The New Face of Infidelity

The New Face of Infidelity

Research shows women may be cheating now almost as much as men; the toll of new temptations

Some 60 years ago, Alfred Kinsey delivered a shock to midcentury sexual sensibilities when he reported that at some point in their marriages, half of the men and a quarter of the women in the U.S. had an extramarital affair. No one puts much stock in Dr. Kinsey's high numbers any more—his sampling methods suffered from a raging case of selection bias—but his results fit the long-standing assumption that men are much more likely to cheat than women.

Lately, however, researchers have been raising doubts about this view: They believe that the incidence of unfaithfulness among wives may be approaching that of husbands. The lasting costs of these betrayals will be familiar to the many Americans who have experienced divorce as spouses or children.

Among the most reliable studies on this issue is the General Social Survey, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, which has been asking Americans the same questions since 1972. In the 2010 survey, 19% of men said that they had been unfaithful at some point during their marriages, down from 21% in 1991. Women who reported having an affair increased from 11% in 1991 to 14% in 2010.

A 2011 study conducted by Indiana University, the Kinsey Institute and the University of Guelph found much less of a divide: 23% for men and 19% for women. Such numbers suggest the disappearance of the infidelity gender gap, but some caution is in order.

An enduring problem for researchers—even those who sample with meticulous care—is that any such survey is asking for confessions from people who are presumably lying to their spouses. Researchers generally believe that actual infidelity numbers are higher than the results indicate.

It should also be emphasized that cheating in the U.S. isn't epidemic or inevitable, for either sex. Surveys consistently find that by far the majority of respondents value monogamy and think that infidelity is harmful. And if you believe the General Social Survey's finding that 14% of women are cheating, keep in mind that 86% aren't.

Still, even though survey accuracy is difficult to achieve and experts are by no means unanimous, it would appear that women are, indeed, catching up. In my own work as a psychologist and in my social circle, I see more women not only having affairs but actively seeking them out. Their reasons are familiar: validation of their attractiveness, emotional connection, appreciation, ego—not to mention the thrill of a shiny new relationship, unburdened by the long slog through the realities of coupledom.

Researchers also point to other factors that might be leading women to stray more. One is what might be called "infidelity overload." Scan the plots on any given week in television, and there seems to be more extramarital sex than marital sex. (Few spouses stay put in "Mad Men.") With women portrayed as eager participants and aggressive instigators, there may be a feeling that infidelity has become more acceptable.

And then there is the opportunity factor—more travel, more late nights on the job and more interaction with men mean that the chances and temptations to stray have multiplied for the new generation of working women.

A 2011 study at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, published in the journal Psychological Science, argues that infidelity is also a function of greater economic and social power, which creates confidence and personal leverage for both genders. Women can now use their power in ways to which men have long been accustomed.

Social networks are another factor, if only by expanding the pool of possible partners. Emotional friendships that turn physical are the traditional point of entry for female affairs. It is now easy for those friendships to take root online. 

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Home Health Aides Often As Old As Their Clients

Home Health Aides Often As Old As Their Clients

  

In a red brick rambler in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C., Onether Lowery begins her daily shift as a caregiver. She skillfully helps 86-year-old Rosalie Lewis into her electric wheelchair, holding her from the back, then bending over to ease her down.

It's an impressive feat: Lowery herself is 80 years old.

"My mother, she was 89 when she passed away," Lowery says. "I took care of her and I just fell in love with older people. I get along with them very well."

As America ages, its 2.5 million home health workers are graying right along with the clients they care for. And by all accounts, these older workers are especially well suited to the job.

Lowery is proud of how she can patiently coax clients to eat — even when they don't feel like it — how her experience helps her sense what they need. She used to care for Lewis' sister as well. At one point, the sister needed extra help, and Lowery says an agency sent younger caregivers.

"Well, she would always tell me when they wasn't around that they didn't do anything, not unless she asked them to do it," she says. "But me, I see things and I do it."

As a whole, home health aides are largely female and far older than women in the general workforce. The Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute says more than a quarter of aides are 55 or older, a share that's expected to rise to a third by 2020.

"A number of our clients will ask for a more 'mature' worker," says Marla Lahat, who heads Home Care Partners in Washington, D.C., the agency that employs Lowery. In this case, "mature" means "older."

"Sometimes they're a little bit afraid of the younger generation," she says, "and they know that a worker that's closer to their age is somebody that they feel more comfortable with and more trusting."

And in an industry where turnover is high, Lahat says, it's older workers who tend to stay in the job.

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Financial Wellness: Black Friday Deals Are Not Deals

Financial Health - The Myth of the Black Friday Deal

Attention Black Friday shoppers: You're probably wasting your time.

After crunching two to six years' worth of pricing data for a number of typical holiday gifts, The Wall Street Journal has turned up the best times to go deal hunting — and they almost never involve standing in the freezing cold all night.

It turns out that gifts from Barbie dolls to watches to blenders are often priced below Black Friday levels at various times throughout the year, even during the holiday season, and their prices follow different trajectories as the remaining shopping days tick down.

Watches and jewelry, typical last-minute quarry for well-heeled shoppers, get more expensive as the season progresses, according to Decide Inc., the consumer-price research firm that gathered and analyzed the data for this article. Blenders, which might sit around for months if they aren't bought in the holiday window, get much cheaper at the end.

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Nike Sponsors Study Says Today's Children May Not Outlive Their Parents

Nike behind study to make kids more active

Today's youth could be the first generation in history not to outlive its parents' generation. 

That's part of a new study unveiled Monday by Designed To Move, a group of organizations led by Nike, the American College of Sports Medicine and the International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education, that are hoping to boost physical activity among young people.

The study's eye-popping stat is that today's children are on track to have a life expectancy five years shorter than their parents.

The report details that a child who lives in the United States becomes 75 percent less active between the ages of 9 and 15 and that, in the past 44 years, physical activity in the U.S. is down 32 percent and is projected to be down 46 percent by 2030. If money needs to be the motivator, consider this: The direct cost of inactivity will lead to a 113 percent increase in health care costs by 2030.

On Monday, Nike publicly acknowledged these efforts to team with more than 70 organizations to jump-start activity across the world.

"We need to create awareness to break this cycle," said Nike Brand president Charlie Denson.

Track star and Nike endorser Allyson Felix, who picked up three gold medals at this year's Olympics, said attitudes have to change.

"We know that habits about physical activity form before kids are 10 years old," said Felix. "So we change that. We have to give kids more positive experiences of physical activity."

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Pou enfomasyon sou Isaac an Kreyol

Pou enfomasyon sou tanpet twopikal / siklon Isaac an Kreyol, tanpri nan Radyo Mega 1700 am o 90.3 fm

Florida Division of Emergency Management Information

Florida's Division of Emergency Management plans for and responds to both natural and man-made disasters, such as hurricanes. The division is the state's liaison with federal and local agencies on emergencies of all kinds. Click here to log on and learn more.

Miami-Dade County Storm Information

Miami-Dade County's Emergency Management Center has important information for residents regarding Tropical Storm/Hurricane Isaac.  Please click on this weblink for updates on evacuation orders (none issued at this time for Miami-Dade County) and Open/Close status of County services/facilities.

Are you ready for Isaac?

Isaac is lurking in the Caribbean Sea with a strong possibility that the storm will affect our community.  Please make sure you are doing what you need to do to help your family and neighbors be ready for the worse while we all hope for the best.  Please monitor local news outlets (radio, television, online) for important updates.

Harm Reduction and Organizing to Alter Paradigms & Perceptions

What If Drug Users Organized Like Unions?

A San Francisco coalition of drug users is out to change the way that people perceive them.

The name of the group was only meant to be a placeholder. Until the union’s rank-and-file could settle on a more permanent title, the organizers needed something to write on their grant applications and to give to community center staff when signing up for meeting space around the Tenderloin and the Mission. It was during one of those meetings in late 2009 that someone suggested San Francisco Drug Users’ Union. It wasn’t a name calculated to win the endorsement of a focus group, but then again, neither was the organization. 

Three years later, the name has stuck.

“It really says what we’re about unequivocally,” says Isaac Jackson, senior peer organizer and co-founder of San Francisco’s first drug user group. They could have gone with a more politically palatable designation, but the group wasn’t founded to be politically palatable, he says. The name is unapologetically self-descriptive because drug users shouldn’t feel the need to apologize. “Drug use in and of itself is not a negative. Having the name we have kind of ensures that the people who join are comfortable with their identity.”

Even in San Francisco, a city considered to be at the forefront of progressive (or, alternatively, permissive) drug policy in this country, the idea that drug use merits a union ― and not a stint in rehab or a prison sentence — is one that still raises eyebrows. But following in the tradition of other North American user groups which have sprouted up in cities like Vancouver, New York, and nearby Oakland, SFDUU members aren’t just interested in making drug laws less punitive, they want to change the way that people see users. As a philosophy, theirs is strikingly straightforward: people who use drugs are citizens too.

When the union finally moved into its permanent digs after spending its first year roving from community center to clinic to office space around the city, the landlord was happy to have them. With a rescue mission, an SRO and a windowless beer hall all within throwing distance of the space’s iron-gated entrance on Turk Street, it was the union’s willingness to sign a five-year lease and pay for new wooden flooring that most appealed to the owner of the railroad office suite.

The group’s charter and membership roster were of less concern to the neighborhood at large as well. In an area of the city long associated with poverty, substandard housing, homelessness, and crime, the sudden appearance of a scruffy union with a strange name was met by the surrounding tenants with shoulder-shrugging equanimity.

“We’re just a group of self-contained adults holding meetings,” Isaac says matter-of-factly. While a few local dealers dropped in at the first meet-ups, none have returned since, evidently satisfied that the union was neither a “narc group” nor a source of competition. Since then, says Jackson, there have been no complaints. “We’re good neighbors,” he says.

The union may not sound like a “typical” crowd of drug users, but as Jackson argues, there’s no such thing. Case in point: Isaac Jackson, Ph.D. Bespectacled, soft-spoken and sporting a bushy beard of more pepper than salt, 56-year-old Jackson looks more absent-minded professor than meth addict.

Asked about his early life, he describes none of the predictably tragic rites of passage one expects from a regular user. Growing up in New York City, he did not spend his childhood surrounded by addiction. As a teenager, he didn’t fall in with the wrong crowd. In his late-20s, he received his masters degree from a private college in Manhattan and in 1992, he was awarded a doctorate from MIT’s Media Lab. It wasn’t until he was in his mid-30s, freshly transplanted to San Francisco, that he first sampled what has since become his drug of choice.

Jackson says he doesn’t like to talk about his educational background. “People” -- and by people, he certainly means reporters -- “always want to talk about how I went to MIT,” he says. But while a Ph.D. with a crank habit might strike some as a novelty, he says his current place in life owes more to his work with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Jackson went to work with the organization after losing his high-paying tech job in the dot-com crash, falling into a prolonged depression and quickly letting his self-medication slip “out of control.” After a few run-ins with SFAF outreach workers, Jackson scored himself a job passing out syringes, condoms and racy but informational zines targeting gay speed users. It was during those years that Jackson taught himself to use “responsibly” — to set schedules for himself and to put certain obligations over the pressing desire to get high.

It was also during this period that he became versed in the philosophy of harm reduction.

Coined in the 1980s by British public health specialists working to control the spread of HIV/AIDS among intravenous drug users, the term “harm reduction” has since become shorthand for any policy that puts the welfare of someone who engages in victimless illegal behavior over the need to penalize that behavior. In drug policy, this might mean establishing needle exchanges or simply ensuring that users can access health and other social services.

But when Jackson started to seriously consider forming a users’ union in late 2007, it was with one considerably more radical initiative in mind.

That year, the San Francisco Public Health Department sponsored a symposium on supervised (or, safe) injection sites — facilities where intravenous drug users are invited to shoot up under the watch of medically trained staff. While such services have existed for decades in the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland, the symposium was largely inspired by the success story of Vancouver-based “Insite,” the first legal SIS to open in North America.

Looking at the available data, it’s hard to argue that Insite is anything but a success story. Since opening its doors in 2003, the project has been credited by dozens of studies with reducing needle sharing and the transmission of bloodborne disease, while acting as a one-stop-shop of other health, rehab and other social services, for an otherwise difficult-to-reach demographic. Maybe most importantly, of the nearly 500 overdoses that occurred at Insite during its first year of operation, thanks to the two trained nurses on staff, none resulted in death.

Jackson calls that symposium the union’s “catalyst moment.” Before attending the event, Jackson had watched a documentary about the role the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users had played in pushing their city’s government towards its uniquely progressive stance on drug policy. Now, with a specific goal in mind, Jackson turned a colleague, Ned Howey, who in turn recruited a local housing activist named Alexandra Goldman. In 2008, the three started holding meetings. The following year, the group applied to the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) for seed money.

Three grant cycles later, both Howey and Goldman have left their leadership roles, but Jackson is as determined as ever to achieve his “big goal.” This summer the union hosted a design exhibit, inviting a handful of California designers to create their own model sites, based on the preferences of union members.

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Caribbean Youth Get Help in Fight Against HIV-Stigma

New Media Campaign Targeting Hiv-Related Stigma & Discrimination In Caribbean Youth

PANCAP’s Caribbean Regional Social Marketing Project (CARISMA) will be rolling out a new media campaign in five English speaking Caribbean countries (Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana and Saint Lucia) on July 25, 2012. The campaign aims to generate more compassion and respect for individuals living with HIV. Funded by KfW (The German Development Bank), the campaign will target young people between the ages of 16-24, and will build on past Regional efforts by increasing awareness of how HIV-related stigma and discrimination is perpetuated. It will provide young people with knowledge and skills to challenge harmful social norms linked to the issue.

The multimedia campaign will include television spots, a music video, radio, print and social media that communicate the campaign's key messages: True Friends Don’t Discriminate and “I will stand up for friends with HIV and stand against Stigma and Discrimination!” Following the launch of the campaign, youth will be able to access media material and linkages to resources in their respective countries on a dedicated website www.facebook.com/truefrenz4life

The campaign was developed by Howard Delafield International (HDI) and their Guyana-based creative partner AstroArts International Marketing and their regional media placement partner, REACH Caribbean. The team was selected through a competitive bidding process led by PANCAP and the CARISMA Management partner, Options Consultancy. An assessment of the campaign’s impact will be undertaken at its conclusion in October 2012.

The PANCAP CARISMA Project was established in 2005 to support social marketing initiatives in 13 countries in the region. The second phase of the project, ending in December 2012, seeks to address stigma and discrimination in the region and targets those groups most vulnerable to contracting HIV/AIDS, including young people.

For further details, contact: Valerie Beach Horne, Strategic Information and Communication Officer vbeachhorne@caricom.org or pancap@caricom.org

caricompublicinfo@gmail.com

www.caricom.org

www.pancap.org/en/

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Providers Have New Depression Treatment Tool

Tool Kit Helps Providers Treat Patients with Depression

Many service members and veterans experiencing symptoms of depression will receive most or all of their care through their primary care physician. If you’re a primary care provider and unfamiliar with the “Major Depressive Disorder Toolkit,” it’s important you download it or request a hard copy today.

Developed by Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE), U.S. Army Medical Command and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the tool kit provides clear, comprehensive descriptions of critical decision points that help providers screen for major depressive disorder (MDD). The tool kit guides diagnosis, management of symptoms and referral of patients to mental health specialists.

This all-encompassing, user-friendly guidance tool features evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and recommendations from the Defense Department and VA. The guidelines cover all aspects of care for MDD from screening and assessment to follow-up and monitoring. The tool kit also includes a variety of reliable tools, questions and simple reference material for providers, patients and their families. It can be used in its entirety or in sections depending on patient needs.

To further assist providers using the tool kit, DCoE created the Major Depressive Disorder Toolkit: Key Concepts for Primary Providers, which offers brief background information on the clinical practice guidelines for MDD and an overview of how the materials included in the tool kit can be used to efficiently diagnose, assess and treat depression. A training manual for instructors educating mental health professionals on MDD and a one-pager for quick reference to treatments for MDD are also available.

Benefits of using these tools include decreased practice variation, effective decision-making and improved patient outcomes.

To download a copy of the “Major Depressive Disorder Toolkit” or to order a hard copy, visit dcoe.health.mil/MDDToolkit. For more clinical resources related to psychological health or traumatic brain injury prevention and care, visit the Health Professionals and Resources sections of the DCoE website.

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Earlier Retirement = Longer Life?

Do those who retire early live longer?

It's often said that early retirement lengthens your life, but is it true? And do some professions have a shorter life expectancy?

If a statistical claim is repeated often enough it can become accepted as a universal truth, even if it has no basis in fact.

There's the suggestion that 93% of communication is non-verbal (not true) or the oft-repeated suggestion that there are more people alive today than have ever lived (not true either).

Here's another - the later you retire, the earlier you will die. A variation on this theme is the "fact" that, in some jobs, average life expectancy after retirement is just 18 months. We've seen it said of teachers, prison officers, surgeons and others.

The implication is that people in these kinds of demanding jobs are working themselves into their graves - and should probably be cut some slack. But is there any evidence for it?

Some evidence does at first glance appear to exist to support the first claim - that people who work longer die younger than those who retire early.

A paper attributed to the aircraft-maker Boeing shows that employees who retire at 55 live to, on average, 83. But those who retire at 65 only last, on average, another 18 months.

The "Boeing study" has been quoted by newspapers, magazines and pundits. It's circulated on the internet for years. The problem with it is that Boeing itself says it's simply not true.

Putting Boeing to one side, then, is there any other evidence which might support the idea that retiring early prolongs life? Surprisingly, perhaps, the truth may be the precise opposite: the later you retire, the longer you live.

Epidemiologists at the oil firm Shell carried out a study of past employees in the US, which found that mortality was slightly earlier - on average - for staff who retired at 55, than for those who continued working to 65.

But the actuary Dave Grimshaw says we need to be very careful about what conclusions we draw from the Shell data. The statistical waters, he says, are muddied by the fact that people retire at different ages for different reasons.

"You will have a group who are forced to retire [early] as a result of ill health and that may impact on their life expectancy," he says.

"In contrast there will be other people that choose to retire at 55, as more of a lifestyle decision. They may well be more affluent people. And they will also probably be in good health."

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Paperless SocSec benefits, more plastic fees?

As Social Security benefits go paperless, beware debit card fees

The paper Social Security check will go the way of the Pink Princess rotary-dial phone, the typewriter and yes, sadly, Elvis in roughly seven months. Nearly 6 million people throughout the country -- including 179,000 in Michigan -- still need to decide how they're going to get their money.

People can sign up for direct deposit to a bank or credit union account; or they could opt to have money deposited electronically via the Direct Express Debit MasterCard.

But if they end up with the government-issued debit card, they must watch where they withdraw that money to avoid getting hit by a string of fees. Hint: It could cost you more than you'd imagine by going to an ATM at some huge national banks.

Not surprisingly, the Treasury is touting the popularity of its Direct Express debit card, launched four years ago. The card is an option for receiving Social Security benefits, especially for those who don't have regular bank accounts for direct deposit.

A study released last week showed that 95% of cardholders are satisfied with the Direct Express card. About 93% would recommend the card to someone else. More than 2 million active cardholders receive Social Security retirement benefits and Supplemental Security Income benefits, as well as other benefits.

Thankfully, the government's debit card does not have the outrageous fees of other prepaid debit-card plastic that you might pick up off the shelf at the store.

But it doesn't mean consumers are completely off the hook.

One free ATM withdrawal is allowed each month on the Direct Express Debit MasterCard. Additional ATM withdrawals are 90 cents.

To get one free ATM withdrawal, consumers must go to one of about 60,000 ATMs in the network. That network includes ATMs at Comerica Bank, Charter One, PNC Bank, Privileged Status, Alliance One, the MasterCard ATM Alliance and MoneyPass.

Plenty of bank names, though, aren't in the network. And it could cost up to $3 or so a pop to get access to your Social Security money at some ATMs -- no free withdrawals -- if you go out of the network.

At Chase, for example, it costs $3 for a non-customer withdrawal from a Chase ATM. The $3 fee is the same at Bank of America for non-customers to use ATMs in its banking centers.

Walt Henderson, director of the electronic funds transfer strategy division for the U.S. Treasury, said Treasury is looking for opportunities to expand the network.

An ATM locator is at the bottom of www.usdirectexpress.com, where cardholders can locate the surcharge-free ATMs by ZIP code.

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Talking to children about the tragedy in Colorado

This article offers insights and tips from mental health professionals on discussing tragedies like the unthinkable mass-shooting with children at different stages of development. Please be sure to click on the urlink below access and read the entire article. - IWN Blog

Talking to kids -- of all ages -- about the Colo. movie shooting

By Kathy Ehrich Dowd, iVillage.com

The Aurora, Colo. movie theater shooting on Friday that killed at least 12 people and injured dozens more -- with a reported six victims being taken to an area children's hospital -- is a somber reminder that no matter how hard we try to keep our kids out of danger, we can't protect them all the time. Although it's understandable to want to avoid talking about a tragedy with your kids, it's important if they're old enough to have heard about it. Here's how to talk about a shooting with your kids, age by age.

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Report: More Educated Expectant Moms More Likely to Drink

Older, more educated pregnant women are most likely to drink

Older, more educated pregnant women are much more likely than other pregnant women to drink alcohol, despite warnings that any amount of drinking might be harmful, a new study shows. Overall, nearly 8% of pregnant women admitted to a least one drink in the month before the survey, says the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While some studies have failed to find harm from light drinking, U.S. public health officials strongly discourage it. "Any drinking is going to put your child at risk," a CDC researcher tells Reuters.

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