EFFECTS OF SKILL-BASED VERSUS INFORMATION-BASED DIVORCE EDUCATION PROGRAMS ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND PARENTAL COMMUNICATION

This study used a pre- and postevaluation with a control group to compare the effectiveness of two divorce education programs: skill-based Children in the Middle (CIM) and informationbased Children First in Divorce (CFD). Each treatment group consisted of approximately 125 divorcing parents mandated to attend divorce education in Florida. The control group consisted of 64 divorcing parents not mandated to attend divorce education in Alabama for lack of a program. Treatment and control parents lived in comparable cities with comparable demographics. Results indicate that CIM, not CFD, improved parental communication. Both CIM and CFD reduced child exposure to parental conflict. Neither program had effects on domestic violence, actual parental conflict, or child behavior problems. Across all groups, parents with greater divorce knowledge and communication skills experienced more reciprocal discussions with the other parent, less parental conflict, less domestic violence, and they exposed children to less conflict.     

Interdisciplinary synthesis

One of the most significant features of scientific advance has been the gradual concrescence of previously distinct theories, methods, disciplines and cognitive modes. Proponents of the conception that the policy sciences should comprise a rationally structured supradiscipline rightly emphasize the desirability of accelerating this slow process of intellectual unification. However, this enterprise continues to be obstructed by failure to realize that interdisciplinary principles sufficient to generate a legitimate unification of scientific and humane concerns of the policy sciences can issue only from philosophical reconstruction. A normative (value-sensitive) mode of general systems analysis adequate to the demands of adaptive social-institutional systems must constitute an epochal modification of the conventional perspective of scientific inquiry.Under the assumption that the magnitude of the task will not dissuade us from the aim of establishing interdisciplinary principles, attention is concentrated here on a factorization of the specific metatheoretic projects that are thought to be entailed: (1) selection of primitive concepts and commitments of a system-theoretic mode of rational inquiry, and (2) institution of an attending set of rational canons for normative systems analysis.This article is based on material to be published in a forthcoming volume,Toward Revitalization of the Contemporary University: Essays Utilizing General Systems and Cybernetic Concepts to Reorient Universities for Greater Social and Human Relevance in the Modern World, edited by R. F. Ericson, Director, Interdisciplinary Systems and Cybernetics Project, Program of Policy Studies in Science and Technology, George Washington University (Gordon and Breach: New York, 1972). Material for this article derives from one element of a program of methodological research for management science conducted with support of The Office of Naval Research, Contract No. N00014-70-C-0328, at Research Analysis Corporation, McLean, Virginia. The conclusions expressed, however, are those of the authors alone. They should not be interpreted as representing the official views of any supporting organization.     

Why should disclosure rules subsidize informed traders?

This article justifies the existence of disclosure provisions as part of the securities laws. Securities prices may deviate from the securities' underlying values due to “irrationalities.” Market efficiency (i.e., the accuracy of securities' prices) materializes through the trading of investors who observe and attempt to profit from these inefficiencies. The danger of false prices deters the corrective trading of these “informed traders”. This article argues that disclosure rules provide them with costless information, essentially subsidizing their activity. The cost of this subsidy is borne by the corporation, i.e., all shareholders, of which informed traders are only a fraction. Long-term shareholders would not subsidize efficiency absent disclosure rules because, they do not trade, and they do not reap the benefits of accurate prices. This subsidy fosters short-term uninformed shareholdings and, thus, increases trading volume and capital market liquidity.     

Developments in juvenile justice during the decade of the 70s: Juvenile detention facilities

A number of important developments in juvenile justice during the decade of the 70s are identified. Data were obtained from a sample of juvenile detention facilities in the late 1960s and again, from the same sample, in the late 1970s. The data obtained included the perceived purpose of detention, information concerning the detainees and personnel, and procedural and program information. The two sets of data were compared to determine whether the developments in the juvenile justice system were reflected in the detention segment of the system.