Breastfeeding Duration and Reported Child Maltreatment in a Population-based Alaskan Birth Cohort

Journal of Family Violence - Research suggests that breastfeeding may reduce child maltreatment risk. Alaska has high rates of both breastfeeding initiation and maltreatment reports to Child...     

The IPV-WDA: Developing an Abusive Workplace Disruptions Assessment Using Item Response Theory

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive public health problem impacting millions of women, families, and employers each year. Abusive partners purposively sabotage survivors’ employment to maintain control over them. While previous scales have been developed to measure the impact of IPV on work and economic stability, the current study creates and pilot tests a technology-inclusive measurement of workplace disruptions for survivors of IPV. It was hypothesized that statistical analysis would produce subscales of poor workplace performance and employment instability. The 34-item Intimate Partner Violence and Workplace Disruptions Assessment (IPV-WDA) developed for this study is based on individual interviews with IPV survivors, consultations with expert scholars and advocates, and comparisons of items with existing measurements. The current study used item response theory (IRT-Rasch model) to develop and pilot test the IPV-WDA with a sample of intimate partner violence survivors (N?=?41) who had been employed while experiencing abuse. The IPV-WDA showed unidimensionality, high reliability, and validity, as well as items that ranged from common to severe experiences. All items provided unique information on survivors’ experiences of workplace disruptions indicating they should be retained. Based on findings of overall reliable and valid performance, the technology inclusive and comprehensive IPV-WDA should be used in future research. Specifically, researchers should prioritize using it with larger samples so that individual item findings can shape the conceptualization of abusive workplace disruptions and be the target of future intervention research.

     

Predicting How Well Adolescents Get Along with Peers and Teachers: A Machine Learning Approach

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - How well adolescents get along with others such as peers and teachers is an important aspect of adolescent development. Current research on adolescent...     

Chautauqua: Are media news spectacles perverting our political processes?

“Chautauqua: Are media news spectacles perverting our political processes?” Communication Monographs, 59 (1992), 395–420.     

Curzon,Lloyd George and the control of British foreign policy, 1919–22: A reassessment

This article reappraises the complex relationship between Lord Curzon and Lloyd George in the years between the former's appointment as Foreign Secretary and the latter's fall from office as Prime Minister in 1922. It argues that the widely held view that Lloyd George held Curzon in contempt and marginalized him in the conduct of foreign affairs is not accurate. Their relationship is presented as being one of mutual respect and significant levels of cooperation. The article thus questions the extent to which the Foreign Office suffered an ‘eclipse’ in this period.     

Cultural Stressors and Mental Health Symptoms Among Mexican Americans: A Prospective Study Examining the Impact of the Family and Neighborhood Context

Studies of stress consistently have linked individuals’ experiences of stress to maladjustment, but limited attention has been given to cultural stressors commonly experienced by minority individuals. To address this, the current study examined the links between cultural stressors and prospective changes in mental health symptoms in a sample of 710 (49 % female) Mexican American youth. In addition, the moderating role of both family and neighborhood cohesion was examined. In-home interviews were completed with youth, mothers (required) and fathers (optional) to collect data on youth’s experiences of cultural stressors (discrimination and language hassles) and internalizing/externalizing behavior, and mothers’ report of family cohesion and mothers’ and fathers’ report of neighborhood cohesion. Analyses revealed that youth’s experiences of discrimination and language hassles at 5th grade were related positively to increases in internalizing symptoms at 7th grade. Additionally, youths who reported higher levels of language hassles in 5th grade experienced increases in externalizing symptoms across the 2-year span. Both family and neighborhood cohesion emerged as significant moderating factors but their impact was conditional on youth’s gender and nativity. Limitations and future implications are discussed.     

Between morality and rationality: framing end-of-life care policy through narratives

This paper analyzes the nature of the debate generated prior to the implementation of the Act Respecting End-of-Life Care in 2015 in Québec (Canada). Including medical assistance in dying (MAID) along existing palliative care services, the act is an important policy change on a very sensitive issue. As such, MAID could be categorized as a morality policy issue, the latter being defined as a particular category of policy because of its specific features (issues of first principle, technical simplicity, high salience, public interest, and public participation). In line with Mucciaroni’s proposition, we rather analyze this issue by understanding morality policy as one of two framing strategies (moral and/or rational-instrumental frame). Our research reconstructs four public opinion framings as advanced and transmitted through the media between 2005 and 2015. It shows that although opponents to the bill unsurprisingly framed the debate in deontological terms, mostly referring to sanctity of life as one of the most important values in society, they also framed it on rational-instrumental grounds in a similar proportion, alleging the danger of a slippery slope and potential abuse. As well, if some of the proponents favored a moral framing centered on the argument that dignity and individual autonomy take precedence over all other values, others put forward a rational-instrumental one, where the slippery slope/abuse argument is used as a cautionary statement against the artificial prolongation of life. Our analysis reinforces Mucciaroni’s and Ferraiolo’s assertions that sensitive issues classified as morality policy cannot be apprehended solely through the unidimensional frame of morality.