The Cultural Influences on Help-seeking Among a National Sample of Victimized Latino Women

The current study examined the influence of legal status and cultural variables (i.e., acculturation, gender role ideology and religious coping) on the formal and informal help-seeking efforts of Latino women who experienced interpersonal victimization. The sample was drawn from the Sexual Assault Among Latinas (SALAS) Study that surveyed 2,000 self-identified adult Latino women. The random digit dial methodology employed in high-density Latino neighborhoods resulted in a cooperation rate of 53.7%. Women who experienced lifetime victimization (n = 714) reported help-seeking efforts in response to their most distressful victimization event that occurred in the US. Approximately one-third of the women reported formal help-seeking and about 70% of women reported informal help-seeking. Help-seeking responses were generally not predicted by the cultural factors measured, with some exceptions. Anglo orientation and negative religious coping increased the likelihood of formal help-seeking. Positive religious coping, masculine gender role and Anglo acculturation increased the likelihood of specific forms of informal help-seeking. Latino orientation decreased the likelihood of talking to a sibling. Overall, these findings reinforce the importance of bilingual culturally competent services as cultural factors shape the ways in which women respond to victimization either formally or within their social networks.     

A review of psychological factors related to bullying victimization in schools

School bullying is a serious problem affecting the victims, their daily life, and society in general. An increasing amount of research on school bullying has recently been published which calls for an updated review on the literature. The objective of this article is to review psychological variables which may explain individual reactions to bullying victimization in school-aged children. The selected psychological variables are coping, social support, attachment, negative affectivity/neuroticism, and somatization. The strengths and limitations of the reviewed research are discussed, and future research directions focusing on a more dynamic understanding of personal factors are suggested.     

Dealing with the past and facing the future: mediators of the effects of collective guilt and shame in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Two studies are reported which examined potential mediators of the effects of collective guilt and shame on reparation attitudes. Samples of young Bosnian Serbs (Ns = 173, 247) were asked to report their feelings of guilt and shame for what their group had done during the 1992–1995 war in Bosnia Herzegovina. They also reported their attitudes towards making reparation to Bosnian Muslims. Both collective guilt and shame positively predicted reparation attitudes, but these associations were differently mediated. The effects of guilt were mediated by empathy for the outgroup, while the effects of shame were mediated by self‐pity and empathy. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reduction in rat phosphatidylethanolamine binding protein-1 (PEBP1) after chronic corticosterone treatment may be paralleled by cognitive impairment: a first study

Chronic stress is associated with hippocampal atrophy and cognitive dysfunction. This study investigates how long-lasting administration of corticosterone as a mimic of experimentally induced stress affects psychometric performance and the expression of the phosphatidylethanolamine binding protein (PEBP1) in the adult hippocampus of one-year-old male rats. Psychometric investigations were conducted in rats before and after corticosterone treatment using a holeboard test system. Rats were randomly attributed to 2 groups (n = 7) for daily subcutaneous injection of either 26.8 mg/kg body weight corticosterone or sesame oil (vehicle control). Treatment was continued for 60 days, followed by cognitive retesting in the holeboard system. For protein analysis, the hippocampal proteome was separated by 2D electrophoresis (2DE) followed by image processing, statistical analysis, protein identification via peptide mass fingerprinting and gel matching and subsequent functional network mapping and molecular pathway analysis. Differential expression of PEBP1 was additionally quantified by Western blot analysis. Results show that chronic corticosterone significantly decreased rat hippocampal PEBP1 expression and induced a working and reference memory dysfunction. From this, we derive the preliminary hypothesis that PEBP1 may be a novel molecular mediator influencing cognitive integrity during chronic corticosterone exposure in rat hippocampus.     

Sacrifice as a predictor of marital outcomes

We investigated the prospective associations between attitudes about sacrifice and marital outcomes in 38 married couples. Specifically, a measure of satisfaction with sacrifice was proposed to be a potent longitudinal predictor of marital adjustment and distress based on existing cross-sectional studies and also to mediate the association between commitment and marital adjustment. Results demonstrated that attitudes about sacrifice discriminated between couples who would become distressed versus nondistressed over time. Sacrifice attitudes also predicted the maintenance of relationship adjustment over time even better than earlier relationship adjustment. Finally, sacrifice attitudes mediated the link between commitment and relationship adjustment for husbands, but not wives. Implications for intervention are discussed.     

Cortico-amygdala circuits: role in the conditioned stress response

The amygdala plays a crucial role in the orchestration and modulation of the organism response to aversive, stressful events. This response could be conceived as the result of two interdependent components. The first is represented by sets of visceral and motor responses aimed at helping the organism to cope with the present event. The second is the acquisition and modulation of memories relative to the stressful stimulus and its context. This latter component contributes to the instatement of conditioned stress responses that are essential to the capability of the organism to predict future exposures to similar stimuli in order to avoid them or counteract them effectively. In the amygdala, these two components become fully integrated. Massive networks link the amygdala to the hypothalamus, midbrain and brainstem. These networks convey visceral, humoral and nociceptive information to the amygdala and mediate its effects on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis as well on autonomic and motor centers. On the other hand, interactions between the amygdala and interconnected cortical networks play a crucial role in acquisition, consolidation and extinction of learning relative to the stressful stimulus. Within the scope of this review, current evidence relative to the interaction between the amygdala and cortical networks will be considered in relationship to the integration of the conditioned response to stress.     

Practical judgment as reflective judgment: On moral salience and Kantian particularist universalism

Moral particularists and generalists alike have struggled over how to incorporate the role of moral salience in ethical reasoning. In this paper, I point to neglected resources in Kant to account for the role of moral salience in maxim formation: Kant's theory of reflective judgment. Kant tasks reflective judgment with picking out salient empirical particulars for formation into maxims, associating it with purposiveness, or intentional activity (action on ends). The unexpected resources in Kantian reflective judgment suggest the possibility of a particularist universalism, where recalcitrant particulars directly inform, and in some cases revise, moral principles. Such an account improves on particularist accounts of moral salience and moral perception: rather than deriving moral sensitivity solely from an agent's upbringing or cultural resources, the reflective dimension is situated alongside the universalist dimension of moral principles typically identified with Kantian ethics, allowing for a critical approach both to moral universals and to the reception of moral particulars.