The contribution of a history of heavy smoking to Scotland's mortality disadvantage

Scotland has a lower life expectancy than any country in Western Europe or North America, and this disadvantage is concentrated above age 50. According to the Human Mortality Database, life expectancy at age 50 has been lower in Scotland than in any other developed country since 1980. Relative to 15 developed countries that we have chosen for comparison, Scotland's life expectancy in 2009 at age 50 was lower by an average of 2.5?years for women and 1.6?years for men. We estimate that Scottish women lost 3.6?years of life expectancy at age 50 as a result of smoking, compared to 1.4?years for the comparison countries. The equivalent figures among men are 3.1 and 2.1?years. These differences are large enough for the history of heavy smoking in Scotland to account both for most of the shortfall in life expectancy for both sexes and for the country's unusually narrow sex differences in life expectancy.     

Two transformation models for estimating an ROC curve derived from continuous data

A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve is a plot of two survival functions, derived separately from the diseased and healthy samples. A special feature is that the ROC curve is invariant to any monotone transformation of the measurement scale. We propose and analyse semiparametric and parametric transformation models for this two-sample problem. Following an unspecified or specified monotone transformation, we assume that the healthy and diseased measurements have two normal distributions with different means and variances. Maximum likelihood algorithms for estimating ROC curve parameters are developed. The proposed methods are illustrated on the marker CA125 in the diagnosis of gastric cancer.     

Cleaning up their act: The effects of marriage and cohabitation on licit and illicit drug use

We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to estimate changes in binge drinking, marijuana use, and cigarette smoking surrounding young adults' first experiences of cohabitation and marriage. Both marriage and cohabitation are accompanied by decreases in some risk behaviors, but reductions surrounding marriage are larger and most consistent, particularly for men. Binge drinking and marijuana use respond to these events, especially marriage, but smoking does not.     

‘To favor the side of freedom’: judicial opinions and the law of slavery

This essay uses the appellate judicial opinions in more than 800 suits for freedom from across the United States to analyze the additional commentary antebellum judges included when issuing their decisions. Judges used arguments that mirrored broader debates between abolitionists and pro-slavery advocates, while also upholding the central importance of the rule of law. In doing so, they sought to defend the judicial system from the many challenges brought by African Americans and other anti-slavery activists. Regardless of their own individual beliefs about slavery, judges often chose to frame their written opinions around appeals to morality. The use of moral arguments allowed judges to anticipate the positions of African Americans and their supporters and then render these ideas irrelevant in the face of positive laws supporting slavery. The decisions they made had real consequences for future legal pathways to freedom, and the ways judges chose to structure their decisions reveal both awareness and anxiety over the power of judicial challenges to the institution of slavery.     

Variation in the Relationship Between Education and Marriage: Marriage Market Mismatch?

Educational expansion has led to greater diversity in the social backgrounds of college students. We ask how schooling interacts with this diversity to influence marriage formation among men and women. Relying on data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 3208), we use a propensity score approach to group men and women into social strata and multilevel event history models to test differences in the effects of college attendance across strata. We find a statistically significant, positive trend in the effects of college attendance across strata, with the largest effects of college on first marriage among the more advantaged and the smallest-indeed, negative-effects among the least advantaged men and women. These findings appear consistent with a mismatch in the marriage market between individuals' education and their social backgrounds.     

Young Adults' Fertility Expectations and Events: Associations With College Enrollment and Persistence

The analyses described in this article investigated the association between adolescent fertility expectations and college enrollment (N = 7,838). They also explored the potential impact of fertility expectations and events on college persistence among 4‐year (n = 2,605) and 2‐year (n = 1,962) college students. The analysis, which used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort, showed a significant association between expectations for early parenthood and the likelihood of going to a 4‐year college or 2‐year college for both men and women. In addition, the authors found that pregnancies were associated with an increased risk of college dropout for women; however, if all of the estimated effect of pregnancies on the risk of dropout were causal, they would still not be a major factor contributing to educational attainment because fertile pregnancies among college women are so rare.     

Step-Up: Promoting Youth Mental Health and Development in Inner-City High Schools

African American and Latino youth who reside in inner-city communities are at heightened risk for compromised mental health, as their neighborhoods are too often associated with serious stressors, including elevated rates of poverty, substance abuse, community violence, as well as scarce youth-supportive resources, and mental health care options. Many aspects of disadvantaged urban contexts have the potential to thwart successful youth development. Adolescents with elevated mental health needs may experience impaired judgment, poor problem-solving skills, and conflictual interpersonal relationships, resulting in unsafe sexual behavior and drug use. However, mental health services are frequently avoided by urban adolescents who could gain substantial benefit from care. Thus, the development of culturally sensitive, contextually relevant and effective services for urban, low-income African American and Latino adolescents is critical. Given the complexity of the mental health and social needs of urban youth, novel approaches to service delivery may need to consider individual (i.e., motivation to succeed in the future), family (i.e., adult support within and outside of the family), and community-level (i.e., work and school opportunities) clinical components. Step-Up, a high school-based mental health service delivery model has been developed to bolster key family, youth and school processes related to youth mental health and positive youth development. Step-Up (1) intervenes with urban minority adolescents across inner-city ecological domains; (2) addresses multiple levels (school, family and community) in order to target youth mental health difficulties; and (3) provides opportunities for increasing youth social problem-solving and life skills. Further, Step-Up integrates existing theory-driven, evidence-based interventions. This article describes Step-Up clinical goals, theoretical influences, as well as components and key features, and presents preliminary data on youth engagement for two cohorts of students.     

Experience of Career‐Related Discrimination for Female‐to‐Male Transgender Persons: A Qualitative Study

In this qualitative study, the authors examined the experience of discrimination and its relationship to the career development trajectory of 9 female‐to‐male transgender persons. Participants were between 21 and 48 years old and had a variety of vocational experiences. Individual semistructured interviews were conducted via telephone and analyzed using grounded theory methodology. The emergent model consisted of forms of discrimination and impact of discrimination. These components intersected with the career development trajectory. Participants provided their own suggestions for improving the workplace environment. Counseling, advocacy, and future research implications are discussed.     

Confucian philosophy and influence on perceived values and behavioural orientations by Taiwan’s millennials

This study examines the millennials’ perceptions of Confucianism and their influence on their personal values and behavioural orientations with a sample from Taiwan to address the research gap in intergenerational and intercultural human resource development (HRD) research. It complements results from western research and offers important insights to worldwide managers and HRD practitioners for talent development and learning-related initiatives when working with employees and organizations with East Asia backgrounds. The concept of Confucius’ process of developing into a virtuous person seems to be rooted in the Taiwanese millennials’ mind, who as guided by Confucius tend to have a primary focus on accumulating knowledge, practicing moral behaviour, and correcting one’s mind and behaviour. Along with the globalization and technology advancement, the sampled millennials hold a strong traditional values of Confucian philosophy; yet, such strong cultural values may be attenuated a great deal after exposing to western culture over times. The Confucian virtue (moral) behaviour practice, harmonious relations, and self-cultivation are found as top three factors of Confucian values. Implications for HRD practices and recommendations for future research are discussed.