INDIVIDUATION FROM THE FAMILY OF ORIGIN AND PERSONAL ADJUSTMENT IN LATE ADOLESCENCE

The present study explored the relationships between late adolescents' self-reported personal adjustment and individuation from their families of origin. Individuation was defined as adolescents' subjective perceptions of how psychologically enmeshed they were in the transactional processes of fusion and triangulation within their families of origin. The results indicated a significantrelationship between adolescents' perceived involvement in their family's patterns of fusion and self-esteem, mastery, college maladjustment and the number of reported health problems. Perceived involvement in the family triangulation process was significantly related to adolescents' perceptions of self-esteem and mastery. The implications of the study's findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Gender differences in the initiation and attribution of tactile intimacy

Cultural norms may restrict the demonstration of intimacy between men, such that male adults are relatively unlikely (in comparison to females) to display affection in public by hugging or putting hands around one another's waists. Study 1 examined via a role playing technique how the gender composition of a dyad and types of friendship influence tactile greetings. Males displayed less physical intimacy with male friends than with female (platonic or dating) friends and less than females displayed with their same-sex friends. Study 2 examined subjects' perceptions of and attributions about reciprocal touch. Male-male behavior was rated as less normal as a function of the level of physical touch (going from no touch, hugging, to arms around the waist). The normalcy rating of opposite-sex pairs did not vary as a function of the touch manipulation, but female, same-sex pairs' behavior was rated as less normal in the arms around the waist than in either the no touch or hug conditions. In the male same-sex pairs, hugging was seen as more likely to reflect a sexual relationship than no touch, while arms around one another's waist was rated as even more likely to represent a sexual relationship. It was suggested that homophobia, the fear of appearing or being homosexual, may operate to inhibit physical intimacy between men.     

Confidence regions for the common mean vector of several multivariate normal populations

Suppose that there are independent samples available from several multivariate normal populations with the same mean vector m? but possibly different covariance matrices. The problem of developing a confidence region for the common mean vector based on all the samples is considered. An exact confidence region centered at a generalized version of the well-known Graybill-Deal estimator of m? is developed, and a multiple comparison procedure based on this confidence region is outlined. Necessary percentile points for constructing the confidence region are given for the two-sample case. For more than two samples, a convenient method of approximating the percentile points is suggested. Also, a numerical example is presented to illustrate the methods. Further, for the bivariate case, the proposed confidence region and the ones based on individual samples are compared numerically with respect to their expected areas. The numerical results indicate that the new confidence region is preferable to the single-sample versions for practical use.     

Parenting Practices as Moderators of the Relationship Between Peers and Adolescent Marijuana Use

Using data from a probability sample of 4,987 adolescents, we examine the degree to which closeness to mother, closeness to father, parental support, and parental monitoring buffer the relationship between peer drug use and adolescent marijuana use. The relationship between peer drug use and adolescent marijuana use was attenuated by both closeness to father and the perception that parents would catch them for major rule violations. These findings confirm the value of conceptualizing certain family characteristics as separate variables and verify that authoritative parenting may help insulate adolescents from peer pressure to use drugs.     

Development of a Standard Soil-to-Skin Adherence Probability Density Function for Use in Monte Carlo Analyses of Dermal Exposure

It has recently been suggested that "standard" data distributions for key exposure variables should be developed wherever appropriate for use in probabilistic or "Monte Carlo" exposure analyses. Soil-on-skin adherence estimates represent an ideal candidate for development of a standard data distribution: There are several readily available studies which offer a consistent pattern of reported results, and more importantly, soil adherence to skin is likely to vary little from site-to-site. In this paper, we thoroughly review each of the published soil adherence studies with respect to study design, sampling, and analytical methods, and level of confidence in the reported results. Based on these studies, probability density functions (PDF) of soil adherence values were examined for different age groups and different sampling techniques. The soil adherence PDF developed from adult data was found to resemble closely the soil adherence PDF based on child data in terms of both central tendency (mean = 0.49 and 0.63 mg-soil/cm²-skin, respectively) and 95th percentile values (1.6 and 2.4 mg-soil/cm²-skin, respectively). Accordingly, a single, "standard" PDF is presented based on all data collected for all age groups. This standard PDF is lognormally distributed; the arithmetic mean and standard deviation are 0.52 ± 0.9 mg-soil/cm²-skin. Since our review of the literature indicates that soil adherence under environmental conditions will be minimally influenced by age, sex, soil type, or particle size, this PDF should be considered applicable to all settings. The 50th and 95th percentile values of the standard PDF (0.25 and 1.7 mg-soil/cm²-skin, respectively) are very similar to recent U.S. EPA estimates of "average" and "upper-bound" soil adherence (0.2 and 1.0 mg-soil/cm²-skin, respectively).     

Passed over for promotion because of age: An empirical analysis of the consequences

I test whether older individuals who report that their firms favor younger workers in promotion decisions are harmed by this oftencited discriminatory practice. Using the Health and Retirement Study, I determine whether such workers are more likely to experience lower wage growth, to separate from their employer, or to retire early, in comparison with workers with similar demographic and job characteristics. The evidence is consistent with lower wage growth and a greater likelihood of early retirement. Much of the effect, however, is likely to stem from a high correlation between delayedpayment contracts and promotion practices. I thank Jeff Biddle, John Goddeeris, David Neumark, John Strauss, and Jeff Wooldridge for helpful comments and suggestions. I gratefully acknowledge fellowship support during the completion of this paper from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.