Mediators of depression among low-income,adolescent mothers of infants: A longitudinal perspective

The purpose of this study was to identify, using a life events perspective, Stressors and resources that mediate depression for adolescent mothers at the time of the birth of their child and at one year postpartum. The data for this study consisted of interviews with 157 low-income adolescent mothers age 12–18 at the birth of their child. They were selected from a larger prospective study of mothers of infants and stress. Multiple regression analyses revealed two key results that were consistent for the data obtained at birth and at one year postpartum. Predictors of depressive symptomatology and of a clinical syndrome of depression were similar. Also, Stressors generally were more important as mediators of depression than resources.Received Ph.D. in child and family studies from the University of Tennessee. Current research interests are adolescent stress and coping and marital dissolution.Received DrPH from Harvard University. Current research interests are the role of stress and social support in the etiology of child maltreatment, adaptation and coping in families with children who have birth defects, and incarcerated mothers and their children.Received M.D. from Stanford University and M.P.H. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Current research interests include stress and social support, etiology of child maltreatment, injury prevention, prenatal care, and infectious disease in day care.Received Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in Biostatistics. Current research interests include applications of survival analysis and analysis of observational data.The data for this paper were part of a larger study funded by Grant No. MCJ370521 awarded by the Bureau of Health Care Delivery and Assistance (now the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health and Resources Development). Data analysis was funded by an Innovative Research Award from the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Partial support from NIMH Center Grant (MH33127): Biostatistics Core for M. J. Symons is gratefully acknowledged.     

Delinquent behaviors and male adolescent development: A preliminary study

Commonly identified developmental tasks of male adolescence were examined for their relationship to delinquent behavior during adolescence among a general sample of 11-to 18-year-old males (N=337). Evaluations of the prevalence and mean level of delinquent acts across the age groups confirms previous suggestions that delinquent behavior follows the adolescent years quite closely. Measures of three primary developmental domains—family relations, social relations, and educational/vocational orientations—were taken and correlated with delinquent behavior across three substages of adolescence. The patterns of correlations suggest there is support for the view that a substantial portion of delinquent behavior is tied to struggles with adolescent development tasks.This work was conducted while the author was a Clinical Research Training Fellow in Adolescence (funded by T32 MH 14668) at the Institute for Psychosomatic and Psychiatric Research and Training, Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, in a program also sponsored by the Departments of Behavioral Science and Psychiatry, University of Chicago and the Adolescent Program of the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute. It is based, in part, on a presentation made at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, August 1985.Dr. Tolan received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Tennessee in 1983. Primary research interests are delinquency, prevention, and families.     

Theorizing about public expenditure decision-making: (as) if wishes were horses ...

There have been several attempts to compare different approaches to modelling public expenditure decision-making. This paper is an extended comment on one such attempt: Fred Thompson and Richard Williams, A Horse Race Around a Möbius Strip: A Review and a Test of Utility Maximizing and Organizational-Process Models of Public Expenditure Decisions. In a commentary mode, we: (a) examine why tests of the sort that Thompson and Williams offer are neither definitive in choosing between models nor very useful in improving models; (b) outline a more meaningful test procedure; and (c) offer a somewhat more critical view than Thompson and Williams of the utility-maximizing approach to modelling public expenditure decisions.A comment on Fred Thompson and Richard Williams, A Horse Race Around a Möbius Strip: A Review and A Test of Utility-Maximizing and Organizational-Process Models of Public Expenditure Decisions, in this issue of Policy Sciences.     

Preventive detention and execution

In a series of cases decided over the past decade, the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that laws providing for both preventive detention and preventive execution do not violate Constitutional guarantees. Preventive detention and preventive execution share a common method and goal: Determine which individuals pose a threat to society and then remove those persons from society (i.e., incarcerate them) or-if they have also been convicted of first degree murder-execute them. In each of these cases, the Court has been presented with behavioral science data indicating that most predictions of dangerousness-anywhere from 51% to 95%-prove to be wrong. This article describes the relevant data and the Court's response to those data, then considers why the Court has responded as it has, what the Court's response may mean with regard to the future role of behavioral science data in Constitutional litigation regarding the rights of those accused or convicted of crimes, and what, if anything, behavioral scientists might do to enhance the utility and influence of empirical data in such litigation.     

Protecting Individual Rights Through a Federal System: James Buchanan's View of Federalism

James Buchanan is a Nobel Prize winning economist and the founderof the public choice movement in economics. Public Choice playeda critical role in underpinning conservative attacks on thewelfare state in the 1980s and 1990s in the United States. Asa committed supporter of free markets and strong skeptic oflarge governments, Buchanan has long supported the use of federalismto protect individual liberty, promote democratic efficiency,and help foster community values. This article reviews Buchanan'sresearch on the advantages of a federal system.