Exposure to child abuse and risk for mental health problems in women

Risk for adult mental health problems associated with child sexual, physical, or emotional abuse and multiple types of child abuse was examined. Logistic regression analyses were used to test study hypotheses in a population-based sample of women (N = 3,936). As expected, child sexual, physical, and emotional abuse were independently associated with increased risk for mental health problems. History of multiple types of child abuse was also associated with elevated risk for mental health problems. In particular, exposure to all three types of child abuse was linked to a 23-fold increase in risk for probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Findings underscore relations between child emotional abuse and adult mental health problems and highlight the need for mental health services for survivors of multiple types of child abuse.     

Transactional Sex and Preferences for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Administration Modalities Among Men Who Have Sex With Men (MSM)

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an important biomedical human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention tool gaining more popularity among Parisian men who have sex with men (MSM) who engage in transactional sex. This study examines the knowledge of, and willingness to use, different modalities of PrEP among this subgroup. Broadcast advertisements were placed on a geosocial-networking smartphone application with a link to a Web-based survey during three 24-hour periods in October 2016. Modified Poisson regression models were used to assess the association between engagement in transactional sex and preferences for each of these PrEP modalities. A total of 444 respondents were included. About 14% reported engagement in transactional sex. In all, 90% of MSM who engaged in transactional sex were knowledgeable of daily oral PrEP, while 13.3% were knowledgeable about long-acting injectable PrEP or penile or rectal microbicides. They were more likely to be aware of long-acting injectable PrEP (aRR = 2.52, 95% CI = 1.16 to 5.47) and willing to use daily oral PrEP (aRR = 1.48; 95% CI = 1.11 to 1.98) or long-acting injectable PrEP (aRR = 1.40; 95% CI = 1.09 to 1.81) than MSM who had not engaged in transactional sex. Long-acting injectable PrEP may be an important HIV-prevention option for MSM who engage in transactional sex if this modality is proven effective.     

The Scarring Effect of the 2008 Economic Crisis: Growth and Growth Decline in Austria’s Nonprofit Social Services Sector

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Since the 2008 economic crisis, social service providers worldwide have reported funding cuts, while the need for some...     

Passionate Experiences in Adolescence: Situational Variability and Long‐Term Stability

This study investigates adolescents' situational passionate experiences, defined as states of strong commitment and intense affect. We examine the extent to which experiencing passion was specific to situations versus individual differences, and explore which activities are likely to elicit adolescents' passion. Using longitudinal experience sampling method (ESM) data from a representative sample of 996 adolescents (54.6% females) in three cohorts (6th, 8th, and 10th grade at baseline), we examine whether adolescents' frequency of passionate experiences remained stable across 2 years. Results of multilevel analyses revealed that situational determinants accounted for 80% of variance in passion, while 20% were due to characteristics of the person that remained stable across 1 week of ESM assessment. An adolescent's percentage of passionate experiences among all observed experiences remained stable across 2 years in rank order and mean level.     

Behaviour under the condition of anonymity: a visual analysis

Analysing photographs of abandoned hotel rooms, we forensically classify hotel guests who left their rooms into three ideal types. Goffman’s idea of impression management is central for indicating ideal-type specific behavioural motivations. Under the condition of relative anonymity provided in hotel rooms, the audience for which guests manage impressions is either absent or the guests themselves who construct it. In the case of an audience to be seen as relevant it is either an internalised audience, guiding one’s behaviour, or it is a real audience. We demonstrate that it is possible to classify guests according to forensic analysis of the clues that identify their behaviours as (1) authentic, that is independent from an audience; (2) guided internally by an imagined audience; or (3) influenced by the perception of a real audience. The sociological categories of power and status are used to systematically differentiate behaviours of our three ideal-typical classes of hotel guests.     

Testing independence conditions in the presence of errors and splitting effects

This paper presents experimental tests of several independence conditions implied by expected utility and alternative models. We perform repeated choice experiments and fit an error model that allows us to discriminate between true violations of independence and those that can be attributed to errors. In order to investigate the role of event splitting effects, we present each choice problem not only in coalesced form (as in many previous studies) but also in split forms. It turns out previously reported violations of independence and splitting effects remain significant even when controlling for errors. However, splitting effects have a substantial influence on tests of independence conditions. When choices are presented in canonical split form, in which probabilities on corresponding probability-consequence ranked branches are equal, violations of the properties tested could be reduced to insignificance or even reversed.     

THE EFFECT OF CENTRAL EXIT EXAMINATIONS ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT: QUASI‐EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FROM TIMSS GERMANY

This paper makes use of the regional variation in schooling legislation within the German secondary education system to estimate the causal effect of central exit examinations on student performance. We propose a difference‐in‐differences framework that exploits the quasi‐experimental nature of the German TIMSS middle school sample and discuss its identifying assumptions. The estimates show that students in federal states with central exit examinations clearly outperform students in federal states without such examinations. However, only part of this difference can be attributed to the existence of the central exit examinations themselves. Our results suggest that central examinations increase student achievement by the equivalent of about one‐third of a school year. (JEL: D02, H42, I28)     

On the distribution of the adaptive LASSO estimator

We study the distribution of the adaptive LASSO estimator [Zou, H., 2006. The adaptive LASSO and its oracle properties. J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 101, 1418–1429] in finite samples as well as in the large-sample limit. The large-sample distributions are derived both for the case where the adaptive LASSO estimator is tuned to perform conservative model selection as well as for the case where the tuning results in consistent model selection. We show that the finite-sample as well as the large-sample distributions are typically highly nonnormal, regardless of the choice of the tuning parameter. The uniform convergence rate is also obtained, and is shown to be slower than n^-1/2$n^{-1/2}$ in case the estimator is tuned to perform consistent model selection. In particular, these results question the statistical relevance of the ‘oracle’ property of the adaptive LASSO estimator established in Zou [2006. The adaptive LASSO and its oracle properties. J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 101, 1418–1429]. Moreover, we also provide an impossibility result regarding the estimation of the distribution function of the adaptive LASSO estimator. The theoretical results, which are obtained for a regression model with orthogonal design, are complemented by a Monte Carlo study using nonorthogonal regressors.     

Factors influencing the career and academic choices of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people

This is an empirical study of academic and career choices for 119 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students using a questionnaire. Respondents who reported that their sexual orientation influenced their choices a great deal indicated that the influences were both positive and negative. This group was most likely to have experienced anti-LGBT discrimination in the past. In comparing lesbian, bisexual people, and gay males, gay males and respondents from visible minorities were the most likely to feel a negative impact, while bisexual respondents were the least likely. There were too few transgender respondents to include in these statistical comparisons; however, frequencies suggest that transgender people may be the most vulnerable of all. Results suggest that counselors need to take sexual orientation issues, particularly past experiences of discrimination, when working with LGBT clients.