Do Parenting and Family Characteristics Moderate the Relation between Peer Victimization and Antisocial Behavior? A 5‐year Longitudinal Study

Past research has demonstrated that relationships with peers and parents play salient roles in various child outcomes. However, little research has examined the confluence of these two factors in the context of peer victimization. In particular, little is known about which family and parental factors mitigate or intensify the impact of adverse peer relations. The current study bridged this gap by testing whether maternal support and family conflict moderated the association between peer victimization and antisocial behavior. Moderation effects were found for girls but not boys. Cross‐lagged path analyses of nationally representative longitudinal data (N = 1046; 53 percent boys; Time 1: M_age = 10.7) showed that, among girls, higher levels of maternal warmth and mother–child communication significantly attenuated the link between early peer victimization and later antisocial outcomes. By contrast, greater family conflict significantly increased antisocial outcomes among girls who experienced peer victimization. For boys, early peer victimization significantly predicted antisocial outcomes, regardless of parenting and family factors. All findings remained significant even after controlling for preexisting antisocial tendencies and demographic factors, as well as for the stability of victimization in the model.     

Intellectual disability and faith communities: perspectives of Catholic religious leaders

Faith communities create community and are important to many individuals with intellectual disability. However, relatively little is known about how intellectual disability is construed among faith leaders and the inclusion of people with intellectual disability in faith communities. To address these gaps in knowledge, we interviewed 12 Catholic priests, parochial vicars, and deacons to explore: their experiences with individuals with intellectual disability; their beliefs towards the involvement of individuals with intellectual disability within faith communities; and how religion informs their understanding of intellectual disability. We identified five religiously-anchored narratives of intellectual disability, and explore implications for individuals with intellectual disability and faith communities.     

Two Perspectives on the Language of Special Needs Computing: towards a shared view

This paper reviews and examines the language used in literature that describes the educational and therapeutic use of microcomputers with people who have special needs. In the language of special needs computing two perspectives are identified. One perspective focuses on the microcomputer technology while the other focuses on the microcomputer user. While the language of both perspectives acknowledges the value of microcomputers, each perspective moves towards an acknowledgement that microcomputer use needs to be placed in an environmental context. This move in both language sets reflects an increasing focus on the potential barriers to microcomputer use.     

Pathways to a Stable Union? Pregnancy and Childbearing Among Cohabiting and Married Couples

This study analyzes the stability of cohabiting and marital unions following a first birth. But unlike previous research, it compares the subsequent trajectories of unions that began with a pregnancy to those in which conceptions came after coresidence. The U.S. data from the 2006–2010 and 2011–2013 cross-sectional files of the National Survey of Family Growth indicate that roughly 1-in-5 first births were associated with rapid transitions from conception into either cohabitation or marriage. Moving in together following a pregnancy—especially an unintended one—is unlikely to lead to marital success or union stability. Compared with marital unions, dissolution rates following birth were particularly high for couples who entered a cohabiting union following conception. Only a small minority of these couples married (i.e., less than one-third), and these marriages experienced high dissolution rates. The results also suggest that the most committed cohabiting couples got married after finding themselves pregnant, leaving behind the most dissolution-prone cohabiting couples. The American family system is being transformed by newly emerging patterns of fertility among cohabiting couples.     

The Relationship Between Weight and Career Payoffs Among Women

The thesis that weight affects women's life chances for reaching high-status, white-collar jobs is tested with survey data gathered from a large aerospace organization (N = 306). It is hypothesized that women who are at or below their desirable weight will have higher incomes and occupational positions than women who are overweight, with human capital variables controlled. It is further hypothesized that weight will be most related to occupational position in male-dominated occupations and in occupations that involve frequent contact outside the firm. Results show that weight is related to income, but only at entry-level professional/managerial occupations. Weight is significantly related to occupational position, especially so in male-dominated occupations. Weight is not more strongly related to occupational position in jobs involving outside contact. Findings are consistent with the interpretation that discrimination based on weight in the general society extends to the inner workings of workplace organizations.     

Socioeconomic Status,Family Processes,and Individual Development

Research during the past decade shows that social class or socioeconomic status (SES) is related to satisfaction and stability in romantic unions, the quality of parent‐child relationships, and a range of developmental outcomes for adults and children. This review focuses on evidence regarding potential mechanisms proposed to account for these associations. Research findings reported during the past decade demonstrate support for an interactionist model of the relationship between SES and family life, which incorporates assumptions from both the social causation and social selection perspectives. This review concludes with recommendations for future research on SES, family processes, and individual development in terms of important theoretical and methodological issues yet to be addressed.     

Imbalanced sex ratios, men's sexual behavior, and risk of sexually transmitted infection in China

China has been experiencing pronounced changes in its sex ratio, but little research has explored the consequences of these changes for sexual behavior and health. We merge data from the 1999-2000 Chinese Health and Family Life Survey with community-level data from the 1982, 1990, and 2000 Chinese censuses to examine the relationship between the local sex ratio and several dimensions of men's sexual behavior and sexual health. Multilevel logistic regression models show that, when faced with a relative abundance of age-matched women in their community, Chinese men are slightly less likely to have intercourse with commercial sex workers, but are more likely to engage in premarital noncommercial intercourse and to test positive for a sexually transmitted infection. These findings are consistent with hypotheses derived from demographic-opportunity theory, which suggests that an abundance of opposite-sex partners will increase the risk of early, frequent, and multi-partner sex and, through this, sexually transmitted infection risk.     

Prosecuting the prosecutor: The makings of the Michael Morton Act

Prosecutorial misconduct is not a rare event, but it often goes undetected, unreported, or no action is taken by the criminal justice system. However, when one Texas prosecutor, Ken Anderson, served jail time for wrongfully prosecuting an innocent man, Michael Morton, for murdering his wife, he made history. Anderson withheld exculpatory evidence leading to Morton wrongfully serving 25 years before being released with new DNA evidence. However, Anderson only served a five-day sentence and $500 fine. We discuss the case in the context of inequality and legal realism in the criminal justice system. Also, we look at the implications and new legal action taken by the state of Texas to try and combat this problem, along with looking at these secretive occupational subcultures.     

Beyond Rhetorical Differences: A Cohesive Account of Post‐devolution Developments in UK Health Policy

Health is perhaps the most significant policy area to be devolved to decision‐makers in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Consequently, there has been a great deal of interest in assessing the extent to which health policies (which already differed somewhat prior to devolution) have diverged since 1999. To date, analyses have tended to focus either on health care policies or on specific public health issues (e.g. health inequalities or tobacco control). The story that emerges from this body of work suggests health care policies have diverged significantly, whilst public health policies have remained remarkably similar. This article is one of the first to consider health care and public health policy alongside each other. It reassesses and updates previous analyses, incorporating developments relating to the 2010 general election and the 2007 and 2011 devolved administration elections. Drawing on a variety of textual sources (policy documents, research evidence and corporate literature), our findings differ from existing analyses in suggesting that, despite some noticeable differences in policy rhetoric, approaches to both health care provision and tackling public health problems remain similar. Looking to the future, the article concludes that the common economic challenges, combined with a tight fiscal policy (that remains excepted from devolution), means the similarities in health care provision across the UK are likely to remain more pronounced than the differences. However, current debate about the constitutional settlement, and in particular the prospect of greater fiscal freedoms for the devolved administrations, may provide opportunities for more meaningful divergence in health policy than has been possible hitherto.