Loneliness and Adolescents’ Neural Processing of Self,Friends, and Teachers: Consequences for the School Self‐Concept

The present interdisciplinary study explored whether perceived loneliness is associated with ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) activation during self‐ and social judgments (friends and teachers) in adolescents. Moreover, we examined how vMPFC activity is related to the academic self‐concept (ASC). Results of manifest path analysis indicated that high perceived loneliness was related to lower neural response to self‐judgments. In turn, high neural response to self‐judgments was positively associated with the ASC, whereas there was a trendwise negative association between high neural response to teacher‐related judgments and ASC. This study reveals associations between perceived loneliness and neural processing of the self, underlining the idea that feeling isolated from others may hinder self‐insight and, by extension, the formation of a stable academic self‐concept.     

“I Am Becoming More and More Like My Eldest Brother!”: The Relationship Between Older Siblings,Adolescent Gambling Severity,and the Attenuating Role of Parents in a Large-Scale Nationally Representative Survey Study

The present study examined the association between having older siblings who gamble and adolescent at-risk/problem gambling and how parents (i.e., parental knowledge of their whereabouts) and peers might moderate such effects. Data were drawn from the ESPAD^®Italia2012 survey (European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs) comprising a nationally representative Italian sample of adolescents. The analysis was carried out on a subsample of 10,063 Italian students aged 15–19 years (average age = 17.10; 55 % girls) who had at least one older sibling and who had gambled at some point in their lives. Respondents’ problem gambling severity, older gambler sibling, gambler peers, parental knowledge, and socio-demographic characteristics were individually assessed. Multinomial logistic regression analyses including two- and three-way interactions were conducted. The odds of being an at-risk/problem gambler were higher among high school students with older siblings that gambled and those with peers who gambled. Higher parental knowledge (of who the adolescent was with and where they were in their leisure time) was associated with lower rates of at-risk/problem gambling. There was also an interaction between gamblers with older siblings and parental knowledge. The combination of having siblings who gambled and a greater level of parental knowledge was associated with lower levels of problem gambling. The present study confirmed the occurrence of social risk processes (older siblings and peers who gambled) and demonstrated that gambling among older siblings and peers represents an important contextual factor for increased at-risk/problem gambling. However, parental knowledge appears to be sufficient to counterbalance the influence of older siblings.     

A stress–strength model with dependent variables to measure household financial fragility

The paper is inspired by the stress?Cstrength models in the reliability literature, in which given the strength (Y) and the stress (X) of a component, its reliability is measured by P(X < Y). In this literature, X and Y are typically modeled as independent. Since in many applications such an assumption might not be realistic, we propose a copula approach in order to take into account the dependence between X and Y. We then apply a copula-based approach to the measurement of household financial fragility. Specifically, we define as financially fragile those households whose yearly consumption (X) is higher than income (Y), so that P(X > Y) is the measure of interest and X and Y are clearly not independent. Modeling income and consumption as non-identically Dagum distributed variables and their dependence by a Frank copula, we show that the proposed method improves the estimation of household financial fragility. Using data from the 2008 wave of the Bank of Italy??s Survey on Household Income and Wealth we point out that neglecting the existing dependence in fact overestimates the actual household fragility.     

Improving medicolegal death investigative gaps of fatal elder abuse

The purpose of this brief is to present several case vignettes that illustrate omissions in the investigation of elder deaths. These vignettes demonstrate the need for a standardized approach in the conduct of medicolegal investigations of fatal elder abuse. For each of the described oversights, a recommendation is offered to address the gap in investigation processes, which in turn could improve the determination of cause and manner of elder death. Inherent limitations of resources and practical realities of death investigation are discussed and recommendations are made for future research. Viewed broadly, deficiencies in elder death investigations can lead to the underreporting of elder abuse and the reduction of legal options for victims, which may reflect a systemic pattern of social injustice.     

Adolescents’ Socio‐Motivational Relationships With Teachers,Amygdala Response to Teacher's Negative Facial Expressions,and Test Anxiety

The amygdala is essential for processing emotions, including the processing of aversive faces. The aim of this multimethodological study was to relate the amygdala reactivity of students (N = 88) toward teachers’ fearful and angry faces, to students’ relationship with their teachers. Furthermore, students’ neural responses during the perception of teachers’ faces were tested as predictors of test anxiety (controlling for neuroticism as a potential trait anxiety effect). Multiple regression analysis revealed that students reporting high‐quality teacher–student relationships showed stronger amygdala activity toward fearful faces, which was related to worry. Furthermore, students with high levels of neuroticism tended to perceive their teachers as motivators and showed higher amygdala activity toward angry faces, which was related to the measures of emotionality.     

Doin’ Meth or Doin’ Math: What Client Constructions of Social Class Mean for Social Work Practice

The voices of people experiencing poverty are underrepresented in social work research, public policy development, and practice interventions. This study explored the social class attributions of clients receiving poverty-related services through qualitative interviews. Findings reveal dynamic contributions of individual, environmental, and structural factors of social class positioning and significant stress and stigmatization associated with experiencing economic hardship. Participants indicate a sense of lived contradiction, viewing social class to be the result of fate while simultaneously endorsing individualistic attributions of poverty. Results have implications for social work research and practice, as well as poverty-related policy and program development.     

“He invited me and didn't ask anything in return” Migration and Mobility as Vulnerabilities for Sexual Exploitation among Female Adolescents in Mexico

Although human trafficking is recognized as a major human rights violation, there is limited evidence regarding the vulnerabilities that contribute to female adolescents’ risk of being forced or coerced into the sex trade. Vulnerabilities such as gender‐based violence, economic and social inequalities have been shown to shape the risk of sexual exploitation among adolescents. In‐depth interviews (n=18) with current sex workers who reported being deceived or forced into the sex trade as adolescents (<17 years old) were analysed to explore their experiences of migration and mobility in Mexico. Driven by socio‐economic and vulnerabilities in home communities, adolescents often engaged in internal migration and mobility to other Mexican communities and states. Migration and mobility further predisposed them to social isolation, economic hardship and abuse, which were used as tools to trick them into the sex trade. Policies that support safer migration for adolescents in origin, transit, and destination communities are needed.     

Faire Formeln

The literature on fair division has experienced a renaissance recently. Novel mathematical procedures promising an envy-free, socially efficient solution to conflicts over nearly indivisible goods play a particularly prominent role. This article presents a comparative experimental evaluation of three procedures. We examine to what extent features of the subjects of the procedures influence the choice in favor of one of the three negotiation protocols and the results of the division. Our analysis of the behavior of 119 subjects shows that psychological factors only affect the procedural choice. Dominance-seeking individuals tend to opt for those procedures that promise a fairer outcome than the relatively crude divide-and-choose-mechanism. In contrast, the outcome of the bilateral negotiations is determined by the attributes of the procedures. The strong influence of psychological factors at the initial stage of the bargaining process nevertheless casts strong doubts on the practicability of the procedures, recommended by the normative strand of game-theoretic negotiation analysis. The further development of ”fair formulas” for the resolution of redistributive conflicts should not neglect that the warring parties have to agree with the philosophy of the proposed bargaining protocol.