Multivariate multilevel analyses of examination results

Summary. In the study of examination results much interest centres on comparisons of curriculum subjects entered and the correlation between these at individual and institution level based on data where not every individual takes all subjects. Such `missing' data are not missing at random because individuals deliberately select subjects that they wish to study according to criteria that will be associated with their performance. In this paper we propose multivariate multilevel models for the analysis of such data, adjusting for such subject selection effects as well as for prior achievement. This then enables more appropriate institutional comparisons and correlation estimates. We analyse A- and AS-level results in different mathematics papers of 52 587 students from 2592 institutions in England in 1997. Although this paper is concerned largely with methodology, substantive findings emerge on the effects of gender, age, intakes of General Certificate of Education pupils, examination board and establishment type for A- and AS-level mathematics.     

Social Work Education and Clinical Learning: Yesterday,Today, and Tomorrow

Social Work Education and Clinical Learning by Simpson, Williams, and Segall is a welcome and timely statement about the nature of clinical social work and its implications for educational curricula. The authors took on an awesome task. Educating students for clinical practice is increasingly more daunting than it has been previously and is in considerable disarray, if not a state of crisis. In addition to amplifying and expanding some of the major points the authors make, this discussion considers where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. It describes the educational landscape today, which the author views as bleak with respect to its preparation of students for clinical social work practice. In keeping with clinical social work’s inclusive definition that encompasses a broad knowledge base, diverse practice roles, and a wide range of interventions, this discussion emphasizes the importance of numerous unifying themes that help to distinguish clinical social work from other approaches or from the use of a fragmented assemblage of techniques. The paper considers the role of evidence-based practice and makes some suggestions about future emphases in clinical social work. It concludes with a call to alter the educational landscape.     

Contrasts in Infant Classical Eyeblink Conditioning as a Function of Premature Birth

The impact of premature birth on associative learning was evaluated using simple delay eyeblink conditioning in which a tone conditional stimulus was paired with an air puff unconditional stimulus. Fourteen preterm (28–31 weeks gestation) and 11 full‐term infants completed at least 3 conditioning sessions, 1 week apart, at 5 months of age (corrected age). Preterm and full‐term groups demonstrated associative learning, as confirmed by comparison with an unpaired control group. Preterm infants, however, exhibited more variability in their learning rates. The majority of full‐term infants and half the preterm infants exhibited rapid acquisition and gradual extinction of conditional responding. A greater proportion of preterm than full‐term infants failed to acquire conditional responding within 2 training sessions. Differences in associative learning rates were not the result of differences in arousal or attentional processes. Diversity in acquisition rates exposed an increased risk for disrupted infant learning due to premature birth.     

Supportive Relationships as a Moderator of the Effects of Parent and Peer Drinking on Adolescent Drinking

The goal of this study was to explore whether supportiveness from a parent or a friend moderated the effects of the supportive person's drinking on the trajectory of adolescent alcohol abuse/dependence symptoms. High‐risk adolescents recruited from shelters and a matched sample of adolescents recruited from the sheltered adolescent's former neighborhood completed assessments at baseline, 6, 12, and 18 months. Measures included the Social Network Interview, assessing the drinking and supportiveness of everyone in the network. The alcohol module of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children was also administered. Hierarchical Linear Modeling identified predictors of the trajectory of alcohol symptoms of the 401 adolescents over 18 months. The results showed that the baseline levels of parental drinking predicted increased symptoms over time only for those with low parental support. In contrast, the baseline level of peer alcohol use predicted increased symptoms over time only for those with high peer support. The pattern of results did not differ for shelter youth compared to neighborhood controls.     

Perfectionism and binge drinking in Canadian students making the transition to university

Objective: In September 2005, the authors explored the relationship between perfectionism and binge drinking in a sample of first-year college students. Participants: The authors recruited 207 first-year college students (76 men, 131 women) to complete the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS) and Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (F-MPS). Methods: The authors divided participants into 3 groups on the basis of frequency of binge drinking and conducted multivariate analyses of variance to compare the binge drinking groups on the 3 MPS subscales and the 5 F-MPS subscales. Results: The group with 2 or more binge drinking episodes in the past 2 weeks had higher levels of parental criticism and lower levels of self-oriented perfectionism, but they did not have lower scores on a measure of personal standards. Conclusions: These findings suggest that certain perfectionists binge drink in response to harsh parental treatment and that, at least initially, the pursuit of extreme standards of personal perfection is incompatible with binge drinking. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.     

Cancer Risk Estimation for Mixtures of Coal Tars

Two-year chronic bioassays were conducted by using B6C3F1 female mice fed several concentrations of two different mixtures of coal tars from manufactured gas waste sites or benzo(a)pyrene (BaP). The purpose of the study was to obtain estimates of cancer potency of coal tar mixtures, by using conventional regulatory methods, for use in manufactured gas waste site remediation. A secondary purpose was to investigate the validity of using the concentration of a single potent carcinogen, in this case benzo(a)pyrene, to estimate the relative risk for a coal tar mixture. The study has shown that BaP dominates the cancer risk when its concentration is greater than 6,300 ppm in the coal tar mixture. In this case the most sensitive tissue site is the forestomach. Using low-dose linear extrapolation, the lifetime cancer risk for humans is estimated to be: Risk < 1.03 × 10⁻⁴ (ppm coal tar in total diet) + 240 × 10⁻⁴ (ppm BaP in total diet), based on forestomach tumors. If the BaP concentration in the coal tar mixture is less than 6,300 ppm, the more likely case, then lung tumors provide the largest estimated upper limit of risk, Risk < 2.55 × 10⁻⁴ (ppm coal tar in total diet), with no contribution of BaP to lung tumors. The upper limit of the cancer potency (slope factor) for lifetime oral exposure to benzo(a)pyrene is 1.2 × 10⁻³ per μg per kg body weight per day from this Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) study compared with the current value of 7.3 × 10⁻³ per μg per kg body weight per day listed in the U.S. EPA Integrated Risk Information System.     

What is clinical social work? looking back to move ahead

This paper traces the evolution of the concept of clinical social work and looks at where we are and where we are headed as clinical social workers. It reaffirms the view that clinical social workers intervene with clients presenting the full range of problems in a variety of facilities and in private practice and must draw on a broad knowledge base within a person-situation perspective and address the special needs of culturally diverse and oppressed populations. The paper also considers the move toward legal regulation, the role of private practice, the need for clinical doctoral education, the importance of new models for clinical research, and the significance of advocacy for a broad range of services to clients.     

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL FAMILY THERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF SCHIZOPHRENIC DISORDERS

A review of the literature on family psychoeducational interventions in schizophrenic disorders revealed two generations of studies. The first generation compared the clinical efficacy of psychoeducational family treatments and medication to medication only or routine care. A second generation of studies used more complex experimental designs that often narrowed the differences between the experimental treatment and comparison conditions. The results of the first generation of studies are unequivocal in demonstrating the superiority of family intervention plus medication over medication alone in delaying psychotic relapses. The second-generation studies had more equivocal results; they suggest that the efficacy of family intervention as an adjunct to medication in schizophrenia is in part a function of the type and format of the intervention being delivered, the treatment setting, and other variables.