The Longitudinal Role of Self-Concept Clarity and Best Friend Delinquency in Adolescent Delinquent Behavior

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Adolescence tends to be characterized by a temporary peak in delinquent behavior, and friends in particular play a key role in the initiation and the development...     

Big School,Small School: (Re)Testing Assumptions about High School Size,School Engagement and Mathematics Achievement

In an effort to increase both adolescents’ engagement with school and academic achievement, school districts across the United States have created small high schools. However, despite the widespread adoption of size reduction reforms, relatively little is known about the relationship between size, engagement and outcomes in high school. In response, this article employs a composite measure of engagement that combines organizational, sociological, and psychological theories. We use this composite measure with the most recent nationally-representative dataset of tenth graders, Educational Longitudinal Study: 2002, (N = 10,946, 46% female) to better assess a generalizable relationship among school engagement, mathematics achievement and school size with specific focus on cohort size. Findings confirm these measures to be highly related to student engagement. Furthermore, results derived from multilevel regression analysis indicate that, as with school size, moderately sized cohorts or grade-level groups provide the greatest engagement advantage for all students and that there are potentially harmful changes when cohorts grow beyond 400 students. However, it is important to note that each group size affects different students differently, eliminating the ability to prescribe an ideal cohort or school size.     

The Five Cs Model of Positive Youth Development: A Longitudinal Analysis of Confirmatory Factor Structure and Measurement Invariance

The understanding of positive development across adolescence rests on having a valid and equivalent measure of this construct across the breadth of this period of life. Does the Positive Youth Development (PYD) construct based on the Five Cs model have satisfactory psychometric properties for such longitudinal measurement invariance? Using longitudinal data derived from the 4-H Study of PYD, we assessed 920 youth (61.6% female) from a racially and ethically diverse sample (67.3% European American) who participated in three waves (Grades 8–10) of data collection. Building on prior findings that the Five Cs (i.e., Competence, Confidence, Connection, Character, and Caring) model of PYD was a robust measure that could be assessed comparably during early adolescence, we tested a hierarchy of second-order confirmatory factor analysis models to assess the extent to which PYD can be measured equivalently across middle adolescence. Evidence was found for strict measurement invariance across three measurement occasions, including equivalence of first-order and second-order factor loadings, equality of intercepts of observed variables, and equality of item uniqueness and disturbances of the first-order factors. These results suggest that PYD can be measured in the same way across measurement occasions, a prerequisite for the study of development. Implications for research and application of being able to measure PYD equivalently across adolescence are discussed.     

Interparental Conflict,Parenting, and Childhood Depression in a Diverse Urban Population: The Role of General Cognitive Style

Research on the mechanisms by which interparental conflict (IPC) affects child depression suggests that both parenting and children’s conflict appraisals play important roles, but few studies have explored the role of general cognitive style or included both parenting and cognitions in the same design. Moreover, the effects of IPC on minority children are not well understood. In this longitudinal study, parenting was examined as a mediator of the relation between increasing IPC and change in depression. General cognitive style was included as a moderator. The combined influence of parenting and cognitions was also explored. A racially and ethnically diverse sample of 88 fifth and sixth graders from two urban schools reported their cognitive style, depressive symptoms, and perceptions of conflict and parenting at two time points separated by one year. Parental warmth/rejection mediated the relation between IPC and depression, and general cognitive style acted as a moderator. Parenting, cognitive style, and IPC did not significantly interact to predict change in depression over time. Findings indicate that both parenting and children’s general cognitive style play a role in understanding the impact of increasing IPC on children’s well-being.     

Does E-Government Measure Up to E-Business? Comparing End User Perceptions of U.S. Federal Government and E-Business Web Sites

This paper examines the federal government's success in implementing and providing high-quality service through e-government, something that has received very little attention. We define quality from the perspective of the end users of federal agency Web sites, as measured through customer survey data. Using data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index, we compare the performance of federal agency Web sites across a range of relevant variables with a private sector equivalent, e-business Web sites. Our findings suggest that federal e-government Web sites are not yet, in the aggregate, providing the same level of quality as their e-business counterparts. We also find significant variability among federal agencies. We discuss the implications of these findings for e-government performance measurement, performance benchmarking, and the market-centered theories of administrative reform that are driving e-government and similar transformations of government practice.     

The establishment of the features of the blade of a stabbing-cutting weapon by the damages to human skin and to tricot clothing]

Presents forensic medical characteristics of the specific features of stabbed and cut injuries of human skin and jersey. Suggests a complex of signs that will help determine some structural parameters of a knife blade and the conditions of its interaction with the injured site of human body.     

Body packing: the value of modern imaging procedures in the detection of intracorporeal transport media

The necessity of rapid objective appraisal of the suspicion of intracorporeal drug smuggling (body-packing) by effective methods of investigation in the course of the first criminal investigation department measures raises the questions of suitable and admissible methods. The proportion of undetected crimes in intracorporeal narcotic smuggling must be rated as very high according to the data of the Federal Criminal Investigation Department. In the present paper, the suitability of various imaging techniques for drug detection are reported in terms of their risk, practicability and costs. For this purpose, the value of digital radiography, two-spectra radiography and X-ray computer tomography as compared to conventional X-ray investigations is examined in human experiments. A reality-oriented narcotics dummy (glucose pressed hard in preservative) was developed and administered to nine volunteers per os with a variable initial alimentary situation. Four radiograms were taken at fixed times up to 12 hours after administration with each imaging technique. The highest rate of detection was attained with computer tomography. In contrast to the other methods, more than 90% of the body packs could be identified here. Nevertheless, an application in criminal investigation practice cannot be recommended owing to various disadvantages. The recovery rate of the remaining methods is between 20% and 25%.     

Hague Case Law — Latest Developments

Netherlands International Law Review -