Still different after all these years? A comparison of female and male Canadian MPs in the twentieth century

This article compares the backgrounds, political experiences and social characteristics of men and women who served in the Canadian House of Commons during the twentieth century. This examination is based on two hypotheses: (1) that the former polarisation of female and male politicians has given way to harmonisation; (2) that harmonisation has occurred because women's profiles have changed to become more like those of men. This study finds that a straightforward linear model of initial polarisation between women and men followed by a period of convergence resulting in harmonisation receives only partial support. Gender continues to act as a causal variable shaping the characteristics and careers of federal politicians, but its effects are complex and multi-dimensional.     

Elevated rates of suicidal behavior in gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth

Both clinical and epidemiological literature point to elevated rates of suicidal behaviors in gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth (GLBY). Recent North American and New Zealand studies of large populations (especially the US Youth Risk Behavior Surveys from several states) indicate that gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents (males in particular) can have rates of serious suicide attempts at least four times those of apparently heterosexual youth. There are various reasons why this figure is likely to be an underestimate. Reasons for these elevated rates of suicidal behavior include a climate of homophobic persecution in schools, and sometimes in family and community--values and actions that stigmatize homosexuality and that the youth who has not yet "come out" has to endure in silence.     

A meta-analysis update on the effects of early family/parent training programs on antisocial behavior and delinquency

Objective

To update Piquero et al.’s meta-analysis on early family/parent training programs.

Methods

Screening of eligible studies was carried out for the period between January 2008 and August 2015. An additional 23 studies were identified, which were added to the original database of 55 studies, totaling an overall sample of 78 eligible studies. A random-effects model was used to obtain an overall mean effect size estimate. Additional analyses were performed to assess publication bias and moderation.

Results

An overall average, positive, and significant effect size of 0.37 was calculated, which corresponds to 32 out of 100 in a treated group versus 50 out of 100 in a control group who offended. There was some evidence of publication bias and moderation.

Conclusions

Early family/parent training programs are an effective evidence-based strategy for preventing antisocial behavior and delinquency.

     

Effects of early family/parent training programs on antisocial behavior and delinquency

Based on evidence that early antisocial behavior is a key risk factor for delinquency and crime throughout the life course, early family/parent training, among its many functions, has been advanced as an important intervention/prevention effort. There are several theories concerning why early family/parent training may cause a reduction in child behavior problems including antisocial behavior and delinquency (and have other ancillary benefits in non-crime domains over the life course). The prevention of behavior problems is one of the many objectives of early family/parent training, and it comprises the main focus of this review. Results indicate that early family/parent training is an effective intervention for reducing behavior problems among young children, and the weighted effect size was 0.35. The results from a series of analog to the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and weighted least squares regression models (with random effects) demonstrated that there were significant differences in the effect sizes of studies conducted in the USA versus those conducted in other countries and that studies that were based on samples smaller than 100 children had larger effect sizes. Sample size was also the strongest predictor of the variation in the effect sizes. Additional evidence indicated that early family/parent training was also effective in reducing delinquency and crime in later adolescence and adulthood. Overall, the findings lend support for the continued use of early family/parent training to prevent behavior problems. Future research should test the main theories of early family/parent training and detail more explicitly the causal mechanisms by which early family/parent training reduces delinquency and crime, and future evaluations should employ high quality designs with long-term follow-ups, including repeated measures of antisocial behavior, delinquency, and crime over the life course.

Trajectories of Anxiety During Elementary-school Years and the Prediction of High School Noncompletion

Previous research has provided mixed results regarding the effect of anxiety on academic achievement. Building on this body of research, the present longitudinal study pursued two goals. The first goal was to describe trajectories of anxiety during elementary-school years. The second goal was to determine the predictive value of these trajectories on high school noncompletion after controlling for personal (i.e., gender, classroom behaviors, and academic achievement) and familial (i.e., sociofamilial adversity) characteristics. A community sample of 1,817 children (887 boys, 930 girls) participated in this study. Results showed that anxiety tended to fluctuate from kindergarten to Grade 6 for different groups of children. Furthermore, the result of a logistic regression analysis indicated that group membership for anxiety predicted high school noncompletion by age 20. As a whole, these findings suggest that considering heterogeneous developmental patterns of anxiety during elementary-school years appears quite useful for predicting an important outcome such as high school noncompletion.

Relative Advantages of Person- and Variable-Based Approaches for Predicting Problem Behaviors from Kindergarten Assessments

Kindergarten teacher ratings of physical aggression, hyperactivity,inattention, anxiety, and prosocial behavior were used to predictself-reported delinquency, peer-rated social withdrawal, and schoolplacement in preadolescence (ages 10 to 12 years) in a large longitudinalsample of boys from low socio-economic neighborhoods. Two analyticstrategies were used: person-oriented and variable-oriented approaches. Inthe person approach, eight clusters, based on the kindergarten behaviors,were used to predict delinquency, social withdrawal, and schoolplacement. In the variable approach, the kindergarten behaviors were used asdimensions in logistic regressions. Family adversity was used as the firstpredictor in both approaches; it significantly predicted all the outcomes inpreadolescence. The results obtained using the two approaches were partly inaccordance. In both sets of results, kindergarten teacher-ratedexternalizing behavior problems were most related to later self-reporteddelinquency, and internalizing problems to peer-rated socialwithdrawal. However, the person approach showed that all patterns ofkindergarten behavior problems increased the risk for placement out of anage-appropriate regular classroom, while only inattention and lack ofprosocial behavior were the significant dimensional predictors of thisnegative outcome according to the variable approach. Also, the personapproach showed that the Multiproblem kindergarten boys had the highestpercentage of comorbidity of preadolescent problems. The ROC curvesindicated that prediction of delinquency, social withdrawal, and schoolplacement were equally accurate using the cluster and variableapproaches. Advantages and limits of both approaches are discussed withreference to their usefulness for clinicians.     

Aesthetic self-medication: Bob Flanagan and Sheree Rose's structures of breathing

This essay tracks adaptations to corporeal transformations in breathing in the performance art and life writing of Bob Flanagan (1952–1996) and Sheree Rose (b. 1941). It chronicles how breathing as an aesthetic strategy gets entangled with breathing as an exceptional or ordinary effect of disability over the course—and, in Rose's case, in the aftermath—of Flanagan's cystic fibrosis. The term “aesthetic self-medication” describes the process through which breathing is induced as an aesthetic form, and its patterns and rhythms transcribed and dramatized, in order to stage minimally coherent self-encounters amidst crisis. As Flanagan's chronic illness worsens and the couple's sadomasochistic dynamic no longer manages chronic pain, aesthetic self-medication structures laboured breathing into new genres of, or affective and libidinal relations to, pain, including boredom and musical humour.     

Early prevention of life-course personal and property violence: a 19-year follow-up of the Montreal Longitudinal-Experimental Study (MLES)

Objectives

This study assessed the impact of a multi-component prevention program on personal and property violence across three developmental periods (early adolescence, mid-adolescence and late adolescence/early adulthood).

Methods

The preventive intervention targeted disruptive kindergarten boys from low socioeconomic status families when they were 7 through 9 years of age. A randomized control trial was conducted to assess the impact of the preventive intervention relative to a control group.

Results

Two different approaches to data analysis were adopted: an intention-to-treat (ITT) approach and an instrumental variable (IV) approach. Results from the ITT analysis showed that the level of property violence for the intervention group was persistently lower across the three developmental periods compared to the control group. However, the intervention group did not differ from the control group on personal violence throughout adolescence and early adulthood. Results from the IV analysis generally confirmed these findings.

Conclusions

The discussion focuses on the differential effects of the prevention program on personal versus property violence.