Body Dissatisfaction and Physical Development Among Ethnic Minority Adolescents

The present study examined the association between body dissatisfaction and adjustment, and the role physical development plays in this association, in an ethnically diverse sample of over 1100 urban, ninth grade boys and girls (M age = 14). More similarities than differences were found across ethnic groups: Caucasian, African American, Latino, Asian, and multiethnic boys reported similar areas of body dissatisfaction, levels of body dissatisfaction, and associations between body dissatisfaction and psychosocial maladjustment. For girls, only mean level differences were found with African American girls reporting lower levels of body dissatisfaction than girls from other ethnic backgrounds. Higher levels of body dissatisfaction predicted more psychological and social maladjustment for both boys and girls. For boys, faster development predicted stronger associations between feeling overweight and peer victimization. Feeling too small only predicted victimization if boys were actually low in physical development. For girls, physical development directly predicted less peer victimization, while perceived faster development predicted more victimization. Thus, it appears that physical development can protect both girls (directly) and boys (buffering against the negative effects of body dissatisfaction) from peer victimization, whereas perceived faster timing of development can exacerbate peer victimization.Adrienne Nishina conducted this research as an NIH postdoctoral fellow in the UCLA Department of Education. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human and Community Development at UC Davis. She received her PhD in clinical psychology from UCLA. Her major research interests include mental health in schools, adolescent peer relations, and ethnic diversity.Natalie Y. Ammon is a graduate student in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas, Austin. Her major research interests are at-risk youth and academic achievement.Amy D. Bellmore is an American Psychological Association/Institute of Educational Sciences Postdoctoral Education Research Training fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. She received her PhD in developmental psychology from the University of Connecticut. Her research interests include peer-directed aggression, ethnicity and ethnic contexts, and the development of interpersonal perception.Sandra Graham is a Professor in the Department of Education at the University of California, Los Angeles. She received her PhD degree in educational psychology from UCLA. Her major research interests are the academic motivation and social behavior of ethnically diverse adolescents in urban schools.     

How welfare reform affects young children: Experimental findings from Connecticut—A research note

As welfare‐to‐work reforms increase women's labor market attachment, the lives of their young children are likely to change. This note draws on a random‐assignment experiment in Connecticut to ask whether mothers' rising employment levels and program participation are associated with changes in young children's early learning and cognitive growth. Children of mothers who entered Connecticut's Jobs First program, an initiative with strict 21‐month time limits and work incentives, displayed moderate advantages in their early learning, compared with those in a control group. A number of potential mechanisms for this effect are explored, including maternal employment and income, home environment, and child care. Mothers in the new welfare program are more likely to be employed, have higher income, are less likely to be married, have more children's books in their home, and take their children to libraries and museums more frequently. However, these effects explain little of the observed gain in child outcomes. Other parenting practices and the home's social environment do explain early learning, but these remained unaffected by welfare reform. © 2003 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

Glass-containing gunshot residue particles: a new type of highly characteristic particle?

In 0.22 caliber rimfire ammunition, the primer often contains lead or lead and barium compounds. As residues from these primers do not contain lead, barium, and antimony, they cannot be uniquely classified as gunshot residue (GSR) under ASTM designation E 1588-95. In many types of 0.22 caliber rimfire ammunition, the cartridge contains a primer sensitized with glass. In this paper we describe a previously unreported type of GSR particle consisting of glass fused with other primer components. As there appear to be few potential environmental or occupational sources of particles composed of lead and barium compounds fused to glass, particularly borosilicate glass, these particles may have high evidential value. Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray detection (SEM-EDX) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) were evaluated for the characterization of glass-containing GSR particles. The occurrence of glass-containing GSR particles was established in the residue from various brands of 0.22 caliber ammunition, and several sub-types were identified.     

Heart valve tissue donation does not preclude the diagnosis of clinically significant pediatric cardiac abnormalities

Medical examiners/coroners often have the responsibility of deciding whether to allow organ and tissue donation to proceed in cases under their jurisdiction. A 10-year retrospective study was conducted of autopsy cases in children younger than 6 years to determine whether the donation of cardiac valve tissue would preclude the diagnosis of clinically significant pediatric cardiac abnormalities. Only 1 case (0.1%) was found in the entire 10-year period in which valve tissue donation might have prevented the correct diagnosis. According to the results of the study, (1) most cardiac findings in forensic pediatric autopsies are not clinically significant; (2) clinically significant findings will be diagnosed in properly examined hearts, even those processed for valve tissue donation, and special studies will remain possible in nearly all hearts except those with suspicion of conduction defects; and (3) as long as there is good communication between forensic pathologists and organ and tissue procurement organizations, the concern of failing to diagnose significant cardiac findings should not inhibit medical examiners/coroners from allowing the donation of pediatric cardiac valve tissue.     

Behavioral response to safety regulation

The effectiveness of safety regulation can be enhanced or offset by various forms of behavioral feedback. This study provides estimates of the effectiveness of motorcycle helmet laws in reducing fatalities based on pooled time-series and cross-sectional data for the United States during the years 1975 to 1984. Estimates from the model suggest that the presence of a helmet-wearing law induces a 12 to 22 percent decline in the motorcycle mortality problem. The results are consistent with the view that helmet laws are an effective public health policy, at least in the short run. However, there is also some evidence of gradual risk-compensation behavior: The immediate rise in fatalities following repeal of helmet laws appears to dissipate gradually at a rate of roughly 2.5 percent per year. This result suggests that future studies of safety regulation should consider longrun as well shortrun behavioral responses.     

Big is different from little: on taking size seriously in the analysis of Canadian governmental institutions

Abstract: An institution's size is one of its most obvious and important features. This paper suggests that although analysts and practitioners are certainly aware that scale does matter, the consequences of size for comparative analysis of Canadian governmental institutions have been seriously under-appreciated. To be sure, size is only one of a host of factors shaping our political institutions, but this should not discount its importance, which is both pronounced and widespread. The paper also raises the question of whether the great variations in size evident in Canada's governmental institutions — legislatures, cabinets, and bureaucracies — may not amount to differences in kind rather than degree. In short, the size of our governmental institutions matters, and it matters more than we usually imagine. Size may be relative or absolute. In this paper both dimensions are important. Both the ratio of the cabinet to the legislature and the number of elected members relative to the population have significant implications. So too, the absolute size of the cabinet and the number of bureaucrats are of substantial consequence. Sommaire: Les effets de la taille sur les institutions gouvernementales du Canada (parlements, cabinets et bureaucraties) sont reconnus sans être véritablement étudiés. Cet article analyse les structures des gouvernements fédéral et provinciaux pour identifier et explorer ces effets. On y affirme que les variations dans la taille des institutions gouvernementales du Canada revdent souvent une différence de nature plutôt que de degré. En ce qui concerne les Parlements, la taille affecte les procédures, la formation des comités, les rapports entre les députés et ceux avec I'exécutif. Dans les cabinets, elle influence le processus décisionnel, le rôle du premier ministre et les rernanie-ments ministériels. Quant aux bureaucraties, la taille y exerce un effet sur les rapports entre les ministres et les fonctionnaires, sur la capacité de gérer avec souplesse et sur I'efficacité d'ensemble. Cet article ne constitue pas un plaidoyer favorable ou défavorable des institutions gouvernementales de taille plus petite; il rnontre qu'elles sont différentes, souvent fondamentalement. Entre autres, cela jette le doute sur I'idée que I'on se fait souvent des structures gouvernernentales des provinces, qui ne seraient que des versions réduites de celles du fédéral.     

The World Bank, Governance and Theories of Political Action in Africa

This article considers the World Bank as a political thinker. This involves an interpretation of the values, methodologies, and theoretical references contained within the Bank's governance documentation. Generally, the Bank steers away from a serious engagement with the nature of states, or the dynamics of reform execution, even in its more detailed policy documents in reform areas such as administrative reform. But, by looking at the World Bank's involvement in African states, we can understand the ways in which the World Bank works with certain expectations concerning how reforms will work. The article critically analyses the Bank's 'political vision' by comparing it with prominent theories of African politics. The article concludes that the World Bank's governance agenda misses three pivotal aspects of African politics: the unity of political and economic power, the extreme openness of African states to external pressures, and the salience of historically-embedded cultural and political relations. These three points directly raise important questions about the prospects of good governance reforms in Africa, and the involvement of the Bank therein.