Protective factors and risk factors of being a victim of couple violence in women and men / Factores de riesgo y protección de ser víctima de violencia en la pareja en mujeres y hombres

The aim of this study is to determine the risk factors and protective factors of being a victim of couple violence, considering cultural conventions, coping, social support, external attribution and violence in childhood. A non-probabilistic sample of 223 women and 177 men was used. The risk factors in the sample as a whole were being male, the coping strategy of accommodation, violence in childhood and external attribution, while the protective factors were partner support and an active coping style. The study concludes with suggestions for interventions and research.     

Semiparametric Bayesian classification with longitudinal markers

Summary.  We analyse data from a study involving 173 pregnant women. The data are observed values of the β human chorionic gonadotropin hormone measured during the first 80 days of gestational age, including from one up to six longitudinal responses for each woman. The main objective in this study is to predict normal versus abnormal pregnancy outcomes from data that are available at the early stages of pregnancy. We achieve the desired classification with a semiparametric hierarchical model. Specifically, we consider a Dirichlet process mixture prior for the distribution of the random effects in each group. The unknown random-effects distributions are allowed to vary across groups but are made dependent by using a design vector to select different features of a single underlying random probability measure. The resulting model is an extension of the dependent Dirichlet process model, with an additional probability model for group classification. The model is shown to perform better than an alternative model which is based on independent Dirichlet processes for the groups. Relevant posterior distributions are summarized by using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods.     

Effects of fear of negative social evaluation in interaction with potential partners: experimental study of first encounters / Efectos del temor a la evaluación social negativa en interacción con parejas potenciales: estudio experimental de los primeros encuentros

Abstract

This study used an experimental procedure to evaluate the effects of fear of negative social evaluation (FNSE) on courtship strategies and the ability to interact with the opposite sex. 108 university students participated in this study with a mean age of 19.6. Prior to the experimental procedure, FNSE levels were measured. Then two photographs of people of the opposite sex were shown, one more attractive than the other, and the participants were informed that they would meet one of them. Levels of anxiety and self-presentation motivation (SPM) were measured before the planned interaction. Results show that people with low levels of FNSE have positive expectations of reciprocity when they are about to meet a person that they find attractive. Women, but not men, with high levels of FNSE report higher SPM with less attractive people than with more attractive people. High levels of FNSE are associated with a loss of calm in the situation of meeting a person of the opposite sex. Implications of these results are discussed in the context of courtship strategies.     

Estimation of covariance functions by a fully data-driven model selection procedure and its application to Kriging spatial interpolation of real rainfall data

In this paper, we propose a data-driven model selection approach for the nonparametric estimation of covariance functions under very general moments assumptions on the stochastic process. Observing i.i.d replications of the process at fixed observation points, we select the best estimator among a set of candidates using a penalized least squares estimation procedure with a fully data-driven penalty function, extending the work in Bigot et al. (Electron J Stat 4:822–855, 2010). We then provide a practical application of this estimate for a Kriging interpolation procedure to forecast rainfall data.     

Estimation in nonlinear mixed-effects models using heavy-tailed distributions

Nonlinear mixed-effects models are very useful to analyze repeated measures data and are used in a variety of applications. Normal distributions for random effects and residual errors are usually assumed, but such assumptions make inferences vulnerable to the presence of outliers. In this work, we introduce an extension of a normal nonlinear mixed-effects model considering a subclass of elliptical contoured distributions for both random effects and residual errors. This elliptical subclass, the scale mixtures of normal (SMN) distributions, includes heavy-tailed multivariate distributions, such as Student-t, the contaminated normal and slash, among others, and represents an interesting alternative to outliers accommodation maintaining the elegance and simplicity of the maximum likelihood theory. We propose an exact estimation procedure to obtain the maximum likelihood estimates of the fixed-effects and variance components, using a stochastic approximation of the EM algorithm. We compare the performance of the normal and the SMN models with two real data sets.     

Epidemiology of provoked abortion in Santiago,Chile

An exploratory study was conducted to examine the level of success of heterosexual and homosexual couples in their “permanent” pairing relationships. Subjects completed seven self‐report measures of various aspects of their relationships. All couples showed high levels of success; however, homosexual couples had significantly lower levels compared to married couples. Homosexual females had significantly lower scores on self‐esteem and generalized contentment, suggesting that being lesbian and a woman may be a twofold problem. Some evidence of cross gender sex‐role endorsement occurred in all three groups but not in homosexual subjects exclusively as is the societal expectation.     

Adolescents' understandings of binge drinking in Southern and Northern European contexts – cultural variations of ‘controlled loss of control’

Previous research on youth drinking has brought out important features in young people's time- out cultures as and how they relate to the current neo-liberal social order with its expectation of self-governing individuals. However, previous research has not sufficiently considered cultural variations on the meaning of binge drinking for young people; in particular, there have been very few studies dealing with under-aged drinkers. This paper considers the applicability of binge drinking as ‘controlled loss of control’ in Northern and Southern European contexts by comparing young people's perceptions of binge drinking in Finland and Italy, which have conventionally been considered as representing sharply contrasting drinking traditions. The data consist of 28 focus-group interviews conducted at schools among 15-year-old pupils (N = 148) in Helsinki and Turin. In both countries, binge drinking was seen as risky, but it was associated with social norms that defined the limits of successful or failed drinking experience. Cultural variations were found especially in the ways self-control was defined with regard to drinking regulation. However, in both data the competence of the drinker and self-control was emphasized, thus contradicting the interpretation of binge drinking as loss of control or a time-out from the neo-liberal social order.     

Binge drinking vs. drunkenness. The questionable threshold of excess for young Italians

The use of a standard definition of ‘binge drinking’ can potentially offer the advantage of ‘objectifying’ the concept of excessive drinking. Nevertheless, the term has become somewhat confusing, as it is often used as a synonym of drunkenness, making cross-cultural comparison difficult. The present study investigates the meaning Italian young people attribute to binge drinking, to explain the gap between self-reported rates of drunkenness and episodes of binge drinking found by comparative youth drinking surveys. About 134 face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted, targeting adolescents (aged 15–17) and young adults (aged 22–24) who had admitted to drinking excessively. In addition, an online forum was created, using a video clip as a stimulus and asking for web users' comments (132 were analysed). Results show how in the view of Italian bingers, binge drinking does not necessarily entail drunkenness, but only being tipsy. This is what they aim at when they drink, while they have negative attitudes and expectations regarding intoxication and its effects. This boundary establishes the concept of excess and marks the threshold between socially acceptable and unacceptable drinking. In conclusion, the concept of binge drinking cannot be used as a synonym of drunkenness, which young people in Italy judge severely.     

Latin American typology: An essay on measuring social discontinuities

The aim of the article is to work out a classification of the Latin-American countries considering economic and social aspects of development. Therefore, it seemed convenient to take the following steps:

1. A critical review of the existing literature on the subject, stressing the theoretical and methodological assumptions on which these constructions are based.
2. A selection and discussion of some social indicators, in particular those usually employed for this kind of task, especially in planning.
3. An analysis of methodological procedures in order to present alternative options which could give better theoretical, methodological and technical results.
4. The classification of Latin-American countries using a quantitative technique based on the combination of a selected set of interval variables which permits the computation of a measure of the distance between cuples of countries.
5. A graphical representation of the ‘profiles’ obtained for each group of countries.
6. Variables not included in this classification and also historical dimensions are introduced in order to explain the different levels of achievement of the socioeconomic goals of the countries and regions.

The quantitative results go hand in hand with the revision of the historical process. For this reason, it seemed necessary to formulate a set of significant structural categories and some tentative hypotheses. These should be tested in more exhaustive studies if one wishes to explain the differential achievement reached by different countries in solving their social problems.