Targeting Federal Grants: The Community Development Experience, 1950-1986

This article examines the degree to which federal communityand economic development programs target federal assistanceto the nation's neediest communities. Grant allocations to citieswith populations of 50,000 or more were examined for six majorfederal urban programs during 1950–1986. Federal programsthat include both needs-based eligibility and allocational featureswere found to achieve the highest levels of targeting. The analysisfurther shows that while urban conditions in the nation's mostdistressed cities continued to deteriorate during the 1980sin both relative and absolute terms, grant allocations underthe major federal urban program, Community Development BlockGrants, have not responded to the changing incidence of urbanhardship.     

BALANCING AUTONOMY AND CAPACITY IN COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS: THE DILEMMA OF OFFICIAL RECOGNITION AND SUPPORT FOR NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATIONS

Community organization helps relatively powerless groups improve their political bargaining position by increasing the stability. persistence, and standing of the group… But… community organizations of relatively powerless groups remain constrained by their need to secure resources and develop incentives to attract constituents. For the most part, those may be acquired only through interactions requiring compromises of group independence and goals.     

The Relationship between Life Satisfaction,Social Interest,and Frequency of Extracurricular Activities among Adolescent Students

The relationship between life satisfaction, social interest, and participation in extracurricular activities was assessed among adolescent students. A total of 321 high school adolescents (Grades 9–12) were administered a multidimensional measure of life satisfaction and a scale that assessed social interest. Adolescents were also asked to list the number of extracurricular activities that they participated in since their enrollment in high school. Higher social interest was significantly related to higher levels of overall satisfaction, as well as satisfaction with friends and family. Significant race differences were noted. Adolescents who participated in greater numbers of structured extracurricular activities reported higher school satisfaction. The relationship between social interest and actual participation in extracurricular activities was negligible. Implications of these findings, as well as suggestions for future research are provided.     

Sexual victimization and health-risk behaviors: a prospective analysis of college women

The present study utilizes the National College Health Risk Behavior Survey to examine the relationship between health-risk behaviors and sexual victimization among a sample of college women. A prospective design is utilized to examine the relationship between health-risk behaviors as measured at baseline and sexual victimization during a 3-month follow-up period. After controlling for age and parents' education, a history of adolescent sexual victimization was associated with the following health-risk behaviors as measured at pretest: increased likelihood of cigarette smoking, marijuana use, suicidal ideation, experience of physical violence within a dating relationship, use of diet pills and vomiting or laxatives to lose weight, multiple sexual partners, and early sexual intercourse. Prospectively, women's history of adolescent sexual victimization was the strongest predictor of sexual victimization during the 3-month follow-up. Implications of univariate associations between early sexual intercourse, suicidal ideation, and problematic weight loss behaviors and subsequent experience of sexual victimization are discussed.