Parental Authoritativeness,Social Support and Help-seeking for Mental Health Problems in Adolescents

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Adolescents experience high rates of mental health problems but are reluctant to seek professional help. Parents play an integral role in the help seeking process...     

The long‐term effects of housing assistance on work and welfare

This paper examines the long‐term effect of project‐based housing assistance—public housing and private assisted housing—on work, earnings, and welfare receipt. We use the Panel Study of Income Dynamics–Assisted Housing Database to identify women ever living in project‐based assisted housing and to create comparison groups using propensity scores. Analyses show no evidence that moving into this type of assisted housing is associated with sustained reductions in employment rates, work hours, or earnings. Although welfare rates decline, they remain higher for assisted housing recipients compared with nonrecipients. Overall, these findings align with those of recent experimental and nonexperimental studies that include other forms of housing assistance and cover different time periods. © 2009 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Introduction: Meritocracy in Perspective. The Rise of the Meritocracy 60 Years On

Sixty years after its publication, Michael Young’s The Rise of the Meritocracy remains one of the most important texts for understanding the changing intellectual politics of postwar Britain. Young’s fictional vision of a meritocratic society explores the consequences of a society where each citizen is judged according to the formula ‘I.Q. + Effort = Merit’. The successful meritocrats hoard ever-greater rewards for themselves, crystallising into a rigid and repressive elite who rule over an increasingly powerless and depressed underclass. While the concept has evolved and adapted, the language of meritocracy is one of the great survivors of postwar British politics. In an age characterised by the rise of populist leaders and movements, as well as a backlash against educated ‘liberal elites’, revisiting, reinterpreting and re-evaluating Young’s influential satire and the central place the concept of meritocracy occupies in the history of postwar Britain has never been more important.     

Streams,springs, and stones: Ontario public service reform in the 1980s and the 1990s

Abstract: Since the era of reform triggered by the Committee on Government Productivity during the early 1970s, there has been surprisingly little writing about public service reform in Ontario. This article surveys developments since the early 1980s, reviewing the changes that occurred during the Davis, Peterson, and Rae governments pertaining to the structure and integrity of the public service, human resource development, relocation, accountability regimes, reorganization and restraint initiatives, to name only a few. We review the rise and fall of the Tomorrow Project, and how the Rae government developed an interest in public management issues as part of its policy and restraint agendas. As a frame for our analysis, we invoke the metaphor of “streams, springs, and stones” to convey not only the breadth and complexity of public service reform but also its enduring themes and issues. Sonirnnire: Depuis l'époque des réformes déclenchées par le Comité sur la productivité gouvernementale vers le début des années 1970, curieusement peu d'auteurs se sont penchés sur la réforme de la Fonction publique en Ontario. Cet article s'intéresse à l'évolution qui s'est produite depuis le début des années 1980, examinant les changements survenus sous les gouvernements Davis, Peterson et Rae en ce qui concerne la structure et l'intégrité de la Fonction publique, le développement des ressources humaines, les déménagements, les régimes d'imputabilité, ainsi que les initiatives de reorganisation et d'austérité, pour ne citer que ceux-là. Nous analysons la montée et la chute du Projet “ Demain ” et comment le gouvernement Rae a commencéà s'intéresser aux questions de gestion publique dans le cadre de son programme oû figuraient l'austérité et la définition des politiques. Pour encadrer notre analyse, nous faisons appel à la métaphore des “ courants, sources et pierres ” pour indiquer non seulement l'ampleur et la complexité des réformes de la Fonction publique mais aussi sa probématique et ses thèmes permanents.     

Moderating effects of self-esteem on the use of ethnicity and academic standing as determinants of interpersonal acceptance

The influence of self-esteem on the use of status considerations as determinants of interpersonal acceptance was studied in a sample of 722 Israeli students from integrated junior high schools. The students completed a self-esteem questionnaire as well as the Interpersonal Relation Assessment Technique, a measure assessing willingness to engage in activities of increasing intimacy with classmates. Data analysis indicated a general preference for targets of higher educational level and high-status ethnic origin. These categorical preferences were more pronounced among high rather than low self-esteem students, irregardless of their own educational standing or ethnic origin. The findings were consistent with the thrust of cost-benefit analyses suggested by social exchange theories, in which self-esteem is viewed as one's globalized perception of social worth. The results suggest that individuals with high self-esteem may be more likely to see themselves as equals to higher status others and seek out their company than would their low self-esteem counterparts. Alternately, those with high self-esteem may be more motivated by social ambition and less by fear of rejection.Received doctorate from UCLA. Studies issues related to self-esteem and social relationships, as well as stress and coping in childhood and adolescence.Received doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin. Research deals with interethnic relations, religious education, and post traumatic stress disorders.     

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?”