Age, Health and the Willingness to Pay for Mortality Risk Reductions: A Contingent Valuation Survey of Ontario Residents

We present the results of a contingent valuation survey eliciting willingness to pay (WTP) for mortality risk reductions. The survey was self-administered using a computer by 930 persons in Hamilton Ontario aged 40 to 75. Visual and audio aides were used to enhance risk comprehension. Mean WTP figures for a contemporaneous risk reduction imply a value of a statistical life of approximately C$l.2 to C$3.8 million (1999 C$). Mean WTP is constant with age up to 70 years, and is about 30 percent lower for persons aged 70 and older. WTP is unaffected by physical health status, but is affected by mental health.     

The process of friendship formation

This paper poses two questions about the process of friendship formation: what is the relative stability of asymmetric and mutual friendship dyads and what is the nature of change in asymmetric dyads over time? These questions are examined in longitudinal sociometric data from five elementary classes. Change in friendship choices is shown to be at least partially embeddable as a continuous time, stationary Markov process and the unique Q matrices governing the process are determined. The findings show that unreciprocated friendship choices of the children in the sample are less stable than reciprocated choices and that their unreciprocated choices tend to be withdrawn rather than reciprocated over time.     

From Consensus to Division: Tracing the Ideological Divide Among American Catholic Women, 1950–1980

This article examines the changing images of womanhood within two American Catholic publications: Catholic Mind and Catholic Digest. In the early 1950s, the periodicals had similar constructions of women, with a divergence in thought in the 1960s. Catholic Mind wrote very little on women for the majority of the decade. Catholic Digest in the 1960s featured women who worked in traditionally male roles while they also maintained that women’s primary sphere was in the home. The difference between the two publications becomes stark in the 1970s. Catholic Digest leaned conservative to mainstream and focused on women’s roles in home and secular society without asking ecclesial questions. Catholic Mind’s articles on women primarily examined ecclesial roles (e.g., women’s ordination) and demanded equality in the secular world. This fissure in female identity among American Catholics coincides with the political divide in the United States more generally.     

Integrating Relational Perspectives in Career Counseling Practice

Sweeping changes in the world of work are transforming the very fabric of career counseling practice as clients cope increasingly with work uncertainty, including unemployment, underemployment, and precarious work. The authors describe how relational perspectives (Blustein, 2011 ; Flum 2015 ; Richardson, 2012 ; Schultheiss, 2003 ) can be infused in career counseling, with a focus on the concerns of an increasingly stressed and anxious client population. To provide a framework for the application of relational perspectives, the authors integrate and present existing relational theories and frameworks in 4 tenets that have particular relevance for career counseling practice. An in‐depth case analysis is provided to illustrate how relational perspectives can be integrated in working with clients experiencing uncertain work and associated relational challenges.     

Introduction to the Special Issue: Mothers of children in foster care

This article introduces the special issue of Children and Youth Services Review devoted to single mothers with children in foster care. It delineates the policy context in which mothers are operating; examines reasons for mothers' temporary loss of custody of their children, a loss that occurs when their children are placed in foster care; presents expectations of mothers once they enter the public child welfare system; and summarizes empirical and theoretical papers included in the volume intended to advance policy and practice for this population. Taken together, these papers reflect one over-arching theme—the need to re-orient child welfare policy and practice so that the rehabilitation, health, and well-being of mothers is one of the central aims.     

The Adjustment of Long Term Homeless Youth

This study investigated self image, depression, hopelessness and locus of control in 30 adolescents who had lived away from home for at least six months, together with relationships between maladjustment and poor experiences at home and at school prior to leaving home. Comparisons were made with 120 adolescents living at home who were employed, unemployed, at school or at tertiary institutions. It was found that the homeless youth were more depressed and hopeless, with poorer self image than all groups excepting unemployed adolescents. Maladjustment was correlated with negative home and school experiences. These results are discussed in terms of the debate between psychological and sociological approaches to runaway behaviour, as well as the need for assessment and treatment services to be provided for long term homeless youth.