Cultural Stressors and Mental Health Symptoms Among Mexican Americans: A Prospective Study Examining the Impact of the Family and Neighborhood Context

Studies of stress consistently have linked individuals’ experiences of stress to maladjustment, but limited attention has been given to cultural stressors commonly experienced by minority individuals. To address this, the current study examined the links between cultural stressors and prospective changes in mental health symptoms in a sample of 710 (49 % female) Mexican American youth. In addition, the moderating role of both family and neighborhood cohesion was examined. In-home interviews were completed with youth, mothers (required) and fathers (optional) to collect data on youth’s experiences of cultural stressors (discrimination and language hassles) and internalizing/externalizing behavior, and mothers’ report of family cohesion and mothers’ and fathers’ report of neighborhood cohesion. Analyses revealed that youth’s experiences of discrimination and language hassles at 5th grade were related positively to increases in internalizing symptoms at 7th grade. Additionally, youths who reported higher levels of language hassles in 5th grade experienced increases in externalizing symptoms across the 2-year span. Both family and neighborhood cohesion emerged as significant moderating factors but their impact was conditional on youth’s gender and nativity. Limitations and future implications are discussed.     

Flatter world and thicker walls? Blogs, censorship and civic discourse in China

The Internet simply because it exists in China will not bring democracy to China. It is a tool, not a cause of political change. So far, the Chinese government has succeeded through censorship and regulation in blocking activists from using the Internet as an effective political tool. Likewise, blogs may be a catalyst for long-term political change because they are helping to enlarge the space for collaboration and conversation on subjects not directly related to political activism or regime change. However their role in China is more likely to involve political evolution—not revolution.     

衡平法外的受信义务——析董事于新《公司法》下之“忠实义务”

修订后的《中华人民共和国公司法》于2006年1月开始实施,其目的在于给投资者营造更为有利的法治环境,并进一步落实相关法律责任的追究与相关法律执行的透明度。新《公司法》将董事受信忠实的概念第一次引入到中国法中。受信概念源于普通法系中的衡平法系统,但普通法系统与衡平法系统在法学与管辖上并存之双轨制度在中国大陆法系中却不存在。本文将由此探究以单纯书面立法的方式引入衡平法中受信概念的可行性。本文认为,只要在这个概念被转化为一个法律概念前对其作出详尽的定义,受信理论的衡平法特性并不会真正阻碍其转化为我国的法律概念。为对上述观点作出阐释,文章以新《公司法》中禁止董事与公司进行自我交易这一具体规定为参照,结合案例讨论了通过对境外司法实践的借鉴、立法机关衡平法技巧的培养,以及更仔细地考察现行的国内法则,来帮助弥补单单引入一个空洞的受信概念不足的可能性。     

The cognitive interview: Inexperienced police officers' perceptions of their witness/victim interviewing practices

Purpose. The primary objectives of the study reported here were twofold. First, to investigate less experienced frontline police officers' perceptions of their witness interviewing practices with specific reference to their use of the ten cognitive interview components taught during initial PEACE (a mnemonic for the stages of the interview; Planning and preparation, Engage and explain, Account, Closure and Evaluation) interview training. Second, to investigate this group of officers' practical experiences of interviewing witnesses. Method. A sample of 221 young, in‐service, non‐specialist police officers from five UK police forces completed a self‐report questionnaire concerning their perceived witness interviewing practices. Respondents were surveyed about their use of the PEACE cognitive interview components, their practical experiences of interviewing witnesses and victims, and their views on investigative interviewing training. Results. There was a consensus among these officers that they perceived using some of the PEACE cognitive interview components more frequently and perceived some of them to be more effective than others. Conclusion. This study provides a unique insight into the perceived interviewing practices of some of the least experienced and the least trained investigative interviewers who conduct the majority of frontline witness interviews. These officers report feeling inadequately trained, under pressure and generally ill equipped to conduct a PEACE cognitive interview.     

Insecure Attachment Mediates Effects of Partners’ Emotional Abuse and Violence on Women’s Relationship Quality

Men’s emotional abuse and violence have a broad and pervasive impact on women that may include long-term effects on women’s attachment and relationship quality. In this longitudinal study, women’s Wave 6 ratings of their insecure attachment were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between partners’ Wave 5 abuse (emotional and physical) and Wave 6 relationship quality, with differences in associations by women’s Wave 5 self-classification as secure or insecure. Mediation was tested with data from a sample of 574 African American, Euro-American, and Mexican American community women who had completed at least three waves of a six wave study. Differences occurred in the final structural equation models by women’s Wave 5 attachment style, with direct paths from emotional abuse to insecure attachment and from violence to relationship quality for both groups, but direct effects of violence on relationship quality only for insecurely attached women.     

Transatlantic Institutions: Can Partnership be Engineered?

The transatlantic alliance is widely viewed as being in a state of decline. Conflict over the war in Iraq highlighted a growing divergence between the Bush administration and European Union governments in their attitudes towards multilateralism. The rift severely tested institutions created to manage bilateral EU–US relations in the aftermath of the cold war. This article examines how well this institutional architecture has held up. It scrutinises the limitations of networked governance in transatlantic relations and acknowledges the quandary of trying to manufacture partnership using imperfect institutions. The Brussels–Washington channel is only one among many through which transatlantic relations flow, but we argue that it continues to gain in importance. Despite the limits of institutional engineering, we conclude that the US and the EU remain each other's most important ally.