Psychometric evaluation of the Italian translation of the Gamblers’ Beliefs Questionnaire

Italy has experienced a rapid growth in gambling accessibility, expenditures and problems. Gambling-related cognitive distortions are established risk factors for disordered gambling, although little is known about the role of gambling-related cognitive distortions among Italians. To establish a valid tool for assessing these distortions, an Italian version of the Gamblers’ Beliefs Questionnaire (GBQ-I) was translated and psychometrically evaluated in a sample of 749. Eighty-five percent had gambled recently and 110 were identified as probable disordered gamblers. Good reliability, internal consistency and test-retest reliability were demonstrated. Concurrent, convergent and predictive validities also suggested that the GBQ-I is a valid and reliable measure for assessing gambling-related cognitive distortions among clinical and non-clinical Italian samples. Factor analysis explored the two-factor structure from the measures’ initial validation but was unable to replicate it. The validation of this translation of the GBQ allows for future cross-cultural research on the role of cognitive distortions in the study and treatment of gambling problems.     

Women's Unprotected Sex Intentions: Roles of Sexual Victimization,Intoxication, and Partner Perception

Sexually victimized women may make sexual decisions differently than nonvictimized women. This study used an eroticized scenario and laboratory alcohol administration to investigate the roles of victimization history, intoxication, and relationship context in women's perceptions of a male partner and their subsequent intentions for unprotected sex. A community sample of 436 women completed childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and adolescent/adult sexual assault (ASA) measures. After random assignment to an alcohol or control condition, participants read and projected themselves into a sexual scenario that depicted the male partner as having high or low potential for a lasting relationship. Participants rated their perceptions of his intoxication, sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk level, and anticipated reactions to insistence on condom use. They then indicated their likelihood of allowing the partner to decide how far to go sexually (abdication) and of engaging in unprotected sex. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses revealed that intoxication predicted greater unprotected sex likelihood indirectly via abdication. CSA and ASA predicted partner perceptions, which in turn predicted unprotected sex likelihood. These findings indicate that, compared to their nonvictimized counterparts, sexually victimized women may respond differently in sexual encounters partly as a function of their perceptions of partners' STI risk and anticipated reactions to condom insistence.     

Is “Sexual Competence” at First Heterosexual Intercourse Associated With Subsequent Sexual Health Status?

The timing of first sexual intercourse is often defined in terms of chronological age, with particular focus on “early” first sex. Arguments can be made for a more nuanced concept of readiness and appropriateness of timing of first intercourse. Using data from the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3), conducted in 2010–2012, this study examined whether a context-based measure of first intercourse—termed sexual competence—was associated with subsequent sexual health in a population-based sample of 17-to 24-year-olds residing in Britain (n = 2,784). Participants were classified as “sexually competent” at first intercourse if they reported the following four criteria: contraceptive protection, autonomy of decision (not due to external influences), that both partners were “equally willing,” and that it happened at the “right time.” A lack of sexual competence at first intercourse was independently associated with testing positive for human papillomavirus (HPV) at interview; low sexual function in the past year; and among women only, reported sexually transmitted infection (STI) diagnosis ever; unplanned pregnancy in the past year; and having ever experienced nonvolitional sex. These findings provide empirical support for defining the nature of first intercourse with reference to contextual aspects of the experience, as opposed to a sole focus on chronological age at occurrence.     

Piecewise Cox models with right-censored data

We study a general class of piecewise Cox models. We discuss the computation of the semi-parametric maximum likelihood estimates (SMLE) of the parameters, with right-censored data, and a simplified algorithm for the maximum partial likelihood estimates (MPLE). Our simulation study suggests that the relative efficiency of the PMLE of the parameter to the SMLE ranges from 96% to 99.9%, but the relative efficiency of the existing estimators of the baseline survival function to the SMLE ranges from 3% to 24%. Thus, the SMLE is much better than the existing estimators.     

Impact of child health and disability on subsequent maternal fertility

The prevalence of chronic conditions among children has been rising in the past four decades. Despite the policy relevance and plausible mechanisms through which child disability and severe early life health conditions can impact subsequent maternal reproductive behavior, there has been limited investigation of this question particularly in the US. Child disability or severe early life health problems such as very preterm birth (VPTB) and very low birth weight (VLBW) can constrain household resources to have another child but may also increase parental demand for healthy children and modify allocation of resources between children. Empirical assessment of this question is complicated by unobservables such as maternal health and preferences. We examine whether giving birth to a child with disabilities or severe adverse birth outcomes including VPTB and VLBW impacts subsequent maternal fertility. We employ a mother fixed-effect duration model for maternal fertility over time as a function of the proportion of previously born children with disabilities/health conditions in order to account for time-invariant unobservables, using merged data from the 1993 National Health Interview Survey and 1995 National Survey of Family Growth. We find no evidence that having disabled children reduces subsequent live births when using the mother fixed-effect model, in contrast to the classical model using within and between mother variation which suggests a fertility decline. Similarly, we find no evidence that having VPTB or VLBW children reduces fertility. Overall, our findings indicate no impact of child disability or health conditions on subsequent maternal fertility. Additional analyses excluding women who may qualify for AFDC show overall a similar pattern of results, suggesting that the findings may be generalizable post the AFDC. Time-varying unobservables may still be at work, but they likely result in an opposite (negative) bias toward reduction in fertility.     

Mental Health Knowledge Gaps in the Child Protection Work with Parents: A Narrative Review of the Social Work Literature

This is a narrative review of the latest peer-reviewed social work literature on the child protection work with parents. Aiming to identify knowledge gaps, the study researches the mental health aspects of the implicit or explicit theoretical perspectives underpinning the assessment and intervention with parents. An electronic database search extracted 38 peer-reviewed journal articles. It was found that the theoretical perspectives the publications adopted were the managerial, the critical, the humanistic, the psychodynamic and the behavioural. The study identified mental health knowledge gaps in the assessment and intervention work with parents across all theoretical perspectives and stressed the need for process and effectiveness studies on the work with parents, under explicit theoretical perspectives. The study finally highlights the need for the social work profession to increase its mental health literacy through mental health education for students and practitioners alike.     

Insignificant Betas and the Efficacy of the Sharpe Diagonal Model for Portfolio Selection*

When both practitioners and theorists apply Sharpe's diagonal model [15] to simplify the portfolio selection problem, they assume that the entire covariation structure of each stock (i.e., with all other stocks) is captured in that stock's covariance with the market (or β). Furthermore, it is well known that the selection algorithm itself has a marked tendency to select stocks with the lowest βs, ceteris paribus. When a stock's β is statistically indistinguishable from zero, it is an empirical issue whether the market model is (a) less appropriate for that particular stock relative to those with statistically significant βs; or is (b) a viable model in that the covariance of this stock's rate-of-return with all other stocks' rates-of-return vanishes. The objective of this paper is to distinguish empirically between (a) and (b), and to propose a heuristic which will improve the ex-post performance of the diagonal model. The possible benefits of this heuristic are also demonstrated in a rigorous statistical framework.     

Vegetation structure along urban ephemeral streams in southeastern Arizona

Riparian areas in Arizona are being encroached upon by urban developments. This study investigated the impacts of different urban housing densities on riparian vegetation structure along ephemeral streams. Nine sites representing three levels of housing density were selected within the town of Marana, located in southeast Arizona. The housing densities were categorized as high (7–8 houses ha^?1), moderate (2.5–4.5 houses ha^?1), and low (< 1.5 houses ha^?1). Each treatment had three replications. The urban developments were relatively young (less than 15 years). No significant differences were found among the treatments for the tree variables (density, height, mean canopy volume and total canopy volume) or the herbaceous vegetation variables (species richness, percentage of introduced species and percentage of ground cover). However, the shrub variables (mean density, mean height, mean canopy volume, total canopy volume and species richness) showed some significant differences. Shrub density and species richness was significantly greater adjacent to ephemeral channels than just three meters upland. In addition, whitethorn acacia shrubs were significantly taller and larger adjacent to the stream channels in the high and moderate housing density sites than in the low housing density sites. Creosote shrubs showed the opposite trend. Increased runoff in the more heavily urbanized streams may have promoted the growth of the facultative riparian species (whitethorn acacia) but not the non-riparian species (creosote). Overall, in these young developments, vegetation was resilient across the levels of urbanization explored in the study.