Bahadur efficiency of the F-test

Extremal problems in large deviations of the F-statistic are considered. It is shown that the slowest rate of convergence over a specified class of distributions of the F-statistic is slower than exponential, and that the Bahadur efficiency of the F-statistic with respect to some distribution-free competitors is identically zero.     

Quality of web-based information on cannabis addiction

This study evaluated the quality of Web-based information on cannabis use and addiction and investigated particular content quality indicators. Three keywords ("cannabis addiction," "cannabis dependence," and "cannabis abuse") were entered into two popular World Wide Web search engines. Websites were assessed with a standardized proforma designed to rate sites on the basis of accountability, presentation, interactivity, readability, and content quality. "Health on the Net" (HON) quality label, and DISCERN scale scores were used to verify their efficiency as quality indicators. Of the 94 Websites identified, 57 were included. Most were commercial sites. Based on outcome measures, the overall quality of the sites turned out to be poor. A global score (the sum of accountability, interactivity, content quality and esthetic criteria) appeared as a good content quality indicator. While cannabis education Websites for patients are widespread, their global quality is poor. There is a need for better evidence-based information about cannabis use and addiction on the Web.     

Creating an Ecology of Hope: Arts-based Interventions with Refugee Children

This paper illustrates how human ecological theory and hope theory were used to develop arts-based research tools and program interventions with refugee children in a Canadian inner city context. Building on key ideas such as: the contextualized, reciprocal, and dynamic nature of hope, the paper identifies a series of program activities. These include the use of photographs, a hope quilt, the development of narratives, followed by opportunities for children to share their hope work with others and for parents and other adults to undertake child-focused and hope-based discussions. Policy and program implications for refugee children are then discussed.

Overcoming fieldwork challenges in urban health research in developing countries: a research note

With rapid growth in the global urban population over the next two decades, health will increasingly have an urban bias. The picture of public health is particularly complex in African cities, where rates of urbanisation, poverty and inequity are high. This paper identifies the main data collection problems encountered within a panel study in low‐income areas of Johannesburg, with special emphasis on sampling, access and partnerships. The paper will be of relevance to anyone considering research in the cities of developing countries, especially in Africa.     

Sexual Coercion within Mixed-Sex Couples: The Roles of Sexual Motives,Revictimization, and Reperpetration

Research suggests that a history of childhood sexual abuse, and previous experiences of sexual coercion, may predict sexual coercion victimization and perpetration. More recently, sexual motivation has been found to correlate with both consensual and non-consensual sexual activity. However, sexual motivation has not been examined in association with previous experiences of abuse and sexual coercion. The aim of this study was to investigate childhood sexual abuse, previous sexual coercion experiences, and sexual motives of both partners as possible risk factors for current sexual coercion victimization and perpetration within a sample of 209 mixed-sex couples. This study examined whether power, stress relief, partner pressure, and imposition motives contributed unique variance to the prediction of sexual coercion beyond that accounted for by past childhood sexual abuse and sexual coercion events. Using hierarchical logistic regressions, four predictive models were examined for both male and female sexual coercion perpetration and victimization. Results show that childhood sexual abuse was only a significant predictor of female sexual coercion perpetration, whereas male sexual coercion victimization and perpetration were predicted by sexual coercion victimization and perpetration in previous relationships. Power motives were also significant predictors of sexual coercion perpetration, and imposition was a significant predictor of sexual coercion victimization for both genders.     

Book reviews

Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America. Ira Berlin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1998. x, 497pp. $29.95. ISBN 0–674–81092–9.

More than Chattel: Black Women and Slavery in the Americas. Edited by David Barry Gaspar and Darlene Clark Hine. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1996. xi, 341 pp. £14.99 (paper). ISBN 0–253–21043–7.

From Slavery to Freedom: Comparative Studies in the Rise and Fall of Atlantic Slavery. Seymour drescher. Foreword by Stanley L. Engerman. London: Macmillan. 1999. xxv, 454pp. £55.00. ISBN 0–333–73748–2.

Stylin’: African American Expressive Culture from its Beginnings to the Zoot Suit. Shane White and Graham White. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. 1998. xv. 301pp. £23.95 (cloth). ISBN 0–80143179–4.

Raising Cain: Blackface Performance from Jim Crow to Hip Hop. W. T. Lhamon, Jr. Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press. 1998. 269pp. $25.95 (cloth). ISBN 0–674–74711–9.

Restless Visionaries: The Social Roots of Antebellum Reform in Alabama and Michigan. John W. Quist. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. 1998. xi, 562pp. £45.90. ISBN 0–8071–2133–9.

Frccdpeople in the Tobacco South: Virginia, 1860–1900. Jeffrey R. Kerr‐Ritchie. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina press. 1999. xv, 345 pp. $49.95 (cloth); $18.95 (paper). ISBN 0–8078–2460–7; 0–8078–4763–1.

The Freedmen's Bureau and Black Texans. Barry A. Crouch. Austin: University of Texas at Austin Press. 1999. xix, 187pp. $12.95 (paper). ISBN 0–292–71219–7.

Montpelier, Jamaica: A Plantation Community in Slavery and Freedom, 1739–1912. B.W. Higman. Kingston: The Press University of the West Indies. 1998. xv, 384pp. £20.00/$35.00. ISBN 976–640–039–3.

In Place of Slavery: A Social History of British Indian and Javanese Laborers in Suriname. Rosemarijn Hoefte. Gainsville: University of Florida Press. 1998. xii, 275pp. $49.95. ISBN 0–8130–1625–8.

Writing West Indian Histories. B.W. Higman. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Education. 1999. xiv, 289 pp. £15.50 (paper). ISBN 0–333–73296–0.

Free and Unfree Labour: The Debate Continues. Edited by Tom Brass and Marcel Van Der Linden. Bern/Berlin/Frankfurt a.M: Peter Lang. 1997 (International and Comparative Social History 5). 602 pp. £52.00. ISBN 3–906756–87–4.

Servicing the Master. Slavery and Society in Nineteenth Century Morocco. Mohammed Ennaji. Translated by Seth Graebner. London: Macmillan, 1999. xix, 166pp. £35.00. ISBN 0–333–75477–8.

Servants of Allah. Sylviane A. Diouf. New York: New York University Press. 1998. vii, 254 pp. $18.50. ISBN 0–8147–1905–8     

The role of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related stigma on HPV vaccine decision-making among college males

ABSTRACT

Objective: The goals of the present study are (1) to identify sociodemographic and psychosocial predictors of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related stigma and (2) to examine the relationship between HPV-related stigma in predicting HPV vaccine decision-making among college males. Participants: Six hundred and eighty college males aged 18–26 from 3 Canadian universities were recruited from September 2013 to April 2014. Methods: Participants completed a self-report survey assessing HPV-related stigma, psychosocial predictors of HPV-related stigma, and HPV vaccine decision-making. The results were analyzed using variance analyses and linear regressions. Results: Ethnicity, province of residence, and perceived severity of HPV were found to significantly influence HPV-related stigma. In addition, HPV-related stigma was higher in those unaware of the availability of the HPV vaccine for males. Conclusions: Promotion efforts should concentrate on Asian minorities and should avoid HPV severity messaging, as these may lead to higher HPV-related stigma, which in turn may act as a barrier to vaccination.     

You Thought That This Would Be Easy? Seeking an Understanding of Episodic Volunteering

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This article is intended as the leading article in a Special Issue of Voluntas devoted to episodic volunteering from a...     

What are Children's Centres? The Development of CC Services, 2004–20081

Children's centres are intended to be a mainstream, universal service. They began in 2004 and their origins are diverse. Some replaced various forms of local provision, most notably Sure Start programmes; others were established from scratch. Issues for exploratory empirical work have been identified from the guidance issued by central government. Using interview data from three urban local authorities, this article explores the nature of the ‘core offer’ that centres are expected to provide and the way in which they have pursued the goal of integrating staff and services. The article highlights the problems of balancing a focus on the child and on the parent; of reconciling childcare provision as part of the employability agenda and as a means to educational achievement for the child; of permitting local variation while achieving consistency; of the role of monitoring in relation to developing good practice; and of achieving integration in a mixed economy of care. We find that despite the greater specification of the core offer for children's centres compared to that for Sure Start, there are substantial differences between children's centres in terms of services, while the mixed economy of provision poses considerable challenges to the goal of integration.