The United States Economic Crisis: Young Adults’ Reports of Economic Pressures, Financial and Religious Coping and Psychological Well-Being

Using a sample of 222 young adults attending college, the present study examined the relative contribution of young adults’ perceived economic pressures, financial coping and religious meaning-making coping strategies in accounting for variation in their reports of psychological well-being within the context of the United States economic crisis. Results suggest a direct relationship between perceived economic pressure and psychological well-being such that young adults who reported having to make more economic adjustments as a result of economic crisis also reported higher levels of depressed mood and anxiety. Young men and women who reported having to make fewer economic adjustments and being able to meet their material needs reported higher levels of life satisfaction. Regardless of young adults’ self-reported level of economic pressures, the use of education and communication financial coping strategies was related to lower levels of self-reported anxiety and depressed mood and greater life satisfaction. Viewing the financial crisis as a punishment from God was generally associated with young adults’ reports of greater depressed mood and less life satisfaction. Implication of findings for research and practice are discussed.     

A qualitative study investigating adolescents' understanding of aggression,bullying and violence

There is a general consistency across the research literature regarding the definition of bullying. This has filtered down into the construction of governmental and school anti-bullying policies around the world. However, research suggests that children and adolescents are failing to accurately identify cases of bullying. This in turn has implications upon the accuracy of our perception of the extent of the problem of bullying within schools. The current study aimed to investigate how 11–17 year olds understand and differentiate between terms relating to interpersonal peer aggression, violence and bullying. Fifty-seven (twenty male, thirty-seven female) participants were recruited via an opportunity sample. Participants took part in focus group interviews within which they were asked to provide a definition for a list of words relating to both traditional and cyber forms of aggression, bullying and violence. Thematic analysis revealed that the participants held a shared understanding of the terms relating to aggression, bullying and violence. Participants defined each term by describing the behaviors involved, their perception of the level of control the perpetrators of each type of negative peer interaction have and the perception of those involved. The implications of these findings for both policy and future research are discussed.     

The mentally ill student on campus: theory and practice

Traditional biases about the nature of mental illness and the mission of the academic environment have frequently shaped college policy and practice affecting mentally ill, suicidal, or chemically addicted students. Too often, removal of the student from campus has been seen as appropriate, therapeutically and educationally. The assumption that separating seriously disturbed students from the classroom is in the students' best interests is challenged by models of cognitive and emotional functioning that recognize the multifaceted nature of each. Such models affirm the salience of the student identity for the troubled student's sense of self and therapeutic prognosis. Creating an environment responsive to and supportive of the student in distress may also lead to significant educational benefits to the institution as a whole. Higher education has an opportunity to create work and study environments that meet broadly conceived ethical and educational goals. Experience with the Skidmore College-Four Winds Hospital program demonstrates that few additional resources are needed to implement such policy and practice.     

Developing Differences: Gender,Childhood and Economic Development

SUMMARY: Western images of the child in modern thought set up an opposition between innocence and experience which is supplemented by discourses of child care and child protection, and reflected in international policies and legislation for children. This article traces idealised conceptions of children of the North and South and unravels dichotomies between work and play as they map onto gendered and cultural spaces. These issues are linked to an analysis of assumptions underlying both international policies for child development and models of economic development, focusing in particular on the Human Development Index put forward in the 1992 United Nations Development Programme. In order to counter the naturalisation and abstraction of development in both, which reflects and contributes to the cultural and economic domination of the Northern hemisphere over the South, the article ends with a call to attend to both the specificity and diversity of children's developments.     

Efficient Algorithms for Determining 3-D Bi-Plane Imaging Geometry

Biplane projection imaging is one of the primary methods for imaging and visualizing the cardiovascular system in medicine. A key problem in such a technique is to determine the imaging geometry (i.e., the relative rotation and translation) of two projections so that the 3-D structure can be accurately reconstructed. Based on interesting observations and efficient geometric techniques, we present in this paper new algorithmic solutions for this problem. Comparing with existing optimization-based approaches, our techniques yield better accuracy and have bounded execution time, thus is more suitable for on-line applications. Our techniques can easily detect outliers to further improve the accuracy.This research was supported in part by NIH under USPHS grant numbers HL52567.     

Book reviews

E. Kofler, G. Menges: Entscheidungen bei unvollständiger Information. Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems 136. Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-NewYork 1976, 357 S., DM 31.

B. S. Everitt: The Analysis ot Contingency Tables. Chapman and Han, London 1977, 128 S., £ 3.75.

O. Barndorff-Nielsen: Information and Exponential Families in Statistical Theory. J. Wiley & Sons, Chichester-New York-Brisbane-Toronto 1978, 247 S., £ 13.50; $ 28.50.

W. Gilchrist: Statisticai Forecasting. J. Wiley & Sons, London-New York-Sydney-Toronto 1976, 321 S., £ 9.50; $ 19.00.

J. M. Chambers: Computational Methods for Data Analysis. J. Wiley & Sons, New York Chichester-Brisbane-Toronto 1977, 279 pp., £ 11.30.

A. Hughes, D. Grawoig: Statistics: A Foundation for Analysis. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading-Menlo-Park London-Don Mills 1971, 525 S., $ 11.50.

K.Krickeberg, H.Ziezold: Stochastiche Methoden. Springer Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York 1977, 201 S., 13 Abb., DM 28.

Ch. Schneeweiss: Inventory-Production Theory. A Linear Policy Approach. Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems 151. Springer Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-NewYork 1977, 122 S., 13 Abb., 9 Tab., DM 18.

S. Dworatschek: Grundlagen der Datenverarbeltung, 6., völlig neu bearb. u. erw. Aufl., Walter de Gruyter, Berlin-New York 1977, 538 S., 200 Abb., 212 Üb.Aufg., 59 Fotos, DM 38.

H. E. Steinhagen, S. Fuchs:Objekterkennung. Einführung in die mathematischen Methoden der Zeichenerkennung. VEB Verlag Technik, Berlin 1976, 436 S., 165 Abb., 32 Tab., 49,–.M.

G. Tinhofer: Mathematik für Studlenanfänger, Carl Hanser Verlag, München 1977, 464 S., 191 Abb., DM 38.     

The effects of traffic noise on tadpole behavior and development

Urban Ecosystems - Traffic noise is known to negatively affect many wildlife species by interfering with foraging behavior. Frogs often lay their eggs in roadside ditches because they are...