Adolescent pubertal status and affective family relationships: A multivariate assessment

This research attempted to more adequately dimensionalize the study of affective family relations during adolescent pubertal maturation by employing a multivariate approach. Fifty-one families responded to an assessment battery consisting of a series of questionnaires designed to measure affective relations between parents and their adolescent children. Families were classified into prepubertal, transpubertal, or postpubertal groups according to their modal response on pubertal status criteria. A stepwise discriminant analysis was performed to identify measures that maximize between groups differences. Based on this analysis, a correct classification rate of 70% was achieved for all families. The two significant discriminant functions that emerged indicate that differences in family relationships are due to the transformation of mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relations. The pattern of results replicate those of other researchers and provide elaborations concerning the affective nature of family relations during adolescence.Received his Ph.D. in Life-span Developmental Psychology from West Virginia University in 1984. Research interests in dialectical models of adolescent development.Received his Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas in 1979. Research interests in decision-making in adolescence and adulthood.     

Communication and connectedness in mother- and father-adolescent relationships

In Study 1, 605 adolescents estimated how well their parents knew them and said how much they cared what their parents thought about them. Sons and daughters judged that mothers knew them fairly well, but daughters judged that fathers did not know them so well. At the same time, statements of caring indicated high concern by sons and daughters for both parents. A supplemental result was that sons from white-collar families gave relatively low estimates of how much their mothers knew them and daughters from blue-collar families gave very low estimates of how much their fathers knew them. In Study 2, 52 adolescents from single-parent families and living with their mothers but not with their fathers also gave estimates for knowing and caring. Knowing followed the above pattern, with an expected lowering of estimates for fathers by sons and daughters. Further, estimates of caring declined especially for fathers by daughters. These results add to the growing literature that shows mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relationships contribute differentially to psychological development. The results seem especially relevant for adolescents' sex role development and constructed individuality as mediated through relationships with both parents.Received Ph.D. in experimental psychology from The Catholic University of America. Research interests are in social development, developmental theory, and the history of the concept of psychological development.Received Ph.D. in developmental psychology from The Catholic University of America. Research interests are in social development in adolescence and the effects of parental divorce on development.     

The nonpartisan ballot and the decline of American parties: A contextual effect?

The nonpartisan municipal ballot is one of several turn-of-the-century reforms intended to weaken political parties. Through its effects on individuals' political contexts and voting experiences, it might have contributed to the twentieth-century decline in public support for political parties. This paper tests this hypothesis with items available in the 1980 CPS presidential election survey augmented with a ballot form variable. There are no significant differences in measures of party support among residents of partisan and nonpartisan communities, and thus no measurable evidence that nonpartisan elections discouraged the public from supporting political parties.This is a revised version of a paper delivered at the XIII World Congress of the International Political Science Association, Paris, July 1985.     

The effect of some aspects of low temperature and radiation on the survival of Latheticus oryzae eggs

In an attempt to delay hatching without affecting their viability, the eggs ofLatheticus oryzae W. were subjected to cold treatment at 5° for varying periods and at different stages of their development. A small dose of 0.5 krad of gamma radiation was also given at each of those temperature treatments. Most of the eggs hatched at 30° following low-temperature exposures of 1 and 2 days. There was a significant decrease in hatch as the exposure period increased further (P<0.05). An egg exposure to 5° also led to an increase in egg period and the increase was nearly equal to the period of cold exposure. Radiation did not alter the situation.

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Zusammenfassung Kühllagerung ist eine der gebr?uchlichsten Methoden für die Aufbewahrung von Insekteneiern. Um die optimalen Bedingungen für eine Vorratshaltung zu bestimmen, wurden 0–1 d alte Eier vonL. oryzae Temperaturen von 5° w?hrend 1–7 d ausgesetzt, nachdem sie verschieden lange bei 30° gehalten waren. Eine kleine Dosis von 0.5 krad Gammabestrahlung wurde bei jeder Temperaturbehandlung ebenfalls gegeben. Alle Eiproben wurden nach den verschiedenen K?ltebehandlungen in 30° zurückgebracht und die Wirkung auf Schlüpfprozentsatz und Eidauer bestimmt. Die Eidauer nahm zu, wenn die Eier bei 5° gehalten wurden, was anzeigt, da? die Embryogenese bei 5° unterdrückt wurde. Die Lebensf?higkeit der Eier wurde nicht beeintr?chtigt bei einer 5°-Einwirkungsdauer von 2 d, nahm aber bei weiterer Verl?ngerung der Expositionsdauer ab. Nur etwa 37% der Eier schlüpften (44,1% der Kontrolleier) nach 7-t?giger K?ltebehandlung. Bestrahlung beeinflu?te weder das Schlüpfen noch die Entwicklungsdauer.

     

Sketches for a Democratic Utopia

I want to sketch the general shape of several new structures that would in my view provide stronger support for democracy than is provided by any existing society. I call these sketches for a democratic Utopia not because I would expect these structures to inaugurate a perfect democracy, whatever that might be, nor because they are beyond human reach. On the contrary the institutions I want to suggest are well within human reach. I call them Utopian only because I am not able to point with confidence to the historical forces that are likely to bring them about.
The structures I have in mind are designed to strengthen freedom and equality among citizens of democratic orders.     

Risk factors related to suicidal behavior among male and female adolescents

This study examined gender differences in self-reported suicidal behavior in relation to the risk factors of tobacco use, alcohol use, drug use, school misconduct, academic difficulties, home environment, sexual activity, and violence among seventh-through twelfth grade students (N=3461)in a northern Midwest school district. Data were gathered from the Survey Instrument of Attitude/Behavior administered in the school district during the spring of 1993. The dependent variables were suicidal activity and suicidal tendency. Stepwise forward regression ordered the independent factors in predicting suicidal activity and suicidal tendency for the male and female samples. The comparison of regression results revealed the following: (1) the independent factors accounted for more variance in male suicidal activity and tendency than in female suicidal activity and tendency; (2) as the level of suicidality increased, so did the frequency of violent behaviors among both genders; (3) leading predictors for suicidal activity were similar between gender; and (4) gender differences were displayed in predictors of suicidal tendency.Major interests include risk taking behaviors, youth suicide, and educator use of research.