Subjective Social Status,Immigrant Generation,and Cannabis and Alcohol Use Among Adolescents

Research indicates that subjective perceptions of socioeconomic status (SES) affect aspects of health and behavior. There has been little research attention to how objective (e.g., education) and subjective aspects of SES may differ in their influence on the substance use of adolescent immigrants. The present study examined whether the associations between subjective SES and substance use, and between parental education and substance use varied by immigrant generation. Data were derived from the 2011 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey, a representative survey of students in the 7th to 12th grade. The sample for this study consisted of 9177 students 12–19 years of age; 48.4 % were female, 66.4 % were White/European, 5.2 % Black/Afro-Caribbean, 16.4 % Asian and 12 % other. Results indicated that subjective SES was more strongly associated with cannabis and alcohol use among first-generation immigrants than among adolescents of other immigrant generations even after adjusting for parental education. First-generation immigrants with low subjective SES had a lower probability of cannabis and regular alcohol use, but there was no difference in use between immigrant generations at high subjective SES. The associations between parental education and cannabis and alcohol use did not significantly vary with immigrant generation. The findings highlight the importance of status beliefs among adolescents, particularly among first-generation immigrants, and suggest that further research attention to such beliefs would enhance our understanding of SES and its links to adolescent health risk behaviors.     

NOAA's Resurrection of Program Budgeting: Déjà Vu All Over Again?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration instituted a Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution System (PPBES) in 2002. As supplemented by matrix management, PPBES was appealing as an effort to rationalize the performance of an agency with an especially high degree of functional overlap among its component parts. Although PPBES has had some salutary effects, the agency's experience to date consistent with accounts of the difficulties that led to the abandonment of program budgeting by the civilian bureaucracy almost 40 years ago. As such, it speaks to the limits of performance assessment as a means of reallocating resources and responsibilities across organizational boundaries.     

The nuclear family: Correspondence in cognitive and affective reactions to the threat of nuclear war among older adolescents and their parents

In order to assess the relationship between family members' cognitive and affective responses to nuclear war issues, 317 college students and their parents (n=559) independently completed a multifaceted questionnaire that included items concerning personal reactions, predictions, opinions, and attitudes about nuclear war. Results revealed a negligible relationship between the responses of college students and their parents, although the level of concordance between mothers and fathers was somewhat greater. Moreover, parents and students were relatively poor at predicting each others' nuclear threat attitudes, and the strength with which an attitude was endorsed did not enhance its predictability. Results are discussed with regard to heterogeneity in attitudinal and affective reactions within families, and with regard to the idea that infrequent communication concerning nuclear war issues may be occurring.Portions of this article were presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, California, August 25, 1985.Interested in clinical and counseling psychology, the psychological effects of the threat of nuclear war, and parent training.Interested in counseling psychology, nuclear war issues, and the concept-specific measurement of emotionality.Interested in counseling psychology, nuclear war issues, and factors influencing custody decisions.     

Development of interest and enjoyment in adolescence. Part I. Attentional capacities

The first part of this two-part article argues that significant changes in both the capacity and the content of attention emerge in adolescence. Part I reviews evidence from behavioral and biological studies that the capacity for interested attention develops from late childhood into adolescence.     

The need for centres of health research excellence in the developing world

Pervasive ill health and overpopulation impede progress in most developing countries but in recent years, programs providing aid to these regions have de-emphasized health as a priority. Furthermore, support for building the health research capacity, so essential to the success of efforts to promote improved health, has been lacking. This paper examines these policies as they relate to one developing country, one global h ealth program and a major Canadian development agency. Much has been achieved in the past decade in one of the world's poorest countries, Bangladesh, but major health problems persist, particularly in maternal and child health. With the will to build effective health programs, Bangladesh lacks the resources and the research base needed for their development. The World Health Organization, (WHO) Diarrhoeal Disease Control (CDD) program, which addresses a major cause of child mortality in Bangladesh, promotes effective treatment but it contributes little to a permanent research establishment in that country. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) which directs only a small portion of its $2.2 billion annual budget to health, lacks an influential level of technical expertise in health. This agency has no mandate to support health research in the developing world; research is the responsibility of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Health Sciences Division of which closed in July, 1995. To upgrade the place of health and health research in development, the attitudes and policies of major donors must change and models of success are needed. Of the existing institutions or programs involved in health and health research in the developing world, the internationally funded health research centre, strategically sited in the developing world could provide the excellence around which relevant programs should flourish. An existing example of this rare species, the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, merits particular consideration in this regard.     

A multilevel comparison of child abusers with nonabusers

An integrative, ecological model developed by Belsky (1980) implies that to understand child abuse researchers must examine factors at four levels: the individual, the family, the environment, and the culture. This study compared abusive and nonabusive parents at three of these four levels. At the individual level, abusers were found to have lower self-esteem than controls. Also, male abusers were likely to be relatively impulsive and hostile. At the level of the family, abusers described their children as more troublesome than control parents, but they did not perceive them as developmentally delayed. At the level of the environment, abusers identified more intense life stressors than nonabusers. Results of this investigation supported Belsky's argument that child abuse involved multiple factors and levels.