Factors influencing state progress in the implementation of Public Law 99-457, Part H

Policy implementation has been an infrequently studied process although it has become increasingly evident that the implementation processes of policy development, policy approval, and policy application can shape and delay prospective implementation of legislation. The current study analyzes the implementation of P.L. 99–457 (Part H) the Education for the Handicapped Amendments of 1986. This law provides the states with planning money from the federal government to design a comprehensive interagency, multidisciplinary program of services for children with handicapping conditions and their families. Ratings were taken from key administrators and citizens knowledgeable about the law on state progress in implementing the fourteen requirements of the law and also on proposed influential conditions that might affect that implementation. Additional demographic information was obtained for the fifty states. The factor that seemed to be most influential in a subset of 35 states was the prior presence in the state of systems for interagency planning and development. Neither prior history of early childhood services, available resources, wealth of the state, or geographic region appeared to have a significant influence on policy development. There was some indication that different factors might become influential in the next phase of implementation, policy approval. It appears that progress in state policy development may be linked to the special requirements of the legislation itself and to prior availability of institutional structures that make mandated collaborative efforts more possible.     

Parental discord vs family structure: effects of divorce on the self-esteem of daughters

This study investigated the effects of family structure (parents together or not) and parental discord (ratings of the happiness of the marriage of biological parents) on the self-esteem of 199 female undergraduates. Family structure and happiness ratings were substantially related, with those separated rated as less happy. Self-esteem was significantly related to parental happiness, even with family structure controlled, but not to family structure with parental happiness controlled. With the sample divided into three groups (happy-together, unhappy-together, and separated) ANOVA showed a significant effect for group, with the unhappy-together group showing significantly lower self-esteem than the happy-together group, and the separated group intermediate. Parental discord thus appears to lower the selfesteem of daughters, whereas separation of parents does not. These findings support Heatherington's idea that children may be better off in a stable family where parents are divorced than in an intact family with much parental discord.Thanks are expressed to Susan Stevenson Cowles for her contributions to all stages of the study, and to Judith Fidati, Anita Katz, and Susanne Long for their assistance in the scoring and statistical analyses. The author is also grateful to Andrew Cherlin, Edmund Henderson, and Ruth C. Wylie for their helpful suggestions.Barbara H. Long is Professor Emeritus at Goucher College, where she has taught for 20 years. She is a social psychologist, having received her Ph.D. from the University of Delaware and has, at present, research interests in the attitudes of young women towards marriage and career.     

Feminist literary studies

Elaine Showalter (ed), The New Feminist Criticism: Essays on women, literature and theory (Virago) London, 1985.

Gayle Green and Coppélia Kahn (eds), Making a Difference: Feminist literary criticism (Methuen: New Accents) London, 1985.

Toril Moi, Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Theory (Methuen: New Accents) London, 1985.