Relational‐Interdependent Self‐Construal and Gender Predicting Blood Pressure Reactivity and Recovery From Stress in Early Adolescence

This study investigated the association between relational‐interdependent self‐construals (relational interdependence) and blood pressure reactivity and recovery from two types of peer stressors (i.e., relational and instrumental) and gender as a moderator of this association. One hundred and ninety‐six early adolescents (M = 10.11 years) reported their relational interdependence and participated in a laboratory stress protocol in which their systolic and diastolic blood pressures before, during, and after experiencing peer stressors were assessed. Results indicated that for males only, those with high relational interdependence showed greater systolic blood pressure reactivity and, at a trend level, impaired recovery from instrumental stressors; females with high relational interdependence showed greater diastolic blood pressure reactivity to relational stressors.     

Coping with climatic shocks: local perspectives from Haiti’s rural mountain regions

Population and Environment - Haiti’s agrarian society is highly sensitive to changes in weather and climate conditions. Little is known about Haitian farmers’ perceptions of...     

What’s the Relationship Got to do with It? Understanding the Therapeutic Relationship in Therapeutic Foster Care

The therapeutic relationship is increasingly recognized as important to understanding how process variables contribute to treatment outcomes. In this paper, we examine the therapeutic relationship between children with serious emotional and behavioral disorders and their treatment providers in the context of an observational study of Therapeutic Foster Care (TFC). Our findings suggest that the quality of the relationship between the treatment parent and youth in a TFC setting is significantly associated with better emotional and behavioral functioning for the youth. It appears from these findings that the quality of the relationship between the youth and treatment parent in a TFC setting is at least one of the mechanism or process factors that contribute to improved functioning for the youth.     

Equivalence Relations and Behavior: An Introductory Tutorial

With an emphasis on procedural fundamentals, the original behavior-analytic equivalence experiments and the equivalence paradigm are described briefly. A few of the subsequent developments and implications are noted, with special reference to the possible significance of the findings with respect to language and cognition.     

Whitened rainbows: how white college students protect whiteness through diversity discourses

This qualitative study investigates white students’ attitudes toward campus diversity at a large, multiracial public university. Drawing upon focus group data gathered from a larger campus climate study, we identified four themes: participants voiced that: (1) racial diversity fosters campus tolerance; (2) diversity fragments into de facto racial segregation; (3) institutional support of diversity undermines and excludes whites; and (4) the university should avoid acknowledging white identity. Employing critical multiculturalism as a theoretical lens, we argue that these discourses maintain white dominance within a framework that promotes inclusion. These findings suggest that without more direct institutional guidance, white students will protect white supremacy even as they celebrate diversity in multiracial spaces.     

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery in Databases – An Overview

Data mining seeks to extract useful, but previously unknown, information from typically massive collections of non-experimental, sometimes non-traditional data. From the perspective of statisticians, this paper surveys techniques used and contributions from fields such as data warehousing, machine learning from artificial intelligence, and visualization as well as statistics. It concludes that statistical thinking and design of analysis, as exemplified by achievements in clinical epidemiology, may fit well with the emerging activities of data mining and 'knowledge discovery in databases' (DM&KDD).     

Health behavior correlates of depression among university students

The frequency of symptoms of depression and selected health-related practices and events was measured in a sample of 572 students at a large midwestern university. Students reported many symptoms of depression, with women experiencing depression more often and to a greater degree than men. Depression was significantly correlated with 17 of the 22 practices and states of affect examined, but uncorrelated with certain health-related activities commonly identified with poor emotional well-being. Both the determinants and manifestations of depression among university students require further in-depth investigation. Implications for health professionals and other university personnel are discussed.     

Post-traumatic stress disorder and health-related quality of life in female victims of intimate partner violence

The association between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and health-related quality of life (QOL) in female victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) was examined. The Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) was used to evaluate health-related QOL. IPV victims with PTSD (IPV/PTSD+; n = 18), IPV victims without PTSD (IPV/PTSD-; n = 22), and a non-abused control group (NA; n = 30) were compared. Multiple Analyses of Covariance (covarying for socioeconomic status and age) indicated that the three groups scored significantly differently on health-related QOL, and the IPV/PTSD- group was significantly more impaired than the NA group. IPV/PTSD+ subjects were significantly more impaired than IPV/PTSD- subjects on physical functioning, mental health, vitality, role limitations due to emotional health, and social functioning. Multiple regression analyses indicated that PTSD severity was a significant statistical predictor of SF-36 mental health composite scores (but not of physical health composite scores), after controlling for depressive symptomatology and extent of physical and psychological abuse.