Abusive parents' perceptions of child problem behaviors: An example of parental bias

The behavior of children in 21 child abusive and 21 nonabusive matched comparison families were compared using home observations performed by professional independent observers and parental report measures (Becker Bipolar Adjective Checklist, Child Behavior Checklist, Parent Daily Report). Parental report measures of child conduct problems differed significantly between the two groups, independent observations showed few significant differences in rates of either child or parental behaviors. Results are discussed in terms of the validity of parental perceptions and reports of child problem behaviors, the informativeness of differing reports for diagnosis and clinical treatment, and the need to gather corroboration across various sources and settings before clinical decisions are made that may irrevocably alter a child's future development.     

Guidance in the Royal County of Berkshire,England

This study answers the question, How are the secondary schools in Berkshire, England, organized for the guidance of their pupils? The method used to investigate this topic included visits to about one-fourth of the publicly supported secondary schools in the Royal County of Berkshire, conversations with headmasters and headmistresses, youth officers, teachers, and students. It was found that until July, 1966, no trained counselors, as we know them in the United States, were employed in the Berkshire schools. However, the schools were organized so that educational, vocational, and personal counseling was provided to some degree by a variety of persons on the administrative and teaching staff and by representatives of community and government-supported organizations.     

Book reviews

Unfolding Islam. P. J. Stewart. xiii + 252 pp. hb., £24.00, London, Ithaca Press, 1994, ISBN 0 86372 194 X; pb. London, Garnet Publishing, 1995, ISBN 1 85964 046 X.

The Basics 2: Islam. Roland Machatschke, 1995. London, SCM Press, 89 pp., pb. £5.95, ISBN 0 334 02603 2.

Voices of Islam. John Bowker 1995. Oxford, Oneworld, 188 pp., pb. £8.95, ISBN 1 85168 095 0.

Abraham, A Symbol of Hope for Jews, Christians and Muslims. Kakl‐Josef Kuschel, 1995. London, SCM, xxix + 286 pp., pb. £14.95, ISBN 0 334 02567 2.

Petrus Alfonsi and his Medieval Readers. J Tolan, 1993. Gainesville, University Press of Florida, 288 pp., pb. £15.00, ISBN 0 8130 1239 2; hb, £31.00, ISBN 0 8130 1238 4.

Islamic Science and Engineering. Donald R. Hill, 1993. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 250 pp., pb. £16.95, ISBN 0 7486 0455 3.

Islam: the view from the edge. Richard W. Bulliet, 1994. New York, Columbia University Press, 236 pp., pb. $16.95, £11.95, ISBN 0 231 08219 3.

Pioneers of Islamic Revival. Ali Rahnema (Ed.), 1994. London, Zed Books, 279 pp., hb. £36.95, ISBN 1 85649 253 2; pb. £14.95, ISBN 1 85649 254 0.

Freiheit der Religion: Christentum und Islam unter dem Anspruch der Men‐schenrechte [Freedom of Religion; Christianity and Islam tinder the claims of human rights]. Johannes Schwartländer (Ed.), 1993. Mainz, Matthias Grünewald Verlag, 474 pp., DM 48.

Religion, Law and Society: A Christian‐Muslim Discussion. Tarek Mitri (Ed.), 1995. Geneva, WCC Publications and Kampen, Kok Pharos, 154pp, pb. £9.95, ISBN 2 8254 1148 5 (WCC) and 90 390 0514 1.

Muslims in Western Europe. J?rgen Nielsen, 1995 (2nd Edition). Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 190 pp., £14.95, ISBN 0 7486 0617 3.

From Ta'izz to Tyneside: an Arab community in the north‐east of England during the early twentieth century. Richard I. Lawless, 1995. Exeter, University of Exeter Press, 292 pp., pb. n.p., ISBN 0 85989 460 6.

The New Middle East. Shimon Peres with Arye Naor, 1993. Shaftesbury, Element Books, 224 pp., hb. £16.99, ISBN 1 85230 519 3.

The Palestinians: the road to nationhood. David McDowall, 1994. London, Minority Rights Group, 215 pp., hb. £15.95, ISBN 1 873194 70 6.

Mahdism in West Africa: the Ijebu Mahdiyya movement. P.B. Clarke, 1995. London, Luzac Oriental, 224 pp., hb. £30.00, ISBN 1 898942 06 4.

Assaulting with Words: popular discourse and the bridle of Shari^cah. A. A. Ibrahim, 1994. Evanston, IL, Northwestern University Press, 208 pp., hb. 859.95, ISBN 0 8101 1081 4.

The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution: the Jama't‐i Islami of Pakistan. Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, 1994. London, I. B. Tauris, 301 pp., hb. n.p., ISBN 1 85043 862 3; pb. £14.95, ISBN 1 85043 864 1.     

Book reviews

A Reader on Classical Islam. F. E. Peters, 1994. Princeton, Princeton University Press. 420 pp., hb. £30.50, ISBN 0–691–03394–3; pb. £15.00, ISBN 0–691–00040–9.

The Physical Theory of Kalam: atoms, space and void in Basrian Mu'tazili cosmology. (Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science, Vol. XIV). Alnoor Dhanani, 1994. Leiden, E. J. Brill. 209 pp., hb. n.p., ISBN 90–04–09831–3.

Empire to Commonwealth: consequences of monotheism in late antiquity. Garth Fowden, 1993. Princeton, Princeton University Press. 205 pp., hb. £12.95, ISBN 0–691–06989–1.

Religions in the UK: a multi‐faith directory. Paul Weller (Ed.), 1993. Derby, University of Derby in association with the Interfaith Network for the United Kingdom. 630 pp. plus indices, pb. £21.50, ISBN 0–901437–06–9.

Islamic Britain: religion, politics and identity among British Muslims: Bradford in the 1990s. Philip Lewis, 1994. London, I. B. Tauris. 250 pp., pb. £9.95, ISBN 1–85043–861–7.

Bosnia and Hercegovina: a tradition betrayed. Robert J. Donia and John V. A. Fine, Jr., 1994. London, Hurst and Company. 280 pp., hb. £9.50, ISBN 1–85065–211–2.

French and Algerian Identities from Colonial Times to the Present: a century of interaction. Alec G. Hargreaves and Michael J. Heffernan (Eds), 1993. Lampeter, The Edwin Mellen Press. 253 pp., hb. £39.95, ISBN 0–7734–9233‐X.

The Course of Islam in Africa. (Islamic Surveys 15). Mervyn Hiskett, 1994. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. 218 pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 0–7486–0464–2; pb. £16.95, ISBN 0–7486–0461–8.

The Writings of Eastern Sudanic Africa to c. 1900. R. S. O'Fahey (comp.) 1994. Leiden, E. J. Brill. 434 pp., hb. n.p., ISBN 90–04–09450–4.     

Book reviews

One Thousand Roads to Mecca. Michael Wolfe (Ed.), 1997. New York, Grove Press. 620 pp., hb. $32.50, ISBN 0 8021 1611 6

Early Mamluk Syrian Historiography: Al‐Yunini's Dhayl Mir'at al‐zaman. Li Guo, 1998. Leiden, E.J. Brill. 2 vols, 241 pp. and xv + 338 pp. Arabic, hb. n.p., ISBN 90 04 11028 3 and 90 04 11029 1

Defenders of Reason in Islam: Mu'tazilism from medieval school to modern symbol. Richard C. Martin & Mark R. Woodward with Dwi S. Atmaja, 1997. Oxford, Oneworld Publications. xv+ 251 pp., pb. £14.99/$22.95, ISBN 1 85168 147 7

Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought. Daniel Brown, 1996. Cambridge Middle East Studies 5. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. x+ 185 pp., hb. n.p., ISBN 0 521 57077 8

Ebu's su'ud, the Islamic Legal Tradition. Colin Imber, 1997. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. 288 pp., hb. £40.00, ISBN 07486 0767 6

Islam and the West: the making of an Image. Norman Daniel, 1997 (1993). Oxford, Oneworld. 467 pp., pb. $25.95/£16.99, ISBN I 85168 129 8

Exegesis as Polemical Discourse: Ibn Hazm on Jewish and Christian Scriptures. Theodore Pulcini, 1998. Atlanta, GA, Scholars Press. 216 pp., hb. $44.95, ISBN 0 7885 0396 0; pb. $19.95, ISBN 0 7885 0395 2

Christians and Jews under Islam. Youssef Courbage & Philippe Fargues, trans. Judy Mabro, 1997. London and New York, I.B. Tauris. xii + 242 pp., hb. £39.50, ISBN 1 86064 013 3

The Construction of Nationhood: ethnicity, religion and nationhood. Adrian Hastings, 1997. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 235 pp., pb. £12.95, ISBN 0 521 62544 0

Muslim Identity and Balkan State. Hugh Poulton & Suha Taji‐Farouki (Eds), 1997. London, Hurst & Co.. 250 pp., hb. n.p., ISBN 1 85065 276 7; pb. n.p., ISBN 1 85065 348 8

Turkish and Other Muslim Minorities of Bulgaria. Ali Eminov, 1997. London, Hurst & Co.. 218 pp., hb. £25, ISBN 1 85065 319 4

Al‐yahūd fi misr min al‐fath al‐'uthmani hatta awa'il al‐qarn al‐tas’ ‘ashar. [History of the Jewish Community in Egypt from the Ottoman Invasion to the. Beginning of the Nineteenth Century] (Arabic). Mohsen Shouman, 1996. Cairo, privately printed (available from the author, Department of History, College of. Arts, University of Zaqaziq, Egypt). 492 pp., n.p., no ISBN

The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: the rise of an Islamic mass movement 1928–1942. Brynjar Lia, 1998. Reading, Ithaca. 272 pp., hb, £30.00, ISBN 0 86372 220 2

African Islam and Islam in Africa: encounters between Sufis and Islamists. David Westerlund & Eva Evers Rosander (Eds), 1997. London, Hurst & Co.. 347 pp., hb. £40, ISBN 85065 282 1; pb. £15.95, ISBN 1 85065 281 3

Transforming Female Identities: women's organizational forms in West Africa/Transformation des identités feminines: formes d'organisations feminines en Afrique de l'Ouest. Eva Evers Rosander (Ed.), 1997. Uppsala, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet 243 pp., pb. £18.95, ISBN 91 7106 403 6

The Pure and the Powerful. Nadia Abu‐Zahra, 1977. Reading, Ithaca, NY. xx+ 320 pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 0 86372 179 6     

Socialization of teenage girls through teen-magazine fiction: The making of a new woman or an old lady?

A content analysis of the fiction in Seventeen and 'Teen revealed that few of the stories offered anything but traditional socialization messages for teenage girls. In more than half, the main character did not actively solve her own problems but depended on someone else to do it for her. Almost half of the conflicts were about relationships with boys. Excluding the 10 rated by coders as neutral, all but 2 of the 44 occupations mentioned in the stories were stereotypically portrayed.     

Student evaluation of sex education programs advocating abstinence.

This research examined the attitudes of students who were enrolled in three different sex education programs that emphasize abstinence. Data were examined to determine whether secondary school students responded positively to the programs. The programs examined were Values and Choices, Teen Aid, and Sex Respect. Results of the study indicated that all three programs were rated positively, with female, younger (junior high school age), and virgin-naive students rating the programs more highly.     

Ways of coping with excessive drug use in the family: A provisional typology based on the accounts of 50 close relatives

This paper outlines an eight-fold typology of coping actions based upon a qualitative analysis of the accounts provided by 50 close relatives of people with drug problems. In a number of different ways relatives draw attention to the contrasts between these distinguishable ways of coping. Emphasis is placed upon the provisional nature of this typology and upon the compromises between, and combinations of, ways of coping that are often used by relatives in practice. Different ways of coping represent alternative choices for relatives, often explicitly expressed by them as difficult dilemmas. Links are suggested between the ways of coping identified here and those discussed in the literature on coping with other disorders and disabilities in the family, with ways of coping described in the general literature on coping with stress, and with types of social action appearing in general models of interpersonal behaviour. Implications for counselling close relatives of people with drug problems are also outlined.     

The importance of the individual in the ‘causal’ relationship between attractiveness and self-esteem

This paper argues that many psychological explanations underlying health and social behaviour stress the importance of the relationship between attractiveness and self-esteem. The nature of this relationship is not well understood, yet can have important implications for the individual in areas of medical intervention which involve treatment on aesthetic grounds. A survey of psychosocial factors among 1018 children aged 11-12 years is reported. The study examined the association between perception of physical attractiveness and self-esteem in order to clarify the relationship between self-esteem and self versus others' perception of attractiveness. Self-ratings of attractiveness were linked to judges' ratings to determine whether subjects underrated, over-rated, or accurately perceived their own physical attractiveness. The results showed that although ratings of general facial attractiveness by others were associated with self-perceived attractiveness, in the specific area of dental health, attractiveness (as judged by others) was not. There were no significant relationships between ratings of attractiveness by others and self-esteem. Self-perception of attractiveness, however, was significantly associated with self-esteem. Further analyses showed that children who under-rated their own facial attractiveness had a lower mean score for self-esteem than over-raters or accurate perceivers (who did not differ significantly). In contrast, under-raters of dental attractiveness had a lower mean score for self-esteem than over-raters, but did not differ significantly from accurate perceivers. Over-raters of dental attractiveness had a higher mean score for self-esteem than accurate perceivers. These finding suggest that if an over-rater were to receive treatment on aesthetic grounds it is unlikely, given that they have high self-esteem already, that such intervention will have a profound psychological impact. These data indicate the importance of determining the way in which individuals evaluate their appearance compared to others, and may help to clarify previously equivocal findings concerning the relationship between self-esteem and attractiveness.