The longitudinal effects of parental monitoring and self-control on depression in Korean adolescents: A multivariate latent growth approach

The purpose of this study was to examine the longitudinal effects of parental monitoring and self-control on depression. To address this purpose, this study investigated the interrelationships among depression, perceived parental monitoring, and self-control—as well as their developmental changes from the eighth to the twelfth grades—by repeated assessment of 3449 Korean adolescents. The data from Korea Youth Panel Survey (KYPS) of the eighth graders who were followed for five years were analyzed using latent growth modeling. The univariate latent growth models showed that adolescents experience an increase in both parental monitoring and self-control but a decline in depression over the five years. In addition, the multivariate latent growth model suggested that the initial level of parental monitoring had significant effects, both directly and indirectly through self-control, on the initial level of depression. The linear changes in parental monitoring were associated with the linear changes in self-control; likewise, the linear changes in self-control were related to those in depression. These results imply that parental monitoring and self-control need to be emphasized as a strategy in order to prevent or alleviate adolescents' depression.     

College Students' Exposure to Tobacco Marketing in Nightclubs and Bars

Abstract

Objective: To examine whether a college student's exposure to tobacco marketing in nightclubs and bars was affected by the presence of a smoke-free law. Participants: A random sample (N = 478) of students participated in the survey (no smoke-free law, n = 240; smoke-free law, n = 238). The analysis was limited to students who reported being in nightclubs and bars (n = 171). Methods: A nonexperimental, cross-sectional, 2-group design was used. Results: Students in the smoke-free law city were more likely to be approached by tobacco marketers (34.7% versus 20.2%, p = .02), offered free gifts (41.7% versus 24.2%, p = .02), and take free gifts for themselves (34.7% versus 19.2%, p = .02). They were more likely to be exposed to direct marketing strategies (1.83 versus 1.12, p = .02). There was no difference on indirect tobacco marketing by site. Conclusions: Tobacco marketing is pervasive in nightclubs and bars. Smoke-free laws may protect against exposure to secondhand smoke but not the “pro” smoking messages students encounter.     

Asymptotic Variance of Semiparametric Estimators With Generated Regressors

We study the asymptotic distribution of three‐step estimators of a finite‐dimensional parameter vector where the second step consists of one or more nonparametric regressions on a regressor that is estimated in the first step. The first‐step estimator is either parametric or nonparametric. Using Newey's (1994) path‐derivative method, we derive the contribution of the first‐step estimator to the influence function. In this derivation, it is important to account for the dual role that the first‐step estimator plays in the second‐step nonparametric regression, that is, that of conditioning variable and that of argument.     

基于Fishbein合理行为模型的国家形象对中国消费者购买意向影响研究——以美、德、日、韩四国国家形象为例

本研究对我国消费者进行问卷调查,通过实证分析发现,消费者对国家形象的感知大体上分为四个构面:与中国关系评价、国家发展程度、整体产品评价、整体人民评价,国家形象各构面的组成项目因国家不同而有所差异。本研究将国家形象作为新的变量引入Fishbein模型,发现模型依然与实际数据有着较好的吻合,验证了Fishbein模型具有较好的可扩展性和跨文化适应性。通过模型分析,发现国家形象间接地影响消费者的购买意向,其影响系数因产品类别不同而有所差异,其中国家形象对服装产品的购买意向影响最高,手机产品次之,对汽车产品的购买意向影响最低。     

Environmental markets in the year 2000

This article examines the prospects for marketable emissions permits in the coming decade. We identify both the reasons that politicians are reluctant to embrace marketable emissions permits as a solution to environmental problems and also changes in the political landscape that could lead to the increased use of this approach. Over the next decade, we believe there is reason to be cautiously optimistic. Selective experimentation with market-based approaches is likely to continue; however, we are not optimistic about the prospects for widespread application of this tool. Moreover, applications of this tool will necessarily reflect important political constraints, thus rendering the tool substantially less effective than the textbook applications examined by economists. An important intellectual challenge is to work on the design of market-based approaches that address political concerns, enhance efficiency, and promote innovation, so that it will be easier to meet the environmental challenges that lie ahead.Mr. Hahn is a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Mr. Noll is a Professor of Economics at Stanford University. Hahn's research was supported by a grant from the Decision, Risk and Management Science Program at the National Science Foundation. Noll's research is supported by a grant from the Smith-Richardson Foundation. The authors would like to thank Kip Viscusi for helpful comments on an earlier draft.     

Re-examining informative prior elicitation through the lens of Markov chain Monte Carlo methods

Summary.  In recent years, advances in Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques have had a major influence on the practice of Bayesian statistics. An interesting but hitherto largely underexplored corollary of this fact is that Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques make it practical to consider broader classes of informative priors than have been used previously. Conjugate priors, long the workhorse of classic methods for eliciting informative priors, have their roots in a time when modern computational methods were unavailable. In the current environment more attractive alternatives are practicable. A reappraisal of these classic approaches is undertaken, and principles for generating modern elicitation methods are described. A new prior elicitation methodology in accord with these principles is then presented.     

Prenatal Cardiac Function and Postnatal Cognitive Development: An Exploratory Study

Fetal cardiac function was measured at 24, 30, and 36 weeks gestation and quantified in terms of heart rate, variability, and episodic accelerations. Children's representational capacity was evaluated at 27 months in terms of language and play. Thirty‐ and 36‐wcek‐old fetuses that displayed greater heart‐rate variability and more episodic accelerations, and fetuses that exhibited a more precipitous increase in heart‐rate variability and acceleration over gestation achieved higher levels of language competence. Thirty‐six‐week‐old fetuses with higher heart‐rate variability and accelerations, and steeper growth trajectories over gestation, achieved higher levels of symbolic play. Cardiac patterning during gestation may reflect an underlying neural substrate that persists through early childhood: Individual variation in rate of development could be stable, or efficient cardiac function could positively influence the underlying neural substrate to enhance cognitive performance.     

New simulation results for the calibration and inverse median estimation problems

This paper gives the results of a new simulation study for the familiar calibration problem and the less familiar inverse median estimation problem. The latter arises when one wishes to estimate from a linear regression analysis the value of the independent variable corresponding to a specified value of the median of the dependent variable. For example, from the results of a regression analysis between stress and time to failure, one might wish to estimate the stress at which the median time to failure is 10,000 hours. In the study, the mean square error, Pitman closeness, and probability of overestimation are compared for both the calibration problem and the inverse median estimation problem for (1) the classical estimator, (2) the inverse estimator, and (3) a modified version of an estimator proposed by Naszodi (1978) for both a small sample and a moderately large sample situation.