Waterman, E. A., Wesche, R., Leavitt, C. E., & Lefkowitz, E S. (in press). Fraternity membership, traditional masculinity ideologies, and impersonal sex: Selection and socialization effects. Psychology of Men and Masculinities.
 
Rates of sexual aggression are higher among fraternity members than among other college men. Fraternity culture often engenders traditional masculine ideologies and risky sex-related attitudes that may reinforce sexual aggression. However, the process of how men internalize these ideologies is not well understood. It may be a process of selection, whereby men with more traditional masculine ideologies choose to join fraternities. Or, it may be a process of socialization, whereby being in a fraternity teaches men to adopt more traditional attitudes about gender.
 
In this paper, we used two longitudinal data sets to explore these selection and socialization effects. We found that men who more strongly endorsed male role norms about status and the sexual double standard were more likely to join fraternities, suggesting that men with more traditional attitudes about masculinity chose to join fraternities. We found little evidence to support the hypothesis that fraternities lead to more traditional ideologies about masculinity.
 
Many universities target fraternities as a context for training and intervention around sexual aggression. This intervention may be important given higher rates in these settings. However, our findings suggest that these young men may have preexisting attitudes that present risk for sexual aggression before joining fraternities. Thus, more work to target young men’s risky attitudes about masculinity and sexuality before students enter college may be particularly important in reducing rates of sexual violence on college campuses.
 
“Men with more traditional masculine ideologies choose to join fraternities first appeared on Eva Lefkowitz’s blog on May 30, 2019.”

Last week, I discussed whether you should do an internship during graduate school. Today, I want to share a list we compiled of internships related to Human Development and Family Sciences. Many of these internships are likely also relevant to graduate students in related disciplines such as psychology, sociology, public health, and communications.
 
As with my lists of postdoctoral positions and graduate fellowships, I make no claims that any information, including information about citizenship requirements, is accurate.
 
Also as with the other lists, it’s a broad list. Internship sites include government agencies like the National Institutes of Health, research institutes like RAND, and nonprofits like UNICEF. The topic areas vary widely, and include public health, sexual health, nutrition, statistics/psychometrics, policy, education, ethnic/racial minority families, adulthood and aging, and child development (detailed in a column). Locations are around the United States and the world (detailed in a column). Some are summer internships and others can occur during the academic year. They are as short as 8 weeks or as long as 7 months. There are both paid and unpaid internships (and a column that details whether paid, and if so how much). 
 
Find it here. 
 
If you know of any others, please share them with me and I will add them. If you find errors or broken links, please let me know.
 
“40+ internships related to Human Development & Family Sciences first appeared on Eva Lefkowitz’s blog on May 28, 2019.”

Leavitt, C. E., Waterman, E. A., & Lefkowitz, E. S. (in press). The role of sexual mindfulness in sexual wellbeing, relational wellbeing, and self-esteem. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy.
 
Interest in mindfulness as a way to handle stress and improve day-to-day wellbeing has increased in recent years. We set out to understand sexual mindfulness in particular – the ability to be in the present moment, and not judgmental, during sexual experiences. Some prior research has considered associations between trait mindfulness and individual, sexual, and relational wellbeing. However, trait mindfulness is a necessary but not sufficient indicator of ability to be mindful in sexual situations. In my earlier work, I’ve described how positive parent-child relationships are likely necessary but not sufficient for the ability to have positive parent-child conversations about sex. Similarly, people need the ability to be mindful in general to be able to be mindful in sexual situations. However, even individuals who are mindful in their daily routine may experience obstacles to mindfulness during sexual experiences, such as being overly goal-oriented, self-critical, or sexually anxious. Thus, we developed a measures of sexual mindfulness to consider its role in sexual satisfaction, relational satisfaction, and self-esteem in a sample of 194 midlife men and women (ages 35-60). We found that more sexually mindful individuals tended to be more satisfied with their relationships, more satisfied with their sex lives (particularly for women), and have better self-esteem. Some of these associations occurred even after controlling for trait mindfulness. We believe that these findings have important implications for researchers, interventionists, and clinicians who work with couples and individuals to address sexual wellbeing, relational wellbeing, and individual wellbeing. 
 
“Sexual mindfulness matters for individual, relational, and sexual wellbeing first appeared on Eva Lefkowitz’s blog on May 23, 2019.”

There are certain things that I think the majority of graduate students should do. Apply for external funding. Attend conferences. Publish. Do a post doc (that one less so, but still, the majority).  My advice on doing an external internship is much more of “it depends” advice than some of these other topics.
 
To clarify, I am not referring to clinical internships. If you are in a program like MFT or clinical psychology, your program and licensing has specific requirements for internship hours that of course you must meet. But I am talking about internships that are not fulfilling clinical hours, but instead are about getting experience in a non-university setting such as a research institution, non-profit organization, or government agency.
 
If you know that you want a career as a professor, then an internship may not be the best use of your time. The main accomplishments for acquiring a faculty position are relatively straightforward: publish; perhaps pursue funding, particularly if an R1 university is your dream job; perhaps get teaching experience, particularly if a more teaching-focused university is your dream job. The best use of your summers, in order to meet the goal of a tenure track faculty position, is to write. 
 
The two main reasons why you should consider doing an internship are if you do not plan to go into an academic career, or if you do not yet know what type of career you want. Here are some benefits of doing an internship, whether summer or academic year, and whether paid or unpaid:

• Learn about a field/career: Most graduate students have a relatively strong sense of what it’s like to be a professor – you spend a lot of time with professors. However, for other careers, an internship can really help you get a sense of whether you are interested in that type of institution, and/or that type of position.
• Networking: Networking in general is helpful for anyone, but for faculty positions, networking rarely leads to a job materializing just for you. The availability of new tenure track positions generally relies on many factors out of the control of an individual faculty members (or department heads!) going all the way up to the provost. However, in many other organizations, networking can result in a fast track to a position. Internships are an excellent way to make those connections – I know many people who eventually secured a full time position at the place they did their internship.
• Gain transferable skills: Even if you do not eventually secure a job at your internship site, the skills you develop there will better position you for other alt-academic positions when you do go on the job market. 

 
An important point to note about internships. Although some organizations advertise that they have internships available, not all do. If you are interested in a particular place for an internship, reach out and ask. It is helpful if you have some type of connection to someone at that organization, such as an alum of your program, a contact of your mentor, etc. Internships can be an excellent opportunity for setting yourself up for a future career outside of academia.
 
 
“Should you do an internship during graduate school? first appeared on Eva Lefkowitz’s blog on May 21, 2019.”