Inconsistent Latino Self-Identification in Adolescence and Academic Performance

Research has documented important connections between ethnic identity and academic success. In the multiethnic context of the US, ethnic self-identification is a dynamic process that develops through social interaction within institutions. Understanding the emergence of a Latino self-identity within schools can provide insight into the meanings adolescents confer to a “Latino” identity and the relationship between a Latino self-identity and academic success. This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine (1) the association between a Latino self-identification in-school but not at home and academic well-being, (2) the association between a Latino self-identification in-school but not at home and school processes, and (3) whether school processes help to mediate the relationship between Latino self-identification in-school but not at home and academic well-being. Results suggest that while adolescents who identify as Latino at school but not at home come from families and neighborhoods with higher levels of economic and human capital, by the end of high school they have accumulated less educational capital then either consistently identifying Latinos or non-Latino whites. Much of this association can be explained by prior academic experiences, yet other factors associated with resistance to institutional norms and attending low performing schools may also be important. Results suggest that non-minority, underachieving adolescents may choose to self-identify as Latino in schools as a way to save face and avert identity crises and that perhaps youth in schools have come to associate a Latino identity with poor school performance.     

Girls’ “New Femininity” Refusals and “Good Girl” Recuperations in Soap Talk

The “new femininities” produced in postfeminist media confront girls with complex and challenging subjectivities that reach into the spaces where girls engage in their own productions of self. Feminist scholarship has interrogated and critiqued the “girl” produced in postfeminist popular culture texts, highlighting her internal contradictions and often problematic re/production within the heterosexual matrix. Yet, despite an intensified focus on girls featured in popular culture, the ways that girls themselves make sense of the “girl” in contemporary femininity texts has been relatively neglected. Viewing girls' sense-making of femininity in popular culture texts as crucial in the process of their subjectivity or self-production, in this paper we examine pre-teen girls' negotiations of femininity through their talk about Scarlett, a main teen girl character in a New Zealand soap drama. Our analyses and discussion focus on girls' management of the contradictory and regulatory productions of femininity in the text, in particular the often classed conditions under which girls recuperate the “good girl” discourse to refuse the regulatory femininities inside the heterosexual matrix. We suggest that an absence of empowering discourses outside of postfeminism's sexual empowerment limits girls' resources for critiquing and challenging regulatory femininities, “new” and “traditional.”     

Dot Plots

Dot plots represent individual observations in a batch of data with symbols, usually circular dots. They have been used for more than 100 years to depict distributions in detail. Hand-drawn examples show their authors' efforts to arrange symbols so that they are as near as possible to their proper locations on a scale without overlapping enough to obscure each other. Recent computer programs that attempt to reproduce these historical plots have unfortunately resorted to simple histogram binning instead of using methods that follow the rules for the hand-drawn examples. This article introduces an algorithm that more accurately represents the dot plots cited in the literature.     

The structure of employee attitudes to safety: A European example

This paper concerns organizational safety culture and the structure or architecture of employee attitudes to safety as part of that culture. It begins by reviewing the somewhat scant literature relevant to this area, and then reports a study, conducted in a European company, which collected and factor analysed data on employee attitudes to safety. The framework provided for the study was that offered by Purdham (1984), and the results suggested that employees' attitudes to safety, within this company (across occupation/occupational level and country), could be mapped By five orthogonal factors: personal scepticism, individual responsibility, the safeness of the work environment, the effectiveness of arrangements for safety, and personal immunity. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed, and attention is drawn to their subsequent use in an intervention to enhance safety culture within the organization by attacking supervisors' attitudes to safety.     

Developing the DSM-IV-DSM-IV Criteria to Identify Adolescent Problem Gambling in Non-Clinical Populations

This paper presents a revised version of DSM-IV-J criteria for youth, the DSM-IV-MR-J, together with psychometric data stemming from its use in a major prevalence study of adolescent gambling and problem gambling. The case is made for further development and testing of current and emerging instruments to screen for problem gambling in youth, with the aim of establishing one internationally accepted gold standard measure.     

Parenting Assessment in a Psychiatric Mother and Baby Unit

Correspondence to Dr Gertrude Seneviratne, Section of Perinatal Psychiatry, Division of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. E-mail: G.Seneviratne{at}iop.kcl.ac.uk Summary Courts and social services often seek the advice of mental healthprofessionals in deciding whether a mentally ill mother shouldremain the primary carer of her infant. This paper describesthe referral pathways, outcomes at discharge and subsequently,of a sample of mothers referred for parenting assessments toa psychiatric Mother and Baby Unit. A further aim was to examinefactors predicting outcome. A casenote study of sixty-one consecutivereferrals for in-patient parenting assessment over a six-yearperiod is described. Social Services were contacted to establishdevelopments at least nine months after discharge. Fewer thanhalf of the mothers were discharged together with their babiesat the end of the assessment period, and at follow-up, lessthan a third were still caring for their children. Diagnosisof the mother's illness was the main factor determining whethershe continued to care for her child both at discharge and atfollow-up; mothers with depression were more likely to remainprimary carers. Variations in the timing and process of referralsrelated to a lack of antenatal planning were associated withincreased rates of separation of mother and infant before theassessment. The findings illustrate the need for more integratedco-ordination between professionals in mental health and children'sservices to ensure early planning for mothers and infants atrisk.     

More harm than good? Diagnostic codes for child and adult abuse

This study sought to understand the reasons for the lack of use of ICD diagnostic codes for child and adult abuse. New Jersey professionals were recruited to participate in three focus groups on child abuse, adult or primarily woman abuse, and elder abuse. Participants included health care providers, advocates from the community, and representatives of state agencies and the insurance industry. Concerns about coding abuse included further jeopardizing victims/patients, diagnostic uncertainty, and lack of resources. Members of the child abuse group were somewhat more receptive to coding abuse. Reasons to code, such as for documentation and reimbursement were discussed and rebutted. Most participants concluded that use of the abuse codes should be judicious because they have the potential to do more harm than good. More research is needed on the implications of coding for victims/patients along with medical education in the identification of abuse in general and coding abuse in particular.