RELATIVE SPOUSAL STATUS AND CHILD HEALTH IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: The Case of Ghana

This research examines the relationship between gender relations and decisions regarding child health and investigates the hypothesis that, in sub-Saharan Africa, the health of children is hampered by low levels of female autonomy. Using data from Ghana's 1988 Demographic and Health Survey, the findings provide no support for a gender relations theory, suggesting that the relative power of spouses may not be as relevant in health and mortality decisions as it is in fertility.     

(IM)MIGRATION RESEARCH IN ITALY: A European Comparative Perspective

This article analyzes research on (im)migration in Italy since the early 1980s until the present as compared to research in other European receiving countries. Two periods are singled out. In the 1980s, the need to make sense of the dramatic Italian U-turn from an emigration to an immigration country prevails. Since the mid-1990s, some trends toward convergence emerge, following a number of theoretical and methodological challenges arising from North American research. Whereas for sociologist and anthropologist much of the debate is on social networks and transnationalism, in political science the gradual emerging of a policy approach to migration studies can be pointed out. However, despite the consolidating research infrastructure, there are still open questions and gaps in contemporary research on migration in Italy, for instance, second-generations, immigrants' associational and political participation, and last but not least, the impact of the European Union on Italian immigration and immigrant policy as well as policy making.     

Communicative Openness Within Adoptive Families: Adoptive Parents' Narrative Accounts of the Challenges of Adoption Talk and the Approaches Used to Manage These Challenges

Policy and practice relating to openness in adoption have changed substantially in the last 30 years. There is a growing body of empirical research that supports both structural and communicative openness, and there is widespread consensus that communicative openness is desirable within adoptive families. Despite this, there is evidence that some adoptive parents and their adopted children struggle to achieve the level of communicative openness to which they aspire. This paper presents data from a small-scale exploratory study of adoptive family life. It draws on the narrative accounts of adoptive mothers and fathers to explore some of the sensitivities of adoption talk, the communication challenges experienced by adoptive parents, and the ways that adopters manage these challenges. Finally, some suggestions are made for practice.     

Internationalist Challenges: Antiglobalisation,Occupy, and Indignados

Subaltern classes' internationalism has a long history. The 1990s and first decade of the twenty-first century saw the rise of a new internationalism because of the emergence of the antiglobalisation movement. It was a short-lived movement, but that gave birth to a new set of strong internationalist activity. In 2011, there emerged a new international wave of protest by both the Indignados and the Occupy movements. These new movements, however, have developed relatively low levels of cross-border activity compared to the antiglobalisation movement, although it has brought a new internationalist drive.     

On Finding the C in CBT: The Challenges of Applying Gambling-Related Cognitive Approaches to Video-Gaming

Many similarities have been drawn between the activities of gambling and video-gaming. Both are repetitive activities with intermittent reinforcement, decision-making opportunities, and elements of risk-taking. As a result, it might be tempting to believe that cognitive strategies that are used to treat problem gambling might also be applied to problematic video gaming. In this paper, we argue that many cognitive approaches to gambling that typically involve a focus on erroneous beliefs about probabilities and randomness are not readily applicable to video gaming. Instead, we encourage a focus on other clusters of cognitions that relate to: (a) the salience and over-valuing of gaming rewards, experiences, and identities, (b) maladaptive and inflexible rules about behaviour, (c) the use of video-gaming to maintain self-esteem, and (d) video-gaming for social status and recognition. This theoretical discussion is advanced as a starting point for the development of more refined cognitive treatment approaches for problematic video gaming.     

Female Hitchhiking: Strain,Control, and Subcultural Approaches

Abstract

Racial attitudes of school teachers, school administrators, other professionals, and general occupational groups are examined using data from six national samples gathered as part of the General Social Survey between 1972 and 1977 by the National Opinion Research Center (N = 9210). Respondents' attitudes were measured on the following topics: open housing, programs to integrate housing, interracial marriage, interracial social relations, segregated schools, busing, and explanations for the Blacks' inferior jobs, income, and housing. The results indicate that in areas of interpersonal relations and housing, teachers and educators do harbor prejudicial attitudes; however, educators are comparable to other professionals regarding these attitudes and less prejudiced than laborers, farmers, clerical workers, craftsmen, managers, and administrators. Within the teaching profession, kindergarten and elementary teachers appear slightly more racially prejudiced than secondary school teachers. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

COLONIALISM,AMERICANIZATION, AND INDIGENOUS IDENTITY: A RESEARCH NOTE ON CHAMORRO IDENTITY IN GUAM

ABSTRACT

This study explores baseline dimensions of identity among Chamorros in Guam, as a case in point of indigenous identity consciousness, in the context of U.S. colonialism, territorial relations, and Americanization. Despite the adverse effects of colonization and Americanization pressures, ethnographic findings suggest that Chamorros are conscious of their indigenous identity with respect to reference-group interaction, political awareness, cultural attitudes, and self-identification. Implications of these preliminary findings for future research on this understudied topic and population are discussed.     

Infant Learning: Historical,Conceptual, and Methodological Challenges

Acquiring knowledge about the underlying structures of the environment presents a number of challenges for a naive learner. These challenges include the absence of reinforcement to guide learning, the presence of numerous information sources from which only a select few are relevant, and the uncertainty about when an underlying structure may have undergone a change. A crucial implication of these challenges is that the naive learner must make implicit decisions about when to generalize to novel inputs and when to restrict generalization because there are multiple underlying structures. An historical perspective on these challenges is presented, and some potential solutions are proposed.     

INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS ON PRODUCT STANDARDS UNDER CONSUMPTION EXTERNALITIES: NATIONAL TREATMENT VERSUS MUTUAL RECOGNITION

This paper provides a comparative analysis of product standards agreements between heterogeneous countries. A simple model of vertical standards is developed where countries have heterogeneous preferences for a negative or positive consumption externality. I compare two major types of standards agreements, those based on national treatment (NT) and mutual recognition (MR). Unlike NT, MR can induce a mismatch of standards between countries, a problem that tends to get worse as country preferences diverge. Due to this mismatch problem, NT tends to become relatively more welfare‐enhancing than MR for countries with more dissimilar preferences. These findings explain why the World Trade Organization, the Trans‐Pacific Partnership, and the European Union choose different types of standards agreements. The paper also sheds new light on the desirability of international harmonization of product standards. (JEL F13, F18, O24)     

THE OPTIMAL GOVERNMENT SIZE: FURTHER INTERNATIONAL EVIDENCE ON THE PRODUCTIVITY OF GOVERNMENT SERVICES

This paper estimates the optimal government size for several sets of economies by investigating the role of public services in the production process. I assume government services are optimally provided when their marginal product equals unity (the "Barro rule"). The empirical results suggest: (1) government services are significantly productive; (2) they are overprovided in Africa, underprovided in Asia, and optimally provided everywhere else; (3) the optimal government size is 23 percent for the average country but ranges from 14 percent for the average OECD country to 33 percent in South America; and (4) the marginal productivity of government services is negatively related to government size.