An Epidemiologic Note on Verification Bias: Implications for Estimation of Rates

Two-stage designs offer several advantages for purposes of test validation and prevalence estimation. These include enhanced precision and increased cost-efficiency. Cost efficiency is obtained when the best available verification criterion is too expensive to employ in a large-scale epidemiologic study. The use of two-stage (or double-sampling) designs permit the same inferences from application to only a subset of those who were screened (with the less expensive criterion) during stage one. The retesting of only some of the first stage respondents introduces a bias, however, if these are sampled on the basis of first stage screening results. The form of this bias is described and solutions for correcting estimates are provided. These solutions are applied to the data reported by Abbott and Volberg (1996) in their study of the New Zealand general population. Corrected estimates of the sensitivity and specificity of the South Oaks Gambling Screen are obtained and used to adjust the reported lifetime and current prevalence estimates. The value of multi-stage designs for validity assessment and prevalence estimation are briefly described.     

A Note on "Nonviolence is Two"

The conscientious and pragmatic forms of nonviolence are discussed as sanctioning strategies adapted to different phases in the development of a social movement. Some general factors affecting the evolution of a movement's relations with its institutional environment are also considered.     

LCSW Examination Pass Rates: Implications for Social Work Education

State licensure pass rates are a commonly used indicator of professional academic program quality. To date, social work education has largely ignored the existence of the crucial LCSW examination and of its importance to MSW graduates seeking careers in clinical practice. This information should become more transparent and carefully considered by MSW faculty and administrators when evaluating the effectiveness of one’s program in preparing its graduates for careers in clinical practice. Three years worth of LCSW examination pass rate data are provided for MSW programs within the state of Florida, illustrating the value of this heretofore hidden information. The implications of providing this data to the public are discussed.     

Incentives for Increasing Return Rates: Magnitude Levels, Response Bias, amd Format

The use of monetary incentives has been shown to significantlyincrease response rate. However, previous investigations haverarely investigated the effects of incentives greater than $1,compared different magnitudes of incentives, or investigatedresponse bias due to incentives. The current study also investigatedthe utility of an Answer Check. Results suggest that monetaryincentives increase response rate, larger incentives do notnecessarily further increase survey response, incentives donot appear to bias responses, and the Answer Check does notfacilitate response rate.     

An Integral Approach to Mental Health Recovery: Implications for Social Work

The term recovery has become increasingly popular in the area of mental health care. Recently, it has been described by policy makers as the guiding vision for transforming the mental health system. Problematic, however, is that a lack of clarity continues to exist regarding how recovery is to be defined. Definitional attempts often appear to have competing opinions about what the concept exactly stands for. This causes confusion for both professionals and consumers desiring to adopt a recovery approach. Ken Wilber's integral theory is presented as a framework for organizing and connecting various viewpoints related to the “recovery” concept. Implications for social work are discussed.     

Assessing Bias in the Estimation of Causal Effects: Rosenbaum Bounds on Matching Estimators and Instrumental Variables Estimation with Imperfect Instruments

Propensity score matching provides an estimate of the effect of a "treatment" variable on an outcome variable that is largely free of bias arising from an association between treatment status and observable variables. However, matching methods are not robust against "hidden bias" arising from unobserved variables that simultaneously affect assignment to treatment and the outcome variable. One strategy for addressing this problem is the Rosenbaum bounds approach, which allows the analyst to determine how strongly an unmeasured confounding variable must affect selection into treatment in order to undermine the conclusions about causal effects from a matching analysis. Instrumental variables (IV) estimation provides an alternative strategy for the estimation of causal effects, but the method typically reduces the precision of the estimate and has an additional source of uncertainty that derives from the untestable nature of the assumptions of the IV approach. A method of assessing this additional uncertainty is proposed so that the total uncertainty of the IV approach can be compared with the Rosenbaum bounds approach to uncertainty using matching methods. Because the approaches rely on different information and different assumptions, they provide complementary information about causal relationships. The approach is illustrated via an analysis of the impact of unemployment insurance on the timing of reemployment, the postunemployment wage, and the probability of relocation, using data from several panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).     

Civic Returns to Higher Education: A Note on Heterogeneous Effects

American educational leaders and philosophers have long valued schooling for its role in preparing the nation's youth to be civically engaged citizens. Numerous studies have found a positive relationship between education and subsequent civic participation. However, little is known about possible variation in effects by selection into higher education, a critical omission considering education's expressed role as a key mechanism for integrating disadvantaged individuals into civic life. I disaggregate effects and examine whether civic returns to higher education are largest for disadvantaged low likelihood or advantaged high likelihood college goers. I find evidence for significant effect heterogeneity: civic returns to college are greatest among individuals who have a low likelihood for college completion. Returns decrease as the propensity for college increases.     

Putting the Logos to Work: A Reply to Meyer

Abstract

Journalist Janet Malcolm recently published several articles and a book in which she accused her own profession of manipulation and deceit in its listening and interviewing practices. Specifically, she focused on the Jeffrey MacDonald murder case, on which Joe McGinniss' book, Fatal Vision, was based. McGinniss, she claimed, fostered a close and seemingly empathic relationship with the accused in order to betray him later—and in this event Malcolm saw the prototypical journalist-interviewee relationship. Her accusations about the role of journalism raised intense professional scrutiny. This essay examines the case from the standpoint of journalistic listening. Are the temptations for deceptive or “slanted” empathy inherent in the journalistic interview? Does the journalist have a responsibility not only to listen to the person being interviewed, but to “listen” equally well to the demands of a developing story—as if it, too, were a living entity? Do ethical standards within journalism demand that an interviewer's listening style, especially as it is seen in empathic behavior, be congruent with his or her unexpressed conclusions?     

A Dialectic Technological Science Perspective: Reply to Bell

Abstract Bell's (1995) critique of our discussion of a technological science perspective for sociology is a helpful effort to maintain a balance between our emphasis on agency and creativity and on the constraining side of society. We emphasize agency as part of a dialectic between human effort and societal resistance for three reasons. First, it forces reconceptualization of the nature of the science of sociology by shifting from a positivist mode to one that is pragmatic. The meaning of scientific findings changes. Second, agency has been ignored historically while constraint has been over-emphasized. We seek to establish a balance by reentering the notion of agency into sociological discourse. Third, agency is a mechanism for modifying constraints and solving the problems associated with social technologies. In the closing paragraphs of the reply, we suggest that the view under discussion be seen as an ethical pragmatism. Agency forces us to ethical questions and a pragmatic understanding of science.     

A Note on Police Response to the Female Complainant

Police treatment of domestic violence has generated considerable debate between feminists and the police. Feminists attribute the low arrest rate in domestic assaults to sexist attitudes about the marriage relationship and the credibility of female complainants. Conversely, police explain failure to arrest by noting that criminal law precludes warrantless misdemeanor arrests (the most frequent type of assault) uless the crime was committed in an officer's presence. This research analyzes police treatment of domestic assaults. It is based on an examination of police reports from three jurisdictions. Additionally, survey data on police perceptions of female complainants in domestic assaults and the effect of such perceptions on self-reported police treatment of these assaults is also presented. The results indicate a discrepancy between the actually handling of reported domestic assaults and the respondents' verbal reconstructions of their behavior in such cases. The data demonstrate partial support for the contentions of both groups.