Men's recognition of violence against women and spousal abuse: comparison of three groups of men

Our goal was to assess whether men in the following three groups differ in their ability to recognize and judge the severity of diverse forms of aggressive behavior: (a) men who reported being physically aggressive toward their spouses and who were entering treatment for domestic violence; (b) men who, after participating in a treatment program, were no longer physically violent; and (c) men who reported never having been physically violent towards their spouses (NPV group-non-physically violent). All 81 men in the study reported being verbally aggressive toward their spouses. Men who had been in treatment for spousal abuse and who had not been physically violent toward their spouses since finishing the program were better able than the other two groups to recognize emotionally abusive behaviors.     

The Culture of Giving: Informal Support and Gift-Exchange in Early Modern England

Alain Boureau, The Lord's First Night: The Myth of the Droit de Cuissage (1998), ix + 300 (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, $55.00/£43.95, paperback $19.00/£15.25).

Rosemary Sweet, The Writing of Urban Histories in Eighteenth Century England (1997), ix + 356 (Oxford University Press, New York, £45.00/$90.00).

Gilbert M. Joseph, Catherine C. LeGrand, and Ricardo D. Salvatore (eds), Close Encounters of Empire: Writing the Cultural History of US‐Latin American Relations (1998), xv + 575 (Duke University Press, Durham, $19.95).     

Interprofessional education for community mental health: Attitudes to community care and professional stereotypes

Social workers are considered key members of community mental health teams, yet difficulties in interprofessional collaboration between social workers and health care professionals, particularly psychiatrists and nurses, have been reported. This paper examines some sources of these difficulties in terms of perceived differences in models of mental illness, attitudes and values, including stereotyping, professional identification and role clarity. Interprofessional education (IPE) may diminish negative stereotypes and promote multidisciplinary teamwork. A theoretical framework is described and findings from the evaluation of a 1-year programme of interprofessional education for community mental health are presented. These findings suggest that attitudes and values concerning community care for people with mental health problems are largely shared by different professions, but they do confirm the existence of interprofessional stereotypes and of perceived status differences. In contrast to previous research, there was no evidence of changes in stereotypes. These findings are discussed in terms of the theoretical framework and the design of the programme.     

Gwyn Campbell,Suzanne Miers and Joseph C. Miller (eds), Women and Slavery. Vol.I: Africa,the Indian Ocean World and the Medieval North Atlantic

Paul Veyne (ed.), A History of Private Life from Pagan Rome to Byzantium, vol. 1 of Philippe Aries and Georges Duby (eds), A History of Private Life (1987), ix + 670 (Cambridge, Mass, and London, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, £24.95).     

A mixture of experts latent position cluster model for social network data

Social network data represent the interactions between a group of social actors. Interactions between colleagues and friendship networks are typical examples of such data.The latent space model for social network data locates each actor in a network in a latent (social) space and models the probability of an interaction between two actors as a function of their locations. The latent position cluster model extends the latent space model to deal with network data in which clusters of actors exist — actor locations are drawn from a finite mixture model, each component of which represents a cluster of actors.A mixture of experts model builds on the structure of a mixture model by taking account of both observations and associated covariates when modeling a heterogeneous population. Herein, a mixture of experts extension of the latent position cluster model is developed. The mixture of experts framework allows covariates to enter the latent position cluster model in a number of ways, yielding different model interpretations.Estimates of the model parameters are derived in a Bayesian framework using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm. The algorithm is generally computationally expensive — surrogate proposal distributions which shadow the target distributions are derived, reducing the computational burden.The methodology is demonstrated through an illustrative example detailing relationships between a group of lawyers in the USA.     

Improving OpenURL Menus: User Testing of Revisions to SFX® Menus

Abstract

Twenty-one volunteers tested the usability of revisions to the Texas A&M University Libraries' SFX® OpenURL link resolver menus, including the addition of Ex Libris' new bXâ?¢ recommendation service and a plug-in which pulls additional information about the journal into the menu. The volunteers also evaluated the quality and desirability of the bX recommendations and discussed their preferences for help options and full-text format. Results of the usability testing are reported along with the resultant menu changes. This study will be of interest to librarians implementing or redesigning OpenURL menus as well as those interested in the user experience.     

Lavender Islands: the New Zealand study

Lavender Islands: Portrait of the Whole Family is the first national strengths-based study of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people in New Zealand. The 133-item survey was made available both by website and paper copy from April to July 2004. Multidisciplinary interest areas were developed by a community reference group, and included identity and self-definition, families of origin, relationships and sexuality, families of choice, immigration and internal migration, wellbeing, politics, income and spending, education, careers and leisure, community connections, challenges, and spirituality. A four-axis model of sexual identity was also tested; 2,269 responses were received. Of these 83% were from the website; 45% of responses were from women and 54% from men. Responses identified a robust, highly educated, relatively high-income, politically active LGB community. Male and female respondents experienced same-sex relationships and identity in significantly different ways.     

Factors associated with long-term benzodiazepine use among elderly women and men in Quebec

The goal of this study was to compare factors associated with long-term benzodiazepine use by elderly women and men (n = 1701) who participated in the Quebec Health Survey (QHS). Data from the 1998 QHS were linked with data from the administrative files of the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec. Results showed that elderly women were more at risk than men for long-term benzodiazepine use. Results of the multivariate logistic regression did not show a significant difference between women and men on any of the risk factors studied. Other factors such as elderly and physician attitudes deserve further study to explain differences in long-term benzodiazepine use between elderly women and men.     

“It’s Give and Take”: Australian Families’ Experiences of Negotiating Financial and Domestic Contributions When Young Adults Return Home

Young adults are increasingly reliant on parental support, with co-residence as a result of a return home increasingly common. Despite this, little is known about how family members negotiate financial and domestic contributions post-return. This qualitative study used a phenomenological methodology to explore the experiences of Australian parents and young adults who returned to co-residence in terms of the younger family members’ contributions to their household. Findings revealed that the young adults acknowledged the need to contribute but often varied in how much assistance they offered. For the most part, the extent of this contribution reflected their parents’ actions; the tendency not to ask for assistance and undertake tasks themselves meant offspring were not given incentives to contribute. While this at times resulted in unmet expectations and frustration among parents, they continued to act in ways that favourably accommodated their offspring. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the negotiation between parents and young adults in regards to household contributions, and the need for further qualitative investigation in this area.