Valence and satisfaction with democracy: A cross‐national analysis of nine Western European democracies

In recent studies, scholars have highlighted factors that influence citizen satisfaction with democracy, with particular emphasis on the role played by the institutional features of political systems, and ideology. This article presents the first empirical study of whether changes in important party characteristics can affect individuals' satisfaction with democracy. Using a measure of parties' character‐valence derived from content analysis of news reports, evidence is presented that when governing parties' images decline with respect to important valence‐related attributes such as competence, unity and integrity, then citizen satisfaction with democracy similarly declines. However, this relationship is conditional on the performance of opposition parties. These findings are relevant to studies of regime support, political representation, democratic accountability and voter behaviour.     

States of Environmental Justice: Redistributive Politics across the United States, 1993–2004

In the 20 years since a president committed federal government agencies to achieving environmental justice (EJ), states have been at the forefront of policy development. But states have varied in the nature and extent of their EJ efforts. We use Guttman Scaling to measure state EJ effort and test hypotheses regarding the relative importance of problem severity, politics, and administrative variables to variation in state policy development. Our analysis offers a novel characterization of state policy intensity and demonstrates its scalability. Income‐based problem severity, environmental group membership, and nonwhite populations were important predictors of state EJ policy intensity during our study period. The political geography of EJ policy also displayed a distinctive southern pattern and the EJ policy intensity model contrasted significantly with a model of environmental policy innovation. The findings suggest that state EJ politics are more indicative of redistributive policy than regulatory.     

The Effects of Childhood Physical Abuse or Childhood Sexual Abuse in Battered Women's Coping Mechanisms: Obsessive-Compulsive Tendencies and Severe Depression

What role does childhood abuse have on the coping choices made by a battered woman? Ancillary to a depression study (Bailey, 1996) in 79 battered women from a Houston area women's shelter were compared for past abuse experiences and how the women were coping with abuse in adulthood. This study compared coping styles between two groups of battered women: those who experienced childhood physically abuse (CPA) (n=35), and those who did not experience childhood physically abuse (NCPA) in childhood (n=44). All of the women filled out a battery of questionnaires including The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), and a scale for learned helplessness. A t-test conducted on obsessive-compulsive tendencies (OCT) scale of the BSI found that women who were NPPA had significantly lower BSI-OCT scores t(77)=−2.05, p < .05 than women who were PPA. No statistically significant differences were found between groups for learned helplessness. Out of the 35 battered women who reported physical abuse in childhood were more likely to report sexual abuse as girls than battered women who were not physically abused, t(77)=−3.40, p < .001. Battered women who had been physically and sexually abused in childhood were more severely depressed. Battered women who were not abused in childhood had more obsessive compulsive tendencies. The ramifications of these findings for therapeutic treatment are discussed.     

Dimensions of Short-Term and Long-Term Self-Regulation in Adolescence: Associations with Maternal and Paternal Parenting and Parent-Child Relationship Quality

Relatively little is known about the degree to which subcomponents of self-regulation change during early to middle adolescence. This study considered familial predictors (maternal/paternal regulatory support, antagonistic parenting, and parent-child closeness) of rank-order change in behavioral, emotional and cognitive regulation and perseverance over one year. N?=?452 adolescents ages 11–16 years and their parents completed questionnaires and parent-child discussion tasks (48.7% male; 69.6% white). Results indicated minimal direct effects of parenting, though maternal and paternal parenting and parent-child closeness exerted small effects that were moderated by prior levels of cognitive regulation and perseverance. Parents may contribute to the development of complex regulatory capacities that mature after foundational emotional and behavioral regulation competencies.     

Perspectives of Mothers,Fathers, and Parenting Coordinators Concerning the Process and Impact of Parenting Coordination

In a small pilot study, 31 interviewees, including 12 parenting coordinators, 11 mothers, and 8 fathers representing 14 different parenting coordination cases retrospectively described child and family functioning both pre‐ and post‐parenting coordination in phone interviews. They also detailed how often and how well different issues that arose during the parenting coordination work (acrimony, problem‐solving communication, triangulation of the child into the conflict) were actively addressed. Parties tended to view coparenting more positively when reflecting on post‐ compared with pre‐intervention, but reported less change in child adjustment. Discrepancy among same‐case informant reports was common. Parenting coordinators (PCs) consistently rated their interventions as more frequent and successful than did parents. Mothers and fathers largely disagreed on interventions they experienced. While this small N pilot can offer no definitive conclusions, it underscores need for research and wisdom in including both parents' perspectives.