Exposure to Violence and Socioemotional Adjustment in Low-Income Youth: An Examination of Protective Factors

Using a sample of 391 low-income youth ages 13–17, this study investigated the potential moderating effects of school climate, participation in extracurricular activities, and positive parent–child relations on associations between exposure to violence (i.e., witnessing violence and violent victimization) and adolescent socioemotional adjustment (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems). Exposure to violence was related to both internalizing and externalizing problems. High levels of participation in extracurricular activities and positive parent–child relations appeared to function as protective factors, weakening the positive association between exposure to violence and externalizing problems. Contrary to prediction, school climate did not moderate associations between exposure to violence and socioemotional adjustment. Further, none of the hypothesized protective factors moderated the association between exposure to violence and internalizing problems.     

Social Structure, Self-Conception and Well-Being: An Examination of Four Models with Unemployed People

A cross-sectional questionnaire design ( n = 88) was used to investigate the relationship between social structure, self-conception and well-being. Distinctions were drawn between public and private self-esteem and, within private self-esteem, between self-evaluation and self-affection. Significantly poorer public and private self-esteem scores were observed for unemployed subjects than for an employed control group. The predictions of four accounts of psychological well-being/distress that draw upon these self-concept dimensions were tested. Results supported symbolic interactionist and self-discrepancy theory and, to a lesser extent, self-enhancement theory. No support was found for a self-verification theory approach. Implications of the study for social psychological research on the consequences of unemployment and for accounts of negative affect are outlined.     

Social Learning,Social Disorganization,and Psychological Risk Factors for Criminal Gangs in a British Youth Context

ABSTRACT

Using longitudinal data from a British longitudinal cohort study (ALSPAC), the current study examines “developmental domains” from individual, peer, and community risk factors. Using four logistic regression models, we looked at 10 correlations between children’s experience with risk factors outlined by the literature and criminal gang association. Gang membership was associated with drug use, delinquent peers, and disorganized neighborhoods. Further, early diagnoses of childhood aggression, ADHD, depression, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder, were not associated with later, adolescent youth gang membership. Our results suggest community based programs that stem from social learning policies and collective efficacy militate against gang growth.     

Protective Factors for Deviance: A Comparison of Rural and Urban Youth

Based on data from the 2010, 2012, and 2014 Communities that Care Youth Survey, the authors examine the protective factors associated with rural and urban students in grades 6 through 12 across several domains. This research is based on the literature that associates rural areas with a more protective environment and resulting lower rates of deviance. Findings were mixed, but overall rural youth had higher protective factor scores. A summary of all 84 protective factor scores follows: 26 factors shown no significant different between rural and urban students; on 42 protective factors rural youth had higher scores, as opposed to urban youth with higher protective scores on only 16 factors. Implications of findings for crime and delinquency are discussed.     

A Prospective Study of High-School Adolescent Sexting Behavior and Psychological Distress

Abstract

Relying on conceptualization of sexting as a deviant behavior, which appear to be related with mental health problems, we examined the relationship between sexting and psychological distress. A one-year longitudinal study was performed among 216 girls and 143 boys, aged from 15 to 17?years (M?=?16.32, SD = .64). Participants completed the Sexting Behavior Questionnaire and the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale at both time points of the study. The results showed that the prevalence for receiving sexts between the two time points was around 30%, and for sending sexts around 60%. The prevalence rates of receiving and sending sexually explicit context were quite stable over time, though they varied significantly across gender. Participants usually had sexted with a current or (ex)partner or friends. The number of person with whom participants exchange sexts did not exceed five. Anxiety and stress symptoms were more prevalent among sexters who receive sexts at the baseline than follow-up study (p < .05). Stress has been found to be significant predictors of sending sext at the baseline study (p < .05), while depression of receiving and sending at the follow-up study (p < .001). This study confirms that sexting is common among youth, and appears to be associated with negative consequences.     

男性不育症的社会心理因素

男性不育症是一种多方面因素共同作用的综合征,在临床治疗中如果只考虑其中的一方面因素是不全面的．治标不治本。因此必须多加考虑其他影响因素,其中的社会心理因素尤为重要。针对不育症的社会心理因素加以阐述。     

男性不育症的社会心理因素

男性不育症是一种多方面因素共同作用的综合征,在临床治疗中如果只考虑其中的一方面因素是不全面的,治标不治本.因此必须多加考虑其他影响因素,其中的社会心理因素尤为重要.针对不育症的社会心理因素加以阐述.     

Social Psychological Models of Choice Behavior and Drivers' Left Turns

Abstract

The authors reanalyzed data from a simulated left-turn experiment (P. A. Hancock, J. K. Caird, S. Shekhar, & M. Vercruyssen, 1991) to test the adequacy of the nonlinear Gray-Tallman satisfaction balance model of choice behavior (L. N. Gray & I. Tallman, 1984) in predicting left turns. Participants (Hancock et al., 1991) were 40 experienced U.S. drivers who were exposed to simulated oncoming traffic; the size of the vehicle (motorcycle, compact vehicle, full-sized vehicle, delivery truck), its speed (10-70 mph, or 16-112 kmph), and the intervehicle time gap (3-9 s) varied. Hancock et al. (1991) measured (a) the likelihood of a left turn and (b) the occurrence of a collision. The probability of a left turn was greater for larger intervehicle time gaps and for oncoming smaller vehicles traveling at higher speeds. The Gray-Tallman (1984) model explained 69% of the variation in turning versus 57% for a linear regression model. In making decisions people tend to treat the values and costs affecting choices in a multiplicative, rather than linear, fashion. The Gray-Tallman model also has the potential for incorporating, both theoretically and mathematically, an unlimited range of potential values and costs that may influence left turn decisions.     

Youth Depression in the Family Context: Familial Risk Factors and Models of Treatment

Research on parent risk factors, family environment, and familial involvement in the treatment of depression in children and adolescents is integrated, providing an update to prior reviews on the topic. First, the psychosocial parent and family factors associated with youth depression are examined. The literature indicates that a broad array of parent and family factors is associated with youth risk for depression, ranging from parental pathology to parental cognitive style to family emotional climate. Next, treatment approaches for youth depression that have been empirically tested are described and then summarized in terms of their level of parent inclusion, including cognitive–behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, and family systems approaches. Families have mostly not been incorporated into clinical treatment research with depressed adolescents, with only 32% of treatments including parents in treatment in any capacity. Nonetheless, the overall effectiveness of treatments that involve children and adolescents exclusively is very similar to that of treatments that include parents as agents or facilitators of change. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings and directions for further research.     

Mixed Methods in Youth Purpose: An Examination of Adolescent Self-Regulation and Purpose

Utilizing a relational developmental systems approach to examining character strengths, this article examines the connection between adolescents’ intentional self-regulation (ISR) with youth sense of purpose, using data from a large-scale evaluation of a youth development program in Scotland. Data were triangulated from multiple sources, including youth surveys and interviews as well as teacher assessments. Surveys were collected from 783 S2 (approximately seventh grade) pupils; teacher survey data were collected for 732 of these pupils. Telephone interviews were conducted with a subset of 29 adolescents. The data were analyzed with an innovative mixed-methods technique that allows qualitative interview data to underscore consistencies and disconnects with quantitative findings from both teacher and adolescent surveys. Results demonstrate a strong connection between ISR and purpose and many consistencies across measures of purpose.     

Social Safeness and Psychological Vulnerability in Turkish Youth: The Mediating Role of Life Satisfaction

The present study examined whether life satisfaction mediated social safeness and psychological vulnerability in Turkish youth. The participants included 261 university students who completed a questionnaire package that included the Turkish versions of the Social Safeness and Pleasure Scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the Psychological Vulnerability Scale. To test the proposed mediation model, authors employed hierarchical regressions. Furthermore, the authors tested mediation model using the Sobel Z-test and bootstrapping method to examine any indirect effects. Consistent with our hypotheses, the results indicated that there was a positive relationship between social safeness and life satisfaction, and a negative relationship between social safeness and psychological vulnerability. The results of the Sobel Z-test and bootstrapping revealed that life satisfaction significantly, yet partially, mediated the relationship between social safeness and psychological vulnerability. The findings highlight the importance of life satisfaction in enhancing perceptions of social safeness and decreasing psychological vulnerability among Turkish college students.     

Care Like Kin: Community Based Youth Serving Organizations and the Social Reproduction of Disconnected Youth in Rural America

Increasing economic insecurity faced by older youth in rural America presents a crisis of social reproduction for disconnected youth in these areas. Increasingly community based youth serving organizations (CBYSOs) are recognizing and responding to the social reproduction needs of this particularly vulnerable youth population. Such responses are often hidden from funders, government agencies, and community residents. Yet these institutions play an important substitution function for disconnected youth and provide critical social support and social leverage for this population. Based on case studies of three CBYSOs in the San Joaquin Valley of California, this article explores how and why CBYSOs play a substitution function for disconnected youth in rural communities. It is the argument of this article that the social reproduction work of CBYSOs is undertaken with a ethic of care that may have the capacity to transform the political, social, and economic contexts that face this marginalized youth population.     

Media Use and Adolescent Psychological Adjustment: An Examination of Gender Differences

This study examined media use and psychological adjustment (as indicated by depression and anxiety symptomatology) in a sample of 328 14- to 16-year-old adolescents. Primary goals of the study were to explore whether media use differs by gender, whether media use is related to adolescent psychological problems, and whether media use moderates the relationship between parental alcoholism and adolescent psychological adjustment. Adolescents were surveyed in the spring of 2006, and again one year later. Gender differences in media use were observed with boys spending more time playing video games than girls and girls spending more time talking on the phone than boys. Strikingly, none of the types of media examined was associated with depression or anxiety. Moreover, media use acted as a protective factor for boys. Boys who spent relatively more time playing video games and watching television had the lowest levels of anxiety, especially those from alcoholic homes. The opposite pattern emerged for girls.     

Youth Suicide Trends in California: An Examination of Immigrant and Ethnic Group Risk

Although immigrants are in better health than the U.S.-born population according to a variety of indicators, little research has investigated current foreign-born/U.S.-born differentials in suicide. A review of 32,928 California death certificates from 1970 to 1992 indicates that although foreign-born persons are consistently underrepresented in the suicide deaths of 15- to 34-year-olds (risk ratio = 0.60), any foreign- versus U.S.-born difference by ethnicity appears to be decreasing. Specifically, although Hispanics born outside the United States consistently are at significantly lower risk of suicide than U.S.-born Hispanics, the discrepancy between the two groups has diminished over time. And, in a comparable trend, non-Hispanic white persons born outside the United States were at higher risk of suicide than their U.S.-born counterparts until 1990, when their risk became similar. Black and Asian/other foreign- and U.S.-born persons have been at statistically similar risk since 1970. A man using a firearm at home was the typical pattern for both the foreign- and U.S.-born.     

Gender-Specific Conflicts among Urban African-American Youth: The Roles of Situational Context and Issues of Contention

The literatures on violence among young men and young women have highlighted the importance of situational context. However, few studies have compared disputes that do not result in violence with those that do, and even fewer have been positioned to investigate the role situational context may play across gender in accounting for these outcomes. Drawing on recent scholarship on gender and violence, this research explores the situational contexts of youth conflicts among African-American adolescent boys and girls. Using a large sample of narrative accounts of 153 violent and nonviolent conflicts, we examine how youth describe the issues of contention in their conflicts, how these relate to the situational contexts in which conflicts emerge, and similarities and differences in the antecedents, contexts, and extent of male and female violence.     

Psychological Perspectives on Entrepreneurship: Cognitive and Social Factors in Entrepreneurs' Success

Why are some entrepreneurs so much more successful than others in starting new companies—ones that create wealth for their societies as well as themselves? Growing evidence suggests that the answer involves the influence of both cognitive and social factors. Successful entrepreneurs appear to think differently than other persons in several respects (e.g., they are less likely to engage in counterfactual thinking but more likely to show overconfidence in their judgments). Similarly, successful entrepreneurs appear to be higher in social competence —the ability to interact effectively with others (e.g., they are better at social perception and adapting to new social situations). These results suggest that the principles and findings of psychology can be invaluable to researchers in the field of entrepreneurship, providing important insights into the factors that influence entrepreneurs' success.     

An Examination Of Some Factors Related To Using Different Minkowski Models In Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling

Great interest in non-metric multidimensional scaling has resulted in a number of computer programs to derive solutions. This study examined the effect upon stress of data generated under five metrics and recovered under all five metrics. MDSCAL-5M. TORSCA-9, and POLYCON-II were used to analyse these data. POLYCON-II was the most accurate, although none of the programs was highly successful. In most cases recovery with the Euclidian metric provided, if not the best, very close to the best recovery regardless of the true metric. This study also raised the question of the advisability of using different metric models in nonmetric multidimensional scaling and found that even very different Minkowski metrics are quite similar in the way they rank order dissimilarities.