Marital status,sex, and suicide: new longitudinal findings and Durkheim’s marital status propositions*

Abstract

The purpose of the paper was to use new longitudinal data to investigate the impact of marital status on suicide, and test Durkheim’s marital status propositions. Previous research found marital status was associated with suicide, but some studies neglected sex, most of the research was cross-sectional, and divorce and separated statuses were often combined. Data were obtained from the latest release of the U.S. National Longitudinal Mortality Study (NLMS), consisting of the largest U.S. sample of suicide victims, 2,013 out of 1.5 million persons. Proportional hazards and logistic regression models were fitted to the NLMS data based on follow-up from 1990 to 2011. Results showed that when combined, the divorced and separated were over 88% more likely to suicide than the married (ARR = 1.886, CI = 1.649, 2.156). When split, the divorced had suicide risk that was over 97% higher than that of the married (ARR = 1.973, CI = 1.711, 2.274). Separated individuals experienced suicide risk that was nearly 52% greater than that of the married (ARR = 1.515, CI = 1.130, 2.037). The Mountain and southern census divisions had higher suicide risks than New England. Discussion focused mainly on Durkheim’s theory of suicide.     

Teachers as risk and resource factors in minority students’ school adjustment: an integrative review of qualitative research on acculturation

ABSTRACT

The present study is embedded in the contextual approach of acculturation research. It examines teachers’ attitudes and behaviors, teachers’ expectations as well as their teaching practices as risk and resource factors in minority students’ school adjustment. The study applies the method of content analysis and uses a deductively developed and inductively enriched system of categories. The results of the study provide an integrative review of qualitative research on the role teachers play in the acculturation process of minority youth and their adjustment outcomes in the school context.     

Identity tensions of women with two leadership positions in India

Identity narratives enhance the understanding of women’s leadership, but there exist very few in-depth analyses of negative identity tensions that influence agency. In this study, we examine the negative identity tensions of well-to-do women from small towns in India, who hold two leadership positions: organizational and social movement. We borrow from the discourse on well-to-do women’s participation in social movements in India to draw on the notions of identity, perceptions of feminism, and patriarchal challenge. Our data are derived from 49 in-depth interviews with women leaders. Findings from qualitative analysis and creation of a composite narrative show that negative identity tensions arising from two leadership positions are gendered in nature. Furthermore, agency is (i) contingent on one’s reflection on challenges, (ii) rooted in an underlying principle, and (iii) practiced through the mechanisms of “managing femininity,” a concept that is widely discussed in the Western paradigms of postfeminism and neoliberalism. This paper contributes to the feminist dialog on the global South in the context of gender, class, and geographical location intersection by revealing certain non-Western ways of managing femininity. However, in the process, the hegemony of Indian men remains intact.     

Risk and Resilience in Late Adolescence

Differences among three outcome groups of late adolescents identified as at risk for major depression were investigated. Adolescents with major depression, with other psychiatric diagnoses, and with no diagnoses differed in major areas of functioning and well-being, with the most difficulties shown by those with depression. The phenomenon of resilience was examined among the at-risk adolescents with no diagnosis, revealing that family cohesion and social support are associated with resilience. Implications for social work practice and research include the need to focus on promoting family strengths.     

Leniency Bias in Evaluating Clinical Social Work Student Interns

Leniency bias, or the tendency to evaluate individuals more favorably than is warranted, can prevent accurate evaluation and constructive supervision. This study tested leniency bias among field instructors of 90 clinical social work interns by comparing face-to-face and anonymous field instructors’ ratings of students’ knowledge, values, and skills. We also compared students’ own ratings to field instructors’ assessments. Results indicated little variance and consistently high ratings when field instructors evaluated face-to-face. There was greater variance and lower mean ratings when supervisors evaluated anonymously. Students’ self-assessments were the most critical and best matched the anonymous evaluations; whereas, the anonymous and face-to-face field instructor evaluations significantly differed on most items. These findings suggest the need for evaluation training for field instructors and the use of multiple assessment methods.     

Fear Attenuated and Affection Augmented: Male Self-Presentation in a Romantic Context

We investigated whether males use facial behavior strategically in order to increase their desirability as romantic partners. Participants were led to believe that a female research assistant who was either attractive or unattractive was observing them. Their task was to watch three short films: an excerpt from a horror film, a video of infants, and a neutral film. Males who thought they were being observed by the attractive assistant frowned less (AU4) while watching the horror film and smiled more (AU12, with and without AU6) while watching the infant film. Assistant attractiveness did not affect males’ facial behavior while they were watching the neutral film.     

Stress−strength reliability with general form distributions

In this article, we present characterizations, associated with the stress?strength reliability, of distributions with some general exponential and general inverse exponential forms. We obtain a general form for stress?strength reliability, when the distributions of the stress and the strength are non identical and independently distributed with either form. We obtain different point and interval estimators of stress?strength reliability. The theoretical results obtained can be directly applied whenever the distributions of the stress and the strength possess the forms discussed. A simulation study is carried out showing satisfactory performance of the estimators obtained. Moreover, a real data example is presented.     

The Management Skills of Russians: Do Work,Management, and Government Experiences Matter?

This study examines the impacts of different types of experience on management skills of working adults in Russia. The study is based on a sample of 527 MBA students, line and middle managers covering 32 regions in 13 different industries in Russia. This study proves that work experience, management experience, and government experience are significant factors in their technical, human, and conceptual skills. Human skills scores are significantly higher for all groups than group with no management experience. Score for human skills increased with years of government experience only, but not with working or management years of experience.