Understanding the sex difference in vulnerability to adolescent depression: an examination of child and parent characteristics

This study examined sex differences in risk factors associated with adolescent depression in a large sample of boys and girls. Moderation and mediation explanatory models of the sex difference in likelihood of depression were examined. Findings indicate that the factors associated with depression in adolescent boys and girls are quite similar. All of the variables considered were associated with depression, but sex did not moderate the impact of vulnerability factors on likelihood of depression diagnosis. However, negative self-perceptions in the domains of achievement, global self-worth, and physical appearance partially mediated the relationship between sex and depression. Further, girls had higher levels of positive self-perceptions in interpersonal domains that acted as suppressors and reduced the likelihood of depression in girls. These findings suggest that girls' higher incidence of depression is due in part to their higher levels of negative self-perceptions, whereas positive interpersonal factors serve to protect them from depressive episodes

World checklist of hornworts and liverworts

A working checklist of accepted taxa worldwide is vital in achieving the goal of developing an online flora of all known plants by 2020 as part of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. We here present the first-ever worldwide checklist for liverworts (Marchantiophyta) and hornworts (Anthocerotophyta) that includes 7486 species in 398 genera representing 92 families from the two phyla. The checklist has far reaching implications and applications, including providing a valuable tool for taxonomists and systematists, analyzing phytogeographic and diversity patterns, aiding in the assessment of floristic and taxonomic knowledge, and identifying geographical gaps in our understanding of the global liverwort and hornwort flora. The checklist is derived from a working data set centralizing nomenclature, taxonomy and geography on a global scale. Prior to this effort a lack of centralization has been a major impediment for the study and analysis of species richness, conservation and systematic research at both regional and global scales. The success of this checklist, initiated in 2008, has been underpinned by its community approach involving taxonomic specialists working towards a consensus on taxonomy, nomenclature and distribution

Belongingness in early secondary school: Key factors that primary and secondary schools need to consider

© 2015 Vaz et al. It is unknown if, and how, students redefine their sense of school belongingness after negotiating the transition to secondary school. The current study used longitudinal data from 266 students with, and without, disabilities who negotiated the transition from 52 primary schools to 152 secondary schools. The study presents the 13 most significant personal student and contextual factors associated with belongingness in the first year of secondary school. Student perception of school belongingness was found to be stable across the transition. No variability in school belongingness due to gender, disability or household-socio-economic status (SES) was noted. Primary school belongingness accounted for 22% of the variability in secondary school belongingness. Several personal student factors (competence, coping skills) and school factors (low-level classroom task-goal orientation), which influenced belongingness in primary school, continued to influence belongingness in secondary school. In secondary school, effort-goal orientation of the student and perception of their school's tolerance to disability were each associated with perception of school belongingness. Family factors did not influence belongingness in secondary school. Findings of the current study highlight the need for primary schools to foster belongingness among their students at an early age, and transfer students' belongingness profiles as part of the handover documentation. Most of the factors that influenced school belongingness before and after the transition to secondary are amenable to change

Childhood emotional trauma and cyberbullying perpetration among emerging adults: a multiple mediation model of the role of problematic social media use and psychopathology

Research suggests that a small minority of social media users experience problems as a result of their online use. The purpose of the present study was to examine the association of cyberbullying perpetration and problematic social media use with childhood emotional trauma, Cluster B (narcissistic, histrionic, antisocial, and borderline) personality traits, dissociative experiences (DEs), depression, and self-esteem in a nonclinical undergraduate sample. A total of 344 university students volunteered to complete a questionnaire that included measures on the aforementioned dimensions. Thirty-eight percent of the participants had emotional neglect and 27% had emotional abuse, while 44% of them demonstrated at least one cyberbullying perpetration behavior. Results indicated that cyberbullying perpetrators had higher scores on problematic social media use, dissociative experiences, Cluster B traits, depression and childhood emotional trauma, and lower on self-esteem. Path analysis demonstrated that, while adjusting for gender and age, childhood emotional trauma was directly and indirectly associated with cyberbullying perpetration via Cluster B traits. Moreover, depression and dissociation were directly associated with problematic social media use. The findings of this study emphasize the important direct role of childhood emotional trauma and pathological personality traits on cyberbullying perpetration

The personal and contextual contributors to school belongingness among primary school students

School belongingness has gained currency among educators and school health professionals as an important determinant of adolescent health. The current cross-sectional study presents the 15 most significant personal and contextual factors that collectively explain 66.4% (two-thirds) of the variability in 12-year old students' perceptions of belongingness in primary school. The study is part of a larger longitudinal study investigating the factors associated with student adjustment in the transition from primary to secondary school. The study found that girls and students with disabilities had higher school belongingness scores than boys, and their typically developing counterparts respectively; and explained 2.5% of the variability in school belongingness. The majority (47.1% out of 66.4%) of the variability in school belongingness was explained by student personal factors, such as social acceptance, physical appearance competence, coping skills, and social affiliation motivation; followed by parental expectations (3% out of 66.4%), and school-based factors (13.9% out of 66.4%) such as, classroom involvement, task-goal structure, autonomy provision, cultural pluralism, and absence of bullying. Each of the identified contributors of primary school belongingness can be shaped through interventions, system changes, or policy reforms

Lesbian and Heterosexual Two-Parent Families: Adolescent–Parent Relationship Quality and Adolescent Well-Being

This study compared 51 adolescents from intact two-mother planned lesbian families (all conceived through donor insemination) with 51 adolescents from intact mother-father families on their relationships with their parents (parental control, disclosure to parents, and adolescent-parent relationship quality), psychological adjustment (self-esteem, social anxiety, and conduct problems), and substance usage (consumption of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana/hashish). The adolescents (average age 16 years) were matched on demographic characteristics (age, gender, educational level, country of birth, parental birth country) with a sample from a large school-based survey, and data were collected by means of adolescent self-reports. Analyses indicated that adolescents in both family types had positive relationships with their parents, which were favorably associated with psychological well-being. On the assessments of psychological adjustment and substance use, family type was significantly associated only with self-esteem and conduct problems: Adolescents with lesbian mothers had higher levels of self-esteem and lower levels of conduct problems than their counterparts in heterosexual-parent families. Overall, the findings indicate that adolescents from intact two-mother lesbian families are comparable to those in a matched comparison group with intact mother-father families. The few differences found on psychological well-being favored the adolescents in lesbian two-mother families

Evidence for a latitudinal diversity gradient in liverworts and hornworts

peer reviewe

Land of retreating glaciers – checklist of liverworts on Svalbard

The checklist of liverworts of the Svalbard archipelago contains all published data on the occurrence of liverworts in the Svalbard archipelago. The list includes 105 species, five more reported species that only doubtfully occur there, and 51 species previously listed for the archipelago that are excluded from Svalbard. In addition, the locations of 67 species new to different regions of the archipelago are reported. Two species, Neoorthocaulis hyperboreus and Riccardia chamedryfolia, are listed as new to the archipelago. Two old names are typified and synonymized with taxa common on Svalbard

Some properties of barley stripe mosaic virus*

Barley varieties differed greatly in their reactions to infection with barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) obtained from the variety Gloire du Velay growing in Cambridgeshire from seed imported from France. Lolium multiflorum Lam., previously considered immune, proved susceptible, as did Beta vulgaris L. and Chenopodium amaranticolor Coste & Reyn., which gave only local lesions, and Spinacea oleracea L. which became systemically infected. Heating at 65 degrees C. for 10 min. destroyed the infectivity and serological activity of BSMV. Sap was still infective after 32 days at 20 degrees C., but lost its infectivity and half of its serological activity in 3 days at - 20 degrees C.; adding sugar to the sap prevented inactivation by freezing. The virus content of inoculated barley leaves increased most rapidly in plants kept at 24-28 degrees C. At 24 degrees C. increase was most rapid during the first 5 days, and the maximum virus concentration was reached about 10 days after inoculation. The highest infection end-point of sap was 1/2048, when the precipitation end-point with virus antisera was 1/256, and sap contained 10(13) virus particles per ml. : the ratio of infectivity to serological activity and to number of virus particles is much smaller than with tobacco mosaic virus. The rod-shaped particles are about 20 m mu wide and, in fresh sap, most are between 135 and 175 m mu long. Various treatments, especially heating to 50 degrees C., cause the particles to aggregate linearly. Preparations partially purified by alternate cycles of low-and high-speed centrifugation and by precipitation with ammonium sulphate contain from 0.35 to 0.53 % P, 12.3 to 13.2 % N and 6.2 to 10.2 % carbohydrate. Such preparations are insoluble in water but dissolve in borate buffer at pH 7.5 : they inactivate below pH 4.5