ORCID Profile
0000-0002-2128-0019
Current Organisation
Western Sydney University
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Public Health and Health Services | Health, Clinical And Counselling Psychology | Mental Health | Gender Psychology | Health And Community Services | Health Promotion | Health Counselling | Gender Specific Studies | Psychology | Public Health and Health Services not elsewhere classified | Health, Clinical and Counselling Psychology | Culture, Gender, Sexuality | Other Studies in Human Society | Gender Specific Studies | Health Counselling |
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Women’s health | Cancer and related disorders | Health Inequalities | Health Education and Promotion | Health and support services not elsewhere classified | Gender and Sexualities | Women's Health | Reproductive System and Disorders | Specific Population Health (excl. Indigenous Health) not elsewhere classified | Substance Abuse | Visual Communication | Behaviour and Health | Cancer and Related Disorders | Social structure and health | Health status (e.g. indicators of “well-being”) | Health Related to Specific Ethnic Groups | Behaviour and health
Related Links
Publications
Statement of removal
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 20-03-2018
It's not all bad: Women's construction and lived experience of positive premenstrual change
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 22-03-2013
Abstract: Although premenstrual change is invariably pathologized and described as PMS or PMDD, there is evidence that many women experience premenstrual changes positively. This suggests that premenstrual change is both a lived experience and social construction, which is not inevitably positioned as debilitating or distressing. However, previous research has provided little insight into how and why women construct premenstrual change as positive. Accordingly, the present study used a critical realist epistemology and a material-discursive-intrapsychic model to explore women’s construction and lived experience of positive premenstrual change. Drawing on focus groups with 47 women, explanations for positive premenstrual experiences included: ‘positive emotional outcomes’, ‘releasing tension’, ‘increased attractiveness’, ‘legitimacy of self-care’ and ‘indication of menstruation’. Findings not only reinforce reports from previous research that many women experience positive premenstrual changes, but also challenge bio-medical conceptualizations of premenstrual change as inherently negative, with accounts of relational negotiation emphasizing the context-dependent nature of premenstrual change.
Seeking help for premenstrual syndrome: Women’s self-reports and treatment preferences
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 11-1995
Life with HIV and AIDS in the Era of Effective Treatments: 'It's Not Just about Living Longer!'
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-04-2008
DOI: 10.1057/STH.2008.4
Making Sense of S&M: A Discourse Analytic Account
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 08-2001
DOI: 10.1177/136346001004003002
Abstract: Sado-masochism (SM) is described as a pathology in current psychological and psychiatric textbooks, and is often discussed alongside behaviours such as child sexual abuse and rape. In iduals who engage in SM are invariably positioned as experiencing intra-psychic conflict ameliorated through the displacement of the sexual drive. This is a limited and one-dimensional analysis of a complex phenomenon. This article presents the results of an in-depth qualitative study designed to further our understanding of the psychology of SM consistent with a social constructionist approach. Twenty-four self-identified sadomasochists, recruited through SM clubs and agencies and informal social networks, were interviewed. Thematic discourse analysis was used to generate a four-factor definition of SM: consensuality, an unequable balance of power, sexual arousal and compatibility of definition. Participants positioned SM variously as dissidence, as pleasure, as escapism, as transcendence, as learned behaviour, as intra-psychic, as pathological and as `inexplicable'. The research findings, their relevance to our understanding of SM sexualities and the limitations of the methodology and subsequent formulation, are discussed.
Talking about sex with health professionals: The experience of people with cancer and their partners
Publisher: Hindawi Limited
Date: 10-07-2016
DOI: 10.1111/ECC.12216
Abstract: Changes to sexuality can be one of the most difficult aspects of life following cancer. This study examines the experience of discussing sexuality post cancer with health care professionals (HCPs), from the perspective of women and men with cancer (PWC), and their partners (PPWC), across a range of cancer types. A total of 657 PWC (535 women, 122 men) and 148 PPWC (87 women, 61 men) completed a survey containing closed and open-ended items, analysed by analysis of variance and thematic analysis. Discussions about sexuality with a HCP were more likely to be reported by men (68%) compared to women PWC (43%), and by women (47%) compared to men PPWC (28%), as well as by those with a sexual or reproductive cancer. Men PWC and women PPWC were most likely to want to discuss sexuality with a HCP, with men PWC and PPWC reporting highest levels of satisfaction with such discussions. Open-ended responses revealed dissatisfaction with the unwillingness of HCPs to discuss sexuality, unhappiness with the nature of such discussion, and positive accounts of discussions about sexuality with HCPs. These findings lend support to the notion that people with cancer and their partners may have unmet sexual information and support needs.
Empathy, egalitarianism and emotion work in the relational negotiation of PMS: The experience of women in Lesbian relationships
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 02-2008
Abstract: Research on differences between heterosexual and lesbian relationships has reported that lesbian relationships are more satisfying, more egalitarian, more empathic, and facilitate more effective conflict resolution. These differences are of key relevance in terms of the construction and experience of PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome), as is illustrated through interviews with 15 lesbian women who experience PMS and 10 of their partners. While experiences of premenstrual distress were similar to those previously reported by heterosexual women, the lesbian relationship context and positioning of PMS were markedly different. In contrast to the lack of understanding or support, rejection, and pathologization commonly found in heterosexual women's accounts, lesbian interviewees reported awareness and recognition of premenstrual change, responsiveness to needs, open communication, and responsibility sharing. This had significant consequences for the construction and experience of premenstrual change, facilitating open expression of needs, self-care, and avoidance of guilt and self-blame, reinforcing the view that PMS needs to be understood within a framework of inter-subjectivity.
A double blind placebo controlled trial examining the relationship between Health-Related Quality of Life and dietary supplements
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-2000
Clinician provision of oncofertility support in cancer patients of a reproductive age: A systematic review.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-08-2017
DOI: 10.1002/PON.4518
Abstract: The emerging discipline of oncofertility advocates for the timely provision of fertility information and referral for fertility preservation to all cancer patients of reproductive age (<45 years). A systematic review was undertaken on the clinician provision of oncofertility support to determine whether cancer patients are having their support needs adequately met by staff. An initial search conducted in May 2016 identified 351 potentially relevant studies. The papers were ided into 2 categories: Papers on the clinician provision of oncofertility support were reviewed for this study, and papers on patient oncofertility support needs were reviewed for a separate systematic review. A total of 23 studies were included within the final review of this manuscript. Although many clinicians are broadly informed about the risk to their patients' fertility brought about by cancer treatment, there are many factors which hinder the appropriate discussion, referral, or service utilisation needed to provide adequate oncofertility support to patients of reproductive age. Oncofertility support is often not delivered to the standard of current guidelines, with many clinicians not providing the recommended care to all eligible patients, and as such many patients may lack the oncofertility support that they require. The implementation of a clear procedural process would assist clinicians in the provision of oncofertility support for cancer patients of reproductive age.
Men's experiences of sexuality after cancer: a material discursive intra-psychic approach
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 08-05-2013
DOI: 10.1080/13691058.2013.789129
Abstract: Men can experience significant changes to their sexuality following the onset of cancer. However, research on men's sexuality post-cancer has focused almost exclusively on those with prostate and testicular cancer, despite evidence that the diagnosis and treatment for most cancers can impact on men's sexuality. This Australian qualitative study explores the experiences of changes to sexuality for 21 men across a range of cancer types and stages, sexual orientations and relationship contexts. Semi-structured interviews were analysed with theoretical thematic analysis guided by a material discursive intra-psychic approach, recognising the materiality of sexual changes, men's intrapsychic experience of such changes within a relational context and the influence of the discursive construction of masculine sexuality. Material changes included erectile difficulty, decreased desire, and difficulty with orgasm. The use of medical aids to minimise the impact of erectile difficulties was shaped by discursive constructions of 'normal' masculine sexuality. The majority of men reported accepting the changes to their sexuality post-cancer and normalised them as part of the natural ageing process. Men's relationship status and context played a key role managing the changes to their sexuality. We conclude by discussing the implications for clinical practice.
Experiences and Constructions of Menarche and Menstruation Among Migrant and Refugee Women
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 14-10-2016
Abstract: Experiences and constructions of menarche and menstruation are shaped by the sociocultural environment in which women are embedded. We explored experiences and constructions of menarche and menstruation among migrant and refugee women resettled in Sydney, Australia, and Vancouver, Canada. Seventy-eight semistructured in idual interviews and 15 focus groups comprised of 82 participants were undertaken with women from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Sri Lanka, and varying South American countries. We analyzed the data using thematic decomposition, identifying the overall theme "cycles of shame" and two core themes. In "becoming a woman," participants constructed menarche as a marker of womanhood, closely linked to marriage and childbearing. In "the unspeakable," women conveyed negative constructions of menstruation, positioning it as shameful, something to be concealed, and polluting. Identifying migrant and refugee women's experiences and constructions of menarche and menstruation is essential for culturally safe medical practice, health promotion, and health education.
“In My Culture, We Don’t Know Anything About That”: Sexual and Reproductive Health of Migrant and Refugee Women
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 15-06-2017
DOI: 10.1007/S12529-017-9662-3
Abstract: Migrant and refugee women are at risk of negative sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes due to low utilisation of SRH services. SRH is shaped by socio-cultural factors which can act as barriers to knowledge and influence access to healthcare. Research is needed to examine constructions and experiences of SRH in non-English-speaking migrant and refugee women, across a range of cultural groups. This qualitative study examined the constructions and experiences of SRH among recent migrant and refugee women living in Sydney, Australia, and Vancouver, Canada. A total of 169 women from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, India, Sri Lanka and South America participated in the study, through 84 in idual interviews, and 16 focus groups comprised of 85 participants. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Three themes were identified: "women's assessments of inadequate knowledge of sexual and reproductive health and preventative screening practices", "barriers to sexual and reproductive health" and "negative sexual and reproductive health outcomes". Across all cultural groups, many women had inadequate knowledge of SRH, due to taboos associated with constructions and experiences of menstruation and sexuality. This has implications for migrant and refugee women's ability to access SRH education and information, including contraception, and sexual health screening, making them vulnerable to SRH difficulties, such as sexually transmissible infections and unplanned pregnancies. It is essential for researchers and health service providers to understand socio-cultural constraints which may impede SRH knowledge and behaviour of recent migrant and refugee women, in order to provide culturally safe SRH education and services that are accessible to all women at resettlement irrespective of ethnicity or migration category.
Infertility‐related distress following cancer for women and men: A mixed method study
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2019
DOI: 10.1002/PON.4990
Abstract: Infertility-related distress is recognised to be a long-term effect of cancer. There have been attempts to examine predictors of such distress, but there is inconsistency in the findings. This study examined the psychological impact of infertility-related distress in women and men cancer survivors, across age group, parity, cancer type, time since diagnosis, and relationship context and the association of distress with acceptance of illness and relationship satisfaction. 693 women and 185 men completed a self-report survey examining infertility-related distress (fertility problem inventory [FPI], acceptance of cancer (acceptance of illness scale [AIS]), psychological distress (Kessler psychological distress scale [K10]), quality of life (QoL) (ladder of life), and relationship satisfaction relationship assessment scale [RAS]) 61 women and 17 men took part in one-to-one interviews to examine subjective experiences of infertility distress. Infertility distress was positively correlated with psychological distress and negatively correlated with QoL, relationship satisfaction, and acceptance of cancer across gender, cancer type and stage, relationship status, and age. Women reported significantly higher infertility distress than men. In multiple regression analysis, unique statistical predictors of infertility distress for women were childlessness, cancer acceptance, and QoL. Childlessness and relationship satisfaction were unique predictors for men. Thematic analysis of interviews identified loss and grief, identity threat, relationship concerns or support, and acceptance of cancer and infertility as key themes. Concern about cancer-related infertility is associated with decrements in psychological well-being and QoL, particularly for those without children. Psychological support to address cancer-related infertility distress should acknowledge the different meanings of infertility across gender, and the impact of acceptance of cancer and relationship satisfaction.
Gender differences in self-silencing and psychological distress in informal cancer carers
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 06-2010
DOI: 10.1111/J.1471-6402.2010.01564.X
Abstract: This study examined gender differences in self-silencing, the relationship between self-silencing and psychological distress, and reasons for self-silencing in informal cancer carers (329 women, 155 men), using a mixed-method design. Men reported greater self-silencing than women on the Silencing the Self Scale however, women reported higher depression and anxiety, even though depression and anxiety were significantly correlated with self-silencing. These gender differences in patterns of self-silencing were explored in follow-up interviews with 34 women and 19 men carers, selected to represent a cross-section of cancer type and stage and analyzed using thematic decomposition and positioning theory. Both men and women reported self-silencing because of their desire to prioritize patient needs or to avoid conflict. However, women positioned self-silencing as a requisite for coping and demonstrated awareness of external judgement, reflecting self-policing linked to constructions of idealized femininity, in particular the positioning of women as natural carers. In contrast, men positioned self-silencing as a normal aspect of masculinity, regarding expressions of needs or feelings as signs of weakness and maintaining a positive front as a means of coping. These findings confirm that men and women self-silence for different reasons and with differential consequences for mental health. The significant association of self-silencing with depression and anxiety suggests that it is not an adaptive behavior for caregivers, supporting previous reports that avoidance of emotional discussion in couples living with cancer is detrimental to coping and to mental health.
V. The meaning of sexual desire: Experiences of heterosexual and lesbian girls
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 02-2005
Good, bad or dangerous to know
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Crossing Boundaries and Fetishization: Experiences of Sexual Violence for Trans Women of Color
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 12-08-2020
Abstract: Transgender (trans) women are at higher risk of sexual violence than cisgender women, with trans women of color reported to be at highest risk. This study examined subjective experiences of sexual violence for 31 trans women of color living in Australia, average age 29 (range 18–54), through in-depth interviews. An additional photovoice activity and follow-up interviews were completed by 19 women. Data were analyzed through thematic analysis and feminist intersectionality theory, identifying the following themes. The first theme, “‘A sexually tinged violation of boundaries’: Defining sexual violence,” examined women’s definition of sexual violence, including staring and verbal abuse, nonconsensual touching and sexual assault, in both public and private contexts. The second theme, “‘Crossing people’s boundaries’: Sexual harassment in the public domain,” examined the frequent sexual harassment women experienced in their daily lives. This included the subtheme, “A hostile gaze: Public staring and ‘weird looks’” and “Mockery and transphobic abuse: Verbal abuse is sexual violence.” The third theme, “‘Crossing bodily boundaries’: Experiences of sexual assault,” included the subthemes “‘Unwanted sexual touch’: Groping and forced sex by strangers,” “Danger in relationships: Sexual assault and manipulation,” “Sexual violence in the context of sex work,” and “‘We’re turned into something we’re not’: Fetishization and the sexual other.” The poor health outcomes experienced by many trans women are closely associated with their exposure to sexual violence and the social inequities and transphobia to which they are subjected. Trans women of color may experience additional prejudice and discrimination due to the intersection of gender, sexuality, race, and social class. Our research suggests that understanding these intersectionalities is integral in understanding the sexual violence experiences of trans women of color.
Reinforcing or Disrupting Gender Affirmation: The Impact of Cancer on Transgender Embodiment and Identity
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 23-01-2023
DOI: 10.1007/S10508-023-02530-9
Abstract: There is a pressing need for greater understanding and focus on cancer survivorship and informal cancer caring of trans people (binary and non-binary), across tumor types, to inform culturally safe trans inclusive cancer information and care. This qualitative study, part of the mixed methods Out with Cancer project, examined experiences of trans embodiment and identity after cancer diagnosis and treatment. We drew on open-ended survey responses from 63 trans cancer survivors and 23 trans cancer carers, as well as interviews and a photo-elicitation activity with a subset of 22 participants (15 cancer survivors, 7 cancer carers). Reflexive thematic analysis identified three themes: Cancer enhances trans embodiment, through experiences of gender euphoria following cancer treatment, and acceleration of decisions about gender affirmation cancer erases or inhibits gender affirmation trans embodiment is invisible or pathologized in cancer care. These findings demonstrate that trans embodiment and identity, as well as the process of gender affirmation, may be disrupted by cancer or informal cancer caring. Conversely, cancer and cancer treatment can positively impact the embodied identity and lives of trans people, despite the anxiety and strain of negotiating medical procedures. However, if healthcare professionals operate within a cis-heteronormative framework and do not understand the meaning of embodied change following cancer treatment for trans in iduals, these positive benefits may not be realized.
Gender differences in the construction and experience of cancer care: The consequences of the gendered positioning of carers
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 26-09-2008
DOI: 10.1080/08870440701596585
Abstract: The experience and construction of caring in 50 informal cancer carers, 35 women and 15 men, was examined using a critical realist approach and a mixed method design. Women reported higher rates of depression, anxiety, unmet needs and burden of care than men. No gender differences were found in time spent care-giving, suggesting that gendered roles are implicated in distress and coping. Semi-structured interviews with 13 carers were used to identify gender differences in caring, analysed using positioning theory. Women described being positioned as all encompassing expert carers, expected to be competent at decision-making, a range of physical caring tasks, and provision of emotional support for the person with cancer. The consequences of this positioning were over-responsibility and self-sacrifice, physical costs and overwhelming emotions, which were self-silenced. In contrast, men carers positioned caring as a competency task which they had mastered, and which provided them with satisfaction, with the emotions of the person with cancer, or their own emotions, being negative aspects of caring. It is concluded that cancer caring is tied to gendered constructions and expectations, with considerable implications for psychological well-being and coping, and for carer support services, which need to take gender issues on board.
‘It’s one of those “It’ll never happen to me” things’: young women’s constructions of smoking and risk
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 18-08-2017
Managing the monstrous feminine: Regulating the reproductive body
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 18-01-2005
Reclaiming Embodiment within Critical Psychology: A Material-Discursive Analysis of the Menopausal Body
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2008
Changes to sexual well-being and intimacy after breast cancer
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 11-2012
Perceived causes and consequences of sexual changes after cancer for women and men: A mixed method study
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-04-2015
Medical (fluoxetine) and psychological (cognitive-behavioural therapy) treatment for premenstrual dysphoric disorder: A study of treatment processes
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2002
DOI: 10.1016/S0022-3999(02)00338-0
Abstract: To investigate (i) the differential changes in premenstrual symptoms, mood, cognitions, and coping strategies during two treatments [cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and fluoxetine] for premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and (ii) the characteristics of those with good vs. poor outcome post treatment and at 1 year follow-up. Premenstrual symptoms, mood (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, HADS), causal attributions, and use of cognitive and behavioural coping strategies were examined during 6 months of both treatments. The two treatment groups were then combined and ided on the basis of good vs. poor outcome posttreatment and at 1 year follow-up. Baseline measures were used to predict posttreatment outcome, and baseline and posttreatment measures were examined when attempting to predict outcome at 1 year follow-up. Both treatments were equally effective at the end of 6 months (prospective daily diary measure). Fluoxetine treatment had a more rapid effect and greater impact upon anxiety symptoms, while CBT was associated with increased use of cognitive and behavioural coping strategies and a shift from a biomedical to a biopsychosocial causal attribution of premenstrual symptoms. Depressed mood at baseline assessment was associated with poorer response to both treatments, and learning active behavioural coping strategies was associated with a good outcome at 1 year follow-up. These results provide evidence of differential treatment effects of fluoxetine and CBT for PMDD and offer information that will enhance clinical decision-making.
Evaluating the efficacy of psycho-social interventions for informal carers of cancer patients: A systematic review of the research literature
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-2009
Transgender Parents: Negotiating Coming Out and Gender Affirmation with Children and Co-Parents.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-02-2022
DOI: 10.1080/00918369.2021.2020542
Abstract: This study investigated how transgender parents negotiate "coming out" and pursuit of gender affirmation (GA) with their children and co-parents. Sixty-six open-ended survey responses and 38 one-on-one interviews conducted with Australian trans parents, aged 24-67 years, were analyzed using thematic analysis. The main themes were: (i) Anticipating their Response: "Coming Out" to co-parents and children (ii) "Having that talk"-Negotiating disclosure of trans identity with co-parents and children and (iii) Negotiating Gender Affirmation alongside Parenting. "Coming out" was experienced as both vital and a point of vulnerability, with GA necessitating communication and negotiation alongside parenting. Many participants reported significant anxiety before "coming out" to co-parents and children. Children's age was an influential factor in reaction to changes in parental gender identity, with younger and adult children reportedly being the most receptive. Results are discussed in terms of the reported benefits of pursuing GA for trans parents.
Challenging the positioning of premenstrual change as PMS: The impact of a psychological intervention on women's self-policing
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 07-03-2008
Bloody Women: A Discourse Analysis of Amenorrhea as a Symptom of Anorexia Nervosa
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 11-1996
Abstract: Amenorhea, the absence of menstruation, is now considered to be a major diagnostic symptom of anorexia nervosa and has been interpreted as `psychobiological' retreat from adult womanhood. However, such interpretations may be overly simplistic. This article draws on poststructuralist theory to examine the ways in which menstruation and amenorrhea are discursively constituted in relation to constructions of femininity. It is based on interviews with 23 women (21 who had been diagnosed as anorexic and two who were self-diagnosed). Discourse analysis of the interviews indicated that `menstruation' was negatively construed as a signifier of `femininity'. However, it signified a very specific `femininity' that was alien, out of control, highly emotional, sexual, vulnerable and dangerous. It is argued that amenorrhea in anorexia may signify a rejection of this particular negative construction of femininity' rather than of adulthood or femininity per se.
Evaluation of the relative efficacy of a couple cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) for Premenstrual Disorders (PMDs), in comparison to one-to-one CBT and a wait list control: A randomized controlled trial
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 18-04-2017
Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder
Publisher: Springer New York
Date: 2014
A systematic review of patient oncofertility support needs in reproductive cancer patients aged 14 to 45 years of age.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-09-2017
DOI: 10.1002/PON.4502
Abstract: Decline in fertility potential brought about by a cancer diagnosis or cancer treatment is one of the biggest impacts to cancer patients' long-term quality of life. As such, the current manuscript aimed to systematically review the literature on oncofertility support needs for cancer patients of a reproductive age (14-45 years of age). A systematic review of the literature was conducted in May 2016 through the searching of electronic databases Medline, EMBASE, PSYCH Info, Web of Science and SCOPUS, alongside the screening of relevant reference lists. An initial search identified 351 potentially relevant studies. The papers were ided into 2 categories papers on patient oncofertility support needs were reviewed for this systematic review, and papers on clinician provision of oncofertility support were reviewed for a separate systematic review. A total of 30 studies were included within the final review. Support needs were categorised as information, service, clinician-patient interactions, psychological, and family. A number of studies indicated that cancer patients place great important on their oncofertility care and have unmet support needs. Patients were satisfied and felt supported when additional care was taken to ensure fertility information and service needs were met. Patients desire for clinicians to support their concerns through the provision of adequate information, access to oncofertility services, taking time to discuss oncofertility treatment and concerns, specialised psychological support, and responsiveness to in idual needs.
“If You Don’t Have a Baby, You Can’t Be in Our Culture”: Migrant and Refugee Women’s Experiences and Constructions of Fertility and Fertility Control
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-04-2018
Health-Related Quality of Life, Psychological Distress, and Sexual Changes Following Prostate Cancer: A Comparison of Gay and Bisexual Men with Heterosexual Men
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 03-2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.JSXM.2015.12.026
Abstract: Decrements in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and sexual difficulties are a recognized consequence of prostate cancer (PCa) treatment. However little is known about the experience of gay and bisexual (GB) men. HRQOL and psychosexual predictors of HRQOL were examined in GB and heterosexual men with PCa to inform targeted health information and support. One hundred twenty-four GB and 225 heterosexual men with PCa completed a range of validated psychosexual instruments. Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – Prostate (FACT-P) was used to measure HRQOL, with validated psychosexual measures, and demographic and treatment variables used as predictors. GB men were significantly younger (64.25 years) than heterosexual men (71.54 years), less likely to be in an ongoing relationship, and more likely to have casual sexual partners. Compared with age-matched population norms, participants in both groups reported significantly lower sexual functioning and HRQOL, increased psychological distress, disruptions to dyadic sexual communication, and lower masculine self-esteem, sexual confidence, and sexual intimacy. In comparison with heterosexual men, GB men reported significantly lower HRQOL (P = .046), masculine self-esteem (P & .001), and satisfaction with treatment (P = .013) higher psychological distress (P = .005), cancer related distress (P & .001) and ejaculatory concern (P & .001) and higher sexual functioning (P & .001) and sexual confidence (P = .001). In regression analysis, psychological distress, cancer-related distress, masculine self-esteem, and satisfaction with treatment were predictors of HRQOL for GB men (R2Adj = .804) psychological distress and sexual confidence were predictors for heterosexual men (R2Adj = .690). These findings confirm differences between GB and heterosexual men in the impact of PCa on HRQOL across a range of domains, suggesting there is a need for GB targeted PCa information and support, to address the concerns of this “hidden population” in PCa care.
“Extreme emotions” - the impact of reproductive life events for women living with bipolar disorder
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 22-03-2021
DOI: 10.1080/07399332.2021.1884683
Abstract: Little is known about how women with bipolar disorder construct and experience reproductive life events across the lifespan. We analyzed qualitative data from 29 semi-structured interviews with women aged 22-63 years (reproductive, menopause and post-menopause phases) using thematic analysis through a social constructionist framework. Themes of "Losing a sense of self-agency and self-worth" contained accounts of feeling out of control because of both bipolar disorder and reproductive life events. "Building a sense of personal autonomy and positive self-image" included accounts of acceptance and management of mood change over time, particularly for women in menopause and post-menopause life phases.
How do subjectively-constructed meanings ascribed to anti-HIV treatments affect treatment-adherent practice?
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 04-2008
Abstract: Anti-HIV treatment-adherent practice is a significant issue in HIV medical discourses on effective disease treatment and management. Findings from research studies into treatment (non)adherence have positioned the act as a medical issue that could be remedied by behavioral strategies. The present study, conducted in Sydney, Australia, aims to examine treatment-(non)adherent practice as a subjective expression of meanings ascribed to treatments by employing a narrative analytical approach informed by poststructuralist epistemology. The findings indicate that people with HIV negotiate and position treatments in particular ways that lead to multiple and varied understanding of treatments. The ways treatments are positioned in their everyday lives suggest that meanings ascribed to treatments impact on the way in iduals negotiate demands embedded in the medically-constructed practice of adherence.
A randomized trial of a minimal intervention for sexual concerns after cancer: A comparison of self-help and professionally delivered modalities
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-09-2015
Family and couples therapy with gay and lesbian clients: acknowledging the forgotten minority
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 1991
Processes of Appraisal and Coping in the Development and Maintenance of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2002
DOI: 10.1002/CASP.685
Counselling in action couples therapy with gay clients: Issues facing counsellors
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 1990
Critical Discourse/Discourse Analysis
Publisher: Springer Singapore
Date: 15-12-2017
Women's Sexuality after Cancer: A Qualitative Analysis of Sexual Changes and Renegotiation
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 07-2014
10. Managing the Monstrous Feminine: The Role of Premenstrual Syndrome in the Subjectification of Women
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Date: 31-01-2008
Positive and negative interactions with health professionals: A qualitative investigation of the experiences of informal cancer carers
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 11-2010
Performance and state changes during the menstrual cycle, conceptualised within a broad band testing framework
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 1991
DOI: 10.1016/0277-9536(91)90286-L
Abstract: Using a broad band testing framework, indices of performance and state were examined in 10 women during one menstrual cycle, over six separate testing sessions. Indices of state were heart rate, the Cruickshank self-report questionnaire and time to basal skin potential. Results showed that self reported arousal was increased premenstrually. There was dissociation between indices of state, supporting the contention that simple models of arousal are inadequate. Performance tests of cognitive processing, tracking skill, reaction time and vigilance, dual task, speed and accuracy, and short term memory capacity showed only one significant result: semantic processing on a word matching task improved premenstrually. There was no significant relationship between state and performance: with high in idual differences found between subjects. It was concluded that menstruation was not acting as a stressor for these subjects, and that there was no evidence for a decrement in performance in the menstrual or premenstrual phases of the cycle. Results are discussed in terms of coping with perceived increase in demand premenstrually, resulting in utilisation of compensatory effort and it is suggested that future work should examine womens ability to cope with perceived increase in demand and attribution of arousal during the menstrual cycle. The implications of the findings in terms of the critique of PMS as a valid construct are discussed, and it is concluded that future work should be carried out within an integrated multi-variate framework.
‘Not that I want to be thought of as a hero’: Narrative analysis of performative masculinities and the experience of informal cancer caring
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 19-08-2014
DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2014.948876
Abstract: Providing care to a partner with cancer can have a significant impact on a carer's well-being and experience of subjectivity. However, there is little research examining how men experience the role of cancer carer, and in particular, how they negotiate constructions of gender in this role. This paper draws on a single case study of a heterosexual man caring for his partner, and conducts a narrative analysis of the construction and performance of masculine subjectivity. It was found that rather than inhabiting a stable masculinity, this carer engaged in a complex negotiation of masculinities, enacting a caring role associated with victimisation, rejection, distress and powerlessness, as well as strength and heroic resilience. We highlight the importance of the relationship context to the experience of caring, and suggest that research into the gendered experience of cancer care needs to acknowledge the active negotiation of masculinities and caring. We also discuss the utility of case study research in analyses of masculinity and cancer care, and in health psychology more broadly.
A complex negotiation: Women's experiences of naming and not naming premenstrual distress in couple relationships
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 30-08-2008
DOI: 10.1080/03630240802134134
Abstract: Recent research has demonstrated the importance of family relationships in women's experience of premenstrual changes, their construction of these changes as "PMS." However, the discursive process by which women take up the subject position of "PMS" sufferer through the explicit naming of "PMS" to an intimate partner has received little research attention. Drawing on 60 in idual interviews with Australian women, conducted between 2004 and 2006, we examined accounts of naming "PMS" in intimate relationships, women's explanations for naming or not naming, their experiences of their partner naming them as premenstrual. The analysis process identified an overarching theme of naming "PMS," which was made up of three themes: naming to explain "PMS" becoming the only explanation for distress "PMS" as not a legitimate explanation for distress. The findings suggest that clinicians need to be aware of women's complex, often ambivalent, experiences of naming "PMS" within their relationships, when working with women, couples, seeking treatment or support for premenstrual distress.
“Is it menopause or bipolar?”: a qualitative study of the experience of menopause for women with bipolar disorder
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-11-2017
Feminist Approaches to Qualitative Health Research
Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
Date: 1999
“I feel fat and ugly and hate myself”: Self-objectification through negative constructions of premenstrual embodiment
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 03-2020
Abstract: The body is central to women’s construction of premenstrual change as premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and to experiences of premenstrual distress. Embodied change, such as bloating or breast tenderness, can act as a marker of PMS. Within biomedical models, PMS is located within the body. Women’s dissatisfaction with their bodies is also reported to be higher in the premenstrual phase of the cycle. What is absent from this analysis is the meaning and experience of embodied change, in the context of broader constructions of femininity and embodiment. In this paper, we adopt a feminist material-discursive theoretical framework to examine the role of premenstrual embodiment in women’s premenstrual distress, drawing on open-ended survey responses and interviews with 83 women who self-diagnose as “PMS sufferers”. We theorize premenstrual body hatred as subjectification, wherein women take up cultural discourse associated with idealized femininity and the stigmatization of the fat body, resulting in self-objectification, distress and dehumanization. However, women can resist negative cultural constructions of premenstrual embodiment. We describe the impact of psychological therapy which increases awareness of emotional and embodied change, resulting in greater acceptance of the premenstrual body and self-care, serving to reduce premenstrual distress and self-objectification.
The horror of this living decay: Women's negotiation and resistance of medical discourses around menopause and midlife
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2008
Discourse Analysis
Publisher: Macmillan Education UK
Date: 2015
PMS as a process of negotiation: Women's experience and management of premenstrual distress
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 08-2013
DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2013.765004
Abstract: The absence of reports of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) in contexts such as China, Hong Kong, and India has led to the conclusion that PMS is a culture-bound syndrome. This qualitative study examines whether is it possible for women in a Western cultural context to negotiate negative premenstrual change in order to effectively avoid or reduce premenstrual distress. Sixty women who self-defined as a 'PMS sufferer' took part in one-to-one interviews, which were analysed using theoretical thematic analysis from a material-discursive-intrapsychic (MDI) perspective. Three major themes were consistently identified across relationship type and context, reflecting women's strategies of premenstrual self-regulation and coping: 'Self-monitoring and awareness: recognition and acceptance of premenstrual change' 'Coping through self-regulation of premenstrual distress', including: 'avoidance of stress and conflict', 'escaping relational demands and responsibilities', and 'care of the self' and 'Coping as an inter-subjective experience'. These findings challenge the view of PMS as a fixed unitary syndrome, suggesting that premenstrual change is an ongoing process of negotiation, in which women are agentic subjects, not passive 'PMS sufferers'. This has implications for therapists working with women reporting moderate-severe PMS, suggesting that the reframing of 'symptoms' as normal change, behavioural coping strategies, and self-monitoring, can effectively reduce premenstrual distress.
Mapping the abject: Women's embodied experiences of premenstrual body dissatisfaction through body-mapping
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 14-02-2022
DOI: 10.1177/09593535211069290
Abstract: Women's body shame and body dissatisfaction increase in the premenstrual phase of the cycle, associated with premenstrual distress. However, the meaning and consequences of premenstrual body dissatisfaction remain underexplored. The aim of this study was to explore how women who report premenstrual body dissatisfaction construct and experience their bodies, using qualitative arts-based methods. Four hundred and sixty women completed online open-ended survey questions and 16 women took part in body-mapping and an interview. Thematic analysis identified three major themes: construction of the premenstrual body as abject, manifested by positioning of the body and self as fat, leaking and dirty self-policing and self-regulation through increased scrutinising and concealment of the premenstrual body and resistance of cultural constructions of idealised femininity. These findings emphasise the need to acknowledge changes in body dissatisfaction across the menstrual cycle, and the implication for women's feelings about the self. Internalisation of negative constructions of the female body plays a role in women's experience of premenstrual change and distress. There is a need for further research to examine the role of body management behaviours in premenstrual body dissatisfaction and distress.
Information needs associated with changes to sexual well-being after breast cancer
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-04-2013
DOI: 10.1111/J.1365-2648.2012.06010.X
Abstract: This article is the report of a study of sexual information needs, experiences of obtaining such information, and patient communication about sexuality with health professionals, after breast cancer. Changes to sexuality after breast cancer can significantly affect quality of life. However, information needs associated with such changes are little understood, resulting in the absence of a knowledge base to guide information provision aimed at preventing or ameliorating distress. This study employs a mixed method analysis, integrating qualitative and quantitative responses to an online survey. Participants were 1965 in iduals with breast cancer (98·8% female) drawn from the membership of a national Australian breast cancer organization. The data were collected over 2 weeks in December 2010. Eighty-five per cent of participants reported changes to sexual well-being after breast cancer, with 68% wanting information on such changes, primarily in a written form. Information on physical changes, sexual response, relationship issues, psychological consequences, and body image or identity, were rated as very important by a substantial proportion of participants. Only 41% had obtained such information however, 65% had spoken about sexual changes, to partner (76%), G.P. (49%), friend/relative (47%), oncologist (39%), or breast-care nurse (21%). Ratings of satisfaction with the discussion were highest for breast-care nurses (60%) and lowest for oncologists (34%). These findings provide clinicians and cancer organizations with specific suggestions about sexual information needs after breast cancer and the modalities which are preferred, to prevent and ameliorate distress.
Renegotiating sexuality and intimacy in the context of cancer: The experiences of carers
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-12-2010
DOI: 10.1007/S10508-008-9416-Z
Abstract: There is a growing body of evidence to show that cancer can result in dramatic changes in sexuality, sexual functioning, and intimate couple relationships, with significant implications for both quality of life and psychological well-being. However, the experiences of intimate partners are often neglected in research on sexuality and intimacy in the context of cancer. This study used a material-discursive framework and a qualitative methodology to investigate the ways in which intimacy and sexuality are renegotiated in the context of cancer, and what factors are associated with successful or unsuccessful renegotiation, from the perspective of partners caring for a person with cancer. Twenty participants were interviewed, across a range of cancer types, stages, and age groups. Eleven participants reported that they were unable to negotiate other ways of being sexually intimate when penetrative sexual intercourse was no longer physiologically possible or desirable. Nine were able to renegotiate sexual intimacy in the context of cancer to include practices previously positioned as secondary to "real sex," such as mutual masturbation, self masturbation, manual stimulation, oral sex, massage, the use of vibrators, kissing, and hugging. Grounded theory analysis identified two themes associated with renegotiation: "Alternative" sexual practices-redefining sexual intimacy, and couple communication and relationship context. Difficulties in renegotiation were associated with adherence to the coital imperative, sexual relationship or communication problems which existed prior to cancer, and the positioning of the person with cancer as a child or an asexual sick patient rather than a sexual partner. The implications for health professional intervention to ameliorate changes to sexuality in the context of cancer are discussed.
The impact of cancer‐related fertility concerns on current and future couple relationships: People with cancer and partner perspectives
Publisher: Hindawi Limited
Date: 20-10-2021
DOI: 10.1111/ECC.13348
If sex hurts, am i still a woman? The subjective experience of vulvodynia in hetero-sexual women
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-09-2008
DOI: 10.1007/S10508-007-9204-1
Abstract: Vulvodynia has recently been recognized as a significant health problem among women, with a considerable proportion experiencing psychological distress and sexual dysfunction for many years. This study used a material-discursive framework and a qualitative methodology to investigate women's subjective experience of vulvodynia within the context of a hetero-sexual relationship, and their negotiation of coitus, commonly associated with vulvar pain. Seven women, who had experienced vulvodynia between 2 and 10 years, took part in in-depth interviews. Thematic decomposition drawing on a Foucauldian framework for interpretation identified that six of the seven women took up subject positions of "inadequate woman" and "inadequate partner," positioning themselves as failures for experiencing pain during coitus, which they interpreted as affecting their ability to satisfy their partners sexually, resulting in feelings of shame, guilt, and a decreased desire for sexual contact. This was interpreted in relation to dominant discourses of femininity and hetero-sexuality, which conflate a woman's sexuality with her need to be romantically attached to a man, position men as having a driven need for sex, and uphold coitus as the organizing feature of hetero-sex. Only one woman positioned herself as an "adequate woman artner," associated with having renegotiated the coital imperative and the male sex drive discourse within her relationship. These positions, along with women's agentic attempts to resist them, were discussed in relation to their impact on hetero-sexual women's negotiation of vulvodynia. Implications for future research and vulvodynia treatment regimes are also raised.
Clinical Psychology and Sexual Equality: A Contradiction in Terms?
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 02-1991
‘It’s Always About the Eating Disorder’: Finding the Person Through Recovery-Oriented Practice for Bulimia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-10-2019
DOI: 10.1007/S11013-019-09654-5
Abstract: Bulimia is an eating disorder characterised primarily by binging and 'inappropriate' compensatory behaviours, such as purging or excessive exercise. Many in iduals with bulimia experience chronic disordered eating, dissatisfaction with treatment, and difficulty establishing a 'new life'. Recovery-oriented practice, which focuses holistically on the person and their own aspirations for treatment, has recently been advocated in the treatment of eating disorders in Australia and other countries. However, questions have been raised about how this practice might be integrated into existing treatment approaches. Taking a social constructionist approach and using a case study of one woman's account, together with literature on patients' treatment experiences, we examined recovery from bulimia. Three themes were identified: bulimia was constructed as 'consuming one's life', an experience protracted through treatment ('treatment and becoming the eating disorder'), which makes life 'beyond treatment and attempting to live without bulimia' challenging. Based on this analysis, we argue that recovery-oriented practice, while seemingly commensurate with patients' needs, may be challenged by long-standing meanings of mental illness and experience of bulimia specifically.
Embodying sexual subjectivity after cancer: A qualitative study of people with cancer and intimate partners
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 06-2013
DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2012.737466
Abstract: Research has increasingly recognised the profound impact that cancer can have upon embodied subjectivity. However, there has been little acknowledgement of the centrality of sexuality to subjectivity, and marginalisation of the experiences of intimate partners of people with cancer. This Australian qualitative study explores the post-cancer experiences of embodied sexual subjectivity for 44 people with cancer (23 women and 21 men) and 35 partners of people with cancer (18 women and 17 men) across a range of cancer types and stages. Semi-structured interviews were analysed with theoretical thematic analysis, guided by a post-structuralist approach to sexual subjectivity as a dynamic process of becoming that can change over time, and by Williams' [(1996). The vicissitudes of embodiment across the chronic illness trajectory. Body and Society, 2, 23-47] framework on post-illness embodiment. Participants took up the following post-cancer subject positions: 'dys-embodied sexual subjectivity' - characterised by bodily betrayal, sexual loss, lack of acceptance, depression, and anxiety 're-embodied sexual subjectivity'--characterised by greater sexual confidence, acceptance, the exploration of non-coital sexual practices and increased relational closeness and 'oscillating sexual subjectivity'--involving a shift between states of sexual dys-embodiment and sexual re-embodiment. The findings point to the importance of focusing on the sexual health of people with cancer and partners across the cancer trajectory.
Reproductive Rhetoric and the Blaming of the Body
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK
Date: 1992
Systematic review of fertility‐related psychological distress in cancer patients: Informing on an improved model of care
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-11-2019
DOI: 10.1002/PON.4927
Abstract: Cancer patients experience reproductive concerns from diagnosis through to survivorship. However, research has yet to investigate the degree of fertility-related psychological distress at different treatment time points: diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. Currently, cancer patients are offered fertility counselling at the time of diagnosis, to assist fertility preservation decision making. A systematic review of the short-term and long-term psychological impact of infertility in cancer patients would inform on an improved, longitudinal model of psychological care. A systematic review of the literature was conducted in January 2018 utilising electronic databases Medline, EMBASE, PSYCH Info, Web of Science, and SCOPUS. An initial search identified 708 potentially relevant studies. Literature was assessed that reported on fertility-related psychological distress experienced by male and female cancer patients of reproductive age (<45 years) across oncology treatment time points. A total of 47 papers were included within the final review. Fertility-related psychological distress persists from diagnosis through to survivorship, with cancer patients reporting a range of negative emotional experiences brought about by threatened infertility. In survivorship, reproductive concerns, unfulfilled desire for a child, nulliparous status, and early menopause were linked to higher rates of mental health disorders and psychological distress. Fertility-related psychological distress is prevalent and persistent in cancer patients and survivors. As such, patients and survivors would greatly benefit from fertility-related psychological support implemented into standard practice from diagnosis through to survivorship. A revised model of care is proposed.
Interactions between stress and performance during the menstrual cycle in relation to the premenstrual syndrome
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 04-1992
Premenstrual syndrome
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date: 2014
Sexual Rehabilitation After Prostate Cancer Through Assistive Aids: A Comparison of Gay/Bisexual and Heterosexual Men
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 18-06-2018
A woman-centred psychological intervention for premenstrual symptoms, drawing on cognitive-behavioural and narrative therapy
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2002
DOI: 10.1002/CPP.340
PMS as a Gendered Illness Linked to the Construction and Relational Experience of Hetero-Femininity
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-04-2013
Are we medicalizing women's misery? a critical review of women's higher rates of reported depression
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 02-2010
Abstract: Epidemiological research consistently reports that women experience higher rates of depression than men. Competing biomedical, psychological and sociocultural models adopt a realist epistemology and a discourse of medical naturalism to position depression as a naturally occurring pathology within the woman, caused by biology, cognitions or life stress. Feminist critics argue that this medicalizes women’s misery, legitimizes expert intervention, and negates the political, economic and discursive aspects of experience. However, the alternative model of social constructionism may appear to dismiss the ‘real’ of women’s distress, and deny its material and intrapsychic concomitants, as well as negate relevant research findings. A critical review of sociocultural and psychological research on women’s depression is conducted. It is argued that a critical-realist epistemology allows us to acknowledge the material-discursive-intrapsychic concomitants of experiences constructed as depression, without privileging one level of analysis above the other, in order to understand women’s higher rates of reported depression.
A qualitative analysis of reasons for leaving, or not attending, a cancer support group
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 15-05-2008
DOI: 10.1080/00981380801970673
Abstract: Factors that influence participation and long-term retention in cancer support groups were examined, through a study of 87 in iduals who had dropped out of a cancer support group, and 26 in iduals who had never attended such groups, using a combination of interviews and open-ended questionnaire responses. Support group attrition or non-attendance was positioned as resulting from both in idual and group factors. In idual factors included resisting or leaving behind a cancer patient identity, presence of existing support, practical issues, and styles of coping. Group factors included mismatches between the group and the in idual, lack of knowledge or nonreferral to groups, and problems within in idual groups. These disparate factors underlying support group non-attendance need to be taken into consideration when planning support services, when developing programs of education, or when referrals to cancer support groups are made.
Cognitive behavioural couples therapy with gay men referred for counselling in an AIDS setting: A pilot study
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 1990
DOI: 10.1080/09540129008257712
Abstract: Counselling and psychological therapy is now an established part of health care in most AIDS settings, yet intervention has thus far tended to focus on the in idual. It is argued that there is a need for greater development of therapy for couples in the AIDS field, based on the results of a pilot study of cognitive-behavioural couples therapy with 10 couples referred to a clinical psychologist working in an AIDS setting. Results suggest that satisfaction with the relationship significantly improved over the course of therapy, and the problem for which the clients were initially referred were resolved. One in idual case report of a couple is presented, in order to illustrate the method of therapy used. The limitations in this pilot study, in addition to general problems in carrying out research in this area, which make generalisations from the data difficult, are discussed. It is concluded that there is preliminary evidence to illustrate the efficacy of cognitive-behavioural couples therapy for gay couples in an AIDS setting, and that counselling interventions should not solely focus on the in idual.
What is the ideal support group? Views of Australian people with cancer and their carers
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2007
DOI: 10.1002/PON.1172
Abstract: To explore views on the ideal structure and process of support groups for cancer patients. From 184 cancer support groups identified in NSW, Australia, 50 were randomly selected within strata of five variations in group structure: homogenous versus heterogenous participants urban versus rural community versus hospital setting, leader with cancer experience or not and with professional training or not. Four hundred and seventy-six group members completed a questionnaire. Participants valued being with others like them, gaining information about cancer and having an effective leader. Groups were seen to be currently failing people from culturally and linguistically erse backgrounds, and links with oncology health professionals were inadequate. Few clear preferences for structure were expressed, except for the non-exclusion of those with a poor prognosis. Patients tended to prefer the structure of their own group, but patients longer since diagnosis, those with better informal support and carers preferred to meet in the community setting, while men with prostate cancer preferred a medical setting. Some suggestions for group structure and process can be made on the basis of these findings however, in idual variation suggests that a needs analysis should be made by in idual groups.
Gender matters: Differences in depression between women and men
Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
Date: 2011
Restraint and perception of body weight among british adults
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 10-1994
DOI: 10.1080/00224545.1994.9922991
Abstract: A s le of 533 adults (268 women and 265 men) representative of the general population of Great Britain were interviewed so that the extent and effects of restraint, using the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ Van Strien, Frijters, Bergers, & Defares, 1986) and the extent of overestimation of body weight could be examined. High-restraint subjects reported more guilt about food and eating and a greater likelihood of overeating in reaction to dysphoric mood, and they were more apt to overestimate their body size. Women reported significantly higher restraint, more guilt after eating in various types of social situations, and more overeating in reaction to dysphoric mood. Higher social class was associated with reports of guilt about a greater number of foods and with reports of more overeating when under stress or tired. Age was positively associated with guilt and negatively associated with overeating in reaction to being under stress, tired, or depressed.
Women’s Constructions of Childhood Trauma and Anorexia Nervosa: a Qualitative Meta-Synthesis
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-06-2018
Uncontrollable behavior or mental illness? Exploring constructions of bulimia using Q methodology
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-07-2014
Gender issues and women’s health
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date: 2014
The Medical Body: Women's Experiences of Sexual Embodiment Across the Cancer Illness Trajectory
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-01-2017
Erratum to a complex negotiation: Women's experiences of naming and not naming premenstrual distress in couple relationships (Women & Health, (2008) 47, 3 (57-77))
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 09-06-2009
Premenstrual Syndrome and Self-policing: Ruptures in Self-Silencing Leading to Increased Self-Surveillance and Blaming of the Body
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-2004
Need for information, honesty and respect: patient perspectives on health care professionals communication about cancer and fertility
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-01-2018
The transgender parent: Experiences and constructions of pregnancy and parenthood for transgender men in Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-01-2018
Gender issues in clinical psychology
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Date: 1961
Beyond this mortal coil: Femininity, death and discursive constructions of the anorexic body
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 1997
DOI: 10.1080/713685852
Talking but not always understanding: couple communication about infertility concerns after cancer
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-01-2021
DOI: 10.1186/S12889-021-10188-Y
Abstract: Cancer related infertility can have an impact on couple relationships, with evidence that couple communication facilitates coping. However, little is known about the ways in which couples communicate about cancer-related fertility concerns. The aim of this article is to examine couple communication about fertility concerns in the context of cancer, and the perceived quality of such communication from the perspective of cancer survivors and their partners. Eight-hundred and seventy-eight cancer survivors (693 women, 185 men) and 144 partners (82 women, 62 men), across a range of tumour types and age groups, completed a survey which examined cancer related fertility concerns. Seventy-eight survivors (61 women and 17 men), and 26 partners (13 women and 13 men), participated in semi-structured interviews, in order to examine the subjective experience of fertility concerns in-depth. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the interviews and open ended survey questions. Valid percentages for single items from the relationships subscale of the Fertility Preservation Inventory (FPI) related to qualitative themes, identified frequency of responses. The major theme was ‘talking but not always understanding”. 89.6% of cancer survivors and partners (95.1%) reported working well together handling fertility questions (FPI), but agreed that communication could be improved (65.9% survivors 65% partners). Open and honest couple communication was associated with feelings of support, understanding and relationship growth, including perception of partner comfort (79.2% survivors, 81.6% partners). However, 32% survivors and 31.1% partners concealed fertility concerns to avoid upsetting their partner, or reported that their partner doesn’t understand their fertility concerns (survivors 25.5%, partners 14.6%), with 14.1% of cancer survivors and 19.4% partners reporting fear of relationship breakdown because of fertility issues. Fear of rejection when forming new relationships, and concerns about how to talk to future partners, was reported by non-partnered in iduals. Health-care professionals should include partners of cancer survivors in fertility discussions. Couple interventions developed in general psycho-oncology should be extended to the domain of fertility, in order to facilitate effective couple communication. Communication in future relationships needs to be addressed for single people and adolescents and young adults (AYAs) who have fertility concerns.
The effect of acupuncture on post-cancer fatigue and well-being for women recovering from breast cancer: A pilot randomised controlled trial
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 03-2013
DOI: 10.1136/ACUPMED-2012-010228
Abstract: To determine the feasibility and acceptability of acupuncture in managing fatigue and well-being in breast cancer survivors. A randomised controlled trial compared acupuncture was with sham acupuncture and wait list controls was performed in Sydney, Australia. A total of 30 women with fatigue following breast cancer treatment participated in the trial. Women received six sessions of acupuncture over 8 weeks. Outcomes related to an assessment of interest to participate in the trial and identification of appropriate recruitment strategies, appropriateness of eligibility criteria and compliance with treatment attendance. Clinical outcomes assessed fatigue and well-being. In-depth interviews were undertaken with seven women, who described their experience of acupuncture. Our study demonstrated feasibility with appropriate trial entry criteria, good acceptability and treatment compliance with the study interventions, and with the completion of outcome forms. There was a significant reduction in fatigue for women receiving acupuncture compared with control after 2 weeks mean difference (MD) 5.3, 95% CI 4.5 to 6.2, p=0.05, and a significant improvement in well-being at 6 weeks for acupuncture compared with the sham and wait list control, MD 2.7, 95% CI 2.1 to 3.2, p=0.006. Women described their experience of acupuncture positively, and interview data may also offer explanations for the improved outcomes of well-being, with women reporting an improvement in sleep, mood and relaxation. Fatigue is a common symptom experienced by people recovering from treatment, and an appropriately powered trial to evaluate the effect of acupuncture is needed. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, www.anzctr.org.au ACTRN12610000720011.
Sex as commodity: Single and partnered men's subjectification as heterosexual men
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 04-09-2010
Abstract: This article draws on a discursive analysis of in idual and group interviews with forty-five heterosexual men to examine how men take up and resist discourses of sexuality and gender to (re)produce a recognizable heterosexual subjectivity. It explores the commodification of sex in men’s accounts and the various practices men described undertaking to obtain sex. The article argues that the contexts in which men (re)produce sexual subjectivity have significant implications for how they negotiate the discursive positions available to them. Three themes are presented to demonstrate the different discursive practices undertaken by single and partnered men. Finally, the article explores the difficulties, dilemmas, and ambivalences produced by the project of subjection and how in idual men resolve them.
Talking about sex after cancer: A discourse analytic study of health care professional accounts of sexual communication with patients
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-2013
DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2013.811242
Abstract: There is consistent evidence that health care professionals (hcps) are not addressing the sexual information and support needs of people with cancer. Thirty-eight Australian hcps across a range of professions working in cancer care were interviewed, to examine constructions of sexuality post-cancer, the subject positions adopted in relation to sexual communication, and the ways in which discourses and subject positions shape information provision and communication about sexuality. Participants constructed sexual changes post-cancer in physical, psychological and relational terms, and positioned such changes as having the potential to significantly impact on patient and partner well-being. This was associated with widespread adoption of a discourse of psychosocial support, which legitimated discussion of sexual changes within a clinical consultation, to alleviate distress, dispel myths and facilitate renegotiation of sexual practices. However, this did not necessarily translate into patient-centred practice outcomes, with the majority of participants positioning personal, patient-centred and situational factors as barriers to the discussion of sex within many clinical consultations. This included: absence of knowledge, confidence and comfort positioning sex as irrelevant or inappropriate for some people and limitations of the clinical context. In contrast, those who did routinely discuss sexuality adopted a subject position of agency, responsibility and confidence.
Renegotiating sex and intimacy after cancer: Resisting the coital imperative
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 11-2013
Evaluating the relative efficacy of a self-help and minimal psycho-educational intervention for moderate premenstrual distress conducted from a critical realist standpoint
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 11-2006
Mastery, Isolation, or Acceptance: Gay and Bisexual Men’s Construction of Aging in the Context of Sexual Embodiment After Prostate Cancer
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-08-2016
DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2016.1211600
Abstract: Age is the predominant risk factor for developing prostate cancer, leading to its description as an "older man's disease." Changed sexual embodiment is a concern for men who develop prostate cancer, often compounding experiences of age-related sexual decline. Although research has examined heterosexual men's experiences of aging in the context of sexual embodiment after prostate cancer, gay and bisexual men have received little attention. This qualitative study used a material-discursive analysis, drawing on positioning theory and intersectionality, to explore constructions of aging following prostate cancer in 46 gay or bisexual men. Thematic decomposition of one-to-one interviews identified three subject positions: "mastering youth," involving maintaining an active sex life through biomedical interventions, accessing commercial sex venues, or having sex with younger men "the lonely old recluse," involving self-positioning as prematurely aged and withdrawal from a gay sexual scene and "accepting embodied aging," involving the incorporation of changed sexual function into intimate relationships and finding pleasure through nonsexual activities. These subject positions are conceptualized as the product of intersecting masculine and gay identities, interpreted in relation to broader cultural discourses of "new aging" and "sexual health," in which sexual activity is conceptualized as a lifelong goal.
Negotiating desire and sexual subjectivity: Narratives of young lesbian avengers
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 05-2000
DOI: 10.1177/136346000003002005
Abstract: This article examines the negotiation and interpretation of first experiences of sexual desire in a group of eight young women who identify as Lesbian Avengers, using in-depth narrative interviews. Accounts of desire and its relationship to sexual subjectivity were organized under four broad themes: The significance of a kiss: Is this desire? describes the difficulty in categorizing first experiences of desire towards another woman as sexual My desire makes me a dyke examines accounts of desire leading to sudden self-identification as a lesbian or, conversely, to the repression of desire and avoidance of lesbian identity Lesbian desire is dangerous considers the negative representation of lesbian desire as perverse, sex being seen as central to lesbian identity, and the experience of being subjected to condemnation and abuse Dealing with dangerous desire looks at the main strategies adopted in response to the above: the positioning of self as outsider, but strong because of it, embracing a transformation of self through becoming lesbian or remaining in the closet.
Refugee and migrant women's engagement with sexual and reproductive health care in Australia: A socio-ecological analysis of health care professional perspectives
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 20-07-2017
Accounts of disruptions to sexuality following cancer: The perspective of informal carers who are partners of a person with cancer
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 20-08-2009
Abstract: There is a growing body of research showing that cancer impacts upon the sexuality of informal carers in a couple relationship with a person with cancer. However, this research is primarily focused on partners of a person with gynaecological or breast cancer, within a framework where the physiological effects of cancer on sexual performance are the focus. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 informal carers in a couple relationship with a person with cancer, across a range of cancer types. The aim was to explore accounts of changes to sexuality and intimacy post-cancer, in the context of discursive constructions of sexuality and the caring role. Our findings show that partners’ sexual experiences were shaped by absence of desire in the person with cancer the stress and exhaustion associated with caring tasks the repositioning of the person with cancer as childlike or as an asexual ‘sick patient’ and the belief that there were expectations about ‘acceptable’ sexual conduct in the context of cancer caring. Carers accepted the diminishment of their sexual relationship, but expressed feelings of disappointment, anger and sadness about this loss. It is concluded that it is vital that support services are developed, so that couples may develop new sexual strategies, and cope more effectively with potential disruptions to their sexual and intimate relationship.
Evaluating Maybe Later Baby, a Fertility Information Resource for Adolescents and Young Adults Diagnosed with Cancer: A Randomized, Controlled Pilot Study
Publisher: Mary Ann Liebert Inc
Date: 02-2023
The future of sex and marital therapy in the face of widespread criticism: Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 10-1990
Constructions and experiences of sexual health among young, heterosexual, unmarried Muslim women immigrants in Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-10-2014
DOI: 10.1080/13691058.2013.833651
Abstract: Minority ethnic immigrant women are frequently vulnerable to poor sexual health outcomes, due to poor use of sexual health services, lack of knowledge and social stigma associated with the discussion of sexuality. This paper explores the sexual health accounts provided by a group of young, unmarried heterosexual Muslim women immigrants residing and studying in Sydney, an under-researched group in the Australian context. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted, focusing on sex before marriage, spouse selection and contraceptive use. Feminist discourse analysis identified 'purity versus corruption' as the primary construction of women's sexuality, where women positioned their sexual behaviour as that of purity and uninvolvement or corruption through unwedded participation. The subthemes 'maintaining ignorance and naivety', 'remaining virginal', 'sex segregation' and 'the fallen woman' capture women's personal sexuality-related experiences and values within the context of their religious and cultural communities. Additional research with this community is needed to examine the effects of negative social constructions of sex on young sexually active Muslim women, as well as further research on young women's sexual health within immigrant communities.
Gender differences in cancer carer psychological distress: An analysis of moderators and mediators
Publisher: Hindawi Limited
Date: 04-05-2011
DOI: 10.1111/J.1365-2354.2011.01257.X
Abstract: Women cancer carers report higher rates of distress than men however, there is little understanding of the mechanisms underlying these gender differences. The aim of this study was to examine the potential mediating roles of burden of care, unmet needs, self-silencing, self-efficacy and optimism, and the potential moderating influence of social support, cancer stage, patient gender, time spent caring and other responsibilities, on gender differences in carer distress. Of 329 informal cancer carers (245 women, 119 men), women reported significantly more anxiety, burden of care and unmet needs than men. In the mediation analysis, gender differences in anxiety were fully explained by both the independent contribution and combination of: Disrupted Schedule, Health Problems and Emotional and Spiritual Unmet Needs. Women cared for both men and women patients, across a broad range of relationships, whereas men predominantly cared for their female partner. There was no gender difference in number of hours spent caring or in companionship, amount of support received, and additional responsibilities for children, housework or studies, and none of these factors acted as moderators of gender differences in anxiety. It is concluded that women's gendered role is associated with unmet needs and burden of care, resulting in greater anxiety.
Sexing the Phallocentric Pages of Psychology: Repopulation is Not Enough
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 08-1994
Abstract: Whilst the case for the repopulation of psychology made by Billig is supported in principle, it is argued that repopulation without serious reassessment of the underlying phallocentric bias in psychology is not enough. It may even act to reinforce reactionary tendencies within the discipline through coating them in a veneer of liberalism. Following critiques of the inherent sexism in both science and psychology, feminists have already moved to repopulate the discipline, taking a more radical step than is suggested by Billig's `Median Case Reconstruction'. Critiques of objectivity and neutrality, increased reflexivity, and acknowledgements of subjectivity are commonplace in feminist psychology. Yet as feminist critiques and genuine repopulation threaten the very foundations of psychology, it is not surprising that they are not readily accepted by the academic gatekeepers. It is concluded that only a paradigm shift will allow Billig's arguments to be taken seriously in mainstream psychology, and a feminist analysis suggests that this is a long way off.
Heterocentric practices in health research and health care: Implications for mental health and subjectivity of LGBTQ individuals
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 11-2009
Purity, Privacy and Procreation: Constructions and Experiences of Sexual and Reproductive Health in Assyrian and Karen Women Living in Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 14-02-2012
Menopause and illness course in bipolar disorder: A systematic review
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-08-2017
DOI: 10.1111/BDI.12530
Abstract: Menopause may be a time of increased mood symptoms for some women. This systematic review aimed to examine the severity of symptoms and prevalence of mood changes in women with bipolar disorder during peri-menopause and post-menopause. A systematic review was undertaken in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The two primary outcomes assessed were relapse rates and symptom severity during menopause. Databases searched were MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychInfo, CINAHL and SCOPUS from January 1980 until December 2016. Nine studies, including a total of 273 participants diagnosed with bipolar disorder and who reported menopause, were included in the narrative synthesis. Menopause was reported to be associated with increased symptoms overall, and with depression in particular (range of 46%-91%). The collection of self-reported retrospective data was the most commonly used method to record menopause status. The impact of menopause on illness course for women with bipolar disorder is largely under-explored. Preliminary evidence suggests that it may be associated with increased bipolar symptoms. Further work is needed to explore how menopause may interact with bipolar disorder over time and the nature of these symptom changes, and if and how menopause may differ from other reproductive stages.
Misogyny
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-04-2016
DOI: 10.1002/9781118663219.WBEGSS381
Abstract: Misogyny is defined as hatred of women or girls, expressed as disgust, intolerance or entrenched prejudice, serving to legitimate women's oppression. It is manifested through religious and cultural beliefs which represent women as dangerous, defiled, or polluting hostile folklore and jokes the sexualization and objectification of women through art, film, literature, the mass media and pornography hostility towards women in positions of power sexual violence and domestic despotism female genital surgery and foot‐binding and the visceral horror held towards women's secretions, including menstrual taboos and phobias. Misogyny damages the physical and mental health of women, putting them at a disadvantage throughout their lives and stifling the development of their societies. There are many psychological explanations for misogyny, including men's envy of women's capacity to reproduce castration anxiety leading to fear of menstrual blood frustration‐aggression, resulting from unfulfilled sexual desires for women and psychic imbalance resulting from men's dependency on women, combined with regressed fear and longing of being physically consumed. Misogyny also serves to maintain women's position as the “second sex,” which benefits men financially, politically, and socially. Misogyny underpins gendered power imbalances in patriarchal society, and thus whilst patriarchy prevails, so will misogyny.
The relationship between health related quality of life and dietary supplementation in british middle managers: A double blind placebo controlled study
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-1995
Ways of coping with premenstrual change: Development and validation of a premenstrual coping measure
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-01-2014
Abstract: Negative premenstrual change can result in distress for a significant proportion of women. Previous research has suggested that women employ a range of coping strategies and behaviours in order to manage and reduce premenstrual distress. However, as yet there has been no specific scale available to measure premenstrual coping. This research aimed to develop and validate a measure of premenstrual coping which can be used in future investigations of negative premenstrual experience. A s le of 250 women living in Australia, reporting mild to severe premenstrual distress, completed an online survey containing 64 items related to premenstrual coping. The items were generated by reviewing past literature related to premenstrual experience, in particular recent qualitative research on premenstrual coping. A principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation was conducted to determine item clusters that would form a measure. Reliability and validity were tested using calculations of Cronbach alphas, correlational analysis with psychological coping scales and a content analysis of participant reports of coping strategies. The factor analysis, which involved two principal component analyses, resulted in five factors containing 32 premenstrual coping behaviours. Interpretation of the factor solution drew on empirical and theoretical accounts of premenstrual coping and the emergent factors were labelled Avoiding Harm, Awareness and Acceptance of Premenstrual Change, Adjusting Energy, Self-Care, and Communicating. These factors form the subscales of the Premenstrual Coping Measure (PMCM). The subscales demonstrated acceptable to very good reliability and tests of construct, concurrent and content validity were supportive of sound validity. The PMCM provides a valid and reliable scale for quantifying ways of coping specific to negative premenstrual change. Conceptual similarity was found between some coping behaviours and behaviours positioned as symptoms of premenstrual change. Explanations for this overlap may be found in cultural discourses associated with idealised femininity and PMS (premenstrual syndrome). Further psychometric investigation of the PMCM will enhance knowledge of the role of coping with negative premenstrual experience.
Sex and the menopausal woman: A critical review and analysis
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 07-04-2015
Abstract: Medical discourse has positioned the menopausal transition as a time of sexual atrophy and loss of femininity, with hormonal replacement as the solution. In contrast, feminist critics have argued that women’s experience of sexual embodiment during menopause is culturally and relationally mediated, tied to discursive constructions of aging and sexuality, which are negotiated by women. The aim of this article is to present a critical examination of women’s experiences of sexuality during and after the menopausal transition, drawing on previous research in this field, as well as qualitative research we have conducted with women at midlife, and women who have experienced premature menopause as a consequence of cancer treatment. We aim to challenge myths and misconceptions about the inevitability of sexual decline at menopause, as well as normalise the embodied changes that some women experience – whether menopause is premature, or occurs at midlife. We argue that sexual difficulties or disinterest reported by women during and after menopause are more strongly associated with psycho-social factors than hormonal status, in particular psychological well-being, relationship context and a woman’s negotiation of cultural constructions of sex, aging and femininity. However, sexuality can continue to be a positive experience for women throughout adult life and into old age, with many menopausal women reporting increased sexual desire and response. This undermines the biomedical construction of menopause as a time of inevitable sexual atrophy and decay.
Disruption of the Silenced Self: The Case of Premenstrual Syndrome
Publisher: Oxford University PressNew York
Date: 31-03-2010
DOI: 10.1093/ACPROF:OSO/9780195398090.003.0022
Abstract: This chapter challenges the common pathologizing view of premenstrual change that characterizes premenstrual symptoms as representing a psychological or biomedical disorder. The authors present a contrasting view and argue that premenstrual symptoms are more accurately characterized as a disruption in the self-silencing that women engage in for 3 weeks of the month. Drawing upon their interviews with women, they describe the contextual and intrapsychic factors that combine to produce the premenstrual expression of anger, irritation, or sadness. The chapter argues that dismissing premenstrual distress as illness serves to silence women and contributes to a cycle of further emotional suppression, followed by premenstrual emotional eruption.
The gendered construction and experience of difficulties and rewards in cancer care
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 04-04-2013
Abstract: Women cancer carers have consistently been found to report higher levels of distress than men carers. However, there is little understanding of the mechanisms underlying these gender differences in distress, and a neglect of rewarding aspects of care. We conducted in-depth semistructured interviews with 53 informal cancer carers, 34 women and 19 men, to examine difficult and rewarding aspects of cancer care. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the transcripts. Women were more likely to report negative changes in the relationship with the person with cancer neglect of self, social isolation, and physical health consequences anxiety personal strength and growth and to position caring as a privilege. Men were more likely to report increased relational closeness with the person with cancer, and the burden of additional responsibilities within the home as a difficult aspect of caring. We interpret these findings in relation to a social constructionist analysis of gender roles.
Negotiating Discourses of Shame, Secrecy, and Silence: Migrant and Refugee Women’s Experiences of Sexual Embodiment
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-01-2017
The effect of acupuncture on psychosocial outcomes for women experiencing infertility: A pilot randomized controlled trial
Publisher: Mary Ann Liebert Inc
Date: 10-2011
Abstract: The study objectives were to examine the effectiveness of acupuncture for reducing infertility-related stress. The study design was a randomized controlled trial of acupuncture compared with a wait-list control. The study was conducted at The University of Western Sydney. Thirty-two (32) women aged 20-45 years, with a diagnosis of infertility, or a history of unsuccessfully trying to conceive for 12 months or more, were the subjects of the study. Women received six sessions of acupuncture over 8 weeks. The primary outcomes were infertility self-efficacy, anxiety, and infertility-related stress. The women's experience of infertility and acupuncture is also reported. At the end of the 8-week intervention, women in the acupuncture group reported significant changes on two domains on the Fertility Problem Inventory with less social concern (mean difference [MD] -3.75, 95% confidence interval [CI] -7.58 to 0.84, p=0.05), and less relationship concern (MD -3.66, 95% CI -6.80 to -0.052, p=0.02). There were also trends toward a reduction of infertility stress on other domains, and a trend toward improved self-efficacy (MD 11.9, 95% CI -2.20 to 26.0, p=0.09) and less anxiety (MD -2.54, 95% CI -5.95 to 0.86, p=0.08) in the acupuncture group compared with the wait-list control. Women described the experience and impact of acupuncture as positive relating to a sense of relaxation and time out, the engagement with the practitioner, and an intervention that had very few negative side-effects. Changes were also perceived after treatment with women describing a physical and psychologic sense of relaxation and calmness, and a changed perspective in relation to coping. Acupuncture may be a useful intervention to assist with the reduction of infertility-related stress. Further research is justified.
Constructions of sex and intimacy after cancer: Q methodology study of people with cancer, their partners, and health professionals
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 31-05-2013
The Case of the Lesbian Phallus: Bridging the Gap between Material and Discursive Analyses of Sexuality
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK
Date: 1997
Being a mother with multiple sclerosis: Negotiating cultural ideals of mother and child
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 16-11-2017
Abstract: Multiple sclerosis can impact affected women’s experiences of motherhood through physical and cognitive impairment. This study examined how women construct and experience motherhood while living with multiple sclerosis. Twenty mothers diagnosed with multiple sclerosis took part in semi-structured interviews. Transcripts were analysed using theoretical thematic analysis, drawing on feminist poststructuralist theory to organise and interpret themes. Two main themes were identified: “Performing motherhood in the context of MS” and “Bringing up a ‘good’ child”. “Performing motherhood in the context of MS” comprises the subthemes, “The self-sacrificing mother: Negating women’s needs”, “The unreliable mother: Adjusting day-to-day mothering practices”, and “Resisting discourses of idealised motherhood”. “Bringing up a ‘good’ child”, comprises the subthemes, “The damaging mother: Fear of harming the child” and “The good mother: Caring and building resilience in the child”. Women positioned themselves as failing to be good mothers, because of limitations to their mothering, and fear of damaging children. Focusing on building children’s emotional resilience functioned to restore constructions of “good” mothering. Acknowledging how Western cultural ideals influence women’s experience of mothering when living with chronic illness is important. Health professionals can provide support by addressing women’s feelings of failure as mothers and supporting communication with children.
Experiences of Sexual Rehabilitation after Prostate Cancer: A Comparison of Gay and Bisexual Men with Heterosexual Men
Publisher: Harrington Park Press
Date: 06-2018
Physical activity interventions
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date: 2014
Connectedness, Communication, and Reciprocity in Lesbian Relationships: Implications for Women's Construction and Experience of PMS
Publisher: Oxford University PressNew York
Date: 26-02-2009
DOI: 10.1093/ACPROF:OSO/9780195326789.003.0010
Abstract: A growing body of research reports that lesbian relationships are experienced as more satisfying than heterosexual relationships, with predictors of this satisfaction being greater emotional companionship, cohesion, and flexibility as well as intimacy, equity, and autonomy. This chapter considers this counternarrative to the positioning of lesbian relationships as either unhealthily fused or identical to heterosexual relationships and therefore “normal”. Taking the issue of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) as a case ex le, the chapter argues that the aspects of lesbian relationships that have been reported to differ from heterosexual relationships—connectedness, egalitarianism, and positive communication—are of key relevance in terms of the construction and experience of women's premenstrual distress and coping.
Jane M. Ussher The Madness of Women: Myth and Experience
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 17-07-2013
The Gains and Pains of Being a Cancer Support Group Leader: A Qualitative Survey of Rewards and Challenges
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 20-11-2009
DOI: 10.1080/00981380902929156
Abstract: Rewards derived from leading a cancer support group are poorly understood yet may be crucial to offset the challenges and difficulties of this role. This study sought to obtain the views of a representative s le of Australian cancer support group leaders (CSGLs) concerning the perceived rewards and challenges of their role. All CSGLs identified by the state-based Cancer Councils were invited to participate by postal questionnaire. Qualitative methods were used to analyze responses to open-ended questions concerning rewards and challenges. A total of 300 CSGLs returned the questionnaire (response rate = 66%) with 272 providing qualitative comments. Four parallel themes emerged from the qualitative analysis: (i) Personal, (ii) Relationship, (iii) Group, and (iv) Community rewards and challenges. These were integrated into a model depicting key positive and negative aspects of the CSGL's role, to provide direction for future training and ongoing support of CSGLs.
Constructions and experiences of motherhood in the context of an early intervention for Aboriginal mothers and their children: mother and healthcare worker perspectives
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-07-2016
Women's construction of embodiment and the abject sexual body after cancer
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 04-02-2016
Abstract: Cancer and cancer treatments can cause significant changes to women’s sexual well-being. We explored how women construct a sense of their bodies and sexual “selves” in the context of cancer. Sixteen women, across a range of ages (20–71 years), cancer types, and cancer stages, took part in in-depth semistructured interviews. We conducted a thematic discourse analysis, drawing on feminist poststructuralist theory, identifying “the abject body” as a dominant theme. Participants constructed abject bodies as being “beyond abnormality,” “outside idealized discourses of embodied femininity,” and “out of control.” The women’s accounts varied in management and resistance of the abject body discourse, through bodily practices of concealment, resisting discourses of feminine beauty, and repositioning the body as a site of personal transformation. The corporeality of the cancerous body can be seen to disrupt hegemonic discourses of femininity and sexuality, with implications for how women practice and make meaning of embodied sexual subjectivity.
Sexuality after gynaecological cancer: A review of the material, intrapsychic, and discursive aspects of treatment on women's sexual-wellbeing
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2011
DOI: 10.1016/J.MATURITAS.2011.06.013
Abstract: Research in the area of gynaecological cancer has increasingly examined changes to women's sexuality, with the impact of treatment on sexual wellbeing considered particularly important. The objective of this paper is to review research on gynaecological cancer and sexuality from the years 1990 to 2011. Research has documented a range of post-treatment anatomical and physical changes to women's sexual wellbeing, including changes to sexual desire, pleasure, orgasm, vaginal lubrication, genital sensitivity, arousal, and frequency of sex. Women's intrapsychic experiences of changes to sexuality include anxiety, depression, distress, and negative perceptions of sexual identity and body image. Socially constructed discourses surrounding gender and sexuality also shape women's experiences of their sexual wellbeing post-gynaecological cancer and treatment, with many women feeling a loss of womanhood and femininity with the removal of, or changes to, their reproductive organs. Finally, women's relationship context, pattern of couple communication, and partner support are associated with women's ability to cope with changes to sexuality post-gynaecological cancer. Given that sexuality is an important part of quality of life, it is important that health professionals actively communicate information to women and their partner about the effects of treatment on sexual wellbeing, in order to legitimate and normalise sexuality in this context. It is concluded that research in the area of gynaecological cancer and sexuality needs to acknowledge not only the physical/anatomical/material effects of cancer treatments, but also women's intrapsychic experiences of changes to sexuality, her relationship context, and the role of gendered discourses in shaping women's experiences of sexuality post-gynaecological cancer and treatment.
Experiencing menopause in the context of cancer: Women’s constructions of gendered subjectivities
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 26-04-2017
DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2017.1320799
Abstract: Many women experience premature menopause following cancer treatment, accompanied by psychological distress, and poor health-related quality of life. In this qualitative study, we examined how women construct their gendered subjectivities - their sense of self as a woman - in the context of premature menopause after cancer. We analysed data from open-ended survey items and semi-structured interviews with women who had experienced cancer. Six hundred and ninety-five women completed the online survey and 61 took part in a semi-structured interview. A thematic decomposition was conducted to identify the subject positions associated with menopause taken up by the women. Three overall themes were identified: 'The Incomplete Woman,' 'The Abject, Asexual Woman' and 'Out of Time and Social Isolation.' Menopause was predominantly constructed as a negative experience, similar to older post-menopausal women and dissimilar to peers, contributing to experiences of social isolation. Menopause also signified the presence of a medically diagnosed cancer condition, and uncertainty around cancer prognosis. It is important for cancer support group leaders and other service providers to be sensitive to women's negotiation of menopause following cancer, in the context of broader cultural constructions, in order to provide appropriate information and support.
Threat to Gay Identity and Sexual Relationships: The Consequences of Prostate Cancer Treatment for Gay and Bisexual Men
Publisher: Harrington Park Press
Date: 06-2018
Pathology or source of power? The construction and experience of premenstrual syndrome within two contrasting cases
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 19-06-2014
Abstract: This research examines the construction and experience of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) in the context of intimate couple relationships, through examination of two contrasting cases analysed using thematic decomposition of narrative interviews. Judith and her male partner pathologised premenstrual change, constructing the premenstrual self as out of control, and the epitome of the ‘monstrous feminine’. Judith reported feeling over-burdened and uncontrollably angry premenstrually, associated with relationship issues and absence of partner recognition or support. In contrast, Sophia normalised premenstrual change, challenging the association between PMS and the construction of woman as deviant or dysfunctional. Sophia reported heightened energy and creativity premenstrually, and engaged in self-care supported by her woman partner. These cases demonstrate that premenstrual distress is an intersubjective experience, with constructions and material practices within relationships providing the context for premenstrual women being positioned as pathological and needing to be contained, or conversely, as sensitive and needing support.
Research and theory related to female reproduction: Implications for clinical psychology
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-1992
DOI: 10.1111/J.2044-8260.1992.TB00979.X
Abstract: Reproduction has been proposed as a cause of debilitation and psychological disturbance for centuries, recently reified through the three reproductive syndromes, the premenstrual syndrome, postnatal depression and the menopausal syndrome. The evidence for the existence of these syndromes is critically reviewed, and the different aetiological theories examined, with particular reference to biological and psychological theories. It is argued that whilst bio-medical therapies presently dominate the literature, their efficacy is questionable owing to the lack of clear evidence for a hormonal substrate underlying symptomatology. Psychological interventions are reviewed, and multifactorial or in idualized interventions recommended for adoption by clinical psychologists. The role of preventative work, through education, information provision and development of self-help strategies, is discussed. It is concluded that whilst menstruation, childbirth and the menopause do not inevitably have a deleterious effect on women, and the validity of the reproductive syndromes may be questioned, reproduction does act as a salient source of attribution and is a possible contributory factor to distress. Reproduction thus needs to be considered by clinical psychologists, but not privileged above other factors which may contribute to difficulties which in idual women may experience.
What do cancer support groups provide which other supportive relationships do not? The experience of peer support groups for people with cancer
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2006
DOI: 10.1016/J.SOCSCIMED.2005.10.034
Abstract: This qualitative study examined the questions of what cancer support groups provide that other supportive relationships do not, and what the self perceived consequences are of support group attendance. Nine representative Australian cancer peer support groups, consisting of a total of 93 interviewees, 75 women, and 18 men, with a mean age of 62, took part in participant observation and focus group interviews, with the data analysed using positioning theory. Support groups were positioned by participants as providing a unique sense of community, unconditional acceptance, and information about cancer and its treatment, in contrast to the isolation, rejection, and lack of knowledge about cancer frequently experienced outside the group. Groups were also positioned as occasionally emotionally challenging, in contrast to the experience of normalising support from family and friends. Increased empowerment and agency were positioned as the most significant consequences of group support, consisting of increased confidence and a sense of control in relation to self, living with cancer, and interactions with others, in particular the medical profession. The support group was also positioned as facilitating positive relationships with family and friends because of relieving their burden of care, by providing a safe space for the expression of emotion. No difference was found between professionally led and peer led support groups, suggesting that it is not the professional background of the leader which is of importance, but whether the group provides a supportive environment, mutuality, and a sense of belonging, and whether it meets the perceived needs of those attending. It is suggested that future research should examine the construction and experience of social support in those who drop out of, or who do not attend, cancer support groups, in order to provide further insight into the contrast between social support within groups and support in other contexts.
The Demise of Dissent and the Rise of Cognition in Menstrual-Cycle Research
Publisher: Springer New York
Date: 1992
Negotiating mental health amongst transgender parents in Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 11-02-2021
Masks of Middle-Class Belonging: Speaking of the Silent, Working-Class Past
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 08-1996
A randomized controlled evaluation of an educational resource to address fertility concerns after cancer
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-04-2021
DOI: 10.1002/PON.5703
Abstract: This study evaluated the acceptability and impact of a written oncofertility educational resource (ER), as a self‐help intervention (SH), and as an adjunct to a one‐hour health‐care professional discussion (HP). Within a randomized control trial (RCT), 194 adults with cancer (175 womens 19 mens) were allocated to the SH or HP intervention. 127 completed 6‐weeks post‐intervention measures, a retention rate of 65.85%. Across interventions, the ER was rated as highly acceptable and useful, in terms of ease of understanding, and information. Heath literacy significantly increased post‐intervention, including functional literacy, communicative literacy, and critical health literacy. There were no significant changes in ratings of fertility distress or general distress pre‐post intervention. Quality of life was significantly reduced post intervention. Those in the HP condition reported higher quality of life and greater likelihood of communication with others about fertility, most notably with intimate partners, post‐intervention. Qualitative identification of increased knowledge, confidence with communication and normalization of fertility concerns, reflects increased health literacy, and provides explanation for significant reductions in feeling nervous and fearful about fertility treatments post‐intervention. Our findings confirm the importance of information provision about the impact of cancer on fertility. Written ERs are a useful adjunct to a patient‐clinician discussion, increasing health literacy, which facilitates knowledge, self‐efficacy and management of fertility concerns and changes.
Eclecticism and Methodological Pluralism: The Way Forward for Feminist Research
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 03-1999
Changes in sexuality and intimacy after the diagnosis and treatment of cancer: The experience of partners in a sexual relationship with a person with cancer
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 07-2009
An Intersectional Analysis of Women's Experiences of Smoking-Related Stigma.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 13-10-2016
Abstract: In this article, we explore how young women encounter and counter discourses of smoking-related stigma. Twenty-seven young Australian women, smokers and ex-smokers, took part in interviews. A sub-s le of 18 participants took photographs to document their smoking experience, and took part in a second interview. Data were analyzed through Foucauldian discourse analysis. Four discourses were identified: "smoking as stigmatized," "the smoking double standard," "smoking as lower class," and "smokers as bad mothers." The women negotiated stigma in a variety of ways, shifting between agreeing, disagreeing, challenging, and displacing stigma onto "other" smokers. These experiences and negotiations of smoking-related stigma were shaped by intersecting identities, including gender, cultural background, social class, and mothering, which at times, compounded levels of stigmatization. It is concluded that tobacco control measures should consider the negative implications of smoking-related stigma, and the potential for women to experience compounding levels of stigma.
A qualitative analysis of changes in relationship dynamics and roles between people with cancer and their primary informal carer
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 22-12-2011
Abstract: It is widely accepted that cancer is an intersubjective experience that impacts upon the psychological well-being of people with cancer and informal carers, as well as on couple relationships. This qualitative study examined the nature and consequences of cancer on the relationship between informal carers and the person with cancer, from the perspective of Australian cancer carers. Sixty-two carers (42 women and 20 men), across a range of cancer types, stages and relationship dyads took part in semi-structured interviews. Participants reported that cancer had precipitated a change in roles and in the dynamics of the relationship, including having to take on quasi-medical tasks and decisions, neglecting self and other relationships, changes to the emotions or personality of the person with cancer, changed patterns of communication, and changes to sexuality and intimacy. The impact of the changed relationship included sadness, anger and frustration, as well as feelings of love and being closer together, resulting in relationship enhancement. Women were more likely to report changes in the person with cancer and to mourn the previous relationship, while more men reported relationship enhancement.
Just Desserts? Exploring Constructions of Food in Women’s Experiences of Bulimia
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 13-10-2016
Abstract: Bulimia, an eating disorder that affects more women than men, involves binging and compensatory behaviors. Given the importance of food in experiences of these behaviors, in this article, we examine constructions of food in accounts of bulimic behavior: how these constructions relate to cultural discourses, and their implications for subjectivity. Fifteen women who engaged in bulimic behaviors were interviewed. Through a thematic decomposition of their accounts, we identified six discursive constructions of food: "good/healthy" or "bad/unhealthy," "contaminating body and soul," "collapsed into fat," "pleasurable reward," "comfort," and "fuel for the body." Many constructions were consolidated through participants' embodied experiences, but made available through discourses in public health, biomedicine, and femininity, and had implications for subjectivity in terms of morality, spirituality, and self-worth. Thus, despite women deploying these constructions to make sense of their bulimic behaviors, they are culturally normative this point has implications for therapeutic and preventive strategies for bulimia.
Feeling well and talking about sex: Psycho-social predictors of sexual functioning after cancer
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-03-2014
Regulation and Resistance: Negotiation of Premarital Sexuality in the Context of Migrant and Refugee Women
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 06-07-2017
DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2017.1336745
Abstract: Constructions of normative sexuality shape the sexual scripts that women are permitted to adopt and the manner in which such sexuality can be expressed. We explored experiences and constructions of premarital sexuality among migrant and refugee women recently resettled in Sydney, Australia, and Vancouver, Canada. A total of 78 semistructured in idual interviews and 15 focus groups composed of 82 participants were undertaken with women who had migrated from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Sri Lanka, and South America. We analyzed the data using thematic decomposition. Across all cultural groups, women's premarital sexuality was regulated through cultural and religious discourse and material practice. Such regulation occurred across three main facets of women's lives, shaping the themes presented in this article: (1) regulating premarital sex-the virginity imperative (2) regulation of relationships with men and (3) regulation of the sexual body. These themes capture women's reproduction of dominant discourses of premarital sexuality, as well as women's resistance and negotiation of such discourses, both prior to and following migration. Identifying migrant and refugee women's experiences and constructions of premarital sexuality is essential for culturally safe sexual health practice, health promotion, and health education.
Bereaved informal cancer carers making sense of their palliative care experiences at home
Publisher: Hindawi Limited
Date: 05-2009
DOI: 10.1111/J.1365-2524.2008.00828.X
Abstract: This qualitative study explored the positive meanings constructed and ascribed to the experience of providing palliative care at home by bereaved informal cancer carers, a group of in iduals who are in a position to make sense of their caring experiences as a coherent whole. Twenty-two bereaved cancer carers, living in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, were interviewed as part of a larger mixed-method study examining the experience of informal cancer care. Participants were recruited through cancer support groups and cancer clinics, and through the Cancer Council NSW. Accounts of positive aspects of palliative caring were analysed using a thematic analytical approach from a constructionist perspective. The findings indicated that these bereaved carers gave accounts that accentuated the benefit and satisfaction derived from providing direct palliative care at home, which enabled them to construct positive meanings associated with their participation in the dying process, and as a result to ascribe subjectively meaningful interpretations to their loved ones' death and their sense of loss. This included a sense of reward for doing something good, meeting the expressed needs of the patient, continuing with normal life as much as possible, improving the conditions of the relationship and meeting cultural expectations of the right thing to do. Being present at the point of death was positioned as rewarding because it facilitated the process of saying goodbye, fostered inclusion of others, provided closure and was a spiritual experience. These findings suggest that there are positive and rewarding aspects associated with providing informal cancer care in a palliative context, and these aspects were pertinent and meaningful for carers in their endeavours to reconcile the difficulties and loss they experienced. This has implications for the prevention and amelioration of distress experienced by informal cancer carers, and suggests that future research should not ignore the positive aspects of providing palliative care.
Unraveling the Mystery of “The Specificity of Women’s Sexual Response and Its Relationship with Sexual Orientations”: The Social Construction of Sex and Sexual Identities
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-02-2017
Unravelling womens madness: Be yond positivism and constructivism and towards a material discursive intrapsychic approach
Publisher: Routledge-Cavendish
Date: 12-10-2012
The ongoing silencing of women in families: An analysis and rethinking of premenstrual syndrome and therapy
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-2003
III. Women and Madness: A Voice in the Dark of Women's Despair
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 05-1994
The nature and long‐term effects of childhood sexual abuse: A survey of adult women survivors in Britain
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-1995
DOI: 10.1111/J.2044-8260.1995.TB01453.X
Abstract: The nature and long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) were examined in 775 women survivors who responded to a survey in a women's magazine. Compared to existing research, there was a high rate of CSA involving sexual intercourse (46%), a high rate of intra-familial abuse (80%), a younger age of onset of abuse (8.5 years), and a longer duration of abuse (5.2 years). In univariate analyses, the reporting of a range of long-term psychological effects was significantly related to experience of abuse involving sexual intercourse or sexual contact, abuse perpetrated by a father or stepfather, abuse which was repeated or prolonged, presence of threats or violence, blaming of the child, saying disclosure would split the family, and a younger age of onset. In logistic and multiple regression analyses, the most important predictor variables were presence of threats or violence, and verbal coercion, followed by abuse being repeated or prolonged. It is suggested that future researchers should use a range of assessment instruments and multivariate analyses to examine the nature and long-term effects of child sexual abuse in both women and men.
Breast cancer
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-04-2015
DOI: 10.1002/9781118896877.WBIEHS067
Abstract: Changes to sexuality and intimacy can be one of the most problematic aspects of life post‐breast cancer, with the impact lasting for many years after treatment. When compared with healthy, same‐aged women, women with breast cancer experience lower levels of sexual satisfaction and have more difficulty maintaining their sexual life because of pain, fatigue, vaginal dryness, body image concerns, decreased sexual interest or desire, numbness in previously sensitive breasts, and difficulty achieving orgasm. The quality of a woman's intimate relationship and partner support are the major predictors of a positive outcome following sexual changes.
Let's talk about gay sex: gay and bisexual men's sexual communication with healthcare professionals after prostate cancer
Publisher: Hindawi Limited
Date: 26-02-2016
DOI: 10.1111/ECC.12469
Abstract: Although sexual changes after prostate cancer (PCa) have specific meanings and consequences for gay and bisexual (GB) men, little is known about how GB men navigate sexual well-being support. We surveyed 124 GB men with PCa and 21 male partners, and interviewed a sub-s le of 46 GB men and 7 male partners, to examine GB men's experiences of sexual communication with healthcare professionals (HCPs) since the onset of PCa. GB men perceived a number of deficits in HCPs communication: medical support dominated sexual and psychological support heterosexuality of GB patients was often assumed sexual orientation disclosure was problematic and GB men perceived rejection or lack of interest and knowledge from a majority of HCPs with regard to gay sexuality and the impact of PCa on GB men. Facilitators of communication were acknowledgement of sexual orientation and exploration of the impact of PCa on GB men. In order to target improved support for GB men with PCa, it is concluded that HCPs need to address issues of hetero-centricism within PCa care by improving facilitation of sexual orientation disclosure, recognising that GB men with PCa might have specific sexual and relational needs, and increasing knowledge and comfort discussing gay sexuality and gay sexual practices.
The madness of women: Myth and experience
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 28-03-2011
Women's Madness: A Material-Discursive-Intrapsychic Approach
Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
Date: 2000
Sustaining leaders of cancer support groups: The role, needs, and difficulties of leaders
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 08-02-2005
Childhood trauma and anorexia nervosa: from body image to embodiment
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-08-2018
DOI: 10.1080/07399332.2018.1492268
Abstract: Contemporary understandings of anorexia nervosa are framed by the body-image paradigm. The body-image framework considers that women's bodily experiences are reflected through distorted mental images of their bodies or disordered thinking and behavior around food and eating. Body image has come to symbolize all that can go wrong with women's relationships with their bodies, food, and eating. The problem with this approach is its failure to consider the experience of women who have survived childhood abuse. Women's bodily disturbances are not easily discernible through objective measures because they lie within the inner subjective realm of the embodied 'self' and embodied emotional experience. Consideration of the different ways that women inhabit their bodies informs this paper's examination of the conceptual framework of embodiment as an alternative to the body-image paradigm.
Strength through adversity: Bereaved cancer carers' accounts of rewards and personal growth from caring
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 06-2009
DOI: 10.1017/S1478951509000248
Abstract: Many studies have identified negative and distressing consequences experienced by informal cancer carers, but less attention has been given to positive and beneficial aspects of caring. This qualitative study examined the positive aspects of caring as subjectively constructed by bereaved informal cancer carers, a group of in iduals who are in a position to make sense of their caring experiences as a coherent whole. Twenty-three bereaved informal cancer carers were interviewed, and their accounts were analyzed using a thematic analytical approach from a phenomenological perspective. The participants were able to identify positive and beneficial aspects of caring. These included the discovery of personal strength, through adversity, acceptance, and necessity the deepening of their relationship with the person for whom they cared and personal growth through altered relationships with others and altered perspectives on living. Many participants gave accounts of focusing on these positive benefits when they reflected on their caring experiences. We concluded that benefit finding in the face of adverse events serves an important function in allowing in iduals to incorporate difficult experiences into their worldview in a meaningful way, thus maintaining positive beliefs about the world. This has implications for the development of interventions for informal cancer carers and for those who are bereaved following caring.
Women's experience of premenstrual syndrome: A case of silencing the self
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 11-2006
Doing and undoing femininities: An intersectional analysis of young women’s smoking
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 03-2017
Abstract: Previous research has found that young women’s smoking relates to their performance of feminine gender identities. Using an intersectional approach, we explore in this study how young women’s smoking is implicated in the doing and undoing of femininities, as well as other intersecting identities. Discourse analysis was used to examine interviews and a photography activity conducted with young women, both current and ex-smokers. This analysis revealed four culturally dominant repertoires: “cigarettes and smoking styles as gendered”, “smoking as controlling weight”, “smoking as a sexual tool”, and “smoking as compromising appearance”. Young women’s experiences and negotiations of discourse surrounding smoking and femininity were shaped by intersecting social class and sexual identities. These findings can be used to inform the development of smoking cessation interventions which recognise the ersity in how young women perform femininity.
I used to think I was going a little crazy: Women's resistance to the pathologization of premenstrual change
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 26-03-2014
Related Organisations
University Of London
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
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