Individuality and Contextual Influences on Drug Dependence: A 15-Year Prospective Longitudinal Study of Adolescents From Harlem

In this 15-year longitudinal study the authors investigated individual and contextual factors that predispose adolescents from a disadvantaged urban area to drug dependence in adulthood. Adolescents were recruited from schools serving East Harlem in New York City. Of the 838 participants followed to adulthood, 59% were women, 55% were African American, and 45% were Puerto Rican. Self-report data were obtained on externalizing and internalizing problems, substance use, and contextual influences across adolescence and young adulthood. Drug dependence was assessed in adulthood. Multivariate logistic regressions of drug dependence were performed on the whole sample and separately by gender. Each of the domains was associated with adult drug dependence. Although mean gender differences were found, most associations of risk factors with drug dependence did not vary significantly by gender. Treating externalizing and internalizing problems, reducing substance use, and providing coping skills for adverse contextual influences in adolescence and young adulthood may reduce the likelihood of becoming drug dependent in adulthood.     

Approaches to the study of media and religion: Notes from the Editors of the Journal of Media and Religion with recommendations for future research

As the Journal of Media and Religion (JMR) begins its seventh year, the editors pause to reflect on research directions and make recommendations for future research. Based on studies in JMR and other sources, three research approaches are identified: (1) The Proliferation of Mediated Religion, or the idea that media are creating multiple places of worship beyond the physical walls of traditional congregations, (2) Religious Audiences as Interpretive Communities, where shared interpretations of popular media content are increasingly important in understanding religious groups, and (3) Media Criticism drawing on the cultural aspects of religion in critiquing media genres and texts.

A dominant theme across the three approaches is that individuals are increasingly willing to have religious experiences through media of popular culture. The numinous is recommended as an integrative concept to facilitate research of new forms of mediated religion.     

Book reviews

Schizophrenia and Madness by Andrew Croydon Smith Winchester, Mass.: Allen & Unwin, 1982, 174 pages, $19.95, cloth; $8.95, paper.

Seeing the Insane by Sander L. Gilman New York: John Wiley S Sons, 1982, 241 pages, $39.00, cloth.

Knowing Right from Wrong: The Insanity Defense of Daniel McNaughtan by Richard Moran New York: The Free Press, 1981, 234 pages.

The Sociology of the Offbeat: Essays in the Science of Human Behavior by Robert Khoury Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1982, 418 pages, $24.95, cloth, $13.75, paper.     

Sibling association and occupational interests

The effect of the composition and size of family on the subject and career interests of girls of above-average ability in a secondary school were examined. The main finding was that girls with order brothers or from larger families tend to express artistic occupational interests. This is explained in terms of the family socialisation theories of Parsons and Bales.     

REINVENTING ANALOGUE METHODS FOR RESEARCH WITH WOMEN

This article was prompted by the current popularity and acceptance of analogue methods in gender-related research. The use of analogues in research with women is examined here for both its strengths and limitations. We acknowledge the distinctive advantages of analogue methods in revealing the nature, extent, and potential outcomes of gender bias and stereotyping of all minority status groups. While recognizing that any method can be feminist, we address four major concerns with current applications of analogue research to questions about women and gender. These concerns cover: (a) relevance to the questions asked, (b) attention to the context of women's lives, (c) significance for situational behavior, and (d) applicability to social change. We propose a set of transformations that applies feminist scholarship to reconceptualizing analogues in research related to women and gender.     

Teaching by Examples: Implications for the Process of Category Acquisition

A new paradigm, the 'teaching-by-examples' paradigm, was used to shed new light on the process of category acquisition. In four experiments ( n = 90, 90, 115, 117), manipulating the variables of category structure, status of non-target category, learning mode, and teaching mode, participants first learned a category and then taught it to someone else. High agreement between participants on the teaching sequences was found across conditions, and a typical sequence was identified for each category structure. The typical participant-produced sequences startedwith several ideal positive cases, followed by anideal negative case and then borderline cases. The efficiency of such sequences for teaching was tested in another experiment ( n = 60), in which they were compared with sequences emphasizing category borders and sequences emphasizing each dimension separately. The typical participant-produced sequences induced the most efficient learning. It is proposed that the pattern of performance may provide a rich source of data for testing and fine-tuning models of category acquisition.     

Cross-sectional and longitudinal predictors of well-being: invariance across 25 years

This study addressed: (a) whether any changes in well-being over time could be attributed to participants’ aging or to economic or historical events; (b) whether predictors (e.g. age, religiosity, and financial status) were similarly associated with well-being in cohorts of college seniors assessed at different times; and (c) whether predictors of well-being were similar for the same cohort over a 25-year time span. Using three cohorts of emerging adults (1982, n?=?189; 2007, n?=?188; and 2010, n?=?79) and a subsample of the 1982 cohort followed across 25?years (n?=?83), the findings indicated that well-being declined over time, possibly due to historical influences rather than changes associated with aging. Well-being was similarly predicted by religiosity, relationship status, and financial status across cohorts. Longitudinal analyses indicated that earlier religiosity was inversely associated with later financial status and later financial status was associated with higher well-being.