Maternal Acceptance and Adolescents’ Emotional Communication: A Longitudinal Study

With substantive evidence suggesting that adolescents’ disclosure is likely a protective factor against problem behaviors, as well as evidence that many adolescents will go to great lengths to avoid sharing information with parents, one may conclude that parents’ face a formidable task. Previous studies have identified parental acceptance as a concurrent correlate of adolescents’ behavioral disclosure, but have neglected to investigate potential ways that parents could encourage their adolescents to feel comfortable disclosing emotional information. The present study extends the literature by using a longitudinal, multi-method, multi-reporter design to examine whether maternal acceptance is predictive of emotional disclosure over time among a racially/socioeconomically diverse sample of 184 adolescents (53% female). Results indicate that adolescents who perceive their mothers as high in acceptance during early adolescence exhibit greater relative increases in both self-reported emotional communication and observed emotional disclosure to their mothers 3 years later. Interestingly, mothers’ perceptions of their own acceptance does not provide any additional predictive value. These findings support the notion that adolescents’ emotional disclosure is an ongoing process that can be fostered in early adolescence, and emphasize the importance of considering adolescents’ perceptions of the relationship to successfully do so.     

Dimensions of interparental conflict and adolescent functioning

While research has repeatedly demonstrated that interparental conflict is related to poorer child/adolescent functioning in the areas of internalizing and externalizing problems, as well as prosocial and cognitive competence, the particular relevant dimensions of the conflict have yet to be studied. The present study examined the contributions of three different dimensions of conflict to these difficulties in adolescent functioning. Forty-eight mother-father-adolescent triads participated by completing questionnaires regarding the following dimensions of their interparental conflict: frequency, method of handling, and outcome. Assessment of adolescent functioning was obtained independently through teacher-completed measures of internalizing and externalizing problems and prosocial and cognitive functioning. The results of correlational analyses indicated that father-completed measures, particularly the use of verbal and physical aggression to handle conflict, were related to all four measures of adolescent functioning. In contrast, mother-completed measures were not related. Multiple regression analyses were also conducted. For all four measures, either father physical or father verbal aggression entered first and accounted for 17 to 48% of the variance across the four dependent measures. No other indices of conflict individually accounted for a significant portion of the variance beyond that accounted for by father's verbal or physical aggression. Possible explanations for the relationship between father's method of handling of conflict and adolescent functioning are discussed.     

The Preparation of the Governance White Paper

The European Commission's White Paper on Governance initiated a Europe-wide debate about the principles and practices of good policymaking. This article, which draws from the author's work with the team that prepared the White Paper, provides a first-hand examination of how the document was produced. Following a discussion about the meaning of governance, the article focuses on the timeline of events, the consultation procedures, and some of the challenges (linguistic, practical, and political) that arose. It concludes by placing the governance debate in the context of the ongoing European Convention and 2004 IGC.     

Voting Rights for Whom? Examining the Effects of the Voting Rights Act on Latino Political Incorporation

This study applies insights from principal‐agent models to examine whether and how the language assistance provisions of the Voting Rights Act, Sections 203 and 4(f)(4), affect Latino representation. Using panel data from 1984–2012, we estimate two‐stage models that consider the likelihood and extent of Latino board representation for a sample of 1,661 school districts. In addition, we examine how policy design as well as federal oversight and enforcement shape implementation and compliance with the language assistance provisions. Our findings not only provide the first systemic evidence that the language assistance provisions have a direct effect on Latino representation, but also link the efficacy of the language assistance provisions to the duration and consistency of coverage and the presence of federal elections observers. Overall, our study underscores the continued need for federal government involvement in protecting the voting rights of underrepresented groups, in this case, language minority citizens.     

Dynamic Pie: A Strategy for Modeling Trade‐Offs in Compositional Variables over Time

The substance of politics involves competition that evolves over time. While our theories about competition emphasize trade‐offs across multiple categories, most empirical models tend to oversimplify them by considering trade‐offs between one category and everything else. We propose a research strategy for testing theories about trade‐off relationships that shape dynamic compositional variables. This approach improves current methods used to analyze compositional dependent variables by addressing two limitations. First, although scholars have considered compositional dependent variables, they have done so in contexts that were not dynamic. Second, current approaches toward graphical presentations become unwieldy when the compositional dependent variable has more than three categories. We demonstrate the utility of our strategy to expand current theories of party support and political budgeting. In both cases, we can extend trade‐offs across pairs of alternatives (e.g., prime minister versus all other parties or spending on defense versus everything else) to competition across multiple alternatives.     

Not Centralisation but Decentralised Integration through Australia's National Mental Health Policy

This article challenges dominant perceptions of Commonwealth centralisation in Australia's federal system. While recognising the Commonwealth has entered a range of policy fields not anticipated by federal founders, it argues this does not equate to a generalised unidirectional and hierarchical orchestration of state/territory functions. The crucial case of mental health policy is presented as an alternative scenario in Australia's federal experience. Theoretically key challenges from the multi‐level governance literature are proffered against the centralisation thesis. These include queries about the origins of Commonwealth directives and assumptions of zero‐sum notions of state/territory autonomy. Brief empirical analysis highlights the role of the Commonwealth as a conduit of horizontal and vertical flows of knowledge through the national mental health policy agenda. Given disconnect and diversity between national ambitions and their realisation at state/territory level, it is argued better proceduralisation through bottom‐up peer dialogue and feedback present alternative routes towards decentralised integration.     

Constructing Achievement in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY): A Corpus-Based Critical Discourse Analysis

The International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established by the UN Security Council in 1993 to prosecute persons responsible for war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia during the Balkan wars. As the first international war crimes tribunal since the Nuremburg and Tokyo tribunals set up after WWII, the ICTY has attracted immense interest among legal scholars since its inception, but has failed to garner the same level of attention from researchers in other disciplines, notably linguistics. This represents a significant research gap, as the Tribunal’s public discourse (notably its case law and Annual Reports) can open up interesting avenues of analysis to researchers of law, language, and legal discourse alike. On its official website, the Tribunal claims that it has “irreversibly changed the landscape of international humanitarian law” and lists six specific achievements: “Holding leaders accountable; bringing justice to victims; giving victims a voice; establishing the facts; developing international law and strengthening the rule of the law”. While a number of legal scholars have studied and critiqued the level of ‘achievement’ actually attained by the Tribunal against these metrics and others, of interest to linguists is the ways in which this work might be conveyed discursively. In this paper, we demonstrate how methods from the linguistic field of corpus-based critical discourse analysis can be utilised to explore the discursive construction of such achievements in the language of the ICTY.     

Commode Cardia—Death by Valsalva Maneuver: A Case Series

The Valsalva maneuver is used in clinical medicine for the diagnosis and/or treatment of various cardiovascular conditions. It can also be used in activities of daily living, such as defecation. Due to the cardiovascular effects produced during the Valsalva maneuver, it may be contraindicated in certain medical conditions and could be a trigger of sudden cardiac death. The incidence and prevalence of death following Valsalva maneuver in the presence of underlying cardiovascular disease, or “commode cardia,” has not been examined. In 2012, the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office (Detroit, MI) investigated 21 deaths that occurred on the toilet, fourteen of which were due to cardiovascular disease. In another 31 deaths in the bathroom due to cardiovascular disease, the possibility that the decedent defecated immediately prior to death could not be excluded. Hence, the incidence of commode cardia in this population ranges from 2.3 to 7.4% of all cardiovascular‐related deaths.     

Policing built environment crime risks: the role of police in CPTED in New South Wales,Australia*

Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) is now routinely adopted in many parts of the world. The role assumed by police in CPTED practices has however received limited academic attention. Through an analysis of available documentation and interviews with local government planners from 10 Sydney councils, this article provides a (partial) understanding of the historical and contemporary roles police have played in the development and implementation of CPTED guidelines in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. It is argued that the NSW Police Force was a pivotal driver of the introduction of planning guidelines to ensure crime risks are considered when new developments are being planned. However, the ongoing contribution of police appears to have waned, largely due to administrative, practical and operational realities. These findings have relevance for ongoing CPTED practice and the work of specialist policing roles more generally.