Stability in Depressed Mood in Adolescence: Results from a 6-Year Longitudinal Panel Study

A 6-year longitudinal panel study investigated the absolute and relative stability in depressed mood throughout adolescence by reporting data from a sample of 538 adolescents between 13 and 19 years of age. Results revealed the following. (1) Girls had on average higher depressed mood scores than boys at all ages. (2) Among boys there were no substantial changes in depressed mood mean scores, while among girls there was a slight tendency of a curvilinear trend, with a peak level reached in midadolescence. (3) There was a tendency for adolescents to retain their relative level in depressed mood, most pronounced for a period of 4 years, from age 15 to age 19 years. (4) Depressed mood was most stable in a subgroup of adolescents who had high initial depressed mood scores. (5) By applying structural equation modeling, it was shown that the stable (trait) component of depressed mood increased in importance with increasing age, while the temporal (state) component decreased with increased age.     

The social,behavioral, and health effects of phencyclidine (PCP) use

This study examined the perceived social, behavioral, and health effects of phencyclidine (PCP) use among a sample of 200 users in northern California. The study population, generated through snowball sampling techniques, included heavy chronic, light chronic, and recreational users; the vast majority of subjects were not in treatment facilities. Subjects reported that PCP use—particularly long-term, extensive use—resulted in frequent disruption of education and employment, impairment of relationships with parents and with lovers or spouses, involvement with the criminal justice system, and deterioration of physical and mental health. These findings provide systematic documentation of the extent to which problems previously associated with PCP use occurred among this population of users. In addition, the results illustrate the importance of examining the effects of PCP use in light of the psychosocial developmental processes of adolescence and early adulthood.This research was supported by Research Grant No. DA02293 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.Received M.S. in psychology from California State University, Hayward.Received Ph.D. from University of Iowa.     

Overcoming Inner Division: post-suffrage strategies in the organised German women's movement

German women were working within a context strikingly different from either the USA or the UK following the granting of suffrage in 1918. Focusing on the largest of the bourgeois women's organisations, the Federation of Women's Associations (Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine, BDF), this article situates the post-suffrage strategies and priorities of the German women's movement within their particular national context. The BDF have been accused of failing to fully utilise the vote as a tool for change, but a study of their journal, Die Frau, shows that it was the weight of external factors that reduced the BDF's impact, rather than any failure of courage or commitment by the women. An overview of German press coverage of female suffrage before, during and after the war sets out the mental landscape within which the women were operating and gives for the first time a much-needed indication of public response to the issue.     

Gateway to Opportunity? Disparities in Neighborhood Conditions Among Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Residents

A key goal of housing assistance programs is to help lower income households reach neighborhoods of opportunity. Studies have described the degree to which Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) developments are located in high-opportunity neighborhoods, but our focus is on how neighborhood outcomes vary across different subsets of LIHTC residents. We also examine whether LIHTC households are better able to reach certain types of neighborhood opportunities. Specifically, we use new data on LIHTC tenants in 12 states along with eight measures of neighborhood opportunity. We find that compared with other rental units, LIHTC units are located in neighborhoods with higher poverty rates, weaker labor markets, more polluted environments, and lower performing schools, but better transit access. We also find that compared with other LIHTC tenants, poor and minority tenants live in neighborhoods that are significantly more disadvantaged.     

This is a man’s world ... or least that’s how it looks in the journals

Mainstream criminology still tends to focus on gender as a control variable, ignoring the different pathways to crime followed by males and females. This leaves us with knowledge that we already have—males commit more criminal and delinquent acts than do females, but little information about the similarities and differences between men and women who commit crimes. On the other hand, feminist approaches tend to do one of two things: deal with girls and women only or deal with women and men separately to illuminate the differences. In this paper, we examine articles in three major journals, Criminology, Justice Quarterly, and Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, to explore the ways that gender is treated in mainstream criminology journals. Then, we will discuss the implications this has for feminist criminology.     

Fair Teachers,Fair Police? Assessing the Pathways between Perceptions of Teacher and Police Authority in Childhood and Adolescence

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Existing research has shown that the quality of the relationship between teacher and child is associated with more positive perceptions of school authorities....     

The influence of institutions and culture on health policies: different approaches to integrated care in England and The Netherlands

The concept of integrated care has assumed growing importance on the policy agendas both in England and The Netherlands and elsewhere. It is characterized as health and health care-related social care needed by patients with multi-faceted needs. This article compares policy approaches to integrated care in England and The Netherlands. Differing political strategies and conditions for integrated care correspond to the dissimilarities in the institutional structure and culture of their health care systems. Health care systems are understood as specific national and historical configurations. We review the last decade's relevant policy processes, using the concepts of hierarchy, market and network. The state health care system in England relies mainly on hierarchical steering, thus creating tight network structures for integrated care on the local level. The Netherlands, with its health care system in a public-private mix, has set incentives for voluntary, loosely coupled and partly market-driven cooperation on the local level. Implications for success or failure are mixed in both configurations. Policy recommendations have to be tailored to each systems' characteristics.