The Relationships Between Childhood Tomboyism,Siblings' Activities,and Adult Gender Roles

Two studies were designed to examine whether siblings and participation in masculine activities influence tomboyism. The influence of tomboyism on adult gender roles was also examined. Study 1 utilized 193 mainly European American undergraduate women. Results indicated that participation in masculine activities was related to tomboyism. Having a brother was only marginally related to tomboyism. Study 2, a replication with 284 undergraduate women, added participants' ethnicity and employment status of mothers as variables. Slightly more than half of the women were European American, with smaller numbers of African American, Asian American, and Hispanic American women. In both studies, tomboyism was related to masculinity in adulthood. No significant relationships were found between tomboyism and ethnicity or mother's employment status.     

Online "predators" and their victims: myths, realities, and implications for prevention and treatment

The publicity about online "predators" who prey on naive children using trickery and violence is largely inaccurate. Internet sex crimes involving adults and juveniles more often fit a model of statutory rape--adult offenders who meet, develop relationships with, and openly seduce underage teenagers--than a model of forcible sexual assault or pedophilic child molesting. This is a serious problem, but one that requires approaches different from those in current prevention messages emphasizing parental control and the dangers of divulging personal information. Developmentally appropriate prevention strategies that target youths directly and acknowledge normal adolescent interests in romance and sex are needed. These should provide younger adolescents with awareness and avoidance skills while educating older youths about the pitfalls of sexual relationships with adults and their criminal nature. Particular attention should be paid to higher risk youths, including those with histories of sexual abuse, sexual orientation concerns, and patterns of off- and online risk taking. Mental health practitioners need information about the dynamics of this problem and the characteristics of victims and offenders because they are likely to encounter related issues in a variety of contexts.     

Framing divorce reform: media, morality, and the politics of family

No-fault statutes changed divorce from an adversarial system pitting victims against victimizers, with the state acting as enforcer of marital norms, to a private decision between unhappily married but legally blameless partners. Divorce reform following no-fault primarily focused on making divorce more fair for the parties involved. Over the last several decades, divorce reform has transitioned from making divorce better to making marriage healthier. The good divorce has slipped from policy attention, elevating the potential for restigmatization of divorced couples and their children. We trace the trajectory of media framing of divorce reform discourse in three general circulation newspapers from the start of the no-fault revolution, noting how media framing parallels and naturalizes the transition in divorce reform policy. We conclude by observing the prevalence of divorce and the related need for therapists to be cognizant of this naturalization process, thereby keeping the good divorce as a goal for those who desire to end their marriages.     

Emergent Powers

Topoi - I shall introduce at the beginning of the paper a characterization of strong ontological emergence. According to it, roughly, something strongly emerges from some other thing(s) iff the...     

Using Latent Class Analysis to Model Temperament Types

Mixture models are appropriate for data that arise from a set of qualitatively different subpopulations. In this study, latent class analysis was applied to observational data from a laboratory assessment of infant temperament at four months of age. The EM algorithm was used to fit the models, and the Bayesian method of posterior predictive checks was used for model selection. Results show at least three types of infant temperament, with patterns consistent with those identified by previous researchers who classified the infants using a theoretically based system. Multiple imputation of group memberships is proposed as an alternative to assigning subjects to the latent class with maximum posterior probability in order to reflect variance due to uncertainty in the parameter estimation. Latent class membership at four months of age predicted longitudinal outcomes at four years of age. The example illustrates issues relevant to all mixture models, including estimation, multi-modality, model selection, and comparisons based on the latent group indicators.