Two new measures of attitudes about the acceptability of teen dating aggression.

Aggression in dating relationships is associated with attitudes that justify its use. Attitudes about dating aggression are targeted by prevention efforts, contributing to a need to measure these attitudes sensitively, accurately, and multidimensionally. We describe two new measures of attitudes about aggression, each tapping different attitudinal components, and compare their psychometric properties with an existing scale. The 1st assesses attitudes about physical aggression in provocative situations. The 2nd taps attitudes about verbally aggressive, controlling, and jealous tactics against a dating partner. Data from 2,313 high school students were factor analyzed and cross-validated for each new scale. Compared with an existing measure, the scales had comparable levels of reliability and validity and improved response distributions. A 2nd-order factor analysis lends support to a multidimensional view of attitudes about dating aggression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Characteristics of women physically abused by their spouses and who seek treatment regarding marital conflict.

Abused women (23 physically vs 25 marital discordant nonabused) reported significantly more fear of their spouses and reported that their spouses were significantly more coercive and psychologically aggressive than women in the 2 matched nonabused groups. Abused women did not report higher rates of abuse as a child, nor did they report higher rates of past psychopathology than women in the nonabused groups. However, abused women and nonabused discordant women reported higher rates of emotional abuse in childhood than maritally satisfied nonabused women. Result suggests that childhood abuse and a history of depression may be risk factors for women in abusive and nonabusive discordant relationships. Abused women reported higher rates of posttraumatic stress disorder than women in the discordant-only and community control groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factor structure and convergent validity of the Aggression Questionnaire in an offender population.

The study examined whether the 4-factor structure of the Aggression Questionnaire (AQ; A. H. Buss and M. Perry, see record 1993-00039-001), consisting of Physical Aggression, Verbal Aggression, Hostility, and Anger, would replicate in an offender population. The AQ and Novaco's Anger Scale (NAS; R. Novaco, 1994) were administered to 200 adult offenders. The results of a confirmatory analysis suggested that the 4-factor model is a poor fit in an offender population. A 2-factor model was suggested: 1 factor combines Physical Aggression and Anger; the other combines Verbal Aggression and Hostility. Evidence of convergent validity of the 2-factor model was provided by high correlations between the AQ and the NAS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Procedural justice in the context of civil commitment: A critique of Tyler's analysis.

This article is a critique of T. R. Tyler's 1992 review of procedural justice and its effect on therapeutic outcome in patients involved in civil commitment hearings. The article clarifies critical elements of Tyler's analysis by drawing on the social cognition construct of information control and elements in the consumerism literature that may mirror and facilitate procedural justice effects. The importance of the committing psychiatrist's role during the commitment hearing is emphasized and issues unique to civil commitment respondents that might affect their susceptibility to procedural justice effects are highlighted. Further research examining the effects of judges', attorneys', and psychiatrists' behavior on the patient's perception of procedural justice and subsequent therapeutic outcome is suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factor structure and convergent validity of the Conflict Tactics Scale in high school students.

This study explored the factor structure of a modified version of the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS; A A. Straus, 1979) in a large multiethnic high school sample. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic approaches were used. Results generally supported 2-factor models for males and females. A substantial proportion of residual variance remained after the 2 primary factors were extracted, and correlations among this residual variance suggested meaningful differences in the perpetration and experience of dating violence for males and females. Furthermore, the factor structure for males' self-reported victimization suggested that items representing psychological and mild physical aggression, which loaded on 1 factor, may be perceived similarly. Convergent validity analyses that examined the correlation among CTS traditional and factor scores with jealous actions, control tactics, and attitudes justifying males' and females' use of dating aggression provided initial support for the constructs identified. Results are discussed in terms of improving measurement of dating aggression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analysis-oriented model for concrete and masonry confined with fiber reinforced mortar

Analysis-oriented model (AOM) is a theoretical approach intended to analyze and design systems by applying the notions throughout the organization of a series of equations in one or more iterative cycle. The stress–strain curve of an fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) confined column is evaluated using an incremental procedure, which takes into account the interaction between the confining material and the column itself. Many AOMs have been developed for FRP-confined columns, while the prediction of the behavior of the jacketing with fiber reinforced mortar (FRM) is, currently, still a lack of the literature due to the relative recent development of studies about this new confining composite material. The aim of this paper is to present and discuss a new AOM able to deliver the axial stress–strain law of an axially loaded column made of concrete or masonry and with circular or square cross-section, when FRM-confinement is provided. A step-by-step iteration of the axial strain was adopted considering that the column reacts elastically and the FRM confinement remains un-cracked in each single step. The elastic secant modulus of the column was, thereafter, considered in order to catch its non-linear behavior and a further secant modulus was also computed for modelling the damage evolution of the FRM confinement when increasing the axial load. Finally, a parametric study allowed to check the correct interpretation of the phenomenon. Moreover, the theoretical versus the experimental comparison validated the accuracy of the proposed model.