Citizen-driven reform of local-level basic services: Community-Based Performance Monitoring

Amid growing interest in forms of participatory and decentralised governance, increasing efforts are being made to increase the accountability, responsiveness, and relevance of the state through active citizenship. Drawing on the theoretical basis for social accountability, this article explores bottom–up views of active citizenship which highlight the importance of the intrinsic as well as the instrumental value of participatory social accountability, and thus of active citizenship. One approach to social accountability, Community-Based Performance Monitoring (CBPM), is used to demonstrate these instrumental and intrinsic values in practice, in relation to local public-service delivery.     

Family learning environment: The subjective view of adolescent males and females

This study investigates sex differences in two aspects of family learning environment as subjectively viewed by adolescents: parents' educational expectations and relationships with parents. Analysis of the data collected from 105 young Israeli adolescents (65 males and 40 females) shows sex differences in both aspects of family learning environment. These differences are (a) a negative relation between idealistic expectations and academic performance for females and a positive relation between realistic expectations and academic performance for males, and (b) a positive relation between estimated similarity with father and academic performance for females and a negative relation between social emotional relationship with father and academic performance for males. These sex differences are viewed in light of the greater complexity of female identity as it is related to low achieving females' perceived pressure to improve academic performance and high achieving females' feeling closer to their fathers.Received Ph.D. from Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Current research interests include social aspects of adolescents' development and schooling with special emphasis on adolescents' self-image and future time orientation.     

The impact of social class and parental maltreatment on the cognitive functioning of children

The purpose of the present investigation was to compare the cognitive functioning of maltreated children with two groups of nonmaltreated children: those matched for age and SES and those matched only on age. All of the children ranged in age from 6 to 16 years. The rationale for employing two comparison groups was to examine the role of maltreatment and SES separately to determine which factor, if any, is associated with children's cognitive functioning. Additionally, the present investigation sought to expand on previous work by employing both global measures of cognitive functioning (WISC-R) as well as measures designed to tap specific abilities (e.g., selective attention, short-term memory). Results indicate that maltreated children demonstrated deficits in cognitive functioning but that these are no more pervasive than those found in children from the same low socioeconomic backgrounds. These findings suggest that it may be deprived family circumstances common in maltreating families, not maltreatment per se, that is responsible for the cognitive deficits often noted in maltreated children.     

Suicide by jumping from high-rise hotels. Fulton County, Georgia, 1967-1986

During a 20-year period from 1967 through 1986, 19 suicidal jumps from high-rise hotels (HRHs) accounted for 24% of all fatal jumping episodes and 1% of all suicides in Fulton County, Georgia, U.S.A. The rate of suicidal jumps from HRHs did not increase during the study period. The number of fatal jumps per hotel-year correlated with the height of the interior hotel atrium. The mean age for all victims was 34 years, and 63% of victims were white males. The majority of victims were local residents who were alone when they jumped and were not registered hotel guests. Registered guests tended to jump from the floor on which their room was located whereas nonregistered individuals tended to jump from the upper-most floors in the hotel. Of 19 HRH jumps, 13 occurred from the inside. Suicide notes were found in 37% of cases. HRH jumps were least common between 6 p.m. and midnight, all decedents were dressed in street clothing, only one was heard to have screamed, and all but one were dead on the scene. Alcohol and drug involvement was minimal. We hope that this information will be useful to those who investigate such deaths and to those who study the behavioral manifestations of suicide.