Antecedents and Outcomes of Self-Determination in 3 Life Domains: The Role of Parents' and Teachers' Autonomy Support

Due to conceptualizations of autonomy as detachment and independence, research on the parenting–autonomy relationship in adolescence has yielded inconsistent results. In the present study, self-determination is proposed as an alternative way of tapping into the construct of autonomy. An integrated model of the relationships between perceived parenting and teaching styles, self-determination in 3 life-domains (school, social competence, and job-seeking behaviors), and specific adolescent outcomes, was investigated and confirmed. In 2 samples of mid-adolescents (N = 328 and N = 285), autonomy-supportive parenting was significantly related to self-determination in all life-domains. Autonomy-supportive teaching added significantly to the prediction of self-determination in the domains of school and job-seeking behaviors. Self-determination, in turn, was positively and specifically associated with measures of adjustment in the specific life-domains under investigation. Finally, in both studies, indications were found that self-determination acts as an intervening variable in the relation between the perceived interpersonal environment and adolescent adjustment. Doctoral student at the Center for Developmental Psychology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. His major research interests are parenting, psychological control, and identity development. Postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Motivation Psychology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. His major research interests are self-determination theory, motivation, and parenting.     

Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Alcohol,Cigarette, and Marijuana Use During Adolescence

The purpose of this study was to increase the knowledge base of adolescent substance use by examining the influences of risk and protective factors for specific substance use, namely alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana. Participants included 271 adolescents and their primary caregivers referred for mental health services across North Carolina. A series of hierarchical multiple regressions showed that the relative influences of risk and protective factors differed depending on the target substance in some cases. History of parental felony predicted use of all 3 substances, although the direction of association was substance specific. Parental behavioral control (how families express and maintain standards of behavior) was predictive only of cigarette and marijuana use, not alcohol use. The different links among risk factors, protective factors, and specific substance use are discussed, and recommendations for both mental health and substance use professionals are offered.She received her M.A. in Psychology from Wake Forest University and is currently a doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her major research interests include developmental pathways to aggressive behavior among females.An evaluator for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, her major research interests include system of care intervention programming.She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Purdue University. Her major research interests include developmental psychopathology and early intervention.His research interests focus on youth violence and youth involved with the juvenile justice system.She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her research interests focus on early intervention with young children.     

Harm,Consent and the Limits of Privacy

Within the context of U.K. law, the right to respect for private life, articulated in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and acknowledged more opaquely in domestic legislation and case law, is one whose scope is unclear. Nowhere is this brought into sharper relief than in cases where conduct which manifests a person’s sexual identity, or concerns her intimate relations with others, is prima facie criminal. In this essay I attempt, through a discussion of cases in which injury is caused in the context of relationships experienced inter-subjectively as private, to explore the contexts in which the law is prepared to legitimate that inter-subjective experience, and where it is not. Using cases in which injury has been caused purposively (in S/M sex), and incidentally (through the reckless transmission of HIV during sexual intercourse), the essay argues that the law is prepared to respect the right to respect for private life only in so far as the private life concerned is one which reinforces traditional gender roles and relationship types; in short, a life that one would be prepared to live publicly.     

V.A.T., Taxation and Prostitution: Feminist Perspectives on Polok

Debates concerning the taxation of prostitution have occurred in taxation law and in feminist literature. This article will integrate the case of Polok v. C.E.C. [2002] E.W.H.C, 156; [2002] S.T.C. 361, within the feminist legal canon. The case is discussed in the context of the argument of the European doctrine of fiscal neutrality, which dictates that, regardless of legality as amongst member states, if an activity is levied to V.A.T. in one member state, V.A.T. should be levied on it in all member states. The doctrine of sovereignty accepts the possibility that the integrity of the V.A.T. system may be compromised by the levying of tax on illegal activities, in terms of the cooperation between tax and other aspects of the U.K.’s legal system. European law, feminist law, commodification and the marketplace are all considered within the context of these principles. The article also considers the place of Polok within standard feminist texts on prostitution. Different paradigms of prostitution define different aspects of prostitution as ‘problems’, and the article considers the implications within a feminist reconstruction of Polok of this. The article suggests that the challenge for a feminist analysis of Polok is to remain within the realm of European tax and competition law, and to render the perspective of the employees of the Polok taxpayers part of the substance of the deliberations of the case.     

Developmental Benefits of Extracurricular Involvement: Do Peer Characteristics Mediate the Link Between Activities and Youth Outcomes?

In this article, we test: (a) the relation between school-based extracurricular participation and indicators of positive and negative development across a range of activity contexts, and (b) a mediation model linking activity participation, prosocial peers, and development. Extensive survey information was collected from a predominately White sample of middle class adolescents in 9th, 10th, and 12th grades. Extracurricular participation was related to more favorable academic, psychological, and behavioral adjustment; the pattern of findings differed by activity and outcome. In addition, we documented some support for the hypothesis that the link between extracurricular participation and positive adjustment is partly a function of associating with a prosocial peer group. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are presented. Assistant Professor of Human Development, Connecticut College. Received her PhD in 1999 from the University of Michigan. Major research interests include motivation, school engagement, extracurricular participation, and adolescent development. MacKeachie Collegiate Psychology Professor, University of Michigan. Received PhD in 1974 from the UCLA. Recent work focuses on ethnicity and the transitions from middle childhood to adolescence and into adulthood.     

Adolescent Boys and Body Image: Weight and Muscularity Concerns as Dual Pathways to Body Dissatisfaction

This research evaluated a dual pathway model for body dissatisfaction among adolescent boys. The study provides empirical support for the importance of distinguishing between weight and muscularity concerns in understanding male body image. A total of 128 boys from grades 8 and 11 completed a self-report questionnaire. Results indicated that weight and muscularity concerns each made unique contributions to body dissatisfaction and were associated with distinct individual and peer context characteristics. Weight concern was associated with elevated BMI and more frequent appearance conversations with friends. Muscularity concern was significantly greater among boys who reported more frequent muscle-building conversations, had lower BMI, and were older. The results support the importance of distinguishing between and assessing both muscularity and weight concerns in the development of body image dissatisfaction among adolescent boys.     

Development and evaluation of a standard method for the quantitative determination of elements in float glass samples by LA-ICP-MS

Forensic analysis of glass samples was performed in different laboratories within the NITE-CRIME (Natural Isotopes and Trace Elements in Criminalistics and Environmental Forensics) European Network, using a variety of Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) systems. The main objective of the interlaboratory tests was to cross-validate the different combinations of laser ablation systems with different ICP-MS instruments. A first study using widely available samples, such as the NIST SRM 610 and NIST SRM 612 reference glasses, led to deviations in the determined concentrations for trace elements amongst the laboratories up to 60%. Extensive discussion among the laboratories and the production of new glass reference standards (FGS 1 and FGS 2) established an improved analytical protocol, which was tested on a well-characterized float glass sample (FG 10-1 from the BKA Wiesbaden collection). Subsequently, interlaboratory tests produced improved results for nearly all elements with a deviation of < 10%, demonstrating that LA-ICP-MS can deliver absolute quantitative measurements on major, minor and trace elements in float glass samples for forensic and other purposes.     

Evaluation of Raman spectroscopy for the analysis of colored fibers: a collaborative study

A collaborative study on Raman spectroscopy was carried out by members of the ENFSI (European Network of Forensic Science Institutes) European Fibres Group (EFG) on three dyed fibers: two red acrylics and one red wool. Raman instruments from six different manufacturers were tested as well as nine different laser wavelengths ranging from blue (lambda = 458 nm) to near infrared-NIR (lambda = 1064 nm). This represents the largest comparison study of Raman analytical parameters carried out on identical fiber samples. For the chosen fiber and dye samples, red lasers (lambda = 633 and 685 nm) gave the poorest spectral quality whereas blue (458 nm), green (514 nm) and near infrared lasers (785, 830 and 1064 nm) provided average results. Blue (488 nm) and green lasers (532 nm) globally gave the best quality spectra. Fluorescence problems were often encountered with some of the excitation wavelengths and therefore a flexible Raman instrument equipped with different lasers can be recommended to measure forensic fiber samples. The instrument should also be equipped with a Raman microscope in order to be able to focus on a single fiber. This study shows that Raman spectroscopy usually enables the identification of the main dye present in a colored fiber; however, minor dye components are much more difficult to detect. SERRS (Surface Enhanced Resonance Raman Scattering) techniques give an improvement of the dye's spectral intensity but no spectral improvement was observed for the two red acrylic and red wool fibers tested.