Identity and dating commitment among women and men in college

Lower division and upper division college women's and men's commitment in a dating relationship was examined in connection with their (a) gender role attitudes, (b) educational aspirations, (c) certainty about their future vocation, and (d) the importance they attach to work vs. marriage as a source of life satisfaction. Dating commitment was also examined for women in relation to their dedication to work for pay after marriage, and for men in terms of their ideas about their future wife working. The more certain upper division college women's vocational identity, the more committed they were to their dating partner, but the more they planned to work after marriage the less involved they were in a relationship. Additionally, upper division women who placed more importance on a job than marriage and who had a clearer vocational identity were less involved in a relationship. The clearer upper division men's vocational identity, the more committed they were in a relationship. Lower division men who placed more importance on work compared to marriage were less involved in a dating relationship. The results are discussed in light of Erikson's stages of identity development and more recent research that suggests women's identity development follows a different course from men's.Received Ph.D. in child development and family relationships at the University of Texas at Austin. Current research interests include the influence of parent-child interaction on children's mastery and achievement motivation, peer and intimate relationships, and identity development.Received Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Albany. Research focuses on the development of relationships from courtship into marriage and first-time parenthood.Received Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Program of research concerns the developmental origins, correlates, and consequences of identity formation in adolescence. Recent research addresses the dynamics of relationships in adoptive families and the consequences of openness in adoption on family members.Received B.A. in child development and family relationships program at the University of Texas at Austin.     

Approach and avoidant coping: Implications for adolescent mental health

We conducted a short-term longitudinal study examining the structure of coping behavior and the relationship between coping style and depression during adolescence. The sample consisted of 603 adolescents in Grades 6–11 who were surveyed in the fall of 1989 and again in the fall of 1990. A two-dimensional model of coping was found using confirmatory factor analysis with the factors being approach and avoidant coping. Four cross-sectional and seven longitudinal coping groups were formed to explore group differences in depression. Approach copers reported the fewest symptoms of depression, while avoidant copers reported the most. Subjects who changed over time from approach to avoidant coping evidenced a significant increase in depressive symptoms, whereas subjects who switched from avoidant to approach coping displayed a significant decrease in depression over a one-year period. These findings imply that adolescents who are able to elicit social support, engage in problem solving, and cognitively restructure events within a positive light are more likely to successfully negotiate the challenges of adolescence.This research was supported by a grant from the William T. Grant Foundation (8912789), Anne C. Petersen, Principal Investigator. The writing of this article was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health Research Training Grant 5 T32MH18387-06 in Child Mental Health/Primary Prevention.Received Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from Pennsylvania State University. Research interests include adolescent mental health and community research.Received his Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from Pennsylvania State University. Research interests include adolescent mental health and research methodology.Received degree from the University of Chicago. Research interests are in biopsychosocial development in adolescence, with a focus on sex differences in mental health.     

Knowledge and attitudes about AIDS: A comparison of public high school students,incarcerated delinquents,and emotionally disturbed adolescents

This study compared AIDS knowledge and attitudes in public high school students (N=167), incarcerated delinquents (N=166), and emotionally disturbed (SED) adolescents (N=151). The response measure was a 50-item Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) questionnaire that was previously used by Bell et al., in their 1991 study of learning disabled adolescents. Although AIDS knowledge was moderately high in all three groups, widespread misunderstandings about disease transmission and awareness of high-risk groups and practices were noted. Knowledge scores were significantly higher in the public school sample than in the SED adolescents; moreover, they tended to be slightly higher (p<0.10) than the delinquent group as well. Teenagers with the severest emotional problems were by far the least informed. Age and race were also predictive of AIDS knowledge. Other results showed that delinquents were more permissive in their attitudes about sex, more inclined to disdain safe sex practices, and more likely to feel threatened by high-risk groups as well as powerless to protect themselves against AIDS. Generally speaking, the findings extend the work of other investigators on the needs for AIDS education in adolescents. The need is especially urgent in delinquent and emotionally disturbed youth who may require a more comprehensive intervention because of their greater knowledge deficits, propensity for high-risk practices, and tendency to deny or underestimate their own vulnerability.Received Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Research interests include health behavior change and the treatment of anxiety and habit disorders. To whom correspondence should be addressed.Received M.A. degree in psychology from the University of the Pacific. Research interests include health behavior change and medical epidemiology.Received Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. Research interests are in child and adolescent psychiatry and the delivery of mental health services.Received Ph.D. in biostatistics from the Medical College of Virginia. Research interests are in general linear models.     

Contracting out local government services: the B.C. experience

Abstract: This article discusses the findings of a detailed study of the practice of contracting out local government services in municipalities and regional districts in British Columbia. No similar study has been conducted in Canada to date, and comparable research in the United States has only examined the contracting of selected local government services. The findings are important for local government managers and elected officials because they indicate widespread reliance on contractors. Of all 124 local governments participating in the study, contractors were involved in the production of 32 per cent of all services. Of these, engineering services were the most likely to be produced by contractors (40.4 per cent). Specific comparisons of the B.C. findings with those in U.S. studies suggested that contracting for services was actually more widespread in B.C. than in the U.S. Further, reliance on contracting in B.C. had apparently increased over time. In 1980, 25 per cent of municipalities with a population over 10,000 contracted out the collection of residential solid waste. By 1989, that figure had increased to 54.8 per cent. Local government managers themselves saw no future reduction of the reliance on contracting; in fact, 22.8 per cent predicted an increase over the next five years. Sommaire: Cet article examine les constatations d'une étude détaillée sur la pratique des contrats de services parmi les municipalités et les districts régionaux de la Colombie-Britannique. Une telle étude n'a encore jamais été effectuée au Canada, et des recherches comparables aux États-Unis n'ont examiné que les contrats relatifs à certains services des gouvernements locaux. Les constatations sont importantes pour les gestionnaires et les élus des gouvernements locaux parce qu'elles révèlent le rôle très important des entreprises dans la prestation de services. Si l'on considère l'ensemble des 124 gouvernements locaux ayant participéà l'étude, les entrepreneurs sont impliqués dans la production de 32 pour cent de tous les services. Parmi les services fournis, ce sont les services d'ingénierie dont la plus forte proportion était assurée par des entrepreneurs (40,4 pour cent). Les coniparaisons spécifiques des ronstatations faitcs en Colornbie-Britannique à celles des études américaines suggerent que la Colornbie-Britannique fait davantage appel aux services sous-traités clue les États-Unis. Par ailleurs, la sous-traitance en Colombie-Britannique s'est apparernment accrue au fil des années. En 1980, 25 pour cent des municipaliteAs ayant une population de plus de 10 000 personnes avaient sous-traité le rarnassage des déchets solides résidentiels. En 1989, ce chiffre cyt passéà 51.8 pour cent. Les gestion-naires des gouvernements locaux eux-mêmes ne prévoient aucune réduction de la sous-traitance; en fait, 22,8 pour cent prévoient une augmentation au cours des cinq prochailies années.     

The effects of cashing-out food stomps on household food use and the cost of issuing benefits

The recent report produced by Vice President Gore's committee on government efficiency highlights the importance of streamlining government operations. But often there are trade-offs between administrative streamlining and accomplishing substantive program objectives. This article examines these tradeoffs in the context of the Food Stamp Program, an important component of the United States' safety net for providing low-income assistance. We estimate impacts on both administrative costs and substantive outcomes (participant food expenditures) resulting from issuing program benefits in the form of checks rather than the usual food coupons. The findings, which are based on experimental tests of the cashout approach in parts of Alabama and California, suggest that significant cost savings can be attained through cashout but that these savings may be achieved at the cost of weakening the program's ability to achieve its substantive objective of encouraging food use.     

TJTC and the promise and reality of redistributive vouchering and tax credit policy

The Targeted Jobs Tax Credit (TJTC) is a representative redistributive incentive. Initially, proponents saw TJTC as an elegant program, efficiently promoting labor market behavior that would solve the employment problems of many disadvantaged job seekers. However, interest groups distorted the credit into a windfall for businesses that hire large numbers of low wage workers. The policy theories incorporated into TJTC, which emphasized continual program reform and minimized program management by public administrators, provided a setting conducive to interest group distortion. Because few representatives of the disadvantaged participated in the oversight process, special interests undermined TJTC being reformed through empirical evaluation. This experience indicates that without major changes in the policy process, narrowly targeted rzdistributive policies should be avoided.     

Books in review

He has also served as research director of the Guggenheim Foundation from 1972–1984. Among his books are Men in Groups; The Imperial Animal(with Robin Fox); The Manufacture of Evil;and The Pursuit of Pleasure.     

Townies

His work has been featured in numerous publications.     

Win,lose, or withdraw: A categorical analysis of career patterns in the House of Representatives, 1948–1978

The literature on incumbency advantage has focused on margin as an indicator for electoral security. But while electoral margin is a goodex ante measure, it is a poorex post measure of security. Further, existing work has not integrated the choice of retirement with changes in the level of security. To improve the specification and definition of “marginality”, a multinomial LOGIT model is proposed where the dependent variable is categorical. Account is therefore taken of all the ways a Representative's term in office can end, including reelection, defeat, retirement, or pursuit of other office. The sample includes all U.S. Representatives elected for the first time between 1948 and 1978. The results indicate that (1) margin in the previous election is a significantex ante proxy for the probability of electoral defeat, and (2) while the electoral safety of all incumbents in the House has been increased, the increases are greater for members elected for the first time in the period since 1965.