abstract: Contemporary theories of trauma identify the creation of a coherent trauma narrative and therapeutic exposure to trauma memories as potential recovery mechanisms. These factors are often inherent to the disclosure process, resulting in a parallel theoretical framework for experimental research that conceptualizes disclosure as a therapeutic intervention. The present investigation examined the moderational impact of disclosure following trauma on the link between trauma severity and symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Disclosure status (discloser or nondiscloser), highest extent of disclosure, and length of delay to first disclosure were tested in a series of moderated regression models among a sample of female physical and sexual assault victims (N = 1087). Findings indicate that engaging in more detailed disclosure is associated with a modest beneficial impact on PTSD, but that the majority of nondisclosers have lower symptom levels than disclosers. There is also evidence for a small subset of nondisclosers that remain at heightened distress. A unique effect was found for disclosure delay, such that for physical assault, delaying disclosure is associated with a progressively weakening negative relation between time since the trauma and PTSD. At extreme delays, the association may become positive. Findings have implications for theories of trauma recovery and therapeutic interventions, including concerns about early interventions that emphasize disclosure. Future research may benefit from focusing on nondisclosing trauma victims to gain greater insight into recovery processes. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Psychology 2010

De nombreuses obligations d'information sont édictées en droit des contrats de consommation sous l'impulsion du législateur de l'Union européenne et sont donc communes aux droits français et luxembourgeois. Dans ce contexte, l'obligation d'information possède un double objectif de protection du consommateur en éclairant son consentement, et de régulation du marché en favorisant une concurrence loyale. Le manquement par le professionnel à son obligation légale d'information doit être sanctionné afin d'en assurer l'effectivité. La sanction de l'obligation légale d'information en droit des contrats de consommation doit être analysée sous l'angle de son efficacité, autrement dit de la capacité des effets qu’elle produit à atteindre les objectifs qui lui ont été assignés. L'analyse des droits des contrats de consommation français et luxembourgeois, droits similaires mais qui présentent des spécificités, permet de mettre en perspective les choix effectués par chaque législateur en terme de sanction de l'obligation légale d'information, et d'en déduire les propositions visant à améliorer ces systèmes de sanction actuels / Numerous legal duties to disclose information are promulgated in consumer contract law by the legislational body of the European Union and are thus common to French and Luxembourgish laws. In this context, the legal duty to disclose information possesses a double objective to protect the consumer by enlightening their consent, and regulating the market by favoring loyal competition. A breach of obligatory information disclosures by a professional must be sanctioned to ensure the effectiveness of the obligation. The penalty for breaching the legal obligation to disclose information in consumer contract law must be analyzed using its angle of efficiency within the capacity of its effects to reach the assigned goals. Analyzing French and Luxembourgish consumer contract laws, both similar but with specificities, surmounts a perspective of legislatory choices in terms of sanctioning the legal duties to disclose information, and also aids by informing proposals to improve these current systems of sanction

In this thesis, I examine how the corporate financial information environment is shaped by the financial media. The thesis consists of three essays. In the first essay, I examine the role of voluntary company-initiated disclosures about firm financial performance as a stimulus for coverage in the financial press. I provide evidence that media coverage is affected by firm level disclosure management. Specifically, a firm's issuance of press releases attracts more media articles about the firm leading to greater abnormal returns and trading volumes. I find that there is a spike of media articles on the same day and one trading day following firms' press releases. I use a unique experiment, which differentiates between the online and print versions of the Wall Street Journal, to establish a causal relation between press releases and media coverage. My findings challenge the common assumption in the literature that media coverage is exogenous to the firm. In the second essay, I find that the financial media plays a significant role in enriching a firm's information environment by moderating the tone of corporate press releases. Using textual analysis, I show that the press moderates both the positive and negative tone of corporate press releases. However, the effect is asymmetric with the media disproportionately downplaying the tone of favourable corporate press releases, in line with the premise that management's highly positive news disclosures are less convincing. In addition, I find that there is an abnormal market response to the linguistic content of financial media articles rather than to the content of corporate press releases, suggesting that the tone of press-issued information is more value relevant to market participants compared to that of management's disclosures. Overall, this study offers robust evidence supporting the view that the financial media plays an important role as an information intermediary. In the third and last essay, I investigate the information dissemination and information creation roles of the financial media by examining whether the rebroadcasting of firm-initiated news (parroting) and the creation of original information by the media influence the stock market reaction to news disclosures differently. Using textual analysis, I calculate the tone expressed in corporate press releases and related articles in the financial media, and further distinguish between parroted (from the press release) and non-parroted (i.e., original) media tonal language. I provide evidence supporting a dual role of the press that affects price formation through both its information dissemination and information creation roles. However, my findings are consistent with press-generated information having the most significant impact on market reaction. My results also indicate that there is an asymmetric market effect, with negative original media tone being more value relevant to market participants compared to managerial and media-parroted (positive and negative) tonal language. As such, my findings have important implications for studies on the role of the financial media as an information intermediary in capital markets, and suggest that market participants perceive a difference between simple dissemination of firm-initiated information and new reporter-generated information.

Cette thèse contient trois essais distincts sur la publication d’information sectorielle que les entreprises européennes ayant plusieurs secteurs opérationnels effectuent en vertu des IFRS 8 Secteurs Opérationnels. Chaque essai vise à améliorer notre compréhension collective sur la politique de communication financière des cadres dirigeants en examinant diverses caractéristiques des informations sectorielles. Le chapitre I, “L’interaction entre la qualité et la quantité des publications sur l’information sectorielle” examine le choix des cadres dirigeants à l'égard de la quantité et de la qualité, ainsi que l’utilité de ces deux caractéristiques pour les analystes financiers. J’utilise le nombre de segments opérationnels publiés comme mesure quantitative et la variation inter-sectorielle de la profitabilité comme mesure qualitative et soutiens que plus de pouvoir discrétionnaire peut être exercé par les dirigeants sur la qualité que sur la quantité. Je trouve que les cadres dirigeants résolvent les préoccupations liées aux renseignements commerciaux de nature exclusive soit en déviant de a quantité recommandée par la norme, ou, lorsqu’ils suivent la norme, en réduisant la qualité de l’information sectorielle. Les analystes financiers n’apprécient pas toujours la qualité de l’information sectorielle, ce qui suggère que le modèle business crée des difficultés même pour des utilisateurs avertis. Mes résultats informent les normalisateurs lorsque ceux-ci initient le développement d’un nouveau cadre conceptuel et lorsqu’ils semblent envisager l’approche du modèle business pour le reporting. Le chapitre II s'intitule «La non-conformité des secteurs opérationnels à travers des documents d'entreprise. » Les régulateurs de marché examinent des cas de présentations lorsqu'une entreprise fournit des informations différentes sur le même sujet dans différents documents. En mettant l’accent sur les secteurs opérationnels, cet essai utilise des données recueillies manuellement auprès de quatre documents d’entreprise afin d'analyser l'impact de la publication d’information non-conforme sur l’exactitude des prévisions de résultat des analystes financiers. La non-conformité qui découle de la déségrégation supplémentaire des secteurs semble introduire de nouveautés et contribue à l’exactitude des prévisions. La publication des segmentations difficilement réconciliables entraine une exactitude réduite des prévisions. Ces résultats contribuent à notre compréhension des effets de la politique de communication des dirigeants à travers plusieurs documents et ont des répercussions sur le travail les régulateurs. Le chapitre III s'intitule « Prévisions managériales au niveau sectoriel. » Je considère les prévisions au niveau sectoriel (PNS) comme un type d'information désagrégé que les entreprises fournissent ensemble avec leur stratégie de gestion. J’examine l’utilité de cette information pour l’exactitude des prévisions de résultat par les analystes ainsi que l’impact de cette information sur la manipulation du résultat. Je constate que les entreprises de haute technologie réputées pour l’incertitude supplémentaire liée à profitabilité sont moins susceptibles de fournir des PNS et que le PNS est associé à une prévision améliorée. Cependant, alors que la communication de davantage de PNS désagrégé par secteur a tendance à améliorer la précision, plus de précision ne semble pas avoir d’importance. Du point de vue des cadres dirigeants, les PNS les incitent à manipuler le résultat comptable, mais le PNS désagrégé par poste semble décourager la manipulation, fort probablement due à une surveillance supplémentaire. Dans un contexte où une orientation narrative et désagrégée est considérée comme la solution pour empêcher la vision à court terme, comprendre quel type d'information permet d’atteindre cet objectif, et de quelle manière, est tout autant pertinent pour les cadres dirigeants, les investisseurs et les régulateurs. / This thesis contains three stand-alone essays on the operating segment disclosures that European multi-segment companies make under IFRS 8 Operating Segments. Each essay aims to improve our collective understanding about managers’ disclosure strategy by examining various characteristics of operating segment disclosure. Chapter I, entitled “The Interplay between Segment Disclosure Quantity and Quality,” investigates managers’ choices with respect to both disclosure quantity and disclosure quality, and the usefulness of these two characteristics for financial analysts. Focusing on segment disclosures under the management approach, I measure quantity as the number of segment-level line items and quality as the cross-segment variation in profitability, and argue that greater managerial discretion can be exercised over quality than over quantity. I hypothesize and find that managers solve proprietary concerns either by deviating from the suggested line-item disclosure in the standard, or if following standard guidance, by decreasing segment reporting quality. Moreover, financial analysts do not always understand the quality of segment disclosures, which suggests that a business-model type of standard creates difficulties even for sophisticated users. My results inform standard setters as they start working on a disclosure framework and as they seem to consider the business model approach to financial reporting. Chapter II is entitled “Inconsistent Segment Disclosure across Corporate Documents.” Market regulators in the U.S. and Europe investigate cases of inconsistent disclosures when a company provides different information on the same topic in different documents. Focusing on operating segments, this essay uses hand-collected data from four different corporate documents of multi-segment firms to analyze the impact of inconsistent disclosure on financial analysts’ earnings forecast accuracy. Inconsistencies that arise from further disaggregation of operating segments in some documents seem to bring in new information and increase analyst accuracy. However, when analysts must work with different, difficult-to-reconcile segmentations, their information processing capacity and forecasts are less accurate. These findings contribute to our understanding of the effects of managers’ disclosure strategy across multiple documents and have implications for regulators and standard setters’ work on a disclosure framework. Chapter III is entitled “Management Guidance at the Segment Level.” Prior research has found that managers add information to their earnings guidance to justify, explain, or contextualize their forecasts. I identify segment-level guidance (SLG) as a type of disaggregated information that multi-segment firms provide with their management guidance, and investigate its usefulness for financial analysts’ earnings forecasting accuracy, as well as its influence on managers’ earnings fixation. I further characterize the level of precision (point and range, maximum or minimum estimate, or simply narrative) and of disaggregation of SLG. I find that companies in high tech industries known for increased uncertainty in future performance are less likely to provide SLG, and that SLG is associated with better forecasting accuracy. However, while providing more item-disaggregated SLG improves accuracy, increased precision has no impact on forecast accuracy. From the manager’s point of view, SLG creates incentives to engage in earnings management, and the more precise the SLG is the greater the incentive. In contrast, more item-disaggregated SLG discourages earnings management, perhaps by improving monitoring. In a context where qualitative, narrative, and disaggregated guidance is regarded as a solution to avoid earnings fixation and short termism, understanding which types of information achieve this goal, and how, is relevant for managers, investors, and regulators alike.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) have proposed standards that could alter the judgments of users of financial statements. This study examines how certain regulations including revenue measurement choices made by management combined with risk disclosure as proposed by the PCAOB could interact with the propensity of the user to rely on financial information to affect how a class of private company financial statement users - seed equity investors - value a private company. Through experimental methods manipulating revenue measurement choice and risk disclosure, I find that seed equity investor value judgments of early stage companies are significantly influenced by accounting disclosures. Specifically, accounting disclosures regarding level of risk and revenue measurement that accompany financial models in the valuation process significantly alter a seed equity investor's value judgment of early stage companies. This segment of financial statement users tends to place the majority of their reliance on non-financial, subjective factors as predictors of future success of early stage companies. Further, their judgments are swayed by wholly different financial disclosures than their "Wall Street" investor counterparts in that conservative and low risk information creates large revisions in value judgment. The implication of this study is to suggest that "Main Street" investors consume financial information and their related disclosures differently than "Wall Street" investors - an inference important for standards setters to understand as they craft regulations that govern private companies.

This study attempted to determine whether perceptions of reactions to disclosure are related to psychological and physical outcomes among individuals with a history of youth sexual abuse (YSA). It was expected that receiving more hurtful responses overall would be related to higher levels of internalizing, somatic, and PTSD symptoms. It was also predicted that perceptions of response to disclosure would predict psychological and physical outcomes beyond the influence of relevant abuse characteristics. Eighty-six female undergraduates recruited from a large Midwestern university completed a series of questionnaires assessing YSA, non-sexual trauma, depression, anxiety, PTSD, somatic symptoms, disclosure, and social reactions to disclosure. Results indicated that those who reported experiencing YSA had higher levels of psychological and physical symptoms than those who reported a non-sexual traumatic event. Also, those who reported receiving more hurtful responses to disclosure overall had higher levels of PTSD and internalizing and physical symptoms. However, this relationship was only true for survivors of YSA. In addition, response to disclosure predicted internalizing and physical symptoms beyond the influence of the duration of abuse, accounting for 23 percent of the variance. These findings suggest that many survivors of YSA may need psychological services, and that an important focus of treatment may be assessing and strengthening social support.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the dynamic process of disclosure within the adolescent–mother relationship by examining maternal characteristics that encourage adolescent disclosure of distressing experiences and risk factors that may interfere with mothers’ abilities to be supportive. A community sample of 66 mothers and their adolescent children (M = 14.31 years, 58% female) participated. The adolescents disclosed an emotionally distressing experience to their mothers for the first time. Mothers’ validating behaviors and emotional distress in response to their adolescents’ expressions of negative emotion were predictive of adolescent disclosure. Adolescents who perceived their mothers to be validating of their negative emotions made more substantive disclosures and found disclosing to their mothers to be more beneficial. In contrast, greater maternal emotional distress was associated with less substantive disclosures, and maternal emotional distress was further indirectly associated with less substantive and beneficial disclosures through less maternal validation of negative emotion. A developmental model of maternal risk for emotional distress in response to adolescent negative emotion was also supported. Maternal history of childhood trauma perpetrated by someone close to the mother (i.e., high betrayal) was associated with an increased likelihood of experiencing subsequent interpersonal trauma as an early adult; maternal interpersonal trauma in early adulthood was associated with mothers’ increased difficulty regulating their emotions; and greater maternal emotion dysregulation was associated with higher levels of maternal distress in response to adolescent negative emotion. An indirect association between maternal childhood high betrayal trauma and emotional distress was also supported through continued trauma and emotion regulation difficulties. These findings suggest that when disclosing distressing experiences to their mothers, adolescents consider how validating their mothers are of their expression of negative emotion, as well as how distressing their emotions are for their mothers. Mothers’ histories of childhood trauma, ongoing interpersonal trauma in adulthood, and emotion regulation difficulties were further implicated in mothers’ reactions to their adolescents’ expressions of negative emotion. Interventions targeted to increase maternal emotion regulation skills and validation of children’s negative emotions may be an effective way to promote better mother–adolescent communication, especially in regard to distressing experiences.

This dissertation explores one family's experience of a son's disclosure of homosexuality, through the use of a second-order cybernetic epistemology, and social constructionist theory. Second-order cybernetics enables a description of patterns and themes that recursively connect the family's ideas and behaviour. Social constructionism enables the family's reaction to disclosure to be recursively linked to their fit with wider society. By using semantic and political frames of reference to describe the family's narratives around disclosure, this study indicates that disclosure is a relational metaphor, dependent on the family's locally co-constructed and transgenerational meanings. It also shows that although the family change with disclosure, stability is regained in a way consistent with the family's rules and norms. This study therefore demystifies viewing disclosure in one way only and creates alternative ways of conceptualising it. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Magíster en Ciencias de la Ingeniería, Mención Matemáticas Aplicadas / Ingeniero Civil Matemático / Se desarrolla un modelo dinámico a tiempo contínuo que permite el comercio de múltiples mercados financieros interconectados, organizados como limit order markets, en el cual agentes endógenamente toman decisiones óptimas para maximizar el valor esperado de sus ganacias. Los agentes toman sus decisiones considerando incentivos propios, condiciones de mercado, potenciales decisiones de negociación futuras y diferentes estrategias adoptadas por otros agentes. Se concentra el estudio al análisis de divulgación de profundidad y la fragmentación en el contexto de múltiples mercados. Se prueban tres escenarios principales: (i) un único mercado Transparente, (ii) un único mercado Opaco y (iii) un mercado múltiple interconectado entre una bolsa Transparente y una Opaca que comercian el mismo activo. Los resultados principales indican que, en el contexto de un único mercado, la divulgación de profundidad genera una competencia que incrementa el suministro de liquidez y, en consecuencia, reduce el spread, el ruido de mercado e incrementa la profundidad en los precios más competitivos y en el volumen total del libro. Los agentes con una valoración privada absoluta positiva del activo incrementan sus ganancias a costa de los agentes sin valoración privada, al disminuir sus costos de espera y aumentar sus ganancias por transacción. Estos beneficios son amplificados en el contexto de múltiples mercados debido a las restricciones para transar que generan una competencia más agresiva. Se encuentra que hay un flujo de liquidez hacia la componente Transparente debido a los agentes multi mercados proveedores de liquidez, lo cual reduce el spread e incrementa las profundidades. Para mantenerse atractivos, los agentes en la Bolsa Opaca también entran en competencia, lo cual reduce el spread y ruido de mercado en esta bolsa de similar manera. Los agentes multi mercados demandantes de liquidez son los que presentan el mejor rendimiento de todos, principalmente al reducir significativamente los tiempos de sus ejecuciones. / We develop a dynamic model in continuous time to simulate multi markets trading. Traders make endogenously sequential optimal decision to maximize their expected payoffs across different limit order markets, taking into account intrinsic incentives, markets conditions, potential future trading decisions and different strategies adopted by other agents. We focus our study in depth disclosure and lit fragmentation, and test three main scenarios: (i) a single Lit Market, (ii) a single Opaque Market and (iii) Multi Markets interconnected with both Lit and Opaque venues trading a single common asset. Our main results indicate that, in a single market environment, depth disclosure generates a competition that increments liquidity supply and as a consequence, reduces spread, microstructure noise and increases depth at best quotes and total depth of the book. Agents with a positive absolute private valuation of the asset increases their benefits at the expense of agents without a private valuation, by decreasing their waiting costs and increasing their money transfer. These benefits are amplified in a multi market environment due to trading restrictions that generates more aggressive competition. We find a liquidity flow to the Lit venue given by multi market liquidity suppliers, that reduces the spread and increases depths. To stay in competence agents in the Opaque Venue enter the competition as well, reducing spread and microstructure noise in that exchange too. Multi market liquidity demanders with the possibility to trade in both venues have the best performance of all agents, due to a significant reduction in their execution time.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-29T11:13:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_9384_Dissertacao_Adelzira_Final_REV06.pdf: 953191 bytes, checksum: 15ccfe390ed46e4a90f46af62bb1b2aa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-18 / CAPES / A evidenciação das informações contábeis consiste em um processo estratégico da gestão empresarial, pois fornece inúmeros serviços aos diversos usuários das informações. A produção e a divulgação dessas informações refletem os aspectos normativos que regem a contabilidade das empresas, bem como os objetivos dos gestores responsáveis pelo processo contábil. O objetivo deste trabalho é identificar os fatores que explicam o nível de disclosure das empresas S.A. de capital fechado com sede no Estado do Espírito Santo, relacionando-o com as características contábil-financeiras e os possíveis incentivos/obrigações econômicos existentes. Para tanto, foram analisadas as empresas S.A de capital fechado que publicaram suas demonstrações em Diário Oficial e/ou em Jornais de grande circulação. Foram utilizados modelos de regressão linear múltiplas, além de modelos de regressão logística. Os resultados demonstram que grande parte dos achados da teoria do disclosure em estudos empíricos de empresas de capital aberto, também se aplicam ao rol de empresas S.A. de capital fechado. Por exemplo, verificou-se que empresas auditadas por Big four apresentam níveis de disclosure maiores. A variação grau de disclosure pode ser explicada pelo setor no qual a empresa está inserida. Em setores mais complexos, que demandam maior volume de capital investido o nível de disclosure tende a ser maior. Constatou-se também que existe uma correlação positiva entre nível de disclosure e idade da empresa, revelando que empresas mais maduras tendem a divulgar mais. / Financial information disclosure has been a key (strategic) process in business management. Both production and distribution of information are under normative issues that head companies’ accounts as well as the goals followed by accounting process managers. This study aims to identify the factors that explain the level of mandatory disclosure of anonymous private companies located in Espírito Santo State. To this end, this work analyzed private companies that published their balance accounts in either “Diário Oficial” of Espírito Santo State. A disclosure index was developed to measure the level of compliance of firms to the different levels of obligations they were subject to. Multiple linear regression models as well logistic regression models were employed. The Management Report and the Comprehensive Income Statement were the reports with lowest levels of compliance. Regarding determinants of disclosure, results are similar to observed in research about voluntary disclosure of public companies, when observed leverage, big four auditing company and age. However, the usual relationship of size with disclosure was not present in this research about mandatory disclosure.