Relationship Difficulties as a Conduit from Hyperactivity to Depressive Symptoms

Based on the interpersonal model of depression, disrupted social relationships can lead to depression and childhood hyperactivity can disrupt those crucial relationships. Hyperactivity and the interactions between hyperactivity and interpersonal relations/social support in predicting depression are investigated based on data collected from 100 youth aged 8–14 and their parents. Hierarchical multiple regression indicated main effects for children’s report of hyperactivity and classmate support and an interaction between hyperactivity and classmate support in predicting children’s report of depression. Using parent’s report of child hyperactivity, there was a main effect for classmate support and an interaction between hyperactivity and parent report of family cohesion in predicting depressive symptoms. Results are consistent with past research, suggesting hyperactivity may compromise family and peer relationships, leading to depressive symptoms.     

Queer Questions

Abstract

As rights claims on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity occupy an increasingly prominent place in international politics, it seems clear that the long-running Woman Question has been supplemented by a set of variously articulated “queer questions.” Drawing on postcolonial, feminist and queer theory, and readings of queer literary and cinematic texts from India and Iran, this article explores moments of resonance, intersection and tension between the Woman Question and queer questions. It argues, first, that contemporary queer questions echo the preoccupations of the Woman Question even as they are uncannily prefigured by it; second, that these questions have been mutually disruptive of one another, so that queer questions are not simply a rerun of the Woman Question; and third, that differences between these questions are problematically flattened out in projections of shared futurity articulated in the abstract universality of “human rights.” Navigating the shared pasts, fraught presents and imagined futures of Woman and queer questions, the article brings queer critiques of temporality to bear on the concerns of postcolonial queer activism. It elucidates opportunities and challenges for alliance between the subjectivities interpellated by these various questions. In addition, it asks how the proliferation of new subjectivities under the sign of “queer” troubles notions of universal human rights.     

Anticipated Regret,Risk Perception,or Both: Which is Most Likely Responsible for Our Intention to Gamble?

The current study investigated whether risk aversion or regret aversion could be related to a lower intention to gamble, and whether the type of gambling was a moderator of this relationship. The study took place in Macau, often called “the Las Vegas of East Asia.” A total of 373 Macau residents completed a questionnaire survey dealing with thirteen types of gambling. The results showed that risk perception and anticipated regret had a significant negative effect on the intention to gamble. This negative effect was domain-specific, varying with the type of gambling. Our findings indicated that neither risk aversion nor regret aversion can uniquely explain an individual’s risk-taking tendency consistently. Instead, which factor plays a greater role in lowering the intention to gamble—regret aversion, risk aversion, or both—is itself dependent on the type of gambling involved. The finding that not all gambles are created equal could be useful in gambling prevention and advertising appeal by providing a basis for understanding the role that cognitive and emotional factors play in different types of gambling.     

Decent Living Standards: Material Prerequisites for Human Wellbeing

Children whose parents experience adverse social, economic, or health-related living conditions are more likely to face similar types of disadvantage in their adult life. However, a limitation of many earlier studies is that they do not account for the multidimensionality of the concept of living conditions, and that the child generation’s life courses are targeted as static and independent from the societal context in which they are imbedded. The current investigation addressed these aspects by focusing on the complexity, duration, and timing of disadvantage with regard to how adverse circumstances in the family of origin are associated with trajectories of social, economic, and health-related living conditions across adulthood. We also examined the role of educational attainment for these associations. Analyses were based a Swedish cohort born in 1953 (n = 14,294). We first conducted sequence analysis, followed by hierarchical cluster analysis, to generate ‘outcome profiles’, i.e. trajectories of adult disadvantage. Second, several indicators of adverse circumstances in childhood were analysed by means of multinominal regression analysis, showing the odds of ending up in the different trajectories. The results indicated that individuals who grew up under adverse conditions were more likely to experience disadvantaged social, economic, and health-related trajectories. This was particularly the case for trajectories characterised by a high degree of complexity, i.e. coexisting disadvantages, and—among men only—by a longer duration of disadvantage. Educational attainment was identified as a powerful mediator, suggesting that efforts to increase equal educational opportunity may be a way of reducing the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage.     

Analysis of middle-censored data with exponential lifetime distributions

Recently Jammalamadaka and Mangalam [2003. Non-parametric estimation for middle censored data. J. Nonparametric Statist. 15, 253–265] introduced a general censoring scheme called the “middle-censoring” scheme in non-parametric set up. In this paper we consider this middle-censoring scheme when the lifetime distribution of the items is exponentially distributed and the censoring mechanism is independent and non-informative. In this set up, we derive the maximum likelihood estimator and study its consistency and asymptotic normality properties. We also derive the Bayes estimate of the exponential parameter under a gamma prior. Since a theoretical construction of the credible interval becomes quite difficult, we propose and implement Gibbs sampling technique to construct the credible intervals. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to evaluate the small sample behavior of the techniques proposed. A real data set is analyzed to illustrate the practical application of the proposed methods.     

Partial Correlation in Terms of Path Coefficients

The distribution of members of the American Statistical Association (ASA) by several demographic and professional measures is characterized. The analysis is based on a 1979 survey of ASA members who resided in the U.S. More detailed analysis focuses on how demographic and professional characteristics affect the distribution of income and the odds of participating in ASA activities. Several interesting observations are made. Years of experience since highest degree is the most important predictor of income. Highest degree and whether employed in academia are also important. There is a significant difference between the distribution of income for men and women; although the difference is insignificant at one year of experience, it increases with the experience level. Although the survey represented a 100% sample of blacks, Hispanics, and native Americans in the ASA, there is insufficient data to formulate a detailed model of income for this minority group; its average income, however, falls below the expected income of the majority population for higher experience levels. For both the odds of attending annual meetings and serving ASA as an officer or committee member, the most important discriminator is the highest degree of the member. Race is also a significant factor: blacks, Hispanics, and native Americans were least likely to attend annual meetings, and Asians and Pacific Islanders were least likely to hold office. Years of experience is important also for predicting the odds of having held office but not of having attended meetings.     

On two-stage shrinkage testtimation

The general procedure of two stage shrinkage testimation formulated in Adlce and Gokhale [Commun. Statist.- Theory Meth. 18, 633-627 (1989)] k further generalized and extended to the multiparameter case. Local optimal-ity result of that paper, in the restricted set up of univariate location families and scalar families, is generalized without any restriction on the parametric family. The local unbiasedness result of that paper is also generalized and in addition local risk- unbiasedness is considered. The optimality and risk-unbiasedness results are proved for the usual matrix loss and their validity for an arbitrary quadratic loss deduced as corollaries.     

Linear representation of M-estimates in linear models

Consider the linear regression model, y_i = x_iβ₀ + e_i, i = l,…,n, and an M-estimate β of β_o obtained by minimizing Σρ(y_i — x_iβ), where ρ is a convex function. Let S_n = ΣX_iX_iX_i and r_n = S_n^½ (β — β₀) — S_n ² Σx_ih(e_i), where, with a suitable choice of h(.), the expression Σ x_ix(e,) provides a linear representation of β. Bahadur (1966) obtained the order of r_n as n→ ∞ when β_o is a one-dimensional location parameter representing the median, and Babu (1989) proved a similar result for the general regression parameter estimated by the LAD (least absolute deviations) method. We obtain the stochastic order of r_n as n → ∞ for a general M-estimate as defined above, which agrees with the results of Bahadur and Babu in the special cases considered by them.