Creating Settings for Youth Empowerment and Leadership: An Ecological Perspective

Youth development programs are increasingly focusing on youth empowerment and leadership, a shift which often requires adult staff to adopt new roles and practices. This article explores staff practice in the context of a multisite initiative designed to engage marginalized youth in social change through youth-led grants. Interviews with youth workers and managers revealed practices at multiple ecological levels. Individual-level practices supported youths’ capacities to participate. Group-level practices fostered social interactions and activities that actualized the youth-led approach. Setting-level practices created structures that supported and protected group activities while organization-level practices promoted a favorable environment for youth leadership. Analyzed from an ecological and activity settings perspective, these results contribute to understanding the multifaceted and complex nature of youth work in power-sharing practice models. Practice implications include identifying training needs to help practitioners navigate across multiple ecological levels and suggesting reflection questions for practitioners.     

Correction to: Age Patterns in Risk Taking Across the World

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - In the original publication, the legends for Figs 4 and 5 were incorrect, such that each regression line was mislabeled with the incorrect country. Below are the...     

Alcohol: The gateway to other drug use among secondary-school students

The stepping-stone theory of progression into drug use is examined, based on the alcohol and other drug use of over 27,000 seventh-through eighth-grade students in New York State. The data show that students do not use illicit drugs unless they also use alcohol. White, black and Hispanic students all tend to initiate the use of drugs in the following order-alcohol, marijuana, pills, and hard drugs. Among blacks and Hispanics, pills are not as important a transition between marijuana and hard drugs as they are among whites. Cigarettes form an important step between alcohol and marijuana use for younger students, particularly for females. Since alcohol serves as the gateway to all other drug use, prevention approaches that control and limit alcohol use among adolescents may be warranted.He received his Ph. D. in Psychology for the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1976. His research interests are the social and psychological correlates of drinking.She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1983.     

Perpetrator methodology as a predictor of traumatic symptomatology in adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse

This retrospective study explores, through quantitative and qualitative methods, the relationship of two variables (perpetrator relationship and perpetrator methodology) to posttraumatic and dissociative symptomatology. The quantitative sample comprised a nonpsychiatric group (N = 39) of Australian adults reporting sexual abuse histories. A MANOVA revealed that current levels of posttraumatic and dissociative symptomatology were significantly higher in the group reporting sexual abuse by a perpetrator in a relationship of trust, guardianship, or authority. The qualitative sample comprised a purposively selected subgroup of the quantitative sample (n = 20). Thematic content analyses of perpetrator methodology suggest that perpetrator strategies involving emotional manipulation, rather than the perpetrator relationship per se, appear to differentiate between groups with clinical or nonclinical levels of post traumatic and dissociative symptomatology. The combination of qualitative and quantitative methods provides integrated, contextualized data with implications for future research and clinical practice.     

New judicial interpretation of PRC Anti-Unfair Competition Law issued

The Supreme People's Court of China has announced the firstjudicial interpretation of the PRC Anti-Unfair Competition Law(‘the Law’), to clarify the ambiguities in the applicationof the Law. Issues covered include passing off by the use oftrade names, packaging or trade dress of well-known products,or the use of the business name or personal name of anotherenterprise or individual, false or exaggerated advertising,and unauthorized use of trade secrets.     

Regulating genetically modified crops and foods in Canada and the United Kingdom: Democratizing risk regulation

Abstract: This article examines the alternate use of models of representative, functional and citizen‐centred participatory democracy in the formulation of policies to regulate the risks of genetically modified crops and foods in the United Kingdom and Canada. It demonstrates that representative, functional and participatory democracy have all played a role in the United Kingdom; functional democracy has been ascendant in Canada, with representative democracy playing a secondary role. These cross‐national differences derive from the greater imperative for regulatory legitimacy in the U.K., and the Canadian pre‐occupation with regulatory effectiveness. The result is a more transparent U.K. regulatory framework that provides representation of a broader range of public values and concerns than in Canada. Sommaire: Cet article examine les différentes utilisations de modèles de démocratie représentative, fonctionnelle et axée sur les citoyens dans la formulation de politiques destinées à réglementer les risques associés aux cultures et aliments génétiquement modifiés au Royaume‐Uni et au Canada. Il démontre que les démocraties représentatives, fonctionnelles et participatives ont toutes joué un rôle au Royaume‐Uni; la démocratie fonctionnelle a dominé au Canada, tandis que la démocratie représentative y a joué un rôle secondaire. Ces différences transnationales proviennent du plus grand impératif de légitimité de la réglementation au R.‐U., et de la préoccupation canadienne de l'efficacité de la réglementation. Le résultat est un cadre de réglementation plus transparent au R.‐U. qui représente un plus vaste éventail de valeurs et de préoccupations publiques qu'au Canada.