Family Functioning and School Success in At-Risk, Inner-City Adolescents

The relation between family functioning and school success was examined in 211 at risk, African American, inner city adolescents attending middle school (grades 6–8). Interviews with adolescents and caregivers yielded data on family cohesion, parental monitoring, and school engagement; school records provided data on grade point average. Results showed that both family cohesion and parental monitoring predicted school engagement, but neither family characteristic predicted GPA. Important gender differences also emerged. For boys only, the relation between family cohesion and school engagement was stronger when parental monitoring was high. For girls only, the effects of cohesion and monitoring on school engagement were additive: girls with both high family cohesion and high parental monitoring were most likely to be engaged in school. These findings extend the research base on family protective factors for antisocial behavior in young adolescents. Implications for future examination of family process characteristics in high-risk adolescents are discussed. This work is based on the dissertation research of the first author submitted to the Department of Psychology at Fordham University. Research Associate, Hudson Valley Cerebral Palsy, Patterson, NY. Professional Training: PhD, Developmental Psychology, Fordham University. Major interests include etiology and treatment research on developmental disabilities and psychological health problems in children and adolescents. Senior Research Associate, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, New York, NY. Professional Training: PhD, Clinical Psychology, Temple University. Major interests include development of family-based interventions for adolescent drug use and delinquency, adherence and process research on family intervention models. Research Associate, National Clinical Assessment Authority, London, England. Professional Training: PhD, Developmental Psychology, Fordham University. Major interests include mental health services research and program evaluation. Professor and Director, Center for Treatment Research on Adolescent Drug Abuse, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, FL. Professional Training: EdD, Counseling Psychology and Family Therapy, Northern Illinois University. Major interests include developing, testing, and disseminating family-based treatment for adolescent substance abuse and related behvioral problems.     

Correlates of Ideal Body Size Among Black and White Adolescents

Cultural differences have been found in body image perceptions among Black and White adolescents, however little is known about the factors associated with perceptions of an ideal body size (IBS). This study examined differences in correlates of IBS among 265 Black (116 girls and 62 boys) and White (63 girls and 24 boys) adolescents. IBS for White girls and boys was related to perceptions of how their parents wanted them to look, while IBS for Black girls was related to perception of how peers look and would like to look. IBS for Black boys was significantly related to perceptions of their current size, how peers would like to look, how parents think they look, and depressive symptoms. Findings suggest cultural differences in the factors related to body image perceptions and have implications for educational programs promoting healthy body image development among Black and White adolescents.Assistant Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Kansas Medical Center. Received PhD in Counseling Psychology from University of Missouri-Kansas City. Research interests include environmental and cultural correlates of obesity, obesity prevention, nicotine and tobacco addiction, and health promotion interventions.Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota. Received medical degree from Christian Medical College, Punjab, India, and Master of Public Health from University of Kansas School of Medicine. Research interests include diet and physical activity behaviors, role of the environment in obesity and obesity prevention, especially among children and adolescents.Research Associate, Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Kansas Medical Center. Completing PhD in clinical psychology from University of Kansas and Master of Public Health from University of Kansas School of Medicine. Research interests include obesity prevention, smoking cessation, and positive psychology.Assistant Professor and Director, MPH Program, Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Kansas Medical Center. Received MPH from Boston University and PhD in epidemiology from the University of California/San Diego State University. Research interests include behavioral epidemiology of tobacco use among adolescents and ethnic minorities.Professor of Medicine and School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, Associate Director, Midwest Center for Health Services and Policy Research, Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Director, Section of Health Promotion Research, Department of Medicine, University of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago. Received PhD in clinical psychology from Long Island University. Research interests include obesity prevention, binge eating, and cultural differences in eating behavior.Medical Epidemiologist, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Received MD and MPH from Tongji Medical University, Wuhan, China and PhD from University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. Research interests include the etiology, epidemiology, and prevention ofobesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes.Research Instructor, Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Kansas Medical Center. Received MBBS from Allama Iqbal Medical College, Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan and MPH from University of Kansas Medical Center. Research interests include smoking cessation, database design, implementation, data management and analysis, and use of information technology in health care settings.Professor Department of Medicine and Office of Clinical Research, University of Minnesota School of Medicine. Received MD/MPH from Tulane University and MS from Harvard School of Public Health. Research interests include disparities in healthcare; smoking cessation among underserved populations, specifically African Americans; diet, nutrition, obesity, and physical activity.     

社会性别视野中的健康公平性分析

健康公平是社会公平的重要内容。健康公平性的性别特征是性别平等与否的重要特征。本文利用2000年第二期中国妇女社会地位调查数据、历年人口和卫生统计资料以及其它相关调查结果,对健康公平性的性别特征、地区和城乡差异进行分析。结论认为健康水平、卫生保健服务利用在性别之间、地区之间和城乡之间都存在明显差异。女性与男性相比健康水平更低,健康服务的利用更为有限;边远贫困地区农村妇女健康水平、卫生保健服务利用与城市地区和发达地区妇女相比相对处于劣势。说明中国妇女公平享有卫生保健和提高健康水平还需要政府和社会各方面的进一步努力。     

对当前农村犯罪留守儿童的教育状况调查与思考

调查显示"农村犯罪留守儿童"教育背景普遍不良,而这与目前"城乡二元教育体系"密切相关,这就决定了"统筹发展城乡教育"是预防农村留守儿童犯罪的有效手段之一。     

The Effects of Gender and Family,Friend, and Media Influences on Eating Behaviors and Body Image During Adolescence

The current study expands upon body image research to examine how gender, self-esteem, social support, teasing, and family, friend, and media pressures relate to body image and eating-related attitudes and behaviors among male and female adolescents (N = 177). Results indicated that adolescents were dissatisfied with their current bodies: males were concerned with increasing their upper body, whereas females wanted to decrease the overall size of their body. Low self-esteem and social support, weight-related teasing, and greater pressures to lose weight were associated with adolescents’ negative body esteem, body image, and eating attitudes. Females displayed more high risk eating behaviors—which were associated with more psychosocial risk factors—than males, whose high risk attitudes and behaviors were only associated with low parental support and greater pressure to be muscular. Reducing adolescents’ perceptions of appearance-related pressure from family and friends may be key for enhancing body image and decreasing links between low self-esteem and negative eating behaviors and weight-related perceptions. Rheanna N. Ata is currently a research assistant at the Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center, Miriam Hospital/Brown University. She is interested in body image and eating disorders and completed this research during her undergraduate studies at the College of the Holy Cross. Alison Bryant Ludden is a developmental psychologist whose research focuses on social relationships and problem behaviors during adolescence, with a special interest in school as a developmental context. She is an assistant professor of psychology at the College of the Holy Cross. Megan M. Lally is currently a graduate student in psychology at Pepperdine University. She completed this research during her undergraduate studies at the College of the Holy Cross.     

阴阳五行在中国彝族农业神祭祀与日本农业神祭祀中之异同

阴阳五行思想对中国彝族农业神祭祀和日本农业神祭祀都产生了重大影响.所不同的是,日本农业神祭祀中的阴阳五行观念,除受中国汉族影响外,又与日本民俗相结合,形成"山神与田神--三合原理和农业神的轮回".而中国彝族农业神祭祀中的阴阳五行观念,则与上古氐羌文化、中原文化相关,它既受汉族文化的影响,又保持了其民族固有的文化成分,故显示出与日本农业神祭祀不同的特点.     

英汉文化差异与语言学习

不同社会 ,不同历史背景产生了不同的文化和语言 ,这些文化又会自然地反映在语言中 ,我们学习一门语言 ,不能只是掌握其基本技能 ,还应注意到语言和文化的关系 ,只有充分地了解了这种文化差异 ,我们才能真正掌握好这门语言。     

Egocentric bias in perceived fairness: Is it observed in Japan?

Experiment 1 was a Japanese replication of the studies reported by Messicket al. (1985) and Liebrandet al. (1986). Subjects were asked to write down fair or unfair behaviors that they or others did, giving as many examples as possible in 5 min. As in the previous studies, the subjects began more fair behaviors with the word I than with others. Likewise, they began more unfair behaviors with the word others than with I. In Experiment 2, 80 examples of behaviors (40 fair and 40 unfair) were selected randomly from the results of Experiment 1. The difference between the number of frequent behaviors sorted into the fair/I category and that sorted into the unfair/I category was greater than that between the number of behaviors sorted into the fair/others and that sorted to be unfair/others. Salient behaviors were more likely to be sorted into the category of unfair than into fair, and more likely to be sorted into others than I. On the whole, the egocentric bias of fairness was confirmed in Japan as well as in the Netherlands and the United States. However, in both experiments, gender differences were found; women, compared to men, recalled more others' behavior than their own and were likely to attribute fair and/or unfair behavior to others rather than to themselves.     

我国社会保险制度中的性别差异分析

我国社会保险制度中的性别差异主要体现在两个方面:一是就业差距造成女性参保率低,意味着女性享受社会保险的人数少于男性;二是收入差距造成女性缴纳社会保险费少,意味着女性退休后养老金低于男性.改变社会保险中的性别差异,应从社会政策入手,包括就业政策、教育政策、培训政策等,从而提高女性劳动竞争力和就业率;采取相应的政策措施,扩大灵活就业人员的保险覆盖面;积极研究制定兼顾国家、企业、个人三方面利益的退休年龄政策.