Book reviews

Jeff Haynes, Religion in Global Politics (Longman, London, 1998), 243 pp., ISBN 0–582–29312‐X (pb)

Haleh Afshar, Islam and Feminisms. An Iranian Case‐study (Macmillan, London, 1998), 235 pp., ISBN 0–333–73324‐X (hb)

Felix Moses Edoho, Globalization and the New World Order: Promises, Problems, and Prospects for Africa in the Twenty First Century (Praeger, Westport, 1997), 215 pp., ISBN 0–275–95517–6 (hb)

Cyrus Ernesto Zirakzadeh, Social Movements in Politics. A Comparative Study (Longman, London, 1997), 269 pp., ISBN 0–582–20946–3

Mick Ryan, Lobbying from Below: INQUEST in Defence of Civil Liberties (UCL Press, London, 1996), 208 pp., ISBN 1–85728–225–8 (hb), 1–85728–256–6 (pb)

Grant Jordan and William Maloney, The Protest Business? Mobilizing Campaign Groups (Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 1997), 213 pp., ISBN 0–7190–4371–9 (pb)     

Associations Between Trauma Type,Timing, and Accumulation on Current Coping Behaviors in Adolescents: Results from a Large,Population-based Sample

The development of adolescents’ coping in response to stress is critical for adaptive functioning; these coping strategies may be shaped by numerous environmental factors during childhood, including experiences such as exposure to trauma. Childhood trauma has been shown to undermine contemporaneous coping, but how does a history of exposure to trauma and the characteristics of that trauma (type, timing, and accumulation) relate to current coping among adolescents? We addressed this question using a nationally-representative sample of 9427 adolescents (ages 13–18; 48.9% female; 66% White). Adolescents reported on their lifetime exposure to 18 different traumas, including witnessing or experiencing interpersonal violence, accidents, disasters, and violent or accidental loss of loved ones, as well as their current use of coping behaviors when under stress (problem-focused, positive emotion-focused, and negative emotion-focused coping strategies). The study’s results highlight that exposure to nearly all forms of trauma was unrelated to problem-focused and positive emotion-focused coping behaviors, but strongly associated with increased negative emotion-focused coping. Use of each coping style did not vary with age at first exposure to trauma, but increased with the number of lifetime traumatic events experienced. The findings suggest that the extent of prior exposure to trauma, including variations across type and timing, may be related to a particular form of coping that has been linked to increased risk for mental health problems. Study results highlight coping strategies as a potential target for prevention and treatment efforts, and indicate a need to better understand the malleability and trajectory of coping responses to stress for promoting healthy youth development.     

Vietnam Giai Phong!

This article critically assesses the relationship between the claimed fall in global poverty and the rise of China in recent years. It questions the mainstream “pro-globalisation” argument, which suggests that there is a causal link between neo-liberal, “pro-globalisation” policies, and falling poverty and rising China. It is argued instead that the evidence concerning poverty reduction is ambiguous, and it is not the case that the most successful developers have adopted pro-globalisation policies. This latter contention is examined through consideration of the relationship between Chinese development and globalisation, with particular emphasis on the “transnationalisation” of capital and the rise of global commodity chains, and how this has produced new forms of uneven development in the global economy.     

Third Worldist relativism: A new form of imperialism

This article challenges relativist and Third Worldist ideas which continue to influence the Left. It is argued that while the Left should remain critical of western domination of the global political economy, this should not be confused with the assumption that anti-western positions in the “Third World” are always and necessarily progressive. This is illustrated by a discussion of recent western interventions in the Third World. It is argued that a “Third Worldist” approach is based on a spurious relativism which has recently enjoyed a revival through the rise of post-modern social theory. In rejecting these approaches the case is made for a restatement of a genuine universalism and internationalism, which is equally critical of western imperialism and conflicts with the “Third World.”     

Cheryl L. Sisk and Russell D. Romeo: Coming of Age: The Neurobiology and Psychobiology of Puberty and Adolescence New York,NY: Oxford University Press. 2020, 202 pp,ISBN-13: 978-0195314373

Journal of Youth and Adolescence -     

Longitudinal Analysis of a Very Short Measure of Positive Youth Development

As developmental scientists cease to perceive adolescence as a period of inevitable turmoil and adopt the Positive Youth Development (PYD) perspective, psychometrically sound measurement tools will be needed to assess adolescents’ positive attributes. In this article we examine the longitudinal stability of the very short version of the PYD scale developed as part of the 4-H Study of PYD. Using a sample of 7,071 adolescents (60 % female) followed between Grades 5 and 12, our results suggest general stability of PYD across adolescence, both in terms of mean levels and rank-order stability. We also show that both a global measure of PYD and the individual Five Cs of PYD consistently correlate with important criterion measures (i.e., contribution, depressive symptoms, and problem behaviors) in expected ways. Although our results suggest weak relationships among our three criteria, we especially note that across adolescence PYD becomes more strongly correlated with contribution but less strongly correlated with depressive symptoms, and that confidence becomes more strongly related to depressive symptoms. We discuss implications for use of the present PYD measure in youth development programs.