Influence of Close Friends on the Boundaries of Adolescent Personal Authority

Perceptions of close friends' influence on the construction of boundaries between legitimate parental and personal authority were assessed using a semistructured interview with 183 early (M=11.82 years) and middle (M=15.72 years) adolescents. Participants described sources relevant to the construction of authority beliefs, processes of friend influence, and justifications for influence and noninfluence. Personal, conventional, prudential, and multifaceted issues were assessed. Friends were most salient sources in the construction of boundaries about personal and multifaceted issues and were more salient for middle than for early adolescents. Parental influence was most significant over conventional and prudential issues. Friend influence was primarily attributed to indirect processes, as adolescents used friends as metrics demonstrating age‐appropriate levels of freedom. Adolescents endorsed moral reasoning when they justified monitoring friends' jurisdictional bounds.     

Shame,Sexual Compulsivity,and Eroticizing Flirtatious Others: An Experimental Study

Clinical observation and correlational studies with nonclinical samples suggest that a linkage between negative affective states (especially shame) and engagement in erotic pursuits typifies sexual compulsivity. The present study tested whether experimental induction of shame leads to increased interest in erotically suggestive targets among more sexually compulsive individuals. A total of 74 age-traditional heterosexual university students first recalled either an emotionally neutral or a shame-inducing personal experience, then completed a nonpredictive gaze-cueing task featuring flirtatious or emotionally neutral faces of the same or opposite sex. They also rated the faces’ attractiveness and completed a validated sexual compulsivity scale and two control measures (executive control, sociosexuality). Higher (versus lower) sexual compulsivity predicted weaker gaze-triggered attentional orienting in response to the flirtatious opposite-sex face in the shame (versus neutral) condition, and this was accounted for by (higher) attractiveness ratings of the flirtatious opposite-sex face. Shame thus appears to increase sexualization (i.e., reduces salience of agentic features and increases appeal of physical attributes) of erotically suggestive targets among more sexually compulsive individuals.     

Model free audit methodology for bias evaluation of tumour progression in oncology

Many oncology studies incorporate a blinded independent central review (BICR) to make an assessment of the integrity of the primary endpoint, progression free survival. Recently, it has been suggested that, in order to assess the potential for bias amongst investigators, a BICR amongst only a sample of patients could be performed; if evidence of bias is detected, according to a predefined threshold, the BICR is then assessed in all patients, otherwise, it is concluded that the sample was sufficient to rule out meaningful levels of bias. In this paper, we present an approach that adapts a method originally created for defining futility bounds in group sequential designs. The hazard ratio ratio, the ratio of the hazard ratio (HR) for the treatment effect estimated from the BICR to the corresponding HR for the investigator assessments, is used as the metric to define bias. The approach is simple to implement and ensures a high probability that a substantial true bias will be detected. In the absence of bias, there is a high probability of accepting the accuracy of local evaluations based on the sample, in which case an expensive BICR of all patients is avoided. The properties of the approach are demonstrated by retrospective application to a completed Phase III trial in colorectal cancer. The same approach could easily be adapted for other disease settings, and for test statistics other than the hazard ratio. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Environmental Exposures to Metals in Native Communities and Implications for Child Development: Basis for the Navajo Birth Cohort Study

Two disparate statistics often cited for the Western United States raise concern about risks for developmental disabilities in Native American children. First, 13 of the states with the highest percentage of Native American population are located in the Western United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 U.S. Census Bureau. (2012). The American Indian and Alaska Native Population: 2010 (U.S. Census Briefs, January, #C2010BR-10). Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-10.pdf [Google Scholar]). Second, more than 161,000 abandoned hard-rock mines are located in 12 Western states (General Accounting Office, 2014 General Accounting Office. (2014, July 14). GAO-11–834T: Abandoned Mines. Information on the number of hardrock mines, cost of cleanup, and value of financial assurances. Statement of Anu K. Mittal, Director, Natural Resources and Environment Team, Testimony before the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, Committee on Natural Resources, House of Representatives. Retrieved from http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-834T [Google Scholar]). Moreover, numerous studies have linked low-level metals exposure with birth defects and developmental delays. Concern has emerged among tribal populations that metals exposure from abandoned mines might threaten development of future generations.     

Improved Estimates and Confidence Intervals for Regenerative Simulation

In regenerative simulation, one frequently requires an estimate or a confidence interval for the ratio of the means of the two components of a certain bivariate random quantity. Estimation of this ratio has been studied by many authors and most recently by Asmussen and Rydén(2010 Asmussen, S., Rydén, T. (2010). A note on skewness in regenerative simulation. Communications in Statistics—Simulation and Computation 40: 45–57.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Here, we propose an estimate that performs better than the best of the known estimates. Our estimate is also lot simpler than the best known estimate.     

Effect of COVID-19 on Household Food Insecurity and Poverty: Evidence from Ghana

Social Indicators Research - Following the outbreak of COVID-19 and its heavy toll on the global community and humanity, a fierce debate on the pandemic and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)...     

LGBT Health in the Midlands: A Rural/Urban Comparison of Basic Health Indicators

Research into the health and wellbeing of rural lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations is limited. A community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach was used to develop an online survey for LGBT Nebraskans. The 770 participants replied to an array of questions on social determinants of health and basic health outcomes. Only significant differences in having health insurance were found between urban and rural participants. Social determinants of health were explored. Results of this study suggest that regional culture may be more salient to health for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons living in the Midwest than rural or urban residence.     

To test or not to test: do workplace drug testing programs discourage employee drug use?

Workplace drug testing programs are often met with intense criticism. Despite resistance among labor and consumer groups and a lack of rigorous empirical evidence regarding effectiveness, drug testing programs have remained popular with employers throughout the 1990s and into the current century. The present study analyzed nationally representative data on over 15,000 US households to determine whether various types of workplace drug testing programs influenced the probability of drug use by workers. The study estimated several empirical specifications using both univariate and bivariate probit techniques. The specification tests favored the bivariate probit model over the univariate probit model. Estimated marginal effects of drug testing on any drug use were negative, significant, and relatively large, indicating that drug testing programs are achieving one of the desired effects. The results were similar when any drug use was replaced with chronic drug use in the models. These results have important policy implications regarding the effectiveness and economic viability of workplace anti-drug programs.