Introduction to the special section: Mental health of lesbians and gay men.

There has been little focus on the mental health of lesbians and gay men in the 2 decades since homosexuality was removed as a diagnostic category from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1980). This special section contains articles on research methodology on lesbian and gay mental health; the practice and ethics of sexual orientation conversion therapy; the mental health results of the National Lesbian Health Care Survey; ethnicity and sexual orientation; sexual orientation as a factor in research on eating disorders and body dissatisfaction; and verbal and physical abuse as stressors in the lives of lesbian and gay youths. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adaptation to sexual orientation stigma: A comparison of bisexual and lesbian/gay adults.

This study extends research on dimensions of sexual minority experience by examining differences between bisexual and lesbian/gay adults in adaptation to sexual orientation stigma. The authors investigated sexual orientation self-disclosure, connection to community, and 4 identity-related variables (internalized homonegativity, stigma sensitivity, identity confusion, and identity superiority) in a community sample of 613 lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults. Sexual orientation effects were found on 3 of these 6 variables: Bisexual participants reported higher levels of identity confusion and lower levels of both self-disclosure and community connection relative to their lesbian/gay peers. Taken together, the 6 variables predicted indicators of psychosocial functioning. Associations among the 6 dimensions of sexual minority experience and psychosocial functioning did not differ for bisexual and lesbian/gay participants. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Making the invisible visible: Fear and disclosure of sexual orientation at work.

Stigma theory was used to examine the fears underlying the disclosure of a gay identity at work. Using a national sample of 534 gay, lesbian, and bisexual employees, this study examined the antecedents that affect the degree of disclosure of a gay identity at work and, for those who had not disclosed, the factors that influence their fears about full disclosure. Employees reported less fear and more disclosure when they worked in a group that was perceived as supportive and sharing their stigma. Perceptions of past experience with sexual orientation discrimination were related to increased fears but to greater disclosure. For those who had not fully disclosed their stigma, the fears associated with disclosure predicted job attitudes, psychological strain, work environment, and career outcomes. However, actual disclosure was unrelated to these variables. The utility of fear of disclosure for understanding processes underlying the disclosure of gay and other invisible stigmatized identities in the workplace is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual orientation and the second to fourth finger length ratio: A meta-analysis in men and women.

The ratio of the lengths of the second and fourth fingers (2D:4D) may serve as a marker for prenatal androgen signaling. Because people are typically unaware of their 2D:4D, its use allows possible effects of early sex hormone regimes and socialization to be disentangled. We conducted a meta-analysis on relationships between 2D:4D and sexual orientation in men and women in 18 independent samples of men and 16 independent samples of women. Collectively, these samples comprised 1,618 heterosexual men, 1,693 heterosexual women, 1,503 gay men, and 1,014 lesbians. In addition to identifying the normative heterosexual sex difference in 2D:4D for both hands, we found that heterosexual women had higher (more feminine) left- and right-hand 2D:4D than did lesbians, but we found no difference between heterosexual and gay men. Moderator analyses suggested that ethnicity explained some between-studies variation in men. These results add to a literature suggesting that early sex hormone signaling affects sexual orientation in women, and highlight the need for further research exploring the relationships among 2D:4D, sexual orientation, and ethnicity in men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Predictors of psychotherapeutic benefit of lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients: The effects of sexual orientation matching and other factors": Correction to Jones et al. (2003).

Reports an error in "Predictors of Psychotherapeutic Benefit of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Clients: The Effects of Sexual Orientation Matching and Other Factors" by Mary Ann Jones, Michael Botsko and Bernard S. Gorman (Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 2003[Win], Vol 40[4], 289-301). On page 293, Table 3 is incorrectly identified as Table 2, and on pages 294-295, Table 2 is incorrectly identified as Table 3. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2003-11058-004.) Predictors of the level of benefit derived from nearly 2,000 psychotherapy episodes reported by a nationwide, nonprobability sample of 600 lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients were analyzed using ordinary least squares regression, corrected by generalized-estimating-equation (GEE) procedures for lack of independence in the data. Among the positive predictors of benefit are the following: the year the episode began; the number of sessions in the episode; the client's identifying him- or herself as gay, lesbian, or bisexual at the beginning of the episode and being unconflicted about it; and having a therapist who is female, gay, or lesbian or who trained as a social worker or a psychologist. Negative predictors include having a therapist who is an analyst, who uses reparative therapy, or who violates sexual boundaries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress at work: Linear and curvilinear effects of psychological-, job-, and organization-related factors: An exploratory study of trinidad and tobago.

In this study, the authors operationalized job stress as a two-dimensional construct consisting of time pressure and anxiety. The authors hypothesized that the relationship between job stress and job-related attitudes such as job involvement and job satisfaction would be curvilinear but would be linear with psychosomatic problems. In addition, the authors proposed that attitudinal factors would mediate the relationship between job stress and organizational commitment. Data were obtained from 241 respondents in Trinidad and Tobago. Our findings revealed that curvilinear relationships were supported for anxiety and the outcome variables but not for time pressure. The results also provided full support for our mediation hypotheses in the case of anxiety. However, partial support for mediation was obtained for time pressure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of personal work goals in newcomers' job satisfaction and organizational commitment: A longitudinal analysis.

This study examined the importance of 3 characteristics of personal work goals (i.e., commitment, attainability, and progress) in accounting for changes in newcomers' affective job attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction and organizational commitment) during the 1st months of employment. Twenty weeks after organizational entry, 81 newcomers provided a list of their personal work goals. Goal attributes and job attitudes were assessed at 3 testing periods covering 8 months. Goal commitment was found to moderate the extent to which differences in the attainability of personal goals at the workplace accounted for changes in job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Goal progress mediated the interactive effect of goal commitment and attainability on newcomers' job attitudes. Findings are discussed with respect to their relevance for proactive approaches to organizational socialization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Work/family demands, work flexibility, work/family conflict, and their consequences at work: A national probability sample in Taiwan.

The aim of this research was to explore relations between work/family demands, work flexibility, work/family conflict, and work-related outcomes in the cultural context of Chinese society, using a national probability sample. For Taiwanese employees, work demands were positively related to work/family conflict, whereas both work and family demands were positively related to family/work conflict. Work/family conflict was negatively related to job satisfaction and family/work conflict to organizational commitment. More importantly, the authors found that organizational policies and practices such as work flexibility could alleviate feelings of work interfering with family, further enhancing job satisfaction and organizational commitment. It is recommended that various family-friendly company policies be reformulated taking into account core cultural values such as individualism-collectivism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Combining dispositions and evaluations of vocation and job to account for counterproductive work behavior in adolescent job apprentices": Correction.

Reports an error in "Combining dispositions and evaluations of vocation and job to account for counterproductive work behavior in adolescent job apprentices" by Bernd Marcus and Uwe Wagner (Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 2007[Apr], Vol 12[2], 161-176). The following errors were committed: (1) In Table 1, item 7 in the variable column is mislabeled. (2) On page 171, in the paragraph before the Discussion section, the sentence beginning on line 14 reads incorrectly. (3) The caption for Figure 1 reads incorrectly. (4) On page 166, left column, 4th line from the bottom, the sentence reads incorrectly. The corrected information is provided. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2007-05780-007.) In the present research, we investigated the joint impact of selected antecedents of counterproductive work behavior (CWB). A sample of German apprentices reported on their CWB and completed measures of situational evaluations (vocational preference, level and constructiveness of job satisfaction) believed to trigger CWB and of dispositional motivators (measured by integrity test subscales) and controls (self-control and another subset of integrity scales) of CWB. All predictors investigated showed the expected bivariate relationships with CWB. Multivariate analyses revealed that the triggering effect of an unfavorable vocational choice on CWB was fully mediated by job satisfaction. When predictors were aggregated, a composite of dispositional control variables had the largest effect on CWB and moderated the effects of motivational dispositions and situational evaluations. These results extend the knowledge on antecedents of CWB by investigating previously overlooked variables and samples and partially replicate recent findings on the joint impact of dispositions and work-related evaluations on CWB. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ): Developing and validating a comprehensive measure for assessing job design and the nature of work.

Although there are thousands of studies investigating work and job design, existing measures are incomplete. In an effort to address this gap, the authors reviewed the work design literature, identified and integrated previously described work characteristics, and developed a measure to tap those work characteristics. The resultant Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ) was validated with 540 incumbents holding 243 distinct jobs and demonstrated excellent reliability and convergent and discriminant validity. In addition, the authors found that, although both task and knowledge work characteristics predicted satisfaction, only knowledge characteristics were related to training and compensation requirements. Finally, the results showed that social support incrementally predicted satisfaction beyond motivational work characteristics but was not related to increased training and compensation requirements. These results provide new insight into how to avoid the trade-offs commonly observed in work design research. Taken together, the WDQ appears to hold promise as a general measure of work characteristics that can be used by scholars and practitioners to conduct basic research on the nature of work or to design and redesign jobs in organizations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)