Studying the emergence of depression and depressive symptoms during adolescence

The special issue on the emergence and maintenance of depression and depressive symptoms is introduced. The special issue considers two typically separate lines of research, one focusing on severe clinical depression and another on depressive symptoms. The biological, social, and cognitive factors contributing to the emergence of depression in adolescence are highlighted in this special issue.Received Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Research interests include biological and social development of adolescents and changes in development over a series of life cycle transitions.Received Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Research interests include biopsychosocial aspects of adoleslcent development.     

Sexual murderers of children: developmental, precrime, crime, and postcrime factors

The amount of empirical research on men who commit sexual murders is scarce, and no distinction has been made between those who have victimized adults and those who have victimized children. Therefore, to better understand specifically sexual murderers of children (n = 11), comparisons were performed with a group of sexual murderers of adult women (n = 66) on developmental, precrime, crime, and postcrime factors. It appears that sexual murderers of children are more often victims of sexual abuse during childhood and present more often deviant sexual fantasies as compared to sexual murderers of women. The results show also that sexual murderers of children more often use pornography prior to crime, have contact with the victim prior to crime, and commit a crime more often characterized by premeditation, strangulation, the hiding of the body, and its dismemberment than the sexual murderers of women.     

Media development in Syria: the Janus-faced nature of foreign aid assistance

This article intends to provide responses to some of the many unanswered questions about the making and the transformation of the uprising in Syria by exploring a new avenue of research: media development aid. Most academic interest has been oriented towards the role that the new media played at the time of the uprising; insufficient interest, by contrast, has been directed to the development of the sector in the years predating it. What emerges from this article is that the Syrian media landscape was strongly supported by international development aid during the years prior to the outbreak of the uprising of 2011. By looking at the complex structure of media aid architecture and investigating the practices and programmes implemented by some representative organisations, this article reflects on the field of media development as a new modus operandi of the West (the EU and US especially), to promote democracy through alternative and non-collateral, bottom-up support.     

Invited Commentary: Promotion and Prevention in Youth Development: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

This commentary uses the contributions of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development as a chance to reflect on the progress of the past two decades and suggest important tasks for the future. Meaningful advances in theory now set the stage for needed work on measurement, evaluation, and understanding of contextual processes. The commentary ends with a plea for an integration of the research and programmatic approaches of promotion and prevention in order to study youth development and implement youth programs.     

Neighborhood, Family and Individual Influences on School Physical Victimization

Few studies on the correlates of school violence include school and neighborhood influences. We use ecological systems theory and social disorganization theory to simultaneously incorporate neighborhood (e.g., concentrated poverty, residential instability, and immigrant concentration), school, family, and individual predictors of physical school victimization longitudinally among a large socio-economically and ethnically diverse (49 % Hispanic; 34 % African American) sample of 6 and 9 year olds (49 % female) from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. These children were followed up at Wave II at ages 8 and 11 (n = 1,425). Results of Hierarchical Generalized Linear Models reveal neighborhood residential instability increases school victimization net of family and individual correlates. Furthermore, cross-level interactions were also supported where residential family mobility has a stronger risk influence in areas of high residential instability. Also, the influence of residential family mobility is decreased in areas with higher levels of immigrant concentration. We also found cross-context connections where parent-to-child aggression in the home is connected to a higher risk of victimization at school. The role of neighborhood and family residential instability on victimization warrants further research.     

Environmentalism and the internet: corporate greenwashers and environmental groups

Environmental degradation is a serious problem, for current populations and for future generations. Corporations are the largest offenders but seldom face the consequences of their actions. This article proposes that public relations campaigns and conflicting information on the internet pose significant challenges to calling for environmental accountability from corporations. Three companies – Coca‐Cola, Georgia Pacific, and Shell – are examined here in terms of questionable practices and public relations campaigns. While the internet could be an alternative news source, ‘corporate greenwash’ muffles a definitive voice on environmental issues. Both retributive and restorative justice processes are thwarted by misleading information. Despite environmental laws and efforts to increase accountability, calling for necessary change will continue to be exceedingly difficult without public knowledge of corporate behavior.