Longitudinal Disparities of Hazardous Drinking Between Sexual Minority and Heterosexual Individuals from Adolescence to Young Adulthood

Sexual minority (lesbian and gay, bisexual, mostly heterosexual) individuals are at an increased risk for hazardous drinking than heterosexual individuals, but little is known about the nature of the disparities as adolescents reach adulthood. We used four waves of a nationally representative data set, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), to examine disparities of hazardous drinking outcomes between sexual minority and heterosexual men and women from adolescence to young adulthood. Participants were 14–18 years old at the first assessment (N = 12,379; 53 % female) and 27–31 years old at the fourth assessment. At the fourth assessment, 13 % self-identified as sexual minority individuals, 16 % were Hispanic, and 36 % were of minority race, including primarily African Americans (60 %) and Asian Americans (18 %). There were clear hazardous drinking disparities between sexual minority individuals and heterosexual individuals over time. During adolescence, sexual minority individuals, particularly females, reported higher levels of hazardous drinking. As study participants reached adulthood, the magnitude of the hazardous drinking disparities increased among sexual minorities, sexual minority men in particular. Additional research is needed to better understand the developmental mechanisms that underlie the emerging sexual orientation related disparities of hazardous drinking in young adulthood.     

What Not to Ask of Budget Processes: Lessons from George W. Bush's Years

Budget reform requires goals that are both good public policy and achievable. The core purpose of budgeting is to consider and relate details and totals. Common demands for reform are dubious because they slight consideration of details. For this reason, too strict a definition of "balance" would be bad policy; the demand for balance over many decades is neither good policy nor realistic; and multiyear discretionary spending caps can be both bad policy and impractical. Concern about passing annual budget resolutions ignores the fact that the major reason for annual totals is no longer endorsed by policy makers and economists. Scorekeeping should be honest and accurate and often can be improved, but possible achievements are limited. Budget reforms will not make government accountable if the governing coalition is united in seeking to avoid that, and if neither the public nor elites demand it.     

‘HOTTEST 100 WOMEN’

Social movement theorists have developed several concepts to explain the role of social networking in maintaining social movements. This is particularly relevant for periods when levels of public activism are low due to backlash, hostile social contexts and structural uncertainties. As part of my study of the women's movement online and feminist blog networks in Australia, I provide a review of several of these concepts, interrogating their applicability to the study of online communities. This paper explores the relevance of the social movement theory concepts of submerged networks, abeyance structures and the related idea of counterpublics for the study of feminist blog networks. In 2009, the radio station Triple J's ‘Hottest 100 of All Time’ poll featured no solo women artists, and women played on few tracks. In response to this, several strands of discourse developed in the Australian feminist blogosphere identifying ways that the history of rock music excludes or erases women. Activists developed a cross-platform poll on Twitter, Facebook and email, and promoted it through blogs and Twitter, to counter the ‘Hottest 100 Men’ with a ‘Hottest 100 Women’. This paper shows the ways these women have used blogging networks to challenge mainstream discourses and generate new ones.     

Parent–Child Relations,Conduct Problems and Cigarette Use in Adolescence: Examining the Role of Genetic and Environmental Factors on Patterns of Behavior

This study investigated genetic and environmental influences on the associations between mother–child relationship quality (warmth and hostility) and adolescent conduct problems and cigarette use. Participants included 601 mothers and adolescent twin pairs (aged 12–17 years). Mothers and adolescents provided separate reports of mother-to-child warmth and hostility. A combined measure of mother and adolescent reported conduct problems was used while adolescents provided reports of their cigarette use. Analyses were conducted using bivariate genetic analyses of correlated factors models and regression analyses of monozygotic twin differences. Genetic influences were found for most ratings of the parent–child relationship, with evidence of gender and/or rater-specificity for some measures. The relationship between mother–child hostility with adolescent conduct problems and cigarette use was influenced by genetic and environmental effects. Evidence was found for shared environment effects on the relationship between mother–child warmth and conduct problems. Examining monozygotic twin differences provided further support for non-shared environmental influence on the relationship between mothers’ expressions of hostility and low warmth and adolescent adjustment. Findings are discussed in relation to the interplay between genetic and environmental effects underlying links between parent–child relations and adolescent behavior problems.

Chinese Political Studies: Overview of the State of the Field

The range of questions of interest to scholars of Chinese politics has changed slowly over recent decades, but the depth of empirical probes to answer them has quickly improved. One reason is the rise of China-born and Chinese-American researchers. Another is greater access to local information in China after the start of reforms there. Future developments in this field are likely to enrich current American political science, which will require fresh methods for adequate study of the planet's most populous polity.     

Preparation for the Practice of law—the Views of the Practicing Bar

The competence of the practicing bar has been subjected to substantial criticism in recent years. Since law schools have a virtual monopoly over access to the bar and licensure is granted without further training, legal education has been a particular focus of attack and reform efforts. Yet there has been little systematic study of what skills and knowledge are important in the actual practice of law or the relevant contributions of legal education. This study of practicing lawyers in Chicago examines the nature of the competencies important to the practice of law and the sources lawyers credit for contributing to their development.
Practitioners cite a broad range of skills, many of them not unique to the practice of law, with their importance varying by the predominant legal specialty practiced. The data further indicate that law schools play but a part in the development of skills and knowledge important to the practice of law and that experience, both prior and subsequent to graduation, plays a significant role. The evaluation of law schools' contributions is related to opportunities for further training, particularly in the context of law firm practice. There is, however, a strong general view that law schools rather uniformly concentrate on some skills to the exclusion of others and that the former are not necessarily those that lawyers think are most important to the practice of law.