The Effect of Family Structure and Family Functioning on Adolescents' Perceptions of Intimate Time Spent with Parents,Siblings, and Peers

In previous research, family structure variables have been operationalized as family size, birth order, sibling spacing, and sibling density. These structure variables have been linked to parental strictness, reasonableness, and supportiveness [J. S. Kidwell (1981), Number of Siblings, Sibling Spacing, and Birth Order: Their Effects on Perceived Parent–Adolescent Relationships, Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 43, pp. 315–333]. Other research has drawn attention to the link between the amount of time adolescents spend with parents and peers and the influence of family relations variables—intensity, duration, and frequency of conflicts. [R. Montemayor (1982), The Relationship Between Parent–Adolescent Conflict and the Amount of Time Adolescents Spend Alone and with Parents and Peers, Child Development, Vol. 53, pp. 1512–1519]. More recent research has related family structure (family size, sibling spacing, and gender) effects to the amount of time adolescents spend with parents, a measure of relationship quality, and a set of measures of discipline [R. A. Richardson et al. (1986), Parent–Child Relationships in Early Adolescence: Effects of Family Structure, Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 48, pp. 805–811]. To date, the questions asked by researchers have not simultaneously explored whether it is the family relations or the family structure variables that contribute most powerfully to the amount of time that female and male adolescents spend with family members and peers. In this research adolescents were asked to report the amount of time they spend with their mother, father, siblings, and peers, and to respond to a questionnaire that has three factors that define family functioning: Parenting Style (democratic decision making), Intimacy, and Conflict [P. Noller et al. (1992), Parent and Adolescent Perceptions of Family Functioning: A Comparison of Clinic and Nonclinic Family, Journal of Adolescence, Vol. 15, pp. 101–115]. The analyses revealed that complex and interpretable family structure and family functioning factors differentially influence whether males and females spend time with family members and peers.     

The role of credible commitments in state finance

Margaret Levi's Of Rule and Revenue raises a host of important problems in the theory of the state. It provides an important step in the development of a theory that combines economic and political institutions into the same framework, potentially allowing scholars to address important issues such as the divergent economic paths taken by various states. It will therefore be an important book, and warrants attention. This approach holds much promise for the development of a theory of institutional development of the state from the middle ages onward.I have tried to sketch some additional directions for the theory to develop, pointing toward the answer of questions not directly faced by Levi — or for that matter, by much of the public choice literature: How do we explain the evolution of a predatory state into one with explicit limits on its powers? How do we explain the rise of representative institutions? Answering these questions often requires looking beyond the individual state to its international context. Competition among states, especially in the form of war, plays a key role here, and has two consequences. First, a major consequence of large-scale wars was fiscal stress. At such times, even a preditory state might agree to exchange limitations on its own powers for revenue. Second, the brief discussion of early modern Europe suggests that states with limited government might have had a financial advantage over those which were not so limited. The latter played a major role in the successful Dutch revolt against Spain and in the English defeat of France.     

Strategic Research Partnerships: Constructing Policy-Relevant Indicators

Absent a set of indicators based on a set of valid constructs, it will remain difficult to determine the importance of strategic research partnerships (SRP) for the U.S. economy and the enterprise of science and technology in general. The purpose of this paper is to identify characteristics of a desirable policy indicator for strategic research partnerships. In choosing among the many possible conceptualizations and indicators of SRP, a framing question should be: “what is the public stake?” The fact that SRP activity has great economic import (still an open question) does not imply an equivalent government or public policy importance. This seems to imply, then, that SRP indicators should focus on such factors as the composition of R&;D (e.g. do they shift the balance in available public domain research?), impacts of labor and human resources, tax implications (e.g. use of tax credits, foregone revenue and its impacts), and, especially, public-private partnerships (e.g. how are government-sponsored or -brokered SRPs different from others?).     

The Walk in the Woods: A Step‐by‐Step Method for Facilitating Interest‐Based Negotiation and Conflict Resolution

In this article, we describe a method we have used successfully in both academic and professional settings to rapidly introduce novice negotiators to the principles and practice of interest‐based negotiation: “the walk in the woods.” The walk incorporates much of the principles of interest‐based negotiation: fostering self‐awareness, cultivating curiosity, and understanding the importance of world view. The walk's effectiveness is illustrated in this article using the case of the merger of two large, complex health‐care organizations.     

The Lockhart Committee: developing policy through commitment to moral values, community and democratic processes

The Lockhart Committee was appointed by the federal government in 2005 to review the Prohibition of Human Cloning Act 2002 (Cth) and the Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002 (Cth). The issues in the review are ones on which community views differ widely and many people hold strong and diverging opinions. Yet all members of the committee were able to agree on their recommendations when the committee reported to Parliament in December 2005 and since that time, most of its recommendations have been implemented in amendments to federal and State legislation. This article describes the committee's process in considering the issues in the review, in consulting stakeholders and the broader community and in formulating its recommendations.     

Offence characteristics and cognitive functioning in juveniles adjudicated for illegal sexual behaviour

Intelligence differences exist between sex offenders and non-sex offenders in adult populations, but comparable intelligence differences are not consistently found among juveniles. However, juveniles may differ on measures of intelligence across offence-related variables used to subclassify adults. The purpose of the present study was to determine if between- and within-group differences exist in a sample of 925 juveniles adjudicated for illegal sexual and non-sexual behaviours across offence-related variables. The results suggest that juveniles adjudicated for illegal sexual behaviour outperformed juveniles adjudicated for non-sexual offences on Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) performance, though full-scale intelligence quotients scores for both groups were lower than would be expected in the general population. Unlike adult offenders, juveniles adjudicated for illegal sexual behaviour do not tend to differ on WASI performance across offence-related variables. These results provide additional evidence that these juveniles adjudicated for illegal sexual behaviour are categorically distinct from adults who sexually offend.     

Assessing the Risk of Domestic Violence Reoffending: A Validation Study

Little research has been conducted to validate available instruments for assessing the risk of domestic violence reoffending, especially research using some form of prospective design. This study uses a prospective design to determine the reliability and validity of the Domestic Violence Screening Instrument (DVSI). The analysis is based on a sample of 1,465 male domestic violence offenders selected consecutively over a 9-month period. Data on reoffending were collected in a 6-month follow-up period from a subsample of the victims (N = 125) of these perpetrators and from official records for all perpetrators during an 18-month follow-up period. The empirical results suggest that the DVSI was administered reliably, and they provide significant evidence of the concurrent, discriminant, and predictive validity of this instrument. Implications for further research and utilization of the DVSI are discussed.