Genetic Screening Services Provided in Turkey

In Turkey, the rate of consanguineous marriage is quite high (22–24 %) and as a result, the incidence of autosomal recessive diseases and congenital anomalies is also very high and gives rise to a serious public health problem. In the last three decades, great effort has been made to avoid increases in the prevalence of these hereditary diseases. For this purpose, population-based premarital, prenatal, neonatal and adult genetic screening programs are performed in various centers such as Community Health Centers, Early Diagnosis of Cancer and Education Centers (KETEM), Prenatal and Neonatal Departments of Universities and State Hospitals and Thalessemia Screening Centers. Such centers are staffed by health professionals including physicians, family physicians, nurses, midwives, biologists and medical geneticists. Genetic counseling is also provided to patients attending these centers after screening tests are performed. Since there are no specialized training programs for genetic counselors, genetic counseling is generally provided by doctors or medical geneticists. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the genetic screening services provided in Turkey, the prevalence of genetic diseases and the design of intensive educational programs for health professionals.     

Is it here where I belong? An integrative model of turnover intentions

We test a mediated moderation model in which the influence of organizational prestige and permeability on turnover intentions is mediated by organizational commitment and identification. We test this model in a 2 × 2 design in four Romanian organizations. Results support a partial mediation of identification between the considered organizational antecedents, and their interaction upon affective and continuance commitment, and a full mediation of commitment between identification and turnover intentions. Permeability moderates the impact of prestige upon identification and commitment. Finally, we draw conclusions about the mind‐sets behind identification, affective, and continuance commitment, and propose implications for future research and practitioners.     

The Need for Absolute Truth and Self-Rumination as Basic Suppressors in the Relationship Between Private Self-Consciousness and Mental Health

Self-reflection has not so far been shown to have any specific benefits for mental health except for self-knowledge. Recent research showed that the controversy concerning the relationship between self-reflection and mental health could completely be eliminated if self-rumination and the need for absolute truth, especially the need for absolute truth, were considered as suppressor variables. This research replicated these findings in a different sample and expanded these findings by showing that the same is true for private self-consciousness. The need for absolute truth as a new variable was shown to be highly important in understanding the effects of self-consciousness on mental health.     

Values and love styles in Turkey and Great Britain: An intercultural and intracultural comparison

Little previous research has examined the relationship between values and love styles, and none has done so across cultures or intracultural regions. This research was the first attempt to explore the correlation between individual‐level values and love styles, and examined both within‐ and between‐cultural variations in love styles. In this study 224 participants from Turkey and Britain, from urban or rural locations, completed the Portrait Values Questionnaire and the Love Attitudes Scale measure of love styles. Pancultural analyses demonstrated significant correlations between certain value dimensions and love styles. In particular, agape (selfless love) was positively correlated with self‐transcendence, ludus (game‐playing love) was positively correlated with self‐enhancement, and pragma (realistic love) was positively correlated with conservation. The inclusion of location and nationality and their interactions with values in the multiple regression analyses significantly increased the variance explained by values for five of the six love styles. Multivariate analyses indicated that ludus, storge, mania, and pragma were all significantly higher among Turkish respondents; pragma, mania, and agape all higher amongst rural respondents. Eros was highest among rural British respondents; storge, pragma, and agape highest among rural Turks. When these culture effects were explored, conservation significantly mediated the relationship between the groups of more conservative rural Turks (versus other participants) and both pragmatic and storgic love styles. Findings are discussed in the light of disparities in values and relationship styles within cultures, and the need to include both intracultural and intercultural variations in cross cultural research.     

The Return Of The Religious

Recents discussions of expansion in the European Union and the possibility of envisioning a Muslim country in it has exacerbated the deep-seated anxiety about Islam among the liberal and extreme right in Europe. This paper suggests that there are recurring elements in the discourse of European cultural identity and one of these elements is the representation of Islam in its alterity to European identity and civilization. Questioning the thesis of a radical break with the Christian past, this paper questions whether the European cultural identity which is being formed today signifies a break with a religious form of identification. The liberal and extreme right opposes Turkish membership on the grounds that the differences between ‘European values’ and ‘European culture and lifestyle’ and Turkey's culture are what makes the latter essentially and fundamentally external to the essence of Europe. Tracing the remnants of Christian discourse in the contemporary fashioning of European identity, this paper discusses how Christianity, with its secularized versions, which are now displaced to culture and lifestyle, still holds a privileged position as a unifying theme in Europe. It suggests that one of the tests that awaits Europe is whether it will be capable of articulating a new but democratic identity for Europe, one that is responsive to the differences of the other or whether it wants to continue to be European by way of its old methods of exclusion.     

Development of a coping with stress scale for a non-western population of children and adolescents

Background and objectives: In the related literature numerous instruments have been developed to measure children and adolescents’ coping with stress. Considering the cultural differences in individuals’ choice for coping strategies, along with the limitations of the existing measures of coping for children and adolescents (e.g., being derived from coping measures developed for adults; unrepresentative samples with limited age range, etc.), the current study aimed to construct a self-report coping scale for a non-western population of children and adolescents.

Design and methods: The study design included both qualitative and quantitative methodology. Three consecutive studies were conducted for the development and validation of the Children and Adolescents’ Coping with Stress Scale (CACSS), a self-report measure assessing coping strategies of children and adolescents aged from 9 to 18 in response to self-identified stressors.

Results: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses resulted in a 61-item CACSS with 10 factors. The scale appears to have a clear factor structure; sufficient temporal stability; and good convergent, discriminant, and construct validity.

Conclusions: By addressing limitations of existing coping scales, CACSS is believed to contribute to the literature as a developmentally appropriate and multidimensional tool.     

Drug Use and Self-Harming Behavior Among Incarcerated Men: Does Childhood Abuse,Anger, and Executive Function Make a Difference?

Childhood abuse, anger, drug-related problems, and self-harm are commonly seen among incarcerated individuals. Forty-three young incarcerated males from an Istanbul prison were assessed for childhood abuse, anger, drug use, self-harming behavior, and executive function (EF). Further, 58% of the sample was using drugs, and 60.5% showed self-harming behavior. Performing a backward stepwise binary logistic regression model, it was found that the likelihood of using drugs was determined by EF measured by the Trail Making Test form A, childhood abuse, anger, and self-harm. On the other hand, self-harm was determined by childhood abuse, anger, and drug use.     

Feeling-of-knowing for songs and instrumental music

We explored the differences between metamemory judgments for titles as well as for melodies of instrumental music and those for songs with lyrics. Participants were given melody or title cues and asked to provide the corresponding titles or melodies or feeling of knowing (FOK) ratings. FOK ratings were higher but less accurate for titles with melody cues than vice versa, but only in instrumental music, replicating previous findings. In a series of seven experiments, we ruled out style, instrumentation, and strategy differences as explanations for this asymmetry. A mediating role of lyrics between the title and the melody in songs was also ruled out. What emerged as the main explanation was the degree of familiarity with the musical pieces, which was manipulated either episodically or semantically, and within this context, lyrics appeared to serve as an additional source of familiarity. Results are discussed using the Interactive Theory of how FOK judgments are made.     

Perceived autonomy support, friendship maintenance, and happiness

Decades of empirical research have shown that perceived autonomy support in close relationships is an essential correlate of happiness. However, what might account for the relationship between the 2? For this article, 4 studies (total N=1325) investigated friendship maintenance as a mediator of the association between friendship autonomy support and happiness. The first 3 studies supported the model for the best friendship of the individual when happiness was assessed with 3 different measures. The 4th study extended the findings by showing that the model was generalizable to the other close friendship of the individual. Overall, the results supported the idea that engaging in routine and strategic behaviors to maintain friendships explains how perceived autonomy support in friendships is associated with happiness. The theoretical and applied implications of the findings were discussed and suggestions for future research were made.     

PATHS in Croatia: A school‐based randomised‐controlled trial of a social and emotional learning curriculum

This study represents the first rigorous evaluation of a social‐emotional learning curriculum, PATHS (P romoting A lternative Th inking S trategies; Kusché & Greenberg, 1994), in elementary schools in Croatia. This study randomly assigned 29 schools to receive the universal preventive intervention or continue with usual practices. Within those schools, this study included 57 classrooms and 568 children. Teachers rated nine child behaviours in the middle of first grade (pre‐intervention) and near the end of second grade (post‐intervention). Hierarchical linear models, nesting children within classrooms, revealed few changes in behaviour across the sample as a whole or among higher risk children. However, there were changes on eight of the nine behaviours for lower risk children. The findings are considered in the context of the classroom culture and teachers' preparation and readiness to implement a social‐emotional learning curriculum in Croatia. This study highlights the need to supplement universal preventive interventions with selective preventive interventions that can provide more intensive and targeted skill practice for higher risk children. This study also highlights the nuanced effects of a universal preventive intervention in helping different children in different ways.