Young athletes' perceptions of parental support and pressure

Individual participation in athletics was examined as a representative achievement-oriented activity in which perceived parental support and pressure influence adolescents' perceptions of themselves and their performance. Adolescent tennis players attending one of the three regional tennis academies indicated their perceptions of the quality of their parents' involvement in their tennis participation, their enjoyment of tennis participation, their self-esteem, and their feelings of burnout associated with tennis participation. Both females and males perceived similar levels of support from their mother and father; however, females perceived greater support from both parents than did males. Males perceived higher levels of pressure from their father than from their mother, whereas females perceived similar levels of pressure from both their father and mother. For both females and males, perceived parental support was positively associated with enjoyment of tennis participation and self-esteem. The findings are discussed as evidence of a general association between adolescents' perceptions of their parents' involvement in their achievement-oriented activities and their enjoyment of such activities and self-perception of abilities associated with those activities.Received M.A. in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Research interests include peer relations, aggression and social cognition.Received Ph.D. in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Major research interests are self-concept, attraction, and research methods.     

Linking industrial modernization evaluation with state policy-making

This paper discusses the role of modernization programs in the context of state economic development strategy. It argues that state governments will view modernization dollars as one element of overall economic development expenditures. Thus, it is important for modernization programs not just to show that they impact firm-level change, but also to show how much they add to gross state product, job creation, and wages compared to competing expenditures for state dollars. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A2974031 00005     

Ireland: HIV and hepatitis C in prisons

Two studies from the Department of Community Health and General Practice at Trinity College, Dublin, have highlighted the extent of the HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) crisis in Irish prisons. The studies confirm that rates of HIV and HCV are disproportionately high in Irish prisons, and that high risk behaviours are commonplace.     

Fairness and Rejection in the Ultimatum Bargaining Game

The ultimatum game is a standard instrument for laboratory experimentalists.It has been replicated in a large number of environments andpoints to special considerations for fairness. Although it hasbeen popular in the experimental community, researchers havenot harnessed all the statistical power they should to evaluatethe dynamics at work in this type of a bargaining game. Thisresearch uses two planned treatments, the first involving asignaling condition concerning a subject's "type," and the seconda price effect built into the structure of the game. We findthat there are no significant main effects as a result of thesignaling condition of a subject's type, but that there arestrong effects as a result of the different payoff parameters.Using a variety of multivariate models we find important, nonobviousinteractions with the gender of the subjects. The lesson thatwe take away from this research is that experimentalists canlearn more from data collected in the tightly controlled laboratoryenvironment by using statistical techniques that complementtheir research designs.     

Toward a Victimology of State Crime

State crimes have been studied by criminologists for nearly three decades. While far from stagnant, research and theory in this area of criminology have not developed at the pace one may have expected a decade ago. In an attempt to rejuvenate the study of state crime, we first identify and review the various types of victims and victimizers of state crime identified in the criminological literature. By employing a previously created typology of state crime, we discuss how individuals and groups of individuals can be identified as state crime victims in both domestic and international contexts. We then highlight the common themes involved in the victimizations, and offer six inductively generated propositions intended to facilitate future developments in the victimology of state crime. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Preemptive public policy for genomics

To many, genomics is merely exploitable technology for the leviathan of biotechnology. This is both shallow and short sighted. Genomics is applied knowledge based on profound and evolving science about how living things develop, how healthy or sick we are, and what our future will be like. In health care, genomics technologies are disruptive yet potentially cost-effective because they enable primary prevention, the antidote to runaway costs and declining productivity. The challenges to integration are great, however, and many bioethical and social-policy implications are alarming. Because it is poorly understood today, we must debate genomics vigorously if we are to act wisely. Public policy must lead.     

"Body property": challenging the ethical barriers in organ transplantation to protect individual autonomy

One of two articles related to the current organ shortage, this article advocates the need for legislation to recognize organs and tissues separated from the body as a distinct category of personal property. After addressing the legislative history of organ procurement and psychological barriers to donor consent, the article examines the importance of separating the lifetime rights of ownership in our own bodies from postmortem rights. Ultimately, the author proposes a futures market approach to this problem in which individuals before death, or surviving family members after death, are permitted sell the decedent's organs in a private contract.