Rule Breaking Research Articles

Study of impact of screen exposure time on behavioural and growth parameters in urban Indian children

Background: The American academy of paediatrics (AAP) recommends 2 hours of screen time (ST) daily for children and teenagers, with no exposure for those under 2 years old. However, research shows children often exceed these limits, leading to behavioural issues, obesity, and unhealthy eating habits. This study aimed to evaluate STs impact on behaviour, growth, and eating habits in children aged 1.5 to 8 years. Methods: This cross sectional, observational study, conducted in the paediatric department, enrolled 401 children aged 1.5 to 8 years. Demographic details, weight, height, and BMI of the children were recorded. Parents provided information of their child's ST, screens at home, their own ST, and child’s eating habits. Behavioural parameters were evaluated using the child behaviour checklist (CBCL). Internalizing and Externalizing behaviours were also recorded in which internalizing factors comprised of anxious and somatic behaviours, while externalizing factors encompassed aggression and rule-breaking behaviours. Data analysis was performed using SPSS V.23. Results: In our study, 401 children were enrolled, comprising 233 females (58.10%) and 168 males (41.90%). Out of 401, 201 (50.12%) exceeded 2 hours of ST, while 159 (39.65%) had 1 to 2 hours, and only 41 (10.22%) had less than 1 hour. There was a strong significant association between children's ST and their internalizing (p=0.00034), externalizing (p=0.009), withdrawn (p=0.001), rule breaking (p=0.03) and aggressive (p<0.01) behaviour. Additionally, children weight had a positive correlation between ST and BMI (p=0.015). Conclusions: Excessive ST use correlates well with higher BMIs, behavioural issues like withdrawal, somatic complaints, rule-breaking, aggression. Urgent interventions are needed to reduce ST and promote healthier lifestyles among children, involving parents, caregivers, and policymakers.Top of Form

Does gender moderate the relationship between protective factors and rule violating behavior?

This paper explores the role that gender plays in moderating the relationship between protective factors and rule violating behavior among adolescents and young adults. We explore the relationship between rule violating behavior, protective factors, and gender for regulatory strengths, meaning making strengths, and interpersonal strengths. The Resilience Portfolio Model is used to understand the process of resilience and how utilizing various types of strengths may decrease the prevalence of rule violating behavior. Participants were 860 adolescents and young adults (12–20 years old) within a rural, Appalachian area of the United States who self-reported behaviors based on survey data. Blockwise regression analyses and interaction analyses were conducted to identify gender differences. Findings indicate that overall, males are significantly more likely to report rule violating behaviors than females. Gender moderated the relationship between psychological endurance and moral meaning making with these strengths showing a stronger protective effect for male versus female youth. Several strengths were associated with less rule violating behavior and operated similarly for male and female youth, including emotion regulation, optimism, and community support. Findings suggest that more attention needs to focus on identifying and understanding gender-specific strengths as well as identifying strengths which may operate similarly for both males and females that contribute to reduced rule violating to improve developmental outcomes for adolescents and young adults. These findings are important especially as it relates to prevention of rule breaking among all adolescents and young adults.

Associations Between Iron Intake and Behavior Problems in Early Adolescence

Due to a decline in diet quality during adolescence, youth are less likely to consume adequate nutrient dense foods to meet recommended requirements. Iron intake in particular is crucial for healthy physical and brain development in adolescence, but few studies have examined the role of iron intake in adolescents’ behavior problems. The current study examined the associations between iron intake and two types of behavior problems in early adolescents – aggression and rule breaking. The sample included 272 middle school students (Mage =12.08; 53% female; 47% Black, 37% White, 9% Hispanic, 6% other racial/ethnic group). Multivariate regression analyses adjusting for sociodemographic covariates revealed that higher iron intake was linked to lower aggressive behaviors (β = - .16, p < .05), but was not associated with rule breaking. These findings support the role of iron intake in healthy behavioral development in adolescence.

Bidirectional longitudinal associations between parental self-efficacy and child rule-breaking behaviours: A random-intercept cross-lagged panel study.

Parental self-efficacy (PSE) is a pivotal determinant of change in children's adjustment. However, not only has previous research shown that PSE plays a protective role for children's rule-breaking (RB) behaviours (i.e., parent-driven process), but RB also can reduce parents' PSE over-time (i.e., child-driven process). This study examined the bidirectional longitudinal associations between PSE and RB behaviours by disentangling maternal from paternal influences and between- from within-person effects. In the present seven-wave longitudinal study involving 200 Italian children (T1: Mage = 9.80, SD = 0.65; 50.5% girls), their mothers (N = 200) and fathers (N = 190), two random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (one for mothers and one for fathers) were used to explore whether: (a) stable parts of PSE and RB were related to each other, (b) higher levels of PSE were associated with lower levels of RB at a given time point, and (c) higher levels of PSE at a given time point were associated with future lower levels of RB. Results provided evidence both for a parent- and a child-driven process between mothers' PSE and children's RB behaviours. However, these results were not replicated for fathers. Implications are discussed.

Childhood internalizing, externalizing and attention symptoms predict changes in social and nonsocial screen time.

While accumulating research has tested the hypothesis that screen time causes psychiatric symptoms in children, less attention has been paid to the hypothesis that children with psychiatric symptoms change their patterns of screen time and digital media use. We aimed to test whether children with psychiatric symptoms subsequently change their patterns of screen time and digital media use. N = 9,066 children primarily aged 9-10 in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study at baseline and 1-year later. Psychiatric symptoms included internalizing, attention, and externalizing symptoms. Screen time was measured as ordinally defined weekday and weekend time on social and nonsocial [e.g., YouTube] digital media). Models assessed psychiatric symptoms as predictors of screen time, and screen time as predictors of psychiatric symptoms, controlled for baseline measures of each, sex, age, race/ethnicity, and income. Children with psychiatric symptoms spent more time on non-social media one year later compared with peers. Considering total psychiatric problems, clinical levels of problems predicted higher levels of weekday (OR = 1.22, 95% CI 1.22-1.23) and weekend (OR = 1.10, 95% CI 1.09-1.11) nonsocial screen time. For nearly all analyses of psychiatric symptoms predicting screen time, associations were highest for a non-social screen time outcome rather than a social screen time outcome (Highest OR = 1.65, 95% CI 1.63-1.67, clinical rule breaking predicting weekday nonsocial screen time). Comparable magnitude associations were observed for social and nonsocial media use predicting future psychiatric symptoms, suggesting bidirectionality. Children with psychiatric symptoms have different subsequent media use patterns, including higher rates of subsequent nonsocial engagement. Ensuring that ongoing data collection and analysis efforts attend to temporality and transitions in the relation between media use and psychiatric symptoms will accelerate progress in the field.

Strain, Anger, and Prison Misconduct: Examining the Impact of Unfair Wages, Broken Social Ties, and Dehumanization

Using the theoretical framework of General Strain Theory, this study examines how each of Agnew’s categorizations of strain are associated with people in prison’s anger and self-reported charges for misconduct. The strains explored include dehumanization (negative stimuli), loss of social ties (removal of positive stimuli), and unfair pay for labor (unjust outcomes). Surveys of 3,531 men and women incarcerated in five different facilities were examined. Each strain is significantly and positively associated with anger. Anger is significantly and positively associated with misconduct. Dehumanization and loss of social ties are significantly and indirectly associated with misconduct through anger in the theoretically expected direction. In sum, strains may foment anger among people in prison resulting in rule breaking.

Ethics and rule breaking in a vulnerable society: some challenges

Scientific and procedural rationality becomes compatible with subjectivism, increasing the modern ethical void. In this work I will show how that void impact in disruptive behavior. First, I shortly describe the general problem of our moral culture making dialogue one of the most important contemporary moral philosophers, Enmanuel Levinas and the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, who has made the main critical contribution to the moral culture. Second, I will make some observations in the sphere of art, where it is specially notorious how the crisis of ethics due to the evolution of the culture of individualism affects to the behavior erasing limits -v.g. Proof-Of-Authority-, extending the beliefs that all is possible, that anyone can do anything, everything can happen, and, so that, rules and forecast are perceived more relatives that never. In a third step, I will focus the attention on the multidisciplinary field of Criminology -rule breaking, deviance-, because it is the main place where can be proof the failure of norms which lead society to both, problems for coexistence, and ability to predict insecurity. The formulas invented by social scientist to understand “normal” as well “deviant” behaviour, seems to fail more than ever. That should make us consider two kinds of challenges. How can we reinforce the ethical side of the norms under a cultural environment secularized and liquid, and physically threatened? How can we manage the self-criticism in social sciences so that we not all in the pessimism apparently propitiated by Cancel Culture?

Similar trait‐based successional assembly in native and introduced plants despite species pool differences

Abstract What drives the composition of invaded communities and the local abundance of introduced species are key questions in ecology. Community‐assembly theory provides a useful framework for addressing these questions. Specifically, the environmental filtering model of community assembly predicts that a species' presence and abundance in a community depend on the interaction between its functional traits and the local environmental filters. However, for introduced species, larger‐scale dispersal and introduction‐related filters may restrict their regional trait pool. Here, we tested this framework using long‐term data from 50+ years of old‐field vegetation succession. We asked whether native and introduced plant assemblages followed the same trait‐based assembly rules. We also asked whether local functional dissimilarities between the two can be explained by regional species pool differences, a possibility that has rarely been addressed. We found strong similarities in the assembly processes of native and introduced plants. Average height and seed mass of both groups increased over time, consistent with previous studies of old‐field succession. Moreover, the two showed similar trait–abundance relationships. While there were also some differences, particularly in their trait–incidence relationships, these differences appeared to be minor. Furthermore, we identified species pool constraints on introduced species and found that the exotic species pool was biased towards early successional traits. Lastly, we found that highly invasive exotic species were also likely to deviate from the expected trait–abundance relationship, suggesting a link between the two. These results imply that introduced species generally follow the same assembly rules as native species. They also indicate that species pool differences can result in local functional composition differences, even when the two groups follow the same assembly rules. Moreover, there may be a link between species invasiveness and deviation from assembly rules, which, if further confirmed, provides a potential method of identifying strong invaders. Synthesis: Using data from a long‐term succession study, we showed several similarities, and some differences, in the assembly of native and introduced species assemblages. Our results provide a better understanding of the factors constraining and allowing invasion, and help in the identification of ‘rule breaking’ invaders.

Enablers or deterrent? Role of street level managers in use of creativity at the frontlines

AbstractUsing qualitative data from frontline police organizations in Punjab, Pakistan, this article investigates the role of street level management on creativity and improvisation in the frontline. Our findings show that the professional identities and attitudes of the street level managers play an important role in mediating creativity by the frontline workers, especially in the hierarchal organizational structure. If the managers adopted rule‐following attitude, frontline workers often faced hindrances in the use of creativity, leading to alienation. In contrast, if managers adopted a defiant attitude, frontline workers engaged in moderated creativity as they assumed the risk of rule breaking. This shows that creativity and innovation in organizations with no formal mandate to improvize is a messy and political process. Our study indicates the need to extend the research on policy innovation to hierarchal bureaucracies and organisational contexts where team work is not encouraged.

What would you sacrifice for the ‘gram? Developing and testing the Social Media Sacrifice Scale (SMSS)

ABSTRACT As people seek to manicure their online presence within the current “technomeritocracy,” there is a need to understand what sacrifices people will make to curate social media worthy travel experiences. Hence, the Social Media Sacrifice Scale was developed from the literature on identity theory and compensatory purchasing behavior to conceptualize and measure these sacrifices. The scale was purified using EFA (n = 252) and validated using CFA (n = 251). Results demonstrate validity across four sacrifice dimensions (spending money, sacrifices at home, discomfort, and rule breaking) providing managers with marketing strategies to attract markets with the right mix of sacrificial expectations for the destination.

Analyzing Co-Occurrence of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury With Suicidal Ideation and Related Factors Among Adolescents in Jeju Island.

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidal behavior, including suicidal ideation (SI) and suicide attempts, are important predictors of suicide in adolescents. This study aimed to investigate the associations between NSSI, SI, NSSI+SI, mental health problems, and family factors in Korean adolescents in Jeju Island, with an emphasis on key findings. A total of 561 adolescents completed self-report questionnaires regarding demographics, NSSI, SI, suicidal behavior, perceived family functioning, and mental health problems, which were assessed using Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children, Screen for Children Anxiety-Related Disorders (SCARED), and Youth Self-Report (YSR). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance, chi-square test, post-hoc analyses, and multivariate logistic regression. In this study, 22.3% of adolescents reported either NSSI or SI, with 5.5% reporting NSSI and 20.7% reporting SI. Combined (NSSI+SI) group showed a significantly higher SCARED score, anxiety/depression, thought problems, attention problem, and rule breaking on YSR than did the SI only group. Higher level of depression and anxiety were significantly associated with NSSI and SI. Female sex and perceived family dissatisfaction were significantly associated factors for SI, but not for NSSI in multivariate logistic regression. This study provides insights into the clinical characteristics and associated factors among adolescents with NSSI, SI, and NSSI+SI in Jeju Island. Identifying these results can inform the development of targeted prevention and intervention strategies to mitigate the negative consequences of these behaviors and contribute to a better understanding of the role of family in this context.

Cultural stress, personal identity development, and mental health among U.S. Hispanic college students.

The present study examines the extent to which culturally stressful experiences may predict impaired well-being, increased internalizing symptoms (depression and anxiety), and increased externalizing problems (social aggression, physical aggression, and rule breaking) among a sample of Hispanic college students in Miami across a 12-day period. The predictive effects of cultural stressors on these outcomes were examined both (a) directly and (b) indirectly through daily fluctuations in students' personal identity synthesis and confusion. Results indicated direct predictive effects of cultural stress on four forms of well-being (self-esteem, life satisfaction, psychological well-being, and eudaimonic well-being), on symptoms of depression and anxiety, and on physical aggression and rule breaking. The predictive effects of cultural stress on all four forms of well-being and on symptoms of depression and anxiety were partially mediated through daily fluctuations (instability) in students' sense of personal identity synthesis. Findings were consistent across genders and between U.S.- and foreign-born students. Results are discussed in terms of implications for intervention and for policy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Characteristics and risk factors of Health-Related Risky behaviors in adolescents with Depression

BackgoundTo explore the characteristics and risk factors for health-related risky behaviours (HRRBs) in adolescents with depression.MethodsA total of 136 adolescents aged 12–18 years who met the diagnostic criteria for depression, and 272 healthy controls. All the subjects were assessed with the Adolescent Health-Related Risky Behavior Inventory (AHRBI), and the AHRBI scores of the two groups were compared with the Mann–Whitney U test. The depression group was assessed with the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), Egna Minnen av Barndoms Uppfostran (EMBU), and Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale (FACES II-CV). Spearman correlation analysis and multiple linear regression were used to explore the risk factors for HRRBs in adolescents with depression.ResultsThe AHRBI total score and five-factor scores of self-injury and suicide (SS), aggression and violence (AV), rule-breaking (RB), smoking and drinking (SD), and health-compromising behavior (HCB) in the depression group were higher than those in the control group. The severity of anxiety, catastrophizing, cognitive emotional regulation strategy (self-blame and blaming of others), the frequency of depression, physical neglect, and sexual abuse all increased the risk of HRRBs in adolescents with depression, and paternal emotional warmth and understanding had protective effects.ConclusionFirst, depressed adolescents exhibited significantly more HRRBs than healthy adolescents. Second, there are many risk factors for HRRBs in adolescents with depression, and the risk factors for different types of HRRBs are also different.

Between Eating and Being Fed: Competing Ethics of Community-Based Road Building in Nepal

ABSTRACT: This paper explores locally-situated logics of ethical judgment underpinning practices of road building in Nepal, and how those logics are attuned to the challenges of navigating complex socio-political dynamics, socio-natural environments, and regional political economies. In so doing it challenges homogenizing discourses of corruption that commonly surround infrastructure development. Building on ethnographic research on rural road construction in two agrarian districts, we argue that different understandings of who is responsible for contributing to infrastructure development, and what forms of private gain from public road budgets are justifiable, do not always conform to official understandings of the public good. Such discrepancies arise, we suggest, from the practical role that certain forms of rule breaking play in getting roads built, as well as from the contested legitimacy of the rules themselves. The politics of participatory development bring to light the ambivalent morality of certain forms of public/private transgressions, and tensions between competing imaginaries of the "public" nature of "local" rural roads—which constitute important, and largely overlooked, dynamics in infrastructure development. Attention to such dynamics is needed to better understand the challenge of building high-quality rural roads and, we contend, to inform just and sustainable approaches to infrastructure development.

Game theory, compliance, and corporate criminal liability: Insights from a three-player inspection game

The economic analysis of crime has contributed significantly to our understanding of corporate criminal activity. To derive implications for legal policy, most theoretical papers, however, take public enforcement as exogenous, i.e. non-compliance with laws is punished with a given probability by a mechanical enforcer. We apply a game-theoretic perspective to corporate criminal behavior, self-disclosure, and policing. In this paper, we model corporate compliance as a three-person inspection game in order to analyze the impact of different liability regimes on rule breaking behavior by the firm’s agents, monitoring effort by corporate management and enforcement effort by authorities. Our analysis shows that one out of two equilibria in mixed strategies can be desirable for policy makers: while the first equilibrium requires a delicate regime of composite liability to induce self-disclosure, the second outcome is less prone to specification errors and does not rely on self-disclosure by firms. Which equilibrium is socially more desirable regarding social costs depends largely on the relative difference in monitoring costs between the corporation and authorities. We also find that a composite liability regime is more vulnerable to the reallocation of punishments by the agents through contracts or civil litigation. Moreover, we also consider the effects of whistleblower protection programs and a negligence-based liability regime to induce efforts to prevent crime ex-ante.

When rule breaking in art falls flat: Cultural tightness deflates deviant artists’ impact.

When rule breaking in art falls flat: Cultural tightness deflates deviant artists’ impact.

Does digital government hollow out the essence of street‐level bureaucracy? A systematic literature review of how digital tools' foster curtailment, enablement and continuation of street‐level decision‐making

AbstractThe growing use of digital tools in policy implementation has altered the work of street‐level bureaucrats who are granted substantial discretionary power in decision‐making. Digital tools can constrain discretionary power, like the curtailment thesis proposed, or serve as action resources, like the enablement thesis suggested. This article assesses empirical evidence of the impact of digital tools on street‐level work and decision‐making in service‐oriented and regulation‐oriented organisations based on a systematic literature review and thematic qualitative content analysis of 36 empirical studies published until 2021. The findings demonstrate different effects with regard to the role of digital tools and the core tasks of the public administration, depending on political and managerial goals and consequent system design. Leading or decisive digital tools mostly curtail discretion, especially in service‐oriented organisations. In contrast, an enhanced information base or recommendations for actions enable decision‐making, in particular in regulation‐oriented organisations. By showing how street‐level bureaucrats actively try to resist the curtailing effects caused by rigid design to address individual circumstances, for instance by establishing ways of coping like rule bending or rule breaking, using personal resources or prioritising among clients, this study demonstrates the importance of the continuation thesis and the persistently crucial role of human judgement in policy implementation.

Team pro-social rule breaking and team innovation performance: An information processing theory perspective.

Exploring the antecedents that affect the team innovation performance can better promote the organization to research the potential factors to enhance the organizational innovation competitiveness. Drawing upon information processing theory, we develop a moderated mediation model to examine the relationship between team pro-social rule breaking and team innovation performance. A three-wave field study is constructed from two large manufacturing enterprises from 82 team leaders and their 382 subordinates in Shanghai, China. The results reveal that team pro-social rule breaking is positively related to team innovation performance through team reflexivity. In addition, the relationship between team pro-social rule breaking and team innovation performance via team reflexivity is positive only when team learning orientation is high. The implications, limitations, and future research directions of these findings are discussed.

Unraveling the mechanisms of triplet state formation in a heavy-atom free photosensitizer.

Triplet excited state generation plays a pivotal role in photosensitizers, however the reliance on transition metals and heavy atoms can limit the utility of these systems. In this study, we demonstrate that an interplay of competing quantum effects controls the high triplet quantum yield in a prototypical boron dipyrromethene-anthracene (BD-An) donor-acceptor dyad photosensitizer, which is only captured by an accurate treatment of both inner and outer sphere reorganization energies. Our ab initio-derived model provides excellent agreement with experimentally measured spectra, triplet yields and excited state kinetic data, including the triplet lifetime. We find that rapid triplet state formation occurs primarily via high-energy triplet states through both spin-orbit coupled charge transfer and El-Sayed's rule breaking intersystem crossing, rather than direct spin-orbit coupled charge transfer to the lowest lying triplet state. Our calculations also reveal that competing effects of nuclear tunneling, electronic state recrossing, and electronic polarizability dictate the rate of non-productive ground state recombination. This study sheds light on the quantum effects driving efficient triplet formation in the BD-An system, and offers a promising simulation methodology for diverse photochemical systems.

The Pact: How a Seemingly Race-Neutral Behavioral Policy Reproduced Racial Inequality at a Predominantly White Liberal Arts College

How do seemingly nonracial organizational processes reproduce racial inequality? This study examines how “the Pact,” an ostensibly race-neutral COVID-19 behavioral policy implemented at a predominantly White U.S. liberal arts college, undermined social connection and belonging among students of color. Analyzing three waves of interviews with 30 undergraduates (N = 75 interviews), we document disparities in four domains of campus life: (1) social isolation in residence halls, (2) access to “safe” forms of rule breaking, (3) visibility and surveillance, and (4) stakes of violation. We identify three underlying mechanisms—unequal resource allocation, uneven rule enforcement, and color-blind decision-making—and demonstrate how distinct institutional conditions facilitated these processes. This analysis advances theoretical understandings of racialized organizational processes in higher education by connecting previously theorized mechanisms to specific university characteristics and practices.