Early Sexual Initiation and Mental Health: A Fleeting Association or Enduring Change?

The present research examined how the within‐person association between sexual initiation and internalizing symptoms decays over time, using data with annual measurement occasions across adolescence (N = 1,789) and statistical models of within‐person change. Sexual initiation was associated with increased levels of internalizing symptoms for early‐initiating girls (ninth grade, approximately age 15), but not for on‐time‐initiating girls or for boys. The association between girls' early sexual initiation and internalizing symptoms declined precipitously over time. Indeed, 1 year after sexual debut, early‐initiating girls were similar to on‐time or noninitiating girls on internalizing symptoms, suggesting early sexual initiation does not produce lasting detriments to girls' mental health. Findings inform how researchers perceive sexual initiation, both as a developmental milestone and as a prevention target.     

Chronic avoidance helps explain the relationship between severity of childhood sexual abuse and psychological distress in adulthood

Recent studies have found that chronic avoidance of unpleasant internal experiences (e.g., thoughts, emotions, memories) is a maladaptive means of affect regulation often adopted by women with a history of sexual victimization in childhood. The primary aim of this study was to replicate and extend previous findings suggesting that higher levels of experiential avoidance may account for the relationship between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and psychological distress in adulthood. It was hypothesized that, in a sample of undergraduate females (n = 151), the relationship between severity of CSA (e.g., frequency, nature of victimization) and trauma-related psychological distress would be mediated by avoidance. Results supported this hypothesis. Findings are consistent with previous studies, and further suggest that the general tendency to avoid or escape from unpleasant internal experiences may be a specific factor that exacerbates psychological distress among women with a history of sexual victimization in childhood.     

Struktur und Entwicklung der Controllingforschung — Eine Zitations-und Kozitationsanalyse von Controllingbeiträgen in deutschsprachigen wissenschaftlichen Zeitschriften von 1970 bis 2003

Zusammenfassung  Controlling ist eine vergleichsweise junge Teildisziplin der Betriebswirtschaftslehre, die sich mittlerweile in Praxis und Wissenschaft etabliert hat. Das Wissen über seine Entwicklung ist in weiten Teilen noch unscharf und weitgehend durch „anecdotal evidence” bestimmt. Die Autoren verfolgen daher in ihrem Aufsatz das Ziel, einen Beitrag zum besseren Verst?ndnis der Strukturen und Entwicklung der deutschsprachigen Controllingforschung zu leisten. Hierfür analysieren sie die Zitations-und Kozitationsstrukturen in 643 Beitr?gen zu Controllingthemen, die im Zeitraum von 1970 bis 2003 in sechs führenden wissenschaftlichen Zeitschriften im deutschen Sprachraum ver?ffentlicht wurden. Diese Beitr?ge enthalten insgesamt 18.125 Quellen. Im Ergebnis der Analysen zeigt sich, dass das Zitierverhalten in der Controllingforschung im Vergleich zu anderen betriebswirtschaftlichen Teildisziplinen durch eine Reihe von Besonderheiten gepr?gt ist und dass sich die Strukturen der deutschsprachigen Controllingforschung über die Zeit stark ver?ndert haben.

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Structure and development of research on controlling — a citation analysis papers on controlling in German speaking journals from 1970 through 2003

Summary  Controlling is a relatively young discipline in the field of business administration, which has now established itself in practice as well as in theory. Our knowledge about its development is for the most part still diffuse and dominated by anecdotal evidence. In their paper, the authors pursue the goal of contributing to a better understanding of the structures and the development of the German-speaking research in controlling. For this purpose, they analyze the citations-and co-citations structures of 643 articles, focusing on controlling aspects published in six leading Germanic academic journals between 1970 and 2003. These papers comprise a total of 18,125 sources. The results of the analyses show that the attitude to cite in controlling research, compared to other disciplines in business administration, is characterized by a number of features. Furthermore, the structures of German controlling research have changed significantly over time.

     

Unternehmenserfolg, Wechsel im Vorstandsvorsitz und Disziplinierung von Finanzvorständen

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is often referred to as a company’s No. 2 on contemporary management boards; yet corresponding empirical evidence is scarce. As a result, academic literature has not yet investigated whether CFOs—like CEOs—are dismissed more frequently if corporate performance is poor and to what extent forced Chief Executive Officer (CEO) turnover also influences disciplinary action towards CFOs. Therefore, in this paper we examine the antecedents of forced CFO departures in the largest German corporations between 1999 and 2006. Building on principal-agent theory, we expect respective relationships between the board of directors, the CEO, and the CFO. Moreover, we propose that principals also take team-specific and firm-specific human capital into consideration when disciplining agents. We find that poor corporate performance and forced CEO turnover both independently increase the likelihood of CFO dismissal. In addition, we find indications for a close team relationship between CFOs and CEOs. In summary, our results support the prominent role of CFOs alongside CEOs on contemporary management boards and suggest a more detailed consideration of CFOs in future research on performance consequences of managerial successions.     

First Episode Psychosis: A Magical Realist Guide Through Liminal Terrain

This paper presents a narrative of a client, ‘Eva’, who experienced what is termed by psychiatry a first episode psychosis. As a family and relationship counsellor practicing narrative therapy with its backdrop of post‐structuralism and curiosity of exploring new entry points for narratives of identity, I tentatively sought new ways to engage with Eva's story. My endeavour in meeting with ‘First Episode Psychosis’ is described through adopting a listening position from a reading of magical realist literature. This extends Michael White's political exploration of ethnographer Arnold van Gennep's liminal spaces (in the rites of passage metaphor) to understand units of experience, units of meaning, and the fluidity of identity in psychosis, which is contextualised as a response to events in the client's story.     

DEMOCRATIZING EDUCATION

This paper offers a strategy for teaching street children aged 13–18 to be professional youth workers via a six‐month post‐secondary college‐level program. There would be no literacy or academic prerequisites for entry to the program. During their involvement, the children would be given free room and board in the college student residential facilities; the cost being covered by international development organizations such as the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The model incorporates incentives provided to employers to hire these youth workers. A small contingent of the street children educated as youth workers would be retained as permanent, salaried members of the college faculty. This innovative pedagogy is thus a vehicle for social integration for these marginalized children, pulling them back from the fringes of society. In this model, the possibility for development of basic literacy skills is expected to arise efficaciously and naturally once the children are placed in a secure environment where their basic needs are met.     

Longitudinal test of a multiple domain model of adolescent condom use

A comprehensive multiple domain model (MDM) to understand condom use in adolescents was proposed and tested using structural equation modeling of data at three time points. The proposed model integrates social psychological theory, demographic and personality factors, social environment, and situational/contextual variables. Adolescents who were sexually active at time 2 (6 months after baseline) and time 3 (1 year after time 2) and completed surveys at all three time points were included in the analyses (N = 511). An iterative process of model testing resulted in a structural equation model that provided a good fit to the data (CFI = .92, RMSEA = .04). Models comparing gender and race as moderators also were calculated and supported the generalizability of the model. Results provide support for an MDM that goes beyond traditional social psychological models for a broader understanding of condom use in adolescents. Implications for further theory testing and safer sexual interventions are discussed.