Pubertal Development, Choice of Friends, and Smoking Initiation among Adolescent Males

Prior research has indicated that pubertal development and peer associations are important determinants of adolescent smoking behavior. However, more remains to be learned about why these variables matter or how they may be related to one another in ways that lead to the initiation of smoking. Using contractual data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we consider the relationship between early pubertal development and associations with close friends who smoke, and smoking initiation among male youths. The results of the study reveal a link between advanced pubertal development and the initiation of smoking among boys, but we discover that the effect is indirect, mediated by a greater propensity of sexually mature males to forge friendships with peers who smoke. We also find that this propensity is greatest among the youngest adolescents in the sample, suggesting that the age of the respondent conditions the effects of pubertal development on the formation of friendships with peers who smoke.(Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin), is an Assistant Professor at Washington State University at Vancouver. Her areas of interest include juvenile delinquency and substance abuse.(Ph.D., Rutgers: The State University of New Jersey) is an Assistant Professor at Westfield State College. Her area of interest is adolescent identity development.(Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin) is an Associate Professor at the University of Portland. His areas of interest include biosocial models of adolescent problem behavior.     

卫生监管长效机制建立路径探索

本文以北京市东城区为例，分析了卫生监管存在的问题及其深层次原因，结合国内外公共卫生事件的启示，旨在探索建立“内律——外督”的卫生监管长效机制，即把推动经营者诚信经营体系建设作为工作重点和工作创新的切入点，丰富监督管理手段，让“外督”更有科学性，加大对违法行为的处罚力度，从而为长效管理保驾护航。     

云南省禁毒警察工作环境与心理健康问题分析

禁毒警察是一支特殊的警察队伍,他们的职业具有高风险、高压力、高负荷、高诱惑的特点。他们在工作中所承受着高强度的心理压力,因此心理健康状况亟需关注。应对由职业带来的心理压力,需要公安机关警察队伍管理部门和民警个人共同作出努力,保障禁毒民警心理健康,才能为禁毒事业做出更大贡献。     

La protección de los derechos fundamentales del deportista en la lucha contra el dopaje. Una visión desde el ordenamiento jurídico español

Doping is addressed in this paper from two different scopes: on one hand, the legal regulations for prevention and repression are studied; on the other hand, the clash between the anti-doping control mechanism and a fundamental right such as the athlete's privacy is noted. We start from the irrefutable fact that “awareness against doping” is practically universal. The enactment of this law was a milestone in the history of the fight against doping in the Spanish regulation. However, the problem arises when the anti-doping legislation worldwide and in Spain, which enables some healthcare professionals and other people involved, to carry out several anti-doping operations that may conflict with the athlete's fundamental right to privacy, all of this in a context of strong media and social impact. For this reason, it is pertinent to raise the issue if one of these operations, such as the duty of permanent localization, is sufficiently justified in terms of protecting the sportsperson's health.     

“香烟”弥漫的青春:作为一种“过渡期仪式”的青少年香烟消费

青少年吸烟不仅是一种健康风险行为,也是一个备受争议的学术话题。本文将青少年男性的吸烟行为视为一种"过渡期仪式",并从仪式道具、仪式剧本、仪式表演角色和仪式观众四个维度分析了青少年男性是如何借助仪式实践而顺利实现青春期的角色转变和身份认同。文章最后对过渡期仪式实践的起始与终结、男性气质与健康风险行为的内在关联进行了深入的思考。     

专业学会在应对突发公共卫生事件中的作用——以新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情应对为例

与一般危机事件相比,突发公共卫生事件具有突发性、高度专业性、未知性、群体性、社会性以及应对协同性等特征。在现代化治理体系中,专业学会作为突发公共卫生事件应急管理的重要补充力量,应当发挥专业优势、组织协调优势、凝聚精神等优势,在疾病的预测、健康科普、组织动员、心理干预等方面发挥积极作用。     

Adoptions Gone Awry: Enhancing Adoption Outcomes Through Postadoption Services and Federal and State Laws Imposing Criminal Sanctions for Private Internet Rehoming

The federal government should invest in adopted children who make up the future of the country and are in dire need of rehabilitation and therapy because of their past circumstances. If the government steps in to rescue vulnerable children from inadequate or abusive birth parents by removal, it should also intervene when adopted families are faced with behavioral problems of adopted children that the adopted parents cannot address on their own. Postadoption services need to be accessible and effective to ensure the success of adopted families. Assisting families in crisis postadoption will lower the instances of dissolution and rehoming and keep adoptive families intact. In cases in which postadoption services fail, uniform federal legislation is necessary to make it a federal crime to advertise children for adoption on the Internet without proper certification and state legislation is required to make it a crime to pass on adopted children to strangers without judicial consent, to dissuade Internet rehoming. Internet rehoming of adopted children should be a serious crime as it is tantamount to child trafficking.© 2014 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts

Key Points for the Family Court Community:
• Postadoption services need to be more accessible and more narrowly tailored to the needs of adoptive families to ensure the success of adoptions.
• Better postadoption services create better adoptive families and adoptive parents will not reach the point of dissolution or private Internet rehoming.
• Adoptive parents should be provided with information regarding all available postadoption resources after adoption is finalized and a government Web site should be created that lists all available resources.
• The federal government needs to provide funding to states that specifically target postadoption services.
• A uniform federal statute is required to punish parties who use Internet forums to avoid government oversight and privately rehome their adopted children.
• States should enact laws that criminalize the unauthorized interstate placements of children.

     

Increasing access to rural maternal health services in Zambia through demand-side interventions

This paper examines a demand-side intervention that significantly increased access to maternal health services in rural Zambia in a context where skilled birth attendance rates had been stagnant for over two decades. Aspects of the intervention design that were crucial to the programme's success were the participatory and adult learning-centred approach used to mobilise intervention communities, the use of a community volunteer model, and the design's sensitivity and responsiveness to underlying social factors and problems. The demand-side intervention is already being scaled up in six districts, and is highly suitable for national level scale-up.     

China’s Response to the Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa

This article examines the Chinese response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, first surveying Chinese interests in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Many Chinese workers have been evacuated and projects postponed. For the first time, China has extended humanitarian aid to countries facing a public health emergency. China is under pressure to ‘do something’ but faces its own developmental challenges as well as problems of logistics. Chinese knowledge of Africa is still relatively weak and uninformed. Although China’s assistance dwarves that from the other BRICS, the Ebola crisis has revealed problems in Sino-African relations, not least the gap between rhetoric and reality.     

Community rehabilitation workers as catalysts for disability: inclusive youth development through service learning

This paper explores access to health and education for disabled youth in sites with and without community rehabilitation workers (CRWs). A cross-sectional survey using a structured questionnaire was undertaken in nine sites in South Africa, and a snowball sample of 523 disabled youths of both sexes, aged between 18 and 35 years, was selected. The survey found that a significantly larger proportion of disabled youth living in sites with CRWs were seen by health care workers at home, and that there was a large difference in educational access between sites with and without CRWs. CRWs are well positioned to promote equal citizenship for disabled youth through service learning with occupational therapy final year students to improve access to health and education, so that barriers to their participation in economic development are removed.