Predicting Children’s Depressive Symptoms from Community and Individual Risk Factors

Community, demographic, familial, and personal risk factors of childhood depressive symptoms were examined from an ecological theoretical approach using hierarchical linear modeling. Individual-level data were collected from an ethnically diverse (73% African-American) community sample of 197 children and their parents; community-level data were obtained from the U.S. Census regarding rates of community poverty and unemployment in participants’ neighborhoods. Results indicated that high rates of community poverty and unemployment, children’s depressive attributional style, and low levels of self-perceived competence predict children’s depressive symptoms, even after accounting for demographic and familial risk factors, such as parental education and negative parenting behaviors. The effect of negative parenting behaviors on depressive symptoms was partially mediated by personal variables like children’s self-perceived competence. Recommendations for future research, intervention and prevention programs are discussed.

When does the Gender Difference in Rumination Begin? Gender and Age Differences in the Use of Rumination by Adolescents

A cross-sectional non-clinical sample of 1,218 adolescents, aged 10–17 years, completed measures of stress, rumination, and depression to allow tests of the response style theory of S. Nolen-Hoeksema [J Res Adolesc 4:519–534, 1994] in adolescents, in particular whether increasing levels of stress and rumination in early adolescence are predictive of the onset of the gender difference in depression. Overall, females reported higher levels of stress, rumination, and depression than males. The onset of the gender differences in stress and depression occurred at age 13 years, and for rumination one year earlier at 12 years. Significantly, also from 13 years, rumination explained the gender difference in depression by showing that it significantly mediated the effect of gender on depression. Gender moderated the rumination to depression relationship; specifically the association was stronger for females than males. Developmental differences were noted in that rumination significantly mediated between stress and depression earlier in the age range for females than males. Results supported many of the predictions of Nolen-Hoeksema’s model of the emergence of a gender difference in adolescent depression.

Relational Aggression at School: Associations with School Safety and Social Climate

The present study examines how exposure to relational aggression at school is associated with adolescents’ perceptions of, and participation in, a hostile school environment. Participants were 1,335 African American and European American adolescents in grades 7 through 12 (52% female, 49% African American). Results indicate that exposure to relational aggression is associated with several components of adolescents’ perceptions of the school climate. Adolescents exposed to high levels of relational aggression perceived their school to be less safe, and were less pleased with the general social atmosphere at school. Moreover, for males, but not females, exposure to relational aggression was associated with carrying a weapon to school. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed in terms of working toward safer school environments for adolescents.

Self‐interest or Ideology? The Attitude of Norwegian Medical Specialists towards Private Welfare Services

A striking common characteristic in many Western countries at the turn of the millennium is the debate on the role of private actors in public health care systems. Following the long line of Norwegian political scientists paying attention to attitudes towards privatization, this article uses data from 2005 on medical specialists to investigate their preferences for private welfare services, and to uncover the relative role of political ideology and self-interest in affecting their attitudes. So far, few attempts have been made to test in depth the impact of ideology and self-interest as alternative explanations of the attitudes of a professional group toward a policy issue that is important to its interests. The analysis documents the fact that both public and private specialists display scepticism towards leaving welfare services in the hands of private actors. The empirical model for the multivariate analysis builds on the large body of literature on political attitudes, and incorporates variables that are derived from economic and psychological theories in order to test the impact of ideology and subjective self-interest (emphasis on high salary for job satisfaction) and objective self-interest (private economy). In addition, the model also controls for a vector of individual characteristics and professional background. For the group of full-time public specialists, both subjective and objective self-interest, together with ideology, turns out to be the major determinants of view on private welfare services. The attitudes of the private specialists are, on the other hand, not at all affected by self-interest – only by ideology.     

Administering the Overseas Vote

While there is a growing academic literature about mail-in ballots, there has been no serious academic research to date on overseas voters, even though the counting of overseas military ballots figured into the 2000 presidential election controversy. The participation of nearly 4 million overseas voters, both civilian and military, is governed by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. The authors examine the reported perceptions of military and nonmilitary voters covered by this legislation using two surveys funded by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, focusing on their perceptions of electronic means of transmitting voting materials. The authors find that civilian overseas citizens have a harder time registering and voting than military overseas citizens; that the key factor is the timely transmission of voting materials; and that, despite privacy concerns, electronic transmission of voting materials is viewed favorably.     

More Flies with Honey: Positive Economic Linkage in German Ostpolitik from Bismarck to Kohl

The existing literature on economic sanctions has rarely addressed the key question of comparing the effectiveness of positive and negative sanctions. It is the contention of this study that positive sanctions can potentially be more effective, even in cases where contentious "high politics" issues are being negotiated, relations between the states concerned are tense and militarized, and the state being targeted with sanctions has substantial military power. This assertion will be tested in a set of case studies drawn from German-Polish and German-Russian/Soviet relations from the nineteenth century to the present. It will be shown that positive sanctions can be used effectively, both as "specific" sanctions to influence a target state on one particular issue, and as "general" sanctions, which aim to change the state's behavior as a whole in a more slow and subtle process.     

Shifting priorities at the Health Protection Branch: challenges to the regulatory process

Abstract: The Health Protection Branch (hpb ) of Health Canada has recently undergone considerable policy and organizational renewal, with numerous and broad‐ranging implications for the evaluation of drug product safety and efficacy. From a public‐health perspective, however, the criteria used to develop organizational and policy change at the hpb have provided a sub‐optimal basis for reform, due primarily to the many forms of market failure to which the regulation of pharmaceuticals is subject. For example, thepartnership andefficiency criteria that guided policy renewal have led to the transfer of important responsibilities to partners, with the potential for either a conflict of interest or inadequate information, for which the legal basis is not always clear. The resulting realignment of the hpb's roles and responsibilities may be characterized as leading to a shift from a comprehensive approach to public‐health protection to one based on strategic risk management, with responsibilities dispersed among government, industry, academia and consumers. The rebalancing of goals in the redesign of the regulatory process suggests a change in the role of the state in the context of public‐health protection and highlights issues of concern to the public interest that may not be fully recognized as deregulation occurs in other sectors of the economy. Sommaire: La Direction générale de la protection de la santé (dgps ) de Santé Canada vient de subir un vaste remaniement de politiques et d'organisation qui entraîne de nombreuses et profondes répercussions sur l'évaluation de la sûreté et de l'efficacité des produits pharmaceutiques. Cependant, du point de vue de la santé publique, les critères auxquels on a fait appel pour modifier les politiques et l'organisation de la dgps n'ont permis qu'une base de réforme sous‐optimale, à cause surtout des nom‐breux genres de défaillance du marché qui affligent la réglementation des produits pharmaceutiques. Par exemple, les critières depurtenariat etd'efficacité qui ont guidé le remaniement des politiques ont amené le transfert d'importantes responsabilites à des partenaires moyennant le risque de. conflit d'intérêts ou d'informations inadéqaates, sans pour autant assurer une base juridique Claire. On pourrait donc dire que cette réorientation des rôles et responsabilités de la dgps fait que l'on passe d'une approche globale en matière de protection de la santéà une gestion stratégique du risque, la responsabilité en étant dispersée parmi le gouvernement, l'industrie, les milieux universitaires et les consommateurs. Le rééquilibrage des objectifs dans le remaniement du processus de réglementation suggère une évolution du rôle de l'État en ce qui concerne la protection de la santé publique; il met aussi en relief des questions d'intérêt public qui n'ont peut‐être pas été reconnues alors que la déréglementation prend lieu dans d'autres secteurs économiques.     

A retrospective study of drugged driving in Norway

The National Institute of Forensic Toxicology, Oslo, receives blood and urine samples from all Norwegian drivers apprehended on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. In 1983 we received samples from 1446 drug-suspected drivers, out of which 445 underwent toxicological analysis. The drugs found most frequently were tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) (n = 199), diazepam (n = 166) and amphetamine (n = 102). A cautious interpretation of the data indicate that about 200 of the 445 subjects selected for toxicological analysis drove under severe influence of drugs. Because of the high percentage of submitted cases not analysed for drugs, this figure represents a minimum estimate. Compared with the results from 1978, we found a several-fold increase in detections of THC and amphetamine in 1983. The number of diazepam detections did not increase in a similar way, but we estimated that the diazepam detections would have increased 3-fold if we had analysed as frequent for this drug in 1983 as in 1978.