Abstract Objective This research examined linkages between exposure to childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and childhood physical punishment/abuse (CPA) and mental health issues in early adulthood. Method ...The investigation analyzed data from a birth cohort of over 1,000 New Zealand young adults studied to the age of 25. Results Exposure to CSA and CPA was associated with increased risks of later mental disorders including depression, anxiety disorder, conduct/anti-social personality disorder, substance dependence, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts at ages 16–25. Control for social, family, and individual factors reduced the associations between CPA and mental health outcomes to the point of statistical non-significance. However, there was a consistent finding for CSA to remain associated with increased risks of later mental health problems. After adjustment, those exposed to CSA including attempted or completed sexual penetration had rates of disorder that were 2.4 times higher than those not exposed to CSA. Those exposed to harsh or abusive physical punishment had rates of disorder that were 1.5 times higher than those exposed to no or occasional physical punishment. It was estimated that exposure to CSA accounted for approximately 13% of the mental health problems experienced by the cohort. Findings showed that exposure to CPA had only weak effects on later mental health. It was estimated that exposure to CPA accounted for approximately 5% of the mental health problems experienced by the cohort. Conclusions Exposure to CSA was associated with consistent increases in risks of later mental health problems. Exposure to CPA had weaker and less consistent effects on later mental health. These findings suggest that much of the association between CPA and later mental health reflects the general family context in which CPA occurs, whereas this is less the case for CSA.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
The study of peer victimization has drawn together researchers, parents, teachers, and health professionals around the world in an effort to make change. Research attention has focused on the ...question of whether peer victimization in childhood and adolescence leads to lasting and serious negative ramifications in the lives of young people. We consider the wealth of information documenting the troubling adjustment that follows peer victimization within childhood and adolescence. Findings from prospective studies tracking children and adolescents into young adulthood are presented and synthesized. Using the construct of "multifinality" as our framework, we explore why it might be that early peer victimization does not have the same impact on all young people by considering factors that place individuals at greater risk or appear to protect them from more lasting harm. In addition to a need for carefully planned prospective studies, the field would benefit from the use of qualitative studies aimed at elucidating possible causal, concurrent, and resultant mechanisms involved with victimization.
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CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ, UPUK
This study investigated early adolescent friendship selection and social influence with regard to academic motivation (self-efficacy and intrinsic value), engagement (effortful and disruptive ...behavior), and achievement (GPA calculated from report card grades) among 6th graders (N = 587, 50% girls at Wave 1; N = 576, 52% girls at Wave 2) followed from fall to spring within 1 academic year. A stochastic actor-based model of social network analysis was used to overcome methodological limitations of prior research on friends, peer groups, and academic adjustment. Evidence that early adolescents sought out friends who were similar to themselves (selection) was found in regard to academic self-efficacy, and a similar trend was found for achievement. Evidence that friends became more similar to their friends over time (influence) was found for all aspects of academic adjustment except academic self-efficacy. Collectively, results indicate that selection effects were not as pervasive as influence effects in explaining similarity among friends in academic adjustment.
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CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ, UPUK
Telepsychology holds promise as a treatment delivery method that may increase access to services as well as reduce barriers to treatment accessibility. The aim of this rapid evidence assessment was ...to assess the evidence for synchronous telepsychology interventions for 4 common mental health conditions (depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and adjustment disorder). Randomized controlled trials published between 2005 and 2016 that investigated synchronous telepsychology (i.e., telephone delivered, video teleconference delivered, or Internet delivered text based) were identified through literature searches. From an initial yield of 2,266 studies, 24 were included in the review. Ten studies investigated the effectiveness of telephone-delivered interventions, 11 investigated the effectiveness of video teleconference (VTC) interventions, 2 investigated Internet-delivered text-based interventions, and 2 were reviews of multiple telepsychology modalities. There was sufficient evidence to support VTC and telephone-delivered interventions for mental health conditions. The evidence for synchronous Internet-delivered text-based interventions was ranked as "unknown." Telephone-delivered and VTC-delivered psychological interventions provide a mode of treatment delivery that can potentially overcome barriers and increase access to psychological interventions.
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CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ, UPUK
This study investigates the dynamics between perceived cultural distance (PCD), cultural intelligence (CQ), and international students’ sociocultural, psychological, and academic adjustment. It ...examines whether CQ (its total score and four sub-components separately from the total CQ) moderates the relationship between PCD and adjustment. By investigating all three dimensions of students’ adjustment, and also distinguishing the four aspects of the CQ, it provides an especially fine-grained analysis of the link between PCD, CQ and international students’ adjustment. In a cross-sectional study, 341 international college students from several universities in the Netherlands participated in an online survey. Moderation analysis (Hayes Process Macro) indicated that overall CQ and motivational CQ moderated only the relationship between PCD and sociocultural adjustment. Further analysis show that when age, gender, level of study, and region of origin controlled, PCD consistently predicted all aspects of students' adjustment negatively. Overall CQ predicted only sociocultural and academic adjusment, but motivational CQ influenced all aspects of adjustment. Together, these results provide an insightful understanding of the role of international students' CQ in their adjustment in the face of cultural differences.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This meta-analytic review of 148 studies on child and adolescent direct and indirect aggression examined the magnitude of gender differences, intercorrelations between forms, and associations with ...maladjustment. Results confirmed prior findings of gender differences (favoring boys) in direct aggression and trivial gender differences in indirect aggression. Results also indicated a substantial intercorrelation(r̄ = .76) between these forms. Despite this high intercorrelation, the 2 forms showed unique associations with maladjustment: Direct aggression is more strongly related to externalizing problems, poor peer relations, and low prosocial behavior, and indirect aggression is related to internalizing problems and higher prosocial behavior. Moderation of these effect sizes by method of assessment, age, gender, and several additional variables were systematically investigated.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This article presents findings from a meta-analysis which sought to determine the effectiveness of interventions adopting a whole school approach to enhancing children and young people’s social and ...emotional development. Whole school interventions were included if they involved a coordinated set of activities across curriculum teaching, school ethos and environment, and family and community partnerships. A total of 45 studies (30 interventions) involving 496,299 participants were included in the analysis. Post-intervention outcomes demonstrated significant but small improvements in participants’ social and emotional adjustment (d = 0.220), behavioural adjustment (d = 0.134), and internalising symptoms (d = 0.109). Interventions were not shown to impact on academic achievement. Origin of study and the inclusion of a community component as part of a whole school approach were found to be significant moderators for social and emotional outcomes. Further research is required to determine the active ingredients of whole school interventions that we can better understand the components necessary to achieve successful outcomes.
This meta-analytic review includes 135 studies, representing 17 countries, of child and adolescent (ages 4-17) samples of overt and relational peer victimization and examines the magnitude of overlap ...between forms of victimization and associations with five social-psychological adjustment indices. Results indicate a strong intercorrelation between forms of victimization (r̄ = .72). No gender difference with regard to relational victimization was found, but boys were slightly higher in overt victimization. Overt victimization is more strongly associated with overt aggression; relational victimization is more strongly related to internalizing problems, lower levels of received prosocial behavior from peers, and relational aggression. Both forms are related to externalizing problems. Age and method of assessment were explored as potential sources of variability in effect sizes.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
'Structural adjustment' has been a central part of the development strategy for the 'third world'. Loans made by the World Bank and the IMF have been conditional on developing countries pursuing ...rapid economic liberalization programmes as it was believed this would strengthen their economies in the long run. M. Rodwan Abouharb and David Cingranelli argue that, conversely, structural adjustment agreements usually cause increased hardship for the poor, greater civil conflict, and more repression of human rights, therefore resulting in a lower rate of economic development. Greater exposure to structural adjustment has increased the prevalence of anti-government protests, riots and rebellion. It has led to less respect for economic and social rights, physical integrity rights, and worker rights, but more respect for democratic rights. Based on these findings, the authors recommend a human rights-based approach to economic development.
We propose a straightforward and efficient fusion-based method for enhancing weakly illumination images that uses several mature image processing techniques. First, we employ an illumination ...estimating algorithm based on morphological closing to decompose an observed image into a reflectance image and an illumination image. We then derive two inputs that represent luminance-improved and contrast-enhanced versions of the first decomposed illumination using the sigmoid function and adaptive histogram equalization. Designing two weights based on these inputs, we produce an adjusted illumination by fusing the derived inputs with the corresponding weights in a multi-scale fashion. Through a proper weighting and fusion strategy, we blend the advantages of different techniques to produce the adjusted illumination. The final enhanced image is obtained by compensating the adjusted illumination back to the reflectance. Through this synthesis, the enhanced image represents a trade-off among detail enhancement, local contrast improvement and preserving the natural feel of the image. In the proposed fusion-based framework, images under different weak illumination conditions such as backlighting, non-uniform illumination and nighttime can be enhanced.
•A fusion-based method for enhancing various weakly illuminated images is proposed.•The proposed method requires only one input to obtain the enhanced image.•Different mature image processing techniques can be blended in our framework.•Our method has an efficient computation time for practical applications.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
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