Intimate Partner Violence and Psychological Distress among Young Couples: Analysis of the Moderating Effect of Social Support

Young adults are more likely to experience intimate partner violence (IPV) than older adults. Little is known about the effect of confiding to others about sustained violence on the mental health of victims. The objective of this study was to explore the links between IPV, help-seeking behaviors and psychological distress by gender in a sample of 233 young couples.Our results indicate the frequency of sustained psychological violence, but not physical violence, was positively associated to distress. For women, seeking help from a greater number of confidents moderated the association between violence and psychological distress. For men, results showed that frequencies of physical and psychological violence were both positively linked to distress. However, unlike women, social support had no buffering effect on men’s distress. These findings increase our understanding of the effects of social support on young adults’ distress following episodes of IPV.     

Mental sets in conduct problem youth with psychopathic features: Entity versus incremental theories of intelligence

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effect of a motivational intervention on conduct problem youth with psychopathic features. Specifically, the current study examined conduct problem youths' mental set (or theory) regarding intelligence (entity vs. incremental) upon task performance. We assessed 36 juvenile offenders with psychopathic features and tested whether providing them with two different messages regarding intelligence would affect their functioning on a task related to academic performance. The study employed a MANOVA design with two motivational conditions and three outcomes including fluency, flexibility, and originality. Results showed that youth with psychopathic features who were given a message that intelligence grows over time, were more fluent and flexible than youth who were informed that intelligence is static. There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of originality. The implications of these findings are discussed including the possible benefits of interventions for adolescent offenders with conduct problems and psychopathic features. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Public choice in a local government setting

From its beginnings, public choice has always had a substantial component devoted to federalism and local government decision-making. The DeVoe Moore Center at Florida State University has made the study of local government within a public choice framework a core component of its mission. The Center held a conference February 17?C19, 2011, on public choice in a local government setting. This special issue of Public Choice contains the papers presented at that conference.     

Interpersonal factors and personality disorders as discriminators between intra-familial and extra-familial child molesters

This article presents the results of research investigating the relation between interpersonal factors and personality disorders and intra-familial versus extra-familial child molesters. The sample contained 41 intra-familial and 43 extra-familial child molesters as well as a matched comparison group of 80 subjects. The analysis of the research results show that interpersonal factors, such as parental sensitivity, trust, and adult romantic attachment, discriminate between intra-familial and extra-familial child molesters. These findings structure the heterogeneous field of child molesters, as intra-familial child molesting seems to be related to relational attitude as well as personality disorders, whereas extra-familial child molesting is mainly related to personality disorders without showing significant deficits in the interpersonal factors that were measured. These results contribute to the explanation of this deviant sexual conduct and to the development and differentiation of the treatment of child molesters.     

Migration,citizenship and race in Europe: Between incorporation and exclusion

Abstract. The article examines four recent studies, which represent the scholarly divisions in and the strengths and the weakness of current research on migration, citizenship and race in Europe and, to a lesser degree, the USA. Organising the review around three themes — the causes of post–war migration, integration and race, and the relationship between citizenship and state sovereignty, it reviews the studies in the context of broader debates about postnational citizenship, the decline of state sovereignty and the role of theory in the study of citizenship. It argues that the studies of postnationalism (Jacobson) and race and racism (Solomos & Back) suffer from faults common to macro–sociological approaches and unfocused attempts to blend normative theory and causal explanation, while the studies of integration (Favell) and citizenship, immigration and the state (Joppke) are exemplars of approaches that successfully pair an interest in theory with detailed causal analysis. The article concludes by suggesting that the debate between 'nationalists' and 'postnationalists' can now be transcended. Postnationalism, it concludes, contains two theses, not one: an empirical and a causal. The empirical thesis — that universal personhood has decoupled rights and identity – is incontrovertible; the causal — that this development resulted from the 'internationalisation' and 'universalisation' of human rights legislation and discourse — is, in the light of Joppke's and other's research, false. The sources of third–country nationals' social and economic status, the foundations of the distinction between rights and identity, are domestic.