CHILD SUPPORT GUIDELINES:

Since 1989, federal law requires states to have presumptive child support guidelines and review them using economic data on child-rearing costs at least once every 4 years. This article reviews the child support guidelines models adopted by states, how they relate to estimates of child-rearing expenditures, the extent that states are updating their guidelines, and some of the more controversial guidelines provisions (i.e., adjustments for shared-parenting time, additional dependent children, and low-income nonresidential parents). We find that many states are not updating their core formulas and schedules. As a result, several state guidelines produce support award amounts that are below the costs of raising children.     

A prospective analysis of sexual assault perpetration: risk factors related to perpetrator characteristics

This study prospectively evaluated perpetrator risk factors for sexual assault perpetration, including peer influences, beliefs and attitudes about sexuality, alcohol use, and token resistance. Perpetration of sexual assault was evaluated at three time periods: pretest, 3-month follow-up, and 7-month follow-up. Retrospective and prospective analyses yielded differential predictors of sexually aggressive behavior. However, perpetration of sexual assault at any particular assessment period was a predictor of perpetration during the subsequent follow-up period. Furthermore, several variables that have previously been demonstrated in the literature to be related to the perpetration of sexual assault were not significant in regression analyses, indicating that these variables may be rendered insignificant when accounting for past perpetration in prospective analyses. These findings may have significant potential impact on development of sexual assault prevention programming with men.     

Facing rejection: new relationships, broken relationships, shame, and stalking

This study provides a preliminary examination of the relationship among shame-proneness, emotions, and persistent, unwanted courting or pursuit behaviour. A total of 222 undergraduates completed a questionnaire measuring responses to the termination of a relationship or the declining of a date. The Test of Self-Conscious Affect was used to measure shame. Although shame was unrelated to types of intrusive behaviour, individuals who engaged more repetitively in covert pursuit tended to ruminate more over their love interest than did those who rarely engaged in such behaviour. Rumination was positively correlated with shame. Self-harm behaviours and harm toward others were associated with feelings of sadness and depression, and those who engaged more often in harm toward others also reported feelings of anger and jealousy. Conclusions are made regarding the function of shame and other emotions in intrusive behaviour and their potential relevance to treatment of stalkers.     

Path Dependence as an Explanation of the Institutional Stability of the German Parliament

The theory of path dependence identifies sources of institutional stability and change. It emphasises the importance of early, contingent events and increasing returns over time to explain patterns of institutional persistence. Used to describe the evolution of the procedural practices of the German Bundestag, this theory points to the long-term importance of the consensus that developed early in the 1950s among the floor leaders of three dominant parties, which is in stark contrast to the absence of such inter-party consensus in the early years of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. Path dependence identifies factors endogenous to the institution to explain how the institution responds to external shocks, such as the entry of new parties. When the Greens and the PDS entered the Bundestag, the established parties responded by accepting their vigorous exercise of minority rights and they accepted the established practice of managing these rights by inter-party consensus.     

Development and preliminary validation of The Multidimensional Sexual Coercion Questionnaire (MSCQ)

Abstract

The goal of this study is to present the development and validation of a sexual coercion assessment instrument for college students, the Multidimensional Sexual Coercion Questionnaire (MSCQ). An exploratory factor analysis for ordinal Likert data, followed by a confirmatory factor analysis in 762 college students, revealed seven factors. These pertained to commonly noted tactics such as pressure to have sex, exploitation, relational manipulation as well as less commonly measured tactics of humiliation and two clusters of tactics pertaining to forced compliance based on past coercion. Although several other measures exist, this measure was designed specifically for college students and therefore includes a wider array of tactics than generally considered. The measure also makes an attempt to include more nuanced and difficult-to-measure coercion strategies. The MSCQ is likely to be of interest to researchers and clinicians who wish to consider a more nuanced analysis of sexual coercion dynamics among college student, young adult and general populations.