Attachment to Parents,Best Friend,and Romantic Partner: Predicting Different Pathways to Depression in Adolescence

Research indicates that insecurely-attached adolescents are at risk for depression, but little is known about factors that may influence or explain this vulnerability. The present study focuses on close relationships during adolescence and their association with depression. Specifically, the objectives were to investigate (1) the role of working models of specific attachment figures (i.e., mother, father, best friend, and romantic partner) in the prediction of depression; and (2) the existence of target-specific pathways to depression following relational stress. It was expected that the paths to depression would differ depending on the attachment figure under consideration. A total of 134 adolescents (n = 88 girls; Mage = 16.95 years; SD = .74) completed attachment questionnaires, a depression inventory, and a computer task consisting of hypothetical interpersonal vignettes and questions. Insecure attachment relationships with romantic partner, and for girls only, with mother, were uniquely predictive of depression. Insecurely-attached adolescents' tendency to make negative attributions in response to stresses fully mediated the attachment–depression association. These adolescents were found to ruminate when confronted with stresses involving romantic partner, which was also associated with depression. Results underscore the link between attachment, negative attributions, and depression. Staff Psychologist, Child Psychiatry Department at the Jewish General Hospital. Received PhD in clinical psychology from Concordia University. Research interests include attachment and adolescent adjustment. Professor of Psychology and Applied Human Sciences, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H4B 1R6. Received PhD in social psychology from Ohio State University. Research interests include close interpersonal relationships and adjustment. Professor of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H4B 1R6. Received PhD in developmental psychology from Stanford University. Research interests include attachment and parenting in adolescence.     

Volunteer Involvement in Local Government after September 11: The Continuing Question of Capacity

The 1990s witnessed extensive promotion of volunteerism and the creation of a federal and state infrastructure to support government voluntary activities. What has been the impact on local governments? This article reports on a 2003 survey of volunteer involvement in Georgia local government, which followed a similar 1990 study and provides a rare opportunity to examine long‐term trends in public volunteerism. Volunteerism in Georgia cities and counties has increased during the past decade, with 81 percent of all jurisdictions now reporting some volunteer engagement. The events of September 11, 2001, have had a small but generally positive effect on volunteer utilization. However, political and labor resistance to government volunteers has not been resolved. And the increase in public managers' concerns that they lack the funding or staff to utilize volunteers suggests that governmental capacity remains the principal obstacle to greater volunteer involvement in local governments.     

The Great Game and the evolving nature of political talk shows on Russian television

ABSTRACT

Much has been written about the specific way in which the Russian government under President Vladimir V. Putin uses television to propagate pro-government views on domestic and international politics by influencing what is aired. This paper examines the first season of The Great Game (Bol’shaya Igra in Russian), a television talk show that appears on Russia’s national television network Channel One, as an example of the government’s effort to shape public opinion. A content analysis suggests The Great Game differs from the typical Russian talk show genre in that it delivers political messages without much entertainment, providing cerebral discussions of issues that nonetheless back up all nine of the core “neoconservative” concepts underlying recent Russian political strategy. This suggests that the Russian government and television executives innovate to determine how best to use television to win over skeptical citizens to the Kremlin’s point of view.     

Can Local Ordinances Prevent Neighborhood Destabilization?

This article assesses the ability of local housing ordinances to prevent neighborhood destabilization, specifically that arising as a consequence of the most recent housing crisis. We evaluate the degree to which vacancy registrations and point-of-sale inspection requirements influenced housing market outcomes during the housing crisis. With comprehensive real property data from Cuyahoga County, Ohio, we measure outcomes that characterize housing market distress including foreclosures, sales below the tax-assessed value, bulk sales, flipping, and property tax delinquency. We evaluate outcomes across properties in regulated and unregulated municipalities using matching procedures on linked data containing property, neighborhood, loan, and transaction characteristics. We find evidence that vacancy registrations substantially reduce foreclosures. In contrast, we find little evidence that point-of-sale inspections reduce undesirable transactions. Rather, properties in cities with inspection requirements displayed higher levels of foreclosure and tax delinquency relative to the control group during the study period.     

Victim age and capital sentencing outcomes in North Carolina (1977–2009)

Age is prominent among theories of criminology and victimology. It is less conspicuous in punishment theory, despite its emphasis in retributive theory and lawmaking. The present study evaluated competing ‘years of life lost’ and ‘vulnerable victim’ hypotheses to examine the influence of victim age in capital sentencing decisions. Using case file data on the population of capital murder trials in the State of North Carolina (1977–2009), our findings produce mixed results. Our quantitative analyses suggest that death sentences are significantly less likely in direct proportion to victim age. Killers of elderly victims are less likely to receive the death penalty; conversely, the odds of a death sentences are slightly greater for killers of child victims. Supplementary qualitative analyses suggest that while many child and elderly victims were not per se ‘vulnerable,’ a substantial subset of each clearly were treated as such. We discuss implications for vulnerable victim research and the role of quasi-legal factors in case outcomes.     

“Mtwara will be the New Dubai”: dashed expectations,grievances, and civil unrest in Tanzania

When does inequality lead to conflict? Despite recent studies highlighting the effects of group exclusion, this question has not been fully answered. We argue that objective group inequality is not sufficient to fuel unrest. Structural inequalities need to be perceived as unfair, and become grievances, in order to spark mobilization. While most conflict scholars recognize this on a theoretical level, statistical tests of the effect of inequality on conflict almost exclusively rely on objective data. This limits their ability to distinguish when inequality is politically relevant and when it is not. Southern Tanzania is a case in point. Despite decades of marginalization, the population remained peaceful until natural gas was discovered, and the government was perceived to break their promises of local development. Demonstrating that objective regional inequalities have remained relatively constant, while group grievances seems to have increased, we argue that direct measures of grievances are needed to pinpoint when inequality becomes politically salient. Using novel survey data, we find that people who think that the region is treated unfairly have the highest likelihood of supporting and participating in civil unrest.     

Gender models: changing representations and intersecting roles in Dutch and Italian fashion magazines, 1982–2011

This article presents a comparative content analysis of gender representation in fashion magazines in Italy and the Netherlands. Updating Goffman’s classic study of Gender Advertisements, we study the intersections of gender, professional role, country and time in media representation. Thus, we combine and confront quantitative content analysis with insights from critical gender studies on polysemy and intersectionality. Analyzing a sample of 5840 images from mainstream, commercial and high fashion magazines published in 1982, 1996 and 2011, we find that gender representation strongly intersects with time, place, and notably: professional role. Models, who represent the specific ‘aesthetic capital’ of the fashion field, are portrayed in highly specific ways. Over time, gender differences in representation become stronger in Italy, while in the Netherlands male and female representation converges towards conventionally ‘feminine’ styles. In both countries, we find increasing prominence of (North-American) Goffmanian gender conventions and a new ‘withdrawn’ gendered style emerging in the early 2000s. This new style employs new signs and conventions to denote gender and professional status: it separates men from women, and models from non-models. Our analysis shows, first, that gender representation does not directly reflect gender inequality. Second, it demonstrates the impact of globalization on gender representation. Third, it highlights the polysemy and cultural specificity of visual signs: gender difference can be ‘ritualized’ and ‘stylized’ in various ways. These diverse gendered conventions intersect with other characteristics, and may convey diverse, and changing messages about the relation between gender and sexuality, power, aesthetics and (visual) pleasure.