Media Disaster Reporting Effects on Public Risk Perception and Response to Escalating Tornado Warnings: A Natural Experiment

Previous research has evaluated public risk perception and response to a natural hazards in various settings; however, most of these studies were conducted either with a single scenario or after a natural disaster struck. To better understand the dynamic relationships among affect, risk perception, and behavioral intentions related to natural disasters, the current study implements a simulation scenario with escalating weather intensity, and includes a natural experiment allowing comparison of public response before and after a severe tornado event with extensive coverage by the national media. The current study also manipulated the display of warning information, and investigated whether the warning system display format influences public response. Results indicate that (1) affect, risk perception, and behavioral intention escalated as weather conditions deteriorated, (2) responses at previous stages predicted responses at subsequent stages of storm progression, and (3) negative affect predicted risk perception. Moreover, risk perception and behavioral intention were heightened after exposure to the media coverage of an actual tornado disaster. However, the display format manipulation did not influence behavioral responses. The current study provides insight regarding public perception of predisaster warnings and the influence of exposure to media coverage of an actual disaster event.     

Still-births among the offspring of male radiation workers at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant: detailed results and statistical aspects

Summary. This study investigates whether there was evidence of increasing risk of still-birth with increasing paternal exposure to ionizing radiation received during employment at the Sellafield nuclear installation before the child was conceived. A significant positive association is found between the total paternal preconceptional exposure to external ionizing radiation and the risk of still-birth (after adjustment for year of birth, social class, birth order and paternal age, odds ratio at 100 mSv 1.24 (95% confidence interval 1.04–1.45)). A summary of the principal scientific findings of this study has been published in the Lancet . This paper describes in detail the statistical methods that were used in the investigation and presents the results in full.     

BUILDING THE EVIDENCE BASE FROM LONGITUDINAL DATA

Survey data from cross-sectional snapshots give an incomplete picture of the social fabric. Without longitudinal information, planners, practitioners, social scientists and policy makers would be in the dark about dynamics, durations and pathways of human development. Longitudinal data collected in birth cohort studies give a better guide to long-term processes and outcomes and are more informative about the causal relations that are the drivers of disadvantage or success. The content and structure of Britain's Birth Cohort Studies are described to illustrate the challenges of creating and studying longitudinal evidence. Examples of findings and policies based on these prospective longitudinal studies are given, along with a discussion of the practical decisions that have to be confronted in undertaking them.     

Overcoming the Effects of Variation in Infant Speech Segmentation: Influences of Word Familiarity

Previous studies have shown that 7.5‐month‐olds can track and encode words in fluent speech, but they fail to equate instances of a word that contrast in talker gender, vocal affect, and fundamental frequency. By 10.5 months, they succeed at generalizing across such variability, marking a clear transition period during which infants' word recognition skills become qualitatively more mature. Here we explore the role of word familiarity in this critical transition and, in particular, whether words that occur frequently in a child's listening environment (i.e., “Mommy” and “Daddy”) are more easily recognized when they differ in surface characteristics than those that infants have not previously encountered (termed nonwords). Results demonstrate that words are segmented from continuous speech in a more linguistically mature fashion than nonwords at 7.5 months, but at 10.5 months, both words and nonwords are segmented in a relatively mature fashion. These findings suggest that early word recognition is facilitated in cases where infants have had significant exposure to items, but at later stages, infants are able to segment items regardless of their presumed familiarity.     

A Re-Introduction to Family Therapy Clarification of Three Schools

Family therapy is not easily understood, especially by the beginner therapist. This is not surprising given the confusing overlap between the various models and proliferation of new and often unexplained concepts and terms. This article serves to reverse this trend by presenting an overview of family therapy that can be understood by the novice. It clarifies the assumptions, terms, methods and goals of the main three schools of thought, namely structural, strategic and systemic. The similarities and differences between these schools are discussed and a summary table has been inserted for comparison purposes. A glossary has been included to assist the reader in defining commonly used terms and concepts.     

Looking back: the experience of first sexual intercourse and current sexual adjustment in young heterosexual adults

A young person's first consensual sexual intercourse experience is often a remarkable and memorable experience. However, little systematic information exists regarding contextual factors of first intercourse, the affective salience of the experience, possible effects on sexual attitudes and beliefs, and subsequent sexual development and adjustment. This retrospective study aimed to examine these in a sample of 475 young adults. Overall, young men and women experienced intercourse for the first time around age 17, were in a committed relationship, and reported positive affective responses. Affective reactions to the first sexual intercourse experience, sexual self-efficacy, sexual aversion, and age at first intercourse affected individuals' current sexual adjustment; however, only sexual self-efficacy mediated between first intercourse and current sexual adjustment in young men and women. Older age at first intercourse was associated with less sexual self-efficacy and lower current sexual adjustment for women. This study provides initial data to suggest that the first sexual intercourse experience significantly impacts current sexual adjustment by affecting beliefs about sexual self-efficacy.     

Poly-victimization and resilience portfolios: Trends in violence research that can enhance the understanding and prevention of elder abuse

ABSTRACT

This literature review assesses the current state of knowledge about elder abuse and mistreatment, focusing on the lack of incorporation of all forms of elder victimization and the benefits of a poly-victimization framework. This review also includes existing knowledge on risk factors and calls for a greater focus on protective factors and a greater inclusion on family and community factors. Future research, prevention, and intervention would benefit from considering the true burden of elder victimization and a greater implementation of strengths-based approaches to programs.     

Clarifying Criminological and Social Psychological Theory: A Second Look at the Relationship between Injustice and General Strain Theory

Research in social psychology and criminology reveals a great deal of overlap when explaining the relationship between injustice and criminal or deviant behavior. The organizational justice literature examines how the major forms of justice (distributive, procedural, and interactional) combine and interact to influence criminal or deviant behaviors in the workplace. While general strain theory (GST) recognizes that injustice is an aspect of strain that fosters criminal coping in multiple contexts, it does not detail the additive and interactive effects that these types of injustice may have on crime. Nevertheless, GST can provide a useful theoretical lens for understanding how injustice facilitates criminal behavior. This article provides an overview of major findings regarding the relationship between injustice and crime according to a GST framework, concluding with a discussion of new directions for future research.     

Developmental Latent Patterns of Identification as Mostly Heterosexual Versus Lesbian,Gay, or Bisexual

Scant research exists on the development of mostly heterosexual identity, the largest sexual orientation minority subgroup. We used longitudinal latent class analysis to characterize the patterns of identification with lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB), or mostly heterosexual identities from ages 12 to 23 in 13,859 youth (57% female) in a U.S. national cohort. Three classes emerged: completely heterosexual (88.2%), mostly heterosexual (9.5%), and LGB (2.4%). LGB class youth generally identified with sexual minority identities by ages 12–17. In contrast, mostly heterosexual class youth identified with sexual minority identities gradually, with steady increases in endorsement starting at the age of 14. Developmental implications of these differential patterns are discussed.     

Alcohol use and strenuous physical activity in college students: A longitudinal test of 2 explanatory models of health behavior

Objective: To help clarify the effect of gender on the bidirectional relationship between alcohol use and strenuous physical activity in college students. Participants: Five hundred twenty-four (52% female) college students recruited in August 2008 and 2009 and followed up in April 2009 and April 2011, respectively. Methods: Participants reported their alcohol use and strenuous physical activity on 2 occasions (baseline and follow-up) spaced approximately 1 or 2 years apart. Results: For females, alcohol use quantity at baseline was associated with increased strenuous physical activity at 1- and 2-year follow-ups, and alcohol use frequency at baseline was associated with decreased strenuous physical activity at 2-year follow-up. For males, alcohol use frequency at baseline predicted decreased strenuous physical activity at 1-year follow-up. Conclusions: Gender differences may be explained from an eating disorders perspective such that women use physical activity as a compensatory strategy to combat potential weight gain from calories consumed during alcohol use.