The LGBQ Social Climate Matters: Policies,Protests, and Placards and Psychological Well-Being Among LGBQ Emerging Adults

Sexual minority youth, including emerging adults, are at risk for negative health outcomes. Minority stress theory posits that heterosexism can contribute to these outcomes among sexual minorities. Researchers have tested this theory with respect to interpersonal heterosexism; however, little attention has been given to macro-level and environmental forms of heterosexism, especially among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) youth. In this study, we examine the role of objective social climate (LGB state-level policies) and experiential distal and proximal environmental microaggressions on the psychological well-being of LGBQ emerging adults. Furthermore, we examine the role of LGBQ identity salience as a moderating factor on the macro/environmental-heterosexism and well-being relationship. Multivariable linear regression results suggest that living in a state without same-sex marriage laws is associated with greater self-esteem, whereas both distal and proximal environmental microaggressions are risk factors for anxiety and perceived stress. Furthermore, identity salience can ameliorate the effects of distal microaggressions and intensify the effects of proximal microaggressions and same-sex marriage legislation. Implications for practice with sexual minority youth are discussed.     

A New Test for Short Memory in Long Memory Time Series

This article considers short memory characteristics in a long memory process. We derive new asymptotic results for the sample autocorrelation difference ratios. We used these results to develop a new portmanteau test that determines if short memory parameters are statistically significant. In simulations, the new test can detect short memory components more often than the Ljung-Box test when these short memory components are in fact within a long memory process. Interestingly, our test finds short memory autocorrelations in U.S. inflation rate data, whereas the Ljung-Box test fails to find these autocorrelations. Modeling these short memory autocorrelations of the inflation rate data leads to improved model accuracy and more precise prediction.     

When Costs Are Unequal and Unknown: A Subtree Grafting Approach for Unbalanced Data Classification*

In binary classifications, a decision tree learned from unbalanced data typically creates an important challenge related to the high misclassification rate of the minority class. Assigning different misclassification costs can address this problem, though usually at the cost of accuracy for the majority class. This effect can be particularly hazardous if the costs cannot be specified precisely. When the costs are unknown or difficult to determine, decision makers may prefer a classifier with more balanced accuracy for both classes rather than a standard or cost‐sensitively learned one. In the context of learning trees, this research therefore proposes a new tree induction approach called subtree grafting (STG). On the basis of a real bank data set and several other data sets, we test the proposed STG method and find that our proposed approach provides a successful compromise between standard and cost‐sensitive trees.     

A Review of Trauma Specific Treatments (TSTs) for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Clinical Social Work Journal - Trauma is a significant public health concern that has widespread and adverse effects on people. There is a high prevalence of trauma and PTSD in general populations,...     

Hypergamy Among South Korean Women and Its Implications for the Marriage Rate

Population Research and Policy Review - This study aims to examine how income-based hypergamy among South Korean women affects the marriage rate. In a society that continues to practice income...     

Government size and economic growth in Taiwan: A threshold regression approach

The Armey curve developed by [Armey, R. (1995). The freedom revolution. Washington, DC: Rognery Publishing Co.] and [Vedder, R. K., & Gallaway, L. E. (1998). Government size and economic growth. Joint Economic Committee] demonstrates that there is a non-linear relationship between government size and economic growth. In order to search for the threshold effects, this paper employs [Hansen, B. E. (2000). Sample splitting and threshold estimation. Econometrica, 68(3), 575–603] threshold regression model to test whether the Armey curve exists in Taiwan, allowing for endogenous government size thresholds. We apply the two-sector production function developed by [Ram, R. (1986). Government size and economic growth: A new framework and some evidence from cross-section and time-series data. American Economic Review, 76(1), 191–203] to construct the threshold regression model. Three classifications of government size are tested in sequence as threshold variables. The result indicates that all three classifications of government size have a threshold effect and that a non-linear relationship of the Armey curve exists in Taiwan.