Linda J Beckman
Biographic Data
| ID | 3811558 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Linda J Beckman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Linda J |
| FAMILY NAME | Beckman |
| SIGNATURE | BECKMAN L J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Alliant University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 155 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1978 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Abortion in the United States
In the United States, abortion rates have been falling for several decades while attitudes have remained relatively stable. Given this background, this paper examines the current status of the fluid and contentious US abortion debate. Five relevant questions are examined: (1) What is responsible for the new wave of restrictive laws and what are their effects? (2) What is most likely responsible for changes in abortion rates? (3) What are the effe…
Training in Feminist Research Methodology
Feminist research experiences could greatly enhance the training of clinical psychology graduate students. This article describes principles of feminist research methodology, such as attention to power imbalances, listening to women's voices and experiences, and reflectivity. Approaches to training include feminist classrooms, feminist research teams, required courses on feminist methodology, integrating feminist research throughout the curriculu…
Sex Guilt and Life Satisfaction in Iranian-American Women
Agentic and Communal Personality Traits
A conceptual model of women's condom use intentions
We developed and tested a multifaceted model of condom use intentions with cross-sectional data from 435 heterosexual women at risk for HIV/STIs. In addition to traditional intrapersonal variables drawn from established models of HIV prevention (e.g. attitudes, norms, self-efficacy), the present study examined the role of relationship factors and dynamics (i.e. relationship commitment, duration, condom use and pregnancy prevention decision-making…
Psychological Effects of Abortion and Motherhood
Women's acceptance of the diaphragm
The vaginal diaphragm is a candidate for a female-controlled method of reducing risk of HIV/STI acquisition. We examined the association between relationship and partner factors and three measures of diaphragm acceptability: current use, consistency of use, and satisfaction with use. We conducted a telephone survey with 448 female members of a managed care organization, aged 18-49, who currently used contraception (including 140 diaphragm users, …
Current Reproductive Technologies
This article discusses key issues related to current reproductive technologies including contextual and personal barriers to use, complexity of decision making, limited access to technologies for poor women and women of color, and the politics and social controversy surrounding this area. New reproductive technologies have to be put to the same test as any other product—can and will women use them correctly? We need to not only know about the tec…
Navigating Rough Waters
This article provides an overview of the social and psychological aspects surrounding the surrogacy process including attitudes about surrogacy, perceptions and problems of surrogate mothers and intended/social parents, and questions concerning children resulting from contractual parenting. Review of the literature on contractual parenting reveals a wealth of discussion about the ethical, moral, legal, and psychological implications, but limited …
Acceptability of an existing, female-controlled contraceptive method that could potentially protect against hiv
Promoting Women's Autonomy and Reproductive Choice
Who continues using the diaphragm and who doesn't
Feeling powerful in heterosexual relationships
Previous research indicates that women can have difficulty negotiating safer sex strategies with their partners because of power imbalances in sexual decision-making. Because what makes men and women feel powerful may be culturally-specific, understanding cultural beliefs regarding feelings of power could have important implications for HIV/STI prevention. The cultural beliefs of 40 couples of Mexican origin were examined in relation to what make…
The delivery of medical abortion services
The Relationship of Contextual Factors to Women's Perceptions of Medical Abortion
This study explores how personal values and the social context of women's lives influence their perceptions of a new reproductive technology, medical abortion. The major objective is to examine the interrelationship between perceived attributes of medical abortion (number of clinic visits, availability early in pregnancy, seeing the expelled products of conception, and unfamiliar method) and the context of a woman's life. Data were collected in e…
Relationship power, decision making, and sexual relations
This study explored how couples of Mexican origin define power in intimate relationships, what makes men and women feel powerful in relationships, and the role of each partner in decision making about sexual and reproductive matters. Interviews were conducted with each partner of 39 sexually active couples and data were analyzed using content analysis. Results indicate that power is perceived as control over one s partner and the ability to make …
Emergency contraception
Getting your partner to use condoms
Data from individual semistructured interviews with 90 young heterosexual couples were analyzed to identify strategies that men and women at risk of HIV/STDs would use to influence their partners to use condoms for the purpose of disease prevention. In addition, we explored whether participants thought influencing strategies would differ for pregnancy prevention. Content analysis of the interview data indicated that participants would use the fol…
Cultural Beliefs About Social Influence Strategies of Mexican Immigrant Women and Their Heterosexual Partners
Experience and acceptability of medical abortion with mifepristone and misoprostol among U.S. women
Contraceptive risk-taking in a medically underserved, low-income population
This study examines the phenomenon of contraceptive risk-taking, which is the nonuse of contraception by women who are sexually active, fertile and not pregnant or trying to become pregnant. Based on a survey sample of low-income women in their childbearing years who had not received family planning care or advice from a doctor or clinic for at least three years, the study analyzed demographic predictors of contraceptive risk-taking and also comp…
Determinants of child-bearing intentions of low-income women
Surveys of low-income women in Los Angeles County in 1985 and 1986 were used to examine the relative impact of child-bearing motivations versus life circumstances on the intention to have a(nother) child. Future child-bearing intentions are strongly related to current parity level regardless of marital status, race/ethnicity or economic status. Psychological motivating factors predict child-bearing intentions of nulliparous women, but not those o…
Dimensions of the Contraceptive Attributes Questionnaire
This article describes the development and evaluation of the Contraceptive Attributes Questionnaire (CAQ), a research instrument designed to assess the subjective importance of specific contraceptive attributes (Importance) and the perceived characteristics of specific contraceptives (Agreement). Three birth control methods are examined—the sponge, pill, and diaphragm. Factor analyses indicate that the four scales are multidimensional, and as sub…
Perceived contraceptive attributes of current and former users of the vaginal sponge
This study investigated the relationship between perceived attributes of the contraceptive sponge and use of this innovative method. Data were collected from a national sample of 779 women: 372 current sponge users and 407 former sponge users. Current users at initial interview also participated in a six‐month follow‐up interview. While in one of two samples current sponge users view attributes of the sponge much more positively than do former us…
Changes in motivation for parenthood among young married couples
A theoretical analysis of antecedents of young couples’ fertility decisions and outcomes
Longitudinal survey data from 509 couples who at Time 1 interview had recently married or had their first child did not support the hypothesis that demographic factors influence fertility intentions, decisions, and outcomes only indirectly through their effects on attitudes and motivations. Husbands’ and wives’ attitudes exerted reciprocal influence on one another. However, while husbands’ sex-role traditionalism and motivation for parenthood str…
Relationship power, decision making, and sexual relations
This study explored how couples of Mexican origin define power in intimate relationships, what makes men and women feel powerful in relationships, and the role of each partner in decision making about sexual and reproductive matters. Interviews were conducted with each partner of 39 sexually active couples and data were analyzed using content analysis. Results indicate that power is perceived as control over one s partner and the ability to make …
Husbands' and wives' relative influence on fertility decisions and outcomes
Training in Feminist Research Methodology
Feminist research experiences could greatly enhance the training of clinical psychology graduate students. This article describes principles of feminist research methodology, such as attention to power imbalances, listening to women's voices and experiences, and reflectivity. Approaches to training include feminist classrooms, feminist research teams, required courses on feminist methodology, integrating feminist research throughout the curriculu…
Getting your partner to use condoms
Data from individual semistructured interviews with 90 young heterosexual couples were analyzed to identify strategies that men and women at risk of HIV/STDs would use to influence their partners to use condoms for the purpose of disease prevention. In addition, we explored whether participants thought influencing strategies would differ for pregnancy prevention. Content analysis of the interview data indicated that participants would use the fol…
Agentic and Communal Personality Traits
The Relative Rewards and Costs of Parenthood and Employment for Employed Women
The perceived satisfactions and costs of parenthood and employment were examined and categorized for 123 professional and nonprofessional married women aged 28 to 39 who were employed full-time. High perceived role conflict between parenting and employment was associated with both lower parity and professional status. Women with large families more highly valued the companionship aspects of children and liked children more than did other women. N…
The Relative Rewards and Costs of Childlessness for Older Women
Currently married or widowed women aged 60–75 (N = 719), either childless or with one or more children, were interviewed about advantages and disadvantages of childlessness and about other family-related and social areas. Results indicate that childless older women did not conform to a stereotype of unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Respondents with and without children valued the rewards of their particular lifestyle and perceived costs in the ot…
Effects of social interaction and children's relative inputs on older women's psychological well-being
This study examines the influence of social interaction and relative inputs of parent and children (as perceived by the other) on older women's social and psychological well-being and their satisfaction with their children. The sample consisted of 719 Anglo-American women between the ages of 60 and 75. Half of the women were widows and the other half were currently married and were living with a spouse. For each marital status group the sample wa…
Current Reproductive Technologies
This article discusses key issues related to current reproductive technologies including contextual and personal barriers to use, complexity of decision making, limited access to technologies for poor women and women of color, and the politics and social controversy surrounding this area. New reproductive technologies have to be put to the same test as any other product—can and will women use them correctly? We need to not only know about the tec…
Sex Guilt and Life Satisfaction in Iranian-American Women
Dimensions of the Contraceptive Attributes Questionnaire
This article describes the development and evaluation of the Contraceptive Attributes Questionnaire (CAQ), a research instrument designed to assess the subjective importance of specific contraceptive attributes (Importance) and the perceived characteristics of specific contraceptives (Agreement). Three birth control methods are examined—the sponge, pill, and diaphragm. Factor analyses indicate that the four scales are multidimensional, and as sub…
The More You Have, the More You Do
This study explores the relationship between wife's employment, sex-role traditionalism, and the reported division of household tasks and decisions. Data were collected from three samples of currently married women between the ages of 18 and 49 in Los Angeles County. Sex-role traditionalism was positively related to wives’ relative performance of feminine tasks, but generally unrelated to masculine task performance and decision-making between spo…
The Relationship Between Sex Roles, Fertility, and Family Size Preferences
Interviews regarding sex-role attitudes, sex-role behaviors, fertility, and fertility preferences were conducted with 583 currently married women aged 18 through 49. Separate correlational analyses for blacks, Anglos, and Hispanic women revealed that for Anglos and blacks sex-role attitudes appeared to be more highly associated with children raised and desired fertility than did division of household tasks and decisions. Past and present role beh…
Abortion in the United States
In the United States, abortion rates have been falling for several decades while attitudes have remained relatively stable. Given this background, this paper examines the current status of the fluid and contentious US abortion debate. Five relevant questions are examined: (1) What is responsible for the new wave of restrictive laws and what are their effects? (2) What is most likely responsible for changes in abortion rates? (3) What are the effe…
Navigating Rough Waters
This article provides an overview of the social and psychological aspects surrounding the surrogacy process including attitudes about surrogacy, perceptions and problems of surrogate mothers and intended/social parents, and questions concerning children resulting from contractual parenting. Review of the literature on contractual parenting reveals a wealth of discussion about the ethical, moral, legal, and psychological implications, but limited …
The Treatment‐Delivery System and Alcohol Abuse in Women
This article presents a theoretical model of the treatment utilization process which assumes that individual predisposing factors, perceptions and beliefs, personal enabling traits, social enabling characteristics, and structural features of treatment services all affect the alcoholic's ability to secure and propensity to use services. This theoretical model is used to describe characteristics of women alcoholics and the treatment delivery system…
Women's acceptance of the diaphragm
The vaginal diaphragm is a candidate for a female-controlled method of reducing risk of HIV/STI acquisition. We examined the association between relationship and partner factors and three measures of diaphragm acceptability: current use, consistency of use, and satisfaction with use. We conducted a telephone survey with 448 female members of a managed care organization, aged 18-49, who currently used contraception (including 140 diaphragm users, …
Cultural Beliefs About Social Influence Strategies of Mexican Immigrant Women and Their Heterosexual Partners
Perceived contraceptive attributes of current and former users of the vaginal sponge
This study investigated the relationship between perceived attributes of the contraceptive sponge and use of this innovative method. Data were collected from a national sample of 779 women: 372 current sponge users and 407 former sponge users. Current users at initial interview also participated in a six‐month follow‐up interview. While in one of two samples current sponge users view attributes of the sponge much more positively than do former us…
Changes in motivation for parenthood among young married couples
The Relative Rewards and Costs of Parenthood and Employment for Employed Women
The perceived satisfactions and costs of parenthood and employment were examined and categorized for 123 professional and nonprofessional married women aged 28 to 39 who were employed full-time. High perceived role conflict between parenting and employment was associated with both lower parity and professional status. Women with large families more highly valued the companionship aspects of children and liked children more than did other women. N…
The More You Have, the More You Do
This study explores the relationship between wife's employment, sex-role traditionalism, and the reported division of household tasks and decisions. Data were collected from three samples of currently married women between the ages of 18 and 49 in Los Angeles County. Sex-role traditionalism was positively related to wives’ relative performance of feminine tasks, but generally unrelated to masculine task performance and decision-making between spo…
The Relationship Between Sex Roles, Fertility, and Family Size Preferences
Interviews regarding sex-role attitudes, sex-role behaviors, fertility, and fertility preferences were conducted with 583 currently married women aged 18 through 49. Separate correlational analyses for blacks, Anglos, and Hispanic women revealed that for Anglos and blacks sex-role attitudes appeared to be more highly associated with children raised and desired fertility than did division of household tasks and decisions. Past and present role beh…
Effects of social interaction and children's relative inputs on older women's psychological well-being
This study examines the influence of social interaction and relative inputs of parent and children (as perceived by the other) on older women's social and psychological well-being and their satisfaction with their children. The sample consisted of 719 Anglo-American women between the ages of 60 and 75. Half of the women were widows and the other half were currently married and were living with a spouse. For each marital status group the sample wa…
The Treatment‐Delivery System and Alcohol Abuse in Women
This article presents a theoretical model of the treatment utilization process which assumes that individual predisposing factors, perceptions and beliefs, personal enabling traits, social enabling characteristics, and structural features of treatment services all affect the alcoholic's ability to secure and propensity to use services. This theoretical model is used to describe characteristics of women alcoholics and the treatment delivery system…
A theoretical analysis of antecedents of young couples’ fertility decisions and outcomes
Longitudinal survey data from 509 couples who at Time 1 interview had recently married or had their first child did not support the hypothesis that demographic factors influence fertility intentions, decisions, and outcomes only indirectly through their effects on attitudes and motivations. Husbands’ and wives’ attitudes exerted reciprocal influence on one another. However, while husbands’ sex-role traditionalism and motivation for parenthood str…
The Relative Rewards and Costs of Childlessness for Older Women
Currently married or widowed women aged 60–75 (N = 719), either childless or with one or more children, were interviewed about advantages and disadvantages of childlessness and about other family-related and social areas. Results indicate that childless older women did not conform to a stereotype of unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Respondents with and without children valued the rewards of their particular lifestyle and perceived costs in the ot…
Husbands' and wives' relative influence on fertility decisions and outcomes
Changes in motivation for parenthood among young married couples
Determinants of child-bearing intentions of low-income women
Surveys of low-income women in Los Angeles County in 1985 and 1986 were used to examine the relative impact of child-bearing motivations versus life circumstances on the intention to have a(nother) child. Future child-bearing intentions are strongly related to current parity level regardless of marital status, race/ethnicity or economic status. Psychological motivating factors predict child-bearing intentions of nulliparous women, but not those o…
Dimensions of the Contraceptive Attributes Questionnaire
This article describes the development and evaluation of the Contraceptive Attributes Questionnaire (CAQ), a research instrument designed to assess the subjective importance of specific contraceptive attributes (Importance) and the perceived characteristics of specific contraceptives (Agreement). Three birth control methods are examined—the sponge, pill, and diaphragm. Factor analyses indicate that the four scales are multidimensional, and as sub…
Perceived contraceptive attributes of current and former users of the vaginal sponge
This study investigated the relationship between perceived attributes of the contraceptive sponge and use of this innovative method. Data were collected from a national sample of 779 women: 372 current sponge users and 407 former sponge users. Current users at initial interview also participated in a six‐month follow‐up interview. While in one of two samples current sponge users view attributes of the sponge much more positively than do former us…
Contraceptive risk-taking in a medically underserved, low-income population
This study examines the phenomenon of contraceptive risk-taking, which is the nonuse of contraception by women who are sexually active, fertile and not pregnant or trying to become pregnant. Based on a survey sample of low-income women in their childbearing years who had not received family planning care or advice from a doctor or clinic for at least three years, the study analyzed demographic predictors of contraceptive risk-taking and also comp…
Experience and acceptability of medical abortion with mifepristone and misoprostol among U.S. women
Cultural Beliefs About Social Influence Strategies of Mexican Immigrant Women and Their Heterosexual Partners
Emergency contraception
Getting your partner to use condoms
Data from individual semistructured interviews with 90 young heterosexual couples were analyzed to identify strategies that men and women at risk of HIV/STDs would use to influence their partners to use condoms for the purpose of disease prevention. In addition, we explored whether participants thought influencing strategies would differ for pregnancy prevention. Content analysis of the interview data indicated that participants would use the fol…
The delivery of medical abortion services
The Relationship of Contextual Factors to Women's Perceptions of Medical Abortion
This study explores how personal values and the social context of women's lives influence their perceptions of a new reproductive technology, medical abortion. The major objective is to examine the interrelationship between perceived attributes of medical abortion (number of clinic visits, availability early in pregnancy, seeing the expelled products of conception, and unfamiliar method) and the context of a woman's life. Data were collected in e…
Relationship power, decision making, and sexual relations
This study explored how couples of Mexican origin define power in intimate relationships, what makes men and women feel powerful in relationships, and the role of each partner in decision making about sexual and reproductive matters. Interviews were conducted with each partner of 39 sexually active couples and data were analyzed using content analysis. Results indicate that power is perceived as control over one s partner and the ability to make …
Who continues using the diaphragm and who doesn't
Feeling powerful in heterosexual relationships
Previous research indicates that women can have difficulty negotiating safer sex strategies with their partners because of power imbalances in sexual decision-making. Because what makes men and women feel powerful may be culturally-specific, understanding cultural beliefs regarding feelings of power could have important implications for HIV/STI prevention. The cultural beliefs of 40 couples of Mexican origin were examined in relation to what make…
Acceptability of an existing, female-controlled contraceptive method that could potentially protect against hiv
Promoting Women's Autonomy and Reproductive Choice
Current Reproductive Technologies
This article discusses key issues related to current reproductive technologies including contextual and personal barriers to use, complexity of decision making, limited access to technologies for poor women and women of color, and the politics and social controversy surrounding this area. New reproductive technologies have to be put to the same test as any other product—can and will women use them correctly? We need to not only know about the tec…
Psychology (26 works) · Social Psychology (20 works) · Medicine (18 works) · Social Psychology (18 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Developmental psychology (15 works) · Population (14 works) · Demography (12 works) · Demography (11 works) · Family medicine (9 works)