Child abuse and mental health among adolescents in dependent care.

Do adolescents in dependent care who have been abused or neglected demonstrate more mental health problems than their nonabused peers? This study examined relationships of child abuse, depression, and self-esteem among 82 adolescents (mean age 14.5 years, 52% male, 82.9% white) living in a dependent care facility. Of these, 32 adolescents were victims of child abuse or neglect. Upon admission, 54 adolescents were identified as depressed on the Beck Depression Inventory. Initial scores on the depression and self-esteem instruments did not differ by age, race, or history of maltreatment, though trends among subtypes of abuse were identified. Females had significantly lower self-esteem and tended toward more depression. Repeat evaluation 6 months after admission revealed significant improvement in both depression and self-esteem scores for the entire sample. As a group, however, the maltreated adolescents did not demonstrate significant improvement in depression, and a history of neglect was associated with less improvement. Depression in this dependent care sample was common, however, we did not identify the maltreated adolescents as having significantly more problems with self-esteem or depression. For some adolescents, dependent care may be an appropriate and helpful alternative.

Common methodological framework for theory construction and evaluation in the social and behavioral sciences.

In this article, we have presented a general methodological framework for the construction and evaluation of social scientific theories in any domain of human ecology. In addition, we have presented some common fallacies and pitfalls in the nature and construction of scientific theories along with a discussion of 10 basic dichotomous issues important for evaluating contemporary theories and models. Finally, for the positive movement of future scientific work, we have summarized seven major weaknesses and needs in contemporary social scientific research and described the application of the proposed framework to the analysis of 46 child abuse and neglect theories to illustrate the importance of a multidisciplinary integration of future theory development and evaluation through the proposed methodological guidelines.

Relationship between cross-cultural health attitudes and community health indicators.

Improving health standards both nationally and cross-culturally is a goal for all community health nurses. Previous research has supported links between health attitudes and behavior. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between attitudes toward health and indexes of community health using a cross-cultural data set. Concepts selected from the data set were I (myself), body, sickness, disease, life, doctor, health, medicine, hospital, nurse, death, and insane. Community health indicators were male and female life expectancy, infant mortality, economic and public health expenditures, and net social progress. The original sample included 1200 high school males within each of 30 language and cultural communities. Data were derived from students' ratings of the dimensions of evaluation, potency, and activity for each concept. The results supported the association between attitudes and objective community health indicators. Unexpected negative correlations were found between attitudes toward medicine and nurse attitudes toward body and life, perhaps indicating that extended contact with health care providers may result in negative attitudes toward them. Positive relationships were found between public health expenditures and nurses, indicating that in countries with more expenditures for community and public health, attitudes toward nurses were more positive.

Cross-cultural relationships between self-concept and body image in high school-age boys.

The relationship between self-concept and body image was investigated through a secondary analysis of data from a sample of 1,200 high school male students from 30 language/culture communities (Osgood, May, & Myron, 1975). Subjects rated adjectives pertaining to self-concept and body image using 7-step semantic differential bipolar scales. Adjectives were related to the dimensions of Evaluation, Potency, and Activity. Correlation, factor analysis, and multiple regression were utilized to examine multivariate relationships among self-concept dimensions and body-image dimensions. Significant positive correlations were found between self-concept and body image. In addition, significant positive relationships were found when self-concept factors were regressed on the body-image factor (R2 = .49 to .57, p less than or equal to .001) for Activity and Potency. Results support the existence of a strong positive relationship between self-concept and body image across the 30 cultures involved. Findings have important implications for nursing in assessment and interventions with clients who have deficits in either self-concept or body image.

Cross-cultural comparison of images of nurses and physicians.

This study investigates attitudes related to the image of nurses and physicians across 30 cultures, using six concepts. Significant differences were found between physician and nurse with respect to power. Moreover, although the physician was highly correlated with knowledge and independence the nurse was correlated with kindness. Nurses' ability to influence health care decision-making may be limited if they are viewed as powerless, and they must address this deficit in their public image.

Crosscultural comparison on nursing image.

Conceptual ratings for 'Nurse' and 'Feminine' were investigated across 30 language/culture communities. Data were from Osgood's Atlas of Affective Meanings, which contains ratings of 1200 males from each culture on 620 concepts, using Semantic Differentials. The study provides important information regarding the image of nurses crossculturally and the close link between nursing and femininity. In general, both 'Nurse' and Feminine' were perceived to be good and active, yet weak. A crosscultural view of the nurse as impotent may limit nursing's ability to deliver health care.

A cross-cultural perspective of self-related conceptions in adolescence.

Adolescence has been described as a transitional phase of life often involving turbulence, stress and strain in five major problem areas. Osgood et al.'s (1975) Atlas of Affective Meaning provided three basic measures of Evaluation, Potency and Activity for some 620 concepts that are representative of human life experiences in 30 language/culture communities around the world. The ratings of 30 concepts from the Atlas that represent the five major problem areas of adolescence were analyzed with the Three-Mode Multidimensional Scaling with Points-of-View Solution Technique (Tzeng and Landis 1978). The major results included the identification of cross-cultural common concept factors, 12 'idealized' cultural groups, and the factor structures of 12 'private' configurations. The concept structures that emerged from this study accurately recovered the problem areas of adolescence cited in the literature and also revealed unexpected homogeneities and differences in the cultures involved. Implications for government, social planning and education were discussed.

Item validity of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

The present study presents a brief summary of four extensive psychometric analyses of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) items. Positive empirical evidence supports the MBTI item validity. However, several measurement issues on item construction were raised to caution the future users.

Three-Mode Multidimensional Scaling With Points Of View Solutions.

In the area of multidimensional scaling research, the three most popular models are Tucker and Messick's (1963) Points-of-View, Carroll and Chang's (1970) INDSCAL, and Tucker's (1972) Three-Mode procedures. However, each of these models has some theoretical and/or methodological difficulties in application to the real world. In this article, a new quantitative model, called 3M-POV, has been developed by combining the Three-Mode and Points-of-View models into a single analytic procedure. While the strengths of all three models have been kept, their difficulties have been eliminated. The present procedures have potential applicability to various context domains in social and behavioral research. For illustration, Osgood et el's (1975) indigenous inter-concept distances among 22 kincepts form 28 language/culture communities have been applied and resulted in very interesting solutions.

Individual differences in self-conception: a multivariate approach.

The present study investigated the determinants of the affective and denotative semantic structures in the process of self-conception. Three-mode data of semantic differential ratings of 11 ego-related concepts on a representative set of scales were obtained from a homogeneous group of 29 male college sophomores. Results for the scale mode indicated that after Osgood's three affective components were recaptured, three other orthogonal dimensions were interpretable denotative features. The concept mode consisted of five distinctive factors representing the multidimensional nature of self concepts. Differences among four types of subjects in their interactions between meaning systems and concept factors were highlighted by the rotated core matrix. Characteristics of subject-type homogeneities were further identified by regressions of their factor coefficients on a set of variables representing personality development, social behaviors, and attitudes.

Differentiation of affective and denotative meaning systems and their influence in personality ratings.

The present study presents an empirical example of the dichotomy of affective and denotative meaning systems and their influence on individual differences in personality ratings. The three-mode factor analytic technique with a newly developed transformation methodology for the scale mode was applied to data collected by Hogenraad from 50 French-speaking Belgians, rating 40 personality concepts against 40 semantic differential scales. Results indicated that three affective dimensions (evaluation, potency, and activity) proved to be dominant in the indigenous factor structure of personality impressions and that three dimensions in the "other" space, orthogonal to affect, are clearly interpretable denotative semantic features of personalities. Three idealized individual differences on interactions of these two meaning systems with four concept factors were highlighted by the final rotated inner core matrix. The present methodology along with the semantic differential technique and three-mode factor analysis can be applied to various types of subjects and/or concept domains for better understanding of intra- and intercultural differences.