The economy and suicide in Japan, 1985-2000

From 1985-2000, unemployment was the strongest correlate of Japanese suicide rates.     

Factors Moderating Children's Adjustment to Parental Separation: Findings From a Community Study in England

Research findings show that there is marked variability in children's response to parental separation, but few studies identify the sources of this variation. This prospective longitudinal study examines the factors modifying children's adjustment to parental separation in a community sample of 5,635 families in England. Children's behavioral/emotional problems were assessed when children were aged 47 and 81 months; marital quality, maternal depression, socioeconomic circumstances, and demographic variables were assessed prior to the separation from maternal report. Results indicated that 346 mothers separated from their partners in the 3-year period. Preseparation differences were found for measures of family process and parent risk factors, with effect sizes ranging from small to trivial. Parental separation was associated with a significant but modest increase in behavioral/emotional problems, independent of marital quality, maternal depression, socioeconomic circumstances, and demographic variables. Moderation analyses showed that children of cohabiting parents had a greater increase in adjustment problems following parental separation than children of married parents. Further research elucidating the factors that moderate children's adjustment to parental separation is needed to improve our understanding of who may most likely benefit from preventive interventions.     

Gaze allocation in a dynamic situation: effects of social status and speaking

Human visual attention operates in a context that is complex, social and dynamic. To explore this, we recorded people taking part in a group decision-making task and then showed video clips of these situations to new participants while tracking their eye movements. Observers spent the majority of time looking at the people in the videos, and in particular at their eyes and faces. The social status of the people in the clips had been rated by their peers in the group task, and this status hierarchy strongly predicted where eye-tracker participants looked: high-status individuals were gazed at much more often, and for longer, than low-status individuals, even over short, 20-s videos. Fixation was temporally coupled to the person who was talking at any one time, but this did not account for the effect of social status on attention. These results are consistent with a gaze system that is attuned to the presence of other individuals, to their social status within a group, and to the information most useful for social interaction.     

Two simple approximations to the distributions of quadratic forms

Many test statistics are asymptotically equivalent to quadratic forms of normal variables, which are further equivalent to with z_i being independent and following N(0,1). Two approximations to the distribution of T have been implemented in popular software and are widely used in evaluating various models. It is important to know how accurate these approximations are when compared to each other and to the exact distribution of T. The paper systematically studies the quality of the two approximations and examines the effect of the λ_i and the degrees of freedom d by analysis and Monte Carlo. The results imply that the adjusted distribution for T can be as good as knowing its exact distribution. When the coefficient of variation of the λ_i is small, the rescaled statistic is also adequate for practical model inference. But comparing T_R against will inflate type I errors when substantial differences exist among the λ_i, especially, when d is also large.     

Bayesian analysis of mixtures in structural equation models with non‐ignorable missing data

Structural equation models (SEMs) have become widely used to determine the interrelationships between latent and observed variables in social, psychological, and behavioural sciences. As heterogeneous data are very common in practical research in these fields, the analysis of mixture models has received a lot of attention in the literature. An important issue in the analysis of mixture SEMs is the presence of missing data, in particular of data missing with a non‐ignorable mechanism. However, only a limited amount of work has been done in analysing mixture SEMs with non‐ignorable missing data. The main objective of this paper is to develop a Bayesian approach for analysing mixture SEMs with an unknown number of components and non‐ignorable missing data. A simulation study shows that Bayesian estimates obtained by the proposed Markov chain Monte Carlo methods are accurate and the Bayes factor computed via a path sampling procedure is useful for identifying the correct number of components, selecting an appropriate missingness mechanism, and investigating various effects of latent variables in the mixture SEMs. A real data set on a study of job satisfaction is used to demonstrate the methodology.     

Developing a screening instrument and at-risk profile for nonsuicidal self-injurious behavior in college women and men

Archival data (N = 1,048 women, 1,136 men) from a mental health survey of college students were used to investigate incidence of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), including cutting. Significant levels (defined as 4-5 lifetime incidents) were found in 9.3% of women and 5.3% of men. The Counseling Center Assessment for Psychological Symptoms (a global symptom inventory) and an assessment of trauma had been field tested with this sample. We randomly partitioned half of these data into a holdout sample and used the remainder to develop an NSSI screening inventory that included (a) 5 women's screening items, including 1 item to assess trauma experienced; (b) 11 men's screening items; and (c) 12 items common to men and women, including depression, dissociation, anger, unwanted thoughts, nightmares or flashbacks, and having witnessed trauma. Logistic regression and receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis suggested the inventory significantly discriminated NSSI men and women in the holdout sample, p < .001. Cutoff scores were identified to correctly classify about 48% of the true positive male and female NSSI cases, with false positive rates of 13.2% and 8.4% for women and men, respectively.     

Determinants of Standard Errors of MLEs in Confirmatory Factor Analysis

This paper studies changes of standard errors (SE) of the normal-distribution-based maximum likelihood estimates (MLE) for confirmatory factor models as model parameters vary. Using logical analysis, simplified formulas and numerical verification, monotonic relationships between SEs and factor loadings as well as unique variances are found. Conditions under which monotonic relationships do not exist are also identified. Such functional relationships allow researchers to better understand the problem when significant factor loading estimates are expected but not obtained, and vice versa. What will affect the likelihood for Heywood cases (negative unique variance estimates) is also explicit through these relationships. Empirical findings in the literature are discussed using the obtained results.     

Quasicrystalline Al-Fe phase formed by ion mixing

Abstract

A quasicrystalline Al-Fe phase has been formed by room-temperature ion mixing of AI-Fe multiple layers with no additional postannealing. The quasicrystalline phase was dispersed as grain in an amorphous matrix. The size of the grains was about 10-30nm, and the composition was determined to be Al₈₀Fe₂₀. The structure of the quasicrystalline phase was identified by calculating some 20 sharp diffraction rings in the selected-area diffraction pattern and found to be similar to that of the rapidly quenched AI-Mn quasicrystalline phase.     

The Process Mechanisms Linking Recruiter Positive Moods and Organizational Attraction

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the mechanisms through which recruiters' positive moods lead to organizational attraction. Participants consisted of 161 applicant–recruiter dyads from 55 companies in Taiwan. Results show that recruiters' felt positive moods were positively related to applicant's perceptions of informativeness and competence, which, in turn, influenced organizational attraction. In addition, recruiters felt that positive moods were positively related to their display of positive moods, which were positively related to applicant's positive moods, which, in turn, affected organizational attraction.     

元认知在线监控和离线监控与一般元认知能力的关系

该研究探索元认知在线监控和离线监控与一般元认知能力之间的关系,采用跟踪击键任务、学习判断任务和大学生元认知能力量表,对40名大学生进行研究。结果表明:(1)元认知离线监控对一般元认知能力各个子成分的预测作用受元认知在线监控的影响;(2)元认知在线、离线监控对一般元认知能力的预测作用是彼此独立的。