The influences of chronic illness and ego development on self-esteem in diabetic and psychiatric adolescent patients

Self-esteem as measured by the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory [Coopersmith, S. (1967),The Antecedents of Self-Esteem, Freeman, San Francisco] and ego development as measured by the Washington University Sentence Completion Test [Loevinger, J., and Wessler, R. (1970),Measuring Ego Development, Vol. I, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco] were evaluated in three groups of early adolescents: diabetic patients, nonpsychotic psychiatric patients, and a nonpatient group of high-school students. We found that low levels of ego development were associated with low levels of global and domain-specific self-esteem in all three subject groups. Levels of self-esteem among diabetic patients were not significantly different from those of nonpatients. While psychiatric patients had significantly lower self-esteem levels than the other groups, this difference was accounted for by preconformists, i.e., those at the lowest stages of ego development. Psychiatric patients reaching higher ego levels showed self-esteem levels indistinguishable from those of the diabetics and nonpatients.This study was supported by the youth development project of the Joslin DRTC (NIH AM20530-01), a grant from the Joslin Diabetes Center (NIH-BRSG), and NIH Grant AM27845. The authors thank John Houlihan, M.A., for statistical and computer consultations and Jennifer Johnson for data analyses.Received M.D. from The University of Chicago. Currently studying psychosocial consequences of diabetes mellitus.Received M.D. from Yale University and Ph.D. from Harvard University (Psychology). Currently studying family contexts of adolescent development.Received Ed.D. from Harvard University (School of Education). Currently studying family coping processes in response to stressful events.Received Dipl. Psych. from Freie Universitat, Berlin (Clinical Psychology). Currently studying relationships between psychopathology and development among adolescent psychiatric patients.     

Sex differences within the family: Studies of adolescent and parent family interactions

Sex differences in verbal family interactions were investigated in a group of 79 adolescents and parents from normal and psychiatric settings. The analyses were designed to study these differences in both generations, parent and adolescent. Parent and adolescent interactions with one another were observed in a semistructured, revealed-differences family discussion. All of the individual speeches were then scored with our Constraining and Enabling Coding System (CECS). Initial predictions involved both adolescent and parent differences. These hypotheses were only partially confirmed. The strongest findings pertained to parent sex differences, as we found strikingly higher levels of cognitive enabling speeches expressed by fathers and significantly more speeches addressed to fathers. We discuss several alternative interpretations of these findings. Perspectives included in our considerations are direction of effect and influences of task/context upon the expression of family sex differences.This study was supported through a grant from the National Institute of Child and Human Development (NICHD Grant No. R01 HD18684-02) and a Research Scientist Development Award No. 5 K-02-MH-70178 (Dr. Hauser) from the NIMH.Received M.D. from Yale University and Ph.D. from Harvard University (psychology). Currently studying family contexts of adolescent development.Received B.A. from Michigan University. Currently graduate student in organizational behavior, Northwestern University. Current interests are women and work.Received his Ph.D. from Boston University. Research interests are in methodology and statistics.Henry A. Murray Research Center of Radcliffe College. Received Ed. D. from Harvard University (School of Education). Currently studying family coping processes in response to stressful events.Received Ph.D. from Ohio State University (psychology). Current interests in assessing ego development and family systems.Parent-Place, Judge Baker Guidance Center. Received Ph.D. from the University of Miami (clinical psychology). Research interests are in family studies and adolescent development.Received M.D. from the University of Chicago. Currently studying psychological consequences of diabetes mellitus.the Children's Unit of McLean Hospital. Received Diploma Psych. from Freie Universitat, Berlin (clinical psychology), and Ed.D. from Harvard University (School of Education). Currently studying relationships between psychopathology and development among adolescent psychiatric patients.     

Mitigating the consequences of invasive security practices: a quasi-experiment in an international airport

Journal of Experimental Criminology - Invasive security practices create resentment, especially when targeting minority groups. Many studies of homeland security as well as of general policing...     

Humanitarianism and politics: the dangers of contrived separation

Humanitarianism and politics are more often than not considered to be separate from each other, despite the increasing complexity of contemporary conflict. This article highlights the specifics of the flight of one renegade soldier and some 300 of his men from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to Rwanda, at a time when the international community was plotting the roadmap for an ideal solution that everybody could have approved. The article explores what caused the relevant parties to forfeit such a solution and recommends ways to improve operational coordination and complementarity among international actors.     

Effective Counter‐Terrorism: Rockets,Iron Dome,and the Israeli Housing Market

How effective is counter‐terrorism and what are the underlying mechanisms? Relying on a unique experiment and detailed micro data from Israel, we show that the deployment of the Iron Dome anti‐rocket system mitigated the negative effect of rocket attacks on house prices and lowered the price premium associated with in‐house shelters. Analysis of surveys and data on purchases of anti‐anxiety drugs yields evidence consistent with a psychological mechanism: by reducing the negative effects on daily routine, subjective well‐being, and psychological distress, Iron Dome lowered the disamenity associated with living under the shadow of the rocket threat.     

The “care package,” prison domestic violence programs and recidivism: a quasi-experimental study

Objectives

Although there are many evaluations of domestic violence rehabilitation programs, it is still unclear “what works” in this field, especially when it comes to programs within prison walls. Today, most studies indicate that domestic violence programs based on cognitive behavioral treatment, or psycho-educational models show small positive results. Yet, there is still insufficient empirical literature providing adequate evidence for the impact of integrative treatment, where different methods and approaches toward domestic violence prisoners are employed within the same rehabilitation-program framework while incarcerated. Our study examined the effects of an integrative domestic violence program with a therapeutic “package” implemented in Israel with the goal of reducing recidivism rates among prisoners in general, and especially with regard to violent offenses.

Methods

Using propensity score matching methods, we compared treated offenders to a matched sample drawn from all convicted prisoners who were released from prison between 2004 and 2012.

Results

The findings indicate that the percentages of reincarceration and rearrests of inmates, who participated in integrative domestic violence program, were significantly lower during a period of up to 4 years after release.

Conclusions

Our conclusion is that the integrative effect of different treatments along with a supportive prison climate increased the success of inmates who participated in the domestic violence program.

     

Failed aid: how development agencies are neglecting and marginalising Rwandan genocide survivors

This Viewpoint argues that international development aid agencies have failed adequately to address the rights and needs of genocide survivors in Rwanda. It illustrates that genocide survivors remain impoverished and marginalised, and that development aid agencies only tangentially, if at all, acknowledge their vulnerability and take steps to empower them to realise their rights. It provides examples of aid programmes that are reaching genocide survivors and urges development aid agencies in Rwanda to design and implement programmes explicitly for genocide survivors.     

The Asian scholar and the American crisis

Abstract

National development strategies in many Third-World countries in recent years have tended to emphasize a number of Japanese-pioneered patterns, among them management methods and export-oriented industrialization. Both have been seen as crucial to Japan's rise as an industrial power; and, during the past decade, export-oriented industrialization has been behind the rise of the Asian “Gang of Four”—South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore.