2015 Association for Women in Psychology Conference

When providing psychological services to Latinas, clinicians must be prepared to address a broad range of identities and experiences. Latinas are not a monolithic group and mental health practitioners need to deliver interventions that are responsive to a multiplicity of factors including nationality, geographic location, social class, immigration status, level of acculturation, education, and exposure to discrimination and exploitation. It is paramount that psychologists turn their attention to intragroup differences among Latinas in order to respond effectively to the needs of the many subgroups represented in this population. In this symposium, the presenters will share their experiences and the results of their research studies on culturally responsive practice with Latinas, both in the U.S. and internationally. Throughout the program, implications for research, feminist clinical practice, training, and social justice will be explored. The first presentation will discuss how the experiences of clinicians in New Mexico and Texas may translate into promising practices in the provision of psychological services to undocumented immigrant women from Mexico across the U.S. The next presentation will highlight the role of technology in a multi-year international Participatory Action Research collaboration between U.S.-based researchers and members of Fundación Ana Margarita in Medellín, Colombia who are also survivors of commercial sexual exploitation. The final presentation will introduce a new protocol for a support group for first-year Latina undergraduates focusing on positive identity development, effective methods for handling the transition to college life, the experience of discrimination, and the development of coping strategies to address academic concerns.

Objectification theory posits the objectification of women by their culture leads to a mental separation of the woman from her body, creating self-valuation tied closely to societal ideals (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997; Stratemeyer, 2012). A variety of mental health issues have arisen from women's experience of objectification (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Objectification also negatively impacts women's interpersonal relationships (Daniels & Zurbriggen, 2014) and leads to increased violence against women (Stratemeyer, 2014). This symposium presents three perspectives on the application of restorative justice to women’s objectification. A restorative justice approach is more humanistic in nature focusing on victim-centered reparations and often includes community involvement (van Wormer, 2009). Several considerations will be reviewed regarding the way objectification of women has been perpetuated through US culture. These considerations may provide a pathway to social justice by deconstructing women's objectification experiences and initiating opportunities for community healing. The current considerations include objectification of women in Christian purity culture, social media as perpetuating objectification and sister relationships as a potential mitigating factor for adolescent girls’ experience of objectification. We intend to focus on the way women are impacted by objectification as it intersects with religiosity, social media, and sibling relationships separately. Our presentation will focus on literature surrounding these topics and the ways current research can be applied to working with women dealing with intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences of objectification. The purpose of this symposium is to initiate a conversation regarding contemporary factors related to objectification of women with a focus on restorative justice. References Daniels, E.A., & Zurbriggen, E.L. (2014). The price of sexy: Viewers' perceptions of a sexualized versus nonsexualized Facebook profile photograph. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, advanced online publication. doi: 10.1037/ppmm0000048 Fredrickson, B.L., & Roberts, T.A. (1997). Objectification theory: Toward understanding women’s lived experiences and mental health risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 173-206. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x Stratemeyer, M. (2014). "Here's looking at you": Psychological perspectives on sexual objectification. Issues, 107, 24-26. van Wormer, K. (2009). Restorative justice as social justice for victims of gendered violence: A standpoint feminist perspective. Social Work, 54(2), 107-116.

Dramatic episodes of violence, such as the school shootings at Sandy Hook elementary, and the shootings of 17 year-old Trayvon Martin and 17 year-old Jordan Davis in 2012 instigate an immediate burst of interest in restorative justice and violence prevention that disappears as quickly as it appeared. A stable community network dedicated to ending interpersonal violence is needed across the USA. This symposium consists of three presentations describing different forms of community building to engender grass roots support for restorative justice. Each effort integrates violence education so that potential community members understand the reality of violence and the need to become an advocate for change in support of victims. The first presentation covers building grassroots support for victims of violence through a four day, campus and community conference. Building a network amongst the interdisciplinary attendees was an overt goal of the conference. The second presentation covers community building through transformational curricula that integrate violence education and advocacy into the classroom experience. The final presentation covers how the “We Can Prevent Violence” Facebook group was used to build an on-line, violence prevention community. Each of these presentations will include the goals of the initiative, the types of communities that were developed, the successes and failures that were experienced, and any gender effects that were noted. Key to restorative justice is building many different types of communities nationwide that have no tolerance for acts of violence and who strongly believe in the power of nonviolence to transform communities into safe places (Veith, 2014). Community wellness could be substantially improved if restorative justice was available to support victim’s healing and if interpersonal violence was eradicated to prevent further victimization (Brown et. al 2009; Felitti, 2002; WHO 2006).

This symposium includes presentations representing chapters from an upcoming edited collection on women’s experiences of migration. Panelists explore the gendered personal and emotional costs of the dislocation of space in the contemporary global political/economic regime. Even though popular notions continue to perceive the immigrant as male, the presence of females is central to the process. And yet, most published work on immigration does not focus on the gendered processes that underlie the experience of migration. With very few exceptions, even when data about women and girls are presented, a gender analysis of the implications of these data tends to be absent. Through a combination of empirical research, personal narratives, and clinical insights about women immigrants and refugees, these presentations contribute an innovative and multicultural approach to the knowledge base on women’s experience of migration. The extant psychological literature about women who migrate tends to pathologize their experiences and/or emphasize the needs of clinical populations (e.g., studies of depression among immigrants). In other words, the focus tends to be on illness-based studies. By contrast, this panel provides other perspectives and healthy alternatives, including those of survival, resilience, and success. Presenters provide a gender analysis of women’s and girls’ experiences of migration, not simply examining women as subjects of scholarship, but exploring ways in which gender is an organizing structure of power relations. These presentations do not simply examine data about girls and/or women, but provide a feminist analysis in which gender is a central organizing axis of power, alongside other social structures such as age, class, race, ethnicity, nationality, and so on. Specific topics explored by these presenters include gender identity, acculturation, language, food, violence, intersectionality and the psychology of place and space.

As evidenced by recent attention from the press, questions around institutional policy, and public outcry, politics regarding sexual violence have become particularly pertinent within Western culture. These articulations play out across an array of discourses, including media landscapes. Drawing from popular culture and contemporary literature, television, and film, the papers in this symposium will utilize feminist frameworks to delineate how our society understands and reacts to sexual violence. This symposium serves to ask: Where and how do we learn about sexual violence? Why do media outlets so often romanticize and glorify abusive relationships? What are the implications of consuming these problematic media images? Both presenters will extrapolate from their continued research on rape culture to analyze the real-world impact of these media depictions. The specific and insidious abusive links within several popular television series and novels, among them Scandal, Game of Thrones, Twilight, and 50 Shades of Grey, are analyzed. The presenters assert that the marketing and development of these media series suggest that abuse is acceptable and favorable, and that rape serves to function primarily as a plot device. Norms of masculinity, femininity, and heterosexuality all play a role in constructing images of victims and abusers, “good girls” and “bad girls”, and notions of true love. Furthermore, these portrayals contribute to the existence and proliferation of rape culture. The presenters find that these media examples actively harm individual consumers and inspire the creation of similarly problematic media-- an effect which is exacerbated when that content is disseminated across the globe. Additionally, the presenters bring an activist dimension to their work by including victims’ words and experiences, and by confronting the culture of silence that surrounds sexualized harm. This symposium strives to cultivate new directions for feminist social justice efforts, particularly in approaches to rape, resistance, prevention, violence, and victimhood.

Lesbian couples who had civil unions in 2000-1 and those who did not were interviewed in 2014. Over time many couples in both groups have also gotten married or had civil unions or domestic partnerships in other U.S. states. Lesbians who dissolved their relationship were also interviewed.

This symposium explores applications and implications of restorative justice in various contexts, including research, therapy and performance. Presenters explore interventions that address social change, privilege and oppression, feminist consciousness and responsibility. These presentations contribute an innovative and multicultural approach to notions of restoration, healing, and obligation. Integrating analyses of race, class, gender, and sexuality, panelists contextualize their respective interventions within institutional and political structures. Presenters will tackle central thematic questions including: What is restorative justice? What is intended to be “restored”? What does it mean to be concerned about restorative justice in areas of research, psychotherapy, culturally sensitive activism and health? How do we situate ourselves as knowledge producers in discourses of restorative justice? One presenter examines cycles of violence against women and ways in which performance can disrupt systems of domination. Describing an intervention in Argentina, the presenter explores how rurality, tribal culture, the Catholic church, and militarism intersect in the lives and work of a group of feminist activists. A co-authored presentation explores how reflexivity and reflexive practice might be conceived as political action, and how it shapes each step of the academic research process. Presenters critically examine reflexivity in the context of producing scholarship, teaching, and higher education administration. Another presenter asks: How is therapy a tool of restorative justice? Another examines poetry as a tool for social change. Finally, one presentation addresses evidence from repeated population-based samples of high school students to show that, contrary to common opinion, sexual minority adolescent girls actually have a higher incidence than their completely heterosexual counterparts of both pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Some of the potential factors and influences that may lead to these outcomes will be discussed, alongside information on recent efforts in public schools to foster the sexual health of sexual minority girls.

Paralleling the early research and unsuccessful attempts to change sexual orientation, clinicians and researchers continue to attempt to permanently change body weight. This symposium discourages lesbians to submit to the weight loss industry by reviewing studies on lesbians and weight, health, weight loss, and body satisfaction.

While bisexuality has been a topic of much discussion in the arena of popular culture, this orientation is seen as a controversial and often misunderstood concept (Klesse, 2011). Outside of popular culture, the topic of bisexuality is beginning to gain grounds in the research arena as well (Klein, 2014; Bostwick, 2013). Misunderstandings about bisexuality tend to revolve around relation of bisexuality to the heterosexual and lesbian/gay communities, bisexual monogamy, and the idea that bisexuality reinforces the gender binary. These misunderstandings have the potential to negatively affect not only the ways in which bisexual individuals experience support from community, family, and friends, but also the ways in which researchers and clinicians understand the plight of this minority community situated within an already marginalized community. With an understanding of these misconceptions, this panel will discuss some current trends related to research on bisexuality. Some of the current trends relate to issue surrounding bisexuality and monogamy, bisexuality, and community, and clinical concerns with bisexual clients. These trends will be addressed by members of the panel. In addressing these current research trends, this panel will attempt to provide information on the most current research available on bisexual individuals and the bisexual community. The implication of a greater understanding of bisexual issues in relation to clinical, research, educational, and advocacy implication will be discussed.

This symposium will be led by four first generation immigrant women-therapists from varied cultural backgrounds. Our presentations will focus on challenges we encountered, and the ways our experiences have transformed us and encouraged personal voice and growth. Because of an increase in immigration, growing number of first generation (recent) immigrant women enter into mental health field, often seeking to improve the lives of their communities (Yakushko, 2009). Their work often focuses on issues of justice related to their community experiences, including racism, poverty, xenophobia, gender violence, and other forms of marginalization and oppression (Yakushko & Espin, 2010). Among key areas discussed by presenters the focus will be on juxtaposition of therapists’ own experiences of immigrant adaptation including clinical work in a second language and the way it contributes to and creates feelings of otherness as well as the role of language as the carrier of implicit cultural messages. Personal and professional identity development from a perspective of an immigrant therapist in training will be also discussed focusing on aspects of establishing personal and professional identity as a therapist, immigration as a possibility for maturation and mending of loss of culturally and personally grounding internally guiding structures, and mourning the loss of the home country. In addition, we will discuss experiences of migration as a psychological process and review its various aspects such as status of immigration, age, motivation to leave the home country, family related responsibilities, and the impact of loss of familiar environment. Lastly, we will focus on issues related to training and supervision with immigrant women who are training to be psychologists.

Three presenters address aspects of women’s lives which have been marketed to the general public in a false and misleading way to support the billion dollar profits of the medical-pharmacological industry. The authors challenge the marketing and “science” that objectify women’s bodies, or render women’s bodies and experiences a series of symptoms, diseases, and dysfunctions that require pharmaceutical or surgical intervention by medical professionals. Each presenter addresses the marketing of a specific “condition” in which the marketing is designed to misinform or misrepresent women at the expense of corporate America. The session is part of a larger movement that critically challenges the marketing associated with the medical-pharmacological industry. In addition to a scientific critique, the presenters provide a gender lens. For example, the labeling of the menstrual cycle- related experience as a syndrome (PMS) is based on a culturally pejorative perspective on women’s bodies and bodily process, which has resulted in the widespread experience of reproductive shame (Chrisler & Caplan, 2002; Johnston-Robledo, Voigt, Sheffield, & Wilcox-Constantine, 2007). Presenter 1 examines the marketing of menstrual suppression to avoid the problem of menstruation, and questions the impact of this campaign for women’s experience of their bodies. Presenter 2 critically examines the pinking of breast cancer, the proliferation of pink products which are alledgedly promoting awareness of breast cancer, and contributing resources to breast cancer research. She advises that we think before we pink. Presenter 3 examines the misleading information about women’s sexual functioning that has been used to argue for drugs for women’s FSD. She focuses on the recent campaign of the drug industry to pressure the FDA to approve drugs for women, to Even the Score. In each case marketing techniques and misinformation are cleverly used to convince women to adopt behaviors that are not conducive to women’s health and well being.

The presenters in this symposium work in the same University department and campus community. Our work addresses current challenges confronting women: microaggressions, rape culture, facing chronic illness Parkinson’s Disease) at a young age, and the drastic increase in selfies on social media. Our responses to these issues vary in scope and innovation but our intention is to offer symposium attendees a model for community collaboration. This year, the United States celebrates the 50th anniversary of the civil rights act. “Empowering Change”, was a campus-wide initiative to celebrate this act and most panelists were heavily involved in the planning and implementation. This initiative allowed us to examine current racial and other microaggressions that occur on our campus through a classroom generated photo campaign. Images are powerful and increasingly used in activist strategies like the above mentioned photo campaign. Two of us use images in very different ways. Selfies have exploded in popularity yet virtually nothing is known about the effect on self-esteem, body image, and attractiveness in young women who post these images on social media. New data will be presented on this phenomenon. Working with a filmmaker, one of us combines personal narrative with images of a young single mother newly diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. With the changes in Title IX reporting on sexual assault and rape, college campuses need to understand those student groups who are more at risk for being embedded in rape culture and adopting rape myth attitudes. Data from a study examining rape myth acceptance will be shared. It is hypothesized that those in Greek life and who play sports will show higher rape myth acceptance scores than those in other extracurricular activities.

Males and females exhibit similar math and science achievement levels in K-12. Therefore, other variables are believed to play a considerable role in the continued underrepresentation of females and minorities in certain STEM career trajectories. This symposium will provide an overview and present data from three different types of studies that seek to impact attitudes about math, science, and gender stereotypes and enhance behavioral performance on STEM-related tasks. National and international data on female achievement in math and science will be reviewed. Math and science anxiety will be defined and operationalized and examples of assessment measures used in this area will be demonstrated. Gender stereotyping in STEM and the use of measures such as the Gender-Science Implicit Attitudes Test (IAT) are described. Methods for encouraging females to develop and maintain a strong math and science self-concept are explored. Data are presented from a study on pre-service teachers, suggesting that anxious attitudes about math and science and stereotypes about gender and science may be implicitly conveyed to K-12 students, impact female students more than male students, and could potentially be prevented. Outcome data are also presented on a brief mindful math intervention for female college students designed to increase math performance and decrease negative cognitions. Lastly, brief “reverse” stereotype threat interventions aimed at female, ethnic minority and low SES college students are described and discussed, with the goal of creating new and potentially quick methods for decreasing math and science anxiety and enhancing performance levels in these populations.

Over the last 20 years the United States has witnessed the arrival of 8.5 million Latino immigrants (PEW Hispanic Center, 2013). College education can be a platform for leadership and social change. However, in 2012 only 14.5% of U.S. Latinos ages 25 and older had earned a college degree. In this symposium, we focus on particularly vulnerable groups within the Latino community: women, and undocumented youth. The presentations describe the experience of people who reach out beyond the constriction of laws, customs, roles and risks, toward a better future. In two qualitative studies, these minorities –within-a- minority are given voice, and their subjective experience is made visible, so that advocates, clinicians and scholars can work effectively in their behalf. The first interview study compares Latinas who hold a college degree with those who never attended college. Strengths include self-efficacy, a collectivist approach, and resistamce to stereotype threat and the pressure of traditional gender roles. The researcher’s own experiences inform the study. The second interview study shows how immigration policy affects the daily functioning and mental health of undocumented Latino/as. Undocumented students are vulnerable to anti-immigration views, institutional restrictions on legal employment both during and after college, marginalization, discrimination, acculturation stress, fear of deportation and financial struggles. These stressors cumulatively contribute to anxiety, depression, and alienation Findings provide a knowledge base for college counselors and others who seek to address these mental health concerns and to provide comprehensive and knowledgeable service. In the discussion, we use this information, together with the history of advocacy and support , to brainstorm about what teachers, family members, school counselors, and psychologists can do to further the dreams of these young people, now and in the years ahead, while they are prevented from access to the American dream. Dr,Kuba will chair.

Interpersonal violence, which includes child abuse, sexual violence, and intimate partner violence, is major problem in U.S. society and leads to deleterious consequences for both victims and society. Recently, research has begun to examine among women the intersection of lifespan victimization, substance abuse, and criminal offending and incarceration. Little research, however, has examined these intersections within the context of a residential recovery community using a mixed methodological perspective. The purpose of the current study was to examine this gap in the literature, and the papers presented as part will report on the various findings from this multi-method study. Participants were 28 women affiliated with a transitional housing program, Support, Education, Empowerment & Directions (SEEDs), in Phoenix, Arizona. Women completed a survey, a detailed life history calendar, and interview grounded in Hermeneutic phenomenological practices. Participants ranged in age from 27 to 58 with a mean age of 43.5 and were predominately white (58%), heterosexual (58%) and divorced (58%) or never married (31%). All of the women in the sample were low income and the majority reported some education beyond high school (65%) and previous incarceration (73%). The papers presented in this symposium focus on the results from this study. The author of the first paper will discuss findings regarding the onset and maintenance of victimized female substance users. Another paper to be presented examined breaking free from victimization and the role of self-efficacy in promoting quality of life. A third paper examines how abused women’s perspectives of their relationships change over time. Implications of findings for practice and policy will be discussed. Professor Katie Edwards will be the discussant for the symposium, who has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers on topics related to intimate partner and sexual violence. The symposium will end with a discussion among presenters and audience members.

The Be Present Empowerment Model® provides tools for constructive dialogue and collaborative problem-solving among people with diverse viewpoints, values and needs. It supports individuals, families and institutions to sustain transformative change. Presenters will describe how the Model supports restorative justice work in the courts, the prison system, and after release.

This symposium addresses the importance of social context in relationship to significant social identities (e.g., race and gender) and commitment to social justice. All three presentations utilize qualitative methodologies in efforts to understand the role of race, class, gender, and sexuality in shaping the lived experiences of young Latina/os. The first presentation focuses on the experiences of young Latina students attending an alternative high school in Northern California. Using data gathered from an ethnographic study, the authors explore from an intersectional perspective young Latinas’ experiences in a school setting designed primarily for the surveillance and training of young men. Findings show instances of gendered microaggressions that reproduce practices that may lead to harmful outcomes for young Latinas. The second presenter discusses the transformative power of higher education in facilitating a commitment to work on behalf of Latina/o and gender issues. The author draws from interviews conducted with a sample of educated Latinas. Data analyses are informed by the social engagement model (Hurtado, 1997) and highlight the importance of student organizations and exposure to feminist and ethnic studies courses in galvanizing political activism geared at contributing to social justice and “the public good.” The final presenter draws from interviews with a sample of Latino men attending a “Hispanic” Serving Institution on the central coast of California. The purpose of the study was to understand how social context (familial, community, and educational) influence young Latinos’ views in defining the word “manhood.” The author utilizes intersectionality as a guiding concept informing analyses of participants’ responses. Findings indicate that most participants defined manhood in relational and ethical ways, and none endorsed hegemonic definitions of masculinity. Taken together, all three presentations illustrate the importance of social context in shaping educational trajectories and life chances, consciousness around gender, and commitment to social justice for marginalized communities.

Sexual assault represents a significant problem on college campuses in the U.S. but many incidences are unreported or are mishandled by authorities (Bradley et. al., 2009, Jervis, 2008). Prevention programs address the growing phenomenon of sexual assault on college campuses; however, many interventions result in a victim-blaming approach, have minimal to non-significant results, and/or are limited in their participants’ demographics (e.g., Gidycz et al., 2001; Bradley et al., 2009). In most approaches, the issue of consent is not taken into account. The Yes Means Yes (YMY) approach to sexual assault prevention recently legislated in California has heightened the issue of sexual assault prevention in the public consciousness and defined consent for sexual activities as an explicit yes, or “affirmative consent” rather than an absence of “no” (SB-967 Student Safety: Sexual Assault, 2014). This novel approach to sexual assault prevention education warrants research into its effectiveness. The first presentation reflects the conceptual process behind the design of the pilot intervention, including a review of existing programs and literature, choice of measures, and the creation of the YMY pilot intervention. The second presentation will address the analysis of qualitative questionnaires completed by participants in the pilot study. These questionnaires focused on ways the intervention could be improved in future studies. Analysis procedures included open coding on the questionnaires and finding emergent patterns among participants’ responses (Given, 2008). Results indicated a need for more discussion and inclusion of male issues. Quantitative and qualitative data collected during the pilot study allowed for implementation of additional components to strengthen the framework for YMY. The final presentation will focus on how the project was modified to incorporate the feedback and improve the intervention. Our ultimate goal is to develop, implement, and test an effective sexual assault prevention program in colleges.

The sexual domain is an essential space for justice researchers to consider – not only to understand how sexual relationships serve as sites of violence and conflict, but additionally, how sexual relationships reflect adaptions to and normalizations of inequality. This symposium offers three perspectives on working with justice theories to “enliven” key concepts in sexuality research. The three papers each take up a key concept – choice, empowerment, and satisfaction – and use a range of theoretical and empirical work to assess how previous conceptualizations have overlooked how entitlement and deservingness shape individuals’ sexual lives. The three papers each address how gender shapes sexual entitlement as well as how feminist psychological research plays an essential role in understanding experiences of normalized injustices in intimate relationships. The first paper examines the concept of “choice” in sexuality research and analyzes interviews with a sample of racially and ethnically diverse girls about their experiences with providing oral sex in heterosexual sexual encounters. The second paper takes us to the concept of “empowerment” and argues that an intervention into discussions of female empowerment must more carefully consider the role of sexual embodiment in order to more fully articulate what exactly one is empowered to do, be, or feel. Lastly, the third paper makes a theoretical and empirical argument that studies of “sexual satisfaction” do not sufficiently consider the ways in which individuals are socialized to feel entitled (or un-entitled) to feel sexually satisfied. Drawing on a mixed methods study of individuals’ definitions of satisfaction, this paper argues that feminist psychology must more systematically link examinations of satisfaction with deservingness.

As the U.S becomes a more multiculturally diverse nation, the need for increased multicultural and cross-cultural research in psychology is an ethical imperative. The utilization of indigenous healing practices in the United States have greatly increased in popularity among minority populations. However, despite their increased utilization, indigenous forms of healing are often devalued or invalidated due to their differing epistemological worldview from the Western positivist paradigm. There has been little research done into understanding the healing mechanisms of these practices and understanding how and why they are effective. While indigenous approaches in psychology continue to be somewhat invisible within the dominant professional paradigm, attention to cultural healing practices was common among such founders of psychology as C. G. Jung, at a time when many other Western traditions dismissed any perspectives that were derived outside of the Western “scientific” paradigm. Sinha (1997), among the first psychology scholars to provide a definition of indigenous psychology, suggested that such psychology(ies) share emphasis on the cultural foundations of knowledge, local practices, interpretations grounded in local frames of reference, and locally relevant results. Undoubtedly, contemporary feminist psychology, embedded within Third and Fourth Waves of feminism, emphasizes these very same values. However, training, writing, and presentations on specific ways to integrate indigenous perspectives as well as research methods, remain scarce. Therefore, this proposed Symposium would provide not only a review of contemporary perspectives on indigenous, shamanic, and folk healing perspectives outside of traditional Western psychological paradigms, but also invite participants to learn about these practices within the context of clinical work, research, and personal experiences of three women-presenters. These presentations will draw upon research on indigenous healing practices in South America as well as contemporary shamanic work in North American context. Lastly, the presenters will introduce rationale for ways that indigenous approaches can function as liberatory, feminist, and socially relevant practices both outside and inside the Western context.

Using an ecological framework, multisystem factors contributing to the disparities between majority and underserved ethnic populations can be explored along with ways to heal and rebuild communities through research, collaboration and advocacy. Factors such as cultural beliefs, womens issues, racism, power imbalances, heterosexism, and sexism are among risk factors that will be discussed. This presentation will explore intervention and prevention programs at the individual, community, and societal levels in order to fully address this sexual health disparity. At the individual level, the burden of risky sexual behavior, practices, and outcomes fall heavily on ethnic minority females. Race/ethnicity and gender specific rates show Black and Hispanic females have higher rates of sexual intercourse, putting them at risk of STIs and unplanned pregnancies in high school years. At the microsystem level, family and peers have a strong influence on sexual behaviors. Family communication can have an impact the age of sexual debut, contraception use, and attitudes toward sexuality. Peer relationships, both positive and negative, have a strong influence on adolescent sexual behaviors such as condom use. For instance, when members of adolescent peer groups have positive attitudes toward condoms, it predicts personal usage. Programs using these factors will be discussed. Research on risk and protective factors provide some gender-based directions for constructing community based programs and interventions in school settings. Research has found that effective programs for this population offer access to accurate information about contraceptive use and STIs/HIV using culturally sensitive methods that address factors such as gender scripts of control and dominance. In order to fully address the sexual health disparity affecting ethnic minority adolescents, it is also necessary to examine factors at the macrosystem (societal) level. This paper will explore strategies in advocacy at all levels which help to achieve social change benefiting this population.

Feminist psychologists have theorized reproductive technologies as sites of both resistance and alienation, of reproductive autonomy and restriction. While some have critiqued them as tools of hetero-patriarchal control, others have suggested that they can be used to resist exclusionary reproductive narratives, allowing individuals to claim new identities, embodiments, and kinship formations. Issues of economic access also come into play as the commodification of reproductive technologies make them accessible to some and not others. However, the stratification of these technologies is complex and varied across many different social locations (and boundaries) beyond (and intersecting with) restrictions of economic access. Throughout this symposium, we will examine the technologization and stratification of reproduction across lines of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Drawing from critical queer and feminist theories of embodiment, biomedicalization, and reproductive justice, we explore notions of access, availability, and visibility among a variety of psychological and socio-historical contexts. Presentations explore the following topics: the exclusion of trans masculine individuals from literature addressing access to assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), the role of psychology in shaping the discursive construction of abortion in the US for marginalized citizens, the commodification and disembodiment of the lactating body through the recent surge in milk banking, and the contemporary biomedicalization of sex and gender through the routine use of obstetric ultrasonography. Each presentation will be situated within the larger social-historical context, using queer and feminist theoretical frameworks as we work to expand the scope of reproductive justice.

In the 19th century the paramount moral challenge was slavery; in the 20th century totalitarianism; today, it is the brutality inflicted upon women. This Symposium addresses the pervasiveness of gender violence globally, followed by an in-depth discussion of sex trafficking, and concludes with a discussion of approaches to empower women and promote gender equality

This symposium presents both quantitative and qualitative research and clinical strategies related to the experience of sexual minority stress and resilient responses to ward off their effects. Sexual minority stress is the stress that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people experience in addition to the every day stress that all people experience (e.g., Meyer, 2001). The presentation addresses questions about how sexual minority stressors function across different groups of women, about how resilience to sexual minority stressors can best be conceptualized, and about how the damage from sexual minority stress can best be repaired within our contemporary landscape. At the beginning of the symposium, researchers explore LGBQ women’s gender expression to see how masculinity in women influences minority stressors and mental health via a survey study. Outcomes explored include internalized homophobia, identity concealment, expectations of rejection and psychological distress. The second set of researchers examines the question of whether people who have multiple minority identities have increased resilience to sexual minority stressors by examining how LGBT women of color experience social well-being. The ways this population experiences connectedness to communities, loneliness, and social support is explored. Next, a qualitative study queries the ways that resilience functions to support LGB people. It sheds light upon the ways resilient responses can mitigate minority stressors but also upon the potential costs of those same responses. Finally, an eminent therapist examines how, as advances are being made in the social acceptance of LGBTQ populations, sexual prejudices are shifting in form to become increasingly subtle. These covert forms of sexual prejudice may be harder for both clients and therapists to recognize and resist. She shares her clinical insights on how practitioners can refine their practices to help clients repair the effects of sexual minority stressors. We request a 90-minute program slot, if possible.