The debt carrying capacity in relation to cash income of north central Kansas farms

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The depression impairment scale for parents (DISP): a new scale for the measurement of impairment in depressed parents

Children of depressed parents are at increased risk of developing mood disorders but mechanisms of intrafamilial transmission are currently unclear. One rarely investigated area is the impact of depression on a parent's everyday functioning. Currently there are no validated assessments of depression-specific parental impairment. The creation of such a measure would complement depression symptom counts, providing a more comprehensive account of the parent's depression. We therefore aimed to develop a valid and reliable measure of impairment specifically associated with parental depression. In a longitudinal study of parents with recurrent unipolar depression and their offspring, we collected data from 337 parents. These participants completed the Depression Impairment Scale for Parents (DISP), a questionnaire assessing depression-associated impairment in multiple domains of functioning. Factor analysis revealed that this measure consisted of two factors - impairment in routine tasks/activities and impairment in family functioning - that together accounted for 51.04% of variance. The scale evidenced good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=0.82). The DISP also displayed good construct and criterion validity as evidenced by significant associations with established measures of depression severity and global impairment. These results demonstrate that the DISP is a valid and reliable measure of depression-associated impairment in parents. © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd

The effect of birth-weight with genetic susceptibility on depressive symptoms in childhood and adolescence

Low birth-weight has been associated with depression and related outcomes in adults, and with problem behaviours in children. This study aimed to examine the association between low birth-weight for gestation and depressive symptoms in children and adolescents and to examine whether the relationship is moderated by genetic risk for depression. An epidemiological, genetically sensitive design was used including 2,046 twins aged 8–17 years (1,023 families). Data were obtained by parental report and analysed using regression analysis. A small but significant association between birth-weight for gestation and early depressive symptoms was observed. The unit increase in depressive symptoms per unit decrease in birth-weight for gestation was greater for individuals at genetic or familial risk for depression. For low birth-weight children, genetic risk for depression moderated the influence of birth-weight for gestation in predicting early depressive symptoms. Birth-weight for gestation is moderated by genetic and familial risk for depression in influencing early depression symptoms. These observations have clinical implications in that the impact of being small for gestational age on depressive symptoms is greater in children at familial/genetic risk although the association between birth weight and depression does not imply causality

Customized Products: A Competitive Analysis

This paper investigates the competitive market for mass-customized products. Competition leads to surprising conclusions: Manufacturers customize only one of a product's two attributes, and each manufacturer chooses the same attribute. Customization of both attributes cannot persist in an equilibrium where firms first choose customization and then choose price, because effort to capture market with customization makes a rival desperate, putting downward pressure on prices. Equilibrium involves partial or no customization. In partial customization, rival firms do not differentiate their mass-customization programs: If firms customize different attributes, many more consumers are indifferent between the two firms. The elasticity of demand is increased and the resulting price war makes differentiated customization unprofitable. If firms customize the same attribute of a two-attribute product, they should concentrate on the attribute with the smaller heterogeneity in consumers' preferences. We incorporate consumers’ effort in portraying their preferences as a cost of interaction and provide public policy findings on the well-being of these consumers: When this cost is low, consumers are better off with customization than with standard goods, but firms choose too little customization. The loss in consumer surplus is sometimes captured by the firms, but for low interaction costs, firms' profit-driven behavior is economically inefficient.customization, product differentiation, competition, game theory, personalization