Social support as a mediator of revictimization of low-income African American women

Mediating effects of social support on the link between childhood maltreatment and adult intimate partner violence (IPV) were explored in a sample of 362 low-income, African American women. We examined relations between childhood maltreatment experiences (total maltreatment, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect) and adult maltreatment (physical IPV and nonphysical IPV). Results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed small, but significant, effects. Further, social support mediated revictimization. Social support fully mediated relations in which the form of childhood maltreatment was different than the form of adult IPV (e.g., the relation between childhood sexual abuse and adult nonphysical IPV), but only partially mediated the relations in which the form of childhood maltreatment was similar to adult IPV (e.g., the relation between childhood emotional abuse and adult nonphysical IPV). Implications for clinical interventions for women with intimate partner violence experiences are discussed.     

THE OTHER "CHILD STUDY": Figuring Children as Consumers in Market Research, 1910s–1990s

This article examines how notions of "the child" were constructed in marketing research literature from the 1910s through the 1990s. Drawing on children's industry trade literature, market reports and books, I argue that children have become increasingly portrayed as individualized, autonomous consumers. Over this time period, the desire for consumer products becomes figured by industry observers and researchers as a mode of children's "self expression.'The analytic isolation of "the child" in the persona of a "consumer" authorizes a new morality for consumption by construing children's desire for goods as preexistent and thus natural.     

Unseemly and unwomanly behaviour: Comparing women’s control of their fertility in Australia and England from 1890 to 1970

From 1890 to 1970 Australian women’s use of female-controlled birth control methods was higher than that of English women. The latter primarily depended upon withdrawal and condoms. Use of these male-controlled methods of contraception is associated with low levels of female sexual pleasure, and the belief that husbands should initiate sexual activity and should control their wives’ fertility. I argue that higher use of female methods gave white Australian women greater sexual and reproductive autonomy throughout this period. The view that they were in a less desirable position than women in other Anglo cultures needs to be examined more closely.     

Bayesian analysis of threshold autoregressions

A nonasymptotic Bayesian approach is developed for analysis of data from threshold autoregressive processes with two regimes. Using the conditional likelihood function, the marginal posterior distribution for each of the parameters is derived along with posterior means and variances. A test for linear functions of the autoregressive coefficients is presented. The approach presented uses a posterior p-value averaged over the values of the threshold. The one-step ahead predictive distribution is derived along with the predictive mean and variance. In addition, equivalent results are derived conditional upon a value of the threshold. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the approach.     

郭店楚简《成之》等篇杂志

《郭店楚墓竹简》自从1998年问世后,一直引起中国内外学者的关注,成为研究先秦文字、历史、思想等领域的热门对象。然由于此批竹简的复杂性,再加上研究时间不长,因而尚有许多基本问题有待解决,而这些问题又是与竹简内容的正确理解息息相关的。如果郭店楚简几篇儒家逸书中的部分问题能够解决,便能够对其思想内涵及历史意义达到更进一步的认识。对《成之》篇作两处简序上的调整及对某些字提出新的读法后,便突显出了其中“恒”、“疾”、“终”的进阶概念,关于圣人对善道之“不拾”观念也可以有更深的理解。另外,对《唐虞之道》作简序调整,对《六德》中“多”字给新的解释,涉及问题虽小,但给先秦思想史研究带来的意义不可低估。     

Canonical correlation analysis of residential and vocational outcomes following psychiatric rehabilitation

This analysis uses canonical correlation techniques to explore client outcomes following psychosocial rehabilitation services in two rehabilitation areas: vocational and residential. At issue are the ways in which these two outcomes are affected by a series of eight client characteristics and service delivery features. The overarching question is the effectiveness of the program in establishing independence vocationally and residentially, and whether the same set of factors influences these two outcomes for persons with mental illness. Subjects were 212 ex-clients of a psychosocial rehabilitation agency who were working six months after leaving the program. The analysis derived two canonical functions both of which were significant. Canonical loadings and cross loadings indicated that client level of functioning and program tenure loaded most strongly with residential status on the first canonical variate while education loaded most strongly with salary on the second. These results support the notions that different predictors account for the variance associated with different outcomes following psychosocial rehabilitation. Discussion of the relevance of strong predictor variables highlights ways they can impact program design. Finally, the usefulness of canonical correlation in longitudinal program evaluation research is explored.     

International Business Cycle Asymmetry and Time Irreversible Nonlinearities

Using tests of time reversibility, this paper provides further statistical evidence on the long-standing conjecture in economics concerning the potentially asymmetric behaviour of output over the expansionary and contractionary phases of the business cycle. A particular advantage of this approach is that it provides a discriminating test that is instructive as to whether any asymmetries detected are due to asymmetric shocks to a linear model, or an underlying non-linear model with symmetric shocks, and in the latter case is informative as to the potential form of that nonlinear model. Using a long span of international per capita output growth data, the asymmetry detected is overwhelmingly consistent with the long standing perception that the output business cycle is characterized by steeper recessions and longer more gentle expansions, but the evidence for this form of business cycle asymmetry is weaker in the data adjusted for the influence of outliers associated with wars and other extreme events. Statistically significant time irreversibility is reported for the output growth rates of almost all of the countries considered in the full sample data, and there is evidence that this time irreversibility is of a form implying an underlying nonlinear model with symmetrically distributed innovations for 15 of the 22 countries considered. However, the time irreversibility test results for the outlier-trimmed full sample data reveal significant time irreversibility in output growth for around one half of the countries considered, predominantly in Northern Europe and North America, and of a form implying a nonlinear underlying model in only a further half of those cases.     

A SYSTEMIC TREATMENT APPROACH TO WIFE BATTERING

This article places the problem of wife battering or domestic abuse in a systemic framework. Literature that bears most directly on a systemic understanding and treatment of wife battering is reviewed. A comprehensive approach to treatment as it might be utilized by marriage and family therapists is outlined and a case example is presented.     

Adaptation to Retirement: Role Changes and Psychological Resources

In this review, the influence of social and work roles are incorporated into a model of retirement adjustment, along with two psychological moderators that may aid the retirement transition. These psychological resources, locus of control and retirement self-efficacy, are those behavioral predispositions that would lead one to engage in proactive strategies for mastering the role changes inherent in the retirement transition. The implications of social and work-related role changes and psychological resources for retirement planning and adjustment are discussed.