EIGHT KEYS TO PASSING PARENT EDUCATION LEGISLATION

In May 1996, Domestic Relations Education on Children's Issues, House Bill 2063, was signed into law by the governor of Arizona after successfully passing through both houses of the Arizona legislature. This new law made it mandatory for all new divorcing parents and unmarried parents with custody/access disputes to attend a domestic relations parent information program that focused on the needs of their children. This article documents some of the key steps for passage of this type of legislation, with illustrations from Arizona's experience. The process began in November 1994, and it took two legislative sessions before the bill became a law.     

Restorative Justice Models in Cases of Intimate Partner Violence: Reviewingthe Evidence

Despite increased public awareness and professional intervention, men's violence against their female partners continues to be a grave reality that challenges those involved to seek better solutions. In recent years, restorative justice has become an established alternative to the criminal justice system for dealing with a number of crimes, and is now starting to be applied to cases of intimate partner violence. However, given the unique social, relational, and psychological contexts of these crimes, doubts are also emerging around the appropriateness of these applications. This paper addresses this debate by reviewing the evidence supporting the use of restorative justice models for various populations, and their ability to address the particular concerns of those affected by intimate partner violence. It explores the fit between restorative justice principles and processes, and what is known about the needs and capacities of this group of victims, offenders, and the communities to which they belong. It is concluded that while the restorative justice model shows promise, there is insufficient evidence at this time to support its use in situations of intimate partner violence.     

Women in Science: Racial and Ethnic Differences and the Differences They Make

Often the term “women” is assumed to include women of color in the same way as the terms “African American” and “Hispanic” are assumed to include both women and men. Although women of color and non-Hispanic white women are under represented in the science labor force, the rates of and factors contributing to this under representation differ by race and ethnicity. Consequently, disaggregating data on women in science by race and ethnicity is crucial to capture these differences. Such distinctions are critical to developing effective policy, practice, and programs to increase the participation of women in science.     

AGENDA-SETTING BY STATE LEGISLATIVE BLACK CAUCUSES: POLICY PRIORITIES AND FACTORS OF SUCCESS

As their representation in legislative chambers has increased, black state legislators have organized into caucuses to maximize their policy influence. These caucuses act as policy entrepreneurs in initiating and advancing minority policy goals. The North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus is il- lustrative of an emerging force in half the states in moving minority policy issues from the systemic to the formal legislative agenda. Using the 1987 North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus as the research setting, supple- mented with selective data on other state caucuses, this article offers insights into the types of policy initiatives state legislative black caucuses advance. Also, situational and political factors that may foster successful agenda-setting are explored.     

Consistency of adolescents' self-report of sexual behavior in a longitudinal study

This study examines three issues relevant to adolescent self-reported sexual behavior: the extent to which adolescents rescind reports of sexual intercourse, changes in reporting of lifetime sexual intercourse, and changes in reported age at first sexual intercourse. Data come from a three-year longitudinal study of health-compromising behaviors among a cohort a 758 rural adolescents. Students completed a self-administered questionnaire on health behaviors annually in eighth, ninth, and tenth grades. Findings show that 88.8% of students in eighth grade and 94.3% in ninth grade who reported having had sexual intercourse gave the same answer in a subsequent year. Approximately 15% of students reported fewer numbers of lifetime sexual intercourse experiences in tenth grade than they did in ninth grade. Age at first sexual intercourse was reported inconsistently by 67% of the students. Inconsistency rates differed by racial-gender groups, question sensitivity, and prior sexual experience.Received Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Research interests include adolescent health and early adolescent development.Received Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Research interests include personality, stress, and coping.Received Ph.D. from University of Chicago. Research interests include adolescent delinquency and substance use.Received Dr. P.H. from Johns Hopkins University. Research interests include rural adolescents and international health issues.Received Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Research interests include adolescent sexuality and contraceptive decision making.     

Making Citizens Smart: When do Institutions Improve Unsophisticated Citizens’ Decisions?

Many scholars lament citizens’ lack of political sophistication, while others emphasize that information shortcuts can substitute for sophistication and help citizens with their political choices. In this paper, I use experiments to assess whether and under what conditions institutions can substitute for sophistication and enable even unsophisticated citizens to make informed decisions. The results of my experiments demonstrate that institutions, such as a penalty for lying or a threat of verification, can help both sophisticated and unsophisticated citizens to make more informed decisions. Further, my results suggest that institutions may, under certain conditions, level the playing field between sophisticated and unsophisticated citizens.

A Defense of Professionalism: A Response to Fusco and Baizerman

Fusco and Baizerman (2013) criticized professionalization efforts for assumptions about improved outcomes, “reducing” youth work to skills, “controlling behavior,” bureaucratization, depersonalized services, a neoliberal focus, removing practice wisdom, and a “telos of …scientifically based youth work” (p. 189). They do not provide evidence or arguments for these claims. Academics benefit from professionalization, and it is curious to oppose efforts to provide those benefits to others. We believe that they and their colleagues, in the same issue, have misread other authors on key ideas and present an incomplete and rather one-sided representation. They conflate professionalization and professionalism. They conflate the industrial aspects of professionalization with the ethical aspects. They have overestimated the potential harm of professionalization and underestimated the harm being done by uninformed youth work practices. They misinterpreted social history—and Aristotle. They have incompletely cited other writers about professionalization. Professionalization and professionalism are not guarantees of anything, but our critique of them needs to be coherent, consistent, and based on arguments and evidence.     

Captains of erudition

Abstract

W. A. Nielsen's book The Big Foundations is an informed survey of the American foundation scene. Writing from a vantage point within the citadels of big-time philanthropy, Nielsen takes a chatty and discursive approach to a subject that in fact deserves much more. It seems that the insider's privilege of access can be a handicap as well as an asset, and that a subject of this importance needs critical scrutiny from independent researchers.     

One-Year Follow-Up of Suicidal Adolescents: Parental History of Mental Health Problems and Time to Post-Hospitalization Attempt

This longitudinal study of recently hospitalized suicidal youth examined parental mental health history in addition to several indices of adolescent functioning as risk factors for time-to-suicide attempt over a 1-year period. Participants were 352 adolescents (253 girls, 99 boys; ages 13–17 years) who participated in self-report and interview assessments within 1 week of hospitalization and 6 weeks, 3, 6, and 12 months post-hospitalization. Multivariable proportional hazards regression modeled time-to-suicide attempt. Results indicate that adolescents were almost twice as likely to make a suicide attempt if they had at least one biological parent with mental health problems. Risk was also increased for adolescents with baseline histories of multiple previous suicide attempts, more severe suicidal ideation and more severe functional impairment. Findings suggest the need to consider the family system when intervening with suicidal youth.