China’s vietnam policy: The road to normalization and prospects for the Sino-Vietnamese relationship

Americans have both underestimated and exaggerated China’s ability to influence developments in Asia. Many saw the normalization of relations between China and Vietnam in 1991 as a sign of China’s growing regional dominance. This article reexamines the process of normalization against the background of historical twentieth-century relations in order to present a more balanced perspective of China’s Vietnam policy. The author examines China’s role at the 1954 Geneva Conference, in 1973 at the Paris Peace Talks, during the deterioration of relations in the 1970s that culminated in the Sino-Vietnamese border war of 1979, and finally, along the road to normalization. Understanding that Sino-Vietnamese cooperation depends less on China’s leverage over Vietnam than on the convergence of interests between the two countries, the author then explores the major issues in Sino-Vietnamese relations in the 1990s.     

Sex role strain among kibbutz adolescents and adults: A developmental perspective

In spite of a commitment to equality, the kibbutz is a male-dominated society with highly differentiated sex roles. Has this gap between ideals and reality created sex role strain for kibbutz-born adolescents and adults? Previous kibbutz studies have suggested that sex role strain may be the most intense among adult kibbutz women. Based on Erik Erikson's developmental model, however, we hypothesized that adolescent females would experience significantly greater sex role strain than other kibbutz members, including adult women. Adolescent and adult males and females were tested using Loevinger's ego development test. The sex role items of the test were used to construct a new measure of sex role strain. The global index included the following submeasures: avoidance of sex role issues; expression of intellectual, emotional, or behavioral sex role conflict; and evaluative attitudes toward male roles and female roles. Significant cohort or sex differences were found on the global index and on all submeasures of sex role strain. The findings indicate that sex role strain is greatest among adolescent females, followed by adolescent males. Adult kibbutz women, however, are significantly more likely to focus their dissatisfaction in the area of actual role behavior rather than in terms of how they intellectually conceptualize kibbutz sex roles, as is the case for adolescents and adult males.     

The Effects of E-Government on Trust and Confidence in Government

Trust in government has been declining for more than three decades now. E-government has been proposed as a way to increase citizen trust in government and improve citizen evaluations of government generally. Using two-stage models to analyze recent Pew survey data, this research explores the relationship between e-government use, attitudes about e-government, and trust in government. There is a statistically significant relationship between trust and use of a local government Web site, as well as other positive assessments of federal and local governments. The evidence suggests that e-government can increase process-based trust by improving interactions with citizens and perceptions of responsiveness. The findings are theoretically important for reconciling the conflicting research on the effects of e-government and for understanding variations by level of government. Citizen attitudes toward government, including trust, are core concerns for democratic governance and public administration.     

Measuring Alcohol Expectancies in Youth

Beliefs about the consequences of using alcohol, alcohol expectancies, are powerful predictors of underage drinking. The Alcohol Expectancies Questionnaire-Adolescent form (AEQ-A) has been widely used to measure expectancies in youth. Despite its broad use, the factor structure of the AEQ-A has not been firmly established. It is also not known whether it assesses similar constructs (i.e., measurement invariance) between boys and girls. This article reports on a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of a shortened version of the AEQ-A with 310 youth, ages 10–16, to determine whether a two factor, positive and negative expectancy structure held for this sample and to test measurement invariance across gender. The results support evidence of a 2-factor, positive and negative structure for the abbreviated version of the AEQ-A and show that it assesses equivalent alcohol expectancy constructs among males and females. These findings have important implications for cognitive based approaches to alcohol prevention.Florida State University College of Social Work. She received her Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her major research interests are youth at risk, substance use prevention, and family engagement in prevention interventionsFlorida State University College of Medicine. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Arizona State University. Her major research interests are women's health, disease prevention, and health communication.Prevention Research Center, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. She received her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the University at Albany. Her major research interests are family-based prevention strategies for adolescent alcohol, drugs, and sexual risk taking; women's alcohol, and other drug problems; prevention of young adult alcohol and drug abuse, risky sexual behavior, and violence.     

Speaking about sexual abuse in British South Asian communities: offenders,victims and the challenges of shame and reintegration

Abstract

Cultural dynamics have a significant impact on how sexual matters, including sexual abuse, are discussed in British South Asian communities. The ways in which these communities talk about sexual violence often reinforce patriarchal norms and values, especially those concerned with honour and shame. As a result, victims are either silenced or the blame for the sexual violence they have suffered is laid at their own feet. Addressing the fact that these problems are rooted in patriarchal norms and values is key to understanding how to tackle sexual offending effectively in such communities. Both retributive and restorative justice are necessary in responding to sex crimes; retributive approaches help to recognise victims’ suffering, while restorative approaches offer promising avenues for encouraging victims and offenders alike to speak about their experiences. Both approaches are essential components to reintegrating victims and offenders into their communities.