Social Participation, Sense of Community and Social Well Being: A Study on American, Italian and Iranian University Students

Aim of the study was to assess the relationship between social participation and Sense of Community in a sample of University students and the impact of such variables on Social well being. A further aim was to assess the generality of the relationships between these constructs across different countries, and specifically, the USA, Italy and Iran. The sample includes 200 Italian, 125 American and 214 Iranian University students, male and female. Results show higher levels of social participation, Sense of Community and Social well being among American students. Sense of Community is positively correlated with social participation in all three samples; however, only among Italian students social participation positively predicts Social well being. Implications of results will be discussed.     

Alejandro Galindo: Pioneer Mexican Cineast

Mexican cinema, one of the most active in Latin America, dates from 1896, while sound film recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary there. Among the many prominent Mexican cineasts whose films form a repertoire of solid artistic achievement is Alejandro Galindo. Like many fellow-filmmakers, directors and actors, Galindo did his aoprenticeship in Hollywood, returning to Mexico in 1930 to become one of Mexico's most creative and dynamic practitioners of cinematic art. Carl Mora highlights his accomplishments while placing him in the perspective of the development of the Mexican film industry. For example, during World War II the industry boomed because of the demand in Latin America for authentic Latin American cinema. With this impetus, Mexico (and Alejandro Galindo) enjoyed a decade of growth and popularity. Unlike most other Mexican cineasts, Galindo dealt with the dislocations that a rapidly changing economy and increased urbanization brought to both the workers and the middle class. Mora discusses several of his most important films, amply demonstrating the impact Galindo believed that cinema could have on society. He left a legacy that is admired today by critics and filmmakers.     

Rights or Identity? Naturalization Processes among “Labor Migrants” in Germany

The determinants of the decision to naturalize for first and second generation “labor migrants” in Germany are examined. We assume that Turkish migrants' comparatively high naturalization rate cannot be explained by the legal advantages they gain by naturalizing. We argue instead that naturalization offers an opportunity for individual upward mobility to Turkish migrants who have achieved a high level of individual assimilation. Using data from the GSOEP, we show that individual assimilation does in fact promote naturalization for Turkish migrants, but not for members of other ethnic groups, which generally have higher status within German society.     

Effectiveness of potent antiretroviral therapy on progression of human immunodeficiency virus: Bayesian modelling and model checking via counterfactual replicates

Summary.  We analyse data from a seroincident cohort of 457 homosexual men who were infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, followed within the multicentre Italian Seroconversion Study. These data include onset times to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), longitudinal measurements of CD4⁺ T-cell counts taken on each subject during the AIDS-free period of observation and the period of administration of a highly active antiretro- viral therapy (HAART), for the subset of individuals who received it. The aim of the study is to assess the effect of HAART on the course of the disease. We analyse the data by a Bayesian model in which the sequence of longitudinal CD4⁺ cell count observations and the associated time to AIDS are jointly modelled at an individual subject's level as depending on the treatment. We discuss the inferences obtained about the efficacy of HAART, as well as modelling and computation difficulties that were encountered in the analysis. These latter motivate a model criticism stage of the analysis, in which the model specification of CD4⁺ cell count progression and of the effect of treatment are checked. Our approach to model criticism is based on the notion of a counterfactual replicate data set Z ^c . This is a data set with the same shape and size as the observed data, which we might have observed by rerunning the study in exactly the same conditions as the actual study if the treated patients had not been treated at all. We draw samples of Z ^c from a null model M ₀, which assumes absence of treatment effect, conditioning on data collected in each subject before initiation of treatment. Model checking is performed by comparing the observed data with a set of samples of Z ^c drawn from M ₀.     

Self‐Employed Mexican Immigrants Residing along the U.S.‐Mexico Border: The Earnings Effect of Working in the U.S. versus Mexico1

This study uses U.S. census data from the year 2000 to analyze the earnings of Mexican immigrants along the U.S.‐Mexico border while accounting for the location in which they work. The empirical results indicate that Mexican entrepreneurs who live in U.S.‐border cities but primarily operate in Mexico accrue a significant earnings premium over their entrepreneurial and salaried counterparts working on the U.S. side of the border, even after controlling for differences in observable characteristics. This work‐location earnings gap widens when focusing on Mexican business owners lacking U.S. citizenship. It follows that policies which reduce trade and labor flows across the U.S.‐Mexico border may inadvertently dampen the entrepreneurial activities of foreign‐born residents in U.S.‐border cities.     

Cohesion and Enmeshment Revisited: Differentiation,Identity, and Well‐Being in Two European Cultures

We examined the nature and implications of family differentiation among adolescents facing a life transition in 2 European countries with differing family cultures. One hundred and twenty‐four Italian and 109 U.K. adolescents completed measures of family differentiation (cohesion and enmeshment), identity threat (perception of threat to the self associated with finishing school), life satisfaction, depressive symptoms, and anxiety. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that cohesion and enmeshment were distinguishable in both countries, orthogonal in the U.K. but positively correlated in Italy. Family cohesion was associated with better psychological well‐being in both countries; enmeshment was associated with poorer psychological well‐being in the U.K. but not in Italy. Structural equation models showed that effects on well‐being were fully mediated by identity threat in both cultures.     

The intersection of leadership and entrepreneurship: Mutual lessons to be learned

Leadership scholars are quite familiar with the often convoluted and problematic path that leadership theory has taken. Despite these challenges, leadership is currently considered a “mature field” [Hunt, J.G., & Dodge, G.E. (2000). Leader Deja Vu all over again. The Leadership Quarterly, 11 (4), 453–458] even though this maturity has not been achieved without considerable growing pains. Similar to the path that leadership scholars have taken, those who study entrepreneurship also struggle with issues associated with a field in its early stages. This review examines the intersection between the fields of leadership and entrepreneurship with an emphasis on how the path taken by leadership research can inform entrepreneurship and possibly lessen this young field's growing pains. We first identify several areas where these fields theoretically converge (both in the models employed and the research questions addressed). Next, we take a historical perspective of leadership and entrepreneurship by identifying the life cycle stage of each construct or domain. Finally, we conclude with some thoughts on how the entrepreneurship field may avoid (or is avoiding) the pitfalls experienced by those who study leadership.     

WAITING LIST CONTROLLED TRIAL OF COGNITIVE MARITAL THERAPY IN SEVERE MARITAL DISCORD

Forty-one couples with severe marital discord participated in a controlled trial conducted to evaluate whether a form of marital therapy that is designed to enhance marital intimacy through facilitating self-disclosure of personal constructs was effective. The study found that there was no spontaneous remission in marital discord in couples on a 10-week waiting list. Couples subjectively reported improvement as a consequence of participating in marital therapy, and couples in therapy and on the waiting list showed a significant reduction in symptoms of nonpsychotic emotional illness. There was a significant pattern of improvement for wives in the therapy group compared to the waiting list group, but no such effect for the husbands.