Epidemiology of nonfatal deliberate self-harm in the United States as described in three medical databases

The absence of validated U.S. rates of nonfatal suicidal behavior places risk management and injury prevention programs at danger of being poorly informed and inadequately conceptualized. In this study we compare estimated rates of intentional self-harm from two ongoing surveys (National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All Injury Program-NEISS-AIP; National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey-NHAMCS) to data from the Toxic Exposure Surveillance System. Results suggest that, for every 2002-2003 suicide, there were 12 (NEISSAIP) or 15 (NHAMCS) self-harm-related emergency department visits, and for every intentional self-poisoning death there were 33 intentional overdoses reported to poison control centers, of which two ultimately went untreated.     

Confirmatory and Exploratory Factor Analyses of Parental Authority Questionnaire in Urban India

The present study examined the factor structure of a widely used measure of parenting style in three samples from Northwestern India. College Students (n = 195) completed Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ; Buri in J Pers Assess 57:110–119, 1991), and mothers of children attending high-school (n = 275), and middle-school (n = 145) completed its parent-report version Parental Authority Questionnaire-Revised (PAQ-R; Reitman et al. in J Psychopathol Behav Assess 24:119–127, 2002). Preliminary findings revealed that across three samples Cronbach’s alpha values ranged from poor to acceptable, with permissive parenting subscale of the PAQ/PAQ-R having the lowest value, whereas the authoritarian parenting had the highest value. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that none of the models achieved satisfactory fit (i.e., CFI > .90). Exploratory factor analysis revealed that a two factor structure (with first component consisting of authoritative and permissive items, and the second component consisting of authoritarian items) rendered Cronbach’s alpha in the acceptable range. Only PAQ/PAQ-R authoritarian scale was correlated with youth adjustment problems across all three samples, while findings concerning authoritative and permissive scales were mixed. The findings suggest that only PAQ/PAQ-R authoritarian scale is reliable and valid in urban, middle-class, educated families in India, and encourage researchers to develop culturally relevant measures of parenting for this population.     

Do Geographic Regions with Higher Suicide Rates also have Higher Rates of Nonfatal Intentional Self‐Harm?

Fatal and nonfatal intentional self‐harm events in eight U.S. states were compared using emergency department, hospital, and vital statistics data. Nonfatal event rates increased by an estimated 24.20% over 6 years. Case fatality ratios varied widely, but two northeastern states' total event rates (fatal plus nonfatal) were very high (New Hampshire 206.5/100,000 person years; Massachusetts 166.7/100,000). Geographic context did not uniformly impact the likelihood of self‐harm across event types. The state‐level public health burden posed by such acts cannot, therefore, be accurately estimated from either mortality or morbidity data alone.     

Idealism and Yogacara Buddhism

Over the last several years, there has been a growing controversy about whether Yogacara Buddhism can be said to be idealist in some sense, as used to be commonly thought by earlier scholars. In this paper, I first clarify the different senses of idealism that might be pertinent to the debate. I then focus on some of the works of Vasubandhu, limiting myself to his Vimsatika, Trimsika, and Trisvabhavanirdesa. I argue that classical Yogacara Buddhism, at least as found in these works of Vasubandhu, is closer to epistemic rather than metaphysical idealism or absolute idealism, as I understand these. However, there are undoubtedly some important differences between Vasubandhu's Yogacara and Western epistemic idealism that cast doubt on the idea that Yogacara is simply to be lumped together with Western epistemic idealism.     

Strong Hero or Violent Playboy? Portrayals of Masculinity in Children’s Animated Movies

Sex Roles - Given the significant influence of media on the development of children’s beliefs and attitudes regarding gender, it is important to investigate the portrayal of masculinity in...