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Results for “Social Control, Informal”

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At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed2006

Cohabitation reduces bulimic symptoms in young women.

OBJECTIVE: This current study examines the relationship between cohabitation and changes in bulimic symptoms in young adults. METHOD: A sample of 2601 initially noncohabitating adolescents was followed over a 5-year period and growth curve analyses were conducted. RESULTS: Females who over the course of the study moved in with a partner had greater decreases in bulimic symptoms compared with female noncohabitators. This difference was highly significant, even if small in size. No such effect was found in males. When examining the frequency of bulimic behaviors in females, the most socially unacceptable bulimic behaviors were those most reduced by cohabitation, whereas less obtrusive bulimic behaviors were not reduced. CONCLUSION: The results give some indication that social control exercised in close relationships may account for decreased bulimic symptoms in female cohabitators. Further studies are needed to confirm the importance of social control and to examine how it affects symptom reduction.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

The empirical relationship between community social capital and the demand for cigarettes.

We show that the proportion of community social capital attributable to religious groups is inversely and strongly related to the number of cigarettes that smokers consume. We do not find overall community social capital or the proportion of community social capital attributable to religious groups to be related to the overall prevalence of smoking. Using a new validated measure of community social capital, the Petris Social Capital Index and three years (1998-2000) of US data on 39 369 adults, we estimate a two-part demand model incorporating the following controls: community-level fixed effects, price (including excise taxes), family income, a smuggling indicator, nonsmoking regulations, education, marital status, sex, age, and race/ethnicity.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Non-genetic mothers and their own children: infertility and IVF donor birth.

Over the 1980s in Western societies which have used new reproductive technologies, there has been intense argumentation about connected philosophical, ethical and economic issues. This research on I.V.F. donor egg (i.e. 'non-genetic') motherhood is based on qualitative data from partial life histories of twelve women having children by this technology through a Melbourne infertility programme. Methodology, interpretation, and discussion place it within both critical social and feminist personal identity theoretical frameworks. None of the respondent women but all except one of their respective partners are the biological parents of a total of ten children already born at the data collection stage, and in three well-established pregnancies. Two-thirds of the respondents used 'unknown' donor ova. 'Known' donors were typically the recipients' sisters. Many of these Australian births represent world 'firsts' in medical technical applications. In biographical accounts, the focus was on experiences of social pressure towards parenthood, of infertility and medical treatment, and attitudes of openness or secrecy about using donated ova. While socially and technologically acquired parenthood added a highly-desired dimension to their social identities, a sense of loss appeared to persist in most of the women's personal identities. Where a policy of secrecy towards relatives and friends about use of reproductive technology and gamete donation was maintained, this loss was reinforced by a feeling of social isolation.

Australia↗
PubMed2005

Maintaining psychology's scientific and professional credibility and ethical responsibility to self-regulate: a comment on "validations" of mental health assessment instruments.

Recent growth of "managed" mental health care in the United States has spawned huge demand for products that draw on one of psychology's most well developed subdisciplines, tests and measurement. The commercial potential of mental health assessment instruments intended for widespread use, to meet what Kraus, Seligman, and Jordan (this volume) describe as "an industry-wide surge in outcome evaluations in naturalistic ... settings," necessarily raises conflict of interest dilemmas for those who develop and market them. The American Psychological Association has devoted intensive effort to the preceding issue as it pertains to other aspects of the science and practice of clinical psychology. Comparable attention has not been focused recently on the development and marketing of assessment instruments. This Comment highlights the issue and suggests types of self-regulatory actions that might be taken, e.g., requiring and publishing full disclosure statements of authors' relationships to companies that market instruments like the Treatment Outcome Package in psychometric articles in which they are evaluated.

Conflict of Interest↗
PubMed2007

Changes in emotion regulation and psychological adjustment following use of a group psychosocial support program for women recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

This study assesses the efficacy of a group intervention in altering emotion regulation processes and promoting adjustment in women with breast cancer. Using a design with 10 alternating phases of availability of the intervention versus standard care, we assessed women participating in one of three conditions: a 12-week group intervention (N = 54); a decliner group who refused the intervention (N = 56), and a standard care group who were not offered the intervention (N = 44). The intervention included training in relaxation, guided imagery, meditation, emotional expression, and exercises promoting control beliefs and benefit-finding. Emotion regulation processes and adjustment were assessed at baseline (following diagnosis), 4 months (corresponding with the end of the intervention), 6 months, and 12 months. At 4 months, intervention participants (compared to decliners and standard care participants) reported greater increases in use of relaxation-oriented techniques, perceived control, emotional well-being, and coping efficacy, and, greater decreases in perceived risk of recurrence, cancer worry, and anxiety. Intervention participants also reported relatively greater decreases in emotional suppression from baseline to 12 months, suggesting that the intervention had a delayed impact on these tendencies. The findings suggest an emotion regulation intervention can beneficially influence emotional experiences and regulation over the first year following diagnosis.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1985

Social influences and constraints on the initiation and cessation of adolescent tobacco use.

This research examines the viability of a theoretical perspective which combines social bonding theory and differential association theory in explaining the initiation and cessation of adolescent tobacco use. Three-year panel data collected from seventh- to twelfth-grade adolescents were analyzed using differences in means tests and discriminant analysis. The findings indicate overall support for the theoretical model in discriminating between (1) initiators and stable nonsmokers and (2) cessators and stable smokers. However, there were some differences in the variables found to be important at each stage of adolescent smoking. Commitment to education, attachment to father and mother, and association with female smoking friends were the most effective discriminators for the initiation stage, while attachment to father, beliefs, and association with both male and female smoking friends were important for the cessation stage. Findings are also discussed for males and females and for junior and senior high-school adolescents.

Achievement↗
PubMed1994

Somatization: social control and illness production in a religious cult.

The aim of this ethnographic work is twofold: first, to document the specifics of the illness experience within the highly controlling milieu of a religious cult; second, to explore the connection between somatization and social control in this particular context. Anthropologists have long realized that in order to comprehend disease etiology, one must examine both biological and sociocultural processes, as both are implicated in the production of illness. Illness experiences of those members of the cult described here appeared to be direct responses to extreme intrapsychic and social control: that is, members were required to be celibate, unmarried, and detached from their pre-cult identity and the emotional support structure of family and friends. Additionally, members were subjected to constant surveillance by peers and were often punished for expressing views that were in conflict with the ideology of the leader, thereby encouraging the somatization of distress. This research is based upon two years of participant observation within the milieu, during which time more than 100 participants were interviewed; however, this paper specifically discusses in-depth interviews with eight individuals whose health problems exemplify those experienced by other members of the cult.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Performance of psychiatric hospital discharges in strict and tolerant environments.

Community mental health professionals are greatly concerned with the type of social environment most conducive to helping patients remain outside psychiatric institutions and improving the quality of their lives in the community. This paper examines the tolerance of deviance characterizing significant others in the patients' environment as it relates to community tenure and selected measures of performance and quality of life of the older patient in the community. A possible role is suggested for differential tolerance of deviance in the lives of patients discharged from psychiatric hospitals. Although it would appear that patients may return to the hospital at a higher rate from low tolerance environments, it may be that for patients who remain in the community, the quality of life may be better in low tolerance environments in terms of social interaction and life satisfaction. The deviance model is of value in the continuing efforts to understand the role of the social environment in the community life of discharged patients.

Attitude↗
PubMed1996

The Nazi doctors and the medical community; honor or censure? The case of Hans Sewering.

During the Nazi era, most German physicians abrogated their responsibilities to individual patients, and instead chose to advocate the interests of an evil regime. In so doing, several fundamental bioethical principles were violated. Despite gross violations of individual rights, many physicians went on to have successful careers, and in many cases were honored. This paper will review the case of Hans Sewering, a participant in the Nazi euthanasia program who became the President-elect of the World Medical Association. The appropriate stance for the medical and scientific community toward those who violate human rights and ignore fundamental ethical principles of the healing professions will be considered.

Ethics, Medical↗
PubMed1996

Parents and peer group as mediators of the effect of community structure on adolescent problem behavior.

Used a sample of 207 single-parent families residing in 104 small, Midwestern communities to test hypotheses regarding the link between community context and adolescent conduct problems and psychological distress. For boys, community disadvantage had a direct affect on psychological distress, while it indirectly boosted the probability of conduct problems by disrupting parenting and increasing affiliation with deviant peers. Community disadvantage was unrelated to the deviant behavior or emotional well-being of girls. Proportion of single-parent households in the community had a direct effect on girls' conduct problems. It also contributed indirectly to girls' conduct problems by increasing the probability of involvement with deviant peers. Possible explanations for these gender differences are provided.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2007

Environmental correlates of gambling behavior in urban adolescents.

The present study considered the relation between adolescent gambling behavior and the perceived environment, the component of Jessor and Jessor's (1977) Problem Behavior Theory that assesses the ways that adolescents perceive the attitudes and behaviors of parents and peers. The predominantly African-American sample included 188 sophomores from two urban public high schools. Using the South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised for Adolescents to assess gambling risk, rates of both at-risk (20.7%) and problem (12.8%) gambling were found to be high. Boys displayed more gambling problems than did girls. The perceived environment accounted for significant variance in gambling problems and frequency, with proximal components displaying stronger relationships than distal components. Perceiving parent gambling and friend models for problem behavior were positively correlated with gambling problems, and friend models were positively related to gambling frequency. Among girls, family support was positively related to gambling problems. Among boys, this relation was negative.

Achievement↗