The Inability of Self-affirmations to Decrease Defensive Bias Toward an Alcohol-Related Risk Message Among High-Risk College Students

Abstract

Objective: To examine the efficacy of a self-affirmation task in deterring college alcohol misuse and the importance of preexisting beliefs in predicting subsequent behavior change. Participants: Heavy-drinking undergraduates (N = 110) participated during the 2011–2012 academic year. Methods: Participants were randomized to complete an affirmation or control task before reading an alcohol risk message. Alcohol-related beliefs and behaviors were assessed. Participants completed a 2-week online follow-up assessing alcohol-related behaviors. Results: Both groups reported increased perceived problem importance, but neither group displayed changes in personal risk. Follow-up assessment revealed similar, significant declines in peak consumption in both groups, with no significant between-group differences. Preexisting beliefs accounted for 5% to 10% of variance in drinking outcomes. Conclusions: An affirmation task does not seem to decrease defensive processing or alter high-risk drinking behaviors among college students and should not be utilized in lieu of more effective strategies.     

The exact properties of the lawless and wang operational ridge regression estimator in a misspecified regression equation

The exact properties of the Lawless and Wang Operational Ridge Regression estimator are derived in the context of a misspecified regression equation.     

“Newsworthy” Victims?

More than 500 Aboriginal women have gone missing or been murdered in Canada since the 1980s yet press attention to this violence is relatively minimal. This paper compares local press coverage of matched cases: three missing/murdered Aboriginal women from Saskatchewan and three missing/murdered White women from Ontario. Quantitative and qualitative content analyses indicate stark disparities in the amount and content of coverage between groups. The Aboriginal women received three and a half times less coverage; their articles were shorter and less likely to appear on the front page. Depictions of the Aboriginal women were also more detached in tone and scant in detail in contrast to the more intimate portraits of the White women. Drawing on feminist media studies and theories of intersectionality, this paper argues that the simultaneous devaluation of Aboriginal womanhood and idealization of middle-class White womanhood contributes to broader systemic inequalities which re/produce racism, sexism, classism, and colonialism. This paper raises concerns about the broader implications of the relative invisibility of missing/murdered Aboriginal women in the press, and their symbolic annihilation from the Canadian social landscape.     

On bias reduction estimators of skew-normal and skew-t distributions

A particular concerns of researchers in statistical inference is bias in parameters estimation. Maximum likelihood estimators are often biased and for small sample size, the first order bias of them can be large and so it may influence the efficiency of the estimator. There are different methods for reduction of this bias. In this paper, we proposed a modified maximum likelihood estimator for the shape parameter of two popular skew distributions, namely skew-normal and skew-t, by offering a new method. We show that this estimator has lower asymptotic bias than the maximum likelihood estimator and is more efficient than those based on the existing methods.     

An improved alternative estimation procedure for current population mean in presence of positively and negatively correlated auxiliary variables in two-occasion rotation patterns

Abstract

The present study confirms the influential role of a positively and a negatively correlated auxiliary variables in enhancing the precision of estimates of current population mean in two occasion rotation (successive) sampling. Exponential-type estimators of current population mean have been proposed for three different situations: (i) the information on a positively correlated auxiliary variable is readily available on both occasions (ii) the information on a negatively correlated auxiliary variable is readily available on both occasions and (iii) the information on both positively and negatively correlated auxiliary variables are readily available on both the occasions. The characteristics of the proposed estimators have been explored and their efficacious performances are compared with the natural and recent contemporary estimators. Optimum replacement strategies of the proposed estimation procedures have been formulated. Simulation and empirical studies are carried out to justify the proposition of the proposed estimators and appropriate recommendations have been put forward to the survey practitioners.     

损失厌恶、后悔厌恶与沉没成本效应的关联性分析

以往研究认为沉没成本效应的产生与损失厌恶和后悔厌恶相关,但对其相互关系的探讨较少考虑货币性沉没成本和非货币性沉没成本的不同影响.文章选取证券监管者和证券市场投资者作为被试对象,通过有情境因素的调查问卷对损失厌恶、后悔厌恶与沉没成本效应之间的关联性进行验证.实证结果发现,与证券市场投资者相比,证券监管者的损失厌恶倾向要显著更低,而二者的后悔厌恶和沉没成本效应则无显著差异;证券监管者的数据结果表明,后悔厌恶与沉没成本效应之间存在显著的相关性,而损失厌恶与沉没成本效应之间不存在显著的相关性;相比之下,证券市场投资者的数据结果则表明,损失厌恶与沉没成本之间存在显著的相关性,而后悔厌恶与沉没成本之间则不存在显著的相关性.     

证券分析师性别、盈余预测偏差与纠偏能力

证券分析师个人特征是其能力的重要表征.文章选取2007-2014年我国资本市场相关数据,研究了证券分析师的性别对盈余预测偏差的影响,以及盈余预测偏差的时间序列特征,实证结果显示:第一,整体上男性分析师的盈余预测偏差大于女性分析师;第二,男性分析师对于盈余预测偏差的纠正能力高于女性分析师;第三,随着对公司跟踪时间的增加,男性分析师的盈余预测偏差下降速度更快.研究结果说明,对于分析师跟踪时间较短的公司,女性分析师的盈余预测偏差较小,而对于受分析师长期跟踪的公司,男性分析师的盈余预测结果更准确.研究结论对投资者依据分析师性别判定其盈利预测准确性具有重要意义.     

Elementary School-age Children's Attitudes Toward Children in Same-Sex Parent Families

As numbers of families with same-sex parents increase in the United States, children are more likely to encounter diverse family structures. Given that young children can demonstrate in-group bias, prejudicial attitudes, and social exclusion, it is important to understand how children perceive their peers in diverse families. To our knowledge, no studies have assessed elementary-school-age children's attitudes about same-sex parent families. Here, 131 elementary school students (M_age = 7.79 years; 61 girls) viewed images of same-sex (female and male) and other-sex couples with a child and then were asked about their perceptions of these families, particularly the children. Results indicated participants' preferences toward children with other-sex versus same-sex parents. Developmental and practical implications about children's attitudes toward sexual minority parent families are discussed.     

Measuring the health patterns of the ‘mixed/multiple’ ethnic group in Britain: data quality problems,reporting issues,and implications for policy

The ‘mixed’ group, officially recognised in the 2001 Census, is one of the most rapidly growing ethnic groups in Britain. Although ‘mixed’ categorisation was added to ethnic coding in NHS datasets, our knowledge of health patterns for this population is meagre. Data quality problems remain a key obstacle, including poor reproducibility of the data and constraints on reporting due to sparse data bias. The consequent minimal and indicative evidence base has focused mainly on risky health behaviours, mental health and generic measures of self-rated health, as it has in the U.S.A. and Canada. There is negligible information on the main underlying causes of death, such as neoplasms, heart disease and stroke. Consideration should be given to pooling data across multiple years of health and general purpose surveys to enable reporting for the four ‘mixed’ categories and adjustment for mediating factors and relevant confounders, such as measures of socio-economic status.