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.     

Feminism and cultural studies: Same or different?

Terry Lovell (ed.), Feminist Cultural Studies, 2 vols, International Library of Studies in Media and Culture (Edward Elgar) Aldershot, UK, 1995.

Glenn Jordan and Chris Weedon, Cultural Politics: Class, Gender, Race and the Postmodern World (Blackwell) Oxford, 1995.

Rosemary Buikema and Anneke Smelik (eds), Women's Studies and Culture: A Feminist Introduction (Zed Books) London and New Jersey, 1995.

Xtext, no. 1, August 1996, ‘Crossing Performances’.     

Toward the Self‐Evaluating Organization? An Empirical Test of the Wildavsky Model

This article presents the first empirical test of Wildavsky's model of self-evaluation by public organizations. We elucidate Wildavsky's arguments and identify six variables that have theoretical effects on self-evaluation. A statistical model that incorporates these variables explains 46 percent of the variation in self-evaluation. The evidence suggests that self-evaluation is positively related to leadership support and employee involvement, and negatively related to the number of organizational sub-units undertaking evaluation at the same time. Refinements to the Wildavsky model are proposed, and conclusions are drawn on the theory and practice of self-evaluation by public organizations.     

Conducting Meta-Analyses of Evaluations of Government-Funded Training Programs

Government‐funded training programs in the United States have often been subject to rigorous evaluation. Indeed, many of these programs have been evaluated with random assignment, although sophisticated quasi‐experimental methods have also been used. Until very recently, however, there has been little systematic attempt to use the cumulative information vested in these evaluations to attempt determine which kinds of programs work best in which setting and with respect to which types of client. Meta‐analysis—a set of statistical procedures for systematically synthesizing findings from separate studies—can, in theory at least, address these and other topics that evaluation of individual programs cannot. This article discusses the steps in conducting such a synthesis, summarizes the results of three recently conducted meta‐analyses of training and welfare‐to‐work programs, identifies limitations to the meta‐analytic approach, and considers ways in which some of these limitations can be overcome.