Adolescents’ Response to Parental Efforts to Influence Eating Habits: When Parental Warmth Matters

Previous findings have shown both beneficial and adverse effects of parents’ attempts to influence adolescents’ eating habits. The current study examined the differential effect of parents’ persuasion (e.g., encouragement, giving information) and pressure tactics (e.g., guilt induction, ridicule) and the moderating influence of parental warmth on older adolescents’ emotional and behavioral responses. An ethnically diverse sample of 336 older adolescents (M age = 18.6; SD = 1.1; 58.0% female) were surveyed. Adolescents who reported higher levels of pressure tactics by parents reported more negative affect and behavioral resistance. Perceived parental warmth moderated the influence of persuasion tactics, but not pressure tactics. For adolescents with low parental warmth, high levels of persuasion were associated with more negative emotional and behavioral responses; persuasion had the opposite associations for adolescents with high parental warmth. These results suggest that parental warmth plays an important role in how older adolescents respond to parents’ persuasion tactics. However, when parents use more forceful pressure tactics to influence eating habits, adolescents react negatively regardless of the overall quality of the parent–adolescent relationship.     

The evaluation of the extent of transporting or "tracking" an identifiable ignitable liquid (gasoline) throughout fire scenes during the investigative process

Tests have determined that boots or shoes of individuals at a fire scene do not transport sufficient contaminants ("tracking") through the fire scene to produce a positive laboratory result for the presence of gasoline in a fire scene that was not present at the time of the fire. Questions about the validity of forensic laboratory results have been raised on the basis that low-level gasoline residues detected in the laboratory samples could have been the result of transporting the residue by footwear contaminated from the fire scene ("tracking"). The data collected in this study establish that "tracking" does not lead to false-positive laboratory results. Canines trained and experienced in the detection of trace ignitable liquid residues were also utilized in this study. The canine results confirmed that properly trained canines show a higher sensitivity than do standard ASTM laboratory techniques for fire debris analysis. In a few cases, canines responded to contamination, but laboratory testing (which is the definitive indicator) did not produce positive results.     

Breastfeeding Duration and Reported Child Maltreatment in a Population-based Alaskan Birth Cohort

Journal of Family Violence - Research suggests that breastfeeding may reduce child maltreatment risk. Alaska has high rates of both breastfeeding initiation and maltreatment reports to Child...     

Focusing on How Rather Than on Whom: Constructing a Process-Based Framework for Interpreting the Press Clause in the Network-Society Era

The Internet has made it possible for anyone to become a publisher, thus raising questions regarding how the press clause of the First Amendment will be defined in the twenty-first century. This study proposes a process-based framework for understanding the press clause that moves away from the historically problematic questions that arise with approaches that seek to determine who is a journalist. This approach aligns with historical conceptualizations of the press clause and the characteristics of the network society. The proposed framework is drawn from an analysis of recent lower-court cases in which citizen publishers claimed protections that have traditionally been associated with journalism, as well as an examination of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and of legal scholars’ historical understandings of the clause.     

The enduring influence of electoral systems: investigating Green parties’ attention to local issues in parliament

Scholars argue that members of parliament (MPs) in first-past-the-post (FPTP) systems have stronger incentives to cater to their electoral district than those in proportional representation (PR) types. Yet, few studies have explored whether MPs in PR systems or MPs from small parties engage local issues in general. I build new theory and explore its support through a case study that compares Green party behaviour in an FPTP system (the UK) to a PR system (New Zealand). Results show that MPs focus on local issues in both systems, but the distribution of attention varies in ways consistent with differing electoral incentives.