Migration,rank-size distribution,and economic development: The case of Mexico

This is an examination of whether city size is truly an independent variable when the relationships between city size and certain economic and social phenomena are considered. A new hypothesis is presented that postulates that relative or systemic city size is an independent variable that affects urban growth patterns through varying, non-optimum migration flows. The hypothesis is tested using official Mexican data for the period 1960 to 1970.     

Slim just left town: decisionmaking on an intensive care unit

The title of this paper comes from an incident that occurred while I was participating in morning rounds on the pediatric and surgical intensive care unit of a large, midwest tertiary care center. The patient under discussion was an eight-week-old girl who had been born without kidneys, and who had been cared for on the unit for seven weeks. In the previous week, the baby's condition had gone steadily downhill, as she experienced on medical catastrophe after another. One of the nurses asked the staff doctor who was leading rounds that morning, "What are the baby's chances?" The physician replied, "Her chances are slim." To which one of the young residents immediately answered, "Slim just left town."     

Gender Differences in Self-Perceptions and Academic Outcomes: A Study of African American High School Students

There is increasing divergence in the academic outcomes of African American males and females. By most accounts, males are falling behind their female peers educationally as African American females are graduating from high schools at higher rates and are going on to college and graduate school in greater numbers. Some have suggested that school completion and performance is associated with how students feel about themselves. The purpose of this study was to explore gender differences in the relationship between self-perceptions and 2 academic outcomes among a sample of 243 African American high school sophomores. The results suggest that, overall, females are more favorably oriented toward high school completion. Both male and female students with more positive self-perceptions have stronger intentions to complete the current year of high school. Higher grade point averages were more strongly associated with greater self-efficacy for females than for males. Given these findings, increased attention to educational programming, societal messages, and future research is warranted.     

The Relation of Antisocial Behavior Patterns and Changes in Internalizing Symptoms for a Sample of Inner-city Youth: Comorbidity within a Developmental Framework

Research examining the relationship between internalizing symptoms and antisocial behaviors has generally been cross-sectional in design. Thus, although extant data have substantiated a strong correlation between internalizing symptoms and antisocial behaviors, few studies have focused on describing the nature of the co-occurrence over time. This study examined the relation between growth in internalizing symptoms and longitudinal patterns of antisocial behavior in a sample of 283 inner-city males and their caregivers assessed as part of a longitudinal developmental risk study. Participants were assessed annually in four waves. Non-offenders and escalating offenders had lower levels of internalizing problems at wave 1 than did chronic minor and serious-chronic-violent offenders. Results revealed a developmental trend of decreasing internalizing problems across study years for most participants, as would be expected, with adolescents participating in serious, chronic, and violent patterns of antisocial behavior displaying greater internalizing problems than those participating in stable patterns of less serious or no antisocial behavior. Further, when there was escalation of seriousness and frequency of antisocial behavior, there also was increased internalizing problems relative to non-escalating juveniles. Results are discussed in the context of developmental psychopathology.