Gendered power dynamics and threats to sexual and reproductive autonomy among adolescent girls and young adult women: A cross-sectional survey in three urban settings

Background Gendered economic and social systems can enable relational power disparities for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), and undercut autonomy to negotiate sex and contraceptive use. Less is known about their accumulation and interplay. This study characterizes relationship power imbalances (age disparity, intimate partner violence [IPV], partner-related fear, transactional sex, and transactional partnerships), and evaluates associations with modern contraceptive use, and sexual/reproductive autonomy threats (condom removal/“stealthing”, reproductive coercion, ability to refuse sex, and contraceptive confidence). Methods Cross-sectional surveys were conducted with unmarried, currently-partnered AGYW aged 15–24 recruited via respondent-driven sampling in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (n = 555; 2018–19), Nairobi, Kenya (n = 332; 2019), and Lagos, Nigeria (n = 179; 2020). Descriptive statistics, Venn diagrams, and multivariate regression models characterized relationship power imbalances, and associations with reproductive autonomy threats and contraceptive use. Findings Relationship power imbalances were complex and concurrent. In current partnerships, partner-related fears were common (50.4%Nairobi; 54.5%Abidjan; 55.7%Lagos) and physical IPV varied (14.5%Nairobi; 22.1%Abidjan; 9.6%Lagos). IPV was associated with reproductive coercion in Nairobi and Abidjan. Age disparate relationships undermined confidence in contraception in Nairobi. In Nairobi and Lagos, transactional sex outside the relationship was associated with condom stealthing. Interpretation AGYW face simultaneous gendered power differentials, against the backdrop of gendered social and economic systems. Power imbalances were linked with coercive sexual/reproductive health experiences which are often underrecognized yet represent a potent link between gendered social systems and poor health. Pregnancy prevention efforts for AGYW must address reproductive autonomy threats, and the relational power imbalances and broader gendered systems that enable them.

“I feel like it is asking if he is a stalker… But I also feel like it is asking if he cares”: Exploring South African Youth’s Perceptions of the Sexual Relationship Power Scale

Background: Gender inequity and the subsequent health impacts disproportionately affect communities in the Global South. However, most gender equity measures, such as Pulerwitz’ (2000) Sexual Relationship Power Scale (SRPS), are developed and validated in the Global North and then applied in Global South settings without investigation of context applicability or validity. This study examines the SRPS’ validity evidence, comprehensiveness and contemporary relevance for young South African women and men. Methods: Between 2019-2021, 38 cognitive interviews (CIs) were conducted among previous participants of a South African youth cohort study ‘AYAZAZI’ (2015-2017) to explore youth’s perceptions of the SRPS. The SRPS measures women’s perceptions of their partner’s controlling behaviours, and men’s perceptions of their own controlling behaviours. Using CIs, participants responded to a 13-item South African youth SRPS (Strongly Agree-Strongly Disagree), and then were asked to think-aloud their reasoning for responses, their understanding and perceived relevance of each item, and made overall suggestions for scale adaptations. An item appraisal coding process was applied, whereby Cognitive Coding assessed the types of cognitive problems youth had with understanding the items, and Question Feature Coding assessed which item features caused problems for participant understandings. Finally, youth recommendations for scale adaptations were summarized. Results: Overall, 21 women and 17 men aged 21-30 participated in CIs in Durban and Soweto, South Africa. Cognitive Coding revealed 1. Comprehension issues, and 2. judgements related to items’ applicability to lived experiences and identities (e.g., being unmarried). Question Feature Coding revealed items’ 1. Lack of clarity or vagueness in wording and 2. logical problems in assumptions leading to multiple interpretations (e.g., item ‘does your partner always need to know where you are’ interpreted as both controlling and caring behaviour). Multiple, overlapping issues revealed how many items failed to “fit” within the present-day living realities of South African youth. Youth recommended several item adaptations and additions, including strength-based items, to existing measures of gender equity and power. Conclusion: Given identified issues, several adaptations including revising items to be more inclusive, contemporary, context specific, and strength-based are needed to validly measure gender equity and power dynamics within the relationships of South African youth.

ASSÉDIO E O ABUSO NO ENSINO SUPERIOR:

O presente artigo tem por objetivo identificar os casos de assédio e abuso no ensino superior da cidade de Ponta Grossa/Paraná. Buscando analisar como se evidenciam e se originam esses casos, foram recolhidos depoimentos de acadêmicos de ambos os gêneros, visando compreender a situação na perspectiva da vítima, analisando como elas, suas testemunhas e seus supervisores estão tratando os assuntos referentes ao tema. Os dados foram coletados por meio de questionário on-line composto de questões objetivas e questões descritivas. Todos os casos apresentados ocorreram por haver uma relação de poder entre agressor e vítima, seja essa relação uma hierarquia institucional, de cargos, classe, raça ou de gênero. Palavras-chaveEnsino Superior, Gênero, Violência, Relação professor-aluno, Relações de poder. HARASSMENT AND ABUSE IN HIGHER EDUCATION: from aggressions to institutional omission AbstractThe purpose of this article is to identify cases of harassment and abuse in higher education of the city of Ponta Grossa, Paraná. Seeking out to analyze how these cases are evidenced and originated, testimonials were collected from academics of both genders, in order to understand the situation from the perspective of the victim, analyzing how they, their witnesses and their supervisors are dealing with the subjects. The data was collected by means of on-line questionnaire composed of objective questions and descriptive questions. All cases presented occurred because there is a power relation between aggressor and victim, whether that relationship is an institutional, job, class, race or gender hierarchy. KeywordsHigher Education, Gender, Violence, Teacher-student relationship, Power relations.

EXPRESS: We Succeeded Together, Now What: Relationship Power and Sequential Decisions in Couples' Joint Goal Pursuits

Research has demonstrated that after making high goal progress consumers feel liberated to engage in goal-inconsistent behaviors. But what happens after consumers make high progress in the context of joint goal pursuit? We examine how jointly-made progress towards a joint goal pursued by couples affects subsequent individually-made goal-relevant decisions. Across five experiments with both lab-created couples and married participants and financial data from a couples' money management mobile app, we show that after making high progress on a joint goal (vs. low or no progress), higher relationship power partners are more likely to disengage from the joint goal to pursue personal concerns (e.g., indulge themselves or pursue individual goals), whereas lower relationship power partners do not disengage from the joint goal and continue engaging in goal-consistent actions that maintain its pursuit. We elucidate the underlying mechanism, providing evidence that the joint goal progress boosts the relational self-concept of high (but not low) relationship power partners and this drives the effects. Importantly, we demonstrate the effectiveness of two theory-grounded and easily implementable interventions which promote goal-consistent behaviors among high relationship power consumers in the context of joint savings goals.

ULTRALIBERALISMO, UNIVERSIDADE E O PROJETO FUTURE-SE: considerações na perspectiva da educação popular

O avanço do pensamento ultraliberal nas instituições públicas brasileiras tem modificado a forma como estes espaços educacionais têm se constituído, sendo comum um modelo de gerenciamento empresarial e uma lógica da educação enquanto mercadoria. Diante desta conjuntura, assistimos ao surgimento do projeto Future-se que visa alterar as formas de se conceber o financiamento nas Universidades públicas brasileiras. Para refletirmos a educação e ensaiarmos uma análise deste projeto, realizamos uma pesquisa documental e um estudo bibliográfico referenciando em estudiosos da temática em discussão, como Freire (2016), Freitas (2014), Peroni (2015), Mészáros (2008) e Foucault (2008). Assim, diante deste modelo de ensino vendido como o único possível, vemos que há outras formas de se pensar uma educação libertadora e comprometida com os oprimidos. Palavras-chave: educação pública; ultraliberalismo; relação público e privado; relações de poder.ULTRALIBERALISM, UNIVERSITY AND THE PROJECT FUTURE: considerations in the perspective of popular educationAbstract The advance of ultraliberal thinking in Brazilian public institutions has changed the way these educational spaces have been constituted, being common a business management model and a logic of education as a commodity. Given this conjuncture, we witnessed the emergence of the Future-se project, which aims to change the ways of conceiving financing in Brazilian public universities. To reflect the education and to rehearse an analysis of this project, we conducted a documentary research and a bibliographic study referencing scholars under discussion, such as Freire (2016); Freitas (2014); Peroni (2015), Mészáros (2008) and Foucault (2008). Thus, given this model of education sold as the only possible, we see that there are other ways of thinking a liberating education committed to the oppressed.Keywords: public education; ultraliberalism; public and private relationship; power relations.ULTRALIBERALISMO, UNIVERSIDAD Y EL PROYECTO FUTURO: consideraciones en la perspectiva de la educación popularResumenEl avance del pensamiento ultraliberal en las instituciones públicas brasileñas ha cambiado la forma en que estos espacios educativos se han constituido, siendo común un modelo de gestión empresarial y una lógica de la educación como mercancía. Ante esta coyuntura, fuimos testigos del surgimiento del proyecto Future-se, cuyo objetivo es cambiar las formas de concebir el financiamiento en las universidades públicas brasileñas. Para reflejar la educación y ensayar un análisis de este proyecto, realizamos una investigación documental y un estudio bibliográfico que hace referencia a académicos del tema en discusión, como Freire (2016), Freitas (2014), Peroni (2015), Mészáros (2008) y Foucault ( 2008). Por lo tanto, en vista de este modelo de enseñanza vendido como el único posible, vemos que hay otras formas de pensar en una educación liberadora comprometida con los oprimidos.Palabras clave: educación pública; ultraliberalismo; relación pública y privada; relaciones de poder.

Assessing Adolescent Dating Violence in the YourLife Project: Proposal of an Instrument for Spanish-Speaking Countries

Background: Several instruments have been developed to assess adolescent dating violence but only few have been validated in Spanish-speaking settings. Some instruments are too long and may not be feasible to include them in a multipurpose questionnaire. We developed an instrument to be used in the YourLife project, an international project about young people lifestyles. Objective: We aimed to analyze the psychometric properties of this instrument in three Spanish-speaking countries (Chile, Ecuador, and Spain). Method: We included 1049 participants, aged 13–18 years. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. Associations between dating violence and variables expected to covariate with it (substance use, school peer aggression, justification of dating violence, and relationship power imbalance), were tested. Results: Two different constructs (psychological and physical/sexual) for suffered and perpetrated violence were identified and confirmed in the three countries. The dating violence subscales had Cronbach’s alpha scores higher than 0.85. The strongest associations between dating violence and variables related to it were found within the relationship power imbalance items, suggesting that these items may be useful to detect adolescent dating violence when a specific questionnaire cannot be implemented. Conclusion: This instrument seems to be adequate to assess suffered and perpetrated adolescent dating violence within a multipurpose questionnaire among schooled adolescents.

Commitment, Dominance, and Mate Value: Power Bases in Long-Term Heterosexual Couples

We assessed the relative contribution of economic, personal, and affective power bases to perceived relationship power. Based on evolutionary studies, we predicted that personality dominance and mate value should represent alternative personal power bases. Our sample was comprised of 84 Czech heterosexual couples. We measured the economic power base using self-report scales assessing education, income and work status. Personal power bases were assessed using self-report measures of personality dominance (International Personality Item Pool Dominance and Assertiveness subscale from NEO Personality Inventory-Revised Extraversion scale), and partner-report measures of mate value (Trait-Specific Dependence Inventory, factors 2–6). The first factor of Trait-Specific Dependence Inventory, which measures agreeableness/commitment was used to assess the affective power base. Our results show that perceived relationship power is associated with a perception of partner’s high agreeableness/commitment. Moreover, women’s personality dominance and mate value are also linked with perceived relationship power, which supports our evolutionary prediction of dominance and mate value working as power bases for women. The stronger effect of women’s than men’s power bases may be due to gender differences in investment into relationships and/or due to transition to more equal relationships currently sought by women in the Czech Republic.

Effectiveness of Critical Discourse Analysis to Solve Constrained Employment Relations

In employment relationship, power is a dominant construct. Power per se can have adverse effect on institutional employment, which even culminates to conflict and resistance to change. When organizations are constrained by the negativity of workers' power it is difficult to bring order, and even to offer the right solution for lack of problem identification. This book chapter explains the process of interventions in two organizations to solve the problem of constrained employment relations, pertaining to workers' redeployment subsequent to technological change. The author in this case played the role of an interventionist and using primarily the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) could evolve a solution, which ultimately could redeploy most of the erring workmen in restructured job positions, even outside their job family. The book chapter is unique in application of CDA in specific issues pertaining to constrained employment relations. The chapter at the end also discusses on implications for practice of CDA in organizational research, particularly to resolve conflict in employment relations. However, the paper has the inherent limitations as the results are very much organization specific.