Male Marriage Squeeze and Inter-provincial Marriage in Central China: evidence from Anhui

Since the 1990s, inter-provincial female migration for marriage has become important in central and eastern rural China. Using survey data from X County in rural Anhui Province, we explore the arrangement of inter-provincial marriages, as well as the characteristics of husbands and wives, marital satisfaction and marital stability for these marriages. We find that inter-provincial marriage is an important option for local men to respond to the marriage squeeze and the increasing expense of marriage. It helps to relieve the shortage of marriageable women in the local marriage market. Because this kind of marriage is based on economic exchange, but not affection, it is often subject to a higher risk of marriage instability, and can lead to such illegal behaviors as marriage fraud and mercenary marriage.     

Social space in the English medieval parish church

A theoretical approach to the organisation of social space is advanced with the aim to develop an understanding of the architectural space of the later medieval parish church in England, based on social practice. Refusing the general assumption of liturgical uniformity, the mass is taken as the template of religious practice most fundamental to such an understanding in the local context. Through religious practice the parish church became the locale for the constitution and reproduction of the Christian community. Social identities were necessaily constructed within that framework and as a result, it will be argued here, the church building must be seen to represent a domain of secular action within the field defined by the Christian liturgy.     

Examining the relationship among substance abuse, negative emotionality and impulsivity across subtypes of antisocial and psychopathic substance abusers

Growing evidence suggests that individuals with Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) can be categorized into theoretically meaningful subtypes. This study builds on earlier cluster-analytic research (Poythress et al., 2010) that identified four subtypes of ASPD in a large sample of prison inmates and offenders ordered into mandatory substance abuse treatment. These four subtypes (primary, secondary, and “fearful” psychopathic and non-psychopathic ASPD) differed in theoretically important ways on various criterion measures. Of those participants in substance abuse treatment (N = 571), we compare the four clusters, as well as non-ASPD substance abusers, in terms of (a) the severity of their self-reported alcohol and drug problems and (b) whether the severity of their substance abuse is predicted by similar etiologically important correlates (i.e., negative emotionality, impulsivity). There were modest subgroup differences in abuse, although as expected secondary psychopaths reported more severe misuse than primary psychopaths. Associations between impulsivity and negative emotionality and drug use for the total sample were in the expected direction, though relatively modest in magnitude. Unexpectedly, these associations were weaker among psychopathic subtypes relative to the non-psychopathic subgroups. These findings suggest that the etiology of drug use may differ across subgroups of chronically antisocial individuals.     

"Vaginal" bleeding in prepubertal age: a rare scaring riddle, a case of the urethral prolapse and review of the literature

The entities responsible for isolated vaginal bleeding are a broad spectrum of diseases. Vaginal bleeding in a prepubertal child is always treated as an alarming symptom both by parents and professionals. Most often, one of the first hypotheses is that a sexual abuse may be occurred and the clinical work up is oriented to explore it and eventually confirm or substantiante another diagnosis. Among the possible differential diagnosis urethral prolapse has to be considered. We report the case of a 6 years-old Caucasian girl referred to our Service for a mild vaginal bleeding and with the suspicion of sexual abuse, excluded after the confirmation of the presence of urethral prolapse. The clinical picture and workup are described and compared with a review of the international literature on the issue.     

Commentary on Foubert, Godin, & Tatum (2010): the evolution of sexual violence prevention and the urgency for effectiveness

Foubert, Godin, and Tatum describe qualitative effects among college men of The Men's Program, a one-session sexual violence prevention program. This article and the program it describes are representative of many sexual violence prevention programs that are in practice and provide an opportunity for a brief discussion of the development and evaluation of sexual violence prevention approaches. In this commentary, we will focus on two considerations for an evolving field: the adherence to the principles of prevention and the use of rigorous evaluation methods to demonstrate effectiveness. We argue that the problem of sexual violence has created urgency for effective prevention programs and that scientific and prevention standards provide the best foundation to meet this need.