RELIGIOUS PARTICIPATION, ETHNIC IDENTIFICATION, AND ADAPTATION OF VIETNAMESE ADOLESCENTS IN AN IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY

This article addresses the role of religion in immigrant adaptation through the case of Vietnamese adolescents. Our results show that religious participation consistently makes a significant contribution to ethnic identification, which, in turn, facilitates positive adaptation of immigrant adolescents to American society by increasing the probability that adolescents will do well in school, set their sights on future education, and avoid some of the dangers that confront contemporary young people. These results suggest that an immigrant congregation does not function simply as a means of maintaining a psychologically comforting sense of ethnicity while group members drop ethnic traits in their day-to-day lives. Nor does identification with an ethnic group appear to limit life chances by binding group members to ethnic traits. On the contrary, the ethnic religious participation examined here, to a large extent, facilitates adjustment to the host society precisely because it promotes the cultivation of a distinctive ethnicity, that, in turn, helps young people to reach higher levels of academic achievement and to avoid dangerous and destructive forms of behavior.     

An analysis of the efficacy of infant intervention programs with organically handicapped children

Investigations (N = 49) which utilized pre-experimental, quasi-experimental or true experimental designs to assess the effectiveness of interventions with organically impaired infants are reviewed and analyzed. Each of the designs employed are examined according to how well they protected against threats to internal validity. Plausible alternative explanations for obtained outcomes are illustrated. It was concluded that the majority of studies, because of their failure to control for threats to internal validity, yielded results which are fundamentally uninterpretable. The use of methodologically more rigorous designs in evaluation studies is recommended to assess the efficacy of intervention efforts designed to prevent or ameliorate the adverse effects of constitutional defects.     

Apoptosis and Chemical Carcinogenesis

Long recognized as a normal component of organogenesis during development, apoptosis (programmed cell death) has recently been implicated in alterations of cell growth and differentiation. Tissue homeostasis is normally maintained by a balance between cell division and cell death, with apoptosis often functioning in complement to cell growth. Thus, antithetical parallels in chemical carcinogenesis can be drawn between apoptosis and the proliferative events more commonly addressed. While enhanced cell replication may contribute to an increased frequency of mutation, apoptosis within a tissue may counteract chemical carcinogenesis through loss of mutated cells. Many strong carcinogens act as tumor promoters, selectively expanding an initiated cell population advantageously over surrounding cells. Similarly, chemicals with a selective inhibition of apoptosis within an initiated population would offer a growth advantage. In contrast, chemicals causing selective apoptosis of initiated cells would be expected to have an anticarcinogenic effect. Selective apoptosis, in concert with cell-specific replication, may explain the unique promoting effects of different carcinogens such as the peroxisome-proliferating chemicals, phenobarbital, and 2,3,7,8-tetrachloro-dibenzo- p -dioxin (TCDD). Cell turnover, both cell growth and cell death, is central to the process of chemically induced carcinogenesis in animals and understanding its impact is a critical determinant of the relevance of chemically induced effects to man.     

A multitrait-multimethod investigation of interpersonal distance

Prior research has investigated the validity of interpersonal distance measures with respect to only one trait — comfort. This study expanded the previous research by measuring interpersonal distance along the trait dimensions of comfort, control and privacy. In addition, measures were taken along three different measurement techniques: stop distance, silhouette placement, and a paper and pencil measure (CID). The results were interpreted in terms of a multitrait-multimethod matrix. Results indicated that these measures were reliable and valid and the traits did have convergent validity. However, all of these measures were uncorrelated with a disguised distance measure of interpersonal distance.