Efficiency of Education: The Case in Eastern and South-Eastern Turkey

The efficiency of education in achieving the nationalgoals in East and Southeast Turkey (E&SE) has longbeen a subject of debate. Both regions are similar toeach other and different from the other regions interms of economy, culture, ethnic origin, andlanguages spoken. Separatist terrorist activities,economic decline, unemployment, and geographicaldispersion are some aspects of the problems in bothregions (Ergil, 1995; Özdag, 1995; RP, 1994; SHP,1990). The lack of teachers, especially in ruralschools, limited budgets, inequality in schooling andthe failure of schools in E&SE Anatolia wereidentified as the educational problems by manyauthorities and published in the report of the14^th National Education Council in 1993 (NEC,1993). In order to draw a conclusion concerning theefficiency of education in the E&SE, all sources ofinformation was studied and all related informationwas gathered and analyzed. This study is about theefficiency of education in the E&E and proposed thatilliteracy is significantly the highest in bothregions, female student population is significantlylower, and students are significantly less successfulin nationwide general proficiency examinations (OSSand OYS) compared to all the other regions. Theresults indicate inequality of educationalopportunity mainly originated from the negligence ofethnic, cultural and lingual existence of the peoplein both regions. The solution seems to lie in either the application or the type of democracy.     

人力资本对我国区域经济发展影响之实证研究

本文分析了我国的人口素质存量现状、各省时人力资源的利用效率以及净迁移率、人口年龄结构和人力资本等与人均GDP的关系。使用了横截面回归和1990年、2000年两次人口普查面板数据分析相结合的方法．研究发现：其一,人力资本教育投资发挥着重要效应,平均受教育年限对提高人均GDP有明显的促进作用。同时8年平均受教育年限是个基本分界点：其二,区域间存在较大的人力资本利用效率的差异,有10个省市人力资本利用效率较高．其中90％集中在东部地带。其三。人口迁移对人均GDP即经济效率的提高有显著性影响。文章呼吁重视9年义务教育、鼓励人口自由迁移和充分把握我国的人口机会窗口期。     

Homosexual Moral Acceptance and Social Tolerance: Are the Effects of Education Changing?

Using data from the General Social Survey, this research evaluates the effect of education on both the moral acceptance and social tolerance of homosexuality in America and how that effect has been changing. In terms of moral acceptance, it is shown through multivariate logistic regression that while education is associated with more liberal attitudes, it has not significantly influenced trends. In the second part of the analysis, these results are compared to a similar investigation of social tolerance. From this, it is seen that education has a stronger connection with tolerance, but its effect has been decreasing over time.     

高等教育与我国地区经济发展关系的实证研究——从人力资本存量的角度

本文从人力资本存量的角度考察了2004年我国高等教育与地区经济发展之间的关系。研究发现:(1)高等教育与当地经济发展存在高度正相关,但地理位置因素也会影响到其强弱。(2)高等教育对中部地区经济增长的促进作用最明显,京津及东部沿海地区次之,西部地区最低。(3)总体来看,高等教育对经济增长贡献仍然偏低。因此,应进一步加大高等教育投入,提高其对经济增长贡献。     

The effect of couples education on marital satisfaction in menopausal women

ABSTRACT

Inviting husbands to come to terms with women’s adaptation to the phenomenon of menopause is beneficial. The aim of this research was to uncover the effect of couples education on marital satisfaction. This study was performed on 80 menopausal women accompanied by their husbands. The intervention group received four sessions of couples education. The results showed that the mean increase in the rate of marital satisfaction after couples education in the intervention group was significantly higher than the control. Short-term couples education has a significant positive effect on marital satisfaction. Therefore, this counseling strategy can be integrated into health-care programs.     

A study of internal migration in England and Wales

Abstract The main trend in urban/rural migration is a continuous gain, in net terms, of towns from villages and large cities. But this is a result of two distinct migration streams associated with the process of family formation. While before marriage there is positive net migration from villages to both large cities and towns (and from large cities towards towns), after marriage there is a tendency for couples to move towards villages. This is explained by the desire of families, particularly those belonging to the middle class to move out of the urban centres to better accommodation in smaller communities. Considerable variations in migrations within and into regions are observed. These reflect the continuation oflong-term trends in internal migration (as described in Part I of this paper) in particular, population dispersal from Greater London and larger distance migration into the Southern and Eastern regions. Some social characteristics of migrants and non-migrants are compared. Associations between the intensity of internal migration on the one hand, and occupational status, education, social mobility and family size on the other are observed. An attempt is made to assess the extent of migration associated with the marriage process. Although this process increases mobility, its relative contribution to total adult mobility appears to be only slight.     

Life Satisfaction and Happiness in Turkey

This research aims to investigate life satisfaction and happiness in Turkey. It extends the previous researches on subjective well-being (SWB) for Turkey by considering both happiness and life satisfaction. The previous researches for Turkey are local studies, and their findings cannot be generalized to the population of Turkish society. Given these facts, the factors that shape individual happiness and life satisfaction amongst Turkish people are determined using a representative survey of sociocultural and political change, World Values Survey (WVS). Some results obtained in this study are similar to typical findings such as a negative age effect, positive influences of income and health status, and a negative effect of unemployment. Contrary to the expectations, middle education has a negative direct effect on life satisfaction among females, and the upper education level is insignificant in the life satisfaction model. By comparing the correlates of happiness and life satisfaction across different years, this research aims to provide insights for policy makers and professionals to improve the perceived lives of Turkish people.

Measuring Wellbeing in Developing Countries: The Case of Algeria

The International Wellbeing Index (IWI) has been developed as a complementary measure to already well-known economic measures, and as a tool for cross-cultural comparisons. It comprises two subscales: the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) and the National Wellbeing Index (NWI). The aims of this paper are two-fold. Firstly, to test the psychometric characteristics of the IWI. Secondly, to study how people of Algeria, a third world country that is yet suffering from a harsch economical and social situation, respond to questions dealing with their own lives and life in their country in general, compared to samples from more developed countries where wellbeing was previously measured. The IWI items were presented to individuals either in a questionnaire form to be self-rated or in interview sessions. The total of 1417 answers were analysed. As was expected, a very low satisfaction on both scales was found, compared to the results that were reported in countries, such as Australia or Hong Kong. Comparisons on the demographic characteristics basis show that women are significantly more satisfied than men with their personal lives, though no differences were found with regard to NWI. Eldest and youngest age groups rated the PWI significantly higher than other age groups. Education groups comparisons showed higher ratings on both subscales in favour of groups with no education and those with university levels. Marginal statistically significant differences were found with regard to the PWI in favour of the higher earning group, but no differences in the NWI. No statistically significant results were found as far as marital status, number of children, and income are concerned. The results add to the evidence of the usefulness of the scale to predict satisfaction of people with their own lives and life in their country. Its psychometric performance was proved to be very high in terms of validity, reliability and sensitivity. The results were interpreted on the light of the Homeostasis Theory and the particular situation of the Algerian society.     

Social Stratification and Consumption Patterns in Turkey

In this article, by analyzing consumption practices of Turkish households, I attempted to identify whether there are distinctions between different social classes in Turkey. Stated another way, I assessed and explored the impact of socio-economic forces on consumption patterns, taste and lifestyle. In doing so, I tested emprically, two theoretical approaches, Bourdieu’s “reproduction theory” and Giddens “class Structuration thesis”. A total of eight dependent variables are analyzed in terms of the linkages between those selected consumption items and social structure. In general, the emprical findings indicated that the intersection and reinforcement of social class variables, such as income, education, occupation, sector, and neighborhood differentiation, determined consumption patterns and lifestyle differences in Turkey.     

Psychosocial environments of black colleges: A theory-based assessment

Holland's theory of person environment interactions has considerable potential for helping to integrate environmental psychology with personality social psychology. This study applied measures based on his theory to the environments of black colleges. Compared to the U.S. labor force as a whole, blacks are over represented in social service careers and under represented in technical and managerial careers, and it is possible that the environments provided by black colleges may help cause or perpetuate this distribution of blacks among careers. Accordingly, the faculties of predominantly black colleges and of a representative sample of U.S. postsecondary institutions were classified in terms of Holland's six types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. Compared to U.S. colleges as a whole, the faculties of black colleges are relatively more concentrated in Social fields and relatively less concentrated in Realistic and Enterprising fields. Thus the environments of black colleges and universities resemble the distribution of blacks among careers. These results imply that efforts to improve black colleges might emphasize recruitment of faculty members in Realistic and Enterprising fields. Implifications for environmental psychologists working in other contexts are considered.Recently, a number of writers have pointed to a growing rapprochement between environmental psychology and the field of personality social psychology (Canter & Craik, 1981; Little 1983). This trend suggests that Holland's (1966a, 1985) theory of person environment interactions may have considerable utility for environmental psychology. This theory has received little attention from environmental psychologists, perhaps because it grows out of counseling and educational psychology and therefore is outside the experience of many environmental psychologists (Richards, 1974a). It offers major advantages, however, in that it explicitly views personality and environments in terms of a common conceptual framework, and that it predicts the consequences of personality environment interactions.One of the major applications of this theory has involved the assessment of the environments provided by institutions of higher education. More specifically, the theory has been applied successfully to two-year and four-year colleges and universities in the United States (Astin, 1963; Astin & Holland, 1961; Richards, Bulkeley, & Richards, 1972; Richards, Seligman, & Jones, 1970), to Japanese universities (Richards, 1973, 1975), and to universities in the British Commonwealth (Richards, 1974b, 1975). The present study used measures derived from the theory to compare the environments of black colleges and universities with the environments of U.S. colleges and universities in general.This comparison was deemed important because of the possibility that black colleges may be playing a role in causing or perpetuating an occupational distribution in which blacks are over represented in low status social service occupations (Hodge & Hodge, 1965; Treiman & Terrell, 1975) and under represented in technical and managerial occupations (Gottfredson, 1978a, 1978b). Colleges that are traditionally black have produced the majority of past black college college graduates and still appear to be the most important means of access to afour-year college education for blacks (National Advisory Committee on Black Higher Education and Black Colleges and Universities, 1979). At the same time, the distribution of students among majors in traditionally black institutions is generally consistent with the relative representation of blacks in different types of work (Morris, 1979).     

Regrets in Later Life

ABSTRACT

With the various options of life choices in the American culture and the great opportunity for choosing one's own path in life, there is also great opportunity for regretting paths taken and not taken. Information on regrets in later life was collected both qualitatively and quantitatively through interviews and mailed questionnaires from 140 retired individuals. Regret was measured using the Life Revision Index (LRI) (DeGenova, 1992) and the Regrets Self Inventory (Klein & Gotti, 1992). Both men and women reported they wish they would have pursued more education, but women had significantly higher regrets in this area. In general, the desire to have spent more time understanding the self and developing the mind and intellect was especially evident among women.     

Support Needs of the Survivors of the August 17, 1999 Earthquake in Turkey

This paper aims to present a sociological analysis of social supportrelated to disaster sociology in general and earthquakes specifically.The analysis is based on field research conducted a year after the17 August 1999 East Marmara Earthquake where 18000 people died;50000 people injured; 5000 buildings collapsed and 340000 of themdamaged; 14513 businesses closed; 150000 people became unemployed;and 129338 forced to live in prefabricated houses. The researchprimarily aims to understand the support needs by focusing mainlyon the following issues about the earthquake survivors: (i) whichand what support types and areas are mostly desired by them; (ii)which independent variables are the most effective on their demands;and (iii) from which persons or institutions they have receivedsupport and wanted to be supported by. Marginal development of thecivil society; high degree of expectations of almost everythingfrom the state; psychological factors being less influentialcompared with West and education being the primary influentialfactor are some of the significant results of this research.     

Exploring Perceived Discrimination Among LGBT Individuals in Turkey in Education,Employment, and Health Care: Results of an Online Survey

This article explores the discrimination practices encountered by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals in education, income, employment, and health care in Turkey. Limited quantitative data on LGBT individuals are available in Turkey. This study collected data from 2,875 LGBT individuals through a Web-based survey. The findings suggest that LGBT individuals report perceived direct and indirect discrimination in accessing education, employment, and health care. In a country where LGBT rights are not yet recognized and antidiscrimination legislation covering sexual orientation and gender identity is still nonexistent, findings demonstrate perceived discrimination of LGBTs rarely turns into a legal complaint. Even when they do, most LGBTs in our sample report that they did not feel that the justice system addressed their grievances.     

Assessing the efficiency of public education and pensions

Theory says that, in an overlapping-generations context, intergenerational transfer agreements are efficient if they induce equality between certain implicit rates of return. We apply this theory to the case of public education and pensions, where public education is interpreted as a loan from middle age to young, and pensions are the repayment of this loan, plus interest, from middle age to old. We use micro- and macrodata from Spain to estimate how far actual arrangements are from the normative goal. When demographic stationarity is assumed, efficiency appears reachable. When demographic change is accounted for, efficiency is far from being achieved. Nevertheless, and contrary to earlier predictions in the generational accounting literature, our findings suggest that future generations may not necessarily be worse off than current ones.      

中国人力资本空间分布差异的度量与分解

教育是人力资本形成的重要途径,本文在研究中国人力资本空间分布差异时,用平均受教育年限这一指标来表示人力资本的状况．并且运用了三种衡量人力资本空间分布差异的统计指数估算了我国人力资本空间分布的差异状况。通过对统计指数的分解．发现组内人力资本分布差异对人力资本空间分布总差异的贡献率远大于组间人力资本分布差异的贡献率;通过建立模型回归分析。发现省际间的教育经费差异对人力资本空间分布总差异的影响并不显著。这些结论对于我国今后人力资本政策的合理调整和科学规划有重要意义。     

养老金性别差异影响因素分析——以上海城镇“老人”为例

为了了解养老金性别差异的影响因素及各因素的影响程度,通过对2003年上海市老年人口状况与意愿跟踪调查原始数据的多元线性回归分析,本研究发现：．女性城镇“老人”在受教育年限、退休年龄和退休前职业等方面较男性城镇“老人”均处于劣势：不同特征女性城镇“老人”养老金整体上低于男性城镇“老人”：退休年龄和受教育年限对养老金的性别差异有较强的解释力;退休年份越晚,养老金的性别差异由退休年龄和受教育年限解释的比重越高。     

An examination of some mechanisms underlying externality benefits of girls' schooling

Evidence on the extent of low enrolment and late entry for a sample of rural households in Ethiopia is provided, and two potential sources of education externality benefits for school-age children, parental and neighbourhood education, are examined. The education of parents, most significantly mothers, is found to contribute to children's schooling, as does the education of neighbourhood women. The mechanisms by which such externalities may operate are considered by examining the effects of cognitive and non-cognitive outputs of schooling upon current school enrolment of children. Findings illustrate both the importance of girls' schooling and some challenges for education policy.

A Systematic Review of the Assessment of Quality of Life in Adolescents

This study examined how the quality of life (QoL) affects an individual’s disaster preparedness behavior (PB); furthermore, it also considered and examined the mediating effects of trust in government (GT) and the moderating effects of self-efficacy (SE). One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to test the differences in QoL, GT, SE, and PB, by socio-demographic, and the study hypotheses were verified by using hierarchical regression analysis based on 1682 samples. The Johnson–Neyman technique was used to test the conditional effects of SE on QoL and PB. All the hypotheses presented in this study were supported: (1) QoL had a positive effect on PB; (2) QoL had a positive effect on GT; (3) GT had a positive effect on PB; (4) GT mediated the relationship between QoL and PB; (5) SE moderated the relationship between QoL and PB. Specifically, when SE was high, the positive relationship between QoL and PB increased; (6) SE moderated the relationship between GT and PB. Specifically, when SE was high, the positive relationship between GT and PB increased; and (7) SE moderated the indirect effect of QoL on PB. Specifically, when SE was high, the mediating effect of GT on the relationship between QoL and PB increased. This study makes significant contributions in terms of identifying the mechanisms of QoL on PB based on the moderated mediation model. Improving individuals’ QoL is not only an important societal goal, but also an effective way to enhance people’s positive behavioral outcomes. Therefore, QoL improvement should be considered in the top-level design of government policies, and it should also be regarded as an important indicator of government performance assessment.

     

Measuring Access to Continuing Professional Education among the Health Workers in Ghana: Constructing an Index

To measure the levels of access to continuing professional education (CPE) among the health workers, an index (continuing professional education access index: CEAI) was constructed. The CEAI is composed of six indicators: (i) availability of CPE; (ii) distribution of CPE; (iii) informational access; (iv) geographical access; (v) economic access; and (vi) preparedness to release staff. When developing the equation of the CEAI, these six component indicators were weighted in accordance with the order of importance reported by the earlier studies. To test its validity, the CEAI was applied to the CPE status in three regions of Ghana. The results of this application revealed that there was greater discrepancies in the CEAI values according to the type of health facilities. The type of health facilities with the greatest CEAI (= 0.609) implying the best access to CPE was clinics while training/research institutes resulted in the lowest CEAI (= 0.447). Regional variation among the three regions was not significant. A simple linear regression between CEAI and adjusted number of CPE opportunities per health worker produced an extremely high conformity in the model (R² = 0.960). This may indicate the validity of the proposed CEAI model to the large extent.