The Attitudes Towards Dating Violence Scales: Development and Initial Validation

This study describes the development and validation of three Attitudes Towards Male Dating Violence (AMDV) Scales and three Attitudes Towards Female Dating Violence (AFDV) Scales. These scales measure attitudes toward use of psychological, physical, and sexual dating violence, respectively, by boys and by girls. Eight hundred twenty-three students from grades 7, 9, and 11 participated in the validation study. All six scales have good internal consistencies. As predicted, students were more accepting of girls' use of violence than of boys' use of violence, and boys were more accepting of violence than were girls. The six scales were positively correlated with traditional attitudes toward gender roles and with each other, providing evidence for their construct validity. Higher scores on the AMDV Scales were related to boys' past use of violence in dating relationships and to their having aggressive friends, supporting their criterion-related validity. Higher scores on the AFDV Scales were associated with girls' past use of dating violence but not with their having aggressive friends, providing partial support for their criterion-related validity. Singly or in combination, the Attitudes Towards Dating Violence Scales can be used to increase our understanding of the development and maintenance of violence-supportive attitudes in adolescents of all ages.     

Public Health and the Regulatory State

Public health has moved from the public good component of health to everything related to health and, then, to everything related to society. If we take public health in its wide, total, social sense, it presumably explains or justifies much of the regulatory state. Virtually all state activities contribute directly or indirectly to some citizens’ “physical, mental and social well-being” (as the World Health Organization’s definition says). Public health requires social engineering, which cannot be achieved without controlling the lifestyles that the Philosopher King doesn’t like. Controlling lifestyles cannot be done without regulating the businesses that would allow people to satisfy their sinful preferences, and without preventing these people from circumventing the controls through black markets or other violations of government regulation.     

La politique québécoise de desengorgement des urgences

Sommaire: Depuis le milieu des années 70, au Québec, l'engorgement des services d'urgence est un problème qui refait surface de facon épisodique. En 1986, le gou-vernement québécois adopte un vaste plan visant à corriger la situation. En 1990, l'échec relatif de cette politique mène à I'adoption d'une nouvelle politique qui sera elle-même modifiée en 1993. Dans cet article, nous examinons les processus récur-rents d'émergence, de formulation et de mise en euvre de la politique québécoise de désengorgement des services d'urgence. Nous recourons, pour ce faire, à une version étendue du modèle proposé par Kingdon pour expliquer la mise à I'ordre du jour de certains problèmes publics par le gouvernement. Nous soutenons que le prolonge-ment donné au modèle de Kingdon permet de rendre compte des différentes phases de réalisation de la politique. Abstract: In the Province of Quebec, the overcrowding of hospital emergency wards has been a problem since the mid-seventies. In 1986, the Quebec government adopted a vast plan to correct the situation. The relative failure of the plan led to the adoption of a new policy in 1990, later modified in 1993. In this paper, we study the recurring emergence, formulation and implementation of Quebec policy towards emergency ward overcrowding. This study is based on an extended version of the model put forward by Kingdon to explain how some public problems appear on a government agenda while others are left aside. We contend that Kingdon's extended model is helpful to further our understanding of the policy process towards emergency wards in Quebec.     

Motor vehicle collisions and their demographics: a 5-year retrospective study of the Hamilton-Wentworth Niagara region

This retrospective study examined population demographics associated with motor vehicle collision (MVC) fatalities over a 5-year period in the Hamilton-Wentworth Niagara region. Variables were drawn from the five factors proposed by Fierro (1) for investigating deaths caused by transportation: human, chemical, environmental, vehicular, and highway. Factors analyzed included age, gender, position to the vehicle, site(s) of injury, toxicology, environmental contributors, and vehicular findings. From 1999 to 2004, there were 321 MVC fatalities that primarily involved males 20 to 29 years of age and commonly drivers or pedestrians. Cars and trucks were the most frequent vehicles. Fatalities occurred most often on local and regional roads on Fridays and Sundays between 6 pm and 6 am. Mechanical failure and weather conditions were not significant contributors. Toxicological analyses (275/321) were performed on the majority of the study population. Ethanol was present in isolation and with other substances, especially cannabis, mostly in male drivers 20-59 years of age.     

The Two Browns: Policy Implementation and the Retrenchment of Brown v. Board of Education

The colorblind individualism that pervades American politics and society keeps schools segregated although Americans support integrated public education. While the 1954 US Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education has never been overruled, later cases and policies have encouraged its retrenchment. We argue in this multi-disciplinary review of published literature that there are two different versions of Brown—the iconic, pro-integration symbol supported by most Americans, and a formal, juridical requirement that permits continued school segregation. The formal, juridical Brown is supported by the implementation of multiple educational policies, particularly neighborhood schools, magnet schools, and charter schools, all built on the firm belief that there is no violation of Brown. Rather than promoting a vision of Brown that champions a strong integration goal, these policies bolster the second interpretation of Brown: one that allows segregation to occur, so long as it is not outwardly deliberate.     

Attachment and Psychopathology Among Formerly Maltreated Adults

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of attachment security and psychopathology in an adult sample of high-risk abuse survivors. Attachment security was conceptualized in terms of two underlying dimensions, the working models of self and other. A sample of 66 survivors of childhood maltreatment completed measures of abuse history, attachment style, and psychopathology. Results demonstrated a strong relationship between a negative view of self and reported psychopathology, regardless of whether attachment was conceptualized continuously or categorically. Findings also revealed that the association of negative view of self and psychopathology was much stronger than that of negative view of other and psychopathology.     

Michel Crozier et L'analyse stratégique du phénomène bureaucratique

Nous proposons d'appeler système bureaucratique d'organisation tout système d'organisation dans lequel le circuit erreurs‐informations‐corrections fonctionne mat et où il ne peut y avoir, de ce fait, correction et réadaptation rapide des programmes d'action, en fonction des erreurs commises. Le phéornène bureaucratique. Essai sur les tendances bureaucratiq ues des systèmes d'organisation modernes et sur leurs relations en France avec le système social et culturel. Par mictjel crozier. Poris: Éditions du Seuil, 1963. Pp. 413.     

L'information administrative au Québec: faits et interprétations

Sommaire. L'information administrative. dans nos sociétés. sodre de failles diverses. Une recherche, faite pour le compte du Ministère des Communications du Québec, a voulu éclairer ces failles en vue de les corriger. La principale composante de la recherche a consisté en 78 entrevues de groupe conduites auprès de hauts-fonctionnaires, de fonctionnaires de contact, et de clients privilégés de différentes entités administratives. De plus, 17 experts de différentes disciplines se réunirent pendant deux jours avec des fonctionnaires du Ministère des Communications et d'autres ministères pour tenter d'interpréter et de situer dans des contextes plus larges les problèmes de l'information administrative. Après avoir défini l'information administrative d'après un schéma de la communication empruntéà Roman Jakobson, l'article fait état des principales constatations qui ont été faites lors de la recherche. Ensuite sont présentées les diverses interprétations proposées par les experts: interprétations psychologiques, interprétations en termes de techniques de la communication, interprétations micro-économiques, et interprétations en termes de pouvoir. Les forces et les faiblesses de ces interprétations sont évaluées, après quoi est esquissée une analyse structurale, où l'insistance est mise sur la capacité qu'ont les acteurs d'imposer les contacts par où passe l'information administrative. Il est montré en conclusion comment cette analyse structurale permet d'intégrer les interprétations proposées par les experts, et comment elle pourrait être améliorée dans des recherches subséquentes. Abstract. Administrative information, in our societies, suffers from various shortcomings. A research project undertaken on behalf of the Quebec Department of Communications has tried to focus on these weaknesses in order to eliminate them. The main element of the research was 78 group interviews with senior officials, ‘contact’ civil servants, and privileged clients of various administrative entities. Furthermore, 17 experts in various disciplines met for two days with officials of the Department of Communications and other departments in an attempt to interpret and place in broader contexts the problems of administrative information. Administrative information having been defined according to a communication grid borrowed from Roman Jakobson, this article states the various facts established by the research. Then, the various interpretations offered by the experts are presented: psychological interpretations, interpretations in terms of communication techniques, micro-economic interpretations, and interpretations in terms of power. Strengths and weaknesses of these interpretations are evaluated, and then a structural analysis is attempted; it focuses on the actors' ability to impose the contacts channelling administrative information. In conclusion it is shown how this structural analysis allows an integration of the interpretations proposed by the experts and how it could be improved with further research.