Public administration in the cross-hairs of evidence-based policy and authentic engagement: School closures in Ontario

Education policy affects communities across Canada. Changes in demographics, enrolment patterns, and pressures on education budgets have put school closures on the political agenda in many provinces. Implementing these policies is increasingly contested and conflict-ridden. Public administrators are at the cross-hairs of implementing evidence-based policies, based on authentic stakeholder input and engagement. This article examines two cases of school closure policy implementation in Ontario to illustrate the tension between these two important dimensions of public administration and challenges that must be overcome in this and other policy areas where evidence and engagement are increasingly important.     

Listening in polarised controversies: a study of listening practices in the public sphere

Policy Sciences - Listening is an important feature of policy making and democratic politics. Yet in an era of increased polarisation the willingness and capacity of citizens to listen to each...     

The Impact of Maternal Relationship Quality on Emerging Adults’ Prosocial Tendencies: Indirect Effects via Regulation of Prosocial Values

Studies document that parents serve as children’s primary socialization agents, particularly for moral development and prosocial behavior; however, less is known regarding parental influences on prosocial outcomes during the transition to adulthood. The purpose of this study was to investigate how mother–child relationship quality was related to prosocial tendencies via emerging adults’ regulation of prosocial values. Participants included 228 undergraduate students (ranging from 18 to 25 years; 90% European American) and their mothers (ranging from 38 to 59 years) from four locations across the United States. Path analyses using structural equation modeling revealed that mother–child relationship quality was related to emerging adults’ regulation of prosocial values, which was, in turn, related to emerging adults’ prosocial tendencies. Specifically, emerging adults who reported higher levels of internal regulation of prosocial values were more likely to report prosocial tendencies that de-emphasized themselves, and were less likely to report prosocial tendencies for the approval of others.

Sexual Debut Timing and Depressive Symptoms in Emerging Adulthood

The association between sexual debut timing and depressive symptomatology in adolescence and emerging adulthood was examined using data from Waves I, II and III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Respondents who reported never having sexual intercourse at Wave I and were 18–22 years of age at Wave III were included (n = 5,061). Twenty percent of respondents experienced early (<age 16) and 49% experienced typical (ages 16–18) sexual debut. In bivariate analyses, pre-debut depressive symptoms were associated with earlier sexual debut among female but not male adolescents. In models adjusting for demographic characteristics and pre-debut depressive symptoms, sexual debut was positively related to adolescent (Wave II) depressive symptomatology, but only among female adolescents age less than sixteen. However, sexual debut timing was unassociated with emerging adult (Wave III) depressive symptomatology for both male and female respondents. Findings suggest sexual debut timing does not have implications for depressive symptomatology beyond adolescence.

What's Love Got to Do with It? Dynastic Politics and Motherhood in the Letters of Eleonora of Aragon and her Daughters

This article analyses interpretations of motherhood in letters from the duchess of Ferrara, Eleonora d'Aragona, to her daughters, Isabella and Beatrice d'Este. Following the girls’ marriages in 1490 and 1491, the duchess used letters to maintain a close surveillance and authority over them, as well as to offer advice and direction as they established intimacy with their spouses, faced the rigours of childbirth and took on new political responsibilities. In their side of the correspondence, Isabella and Beatrice reveal their anxieties about marriage and transfer to a new environment. The author argues that despite the constraints of writing mainly through secretaries and according to formulaic epistolary conventions, the women communicated effectively, revealing both their struggle to adhere to conventional interpretations of filial and maternal duty and the personal costs borne by them for the sake of their family's dynastic and political survival.     

Delinquency and family life among male adolescents: The role of ethnicity

This study addresses the role of ethnic and racial diversity in the relationship between family processes and delinquency. The study evaluates the overall role families play in the etiology of delinquency across different ethnic/racial groups, and investigates the relative role of specific issues such as family involvement, family attachment, and family control among Hispanic, African American, and white male adolescents. This analysis utilizes two waves of data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, a longitudinal project investigating the causes and correlates of delinquency among a high-risk urban sample of youth. Results of this study indicate that family variables as a group are more important in constraining delinquency for Hispanic adolescents. In addition, the relative influence of particular family processes on delinquent conduct appears to differ among diverse populations. We also find that living in a single-parent home has less impact on family processes than living in a situation of economic hardship.Prepared under Grant No. 86-JN-CX-0007 (S-3) from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, Grant No. 5 R01 DA05512-02 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and Grant No. SES-8912274 from the National Science Foundation. The authors would like to thank Terence P. Thornberry and Alan Lizotte for their helpful comments. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the funding agencies.Received Ph.D. from University at Albany. Research interests include the family etiology of delinquency and the impact of the social context on parenting.Received Ph.D. from Florida State University. Research interests include adolescent substance use and juvenile delinquency.     

One Standard Fits All? The Pros and Cons of Performance Standard Adjustments

Despite the wide‐ranging use of performance measures within the public sector and the growing use of performance bonuses to recognize performance achievements, the use of formal performance standards adjustment procedures in public performance measurement systems is relatively rare. Burt S. Barnow of Johns Hopkins University and Carolyn J. Heinrich of the University of Wisconsin–Madison set forth the basic arguments in favor of and against the use of formal or informal procedures for adjusting performance expectations. They describe how performance standards adjustments processes are currently (or have been) in use, review the evidence of their effectiveness or problems encountered in their application, and explore the consequences of the inadequacy of performance standards adjustments. The authors offer recommendations for the improvement of public sector performance measurement systems and conclude why this area remains fruitful for future research experimentation. The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from. —Andrew S. Tannenbaum     

57 Varieties: Has the Ombudsman Concept Become Diluted?

This article attempts an overview of the ombudsman concept as itdeveloped in the United States, borrowing from earlier classicalformulations of the role at the same time that divergent organizationalmodels emerged. As the use of ombudsmen has steadily expanded, they can befound at all levels of government as well as in settings of privateindustry and academe. Some of the operational and conceptual differencesamong various types of ombudsmen are explored along with theircommonalities.     

Living in Partner-violent Families: Developmental Links to Antisocial Behavior and Relationship Violence

Links between living in a partner-violent home and subsequent aggressive and antisocial behavior are suggested by the “cycle of violence” hypothesis derived from social learning theory. Although there is some empirical support, to date, findings have been generally limited to cross-sectional studies predominantly of young children, or retrospective studies of adults. We address this issue with prospective data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS), an ongoing longitudinal investigation of the development of antisocial behavior in a community sample of 1,000 urban youth followed from age 14 to adulthood. The original panel included 68% African American, 17% Hispanic, and 15% White participants, and was 72.9% male, and 27.1% female. Measures come from a combination of sources including interviews with parents, interviews with youth, and official records. We test the general hypothesis that there is a relationship between living in partner-violent homes during adolescence, and later antisocial behavior and relationship violence. Employing logistic regression and controlling for related covariates, including child physical abuse, we find a significant relationship between exposure to parental violence and adolescent conduct problems. The relationship between exposure to parental violence and measures of antisocial behavior and relationship aggression dissipates in early adulthood, however, exposure to severe parental violence is significantly related to early adulthood violent crime, and intimate partner violence. Our results suggest that exposure to severe parental violence during adolescence is indeed consequential for violent interactions in adulthood.