A Suicide Prevention Campaign for Firearm Dealers in New Hampshire

A spate of suicides involving a just‐purchased firearm led a statewide coalition of firearm dealers, firearm rights advocates, and suicide prevention professionals to discuss the role of gun shops in preventing suicide. The group developed and mailed materials for (1) firearm retailers on avoiding sales to suicidal customers and (2) their customers on suicide and firearm safety. All storefront retailers were identified (n = 65), visited unannounced 6 months after receiving materials, and asked to complete a survey. Nearly half (48%) had at least one campaign product on display. Belief that reducing a suicidal person's access to firearms might save a life was associated with displaying materials (69% vs. 41%, p = .06). Public health and gun groups can successfully collaborate on suicide prevention activities.     

Diversifying the Social Scientific Study of Religion: The Next 70 Years

Here I argue that we need to diversify the social scientific study of religion and chart a plan for how we are already and will continue to do so. At the time of the 70th anniversary of our association, I reflect on where—as an association—we have come from and where we are going. Our origin story points to an expansive vision for what would become the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR), but unfortunately our past has also been marked by an overrepresentation of white male leadership. It was only in 1982 that the society elected its first woman president, Mary Augusta Neal, and only in 2015 that it elected its first person of color, Fenggang Yang. Here, I discuss our hope for a more diverse future: attending to diversity in studies of religion, diversity in the groups of people who are encouraged to study religion, and efforts to translate religion research well to diverse groups of listeners. I share with you pieces of the new SSSR strategic plan, spearheaded in 2018 by Korie Edwards, the first black and woman of color President of the SSSR: particularly the pieces that are most attentive to diversity. I also highlight insights from my own scholarly story about diversity that I have learned through my work with the Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University.     

Adolescents Exposed to Suicidal Behavior of Others: Prevalence of Self‐Harm and Associated Psychological,Lifestyle, and Life Event Factors

Exposure to suicidal behavior of others was examined among 3,881 Irish adolescents in the Child and Adolescent Self‐harm in Europe (CASE) study. One third of the sample had been exposed to suicidal behavior, and exposed adolescents were eight times more likely to also report own self‐harm. Exposed adolescents shared many risk factors with those reporting own self‐harm. Those reporting both exposure and own self‐harm presented the most maladaptive profile on psychological, life event, and lifestyle domains, but neither anxiety nor depression distinguished this group. Exposed adolescents are burdened by a wide range of risk factors and in need of support.     

Response Biases in Oral Reading: An Account of the Co occurrence of Surface Dyslexia and Semantic Dementia

This paper reports a case study of a subject (EP) with a progressive impairment of semantic memory and a coincident surface dyslexia. These two disorders frequently occur together, but their association is not readily explained within current models of reading. This study investigated two theories that offer different principled accounts of this association, the "semantic glue hypothesis" (Patterson & Hodges, 1992) and the "summation hypothesis" (Hillis & Caramazza, 1991) and found both hypotheses wanting. Instead it was shown that when vestiges of word meaning remained, a lexical response was preferred, but when meaning was lost entirely, the evidence derived from sublexical processing appeared to bias selection of the response towards the regularized form.     

The Real Questions are Theological

Book reviewed in this article:
Alastair McFadyen, Bound to Sin: Abuse, Holocaust and the Christian Doctrine of Sin