The Influence of Future Certainty and Contextual Factors on Delinquent Behavior and School Adjustment Among African American Adolescents

This study examined the ability of future certainty—an individual's perception of future stability, operationalized as the likelihood of certain life outcomes–to explain variance in delinquency and school adjustment, while controlling for economic, neighborhood, and family factors, among a cross-sectional sample of 1422 male and 1562 female African American adolescents drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Three kinds of future certainty were examined: future life certainty (e.g., life expectancy), marriage certainty, and college certainty. In hierarchical multiple regression analyses, future certainty and family functioning were stronger predictors than economic and neighborhood variables: neighborhood disorganization and family socioeconomic status. Future life certainty and expectations of attending college were stronger predictors of delinquency among males than females. Marriage certainty was the weakest predictor of the three certainty variables.     

Age and Gender Differences in Peer Conflict

The purpose of this study was to examine age and gender differences in peer conflict, particularly in regards to conflict issues and resolution strategies reported by children and adolescents. Students from grades 4 and 8 (60 boys, 60 girls) were asked interview questions and given 3 hypothetical scenarios to respond to. Teacher and self-reports were also gathered for each student to assess their level of adaptive ability. The results showed that adolescents tended to report higher rates of conflict and endorsed more cooperative strategies than 4th graders, who endorsed more aggressive tactics. Female students reported having more relational issues and used more conflict-mitigating strategies, while boys reported having more conflicts related to status/dominance. Finally, links were also found between effective resolution strategies and social ability. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed.M. A. Noakes received her Master's degree from the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Alberta, Canada. Her current research interests include assessment of at-risk youth, relapse prevention programs for young offenders, and social emotional functioning of children and adolescents.C. M. Rinaldi her doctorate from the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology at McGill University, Canada. Her current research interests include applied developmental psychology, social emotional functioning of children and adolescents, and parent-child relations.     

Epistemic Reasoning and Adolescent Egocentrism: Relations to Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms in Problem Youth

This investigation addressed the question of how two forms of social cognitive reasoning – epistemic reasoning and adolescent egocentrism – interface with externalizing and internalizing forms of psychopathology during adolescence. Adolescents’ epistemic reasoning (i.e., types of belief entitlement, or degree of doubt, held by an individual when confronted with contradictory sides of an issue), and imaginary audience and personal fable ideation, were assessed in a sample of 29 adolescent boys with behavioral problems and 30 of their peers without behavioral problems. To assess internalizing and externalizing symptomatology, teachers completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL-TRF). Results revealed that, compared to those without behavior problems, boys with behavioral problems were lower in epistemic reasoning. Further analyses revealed consistent relations between dimensions of social cognitive reasoning to specific forms of psychopathology. These findings suggest that social cognitive reasoning, particularly epistemic doubt, is important in understanding problem behaviors among typical and atypical adolescents.

Religiöse Pluralität im nationalen Verfassungsstaat

This article is intended to provide a both functionalist and institutionalist understanding of current conflicts regarding a binding cultural core, religious plurality and multiculturalism, which would allow for an explanation of the corresponding historical process. In order to attain this goal, the functional differentiation and institutional shaping of politics is systematically reconstructed with a special focus on the differentiation of religion and politics, church and state, the handling of religious plurality and the political inclusion of religious minorities. The argument unfolds in the following four steps: (1) emergence of the state’s monopoly of power and the separation of spiritual and worldly power (functionalism I); (2) nation state and popular sovereignty as historical forms of the functional differentiation of politics (functionalism II); (3) the constitution as civil religion of politics organized in state form (institutionalism I); and (4) historical forms of civil religion and the institutionalization of religious plurality (institutionalism II).     

The Cultural Politics of Curricular Reform in China: a case study of geographical education in Shanghai

This article will examine the development and implementation of the new geography curriculum in secondary schools in Shanghai. Analysis of the processes and mechanisms which underlie curricular change in China reveals how embedded bureaucratic, social and cultural norms have profoundly influenced the degree to which reforms to the geography curriculum have achieved the desired results. The analysis begins with a detailed examination of the wider institutional hierarchies which initiated and managed curricular reforms in Shanghai. Interviews with teachers and extensive classroom observations, and a review of the new curriculum and geography textbooks are utilised to evaluate the practical outcomes of curricular change in Shanghai. The findings reveal a deep dichotomy between the intended goals of curricular reform, the processes of curriculum development and implementation, and an examination system which compels teachers to cling to traditional teaching methods of lecturing and rote learning. These findings are discussed in the context of the established educational hierarchies, the cultural politics of curricular reforms in Shanghai and the nature of geography teaching in China. A more balanced approach which addresses the provision of adequate resources and professional development for teachers, and which recognises the need for a fundamental restructuring of the examination system, is suggested.     

Structuring the Debate on Consolidation: A Response to Leland and Thurmaier

In their essay "When Efficiency Is Unbelievable: Normative Lessons from 30 Years of City–County Consolidations," published in the July/August 2005 issue of PAR , Leland and Thurmaier make an important contribution to understanding how city–county consolidation occurs. They revise the widely accepted Rosenbaum and Kammerer model of consolidation and posit that "strong arguments" based on economic development, especially in the absence of organized opposition, led to victory for consolidation advocates. In this response, we argue that efforts to identify a set of arguments or charter provisions that will lead to successful consolidation are misguided. The real story in consolidation campaigns is how participants use heresthetical arguments in an effort to turn their opponents into political losers. What makes arguments strong or weak is not their substantive policy focus, but how they are structured.     

What Do We Know and Need to Know about the Environmental Outcomes of Collaborative Management?

Many tout the benefits of collaborative environmental management as an alternative to centralized planning and command and control regulation, but the excitement over collaborative processes has not been matched by evidence that these processes actually improve the environment. The most crucial question in collaborative environmental management remains unanswered and often unasked: To what extent does collaboration lead to improved environmental outcomes? We know much about why collaboration is occurring and how collaborative processes and outputs vary. The primary goal of future research on collaborative environmental management should be to demonstrate whether collaboration improves environmental conditions more than traditional processes and newer market-based processes. Collaboration is not a panacea; it is a choice that policy makers and public managers should make based on evidence about expected outcomes.