Testing a Model of Resistance to Peer Pressure Among Mexican-Origin Adolescents

This study examined the factors associated with resistance to peer pressure toward antisocial behaviors among a sample of Mexican-origin adolescents (n=564) living in a large Southwestern city in the U.S. A model examining the influence of generational status, emotional autonomy from parents, and self-esteem on resistance to peer pressure was tested independently for boys and girls. Gender differences emerged in the factors that influenced resistance to peer pressure. Results indicated that resistance to peer pressure was influenced by generational status and emotional autonomy from parents for both boys and girls. However, self-esteem was found to influence resistance to peer pressure only for boys.Mayra Y. Bámaca is a graduate student in Family and Human Development at Arizona State University. Her research interests include adolescent development among ethnically diverse populations, the influence of contextual factors in development, parenting adolescents, and resiliency among Latino adolescents and their families. This work was based on the master’s thesis of the first author.Adriana J. Uma?a-Taylor received her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia and is currently an Assistant Professor of Family and Human Development at Arizona State University. Her research interests include ethnic identity formation during adolescence and resilience among Latino adolescents and their families.This study was supported, in part, by a grant to the second author from the Fahs Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation of the New York Community Trust.     

Reforming the U.S. Department of Transportation: Challenges and Opportunities of the Government Performance and Results Act for Federal-State Relations

This article examines attempts during 1993–1999 to reformthe U.S. Department of Transportation to hold it accountablefor achieving improved program results through performance measures.These attempts affected the department's relationships withCongress and the states. The political context, institutionalstructure, federal system, and separation of powers into whichthese reforms were introduced limited the course and outcomesof the reforms. For the reforms to succeed, changes need totake place in the behavior of state transportation departmentsand members of Congress. However, there are no clear incentivesfor either constituency to change its behavior. Instead, thestates' political interests in maintaining their flexibilitiesand the electoral concerns of members of Congress create incentivesthat undermine rather than enforce reform.     

略论民族服饰的传承与发展--以纳西族服饰的流变和推广为例

民族服饰是各民族传统文化中不可或缺的一个重要内容。纳西族服饰流变的研究和纳西族服饰的传承推广 ,为各民族服饰的保护传承提供了一个范例。继承、创新是弘扬民族服饰文化的根本 ,要以文化互动的视角和观点 ,正确认识民族服饰的重要价值 ,搞好舆论宣传 ,并与民族地区的经济文化建设紧密结合 ,走与旅游同步发展的道路。从实际出发 ,采取分类指导、全面启动的原则 ,从而加快与世界的接轨 ,是我们传承和发展民族服饰的根本目的     

Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Alcohol,Cigarette, and Marijuana Use During Adolescence

The purpose of this study was to increase the knowledge base of adolescent substance use by examining the influences of risk and protective factors for specific substance use, namely alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana. Participants included 271 adolescents and their primary caregivers referred for mental health services across North Carolina. A series of hierarchical multiple regressions showed that the relative influences of risk and protective factors differed depending on the target substance in some cases. History of parental felony predicted use of all 3 substances, although the direction of association was substance specific. Parental behavioral control (how families express and maintain standards of behavior) was predictive only of cigarette and marijuana use, not alcohol use. The different links among risk factors, protective factors, and specific substance use are discussed, and recommendations for both mental health and substance use professionals are offered.She received her M.A. in Psychology from Wake Forest University and is currently a doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her major research interests include developmental pathways to aggressive behavior among females.An evaluator for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, her major research interests include system of care intervention programming.She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Purdue University. Her major research interests include developmental psychopathology and early intervention.His research interests focus on youth violence and youth involved with the juvenile justice system.She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her research interests focus on early intervention with young children.     

Suicide with multiple graze shots

A 77-year-old man was found in his flat with a shot to the right temple. In spite of hospital treatment he died from the head injury the next day. The weapon at the scene used for committing the suicide was a pistol, make Kaba Special (calibre 6.35 mm). At autopsy, the right temporal region showed a surgically treated, originally stellate gunshot entrance wound with a powder cavity. Close to this penetrating gunshot wound there were 3 parallel graze shot injuries of the scalp. The autopsy findings were consistent with the assumption that all the shots had been fired by the victim himself with suicidal intent. The injury pattern is presented and discussed in relation to the results of the technical investigation of the weapon and the findings at the scene.     

Identification of exhumed remains of fire tragedy victims using conventional methods and autosomal/Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat DNA profiling

In a fire tragedy in Manila in December 1998, one of the worst tragic incidents which resulted in the reported death of 23 children, identity could not be established initially resulting in the burial of still unidentified bodies. Underscoring the importance of identifying each of the human remains, the bodies were exhumed 3 months after the tragedy. We describe here our work, which was the first national case handled by local laboratories wherein conventional and molecular-based techniques were successfully applied in forensic identification. The study reports analysis of DNA obtained from skeletal remains exposed to conditions of burning, burial, and exhumation. DNA typing methods using autosomal and Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (Y-STR) markers reinforced postmortem examinations using conventional identification techniques. The strategy resulted in the identification of 18 out of the 21 human remains analyzed, overcoming challenges encountered due to the absence of established procedures for the recovery of mass disaster remains. There was incomplete antemortem information to match the postmortem data obtained from the remains of 3 female child victims. Two victims were readily identified due to the availability of antemortem tissues. In the absence of this biologic material, parentage testing was performed using reference blood samples collected from parents and relatives. Data on patrilineal lineage based on common Y-STR haplotypes augmented autosomal DNA typing, particularly in deficiency cases.