Why we need the independent sector: the behavior, law, and ethics of not-for-profit hospitals

Among the major forms of corporate ownership, the not-for-profit ownership form is distinct in its behavior, legal constraints, and moral obligations. A new empirical analysis of the American Hospital industry, using eleven years of data for all urban general hospitals in the country, shows that corporate form accounts for large differences in the provision of specific medical services. Not-for-profit hospitals systematically provide both private and public goods that are in the public interest, and that other forms fail to provide. Two hypotheses are proposed to account for the findings, one legal and one moral. While no causal claims are made, not-for-profit hospital behavior is consistent with the behavior required by law and morality. The moral argument, developed as a preliminary theory of not-for-profit ethics, also provides a potential reason to prefer not-for-profit hospitals. The findings provide a new justification for the not-for-profit tax exemption for hospitals, and also suggest new uses for ownership categories as regulatory tools.     

Sexual harassment stories: testing a story-mediated model of juror decision-making in civil litigation

The story model of juror decision-making proposes that jurors use personal experience and information presented at trial to create stories that guide their verdicts. This model has received strong empirical support in studies using criminal cases. The research presented here extends the story model to civil litigation and tests a story-mediated model against an unmediated model of jury decision-making. In Phase 1, content analysis of mock juror responses to 4 realistic sexual harassment cases revealed prototypic plaintiff and defense stories. In Phase 2, these prototypic stories were included as mediators in a model predicting verdicts in 4 additional sexual harassment cases. Mock juror attitudes, experiences, and demographics were assessed, then attorneys presented abbreviated versions of 4 actual sexual harassment cases. Path analyses provided support for the story-mediated model, which added significantly to the amount of variance accounted for in the outcome measures of verdict, commitment to verdict, and confidence times verdict. Implications for sexual harassment and other types of civil cases are discussed.     

The inventory of high-school students' recent life experiences: A decontaminated measure of adolescents' hassles

A new decontaminated hassles measure for adolescents, the Inventory of High-School Students' Recent Life Experiences (IHSSRLE), was validated. A pool of 49 items was administered to 99 high-school students along with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Forty-one items were selected for the final form of the IHSSRLE, based on significant positive correlations with the PSS. The alpha reliability of the IHSSRLE was .91, and its correlation against the PSS was .68, p<.01. To guard against capitalization on chance, the same scales were administered to an independent sample of 77 high-school students. The alpha reliability of the IHSSRLE in the new sample was .90 and its correlation against the PSS was .63, p<.01. Factor analysis of the measure yielded eight factors. Intercorrelations among factor-based subscales were sufficiently low to suggest that the IHSSRLE is relatively free from contamination by psychological distress.Received a Ph.D. degree in social psychology from Harvard University. Research interests include personality factors in vulnerability to the adverse effects of stress, and causal factors in drug and alcohol abuse.Received an Honors B.A. in psychology, and a B.Ed, from York University. Main research interests are adolescent stress, and adolescent drug and alcohol use.     

Depressive symptomatology among very early maturing girls

This study investigated whether menarche is associated with depression when its onset is at the very early extreme of the normal age range. Girls who were postmenarcheal at the beginning of the sixth grade, comprising less than 10% of a sample of girls in that grade, were classified as very early maturers; their scores on the Beck Depression Inventory, short form (BDIs), were compared with those of their premenarcheal peers. Additionally, postmenarcheal seventh graders, who comprised 30% of a sample of girls in that grade, were compared to their premenarcheal peers on the BDIs. Results were that postmenarcheal sixth graders were significantly more depressed than their premenarcheal peers, but that postmenarcheal and premenarcheal seventh graders did not differ significantly. The results suggest that very early menarche is associated with higher levels of depression than more normative menarcheal timing.This research was supported by Grant 16034 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Some portions of the data were cited previously at meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development and the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research.Received Ph.D. from Clark University. Major interest is in clinical-developmental psychology. To whom reprint requests should be addressed.Received Ph.D. from Tufts University. Major interests are psychobiology and adolescent development     

Psychological mindedness and abstract reasoning in late childhood and adolescence: An exploration using new instruments

This study introduces two new measures of psychological mindedness, applying them in a study of the growth of abstract thinking in children and adolescents in a developmental design. The capacity to achieve psychological understanding of the self and of others involves comprehension of the motives, attitudes, and characteristics of the self and others. Psychological mindedness toward the self (PS) and toward others (PO) may be seen as complex cognitive capacities that should show a pattern of related development in childhood. Three groups of 60 fifth, eighth, and twelfth graders completed two measures of formal operations and two instruments to assess the two components of psychological mindedness. We find that psychological mindedness and abstract thinking both increase significantly with age, although the relationship between them is complex and varies with gender and age. Because the development of abstract reasoning skills does not correlate with the development of psychological mindedness in a simple way, a more complex model is necessary, taking age and gender differences into account. Performance on the two measures of psychological mindedness is found to be largely unrelated, suggesting that these are two different psychological skills. Implications of these findings are discussed, with special reference to education, peer counseling, and psychotherapy.Received Ph.D. from University of Michigan and psychoanalytic training from The Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute. Main research interests are psychoanalytic theory, the therapeutic alliance, and insight and self-observation.Received Ph.D. from University of Michigan. Main research interests are adolescent development, peer counseling, short-term psychotherapy, and the psychology of women.Received M.A. from The University of Michigan. Main research interests are infant mental health and attachment theory.Received M.A. from The University of Michigan. Main research interests are gender identity and children of divorce.Received B.A. from The University of Michigan. Main research interests are gender issues and adolescent development.     

Timing of menarche,preparation, and initial menstrual experience: Replication and further analyses in a prospective study

The goals of this study were to assess the significance of two timing variables (objective timing of menarche and subjective timing, i.e., the belief—not necessarily true—about one's status as early, average, or late maturing) and two cognitive variables (preparation for menstruation and ego functioning) as predictors of the experience of menarche. Subjects were 92 girls who changed from pre- to postmenarcheal between two test occasions, six months apart. Findings were that subjective timing of menarche and preparation were significant predictors of menarcheal experience, while objective timing and ego functioning were not. The results replicated earlier findings based on cross-sectional analyses. Interpretation of the results suggested some directions for further exploration of determinants of initial menstrual experience.This research was supported by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant 16034 to the first two authors.Received Ph.D. from Clark University. Major interest is in clinical-developmental psychology.Received Ph.D. from Tufts University. Major interests are psychobiology and adolescent development.Received Ph.D. from Brandeis University. Major interest is early adolescent girls' development.     

African American and White Adolescents' Strategies for Managing Cultural Diversity in Predominantly White High Schools

This study examined 3 strategies that African American and White participants (9th–12th grade) used to manage cultural diversity: multicultural, separation, and assimilation/acculturation strategies. Older African American adolescents endorsed multicultural strategies (integration/fusion and alternation) more strongly and separation less strongly than their younger African American peers. The reverse pattern was found for White adolescents. With respect to peer relations, separation and multicultural strategies were associated with cross-ethnic peer relations for both African American and White respondents. For African American adolescents, multicultural strategy endorsement was positively related to ethnic identity; particularly for older compared with younger African American adolescents, assimilation/acculturation was a strategy associated with a less strongly positive sense of ethnic identity. The results are discussed in relation to forces supporting adolescents' strategy development, and the implications of strategy usage for adjustment in predominantly White schools.