Student nurses' personality traits and the nursing profession: part 2.

Individuals' attitudes stem partly from their personality traits, which may influence their interpersonal relationships with patients. Although personality traits are somewhat genetically determined, research has found that there are other factors that may influence this, such as self-esteem, family, social and clinical environments, and education. Part one of this article explained the research process of this cross-sectional descriptive study, which assessed the personality traits of two cohorts of nursing/midwifery students (n=116, aged 19-44 years) in their third year of the Diploma/BSc (Hons) programme at the University of Malta (Baldacchino and Galea, 2012).

Readiness for commitment: applying psychological constructs to pastoral issues in marriage.

The current crisis in marriage is partly related to people having problems in living their commitments. To investigate this phenomenon, a self-report instrument, the Commitment to Partnership Scale (CPS) was adopted to identify and measure those factors considered essential to marriage commitment: Attachment, Trust, Maturity, Investment, and Values. The CPS was given to 430 people in a significant relationship, from a Roman Catholic population, and from two different groups.

Congenital localized scleroderma.

Objectives: Juvenile localized scleroderma (JLS) usually has its onset during later childhood. This report describes the clinical and serologic features of six children with congenital localized scleroderma (CLS).

Study Design: A large, multinational study was conducted among pediatric rheumatology and dermatology centers by collecting information on demographics, family history, triggering environmental factors, clinical features, laboratory reports, and treatment of patients with JLS.