sexual behavior of men and women. This indicates that social desirability and demand characteristics might not necessarily play a larger role in within-subject research on SDS than in between-subject research (Marks & Fraley, 2005Milhausen & Herold, 2001). Also, this finding suggests that study designs that have only a slightly less explicit focus on SDS (i.e., not contrasting male and female sexual behavior in the same items) can yield evidence for the existence of traditional SDS. This argument is consistent with one study that specifically examined differences in implicit (i.e., under divided attention) and explicit (i.e., under full attention) SDS-cognitions, showing that traditional SDS were only present at an implicit level (Marks, 2008). However, between-subjects designs, like the study by Marks (2008), have been criticized for measuring single standards (because there is no comparison with how an individual would rate another target) instead of double standards (i.e., contrasting evaluation of male vs. female target; Crawford & Popp, 2003). Therefore, using IATs might be a fruitful direction to take to examine SDS at an implicit within-subjects level (see, for example, Sakaluk & Milhausen, 2012).
Our findings regarding questionnaire type indicated that questionnaires differ in the extent to which they yield evidence for SDS, which might also explain the nonequivalent findings in studies using these methods. Studies using the DSS (Caron et al., 1993) reported reversed double standards, whereas studies using the SDSS (Muehlenhard & Quackenbush, 1998) reported more traditional double standards, which might be explained by differences in content and scoring of the questionnaires. In the DSS all but one items are formulated in the direction of a traditional double standard (e.g., “It is up to the man to initiate sex.”) and participants answer the items on a scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Such a questionnaire design cannot distinguish between people with reversed and egalitarian sexual standards, because both groups of people will (strongly) disagree with the traditional items. Therefore, we cannot be completely sure that the negative combined mean found in studies using the DSS actually reflects reversed double standards, or an egalitarian view about the sexual behavior of men and women instead. In contrast, the SDSS consists of 20 items occurring in pairs, with parallel items about men’s and women’s sexual behavior (e.g., “A [girl/boy] who has sex on the first date is easy”). In addition, six items contrast men’s and women’s sexual behavior, with some items formulated in the direction of traditional SDS (e.g., “A man should be more sexually experienced than his wife.”) and others formulated in an egalitarian way (e.g., “A woman’s having casual sex is just as acceptable to me as a man’s having casual sex.”). Participants answer all items on a scale ranging from disagree strongly to agree strongly. Difference scores are computed between the 10 male and female items and the six individual item-scores are added to these difference scores. The design of the SDSS makes it possible to assess a more complete range of reversed to traditional double standards than with the DSS. However, the SDSS score range is asymmetrical (−30 to 48). Thus, the more traditional double standards appearing in studies using the SDSS might have been an artifact of the possible range of scores.

Limitations and Future Directions

Some limitations of this meta-analytic study need to be addressed. First, the available body of quantitative research on SDS is highly homogeneous in terms of participant age, ethnicity, and educational level. According to biosocial theory, these factors are important in the social construction of gender roles, and more specifically for the social construction of SDS (Wood & Eagly, 20022012). Therefore, future studies should examine SDS in more diverse samples in terms of ethnicity, age, and educational level.
Second, almost all studies included in this meta-analysis measured SDS in a relatively explicit way, by using self-report questionnaires, even though implicit measures, such as IATs or priming tasks, are less prone to social-desirable responding than explicit measures of stereotypes, and are often better predictors of behavior (Gawronski & Bodenhausen, 2006). Thus, researchers should make use of more implicit tasks to assess SDS. Relatedly, previous research has used many different conceptualizations of SDS, sometimes combining attitudinal aspects with stereotypical aspects within one questionnaire. We advise future researchers to be more theory-driven in their conceptualization, operationalization, and predictions regarding SDS. For example, dual-process models (Gawronski & Creighton, 2013) or social cognition frameworks (e.g., Greenwald et al., 2002) could be used to further conceptualize different aspects of people’s SDS-cognitions, that is, implicit, explicit, attitudes, stereotypes, knowledge of stereotypes, prescriptive versus descriptive aspects, and personal versus collective aspects. New measures need to be developed and validated before we can examine the interplay between different double standard components.
Furthermore, studies assessing SDS via questionnaires sometimes used questionnaires that did not distinguish between people with reversed and egalitarian sexual standards. With such questionnaires, it is impossible to study predictors of individual differences in SDS-cognitions. When researchers would like to use a questionnaire in future studies on SDS, they should use questionnaires with symmetrical scales to assess the complete range of SDS from reversed to traditional (e.g., 20 item-pairs of the SDSS; Muehlenhard & Quackenbush, 1998) or develop new questionnaires that can assess the complete range.
Last, most studies included in this meta-analysis focused on SDS in behaviors associated with high sexual activity and only a few studies have been conducted specifically on behaviors associated with low sexual activity. However, further study of differences in the strength of traditional SDS between behaviors associated with high sexual activity (more male-typical) and behaviors associated with low sexual activity (more female-typical) is important. Such research can test whether boundaries for male-typical (sexual) behavior are more strict than for female-typical behavior (Hort et al., 1990). Also, research on how people acquire traditional SDS-cognitions now is essential for designing future interventions that foster egalitarian sexual standards and sexual equality for men and women.

Cognitive & affective wellbeing: Commonly cited events had little effect on wellbeing (promotion, being fired, friends passing), others had profound impacts (financial loss, death of partner, childbirth)

The differential impact of major life events on cognitive and affective wellbeing. Nathan Kettlewell et al. SSM - Population Health, Volume 10, April 2020, 100533. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100533

Highlights
• We study the effect of 18 major life events on wellbeing.
• We use a large population-based cohort and fixed-effect regression models.
• Effects on affective and cognitive wellbeing are compared.
• Effects generally smaller when conditioning on other events.
• Events sometimes have different impacts on affective versus cognitive wellbeing.

Abstract: Major life events affect our wellbeing. However the comparative impact of different events, which often co-occur, has not been systematically evaluated, or studies assumed that the impacts are equivalent in both amplitude and duration, that different wellbeing domains are equally affected, and that individuals exhibit hedonic adaptation. We evaluated the individual and conditional impact of eighteen major life-events, and compared their effects on affective and cognitive wellbeing in a large population-based cohort using fixed-effect regression models assessing within person change. Several commonly cited events had little, if any, independent effect on wellbeing (promotion, being fired, friends passing), whilst others had profound impacts regardless of co-occurring events (e.g., financial loss, death of partner, childbirth). No life events had overall positive effects on both types of wellbeing, but separation, injury/illnesses and monetary losses caused negative impacts on both, which did not display hedonic adaptation. Affective hedonic adaptation to all positive events occurred by two years but monetary gains and retirement had ongoing benefits on cognitive wellbeing. Marriage, retirement and childbirth had positive effects on cognitive wellbeing but no overall effect on affective wellbeing, whilst moving home was associated with a negative effect on cognitive wellbeing but no affective wellbeing response. Describing the independent impact of different life events, and, for some, the differential affective and life satisfaction responses, and lack of hedonic adaptation people display, may help clinicians, economists and policy-makers, but individual's hopes for happiness from positive events appears misplaced.

Keywords: Life eventsAffective wellbeingCognitive wellbeingHedonic adaptation


Discussion

The present study confirms what people know; that not all life events are equal and many are concurrent with other events. In some respect, this may seem to be a self-apparent conclusion to anyone who has ever lived but epidemiological research often ignores this by using summed checklists to assess impact, or just evaluates the impact of one event (Dohrenwend, 2006Gray et al., 2004Wethington et al., 1997). Our results also quantify the difference and allow us to infer the average effect in the population. Other studies have noted differences between events in the magnitude or duration of effect on wellbeing (Frijters et al., 2011Luhmann et al., 2012), however we focus on the total impact (both magnitude and duration). Previous longitudinal studies following individuals across time also indicate health shocks (the duration of disability) (Lucas, 2007), and separation (divorce) (Lucas, 2005Lucas, Clark, Georgellis, & Diener, 2003) have long-term negative effects but unlike Lucas (2005), we found that the impact of the death of a spouse seemed to diminish by 2 years. The evidence for long-term effects of marriage and unemployment is mixed, with some studies showing that they continue to influence wellbeing long after they have occurred (Lucas, Clark, Georgellis, & Diener, 2004), while others report adaption to these same events (Clark et al., 2008Frijters et al., 2011) as we found. Fig. 5 provides a comparison of the total impact (magnitude and duration) of each event on wellbeing. For instance, on average the impact of a major financial loss on both types of wellbeing was the greatest whilst health shocks, losing a loved one (widowed), separation or divorce tended not to have as much negative impact on both. Conversely, getting married, a major financial gain, retirement and childbirth had positive effects on cognitive wellbeing with little overall positive effect on affective wellbeing. These data demonstrate that the practice of treating life events as comparable is untenable.
The impact of some events is negligible after accounting for the impact of concurrent events. In general, the conditional effects of life events were a little closer to zero than the unconditional effects, but in almost all cases this was minimal, reflecting how uncommon co-occurrence actually was. However the unconditional positive effect of pregnancy on cognitive wellbeing was all but reversed once concurrent events (childbirth) were accounted for.
These results also challenge the notion of many of the identified life events as being intrinsically “stressful”, the implication of which is that they should have some negative effect on wellbeing. Holmes and Rahe's Social Readjustment Scale (Holmes & Rahe, 1967) weights marriage as the sixth most stressful event yet we found no negative impact on affective wellbeing and a profound anticipatory and subsequent positive effect on life satisfaction. Conversely people's wellbeing in the lead up to some positive events was impaired, the most notable being reconciliation which most likely demonstrates the effect of relationship difficulties just prior to the event.
The differential impact of events on the components of affective and cognitive wellbeing supports their distinction as separate constructs, although both show hedonic adaptation. A novel aspect of the present study is the comparative differences of the affective and cognitive wellbeing response to certain events. For instance, some positive events had a substantial impact on cognitive wellbeing while eliciting relatively little impact on affective wellbeing or “happiness” (e.g., Married, Retired, Childbirth, Pregnant). In contrast, negative events tended to have comparable and untoward effects on both cognitive and affective wellbeing, with the exception of Separated which again elicited a greater (negative) impact on cognitive wellbeing, and Moving which had no affective response but reduced life satisfaction. The differential impact of events on the components of affective and cognitive wellbeing supports the distinction between wellbeing components and their treatment as separate constructs. It also implies that, on average, hoping for happiness from positive events appears misplaced.

Limitations

A few general issues are worth discussing in large, longitudinal models and studies of this kind. Such studies preclude the use of the experience sampling method of assessing affective wellbeing which many consider the best method for assessing short term intra-individual variation in affective wellbeing. The fixed effects models exclude anyone who did not experience the event in the time window of interest. This means that in any particular event, such as marriage, average differences in subjective wellbeing between married people and unmarried people may be present, however these between-group differences will not be revealed by the fixed effects model which estimates within-subject changes in the sample of interest. As a result, these population estimates can reveal what to expect once an event has occurred, but cannot be used to predict whether an event such as marriage will increase or decrease wellbeing in any particular case. That is, the effects of marriage may be specific to the kinds of people who get married and should not be offered as evidence or a reason to get married.
We used an unbalanced panel, which means a slightly different set of individuals may contribute to the pre- and post-event coefficients (although there is considerable overlap). A balanced approach (Clark et al., 2008) only includes people with measurements before and after the event, which ensures the same cohort is followed over time. However, balancing reduces efficiency and risks inducing potential selection effects, so other researchers have taken a more liberal approach and included anyone with more than one consecutive observation, regardless of when those observations occurred (Frijters et al., 2011), which we follow in this study. In a sensitivity analysis we restricted the sample to a balanced panel observed pre- and post-event (see Balanced Models in Supplementary Materials) which did not materially change the overall results or inferences.
We also note some causes of potentially non-random measurement error inherent in any dynamic model of this sort. First, due to censoring issues we do not know at time t=1 if a life event occurred before that first year (e.g., 2002). Similarly, at time t=T we do not know whether an event occurred after the final year (e.g., 2016). We do not expect this to significantly bias our estimates since many events occur infrequently and this only affects years close to the endpoints of our data. A similar issue arises in the case of missing life event information‚ either because the respondent did not complete that part of the questionnaire or because they are missing from the sample in a particular year. In both cases, we assumed no life event occurred in the missing year when constructing pre- and post-indicators. Again, we expect any bias to be small given that most life events are infrequent and more than 65 percent of people are responding year-to-year (see Table S2 in Supplementary Material). In a follow-up analysis (Uncontaminated Models in Supplementary Materials), we excluded from the sample any observations within three years of missing life event data to estimate an uncontaminated (as well as balanced) model. This means we only estimated effects for the years 2005–2012, and so after balancing and de-contamination this was our most restricted sample. As a result, our estimates became less precise and, while generally qualitatively similar to the main results, some effects became statistically insignificant (particularly for the positive events).

Friday, December 27, 2019

Maliepaar's PhD Thesis... Bisexual Rhapsody: On the everyday sexual identity negotiations of bisexual people in Rotterdam and Amsterdam and the productions of bisexual spaces

Bisexual Rhapsody: On the everyday sexual identity negotiations of bisexual people in Rotterdam and Amsterdam and the productions of bisexual spaces. Emiel Maliepaard. PhD Thesis, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen 2018. https://www.academia.edu/37885148/

My doctoral thesis: a collection of six interlinked articles on bisexuality in geography, bisexual citizenship, and empirical work on bisexuality, coming out, disclosure, communities and space in the Netherlands.



9.3 Findings & conclusions
I believe that this study reveals four important findings (1) participants do contest the
coming out imperative, (2) they want to disclose their bisexuality when it is relevant to
them, (3) people find it difficult to express their bisexuality in doings and sayings, and
(4) research participants often passively pass as heterosexual or gay/lesbian because their
doings, sayings, actions, and possible material and visual clues are being read in binary
terms.

As Schatzki (2002, 2008) frequently stresses, practices are not just the manifold of doings
and sayings but organised activities that are governed by a practical understanding,
explicit rules, some general understandings, and a teleoaffective structure. To understand
the coming out practice, it is important to focus on both the practical understanding and
the teleoaffective structure of this practice. The coming out practice is, like every other
practice, a normative practice, however it seems to have, according to the participants, a
very clear-cut and heteronormative build-up. Coming out is mainly a linguistic practice in
which people position themselves, through specific speech-acts, on the sexuality spectrum
as non-heterosexual. In fact, this positioning is understood as the final stage of developing
and accepting one’s sexual identity. At the same time, it also means confessing one’s nonheterosexuality towards heterosexual people and, in the case of people who are bisexual, pansexual, or otherwise non-monosexual, also towards lesbians and gay men (also McLean,
2007, 2008). Confessing implies a hierarchy and the one who needs to confess is lower in
the hierarchy as compared to the ones people are confessing to. This means that bisexuality
is understood as a marginalised (and perhaps inferior) sexual identity as compared to
heterosexuality (and homosexuality). This confessing can be observed in phrases such as
“I need to tell you something”. Finally, the coming out practice means making a big deal
from one’s sexuality – a complete emphasis on one’s sexual identity – whereas there are
different ways to express one’s bisexuality without making it a big deal (see also Wandrey
et al., 2015).

As stated in the introduction of this manuscript, the most important question that framed this
study is “how do bisexuals negotiate their bisexuality in everyday (social) spaces, practices,
and activities?” This research shows that the majority of the research participants contest the
coming out practice or, at least, do not want to participate in this heteronormative practice.
They prefer to disclose their bisexuality instead of actually coming out towards others. In a
recently published article I define disclosing bisexuality as “more or less spontaneously or
reactively expressing one’s bisexuality without confessing it and/or making one’s sexuality
a big deal” (Maliepaard, 2018b, p. 19), and, “I do not conceptualize disclosing one’s sexual
identity as a practice (…) but as an action that takes place while participating in everyday
practices” (Maliepaard, 2018b, p. 19).

When focusing on when and where people actually disclose their bisexuality – in essence,
answering the question which factors and contexts are important in the sexual identity
negotiations of bisexual people – the research participants argue that it needs to be relevant
at that particular point in time. This relevance means that disclosing one’s bisexuality needs
to serve a purpose; it is a means to serve one or more ends. Theodore Schatzki’s notion of
teleoaffectivity and his conceptualisation of conditions of life are fruitful to understanding
bisexual people’s action intelligibility, including their ‘choice’ to disclose or not disclose
their bisexuality. Teleoaffectivity, or individuals’ orientations towards ends and how things
matter, puts participants’ sexual identity negotiations in a different perspective as compared
to most studies on sexual identity management strategies and stigma management. It is not
sufficient to focus on rational decision-making processes. Researchers need to focus on the
whole spectrum of conditions of life: people’s state of beings that include moods, emotions,
stances, principles, attitudes, and actions. As concluded elsewhere:
“Expressing bisexuality manifests a number of life conditions which need to be understood as
ends such as the desire to be valued as a human being, seen as an honest person, accepted as
a friend, family member, or lover, better connecting with others, and sharing one’s life with
other people. We should not read these manifestations as causing one’s expressions but as
actualisations of relating with others in practices. In fact, it is remarkable that most participants, 
when reflecting on situations in which they disclosed their bisexual desire and/or identity name
that this disclosure was part of building a stronger connection with people” (Maliepaard, 2018b,
p. 16).

Similarly, as detailed in the same article, not disclosing one’s bisexuality manifests a
number of life conditions besides the notion of ‘not being relevant’: “not in the mood for
drama, not wanting to explain oneself, fearing negativity, uncertainty, others are not ready,
aware of heterosexism and binegativity, not appropriate et cetera” (Maliepaard, 2018b, p.
16). While stereotyping is often mentioned as the primary reason for people to not disclose
one’s bisexuality (e.g. McLean, 2007), this dissertation concludes that only focusing on
binegativity, stereotypes, and harm reduction provides a rather partial picture of people’s
‘choice’ to not reveal their bisexuality. Stereotyping does play a role in people’s sexual
identity negotiations, however, there are more factors in play. For instance, people often
mention that they do not disclose their bisexuality because it is not appropriate to discuss
sexuality and relationships in particular (working) practices or because sexuality is never a
topic during conversations with people they do not have a strong bond with; it is undesirable
to, out of the blue, reveal one’s bisexual identity, desire, attraction, fantasies, et cetera.
Furthermore, research participants experience difficulties in expressing their bisexuality
in doings, sayings, and material and visual clues. They are not aware of specific bisexual
behaviour or doings outside the bedroom. It has been noted in a few studies that bisexual
people suffer from the binary organisation of sex, gender, and sexuality in our contemporary
Western society as bisexual people and their doings, sayings, actions and more are interpreted
in binary ways (e.g. Yoshino, 1999). I believe that heteronormativity, mononormativity, and
compulsory monogamy, as three core discourses (or general understandings), play important
roles in the misinterpretation of bisexual people and their doings, sayings, actions, and
more (chapter three). Because the research participants do not often explicitly disclose their
bisexuality towards others, they are interpreted in binary ways: heterosexual by default and
gay or lesbian the moment they express same-sex desire, behaviour, intimacies, and more.
As shown in chapter five, people, thus, often passively pass as heterosexual, gay, or lesbian
in important parts of their everyday lives. Contrary to most studies, I do not understand
bisexual passing as a predominantly conscious strategy to prevent harm. Of course, people
may be scared of encountering binegativity, monosexism, and stereotyping, but it would be
wrong, as discussed before, to argue that these types of negativity are the main reason why
people pass as heterosexual or as gay/lesbian.

While passing is not necessarily a problem for the research participants, it does impact
people’s participation in practices that together constitute the organised bisexual community
in the Netherlands which are built on the conviction that being visible as bisexual is an
important aspect of living your live as a bisexual person. The emphasis of the Dutch 
organised bisexual community on being visible as bisexual individuals and as group
does not match the position of bisexuality in the lives of the research participants and the
everyday practices they are involved with. In chapter five, I show how Schatzki’s theory
of practice helps to understand how people relate with each other by participating in the
same practice and that not being involved in the same practice also has consequences for
relating with others. Bisexual participants find it difficult to relate with the Dutch organised
bisexual community and its members because they do not participate in the practices, e.g.
the bivisibility practice, that constitute this community.

As can be concluded from the different chapters and the above summary, the bisexual
research participants do not often disclose their bisexuality or come out towards others.
Explicit bisexual sayings, wordings, or phrases, but also doings, are mostly absent in most
everyday practices and spaces. There are, however, occasions on which people do disclose
their bisexuality – or their bisexual desire, fantasies, attraction, and/or behaviour – in
sayings. These situations can be best described as moments in which people talk about their
sexuality and/or relationships and give spaces a bisexual appearance. In these moments
it is relevant for people to talk about their bisexuality and these moments can last a few
seconds (brief disclosures) but may also have longer durations when people have more
extensive conversations about sexuality and/or relationships or other conversations in
which disclosing their bisexuality is relevant.

One of the main conclusions is, not surprisingly, that there are no spaces that are always
bisexual. Even participants’ houses or bedrooms may have no bisexual appearances because
of a variety of reasons. I initially proposed the term “pockets” to describe these bisexual
spaces to stress that these spaces are highly temporal, local, and often unplanned. Pockets,
however, may provide the impression that such spaces are isolated and not embedded in
everyday practices. To avoid confusion, and to better connect with existing literature in
the geographies of sexualities, the term “spaces with a bisexual appearance” is introduced
to identify bisexual spaces. This term also points to the idea that spaces have no natural
sexual coding but are constantly subject to both practices and individuals’ doings, sayings,
and actions. As such, it also contributes to further understandings of the sexualisation of
space as a research topic in the geographies of sexualities that goes beyond focusing on
people possessing certain sexual identities or the presence of a heteronormative discourse
that advocates that space is naturally heterosexual.

Told to cut back on her wide-ranging veggie buffets because it was unfair that students at other schools didn't have access to the unusually tasty offerings

From 2012... Lunch lady slammed for food that is 'too good.' The Local, Oct 6 2012. https://www.thelocal.se/20121006/43656

A talented head cook at a school in central Sweden has been told to stop baking fresh bread and to cut back on her wide-ranging veggie buffets because it was unfair that students at other schools didn't have access to the unusually tasty offerings.

Annica Eriksson, a lunch lady at school in Falun, was told that her cooking is just too good.

Pupils at the school have become accustomed to feasting on newly baked bread and an assortment of 15 vegetables at lunchtime, but now the good times are over.

The municipality has ordered Eriksson to bring it down a notch since other schools do not receive the same calibre of food - and that is "unfair".

Moreover, the food on offer at the school doesn't comply with the directives of a local healthy diet scheme which was initiated in 2011, according to the municipality.

"A menu has been developed... It is about making a collective effort on quality, to improve school meals overall and to try and ensure everyone does the same," Katarina Lindberg, head of the unit responsible for the school diet scheme, told the local Falukuriren newspaper.

However, Lindberg was not aware of Eriksson's extraordinary culinary efforts and how the decision to force her to cut back had prompted outrage among students and parents.

"It has been claimed that we have been spoiled and that it's about time we do as everyone else," Eriksson said.

She insisted, however, that her creative cooking has not added to the municipality's expenses.

"I have not had any complaints," she told the paper.

Eriksson added that she sees it as her job to ensure that the pupils are offered several alternatives at meal times.

The food on offer does not always suit all pupils, she explained, and therefore she makes sure there are plenty of vegetables to choose from as well as proteins in the form of chicken, shrimp, or beef patties.

From now on, the school's vegetable buffet will be halved in size and Eriksson's handmade loafs will be replaced with store-bought bread.

Her traditional Easter and Christmas smörgåsbords may also be under threat.

Parents and pupils alike find the municipality's orders distasteful.

Fourth-graders at the school have even launched a petition in protest against the decision to put a lid on Eriksson's passion for cooking.

The Local/nr

Twin Studies: Work incapacity as the total proportion of potential workdays lost due to sickness absence, rehabilitation and disability benefits

A Life Course Study of Genetic and Environmental Influences on Work Incapacity. Karoline B. Seglem et al. Twin Research and Human Genetics, December 26 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/thg.2019.116

Abstract: Work incapacity is a major public health challenge and an economic burden to both society and individuals. Understanding the underlying causes is becoming ever more relevant as many countries face an aging workforce. We examined stability and change in genetic and environmental factors influencing work incapacity from age 18 until retirement, and sex differences in these effects. The large population-based sample comprised information from 28,759 twins followed for up to 23 years combined with high-quality national registry data. We measured work incapacity as the total proportion of potential workdays lost due to sickness absence, rehabilitation and disability benefits. Structural equation modeling with twin data indicated moderate genetic influences on work incapacity throughout life in both men and women, with a high degree of genetic stability from young to old adulthood. Environmental influences were mainly age-specific. Our results indicate that largely the same genetic factors influence individual differences in work incapacity throughout young, middle and older adulthood, despite major differences in degree of work incapacity and probable underlying medical causes.