Adolescent Place Attachment, Social Capital, and Perceived Safety: A Comparison of 13 Countries

In adolescence, children become increasingly independent and autonomous, and spend more time in neighborhood settings away from home. During mid-to-late adolescence, youth often become more critical about the place they live. Their attachment to home and even community may decrease as they explore and develop new attachments to other specific places. The aim of this study is to understand how 15-year-old students from 13 countries perceive their local neighborhood area (place attachment, social capital and safety), and how these different community cognitions are interrelated. We hypothesize that their place attachment predicts safety, and that the relationship is mediated in part by social capital. Result show that, despite cross-cultural differences in neighborhood perceptions, the proposed theoretical model fits robustly across all 13 countries.     

Evaluation in constitutional law: An application to the first amendment

This article argues that program evaluation data may be useful to the courts when they are deciding First Amendment constitutional law disputes. Specifically, we focus on how program evaluation data, quantitative and qualitative, may be dispositive in dealing with two types of First Amendment cases—pornography and commercial speech. The different evaluative approaches that are warranted with each type of case are compared and contrasted. The different possible legal routes that program evaluation data may take to influence the outcome of constitutional law disputes determines the empirical type of approach to be utilized. Where pornography cases lend themselves more to social science data being used in trials, cases of commercial speech are more likely to use data at the appellate level. Social scientists interested in conducting legally relevant research should structure their research accordingly.     

Attitudes Toward Interracial Dating: Effects of Age,Sex, and Race

Attitudes toward interracial dating were investigated by surveying 400 individuals from an integrated community. As predicted, men were more positive than women, the young were more positive than the old, and Caucasian Americans were somewhat more positive than African Americans in their attitudes.     

A microcomputer-based laboratory for psychopathology research in rural settings

An Apple-based computer system for research use in rural mental health settings is described. Hardware and software modifications are detailed. Techniques to aid in the acceptance of psychopathology research programs in these rural settings are discussed.     

Listeners' reactions to mild misarticulation of /l/

Adult listeners heard a 98-word recording of a speaker producing either normal speech, speech containing a single instance of a w/l substitution, or speech containing 10 instances of a w/l substitution. They rated the speaker on 13 bipolar scales, representing three dimensions of judgment. Findings suggest that even a single misarticulation of /l/ was sufficient to generate a negative impression on the dimension of evaluation. Speech with only a single misarticulation was rated as no different from normal speech on dimensions of activity and potency.     

Sex-role development and parental expectations among disturbed adolescent males.

Seventeen pre-delinquent, 17 mixed psychiatric, and 17 normal adolescents and their parents were compared for the possession of certain personality traits traditionally classified as masculine or feminine. The parents were also compared in regard to the characteristics they expected their sons to possess. The main findings centered around three personality traits that differentiated the adolescents, and also between the expectations of both the mothers and fathers. In general, the parents of the normal adolescents expected their sons to be more achieving, dominating, and enduring than the parents of the other adolescents, which is consistent in regard to the personality traits that differentiated the adolescents from each other. The results suggest that the possession of certain traits, such as dominance and endurance, appear to be important for adequate functioning in adolescent males.     

Development of ear-asymmetry related to coding processes in memory in children

The purpose of this study was to determine if between-ear differences are related to short-term memory functions in 6-, 7-, and 8-year-old males and females. Using the “Proactive Release Technique” in conjunction with monaural verbal stimulation, a total of 288 children were tested. The independent variables were sex, grade level, group (experimental, control), ear (left, right) and trials (acquisition-recall). The dependent variable was free recall scores. The results indicated that children coded in short-term memory by means of taxonomic categories, and that proactive inhibition affects short-term memory functions differentially across age levels. The results further revealed that the observation of ear-asymmetry is dependent on gender differences and required short-term memory functions for verbal material.