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The transitional object attachments and persistent oral habits of 37 three-year-olds were examined in relation to their present and retrospectively rated infantile temperament. Children attached to a transitional object were differentiable from unattached children on infantile but not early childhood temperament, and the predictive temperament pattern differed from the pattern predicting oral habits. Transitional object attachments were independent from oral habits and were interpreted to serve distinct non-pathological developmental functions. The study suggests that temperament plays an etiological role in transitional object attachments, but that the status of the object as a developmental marker is ambiguous.

ContextThe global refugee crisis requires that researchers, policymakers, and clinicians comprehend the magnitude of the psychological consequences of forced displacement and the factors that moderate them. To date, no empirical synthesis of research on these issues has been undertaken.ObjectiveTo meta-analytically establish the extent of compromised mental health among refugees (including internally displaced persons, asylum seekers, and stateless persons) using a worldwide study sample. Potential moderators of mental health outcomes were examined, including enduring contextual variables (eg, postdisplacement accommodation and economic opportunity) and refugee characteristics.Data SourcesPublished studies (1959-2002) were obtained using broad searches of computerized databases (PsycINFO and PILOTS), manual searches of reference lists, and interviews with prominent authors.Study SelectionStudies were selected if they investigated a refugee group and at least 1 nonrefugee comparison group and reported 1 or more quantitative group comparison on measures of psychopathology. Fifty-six reports met inclusion criteria (4.4% of identified reports), yielding 59 independent comparisons and including 67 294 participants (22 221 refugees and 45 073 nonrefugees).Data ExtractionData on study and report characteristics, study participant characteristics, and statistical outcomes were extracted using a coding manual and subjected to blind recoding, which indicated high reliability. Methodological quality information was coded to assess potential sources of bias.Data SynthesisEffect size estimates for the refugee-nonrefugee comparisons were averaged across psychopathology measures within studies and weighted by sample size. The weighted mean effect size was 0.41 (SD, 0.02; range, −1.36 to 2.91 [SE, 0.01]), indicating that refugees had moderately poorer outcomes. Postdisplacement conditions moderated mental health outcomes. Worse outcomes were observed for refugees living in institutional accommodation, experiencing restricted economic opportunity, displaced internally within their own country, repatriated to a country they had previously fled, or whose initiating conflict was unresolved. Refugees who were older, more educated, and female and who had higher predisplacement socioeconomic status and rural residence also had worse outcomes. Methodological differences between studies affected effect sizes.ConclusionsThe sociopolitical context of the refugee experience is associated with refugee mental health. Humanitarian efforts that improve these conditions are likely to have positive impacts.

Background: A 94-year-old man underwent a routine percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy but 7 days later developed abdominal pain and died of a previously unreported late complication. Methods: A case report of the main clinical and pathological findings and a brief discussion of the significance of the case. Results: Postmortem examination revealed a chemical peritonitis due to leakage of 2.8 L of formula into the peritoneal cavity through an enlarged gastrostomy hole around a correctly positioned tube. Conclusion: This is a previously unreported complication that occurred because of repeated pulling on the tube by a confused patient, causing a loss of the usual apposition of the gastric and the anterior abdominal walls. The importance of the case is to emphasize that late, even fatal, complications can occur until a permanent fibrous tract has been formed between the skin and the gastric wall. (Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition20:433-434, 1996)

Intertemporal bargaining theory based on the hyperbolic discounting of expected rewards accounts for how choosing in categories increases self-control, without postulating, as Rachlin does, the additional rewardingness of patterns per se. However, altruism does not seem to be based on self-control, but on the primary rewardingness of vicarious experience. We describe a mechanism that integrates vicarious experience with other goods of limited availability.

A small Monte Carlo study was conducted to determine whether MAXCOV analysis, a taxometric method for testing between discrete (“taxonic”) and continuous models of latent variables, is robust when indicators of the latent variable are skewed. Analysis of constructed data sets containing three levels of skew indicated that the MAXCOV procedure is unlikely to yield spurious findings of taxonicity even when skewness is considerable. However, care must be taken to distinguish low base-rate taxonic variables from skewed nontaxonic variables.

Research on personal relationships inescapably uses taxonomies for classifying people, relationships, and interpersonal processes and events, and often develops new ones. However, constructing a good taxonomy is no simple matter. Many existing classification methods have serious weaknesses, and they carry the risk of drawing taxonomic distinctions that are spurious. In addition, researchers frequently make unwarranted assumptions about the nature of the taxonomic categories that they employ in their work. This article introduces a family of quantitative methods for testing and generating taxonomies. Although they have seen little use to date outside of psychopathology, personality psychology, and behavioral genetics, these methods are versatile and readily adapted to the domain of personal relationships, where they offer many research possibilities. Three of the methods are illustrated in a study of elementary forms of relationships. Copyright © 1999 ISSPR.

Johnson, Li, and Cohen (JLC) present an ambitious framework, proposing that four dimensions of religion meet seven fundamental social motives in different ways. We focus our commentary on two issue...

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