Relational and Overt Aggression in Childhood and Adolescence: Clarifying Mean‐level Gender Differences and Associations with Peer Acceptance

Research on relational aggression has drawn attention to how girls may be likely to aggress, but the role of gender is not fully understood. There are opposing views regarding whether relational aggression is most common among girls. Current findings demonstrate that when gender differences in relational aggression are assessed with peer nominations, gender differences favoring girls are more likely: (1) in adolescence than childhood; and (2) when statistical overlap with overt aggression is controlled. Results also indicated that associations of relational aggression with peer acceptance depend on the aggressor's gender, the peer rater's gender, and whether overlap with overt aggression is controlled. Associations of relational aggression with lower acceptance became non‐significant when overt aggression was controlled, suggesting that relational aggression displayed in isolation may not damage acceptance. In fact, in mid‐adolescence, girls’ relational aggression predicted greater liking by boys. Reducing relational aggression among adolescent girls may be especially challenging if the behavior is linked with acceptance by boys.     

Heuristic methods for the analysis of managerial problems

Problem analysis is a critical element of managerial problem solving that has not been included in or explicated by traditional stage models of the process. This paper argues that an analysis stage is needed to develop the implications of a problem's definition and to direct the selection and pursuit of solution strategies. Problem analysis is a beuristic activity. The paper explains and applies seven heuristic methods of analysis to a classic management case, generating a richer understanding and broader set of solution alternatives. Strategies for future research on problem analysis are discussed.     

Integrating Theory and Research on the Institutional Determinants of Fertility

This article links recent conceptual theories regarding the determinants of fertility with research designs appropriate for testing those theories. The most important causal factors in these theories--typically social or cultural institutions, occasionally emergent properties of the collective behavior of individuals--are properly conceptualized at the macro level. Research designs must therefore feature variation at this level and are at a minimum comparative. Noncomparative micro-level research designs will be misspecified from the standpoint of theory. A case is also made for continuing to incorporate the observation of individual-level behavior into any comprehensive research design. A focus on macro determinants of fertility does not imply that fertility outcomes are determined at the institutional level. Instead, there remains some process whereby systemic properties are translated into individual behaviors. Recommendations for comparative community-level studies are discussed. The multilevel analysis framework is reviewed as a paradigm for the conceptual features of cross-contextual analysis.     

On Robust Analysis of a Normal Location Parameter

Pericchi and Smith considered a normal location parameter problem with double-exponential and Student t prior distributions. These two prior distributions both belong to the class of scale mixtures of normal distributions and are useful in providing a robust analysis of the normal location parameter problem. In this paper we extend the analysis to other scale mixtures of normal distributions, such as the exponential power and the symmetric stable distributions.     

“I've been independent for so damn long!”: Independence, masculinity and aging in a help seeking context

This paper draws on semi-structured interviews conducted with 36 older men to examine how older men's understandings of independence relate to their help seeking behaviours and health service use. We argue that discourses of masculinity and successful aging are both represented in men's talk about independence. Recognising that these discourses are intertwined is important for understanding how older men seek help and use health services. We outline the practice and policy implications of viewing older men's help seeking behaviours in this way, and how it might be useful for promoting older men's health.     

Back to Normal: Gender and Disaster

Our earlier studies of Hurricane Andrew focused on the destruction of everyday life during the crisis itself and the reconstruction of a taken-for-granted world during the recovery period; this paper examines the significance of gender in these processes. The abrupt loss of taken-for-granted reality occasioned by the storm involved only a slight and momentary disruption of gender roles. The resilience of these roles can be understood only if gender is seen as a property of social organization that shapes not only interactional expectations and pressures, but also cultural and institutional processes, as well as bodily experiences.     

Value added

Strategic Giving: The Art and Science of Philanthropy, by Peter Frumkin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. 458 pp., $39.00 cloth.