Defend,Stand By,or Join In?: The Relative Influence of Moral Identity,Moral Judgment,and Social Self-Efficacy on Adolescents’ Bystander Behaviors in Bullying Situations

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - In bullying situations, adolescent bystanders may help bullied others, just stand by, or join in the antisocial behavior. Current studies have yet to fully...     

Emotional Distress Among LGBT Youth: The Influence of Perceived Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation

The authors evaluated emotional distress among 9th–12th grade students, and examined whether the association between being lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgendered (i.e., “LGBT”) and emotional distress was mediated by perceptions of having been treated badly or discriminated against because others thought they were gay or lesbian. Data come from a school-based survey in Boston, Massachusetts (n = 1,032); 10% were LGBT, 58% were female, and ages ranged from 13 to 19 years. About 45% were Black, 31% were Hispanic, and 14% were White. LGBT youth scored significantly higher on the scale of depressive symptomatology. They were also more likely than heterosexual, non-transgendered youth to report suicidal ideation (30% vs. 6%, p < 0.0001) and self-harm (21% vs. 6%, p < 0.0001). Mediation analyses showed that perceived discrimination accounted for increased depressive symptomatology among LGBT males and females, and accounted for an elevated risk of self-harm and suicidal ideation among LGBT males. Perceived discrimination is a likely contributor to emotional distress among LGBT youth.     

Personality and the Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Attainment: Evidence from Germany

Research based in the United States, with its relatively open educational system, has found that personality mediates the relationship between parents’ and child’s educational attainment and this mediational pattern is especially beneficial to students from less-educated households. Yet in highly structured, competitive educational systems, personality characteristics may not predict attainment or may be more or less consequential at different points in the educational career. We examine the salience of personality in the educational attainment process in the German educational system. Data come from a longitudinal sample of 682 17 to 25 year-olds (54% female) from the 2005 and 2015 German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Results show that adolescent personality traits—openness, neuroticism, and conscientiousness—are associated with educational attainment, but personality plays a negligible role in the intergenerational transmission of education. Personality is influential before the decision about the type of secondary degree that a student will pursue (during adolescence). After that turning point, when students have entered different pathways through the system, personality is less salient. Cross-national comparisons in a life course framework broaden the scope of current research on non-cognitive skills and processes of socioeconomic attainment, alerting the analyst to the importance of both institutional structures and the changing importance of these skills at different points in the life course.     

Penal harm and unusual conditions of confinement: Inmate perceptions of ‘hard time’ in jail

Despite the increasingly punitive public policies of the past three decades and the concomitant ‘get tough’ rhetoric aimed at reducing prison and jail amenities, little is known about inmates’ perceptions of punishment. Prison and jail administrators often justify their efforts to increase the “pains of imprisonment” for incarcerated offenders on the basis of retribution and deterrence, but these policies appear to be more symbolic than substantive in nature. Using interview data from 232 inmates about to be released from a large county jail renown for its ‘get tough ’ policies, this study examined inmate perceptions of their unusual conditions of confinement. Findings suggest that many of these policies were benign or even counterproductive to the extent that they promoted a defiant response from offenders.     

A new approach to amino acid racemization in enamel: testing of a less destructive sampling methodology

Aspartic acid racemization has been found to be an accurate measure of age at death for recent forensic material. This paper examines the practicality of using acid etching of the tooth surface to extract amino acids from the enamel for racemization analysis. By serial etching of the tooth and contamination of the teeth with bovine serum albumin prior to etching, the ability of etching to remove contamination was assessed. The destructiveness of the method was visualized and quantified using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). By bleaching the teeth and by deeper etching it was possible to obtain more consistent values. While etching had little effect on the enamel at the macroscale, it did have an impact at the microscale. The quantities of enamel removed varied depending upon the tooth morphology, but were not large. Acid etching of enamel thus appears to be a promising new method for extracting proteins for amino acid racemization age estimation noninvasively.     

Beyond fear: the role of peritraumatic responses in posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms among female crime victims

This study examines peritraumatic (and posttrauma) responses in a sample of female crime victims who had been sexually or physically assaulted within the previous 2 months. Women were interviewed about their emotional and behavioral responses during the trauma and assessed for posttraumatic stress disorder and depression symptomatology. Results indicate that women experience a wide range of behavioral and emotional responses during a traumatic event and that these responses have implications for posttrauma adjustment. Women who experienced behaviors typical of a freeze response are more likely to have a greater degree of symptomatology after the assault. Peritraumatic emotions, other than fear, such as sadness, humiliation, and anger, also appear to be related to posttrauma depression symptoms. These findings highlight the necessity of exploring the full range of possible reactions during a trauma.