Risk and resilience in young adolescents

This exploratory study focused on the role of risk and protective factors in 179 adolescents from a middle and lower income northeastern school district. The protective factors examined were family cohesion, locus of control, mother/father communication, and relationship with a nonparent adult. The study found that the protective factors were powerful predictors of adaptation in their own right independent of risk. Protective factors were found to be highly context specific and there was no evidence of broadly applicable protective factors. Gender was found to be an important aspect of context, and there were significant sex differences. Most strikingly, the study did not find any significant interactions between protective factors and risk for girls or boys. Thus, these results support the growing view that researchers must identify specific rather than global protective factors that provide protection in the space of specific risks for youth in specific life contexts.A grant from the Boston University Graduate School provided initial support for this project.Received Ph.D. from Yale University in clinical psychology. Research interests include effects of risk, particularly sexual and physical abuse, and resiliency.Received M.A. from Boston University. Research interests include risk and developmental factors in psychopathology.Received Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Boston University Department of Psychology. Research interests include study of adolescence and risk factors.Received Ph.D. from Boston University.Received M.A. from Eastern Nazarine College, Quincy, MA.Received B.A. from Boston University Department of Psychology, Boston, MA 02215.     

Using Private Information to Predict Homelessness Entries: Evidence and Prospects

Do people at risk of homelessness have private information—information that social service agencies cannot credibly obtain—that helps predict whether they will become homeless? This article asserts that the answer to this question is yes: homeless people and people at risk of homelessness know important things about their future. Data from Journeys Home (JH), a pathbreaking longitudinal study of people experiencing homelessness and people at risk of homelessness in Australia, are used in this article. In many cases, the private information that participants have predicts entries better than the public information that agencies can obtain. Ways in which this private information can be used to improve service delivery are suggested.     

Access to historic census data in Canada: a comparative analysis

Abstract. Statistical agencies are vitally concerned with protection of confidentiality in order to maintain high response rates to national surveys. Researchers are thus confronted with restrictions when seeking access to historic census records which are seventy-five to one hundred years or more old. A bill passed by the House of Representatives in 1976 represents the leading American effort to come to grips with this basic problem. Its purpose was to make census schedules available for medical, genealogical, and historical research after the passage of fifty to seventy-five years. Despite the defeat of this bill in the Senate, the 1952 agreement, whereby the National Archives agreed with the Bureau of the Census to release census information after the lapse of seventy-two years, remains in effect. Access to census schedules occurs under controlled conditions. Statistics Canada has adopted a policy of strict confidentiality for censuses after 1871. The Canadian Statistics Act of 1918 contained a strict secrecy clause prohibiting the use of information outside the statistical organization, which Statistics Canada applies retroactively. Opposition to this position has arisen from a variety of sources. A system is needed whereby historic census data can be released for research and statistical purposes, while maintaining the right to individual privacy. The availability of U.S. census records has illustrated that this can be done without negative results. The type of controls exercised by the National Archives in the United States would seem to be a useful model. Statistics Canada should be willing to follow the lead of other Western nations in permitting access to census records after a period of seventy-five years. Some types of research require access to individual census returns in identifiable form. An amendment to the secrecy clause of the 1971 Statistics Act may be necessary for censuses taken after 1918. At any rate, action must be taken by Statistics Canada or the research community will have to take strong initiatives towards a reasonable solution. This would be in line with the increasing trend in English-speaking countries towards freedom of information, as well as a reduction in absolute secrecy. Sommaire. Pour les organismes chargés des statistiques, la protection du caractère confidentiel des données est une préoccupation vitale s'ils veulent mainte nir un pourcentage élevé de réponses à des enquětes nationales. Les chercheurs se heurtent done à des restrictions měme lorsqu'ils demandent l'accès à des recensements vieux de soixante-quinze à cent ans. En 1976, la Chambre des Représentants vota un projet de loi qui représente le principal effort des Etats-Unis pour trouver une solution à ce problème fondamental. Son but était de rendre accessibles pour les fins de la recherche médicale, généalogique et historique tous les recensements après une période de cinquante à soixante-quinze ans. Ce projet de loi fut rejeté par le Sénat, mais, néanmoins, l'accord conclu en 1952 entre les Archives nationales et le Bureau des recensements rendant publics ces renseignements après une période de soixante-douze ans reste en vigueur. L'accès à ces recensements est soumis à des conditions strides. Statistique Canada a adopté une politique qui protège strictement le caractère confidentiel des recensements effectués après 1871. La loi canadienne sur la Statistique de 1918 contenait une clause assurant le secret et qui interdisait l'usage de l'information en dehors de l'organisatìon de la Statistique, clause que Statistique Canada applique rétroactivement. L'opposition à cette politique a surgi de différents cǒtés. Il faudrait un système qui permette l'accès aux données statistiques historiques à des fins de recherche et de Statistique, tout en maintenant le droit des individus au caractère confidentìel des renseignements fournis. L'accessibilité aux dossiers de recensement américains a prouvé que cela était possible, sans consequences défavorables. Le genre de contrǒle exercé par les Archives nationales aux Etats-Unis semblerait un modèle utile, en particulier pour protéger les données des recensements. Statistique Canada devrait ětre prět à suivre l'exemple d'autres nations occidentales et permettre l'accès aux recensements après une période de soixante-quinze ans. Certains types de recherche nécessitent l'accès aux déclarations individuelles sous une forme identifiable. Un amendement à la clause sur le secret de la loi de 1971 serait peut-ětre nécessaire pour les recensements d'après 1918. Dans tous les cas, Statistique Canada devra agir ou bien les chercheurs se verront forcés de faire des démarches énergiques en vue d'une solution raisonnable. Cette évolution serait conforme aux tendances actuelles, dans les pays anglophones, en faveur de la liberté de l'information ainsi et de la reduction du secret absolu.     

Chieftains Delivering: Testing Different Measures of “Pork” on an Irish Data Set of Discretionary Sports Grants

Distributive spending by a state is often thought to have an electoral connection, and the work on pork-barrel politics whereby spending is geographically targeted is extensive. However, there has been mixed empirical support for the two main hypotheses: (a) that it is targeted at marginal constituencies; or (b) that it goes to party strongholds. Using new data on discretionary sports grant spending in Ireland we offer and test a complementary hypothesis that focuses on the responsible minister as primary decision-maker. We find that the grants are targeted at the responsible minister's constituency. Moreover we test these using three measures of the dependent variable: euro value of the grants, success rate of grant applications and the number of grants allocated per constituency. Our hypothesis is supported in all three models, something we argue gives greater credence to the result.     

A benchmark analysis of the performance of state owned enterprises in ireland

This paper examines the performance of state owned enterprises (SOEs) in Ireland over the period 1988-92. However, unlike previous studies the performance of Irish public enterprise is examined in terms of the performance of other firms operating in the same sectors albeit based in the UK. While Irish SOEs exhibit lower rates of return on capital employed, it is found that there were significant improvements in labour productivity, relative to UK counterparts. This is attributable to the substantial increase in capital utilisation by Irish public enterprises. Given that average employment was maintained the net effect is a substantial increase in the capital-labour ratio of the sector.     

Why is there no Radical Right Party in Ireland?

The rise of the radical or extreme right parties in Europe – parties usually noted for strong, sometimes racist anti-immigrant ideologies – has attracted a great deal of attention in political science. Ireland, despite having some conditions favourable to the growth of such a party has no radical right party. This paper argues that that this is because the ‘space’ usually occupied by such parties – for young, poor people disaffected by economic change – is taken up by Sinn Féin, which though it has similarities to radical right parties, differs markedly in its attitudes to immigrants. It goes on to explain the special circumstances that prevent nationalist parties in Ireland from presenting overtly anti-immigrant platforms. The focus on anti-immigration and liberal economic policies for such parties may mean that other parties with strong resemblances are excluded from studies they might usefully be included.     

Finding a party and losing some friends: Overcoming the weaknesses of the prime ministerial figure in Italy

Silvio Berlusconi poses a problem for the existing literature on prime ministers and their power. Though Italian prime ministers are traditionally seen as weak, Berlusconi has been able to achieve some remarkable policy gains during his current term as prime minister. This article uses veto player theory and combines it with existing institutional and political explanations for variation in prime ministerial power to look at this challenging case. By looking at the number of veto players in the Italian system, and their ability to credibly use their veto against Berlusconi, an explanation is posited which can accommodate the exceptionalism of his second term in office. Despite the emphasis on his control of the media, we conclude that Berlusconi's power stems from more traditional political factors. The authors argue that Berlusconi's coalition and party allies have no choice but to accept his will and his decisions, as any alternatives are less appealing.