Substance abuse, suicidality, and self-esteem in South African adolescents

Associations among six different domains of self-esteem (peers, school, family, sports/athletics, body image, and global self-worth) and risk behaviors related to substance use and suicidality were investigated in a sample of South African adolescents. Students enrolled in Grades 8 and 11 at independent secondary schools in Cape Town (N = 116) completed the Self-Esteem Questionnaire (SEQ) and a questionnaire that asked about their participation in a range of risk behaviors. Logistic regression analyses indicated that particular domains of self-esteem were differentially associated with indicators of alcohol, cigarette and drug use and suicidal ideation or behaviors in adolescents. Family self-esteem showed the strongest overall pattern of associations with the risk behaviors. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that interventions which aim to protect adolescents from engaging in risk behaviors by increasing their self-esteem are likely to be most effective and cost-efficient if they are aimed at the family and school domains.     

Culturally sensitive adaptation of PREPARE with Japanese premarital couples

In this study, we attempted to achieve a culturally sensitive adaptation of the PREmarital Personal And Relationship Evaluation (PREPARE) Inventory with Japanese premarital couples (n = 849). A translation, back-translation, and construct modification process was initiated by a group of U.S. and Japanese researchers to ensure a culturally sensitive and applicable adaptation of PREPARE. Alpha reliability analyses revealed good internal consistency among Japanese PREPARE scales. A Japanese premarital couple typology was developed using cluster analyses. Several unique features of the Japanese premarital types are identified and discussed. Suggestions are provided for continued enhancement in adaptation process of PREPARE with Japanese premarital couples.     

Men's sexual coercion in intimate relationships: development and initial validation of the Sexual Coercion in Intimate Relationships scale

We report the development and initial validation of the Sexual Coercion in Intimate Relationships Scale (SCIRS), a measure designed to assess the prevalence and severity of sexual coercion in committed intimate relationships. We review existing measures of sexual coercion and discuss their limitations, describe the identification of the SCIRS items, perform a principal components analysis and describe the resulting three components, and present evidence for the convergent and discriminative validity of the SCIRS. Because sexual coercion in intimate relationships often takes the form of subtle tactics, the SCIRS items assess communicative tactics such as hinting and subtle manipulations in addition to tactics such as the use of physical force. The SCIRS provides researchers and clinicians with a valid, reliable, and comprehensive measure with which to study the dynamics of sexual coercion in intimate relationships.     

Effects of information on college students' perceptions of antidepressant medication

The authors examined the impact of pharmaceutical companies' advertisements on college students' perceptions of depression and concomitant treatment with antidepressants among 13 male and 31 female undergraduates from a midwestern university. The students were randomly assigned to groups that read either pharmaceutical company advertisements or scientific information about depression and its treatment. The analysis revealed that 40% of the women in the advertisement condition as opposed to 1 woman (6%) in the scientific condition rated themselves as having mild, moderate, or severe depression on the Beck Depression Inventory, second edition. Women in the advertisement condition were significantly more likely to believe that depression required treatment with antidepressant medication and were more willing than women in the scientific condition to suggest antidepressant treatment to others.     

A comparison of disability management practices in Australian and Canadian workplaces

The health, well-being and productivity of workers and employers in today's society is becoming increasingly important. The social, emotional and economic costs of injury and illness are such that governments throughout the world are attempting to implement policies and practices to contain these costs. One response in this area is Disability Management (DM). DM focuses on the management of employees with work injuries or illnesses in the workplace rather than offsite in rehabilitation centres. Regional interest in the DM approach has now gained momentum in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific. This article briefly reviews two studies that were conducted in Australia and Canada (results have or are being published elsewhere). Although the two studies were not designed for comparison purposes they provide interesting and useful information about the similarities and differences in the practice of DM in Australia and Canada. Findings are compared in terms of five primary principles of DM and it is argued that it is important to understand the ecological contexts in which DM occurs as well as share trans-national research in this area to help inform policy and practice.     

Simulation for the complex Bingham distribution

The complex Bingham distribution is relevant for the shape analysis of landmark data in two dimensions. In this paper it is shown that the problem of simulating from this distribution reduces to simulation from a truncated multivariate exponential distribution. Several simulation methods are described and their efficiencies are compared.     

The ℓ1 oblique procrustes problem

In this paper, we reconsider the well-known oblique Procrustes problem where the usual least-squares objective function is replaced by a more robust discrepancy measure, based on the ₁ norm or smooth approximations of it.We propose two approaches to the solution of this problem. One approach is based on convex analysis and uses the structure of the problem to permit a solution to the ₁ norm problem. An alternative approach is to smooth the problem by working with smooth approximations to the ₁ norm, and this leads to a solution process based on the solution of ordinary differential equations on manifolds. The general weighted Procrustes problem (both orthogonal and oblique) can also be solved by the latter approach. Numerical examples to illustrate the algorithms which have been developed are reported and analyzed.