Child sexual abuse and gender differences: attitudes and prevalence.

A great deal of attention has been focused on child sexual abuse in recent years. The present study reports attitudes and beliefs of 824 male and female college students concerning sexual abuse, and the participants' own experience with such abuse. Results indicate that women have much stronger pro-social beliefs, attitudes, and emotional reactions to sexual abuse and to abusers and victims than men do. In addition, 6% of men and 13% of women participants reported that they had been sexually abused as children or adolescents, while equal proportions of males and females reported that they were sexually approached by a potential perpetrator. These results are discussed in terms of socialization experiences of males and females in our society, and the literature regarding helping behaviors and compassion for others perceived as helpless and in need of aid. In particular, females may be abused more often than males, even though both sexes are approached in equal frequency, because females have been socialized to be more compliant and responsive to the needs of others, while males are perpetrators more often than females because males have been socialized to be more aggressive, powerful, and dominant.

Monoamines: biochemical markers of suicide?

The purpose of this article is to give the clinician not proficient in biochemistry an understanding of the biochemical research data on neurotransmitters and suicide. This literature review reports the current findings on serotonin (5-HT), dopamine (DA), and norepinephrine (NE) as possible biochemical markers of depression and suicide. In conjunction with known environmental and behavioral indicators of suicide, neurotransmitter balance could be a factor in determining the severity of depression and the possible suicidal ideation in patients. Numerous studies have been performed on the monoamines: Serotonin, Dopamine and Norepinephrine, neurotransmitters that innervate parts of the spinal cord and all areas of the brain. Studies appear to suggest a relationship among monoamine levels, depression, and suicide. Significantly low levels of serotonin and the neurotransmitter metabolite (5-HIAA) may be correlated with suicidal behavior.

Sex differences in peer responsiveness to suicide ideation.

Two surveys assessing attitudes toward and beliefs about suicide were conducted with undergraduates. There were 473 participants in Survey I and 692 participants in Survey II. Sex differences were found in participants' receptivity to suicidal individuals, beliefs about the behavior of suicidal peers, attitudes concerning the worth of suicidal people, incidence of adolescent suicide, and morality of suicide. There was no sex difference in participants' own frequency or seriousness of suicide ideation or suicide attempts. Results are discussed in terms of hypotheses concerning traditional socialization of males and females, resulting in sex-role differentiation that may influence attitudes toward and beliefs about suicide.

Variations in hand position, cerebral lateralization, and reading ability among right-handed children.

A group of 121 right-handed children between the ages of 7 and 9 with a range of hand positions between normal and inverted were assessed for verbal and visuospatial lateralization and reading comprehension. Results indicate that (a) children with a normal hand position tended to be more verbally lateralized than children with nonnormal positions, although the effect was not strong or always consistent, (b) the closer the child was to the normal position, the higher the child's reading scores, and (c) poor readers were as lateralized for verbal and visuospatial functions as were good readers. Coupled with the results of previous research, these findings suggest that hand position indexes both maturation and lateralization, and that the relationship between hand position and reading is primarily mediated by the former.