INTRODUCTION

This directory summarizes the responses of 13 nations to questions about the state ot policy studies research and teaching in those nations. While policy studies is not an exclusively American development, not many countries are as involved in this area as American scholars and universities.     

Health habits and depression in adolescence

In a study of the relationship between health habits and depression, 80 high school students, selected on an availability basis, were administered a Health Behaviors Questionnaire (HBQ) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The HBQ and the BDI significantly correlated (r=0.43p<0.01). Those who smoked were more frequently depressed than those who did not (X ²=10.5p<0.05), and those who used drugs other than marijuana were depressed more frequently than those who did not (X ²=9.2p<0.01). Mildly overweight boys (overweight by more than 5% of their ideal weight) and mildly under-weight boys (underweight by more than 5% of their ideal weight) were moreThis research was supported in part by a grant from the American Diabetes Association and by National institute of Health Grant MH 15529.Received his M.D. at George Washington School of Medicine. Major interest is interface of child psychiatry and pediatrics.Received his M.D. at Downstate Medical Center, State University of New York. Major interest is metabolic changes in adolescence.Received her M.A. from Queens College, New York. Major interest is measurement of human behavior.Received his M.D. from the University of Wisconsin. Major interest is adolescent sexuality.Received her Ph.D. in psychology from Hofstra University. Major interest is evaluation of clinical programs. depressed than boys of normal weight (p<0.02). The more pounds underweight the girls were, the more depressed they were (r=0.482, p<0.05). The closer the weight of a girl who perceived herself as overweight was to her ideal weight, the more depressed she was (r=–0.428,p<0.05).     

The influences of chronic illness and ego development on self-esteem in diabetic and psychiatric adolescent patients

Self-esteem as measured by the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory [Coopersmith, S. (1967),The Antecedents of Self-Esteem, Freeman, San Francisco] and ego development as measured by the Washington University Sentence Completion Test [Loevinger, J., and Wessler, R. (1970),Measuring Ego Development, Vol. I, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco] were evaluated in three groups of early adolescents: diabetic patients, nonpsychotic psychiatric patients, and a nonpatient group of high-school students. We found that low levels of ego development were associated with low levels of global and domain-specific self-esteem in all three subject groups. Levels of self-esteem among diabetic patients were not significantly different from those of nonpatients. While psychiatric patients had significantly lower self-esteem levels than the other groups, this difference was accounted for by preconformists, i.e., those at the lowest stages of ego development. Psychiatric patients reaching higher ego levels showed self-esteem levels indistinguishable from those of the diabetics and nonpatients.This study was supported by the youth development project of the Joslin DRTC (NIH AM20530-01), a grant from the Joslin Diabetes Center (NIH-BRSG), and NIH Grant AM27845. The authors thank John Houlihan, M.A., for statistical and computer consultations and Jennifer Johnson for data analyses.Received M.D. from The University of Chicago. Currently studying psychosocial consequences of diabetes mellitus.Received M.D. from Yale University and Ph.D. from Harvard University (Psychology). Currently studying family contexts of adolescent development.Received Ed.D. from Harvard University (School of Education). Currently studying family coping processes in response to stressful events.Received Dipl. Psych. from Freie Universitat, Berlin (Clinical Psychology). Currently studying relationships between psychopathology and development among adolescent psychiatric patients.     

USING LINEAR TREND MODELS TO ANALYZE POLICY IMPACT

Policy researchers have become increasingly familiar with a number of improved techniques for analyzing data obtained from interrupted time-series designs for evaluating public programs and policies. In this paper we contribute to this trend by presenting two groups of data analysis techniques which are not currently widely used by policy researchers, but are likely to be valuable adjuncts to traditional regression techniques for analyzing data obtained from interrupted time-series designs. First, aids for model specification are presented that enable the analyst to define an appropriate linear trend model—often one which will reduce the degree of multicollinearity and, therefore, produce more precise estimates of the impacts of a public program or policy. Next we consider approaches for point estimation and joint (simultaneous) interval estimation of a policy intervention's total effect at various points in time.     

Sex differences within the family: Studies of adolescent and parent family interactions

Sex differences in verbal family interactions were investigated in a group of 79 adolescents and parents from normal and psychiatric settings. The analyses were designed to study these differences in both generations, parent and adolescent. Parent and adolescent interactions with one another were observed in a semistructured, revealed-differences family discussion. All of the individual speeches were then scored with our Constraining and Enabling Coding System (CECS). Initial predictions involved both adolescent and parent differences. These hypotheses were only partially confirmed. The strongest findings pertained to parent sex differences, as we found strikingly higher levels of cognitive enabling speeches expressed by fathers and significantly more speeches addressed to fathers. We discuss several alternative interpretations of these findings. Perspectives included in our considerations are direction of effect and influences of task/context upon the expression of family sex differences.This study was supported through a grant from the National Institute of Child and Human Development (NICHD Grant No. R01 HD18684-02) and a Research Scientist Development Award No. 5 K-02-MH-70178 (Dr. Hauser) from the NIMH.Received M.D. from Yale University and Ph.D. from Harvard University (psychology). Currently studying family contexts of adolescent development.Received B.A. from Michigan University. Currently graduate student in organizational behavior, Northwestern University. Current interests are women and work.Received his Ph.D. from Boston University. Research interests are in methodology and statistics.Henry A. Murray Research Center of Radcliffe College. Received Ed. D. from Harvard University (School of Education). Currently studying family coping processes in response to stressful events.Received Ph.D. from Ohio State University (psychology). Current interests in assessing ego development and family systems.Parent-Place, Judge Baker Guidance Center. Received Ph.D. from the University of Miami (clinical psychology). Research interests are in family studies and adolescent development.Received M.D. from the University of Chicago. Currently studying psychological consequences of diabetes mellitus.the Children's Unit of McLean Hospital. Received Diploma Psych. from Freie Universitat, Berlin (clinical psychology), and Ed.D. from Harvard University (School of Education). Currently studying relationships between psychopathology and development among adolescent psychiatric patients.     

South Africa’s civil war, 1985–1995

The end of apartheid in South Africa is typically characterised as ‘peaceful’. However, between 1985 and 1995, South Africa experienced a civil war in which more than 20,000 people died. In this war, the African National Congress (ANC) implemented a strategy of ‘people’s war’ based on Vietnam’s experience while the government pursued a counterinsurgency strategy based on models employed by the United States. In the war’s second phase, the ANC and Inkatha employed unconventional tactics in a campaign to gain political and military control of disputed territory. Owing to its success in the war, the ANC was able to prevent its rivals from significantly limiting its power in the central government after 1994 as well as exclude Inkatha from operating in key areas even in its home province.