Parental warmth amplifies the negative effect of parental hostility on dating violence

Past research has documented the positive association between parental hostility and offspring involvement in intimate partner violence. Researchers, practitioners, and parents typically adopt the standpoint that parental warmth may counter these negative lessons. However, Straus and colleagues argue that parents foster IPV to the extent that they teach their child that verbal and physical aggression are a normal and legitimate component of loving relationships. A strict interpretation of social learning theory would suggest that these lessons are more, not less, likely to occur when parental hostility is interspersed with displays of affection. The present study tests this idea using data from 2,088 undergraduate students from a large university in the Southeast. Consistent with Straus' arguments, findings suggest that, rather than attenuating the negative effects of hostility, supportive interactions seem to amplify the probability that offspring will emulate aggressive behaviors in their own romantic relationships. The same is true for the effects of harsh parenting for women. It seems that the best way parents can avoid contributing to their child's chances of being in a violent dating relationship is to eschew family interaction involving verbal and physical aggression.     

The power of small-scale solar: gender,energy poverty,and entrepreneurship in Tanzania

Energy poverty is a major challenge in the developing world, with an estimated 1.2 billion people lacking household electricity. Although energy poverty affects both men and women, the burden of household energy supply disproportionately affects women in low-income countries in the developing world. This article examines the impact of a women-oriented solar lighting social enterprise, Solar Sister, in Tanzania for both solar entrepreneurs and customers, demonstrating that solar lanterns positively impact household savings, health, education and women’s economic productivity and empowerment. Our study argues that Solar Sister’s approach is successful because of its explicit gender lens. Providing energy access to women translates to a pro-woman, pro-child, and pro-family development intervention.     

"We Have A Consensus": Explaining Political Support for Market Reforms in Latin America

By the 1990s, to the astonishment of many ob0servers, most Latin American countries had reformed their systems of national economic governance along market lines. Many analysts of this shift have assumed that it circumvented normal political processes, presuming that such reforms could not be popular. Explanations emphasizing economic crisis, external assistance, and politically insulated executives illustrate this approach. Through a qualitative investigation of the reform process in the region's four most industrialized countries, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, this study argues, to the contrary, that reforming governments found or created both elite and mass political support for their policies.     

Sexual problems found in users of a student mental health clinic

The authors were interested in discovering the spectrum and prevalence of sexual problems among young adults. With this goal in mind, they devised a Sexual Problems Check List as a comprehensive instrument utilizable by both clinicians and researchers. The Sexual Problems Check List was derived by reviewing therapists' treatment summaries and 146 recent answers to applications written by patients themselves as the first step in applying for treatment at a university mental health clinic. Data were then obtained from 52 subsequent student mental health clinic patients; such patients were selected as the sample because they were late adolescents and young adults thought likely to exhibit a broad range of clinically significant probelms. General patterns of concerns were noted which indicated that the sexual revolution has not been as liberating as the respondents were led to believe.Received his M. D. from Yale University School of Medicine in 1963. Psychiatric Residency at Yale, 1964–1967. Main interests include psychiatry residency training, psychoanalytic study of peotry, student mental health.Receved his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1971. Psychiatric Residency at University of Chicago, 1972–1975. Main interests include hospital psychiatry and group treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.Received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1968. Main interests include urban problems, socialization, and deviance.