Navigating “Breakup Remorse”: Implications for Disrupting the On-Again/Off-Again Cycles in Young Adult Dating Relationships

While the research is clear on the risks for distress associated with on-again, off-again romantic relationships (i.e., cyclical relationships), little is known about the change mechanisms experienced by partners in cyclical relationships or how helping professionals can assist young adults stably continue or end these relationships. Young adults (N = 21) in different stages of cyclical relationships (renewed, ended, or contemplating renewal) attended focus groups and articulated specific mechanisms that influenced their ability to make distress-reducing decisions. Main themes for professionals working with partners in cyclical relationships centered on promoting “decision-making resilience,” which included addressing issues around identity development, communication, power/control dynamics, and intentionality. These results inform assessments and interventions to bolster resilience and reduce distress for cyclical couples.     

Social exclusion and social capital: A comparison and critique

Social exclusion and social capital are widely used concepts with multiple and ambiguous definitions. Their meanings and indicators partially overlap, and thus they are sometimes used interchangeably to refer to the inter-relations of economy and society. Both ideas could benefit from further specification and differentiation. The causes of social exclusion and the consequences of social capital have received the fullest elaboration, to the relative neglect of the outcomes of social exclusion and the genesis of social capital. This article identifies the similarities and differences between social exclusion and social capital. We compare the intellectual histories and theoretical orientations of each term, their empirical manifestations and their place in public policy. The article then moves on to elucidate further each set of ideas. A central argument is that the conflation of these notions partly emerges from a shared theoretical tradition, but also from insufficient theorizing of the processes in which each phenomenon is implicated. A number of suggestions are made for sharpening their explanatory focus, in particular better differentiating between cause and consequence, contextualizing social relations and social networks, and subjecting the policy ‘solutions’ that follow from each perspective to critical scrutiny. Placing the two in dialogue is beneficial for the further development of each.     

Effect of Student Vulnerability on Perceptions of Teacher–Student Sexual Involvement

This study explored whether the vulnerability of an adolescent student affected perceptions of teacher sexual misconduct. Respondents (150 male and 150 female undergraduates) read scenarios depicting teacher sexual misconduct varied by respondent gender, gender dyad (male teacher–female student and female teacher–male student), and three levels of student vulnerability. The vulnerability of the student was found to have little impact on perceptions. On most variables, interactions emerged between respondent gender and gender dyad. Specifically, male respondents viewed the female teacher–male student dyad less negatively than the male teacher–female student dyad. Female respondents generally did not make distinctions based on gender dyad.     

Sex Differentials in Mortality in the Soviet Union: Regional Differences in Length of Working Life in Comparative Perspective

In this paper we take a different approach from other authors to the study of differences between the mortality of the two sexes in the USSR. First, we use measures of mortality that are not sensitive to the most common types of error in data and that reflect experience in an age range that is important from a policy perspective: the working ages. Secondly, we measure variation in mortality between regions of the USSR. Thirdly, we compare these regional mortality trends with experience in 33 developed countries. The sex differential in mortality in the USSR is an amalgam of very different regional patterns. Its size and rate of change are more extreme in the USSR than in other countries, and are mainly due to the poor and rapidly worsening mortality of men in the Russian Republic. But the widening sex differentials and increasing mortality of men in the older working ages in Soviet regions are similar to trends in many other developed countries.     

Invariance Testing of the SF-36 Health Survey in Women Breast Cancer Survivors: Do Personal and Cancer-related Variables Influence the Meaning of Quality of Life Items?

Quality of life (QoL) is affected by issues specific to illness trajectory and thus, may differ, and potentially take on different meanings, at different stages in the cancer process. A widely used measure of QoL is the SF-36 Health Survey (SF-36; Ware 1993); therefore, support for its appropriateness in a given population is imperative. The current study aimed to examine the conceptual (measurement) model of the SF-36, as well as closely related models, and test the measurement invariance of the SF-36 to determine if meaningful comparisons could be made among three groups of breast cancer survivors (N = 358 [data collected in 2007–2008]; divided on time since treatment, type of treatment, and age). Good model fit was found for one of three models based on the original design of this instrument—the items to subscales model. Two models were considered for measurement invariance testing: (a) items to physical health/mental health and (b) items to subscales. Strong invariance was found for time since treatment and type of treatment for both models. Weak invariance was found for age in the first model, while strict invariance was confirmed for the subscales model. Group comparisons in QoL were made where justified. Significant differences were found only on age for physical functioning, role limitations due to emotional problems, vitality, mental health, and social functioning. Overall, results suggest that while the SF-36 can be used to examine differences in QoL for various breast cancer survivors, some conceptual issues with this instrument need to be further examined.     

Population models reveal synergistic fitness effects of climate change and urbanization on poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) via disruption of seed dispersal interactions

Urban Ecosystems - Two of the most important human disturbances on natural ecosystems are urbanization and climate change. While their individual effects are well-documented, how the combined...