Adolescents and their networks of social support: real connections in real lives?

Social support is widely seen as an integral component for coping with the stresses of everyday life. While there are various sources and types of support potentially available to young people, it is perhaps less obvious the extent to which young people differentially experience these sources and types. Anecdotal evidence suggests that context, culture and other factors unique to local life shape the many dimensions of social support for youth. In this paper, we seek to examine this research need in more detail by focusing on a broad range of factors shaping youth social support and youth well‐being. Drawing on mixed methods research, we examine social support evidence for adolescents in Florida, USA, and Offaly, Ireland. Through this research, we investigate how the connection between social support and well‐being bears out in these two different socio‐cultural contexts; second, we seek to understand whether types and sources of social support differ among youth in both countries; and what relationship exists between well‐being and types and sources of support. Comparing similar measures of social support across two distinct societal contexts allows us to determine similarities and differences, while also providing suggestions for application that can shape future programmes and policy.     

Some bivariate uniform distributions

Bivariate uniform distributions with dependent components are readily derived by distribution function transformations of the components of non-uniform dependent continuous bivariate random variables (X,Y). Contour plots of joint density functions show the various, and varying, forms of dependence which can arise from different distributional forms for (X,Y) and aids the choice of bivariate uniform distributions as empirical models.     

Role of Various Fault Attributions and Other Factors in Children's Anticipated Response to Hypothetical Peers With Undesirable Characteristics

Two studies examined the role of various fault attributions and other factors in children's anticipated response to hypothetical peers described as having an undesirable characteristic. The children were found to distinguish among various fault attributions (i.e., general, onset, and perpetuation; study 1), and they tended to agree more strongly that the peers were responsible for the perpetuation than the onset of these characteristics (studies 1 and 2). In study 1, perceiving an aggressive or overweight peer as similar to a friend and believing that the overweight peer will overcome this undesirable characteristic were found to be associated with a relatively favorable response to these peers. The more strongly the children agreed that (1) an aggressive peer is generally at fault for his/her undesirable characteristic (study 1) and (2) peers who are aggressive, overweight, shy, or a poor student are at fault for the onset of their undesirable characteristics (study 2), the less favorably they anticipated responding to these peers. Unexpectedly, attributing responsibility to forces ‘outside the peer's control’ (i.e., parents and biology) for his/her undesirable characteristic in study 2 was not found to be associated with a relatively favorable response to any peer with an undesirable characteristic.     

The use of small scale prototypes in image reconstruction from projections

We introduce a class of small scale simulation models—‘prototypes'—which reproduce many of the known properties of maximum likelihood and related reconstruction methods used in emission tomography, and greatly simplify the development of new methods. We introduce an iterative Fisher-scoring algorithm and demonstrate, by use of the prototype models, its superior speed of convergence when compared with the standard EM algorithm.     

Biomedical applications for a generalized linear functional Poisson model

Many medical and biological studies involve response in the form of Poisson counts which can bemodelled using explanatory variables which also arise from count data. If the explanatory variables are observable without error (also as Poisson counts) we have a generalized linear model with a logarithmic link function and Poisson error structure. If,however, some of the explanatory variables are not directly observable, but arise with superimposed errors (again of Poisson form), the model is of a new type:a generalised linear functional Poisson model. In this paper,maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters of this model are determined along with the information matrix which (on noting its particular patterned form) is amenable to inversion in explicit form. Methods are proposed of an iterative type for computing estimates of the parameters and of their variational properties (e.g. standard errors) for this model, which also has application in other fields such as road traffic studies.     

Coping with self and academic talent

This study tested a possible explanatory framework of the coping and adaptation of 159 academically able seventh graders by exploring their strengths and vulnerabilities in coping with their differences, their peer relationship styles, and their patterns of achievement motivation. All of the youth in this sample scored in the 97th percentile on grade-level standardized tests with one fourth scoring at the mean of college-bound seniors on the SAT, an above-grade-level test for this age group. The range of responses included a bifurcated distribution pattern of strengths and vulnerabilities in values related to achievement motivation and normal distribution patterns in coping with self and academic ability and peer relationship style. The findings support use of structured self-reports in obtaining academically able youths' perspectives on self-in-context and as a supplement in psychosocial assessment.     

Patronage, Moral Regulation and the Recruitment of Indian Affairs Personnel, 1879–1900

En tirant parti du cas de l'expansion du Département des affaires indiennes pendant les deux dernières décennies du XIX^e siècle, l'au-teur analyse la relation entre le népotisme politique et la régulation morale dans le processus de la formation de l'état. Le projet de népotisme politique et celui de la régulation morale ont tous deux joué un rôle central dans la nomination de candidate à des postes au sein du département. Pourtant, la pratique qui consistait à nommer le personnel selon leurs liens politiques, familiaux ou religieux allait parfois à l'encontre du projet de régulation morale. La situation conjugate, la compétence et les habiletés physiques ont contribuéà déterminer si ceux qui étaient nommés pour des raisons de népotisme ont pu garder leur poste au département pendant un certain temps.
Using the case of the expansion of the Department of Indian Affairs during the last two decades of the 19th century, this paper analyses the relationship between political patronage and moral regulation in the process of state formation. Both political patronage and the moral regulation project played central roles in determining who was appointed to positions in the Department. However, the practice of appointing personnel on the basis of their political, family or religious connections was at times antithetical to the moral regulation project of the Department of Indian Affairs. One's marital status, competence and physical abilities played roles in determining whether those appointed on the basis of patronage stayed employed in the Department for very long.     

DISPERSION CONTROL FOR MULTIVARIATE PROCESSES – SOME COMPARISONS

Tang & Barnett (1996) present some techniques for monitoring and controlling the dispersion of multivariate normal processes based on subgroup data. The current paper compares the proposed techniques and various competing procedures. Simulation results indicate that the proposed techniques are superior to existing procedures.