The nature of the association between parental rejection and delinquent behavior

A panel design with approximately 300 adolescents was employed to investigate the relationship between parental rejection and delinquency. Previous studies have failed to control for potentially confounding family factors and have ignored the possibility that the causal priority is from delinquency to parental rejection, rather than the reverse. Parental rejection continued to show a moderate association with delinquency after relevant controls were introduced. The results were the same across sexes. LISREL was employed to estimate the parameters of the reciprocal relationship between parental rejection and delinquency. Analysis indicated that the predominant causal flow is from parental rejection to delinquency.Research interests: the etiology of adolescent depression, substance abuse, and delinquency; identification of factors which influence parenting practices.Research interests: the causes, treatment, and prevention of adolescent depression and substance abuse.Research interests: causes of adolescent and adult substance abuse; antecedents, and consequences of domestic violence.     

Waste,weapons, and resolve: Defense posture and politics in the defense budget

The defense budget poses many problems to the student of budgetary behavior and its ever-changing structure makes it difficult to identify patterns and trends in allocation. This study examines defense budget requests from the Eisenhower through the Reagan administrations. An analysis of changes in allocation to the 54 appropriation categories suggests that the defense budget responds to new doctrines and management introduced by each administration. Shifts in allocation among the services are greatest in the first two budgets of an administration and reversals of previous program priorities also occur early in each administration. After three or four budget requests, year-to-year continuity in allocation to winners and losers finally begins to emerge. Two other findings also shed light on the politics of defense budgeting. First, the degree of variation in allocation is least when the defense budget increase is large. Second, low presidential popularity leads to less variation. The identification of such trends should permit future budget requests to be evaluated in the context of the long-term evolution of defense politics.     

Dynamic selection effects in means‐tested,urban school voucher programs

Much of the controversy surrounding school vouchers, and privatization schemes generally, stems from concerns about social stratification. This paper identifies the form and magnitude of selection effects in a means‐tested New York City voucher program. It compares students who applied for vouchers, with the eligible population of public‐school students; those who initially used vouchers, with those who declined them; and those who remained in private schools, with those who eventually returned to public schools. Differences along the lines of ethnicity, residential mobility, mother's education, and income are observed. In addition, specific aspects of a child's education—parental satisfaction, school uniform requirements, and larger class sizes—all increased the length of time voucher students remained in private schools. Throughout the program's life span, however, the largest and most consistent effects revolved around families' religious identity and practices. © 2004 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.