Conservative Context Research Articles

LGBTQ+ Health Inequities in a Rural, Conservative Context: Alabama Compared with Other Southern States.

There are no statewide statistics regarding the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) Alabamians. To fill this gap, we used data collected by the Southern Equality Research and Policy Center to compare Alabama with other southern US states regarding the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ people. We tested for unadjusted differences between Alabama and other southern states using χ2 tests for dichotomous outcomes and the Wilcoxon rank-sum test for ordinal outcomes. Multivariate logistic models predicted dichotomous outcomes from an Alabama indicator, a continuous rurality variable, and a racial and ethnic minority indicator to control for differences in rurality and racial and ethnic composition; multivariate linear regression was used to approximate the point estimate of adjusted differences. Alabama and other southern states had statistically similar and high levels of abuse, harassment, and poor mental and physical health. Alabamians lived in ZIP codes with somewhat higher rural-urban commuting area code rurality scores (AL 1.76; South 1.70; P = 0.036, where 1 is the most urban category). More than one-fourth of Alabama respondents reported experiencing self-harming behaviors; one-third reported suicidal ideation (33.1%); more than half reported anxiety disorders (57.6%); more than two-thirds reported being depressed (69.2%); and 25% to 75% experienced or feared emotional and physical abuse because of their identity. Multivariate adjusted results were generally similar to unadjusted results. Alabama LGBTQ+ populations, who live in more rural settings than in most prior studies, experience markedly poor outcomes.

Increasing Transgender Acceptance in Religious Families: A Pilot Study of Manualized Strategic Family Therapy

ABSTRACT This pilot study explores strategies to increase transgender acceptance within religious families by applying a brief, manualized treatment approach. The research uniquely integrates Haley’s Model for Effective Family Therapy with principles of cultural humility to address the specific challenges associated with transgender identity in a conservative Baptist context. Employing a clinical case study approach, this research combines qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate the implementation of manualized therapeutic strategies. The study focuses on adapting Haley’s model to enhance family dynamics and promote acceptance while respecting the family’s cultural and religious context. Quantitative data show significant improvements across both the Closeness Scale and the Brief COPE Scale. Family cohesion, overall coping, problem-focused coping, and emotional regulation strategies substantial increased. Qualitative findings further validated these improvements, highlighting enhanced family dynamics and transgender acceptance. These effects were sustained for at least three months post-intervention, indicating lasting positive impacts on family dynamics and coping. This pilot study provides novel contributions by demonstrating how Haley’s Model, adapted with cultural humility, can effectively enhance transgender acceptance within a religiously conservative family system. It underscores the value of culturally respectful and systematic approaches in therapy and highlights the need for further research to explore the long-term effects and broader applicability of these interventions in diverse contexts.

The Publication and Historical Significance of Modern Chinese Medical Reports.

Unlike Western medical journals such as The Lancet which focused on Western-centric medical cases, Medical Reports analyzed medical and sanitary issues in East Asia, including China, Korea, and Japan and sought solutions to these problems. Medical Reports, a medical project initiated by the Chinese Maritime Customs Service (CMCS) in 1871, aimed to compile reference materials on the health conditions and diseases in ports. It was launched by the British Inspector General Robert Hart, who appointed the British Shanghai Customs Surgeon R. Alexander Jameson as the editor. Beginning in the 1860s, the British-led CMCS began expanding its reach from major cities to border areas, western regions, Taiwan Island, and Hainan Island, as well as territories beyond Qing Dynasty, such as Seoul, Busan, Incheon, Hong Kong, and Macau. This expansion required multinational cooperation, leading to the participation of Customs Surgeons, medical missionaries, and military doctors from ten countries, including the UK, the United States, France, China, Germany, Canada, Portugal, Norway, the Netherlands, and Australia, in the Medical Reports project. The Medical Reports were directly tied to the medical and sanitary initiatives in that community. They were authored by Customs Surgeons from a country with substantial regional influence. An analysis of the authors' nationalities, primary research focuses, and the relationship between the customs regions they covered revealed a statistically significant correlation. Even after Robert Koch discovered bacteria in the late nineteenth century, the miasma theory remained dominant, and most British doctors in India did not acknowledge the possibility that diseases could be caused by parasites. Despite this conservative historical context, the Medical Reports featured progressive research, including studies on leprosy based on germ theory and studies that actively embraced the emerging theory that parasites could be the cause of certain illnesses. In this process, the relatively unknown young physician named Patrick Manson, while working at the CMCS for 13 years, significantly advanced his medical knowledge by publishing numerous studies on filaria in the Medical Reports. His work led to the groundbreaking discovery that mosquitoes transmit infectious diseases. These research achievements pioneered the field of tropical medicine, a discipline that had not been established even in the extensive colonial holdings of France and Britain in tropical regions. Manson's work for the Medical Reports significantly advanced human efforts to prevent and respond to infectious diseases.

“Homophobic Attitudes in Families: From the Netherlands to Paraguay - the Urgent Need for LGBTQ+ Rights and Research in Conservative Contexts”

“Homophobic Attitudes in Families: From the Netherlands to Paraguay - the Urgent Need for LGBTQ+ Rights and Research in Conservative Contexts”

Cyberfeminist resistance against hegemonic and anti-feminist discourses: the case of Kuwait

ABSTRACT How do Kuwaiti cyberfeminists resist hegemonic and anti-feminist discourses? This article seeks to answer this question by exploring the contestation between Kuwaiti feminists and their Islamist opponents on Twitter. Viewing cyberfeminism as constructive resistance, I argue that feminism is practiced and performed online by a variety of women actors who do not necessarily self-identify as feminists or activists, constructively and continuously producing new discourses and subjectivities, establishing a salient embodied feminist presence that can trigger an anti-feminist counter-mobilization. In a Twitter Space hosted by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs on December 23, 2021, an anti-feminist lecture portrayed Kuwaiti feminists as alienated from religion and society while downplaying the extent of violence against women in the country. In response, Kuwaiti cyberfeminists attempted to reclaim feminism by placing it within local and national frames using a Twitter hashtag. Resorting to a reverse discourse strategy had some shortcomings, including reinforcing hegemonic discourses and the binary of “us” (feminists) versus “them” (Islamists), which may have been an inevitable outcome of an antagonistic narrative. This article adds to the existing literature on cyberfeminism by exploring an understudied domain and offering significant insights into feminists’ online resistance in socially conservative contexts.

Research: English Teachers’ Experience of Critical Language Teaching in an Anti-CRT Context

This study examines how English teachers in a politically conservative state integrate principles of Critical Language Awareness into their existing curricula despite a political climate hostile to teaching about social inequity. This project stemmed from concerns expressed by preservice teachers in an English methods class about their ability to enact the critical language teaching methods they were learning because of the political context in the state. Interviews with practicing teachers reveal how teachers incorporate critical language teaching across English courses as disparate as AVID, English 9, Journalism, and African American Literature. The study provides examples of external pushback against race-related curriculum and the resulting fear teachers carried in their professional and personal lives. It also documents teachers’ persistence in the face of fear. Finally, the study raises challenges of teaching about race and language with white students in politically conservative contexts, highlighting a need to support teachers doing critical language teaching in these spaces. The findings demonstrate that even under the scrutiny of anti-CRT sentiments, teachers can successfully engage critical language awareness.

Changing the Division of Household Work in Conservative and Minority Context: The Case of Arab-Druze Women in Israel

This article seeks to understand how Druze women’s employment in nontraditional fields (such as engineering, medicine, and law) shapes gender role division in their nuclear family. Data from 24 interviews with educated Druze women employed in high-quality professions suggests that Druze women who work in these fields succeed in bringing about a change in perceptions and practices regarding gender role division in their households. The interviews revealed three gender patterns: (a) ten women in the current study indicated egalitarian gender role division; (b) six women indicted reversal of gender roles in their home, and (c) eight women described a traditional role division, which required them to sacrifice their career in favor of the family. The choice of Druze women to study nontraditional professions is increasingly recognized and valued in Druze society and its clergy, driving a paradigm shift concerning women’s employment and gender role division in the private sphere.

Characterizing traditional Brazilian house typologies by means of intervisibility analysis

This paper analyzes the morphological differences in traditional urban architecture in Brazil between the typologies of rowhouses and urban or suburban mansions, from the mid-eighteenth to the early twentieth century. It focuses on the relatively uniform and conservative context of the states of Rio de Janeiro, Goiás (including Tocantins), and Minas Gerais. This study highlights defining characteristics of each of the two typological series. While most previous studies have looked at tree graph analysis to assess the topological connections between individual spaces, this research turns to intervisibility analysis, evidencing the morphological centers of compositions. The results highlight how visual integration analysis confirms the overlap between the spatial composition of both rowhouses and mansions and the attributes of social life specific to each of these typologies. These attributes include the location of the family room in the rear of rowhouses and, in contrast, the primacy of ceremonial spaces in the front of mansions.

Does pro-gay messaging from a celebrity athlete work in conservative contexts? Evidence from the Republic of Georgia

ABSTRACT A growing consensus indicates that increasing visibility, awareness-raising, and positive media representations of gay people, through public advocacy and endorsements, contribute to tolerance and support. In particular, existing studies in the West show the promise of celebrity endorsements in promoting pro-gay attitudes. However, an emerging body of research, largely outside the West, points to potential backlash surrounding gay identity. We examine the efficacy of celebrity pro-gay endorsements. In an original survey experiment in Tbilisi, Georgia involving randomized pro-gay endorsements from a prominent Georgian football star, we find that a pro-gay celebrity endorsement reduces tolerance toward gay people. Our results have implications for the success of public messaging on gay identity in conservative social contexts.

Differentiated grassroots: Navigating sustainability transitions in conservative political contexts

Uneven subnational energy policy and regulatory geographies in the United States are a widely recognised reality, resulting from the absence of a concerted federal effort towards climate change and sustainable energy development. Against this backdrop, the rise of citizen-led energy transitions or Grassroots Energy Communities (GECs) in liberal and conservative states signals an opportunity for fostering a common ground for climate action, only to be undermined by questions concerning their touted countervailing potential against the mainstream energy system. With particular reference to conservative political contexts, this article presents a comparative case study of Grassroots Energy Communities arising amidst uneven socio-spatial circumstances. By interrogating lived experiences and situated socio-material practices, the article offers interesting theoretical, practical and policy insights. By explicating the materiality of technical devices, purposively rendered meaningful in context and politicised towards particular political and economic ends, the study shows how socio-material processes not only help forge strategic alliances between potentially antagonistic stakeholders but also lead to the obfuscation of power differentials. From a policy perspective, this study shows how conservative ideology – despite hyper-nationalist invocations – subjects local citizen-led efforts to the vicissitudes of global capital by selectively justifying state support to facilitate its circulation.

Determinants of childbearing intentions among pregnant women with a suspected fetal congenital heart disease

BackgroundThe Saudi population is characterized by a high fertility rate, a conservative sociocultural context, and an ongoing societal and lifestyle transition. Yet, data regarding childbearing intentions and the associated factors is scarce. Furthermore, childbearing intention may be impacted by abnormal pregnancy events, such as the clinical suspicion or diagnosis of a fetal congenital disease and the negative experience that may result from it. ObjectivesThe present study explored childbearing intention and determined the sociodemographic and health-related factors discouraging from future pregnancies among women visiting the cardiology clinic for antenatal screening of congenital heart diseases (CHD). MethodsA one-year cross-sectional study involved 150 consecutive pregnant women aged between 18 and 47 years old, who presented for antenatal screening of CHD at the fetal echocardiography clinic for, of a teaching hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. An interview-based questionnaire was administered before the clinic visit and collected sociodemographic data, obstetrical history, risk factors of congenital diseases, mothers’ knowledge about fetal echocardiography and CHDs, and childbearing intention (the primary outcome). ResultsFetal echocardiography and CHD were correctly described by 60 % and 31.3 % of the participants respectively, while 40.7 % and 12 % recognized the association of congenital diseases with consanguinity and advanced maternal age respectively. Childbearing intentions showed 68.0 % of the participants declared desiring a future baby while the remaining 32.0 % declared having no further pregnancy expectations. Attitudes towards a hypothetical baby with CHD were positive in 97.3 % of the participants, and only 30 % declared that the fetal echocardiography results will impact their future childbearing decision. However, childbearing intention showed no significant association with knowledge or attitudes towards CHD. On the other hand, childbearing intention was independently associated with the number of children (OR=0.34; p<0.001), consanguinity with husband (OR=3.64; p = 0.010), and history of gestational diabetes (OR=0.28; p = 0.040). ConclusionFertility expectations among Saudi mothers are more likely to be impacted by the personal experience and judgment of own pregnancy fitness, while no significant impact of fetal risks and events. This demonstrates a certain level of autonomy balanced with deeply rooted religious ethics yet combined with a lack of awareness about fetal and maternal risks associated with advanced maternal age and consanguinity. We emphasize the unmet need of education and family planning.

Does environmental education work differently across sociopolitical contexts in the United States? PART I. Exploration of outcomes for adolescent youth

In the United States, the two main political parties, Democrats and Republicans, have become increasingly polarized, including with regard to environmental issues. As part of a national study of environmentally focused single-day field trips for early adolescent youth in 2018, we conducted exploratory research to examine how outcomes differed for public school students from different sociopolitical contexts (i.e. predominantly Democratic, Republican, or mixed). Students from wealthier Democratic contexts exhibited less positive outcomes, measured as self-reported changes in environmental literacy, compared to others. The findings suggest that single-day EE field trips in the United States, in their current forms, may be particularly valuable in lower income and more politically conservative contexts, possibly due to the degree of novelty they may provide to these audiences. Meanwhile, EE field trips for students from wealthier Democratic contexts may provide reinforcement rather than meaningful shifts in environmental literacy, suggesting a need for more novel approaches for these audiences.

Moderating Role of Sexual Attitudes in the Association between Online Sexual Activity and Problematic Pornography Use: Evidence from the Chinese Community and Help-Seeking Men

Objectives This study aimed to investigate the moderating role of sexual attitudes in the association between online sexual activity (OSA) and problematic pornography use (PPU) in the Chinese context. Specifically, we examined whether incongruence stemming from attitudes (i.e., disapproval of nonmarital and casual sex but engaging in OSA) amplifies the perception of PPU. Methods We recruited two samples of Chinese men, one from the community (N 1 = 525) and the other comprising help-seeking individuals (N 2 = 578). Results Sexual attitudes moderate the relationship between OSA and PPU in both samples, with the predictive influence of OSA on PPU weakening among individuals with a relatively permissive attitude (scored one SD above the mean of sexual attitudes), and strengthened among individuals with a relatively conservative attitude (scored one SD below the mean of sexual attitudes). Conclusions In the conservative sexual cultural context of China, a relatively conservative sexual attitude might strengthen the association between OSA and PPU.

Preparing Preservice Teachers to Teach Young Adult Literature in Conservative Contexts

Requests to censor or ban young adult literature from K-12 classrooms and curricula have increased. Especially in conservative states and contexts, censorship challenges are systematic and unrelenting, with coordinated campaigns from administrators, parents, and other educational stakeholders. Therefore, English Education must prepare and empower preservice teachers to read, teach, and advocate for the inclusion of diverse young adult literature in their school communities. This article details the pedagogical design of a methods course that instructs preservice English teachers to strategically navigate and counter this conservative activism to protect adolescents’ access to young adult literature.

Creating an Enabling Environment for a Comprehensive Sexuality Education Intervention in Indonesia: Findings From an Implementation Research Study

PurposeThis study examines key factors that facilitated and hindered creating an enabling environment for the implementation of SEmangaT duniA RemajA/Teen’s Aspirations (SETARA), a comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) intervention in schools across three sites in Indonesia. MethodsData were collected through interviews with teachers, program implementers, and government officials; a review of program documents and monitoring and evaluation data; and a qualitative evaluation with SETARA students. ResultsOne of the most important factors for creating an enabling environment for CSE relates to how well the program is introduced to government officials for approval. Findings showed that the relationship between the implementing organization and city government officials was important for obtaining approval, support, and formal agreements on collaboration. Framing the curriculum within local policies and priorities made it easier to communicate to schools, community, and parents. Buy-in from school principals was important for creating a supportive environment. Complexity of the materials, lack of time to prepare and implement sessions, and teacher-level factors such as pedagogical skills and misaligned values remain key challenges despite trainings. DiscussionThe study suggests that it is possible to implement and create political support for CSE in conservative contexts, especially with a good introduction of the program. Potential solutions for implementation and scaling barriers may lie in the digitalization of the intervention and of capacity strengthening and technical support for teacher. More research is needed to investigate which content and exercises can effectively be delivered digitally and which should best be delivered by teachers to maintain the effect of breaching the taboo around sexuality.

The female-breadwinner well-being ‘penalty’: differences by men’s (un)employment and country

Abstract This article examines the relationship between female breadwinning and life satisfaction in heterosexual couples. We extend previous research by treating the man’s employment status as a variable that helps to explain rather than confounds this relationship, and by comparing multiple countries through regression analyses of European Social Survey data (Rounds 2–9). Results provide evidence of a female-breadwinner well-being ‘penalty’: men and women are less satisfied with their lives under the female-breadwinner arrangement versus the dual-earner and male-breadwinner alternatives. The penalty is marginal when the male partner is part-time employed but sizeable when he is jobless. However, there are gender differences: after controls for composition, gender-role attitudes, and partners’ relative incomes, the penalty becomes negligible for women while remaining large for men. Analyses suggest these gender differences are linked to high male unemployment among female-breadwinner couples: whereas women appear roughly equally adversely affected by a male partner’s unemployment as by their own, men report substantially higher well-being when she is unemployed instead of him. Country comparisons indicate that while this female-breadwinner well-being penalty is largest in more conservative contexts, especially Germany, it is fairly universal across Europe. So, even in countries where women’s employment is more widespread and cultural and institutional support for the male-breadwinner model is weaker, unemployed men with breadwinner wives are not immune from the social stigma and psychological difficulties associated with their gender non-conformity.

Student-Led Cricket Matches as a Product of Coaching/Mentoring

Abstract Using a historical, autoethnographic approach in this article, we discuss six student-led cricket matches that we organized in Perth, Australia, from 1979 to 1981. From a Foucauldian perspective, we present these games as a student-led resistance against the normalizing and disciplinary processes of official school and youth cricket. The original scoresheets and match summaries exist both then and now only as subjugated knowledges. As these matches’ two captains, we attribute the positive atmosphere, which encouraged such creative initiatives, as being partly due to one class teacher's vision and ethos, which contrasted with the toxic hypermasculinity of the other men teachers. Through a look at our student-led cricket matches of 1979–1981, we recall memories of whiteness within a socially conservative and overall pro-British cultural context.

The impacts of school on English learners’ motivation in Indonesian Islamic schools

Among the teaching practitioners in Indonesia, there is a general belief that some learners of English in some Indonesian pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) have a negative view on English, which consequently affects their motivation. However, it remains unclear what has affected the trend. The current study investigates this issue in three pesantren schools in Indonesia affiliated with different Islamic groups. Using the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) model proposed by Dörnyei (2009) as an analytical lens, a survey instrument was designed to describe and compare students’ motivation to learn English (n = 376). A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was run to describe and compare the students’ motivation, and a stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to discover which motivational factors made the most significant contribution to motivation by predicting reported learning effort in English. In addition, a thorough document analysis was performed to obtain background information regarding the teaching of English in the three institutions. It was found that institutional factors do play a role in influencing the learners’ motivation, in that in the most religiously conservative context, the school policy does shape the learners’ ideal L2 self. As the learners’ ideal L2 self was weak, it leads to weak motivational power as well. The paper concludes by emphasizing the crucial role of educational contexts in shaping students’ ideal selves and in providing favourable learning experience, which are key elements in motivating learners to learn English.

Palliative team involvement in end-of-life care for Jewish and Muslim children in Jerusalem: A unique clinical and cultural context.

Pediatric palliative care services improve the quality of life for children with life-limiting and life-threatening diseases, although little has been published about variation based on cultural and religious factors. This article sets out to describe clinical and cultural characteristics of pediatric end-of-life patients in a majority Jewish and Muslim country with religious and legal constraints around end-of-life care. We conducted a retrospective chart review of 78 pediatric patients who died during a 5-year period and could potentially have utilized pediatric palliative care services. Patients reflected a range of primary diagnoses, most commonly oncologic diseases and multisystem genetic disorders. Patients followed by the pediatric palliative care team had less invasive therapies, more pain management and advance directives, and more psychosocial support. Patients from different cultural and religious backgrounds had similar levels of pediatric palliative care team follow-up but certain differences in end-of-life care. In a culturally and religiously conservative context that poses constraints on decision-making around end-of-life care, pediatric palliative care services are a feasible and important means of maximizing symptom relief, as well as emotional and spiritual support, for children at the end of life and their families.

"You're not gay; You're a child of god": Microaggressions experienced by LGBTQ+ teens and their parents in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Like other teens in conservative religious environments, LGBTQ+ teens raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (CJCLDS) likely experience unique microaggressions. Furthermore, like other conservatively religious parents of LGBTQ+ teens, active Latter-day Saint (LDS) parents who openly support their LGBTQ+ teens likely both witness microaggressions toward their teens and may personally experience microaggressions. The present study sought to understand parents' and teens' experiences of microaggressions in conservative religious contexts by focusing specifically on the microaggressions experienced by (a) LGBTQ+ teens raised in the CJCLDS and (b) their active LDS parents. Thematic analysis of separate interviews with 19 dyads of LGBTQ+ teens and their active LDS parents (38 total interviews) revealed various ways in which they experienced verbal, nonverbal, and environmental microaggressions. We highlight parents' and teens' shared experiences of microaggressions that may be uniquely related to their religious contexts, such as assumptions that LGBTQ+ teens or their parents are not faithful and exclusionary Church policies. Additionally, we identified microaggressions that specifically targeted parents of LGBTQ+ teens, such as comments suggesting parents should limit their support for their teens. Finally, we found that parents had vicarious experiences with microaggressions through witnessing or learning about microaggressions that targeted their teens. Findings highlight the ways that the religious contexts in which microaggressions occur can influence the way that microaggressions are communicated to and experienced by LGBTQ+ teens - and their parents.