A Curriculum for Graduate-Level Marriage and Family Therapy Education*

The Delphi technique of refining group opinion was used to develop a graduate level marriage and family therapy curriculum. Opinions were synthesized from a national panel of 20 AAMFT Approved Supervisors and 25 training directors of graduate-level marriage and family therapy programs. Three rounds of questionnaires were employed and 101 content areas met the criteria for inclusion into the final curriculum. Discussed are the similarities and differences of this curriculum and the current “model” AAMFT curriculum. It is hoped that the curriculum devised from this study will lead to the continued rethinking, refinement, and evolution of marriage and family therapy education.     

Clustering of Microarray data via Clique Partitioning

Microarrays are repositories of gene expression data that hold tremendous potential for new understanding, leading to advances in functional genomics and molecular biology. Cluster analysis (CA) is an early step in the exploration of such data that is useful for purposes of data reduction, exposing hidden patterns, and the generation of hypotheses regarding the relationship between genes and phenotypes. In this paper we present a new model for the clique partitioning problem and illustrate how it can be used to perform cluster analysis in this setting.     

An alternative to the kolmogorov-smirnov test for goodness of fit

A test is proposed which requires a better fit in the extremes of a distribution than the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for H₀. not to be rejected. Critical values are calculated for sample sizes up to 100, and approximate critical values are found for larger samples. The power of the test is obtained for a number of distributions, and it is shown that the test is more powerful than some existing tests for a wide range of cases     

PARTICIPATORY EVALUATION RESEARCH: AN INTRODUCTION FOR FAMILY THERAPISTS

Participatory evaluation research empowers the consumers of services to become leaders in evaluation and change. Participatory research methods have been used widely in developing countries and are consistent with family therapy's recent emphasis on non-hierarchical, empowering, collaborative therapies. In this paper, the authors present several examples of participatory evaluation methods and discuss their applicability to the work of family therapists.     

Work Attitudes,Work Conditions and Hours Constraints: An Explorative,Cross‐national Analysis

In this paper, individuals’ desire to work more or less than they actually do (hours constraints) is analysed in nine OECD countries using data from the 1989 International Social Survey Program (ISSP). Our results show that hours constraints deviate substantially from country to country. However, in all countries, the proportion of individuals wanting to work more (and earn more) than they actually do is larger than the fraction of workers wanting to work less (and earn less). Socio‐economic and demographic characteristics, work attitudes, and work conditions have a significant effect on hours constraints.     

Optimizing the “demographic dividend” in young developing countries: The role of contractual savings and insurance for financing education

Many developing regions are facing a youth bulge, meaning that young people comprise the highest proportion of the population. These regions are at risk of losing what could be a tremendous opportunity for economic growth and development if they do not capitalize on this young and economically productive population, also referred to as the “demographic dividend,” defined as the increase in economic growth that tends to follow increases in the ratio of the working‐age population – essentially the labor force – to dependents. Nations undergoing this population transition have the opportunity to capitalize on the demographic dividend if the right social, economic, and human capital policies are in place. In particular, Sub‐Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and North Africa are at risk of losing the demographic dividend. These regions face high youth unemployment, low primary school completion, and low secondary school enrollment. This results in an undereducated and unskilled segment of the population. The prohibitive costs of education prevent young people from finishing school, thereby entering the labor market unprepared. This article presents a case for youth‐focused financial inclusion programs as one of the antidotes to the masses of poor, undereducated, and low‐skilled young people swelling the labor markets of poor developing countries.