Correlates of Help-Seeking Intentions among Airmen in the Context of Family Maltreatment Perpetration: Practical Barriers as a Moderating Influence

Efforts are warranted to understand correlates of formal help-seeking among active-duty military members self-reporting family maltreatment perpetration. Drawing from the Integrated Model of Determinants of Behavioral Intentions, we evaluate a hypothesized model in which the intention to seek formal services is associated with a set of plausible social-psychological variables. Practical barriers to help-seeking is assessed as a moderating influence. A representative sample of 5326 Airmen (88% male) from the 2011 Air Force Community Assessment Survey who self-reported recent family maltreatment perpetration is used for structural equation modeling to estimate direct associations between social support and intention to seek services, and indirect associations via career stigma, unit-based stigma, and sense of community. Social support is negatively associated with career stigma and unit-based stigma, and positively associated with sense of community. Career stigma and sense of community are negatively associated with intention to seek services. Significant indirect effects include a positive effect between social support and intention to seek services via a reduction in career stigma, and a negative effect via increases in sense of community. Higher levels of practical barriers magnify most associations. Especially when facing practical barriers, social support can both increase help-seeking intentions by reducing career stigma, and reduce intentions, either directly or indirectly by strengthening a sense of community. Military leaders should address career stigma perceptually and systematically, and engage in public awareness efforts and trainings to position members of informal networks to guide individuals with problematic behavior toward relevant formal services

Associations between Family Maltreatment Perpetration and Latent Profiles of Personal and Family Strengths among Active-Duty Air Force Members

Although individual and family strengths have been found to impact family maltreatment risk, optimal approaches to their assessment are lacking. To substantiate the utility of holistically assessing multiple strengths among active-duty Air Force members (i.e., Airmen) who might be at risk of perpetrating family maltreatment, the current study aimed to identify latent patterns of personal and family strengths among Airmen and assess associations with family maltreatment perpetration. A representative a sample of 30,187 Airmen from the 2011 Air Force Community Assessment Survey was used to identify patterns across latent-factor scores representing unit leader support, informal support, family functioning, individual fitness, and personal resilience. Latent profile analysis was conducted to extract an optimal number of response patterns and estimate associations with family maltreatment perpetration. A five-profile solution was optimal, representing patterns marked by low (10%), below average (26%), mixed (16%), above average (36%), and high (12%) levels of personal and family strengths. Predicted probabilities of family maltreatment among families not identifying as stepfamilies were 39%, 21%, 14%, 10%, and 8% across low, below average, mixed, above average, and high patterns, respectively. Among stepfamilies (20% of sample), predicted probabilities were 49%, 29%, 21%, 15%, and 12%, respectively. Findings encourage a holistic assessment of personal and family strengths among Airmen. The Personal and Family Strengths Inventory, which was developed to gauge these strengths, can position practitioners well to engage Airmen in conversations around strengths and growth opportunities for the purposes of service planning aimed at preventing family maltreatment

Nocturnal wind direction shear and its potential impact on pollutant transport

The estimation of transport and diffusion of airborne pollutants during the nighttime is challenging, especially over complex terrain where gravity driven drainage flows may be overlain with wind from a different direction. This study investigates the character of wind direction shear in the lowest 100 m using tower measurements from a complex, semi-arid site where local thermally-driven flows are common. The effects of wind direction shear on plume transport are studied by simulating a hypothetical elevated term release. This is accomplished by first simulating transport and dispersion using wind measurements from only the 12-m level from a network of towers. This case represents the approach commonly taken at many facilities where a network of short towers is available. Then the release is modeled using wind measurements made at four levels in the lowest 100 m. The differences between the two simulations are significant and would lead to very different responses in an emergency situation

The role of parent, classmate, and teacher support in student engagement: Evidence from Ghana

The literature is unequivocal about the importance of improving academic engagement in addressing challenges such as school drop out or increasing student motivation. What is less certain, particularly in the literature from developing countries, is how social support systems (parents, teachers, and classmates) influence students’ emotional and behavioral engagement. Drawing from the ecological perspective, this study analyzes data from Ghana using structural equation modeling to examine mediated and unmediated pathways through which parent, teacher, and classmate support affect students’ emotional and behavioral engagement. Findings suggest classmate support has the strongest association with student engagement, followed by parental support. Teacher support is neither a mediator nor a direct predictor of student engagement. These findings have implications for teacher training and professional development, especially training on how to actively involve parents in motivating their children to be engaged scholars

Health inequalities among sexual minority adults: Evidence from ten U.S. states, 2010

Improving the health of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals is a Healthy People 2020 goal; however, the IOM highlighted the paucity of information currently available about LGB populations

Probing neutrino masses with future galaxy redshift surveys

We perform a new study of future sensitivities of galaxy redshift surveys to the free-streaming effect caused by neutrino masses, adding the information on cosmological parameters from measurements of primary anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Our reference cosmological scenario has nine parameters and three different neutrino masses, with a hierarchy imposed by oscillation experiments. Within the present decade, the combination of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and CMB data from the PLANCK experiment will have a 2-sigma detection threshold on the total neutrino mass close to 0.2 eV. This estimate is robust against the inclusion of extra free parameters in the reference cosmological model. On a longer term, the next generation of experiments may reach values of order sum m_nu = 0.1 eV at 2-sigma, or better if a galaxy redshift survey significantly larger than SDSS is completed. We also discuss how the small changes on the free-streaming scales in the normal and inverted hierarchy schemes are translated into the expected errors from future cosmological data.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures. Added results with the KAOS proposal and 1 referenc

Properties of the Top Quark

The top quark was discoverd at the CDF and D0 experiments in 1995. As the partner of the bottom quark its properties within the Standard Model are fully defined. Only the mass is a free parameter. The measurement of the top quark mass and the verification of the expected properties have been an important topic of experimental top quark physics since. In this review the recent results on top quark properties obtained by the Tevatron experiments CDF and D0 are summarised. At the advent of the LHC special emphasis is given to the basic measurement methods and the dominating systematic uncertainties.Comment: Habilitation thesis, revised and updated for publication in EPJ

Search for leptophobic Z ' bosons decaying into four-lepton final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

Search for black holes and other new phenomena in high-multiplicity final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

Peer reviewe