Biomedical subjects

L L Merrill

Publications and source records attributed to L L Merrill.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1999

Childhood abuse and sexual revictimization in a female Navy recruit sample.

To examine effects of childhood abuse on adult rape, 1,887 female Navy recruits were surveyed. Overall 35% of recruits had been raped and 57% had experienced childhood physical abuse (CPA) and/or childhood sexual abuse (CSA). Controlling for CPA, rape was significantly (4.8 times) more likely among women who had experienced CSA than among women who had not. In contrast, CPA (controlling for CSA) was unrelated to likelihood of adult rape. Alcohol problems and number of sex partners were examined as mediators. Although both variables predicted rape, their effects were independent of the effects of CSA. Finally, despite ethnic group differences in the prevalence of victimization, the predictors of rape did not differ significantly across ethnic groups.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Prevalence of premilitary adult sexual victimization and aggression in a Navy recruit sample.

U.S. Navy recruits (n = 3,776) were surveyed for premilitary histories of adult sexual assault. They completed a survey designed to estimate rates for experiences as victims (women) and perpetrators (men) of attempted and completed rape since the age of 14. The results show that 45.5% of the women reported being the victim of attempted (9.4%) or completed rape (36.1%) before entering the Navy. Male recruits' self-reports indicated that 14.8% admitted perpetrating attempted (3.5%) or completed rape (11.3%) before entering the Navy. A high percentage of recruits in this study reported histories of sexual assault. Female victims of sexual assault are at high risk of incurring somatic and/or psychological problems that require treatment by health care professionals. Male perpetrators of sexual assault are at high risk of repeating their behavior. The results of this study suggest that it may be cost-effective to develop treatment education, and prevention programs for military recruits.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

Attitudes toward euthanasia.

A 72-item questionnaire regarding attitudes toward euthanasia was administered to 240 residents of Humboldt County, California, who ranged from 18 to 86 years of age. The relationships between their attitudes and their demographic characteristics including age, religion, and education were examined.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Childhood parenting experiences, intimate partner conflict resolution, and adult risk for child physical abuse.

This study investigated the relationships between conflict resolution tactics experienced during childhood, intimate partner conflict resolution tactics, alcohol problems and adult child physical abuse risk. Participants were 1,544 Navy recruit trainees who volunteered to complete measures of parenting practices and spousal physical violence experienced during their childhood, the conflict resolution techniques used in their intimate relationships, their personal history of alcohol problems, and child physical abuse potential. Regression analyses indicated that the receipt of intimate partner physical violence accounted for the most variance in predicting who would inflict physical violence against an intimate partner; and the infliction of intimate physical violence accounted for the most variance in predicting who would receive physical violence from an intimate partner. Other analyses indicated that among the parent and intimate partner physically violent events, parent-child violence during childhood accounted for the most variance in explaining child abuse risk in females and males, with the infliction of intimate partner violence adding only to the prediction of child abuse risk in females. Analyses also revealed that after the effects of violent experiences were removed, alcohol problems contributed significantly, albeit very modestly, to the prediction of who expressed intimate partner physical violence for males and females, who was physically injured by an intimate partner (in the case of male injury), and who was at risk of child physical abuse for males and females.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

An auditory event related potential evaluation of sonar task experience and age.

To gauge the interaction of real-world sonar-task experience and age on brain electrical activity, the effect of sonar experience and age on event related potentials (ERP) was examined. A three-group design was used and the results suggest that sonar experience and age affect the amplitude and distribution of the ERP component. The results concerning age and ERPs support and extend the results of previous studies and suggest that age-related differences occur at a much younger age than is reported elsewhere. Attentional and stimulus evaluation processes which have been linked to parameters of the ERP component may be enhanced with real-world auditory task experience. Research on ERP should control for the possible confounds of auditory-task experience and age.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Selective attention skills of experienced sonar operators.

This study investigated the influence of sonar training and experience on the selective attention of experienced and inexperienced operators. The Stroop task was selected as a measure of general selective attention, similar in certain task requirements (attentional allocation) to sonar operation. Across two samples (ns = 32 and 36) and four repeated test sessions groups did not differ significantly in speed or accuracy of Stroop performance. The data suggest that experienced operators do not seem to have developed extraordinary attentional skills and that any attentional skills developed through sonar experience do not generalize to other tasks such as the Stroop.

Adult↗

PubMed1994

Draw-A-Person test as a measure of anxiety in the work place.

It was hypothesized that, given their stressful working conditions, nuclear weapons workers would show more anxiety indicators on the Draw-A-Person test. Three groups (ns = 9) were given the test and their drawings were scored with Handler's 1967 objectively scorable indexes. A posttest-only design with two nonequivalent comparison groups was employed. Nuclear weapons workers had a reliably higher number of anxiety indicators on their Draw-A-Person drawings than the two comparison groups. These preliminary results indicate that Handler's objectively scorable indexes may be of value in detecting anxiety in the work place. The conclusions are tempered by the small groups and the quasi-experimental design used but indicate that further research could be fruitful.

Adult↗