Developmental Growth Trajectories of Self-Esteem in Adolescence: Associations with Child Neglect and Drug Use and Abuse in Young Adulthood

Neglectful rearing is linked with young adults’ substance use and abuse, though the developmental mechanisms that underlie this association are unclear. The present study examines links between self-esteem growth during adolescence, childhood supervisory versus physical neglect severity, and substance use and abuse in young adulthood. A sample of youth was obtained from the Add Health study (N = 8738; 55.4 %-Female; 20 %-African American, 14.7 %-Hispanic). Growth mixture modeling analyses supported declining, ascending, and stable high self-esteem trajectories. The declining and ascending trajectories reported greater neglect and alcohol abuse (but not use) as well as cannabis use and abuse. The findings suggest that compromised development of self-esteem underlies associations between neglect and substance use and abuse. Preventive interventions may benefit from targeting self-esteem among neglected youth.     

Merchants and peasants in the Nazareth region, 1922 – 47

In Nazareth, the wholesale merchants of agricultural commodities made every effort to acquire crops during harvest time, when commodity prices were at their lowest, and to sell them a few months later when demand (and prices) had increased. To facilitate this, merchants established close economic ties with peasant proprietors, in particular by providing them with a ‘safety net’ in lean years in the form of loans at comparatively attractive rates. An unwritten part of this arrangement was that a peasant in such a relationship with a merchant would market most of the surplus of his cash crops at harvest time. A contract in the credit market was thus simultaneously a contract in the goods market, ensuring that merchants would receive payment in crops, while peasants were paid in advance for their produce. It was also the custom that in cases of default, the merchant became the owner of the mortgaged land and the former landowner became the tenant. In such circumstances, the new tenancy agreement was usually interlinked with other agreements, especially in regard to animal husbandry.     

Emerging Patterns in Liberia's Post-Conflict Politics: Observations from the 2005 Elections

The 2005 elections were the first Liberian elections in overa century in which the political environment was controlledneither by the settler oligarchy nor, latterly, by the dictatorsSamuel Doe and Charles Taylor. Observers feared that the post-conflictenvironment was not conducive to holding elections and thata serious programme of reconciliation and constitutional reformshould have preceded them. Nevertheless, elections were conductedwith some degree of success, providing an opportunity to identifysome emerging patterns in post-conflict Liberian politics. Thisarticle assesses some of the new or hitherto dormant institutionsand processes that are likely to play a significant role inshaping Liberia's political order in the twenty-first century.     

The Decline of Bigotry in America

Though prejudice and discrimination exist in America, it has been steadily declining and measurably so. From our very beginnings, there has been a diversity, accretion, succession, and simultaneity of racial, religious, ethnic, and gender victims and victimizers. Fortunately, there has also been a process of meliorism, epitomized by the presidential election of a black American of mixed racial parents—Barack Hussein Obama. Regardless of their group identity, today’s generation of Americans has less victims or victimizers and has more social, political, and economic opportunities than their parents. grandparents, and predecessors had.