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.     

The federal Employment Equity Act: goals vs. implementation

Abstract: Policy analysts have frequently noted the gap between the intentions of policy makers and the effects of a program of change. This paper questions the ability of the implementation process to achieve the objectives of the federal Employment Equity Act. It argues that organizations under the act have not progressed towards employment equity, not because they have failed to implement the policy according to its legal provisions, but because the act itself is fundamentally flawed. While collecting statistics from the workplace may be useful in identifying discriminatory practices and problem areas and in identifying weaknesses in the evaluative and corrective mechanisms in the act, the reliance on data collection as the sole measure of effective implementation is highly simplistic. The usefulness of the data is compromised by the extent to which they actually reflect decreased discrimination. Furthermore, it is erroneous to suppose that employers of their accord will sanction themselves when statistics reveal an unrepresentative internal workforce. Sommaire: Les analystes de politiques ont souvent noté l'éart entre les intentions de ceux qui définissent les politiques, d'une part, et les effets d'un programme porteur de changement, d'autre part. Cet article met en cause la capacité des processus de mise en oeuvre à réaliser les objectifs de la loi fédérale sur l'équité en matière d'emploi. Selon l'article, les organismes soumis à la Loi n'ont pas fait de progres vers l'eAquité en matière d'emploi, et ce, non pas parce qu'ils ont manqué d'appliquer la politique conformément à ses clauses légales, mais plutôt parce que la loi elle-même a des lacunes fondamentales. Recueillir des données statistiques sur les lieux de travail est peut-êre utile lorsqu'il s'agit d'identifier les pratiques discriminatoires et les faiblesses des mécanismes d'évaluation et de correction prévues par la loi, mais il serait par trop simpliste de se fier aux données comme indicateur unique d'une mise en oeuvre réussie. L'utilité des données est relative dans la mesure oh elles reflètent simplement une diminution de la discrimination. De plus, il est incorrect de supposer que les employeurs se sanctionneront deux-mêmes lorsque les données statistiques révèlent l'inobservation de la loi.     

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.     

Black and white perceptions of party differences

Despite a comparative disadvantage vis-à-vis whites in resources like education that often are considered to lead to political sophistication, African Americans show signs of being a rather politically sophisticated group of people. Given that better educated people are much more likely than those with less education to see larger differences between Democrats and Republicans, the propensity for blacks to perceive larger differences between the parties, both in general and on specific issues, is striking. This puzzle is explained by the fact that education has a huge impact on seeing partisan differences for whites, but not for blacks. That this understanding of the structure of American politics has so completely penetrated black public opinion is quite remarkable. Strength of partisanship, and to a lesser degree, racial consciousness, appear to be largely responsible for blacks (particularly less educated blacks) perceiving such stark party differences.     

Federalism As an Ideal Political Order and an Objective for Constitutional Reform

Federalism is first examined as an ideal-type political orderas possibly emergent from initial constitutional agreement amongmembers of a prospective political community. This abstractedand nonhistorical analysis is followed by an examination ofthe possible applicability of the federalist ideal as the basisfor reform in specific historical-institutional settings. Thedirection of constitutional change toward effective federalismis discussed, with the devolution of political authority fromcentralized structures carefully distinguished from the limitedconcentration of authority from previously autonomous politicalunits.     

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.     

The influence of state-level economic conditions on the 1992 U.S. presidential election

Evidence is found that state-level economic conditions played a significant role in the defeat of George Bush in the 1992 U.S. presidential election. Evidence is also found which indicates that the entrance of Ross Perot into the race as an independent candidate was not instrumental in the Bush loss.     

Heterogenous demand for public goods: Behavior in the voluntary contributions mechanism

Numerous laboratory experiments have investigated the performance of several processes for providing public goods through voluntary contributions. This research has been able to identify features of the institution or environment which are reliably likely to produce outcomes “close” to the free riding outcome or “substantially” greater than the pessimistic prediction of standard models. One such feature is the “marginal per-capita return” (MPCR) from the public good. Various authors have altered MPCR between groups or for an entire group at the same time. The experiments reported here address a different question, “What would happen if, within a group, some persons faced a ‘high’ MPCR while others faced a ‘low’ MPCR?”