Ingrid Johnston-Robledo

• Castleton University

In this theoretical paper, we argue that menstruation is a source of social stigma for women. The word stigma refers to any stain or mark that renders the individual’s body or character defective. This stigma is transmitted through powerful socialization agents in popular culture such as advertisements and educational materials. We demonstrate, in...

A sweeping collection of new essays gathers historical background, theoretical perspectives, and the latest research on integrating work and personal life in a multigenerational workforce. A half-century after the women's movement of the 1960s, women still have not achieved equality in the workplace, in part because the burdens of family still fall...

College students in southeastern Mexico (n = 185) and the northeastern United States (n = 96) utilized a semantic differential scale to rate subtypes of women: a menstruating woman, a menopausal woman, a pregnant woman, a premenstrual woman, a woman with a hysterectomy, a teenage girl, a woman in love, and a woman with a young baby. Americans repor...

The menstrual cycle is often conceptualized in the biomedical literature as a unidimensional, biological, and pathological aspect of women’s bodies and health. Feminist social science scholars recognize that the biological event of menstruation is experienced and perceived within a broader sociocultural context. The authors of articles in this spec...

In this theoretical paper, we argue that menstruation is a source of social stigma for women. The word stigma refers to any stain or mark that renders the individual’s body or character defective. This stigma is transmitted through powerful socialization agents in popular culture such as advertisements and educational materials. We demonstrate, in...

Despite the myriad psychosocial aspects of childbirth, psychologists have not contributed extensively to the childbirth literature nor are they identified as a resource for women who are either anticipating or adjusting after an inherently challenging life event. The purpose of this article is to review the current literature on psychosocial aspect...

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine self-objectification as a correlate of pregnant women's concerns about public breastfeeding and the impact of breastfeeding on body shape and sexuality. Fifty-two pregnant women enrolled in the Women, Infants, and Children Program responded to telephone questions regarding concerns about breastfe...

The sexualization of the breast may lead women who internalize the sexual objectification of their bodies to have more negative attitudes toward breastfeeding. The purpose of the present study was to examine self-objectification in relation to young women’s attitudes toward and concerns about breastfeeding. Two hundred and seventy-five female under...

One hundred nine women faculty in psychology departments at small colleges through the United States responded to a survey about the benefits and challenges of establishing a career at a primarily undergraduate institution with an enrollment of 3,000 or fewer students. Participants reported high teaching and service loads, which made it difficult f...

The purpose of this study was to measure and compare women's attitudes toward menstruation and breastfeeding and to determine whether self-objectification was associated with negative attitudes toward these events. We hypothesized that women who viewed menstruation as shameful would also report high levels of shame about breastfeeding and that wome...

The purpose of this study was to analyze the content of popular press articles about menstrual suppression, a relatively new and controversial health care option. Twenty-two American and Canadian articles, published before the FDA approval of Seasonale, were coded for basic information about and indications for menstrual suppression, viewpoints inc...

Reviews the volume by Forden and Hunter (see record 2002-17256-000 ), which contains a series of articles addressing a broad range of topics within the psychology of gender. This book seems most appropriate undergraduate students to be used as a reader to accompany textbooks for courses in feminist psychology. Readers are exposed to many specific i...

Despite the myriad psychosocial aspects of childbirth, psychologists have not contributed extensively to the childbirth literature nor are they identified as a resource for women who are either anticipating or adjusting after an inherently challenging life event. The purpose of this article is to review the current literature on psychosocial aspect...

The purpose of this study was to investigate women's knowledge about and attitudes toward the medical suppression of menstruation. One hundred and three female undergraduate students completed several questionnaires. Thirty-five percent of the participants were familiar with menstrual suppression, and 12% reported using birth control methods to sup...

Educational booklets published by manufacturers of menstrual hygiene products have been used to teach several generations of girls about menstruation. The ubiquity and importance of the booklets make them potentially important contributors to attitudes toward menstruation. The content of 28 booklets that were produced commercially between 1932 and...

INTRODUCTlON

This review of the social science literature examines correlates of homelessness. The review is supplemented by the voices of 12 low-income women who are temporarily housed or living in public housing. Homelessness for women is associated with teen pregnancy and parenting, domestic violence, working at minimum-wage jobs, and waiting lists of severa...

Based on the limited number of abstracts accessed on PsycLit between 1984 and 1991 that included poor women, Reid (1993) concluded that such women were essentially “shut up” and “shut out” of mainstream psychological research and theory. The authors conducted a follow-up analysis for the years 1991 through 1997 to determine whether significant chan...

A content analysis was conducted to evaluate the description of postpartum mood disturbances in magazine articles that appeared during the years 1980-1998. Nineteen articles about postpartum depression and eight articles about "the baby blues" were identified and analyzed for their discussion of etiologies, symptoms, treatments, resources, and demo...

The purposes of this study were to investigate the relationship between income and various types and levels of childbirth preparation utilized by women, and to examine the relationship between preparation and childbirth outcomes. Forty-five primiparous women recruited from health care facilities and childbirth preparation classes participated in th...

The purpose of this study was to investigate various types and levels of childbirth preparation and social support and their impact on women's childbirth experiences. Forty-five primiparous women recruited from health care facilities and childbirth preparation classes participated in the study. After the birth of their infants, participants complet...