Michael Thai

Human development involves constructing an imagined future, with young people often envisioning their future spouse and family composition. The extent to which national, religious and racial preferences emerge during this time is largely unknown. Using a large sample of Australian-born, English-speaking adolescents, the relationships between national identity, attitudes towards immigration and ingroup marriage preferences were assessed into young adulthood. Random intercept cross-lagged panel models revealed significant within-person effects, whereby higher national identity indirectly predicted stronger national and racial marriage preferences 5 years later via increasingly critical attitudes towards immigration. Further, stronger national and racial marriage preferences predicted future increases in negative attitudes towards immigration, which in turn was associated with increased national identity several years later. Although marrying someone from the same religion was reported by young people to be important to them, national identity was not associated with changes in religious marriage preferences. These longitudinal effects suggest that simultaneous efforts to promote a more inclusive national identity and normalise intergroup intimacy could reduce prejudices during a formative developmental period.

Within communities of sexual minority men, a rich tapestry of sexual subcultures and subcultural identity groups has emerged. Although the term subculture has contested conceptual boundaries, it is...

Important scientific contributions regarding intersectional marginalization are often advanced by researchers who, themselves, hold the relevant intersecting identities. But how are these researchers perceived? In an experiment gauging the perspective of a demographically representative sample of U.S. Americans ( N = 385), we found that research on Black women’s marginalization was perceived as equivalently trustworthy and meritorious whether it was conducted by a Black woman, Black man, White woman, or White man. Our data suggested this was because a Black woman conducting this work was perceived ambivalently—positively due to her perceived standing and expertise, but negatively due to her perceived vested interest. In three follow-up experiments examining perceptions of Black American women, specifically ( N = 243, 139, 182), we found a different pattern—Black women consistently evaluated this research more favorably if it was conducted by a fellow Black woman, prioritizing her standing, expertise, and commitment to the community.

Dating spaces can represent minefields for racial minority group members, who must often discern whether any interest they receive is driven by genuine attraction to them as a person or by fetishization of their racial group. The present work explored how racial minority group members react to dating prospects disclosing a racial preference favoring their minority ingroup. Three experiments were conducted with heterosexual Asian American women (Study 1, N = 127, M_age = 25.1 years), Asian American women and men (Study 2, N = 240, M_age = 24.8 years), and Black American women and men (Study 3, N = 343, M_age = 29.2 years). Participants were presented with dating profiles that either included an explicit preference for their racial minority group or no such preference. Their expectations of racial fetishization and evaluations of the target (e.g., attraction, anticipated ease of connection, general evaluations, racism) were measured. Participants expected that the minority-preferencing dating prospect would be more likely to fetishize them (e.g., reduce them to their race, stereotype them, exoticize them, objectify their appearance) and less likely to consider them for their individual qualities. Through these racial fetishization expectations, participants reported less attraction to the minority-preferencing prospect, anticipated greater difficulty in forming a genuine connection with them, attributed greater racism to them, and evaluated them more negatively as a person. This research shows that sexual preferences favoring racial minority group members are taken by racial minority group members as indicative of racial fetishization and have negative implications for how the person espousing them is perceived. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Children's gender socialisation begins from a young age and one socialisation context used to provide gender‐based information is toy play. Adults play a key role in prescribing children's toys; however, the factors that motivate adults to consider toys as gender‐typed for boys or girls require further investigation. We investigated predictors of gender‐typing of children's toys by women and men, both parents and non‐parents. In this study, 1200 adult participants (562 parents, 638 non‐parents, 603 women, 597 men) reported their gender‐typing of children's toys, gender essentialist beliefs, social role attitudes and retrospective experiences with toys as a child. Results revealed that parental experience, gender essentialist beliefs, gender role attitudes and retrospective toy experiences demonstrated reliable associations with both women's and men's tendency to gender‐type children's toys.

Children's gender socialisation begins before birth, as parents form gendered expectations and prepare environments that anticipate a child's gender, and gender‐typed toys are a prominent tool in this process. Adults consistently demonstrate gendered patterns in how they prescribe toys to children, but it remains unclear whether these are driven more by the child's assigned sex or their gender expression. In this study, 1200 Australian adults (562 parents, 638 non‐parents; 603 women, 597 men) prescribed toys to child protagonists depicted as either female or male and as feminine or masculine in their gender expression. Significant differences emerged: adults were more likely to prescribe feminine toys to girls and feminine‐presenting children, and masculine toys to boys and masculine‐presenting children. While both factors influenced responses, the child's assigned sex had a stronger effect than gender expression. These patterns also varied by the gender of the adult participant. Our findings offer novel insights into how adults contribute to children's gender socialisation through toy prescriptions.

Introduction: Research demonstrates that trans and gender diverse (trans) individuals often encounter health practitioners who are ill-informed and discriminatory. These experiences contribute to healthcare avoidance, increase the risk of self-harm and suicide, and limit access to gender-affirming care. Methods: This qualitative study utilised detailed responses to an open-ended survey question within an online survey ( n = 196) to explore the experiences of trans adults engaging with health professionals in Australia. The data was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: An inductive approach was adopted, and four themes were derived from the data. The results highlight that Australian trans adults experience the following: (1) healthcare provider choice is carefully considered , (2) treatment refusal and instilled hopelessness , (3) the incompetent practitioner’s role in delaying affirming care , and (4) the psychological burden of educating the health professional. Conclusions: Participants recounted experiences with healthcare professionals that were negative, characterised by incompetency and restricted access to gender-affirming care. Policy Implications: The findings underscore the urgent need for policy reforms to ensure access to community-led training on gender-affirming healthcare for all healthcare professionals in Australia. Such policies would improve practitioner competency, reduce barriers to care, and mitigate the adverse mental health impacts experienced by trans individuals due to inadequate or discriminatory treatment.

Research often views relationship repair through a reparative lens of relationship partners attempting to fix what was damaged or broken by the transgression. We argue here for a transformative lens to view transgressions as potential catalysts for the strengthening of relationships or what we term: post-transgression relationship growth (PTRG). However, we also argue that PTRG is more likely achieved when the transgression is dealt with dyadically via a constructive process of co-reflection. Results from a pilot study and two pre-registered three-wave longitudinal studies provided validation for a PTRG scale, which assesses relationship growth/decline after transgressions that occurred between romantic relationship partners. Moreover, co-reflection was prospectively positively associated with PTRG when controlling for baseline relationship qualities. Together, these findings highlight that relationships can emerge stronger out of relationship adversity when relationship partners engage in the constructive process of co-reflection.