A model-based evaluation of a cultural mediator outreach program for HIV+ Ethiopian immigrants in Israel

This article presents a model-based evaluation of a program designed to reduce HIV transmission from HIV-infected Ethiopian immigrants in Israel. Rather than rely on self-reported variables such as condom use, this study's approach focuses on pregnancy rate reduction, estimated from administrative periodic reporting data, as a measure of unprotected sexual exposure. The models show that among both HIV+ women and the female sex partners of HIV+ men, the ongoing pregnancy rates estimated during the intervention were significantly lower than the estimated baseline pregnancy rates, suggesting reductions in unprotected sexual exposures among those participating in the program.     

Family life in children's books

Books play an important role in the socialization of children. In order to understand the images of families presented to children, a sample of best-selling and award-winning children's books was analyzed. Sixty-seven Caldecott and Newbery award winners were selected. Some diversity in family structure was presented in the books. However, none of the black families was a one-parent household, and the image of one-parent households was overwhelmingly negative. Family roles, including the division of household work and paid employment, were depicted traditionally. Presentations of the homemaker role and parent-child relationships are described.A version of this paper was presented at the Society for the Study of Social Problems annual meetings in Toronto, Canada, August, 1981. I wish to think William Aho, Pamela Irving Jackson, Rita Seiden Miller and Albert Ullman for helpful comments on earlier drafts.     

The Role of the Facilitator in Couple Relationship Education

While much of the Couple Relationship Education (CRE) research has focused on participant factors, unexpectedly little research has considered how characteristics of those providing the programming shape its efficacy. The current study draws upon a diverse sample of 225 couples who received CRE from community educators to examine how facilitation alliance is related to relationship outcomes for men and women and whether having a facilitator with similar demographic characteristics is related to the alliance. Results suggest that the facilitation alliance is related to some—though not all—postprogram outcomes and these effects were uniform across gender and relationship status (married vs. unmarried). Having a facilitator of the same gender was associated with a stronger alliance. Implications are discussed.     

The Cyber Worlds of Self‐Injurers: Deviant Communities,Relationships, and Selves

We explore how self‐injurers, a group of deviants who primarily were loners, now use the Internet to form subcultural and collegial relations. Drawing on virtual participant‐observation in cyber self‐injury groups, over eighty face‐to‐face and telephone in‐depth interviews, and over ten thousand e‐mail postings to groups and bulletin boards, we describe and analyze the online subcultures of self‐injurers. Via the Web, they have become cyber “colleagues,” simultaneously enacting two deviant organizational forms and challenging the idea that deviant loners can exist in a cyber society. We further analyze these individuals and their interactions to compare and contrast the venues that they use, the communities and relationships that they form, and their relation to real life. We contribute to symbolic interactionism through our social constructionist stance toward the creation of virtual communities and relationships, our focus on identity and stigma, our view of social organization as grounded in the panoply of human interpersonal relationships, our contrast of the competing reality claims posed by virtual as opposed to the solid world, and our discussion of the modern versus postmodern self.     

Congregational Political Activity and Same‐Sex Marriage: Social Movement Theory and Evidence for Contextual Influence

We interpret three strands of social movement theory (social threat, opportunity structure, and resource mobilization) to understand religious congregations' political activity related to same‐sex marriage. Using a unique, national data set from the 2008 presidential election, we show the importance of the anti‐same‐sex marriage discursive opportunity structure (DOS) for facilitating, and occasionally constraining, congregational political activity. Other theoretical factors influence congregations under limited, although important, conditions. Our research develops a nuanced understanding of congregations' roles in social movements that prioritize institutionalized political activity and expands DOS theory in relation to local religious organizations.     

On exact strong laws of large numbers for ratios of random variables and their applications

Abstract

We study the almost sure convergence of weighted sums of ratios of independent random variables satisfying some general, mild conditions. The obtained results are applied to exact laws for order statistics. An exact law for independent random variables which are nonidentically distributed is also proved and applied to ratios of adjacent order statistics for a sample of uniformly distributed random variables.     

EAST-WEST DIFFERENCES IN ATTITUDES ABOUT EMPLOYMENT AND FAMILY IN GERMANY

This article examines East-West differences in attitudes toward the traditional gender division of labor among German women and men, using data from the 1991 German Social Survey (ALLBUS). We test hypotheses about the effects of region and gender, and the interaction of both, in shaping gender-role attitudes. The results indicate that the combination of region and gender produces (1) a similar gender gap in attitudes in both regions, with women in East and West voicing stronger opposition to traditional gender roles than their male counterparts and (2) regional differences in attitudes, with East Germans more likely than West Germans to oppose a gender-based division of labor. Thus, this study shows that although state socialism was successful in fostering more progressive attitudes among East Germans, especially women, it did not eliminate the gender gap in attitudes about gender, work, and family.     

Computerizing the welfare state

Although computer technology is central to the operation of the modern welfare state, there has been little analysis of its role or of the factors shaping the way in which it is used. Using data generated by expert informants from 13 OECD countries, this paper provides an indicative comparison of the aims of computerization in national social security systems over a 15-year period from 1985 to 2000. The paper seeks to identify and explain patterns in the data and outlines and examines four hypotheses. Building on social constructivist accounts of technology, the first three hypotheses attribute variations in the aims of computerization to different welfare state regimes, forms of capitalism, and structures of public administration. The fourth hypothesis, which plays down the importance of social factors, assumes that computerization is adopted as a means of improving operational efficiency and generating expenditure savings. The findings suggest that, in all 13 countries, computerization was adopted in the expectation that it would lead to increased productivity and higher standards of performance, thus providing most support for the fourth hypothesis. However, variations between countries suggest that the sociopolitical values associated with different welfare state regimes have also had some effect in shaping the ways in which computer technology has been used in national social security systems.