The Impact of Maternal Relationship Quality on Emerging Adults’ Prosocial Tendencies: Indirect Effects via Regulation of Prosocial Values

Studies document that parents serve as children’s primary socialization agents, particularly for moral development and prosocial behavior; however, less is known regarding parental influences on prosocial outcomes during the transition to adulthood. The purpose of this study was to investigate how mother–child relationship quality was related to prosocial tendencies via emerging adults’ regulation of prosocial values. Participants included 228 undergraduate students (ranging from 18 to 25 years; 90% European American) and their mothers (ranging from 38 to 59 years) from four locations across the United States. Path analyses using structural equation modeling revealed that mother–child relationship quality was related to emerging adults’ regulation of prosocial values, which was, in turn, related to emerging adults’ prosocial tendencies. Specifically, emerging adults who reported higher levels of internal regulation of prosocial values were more likely to report prosocial tendencies that de-emphasized themselves, and were less likely to report prosocial tendencies for the approval of others.

Sexual Debut Timing and Depressive Symptoms in Emerging Adulthood

The association between sexual debut timing and depressive symptomatology in adolescence and emerging adulthood was examined using data from Waves I, II and III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Respondents who reported never having sexual intercourse at Wave I and were 18–22 years of age at Wave III were included (n = 5,061). Twenty percent of respondents experienced early (<age 16) and 49% experienced typical (ages 16–18) sexual debut. In bivariate analyses, pre-debut depressive symptoms were associated with earlier sexual debut among female but not male adolescents. In models adjusting for demographic characteristics and pre-debut depressive symptoms, sexual debut was positively related to adolescent (Wave II) depressive symptomatology, but only among female adolescents age less than sixteen. However, sexual debut timing was unassociated with emerging adult (Wave III) depressive symptomatology for both male and female respondents. Findings suggest sexual debut timing does not have implications for depressive symptomatology beyond adolescence.

Intimate partner violence and miscarriage: examination of the role of physical and psychological abuse and posttraumatic stress disorder

Despite research documenting high rates of violence during pregnancy, few studies have examined the impact of physical abuse, psychological abuse, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on miscarriage. Secondary analysis of data collected by the Chicago Women's Health Risk Study permitted an exploration of the relationships among physical abuse, psychological abuse, PTSD, and miscarriage among 118 primarily ethnic minority women. The interaction between maximum severity of abuse and age provided the best multivariate predictor of miscarriage rate, accounting for 26.9% of the variance between live birth and miscarriage outcome. Mean scores of psychological abuse, physical violence, forced sex, and PTSD were significantly higher in the miscarriage group than in the live birth group. Women who experience physical violence and psychological abuse during pregnancy may be at greater risk for miscarriage. Prospective studies can confirm findings and determine underlying mechanisms. Routine screening for traumatic stress and PTSD may reduce rates of miscarriage.     

Stature estimation based on dimensions of the bony pelvis and proximal femur

Pelin et al. recently showed that sacral height measured on lateral magnetic resonance images can be used with moderate accuracy to reconstruct stature in males. In most forensic anthropological cases, however, sacral dimensions must be obtained from dry bones. In this study, the relationship between stature and sacral height, hip height, and femur head diameter measured on dry bone was evaluated for American Blacks and Whites of both sexes (n = 247). There are significant correlation between stature and these three dimensions, but the results suggest that none of the dimensions predict stature with the accuracy needed to be useful in forensic anthropological investigations.     

Individual and Marital Consequences of Victimization: Moderating Effects of Relationship Efficacy and Spouse Support

Marital dissatisfaction and depression are common characteristics of abused women. In this investigation, we attempted to identify variables that might buffer women's marital satisfaction and stability, and their psychological adjustment against the effects of verbal and physical abuse. Verbal and physical victimization had significant negative direct effects on women's marital satisfaction: victimized women were characterized by less satisfaction and less stability regardless of their sense of relationship efficacy or their perceptions of spousal support. However, the effects of victimization on women's depression were moderated by relationship efficacy, perceived intimacy, and acceptance of emotional expression provided by the spouse: nonvictimized women who perceived more support and felt more efficacious, relative to those who felt less support and less efficacy, experienced fewer depressive symptoms, while victimized women who perceived more support and felt more efficacious in their relationships, relative to those characterized by less support and less efficacy, experienced more depressive symptoms. In the context of marital violence, increasing levels of relationship efficacy and perceptions of spouse support may be accompanied by an increase in the risk for depressive reactions.     

UNIFIED FAMILY COURTS

Fragmented court systems are especially problematic for domestic violence victims because they typically are involved in more than one proceeding that stems from the same pattern of abuse. The proceedings are handled in different courts and before different judges, who are often unaware of these orders being issued in other proceedings. Consequently, conflicting orders are prevalent and the protection and needs of victims are often not met. A unified family court, on the other hand, provides one court with the subject-matter jurisdiction to handle all family-related matters and one judge to hear all cases that involve a single family, resulting in conflicting orders being issued less frequently. Additionally, the needs of victims are better served as a result of the services component. Given the fragmented state of the court systems in New York and Pennsylvania, United States; Alberta, Canada; and Australia, unified family courts should be implemented in each locality.     

PRO SE DIVORCE LITIGANTS

With the increased number of divorce litigants appearing pro se in the past century, trial court judges and court personnel are forced to deal with their conflicting obligations with more frequency. It is virtually impossible for a trial court judge to ensure all litigants have a fair and meaningful trial without compromising their neutrality. Likewise, court personnel are allowed to give out legal information but not legal advice, with the definition of legal information and advice not neatly packaged into two separate and distinct categories. Consequently, changes must be made. This note suggests various solutions that can be imposed to either reevaluate the role of trial court judges and court personnel so that they no longer have conflicting obligations and are able to accommodate the needs of the pro se litigants or implement services that can provide pro se litigants with other avenues of obtaining information and assistance.     

President Clinton's Fiscal 1998 Budget: Political and Constitutional Paths to Balance

This article examines President Clinton's FY 98 budget proposals and the political and economic factors that led to the balanced budget agreement. Also explored are the constitutional approaches to fiscal discipline: the balanced budget amendment, the tax supermajority amendment, and the line item veto that was used 80 times by President Clinton to delete over a billion dollars. The analysis reveals that budget bargaining was continuous before and after the budget agreement was reached, moving downward from decisions on macro-budgetary totals to micro-budgetary choices on tax cuts and appropriations. The study concludes that President Clinton was relatively successful in achieving budgetary goals under divided government, that the agreement was significant despite the economic growth that made it easier, and that constitutional remedies will continue to be important in the coming years.