Romantic Attachment as a Moderator of the Association Between Childhood Abuse and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms

Childhood abuse can have significant negative effects on survivors that often last into adulthood. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of romantic attachment in understanding the relationship between childhood abuse and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in adulthood. Data for this study were taken from the first wave of a five-wave longitudinal study. The sample included 120 mothers in their third trimester of pregnancy. Regression analyses were conducted in order to examine adult romantic attachment as a possible protective or vulnerability factor. Main effects of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance on PTSD symptoms were found, such that higher levels of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance were related to more PTSD symptoms. Attachment avoidance moderated this relationship, such that child abuse was significantly related to greater PTSD symptoms in those with high attachment avoidance. Implications for attachment-based interventions are discussed.     

Labor market integration of returned educational migrants in Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan has experienced increasing educational migration, and many of these students hope to return home after graduating. The ability of returned migrants to succeed in Turkmenistan’s labor market is complicated by a variety of factors, including variation in educational quality across countries, intrusive state regulation of foreign education, and Turkmenistan’s large informal sector. Based on a survey of 98 Turkmen citizens, this study compares the career trajectories and perceptions of the labor market of people educated in Turkmenistan to those educated elsewhere. Because men and women undertake different strategies of educational migration, it also compares patterns of labor market integration by gender. Country of education does appear to matter for employment in Turkmenistan, but the effect is most prominent immediately after graduation. Women were less likely to be employed in Turkmenistan, partly because they were more likely to have been educated abroad, and more likely to have a partner abroad.     

‘My Eyes Were Open’: Awakened Maternal Identity and Leaving Violent Relationships for the Infant/Children

A qualitative secondary analysis explored stories of mothers (n = 49) who left violent relationships (VRs) through a lens of maternal identity. Constant comparative method identified a theory of Awakened Maternal Identity (AMI) and Leaving VR for the Infant/Children. Mothers described how the VR diminished their maternal identity (DMI). Partners controlled the VR though unrealistic infant care expectations, criticisms of infant care, harsh parenting, and control over mothering decisions. DMI lowered the mother’s capacity to provide emotionally nurturing infant care. Over time, mothers experienced AMI- as their ‘eyes were opened’ they experienced a stronger sense of mothering responsibility, focused more on the infants and children, and eventually prioritized their relationship with the infants and children over the partner. AMI seemed a turning point that led to leaving the VR for the infants/children. Recommendations offered for professionals to foster AMI as potential means to initiate the leaving VRs.     

‘Death is painful so it is better to be holding a gun’: the socio-ecologically situated dis/rearmament decisions of formerly abducted persons in northern Uganda

In northern Uganda, children and youth once abducted by the notorious Lord's Resistance Army now live in internally displaced persons camps, facing challenging social, economic and security conditions. Within this context, former combatants state they would prefer to rearm than face a ‘painful’ and inevitable death. Drawing on qualitative interviews and focus group discussions with over 300 former combatants, we apply a socio-ecological lens to determine the push/pull factors that influence their decision to rearm or disarm. A lack of personal security, levels of stigmatisation and poor economic and educational opportunities are among the highest push factors toward rearmament. These findings point to a broad range of causes and actors responsible for child and youth militarisation and call for more holistic DDR approaches.     

Examining the Paradox of Crime Reporting: Are Disadvantaged Victims More Likely to Report to the Police?

This study uses an intersectional approach to examine the “paradox” that disadvantaged victims often mobilize the police, despite their distrust and lack of confidence in the law. Data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (1994–2016) were analyzed using logistic regression to model the predicted probabilities of police notification by victims of crime. Economic disadvantage, as measured by family poverty and lack of a high school education, increased the probability that females reported their victimization to the police, but decreased the likelihood that males did so. Economically disadvantaged black females had the highest probability of reporting, while economically disadvantaged black and Hispanic males had the lowest. Examining the intersectional differences across social groups shows that reporting behavior is not just a function of one attribute but rather is a function of multiple identities and structural inequalities.     

Use of an Automated Nested Multiplex Respiratory Pathogen PCR Panel Postmortem in the Pediatric Forensic Setting

Respiratory pathogens have been detected in forensic investigations using multiple techniques; however, no study has examined the use of automated, nested, multiplex polymerase chain reaction (ANM‐PCR), commonly used in living patients, in the forensic setting. This retrospective study assessed the utility of ANM‐PCR in detecting respiratory pathogens in the pediatric forensic setting. Respiratory samples from 35 cases were tested for up to 20 respiratory pathogens. 51.4% of these cases yielded a positive ANM‐PCR result, 20% of which were considered the cause of or contributory to death. The most commonly detected pathogens were rhinovirus/enterovirus and respiratory syncytial virus, and these were the only pathogens determined to play a significant role in cause of death. The sampled sites and postmortem intervals tested did not affect the likelihood of a positive or negative test. ANM‐PCR panels are effective, affordable, and rapid ancillary tools in evaluating cause of death in the forensic pediatric population.     

Law and Institutional Legitimacy in the Practice of Human Rights

The Heart of Human Rights develops an account of human rights as legal entities that serve important moral purposes in a legitimate international human rights practice. This paper examines Allen Buchanan’s general concept of institutional legitimacy and aims to expand that concept by emphasizing its connection with several ideas developed in the book about the nature and function of a system of international human rights. When it incorporates those ideas, Buchanan’s ‘Metacoordination View’ can be seen to set a standard of legitimacy not only for assessments of an international scheme of human rights institutions, but also for the basic institutional structures of domestic states. Furthermore, we can see how the nature and function of human rights in the international practice of human rights bears on legitimacy assessments of particular domestic institutions.     

Traumatic Brain Injury Alters Word Memory Test Performance by Slowing Response Time and Increasing Cortical Activation: An fMRI Study of a Symptom Validity Test

The Word Memory Test (WMT) is an established symptom validity test that relies on verbal memory performance to make inferences about “effort.” Previous studies, using a functional MRI (fMRI) adaptation of the WMT with healthy controls, have shown that successful completion of the WMT relies on a widespread network of neural systems associated with high cognitive effort. Additional studies using the same fMRI paradigm with patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) suggest that increased activation of cortical regions associated with cognitive load are recruited to meet the cognitive challenges that the WMT places on a compromised neural system. This study builds on previous findings as a result of highly uncommon circumstances in which fMRI data on the WMT task were made available from the very same individual both 1 year before and 1 year after sustaining a TBI. Interestingly, the effect of TBI did not appear to impair performance on the WMT in terms of standard accuracy measurements, though response times were notably slower. The main fMRI finding was a significantly stronger and more widespread pattern of activation post-injury, particularly in the frontal and parietal brain regions, suggesting that stronger engagement of these networks was necessary to sustain accurate WMT performance compared to pre-injury testing. This unique source of data, together with previous findings, suggests a more complex relationship between effort and performance levels on the WMT than what is commonly assumed.     

Associations Between Caregiver Support, Bullying, and Depressive Symptomatology Among Sexual Minority and Heterosexual Girls: Results from the 2008 Boston Youth Survey

Although sexual minority (SM) youth are at an increased risk for being bullied and experiencing depression, it is unclear how caregiver support is interrelated with those variables. Therefore, we sought to assess: (a) the prevalence of nonphysical bullying, depressive symptomatology, and caregiver support among heterosexual and SM girls, (b) the association between caregiver support and bullying in both groups, and (c) whether sexual orientation moderates the interactive effect of caregiver support and bullying on depressive symptoms. Data come from a survey of students in 22 Boston public high schools; 99 of the 832 girls in the analytic sample were SM. We used chi-square statistics to examine group differences, and multiple regression to estimate the association between the caregiver support, sexual orientation, being bullied, and depressive symptomatology. SM girls reported similar levels of caregiver support as heterosexual girls, but reported higher levels of depressive symptomatology. They were also more likely to report nonphysical bullying. Tests for interactions were not statistically significant, suggesting that bullying, caregiver support, and sexual orientation are independently associated with depressive symptomatology.