Medcamp's Effect on Junior High School Students' Medical Career Self-Efficacy

Medcamp, a 3-day problem-based career intervention for students entering the 9th grade, implemented each of the 4 antecedents for self-efficacy. Ten boys and 35 girls participated in Medcamp; of these, 35 completed and returned the Medical Career Self-Efficacy Scales (developed by the authors for their study) both at the beginning and at the end of the program. Three scales measured specific self-efficacy (tasks students had performed during Medcamp), related self-efficacy (other tasks students would complete by the second year of medical school), and general self-efficacy (included lifestyle variables and study habits). Results demonstrated significant increases in self-efficacy on all 3 scales.     

The School Experiences of Same-Sex Attracted Students in the 14- to 19-Year-Old Secondary Sector in England: Within and Beyond the Safety and Tolerance Framework

SUMMARY

This article examines the social and political context within which lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) youth find themselves and, in doing so, a number of key issues are identified which have profound implications for the functions and responsibilities of schools in the United Kingdom. This article also considers how one secondary school and one Sixth Form College in south-east England are facilitating the gradual visibility of LGB students within a framework of safety and tolerance. In addition, attention is focussed on homophobic victimization identified by students and their experiences when disclosing sexual identity. Methods of data collection are outlined including focus groups with adolescent LGB identifying students, and a questionnaire survey distributed to 116 students (both heterosexual and LGB). Methodological issues are considered together with the difficulties of accessing same-sex attracted respondents and the ethical considerations which emerge as a consequence. Implications for policy and practice within the 14- to 19-year-old secondary sector and the possibility of moving beyond the framework of safety and tolerance are examined.     

A bivariate gamma mixture distribution

In this paper we construct a bivariate gamma mixture distribution by allowing the scale parameters of the two marginals to have a generalized Bernoulli distribution. We study the statistical properties of this distribution and discuss the estimation of the parameters. The distribution is then fitted to two bivariate data sets. Data on the age and lactation period of cows are described well by the proposed model, but it fails to fit Johansen's bean data properly because of theoretical constraints on the correlation.     

"Drinking is Fun" and "There's Nothing You Can Do About It": The Problem With the 21-Year-Old Minimum Drinking Age

Abstract

Objective: Public health messaging about physical activity (PA) sometimes combines moderate and vigorous intensity, but the variance/invariance of the motives for PA by intensity has received scant attention. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the beliefs and motivations associated with regular moderate- and vigorous-intensity PA in a college sample using the framework of Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Participants and Methods: A college sample of 337 participants was randomly assigned to complete measures of the TPB framed for either vigorous- or moderate-intensity PA and subsequently completed self-reported measures of PA 2 weeks later. Results: Mean comparisons indicated that participants held higher mean behavioral beliefs about the benefits of vigorous PA for improving appearance and fitness, but vigorous PA was perceived to take more time than moderate-intensity activities. A stacked structural equation model and follow-up Fisher z tests, however, suggested no differences between the associations of TPB constructs with intention or PA by intensity. Conclusions: The findings provide support for the current public health approach of combining moderate and vigorous physical activity messaging through the general invariance of motives by intensity.     

Global Hakka: a case study

This paper is based on a case study of a small group of Hakkas who have left the village-town of Beruas in the state of Perak on the west coast of the Malaysian Peninsula to make their homes overseas – mostly in cultures which are very different from the Hakka environment in which they grew up. It looks at: the reasons why they left their hometown; how they identify themselves in their new place of residence; who they married; their offspring in relation to the their mother tongue (Hakka) and traditions; how they see the future of ‘Hakka culture’ and the social and cultural costs of living overseas and marrying outside the dialect.