Perceptions of sexual harassment by evidence quality, perceiver gender, feminism, and right wing authoritarianism: Debunking popular myths.

This study examined the critique in public discourse that sexual harassment (SH) victim advocates, particularly women and feminists, ignore the quality of evidence in a SH claim and are reluctant to find evidence of a false accusation. To balance the inquiry, the study also examined whether right wing authoritarians (RWAs) also ignore evidence quality and presume such claims are false accusations. Participants were 961 U.

Evaluation of a comprehensive tobacco cessation curriculum for dental hygiene programs.

Dental health care providers continue to offer inconsistent and limited tobacco use cessation (TUC) interventions even though smoking-related morbidity and mortality continue to be a substantial health concern. Our purpose was to conduct a comprehensive, three-year (2003-06) TUC curriculum evaluation that included assessment of existing TUC education offered; dental hygiene educators' readiness to incorporate TUC education into the curriculum; and development of a pre-test/post-test assessment instrument and faculty development program. This curriculum study was carried out alongside a research study to evaluate the effectiveness of a peer-reviewed tobacco curriculum (Tobacco Free! Curriculum).

Sexual harassment and posttraumatic stress disorder: damages beyond prior abuse.

This study examined the extent to which harassment experiences correlate with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and whether diagnosable PTSD on the basis of sexual harassment occurs after accounting for prior PTSD, prior sexual abuse, and prior psychological dysfunction. The sample consisted of a two-wave panel of 445 women who had received a domestic violence protective order from a Kentucky court. Hierarchical linear and logistic analyses confirmed that sexual harassment experiences were significantly correlated with PTSD symptoms after controlling for an extensive set of trauma variables measured in both the baseline and follow up interviews.

Factors affecting adoption of tobacco education in dental hygiene programs.

Background: Tobacco cessation interventions provided by health care professionals, including dental hygienists can significantly increase the rate of tobacco cessation, yet providers feel inadequately prepared to deliver such interventions.

Methods: 96 dental hygiene faculty completed a survey measuring attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control to determine their influence on teaching and assessing tobacco cessation intervention competencies.

Results: Prior experience with providing tobacco cessation counseling, perceptions of internal confidence and control of barriers were significantly related to covering tobacco-related topics.

The need for tobacco education: studies of collegiate dental hygiene patients and faculty.

The need for inclusion of comprehensive tobacco control education/training for health care providers continues to be stressed in publications addressing cessation services. The dental appointment presents an excellent opportunity to provide tobacco interventions to basically healthy people on regular intervals. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to assess the need (stage of change and concomitant need for tobacco cessation intervention) of dental hygiene patients at a Midwest dental hygiene clinic, and 2) to assess and compare the level of tobacco intervention education currently being offered by dental hygiene educators in a Midwestern state.

Social, attitudinal, and demographic correlates of adolescent vs college-age tobacco use initiation.

Objective: To examine associations between social influences and smoking-related attitudes and age of cigarette use initiation among college students.

Methods: Responses from 3 campus surveys (2 random, 1 convenience) were analyzed. The surveys were modeled from existing state or national tobacco surveys and other psychometrically valid surveys.

Explaining sexual harassment judgments: looking beyond gender of the rater.

In two decades of research on sexual harassment, one finding that appears repeatedly is that gender of the rater influences judgments about sexual harassment such that women are more likely than men to label behavior as sexual harassment. Yet, sexual harassment judgments are complex, particularly in situations that culminate in legal proceedings. And, this one variable, gender, may have been overemphasized to the exclusion of other situational and rater characteristic variables.

Rural elementary students', parents', and teachers' perceptions of bullying.

Objective: To examine the prevalence and correlates of bullying in 7 rural elementary schools from students', parents', and teachers' perspectives.

Method: Surveys were completed by 739 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students, 367 parents, and 37 teachers.

Results: Students tended to report higher prevalence of bullying than did parents or teachers, and their reports were associated with aggression, attitudes toward violence, and perceptions of school safety.