Personal values and involvement in problem behaviors among Bahamian early adolescents: a cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Few studies, particularly in developing countries, have explored the relationship between adolescents and parental values with adolescent problem behaviors. The objectives of the study are to (1) describe adolescents' personal values, their problem behaviors, and the relationships thereof according to gender and (2) examine the relationship between parental values, adolescent values, and adolescents' problem behaviors among sixth-grade students and one of their parents.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The data used in these analyses were from the baseline assessment of a school-based HIV risk reduction intervention being conducted and evaluated among sixth grade students and one of their parents across 9 elementary schools in The Bahamas. Personal values were measured by the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ). Seven reported problem behaviors were queried from the students, which included physical fight with a friend, drank alcohol, beer, or wine, smoked a cigarette, pushed or carried any drugs, carried a gun, knife, screwdriver or cutlass to use as a weapon, had sex and used marijuana or other illicit drugs over the past 6 months. Multilevel modeling for binary data was performed to estimate the associations between adolescent and parental values and adolescent problem behaviors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Among 785 students, 47% of the students reported at least one problem behavior. More boys (54%) reported having one or more problem behaviors than girls (41%, p < 0.01). Boys compared to girls expressed a higher level of self-enhancement (means score: 36.5 vs. 35.1; p = 0.03), while girls expressed a higher level of self-transcendence (42.3 vs. 40.7; p = 0.03). The results of multilevel modeling indicates that boys with a higher level of self-enhancement and girls with a higher level of openness to change and a lower level of conservation were more likely to report engagement in problem behaviors. Only two parental values (self-transcendence and conservation) were low or modestly correlated with youth' values (openness to change and self-enhancement). Parental-reported values documented limited association on adolescents' reported values and behaviors.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In designing interventions for reducing adolescents' problem behaviors, it may be important to understand the values associated with specific problem behaviors. Further exploration regarding lack of association between adolescent and parental values and problem behaviors is needed.</p

Uplift evolution along the Red Sea continental rift margin from stream profile inverse modeling and drainage analysis

Continental rifted margins can have complex uplift histories related to different processes including footwall uplift by mechanical unloading, dynamic uplift and interaction with transfer margins. Deciphering uplift histories along rift flanks is integral to understanding the margin evolution as a whole. Here, a combination of drainage analysis and stream profile inverse modeling is utilized to estimate the rift flank uplift along the north-eastern Red Sea onshore margin. The drainage network was extracted from an ASTER DEM (∼30 x 30 m-horizontal resolution) and the uplift history was calculated using an inverse model, which builds on the relationship between uplift, erosion and stream profile shape. Local relief, minimum erosion volumes and minimum erosion volume:catchment area ratios (Rva) were also calculated and compared to uplift estimates. Within the study area, small catchments represent footwall drainage and larger catchments are mostly associated with pre-rift structures and syn-rift accommodation zones. Uplift initiated in the southern part during early rifting (21-15 Ma) before shifting northward (12-0 Ma). This uplift distribution is reflected in Rva and relief maps. Early-rift uplift is interpreted as a record of early-rift faulting with possible additional mantle support, whereas later uplift was driven by fault linkage and mantle upwelling (12-6 Ma) as well as transform tectonics (6-0 Ma). These modeling results are largely in agreement with other independent data (low-temperature thermochronology and dated carbonate terraces). Our workflow benefits from its utilization of ubiquitous drainage data. The combination of drainage analysis and inverse modeling proves to be more discerning than either one method in isolation, and may have application to analysis of other margins