Ethnic preferences and perceptions among Asian and White British middle school children

Asian and White middle school children were shown photographs of unknown Afro-Caribbean, Asian, and White individuals of approximately the same age as themselves, and asked which one wax most like them, which one they would prefer to be, which ones they would prefer to engage in various activities with, and finally, to allocate positive and negative traits to the three groups or to nobody. A similar majority of both Asian and While children selected an own-race photograph as being most like them, but only about a half selected the own-race photograph as the one they would most like to he. For sharing activities, children showed a strong own-tender preference, followed by an own-race preference. White children stated a greater preference for sharing activities with White children, then with Afro-Caribbean children, and least with Asian children. Asian children preferred Asian and White children the most, Afro-Caribbean the least. On a stereotypes test, similar trends were obtained; White children evaluated While children highest and Asian lowest; Asian children tended to evaluate Asian children highest but to a nonsignificant extent. The relative proportion of Asian/White children in school appeared to have little systematic influence on the results, thus arguing against the contact hypothesis of prejudice reduction in its simple form.     

PREDICTING MARITAL SUCCESS FOR PREMARITAL COUPLE TYPES BASED ON PREPARE

Recent studies have shown that group differences in marital stability and satisfaction can be predicted based on premarital relationship quality. There is also a growing literature indicating that there are distinct types of relationships, both premaritally and developmentally over time. This study examined the relationship between the four premarital types (Vitalized, Harmonious, Traditional, and Conflicted) identified by Fowers and Olson (1992) and relationship outcome over a 3-year period with 393 couples. A substantial relationship was found, with conflicted couples being the most likely to separate or divorce. Vitalized couples had the highest levels of satisfaction, followed by Harmonious, Traditional, and Conflicted couples. Traditional couples were less likely to have divorced than Harmonious couples, even though Harmonious couples had higher premarital relationship satisfaction scores.     

Scheduling Updates of Probabilistic Risk Assessments: The Arkansas Nuclear One-Unit 1 Experience

This paper presents the results of a study that identified how often a probabilistic risk assessment (PRA)should be updated to accommodate the changes that take place at nuclear power plants. Based on a 7-year analysis of design and procedural changes at one plant, we consider 5 years to be the maximum interval for updating PRAs. This conclusion is preliminary because it is based on the review of changes that occurred at a single plant, and it addresses only PRAs that involve a Level 1 analysis (i.e., a PRA including calculation of core damage frequency only). Nevertheless, this conclusion indicates that maintaining a useful PRA requires periodic updating efforts. However, the need for this periodic update stems only partly from the number of changes that can be expected to take place at nuclear power plants–changes that individually have only a moderate to minor impact on the PRA, but whose combined impact is substantial and necessitates a PRA update. Additionally, a comparison of two generations of PRAs performed about 5 years apart indicates that PRAs must be periodically updated to reflect the evolution of PRA methods. The most desirable updating interval depends on these two technical considerations as well as the cost of updating the PRA. (Cost considerations, however, were beyond the scope of this study.)     

Toward a formal theory of interactive resocialization: The case of adoptive parenthood

Resocialization is pulled out of its structuralist roots and recast into an interactionist framework. Building on a substantive theory of the resocialization experience of becoming an adoptive parent, three theoretical properties of interactionist resocialization are presented. These can be summarized as involving unlearning and relearning some aspects of a core identity; the interpretation and active reconstruction of that identity which has reciprocal effects on all actors involved; and finally, the effects of both situational and trans-situational norms that give shape to the resocialization experience. Suggestions are made for other substantive areas of research that could be used for comparative analysis in order to further refine a formal theory of interactionist resocialization.     

Comparison of three estimators of the number of species

We consider estimation of the number of cells in a multinomial distribution. This is one version of the species problem: there are many applications, such as the estimation of the number of unobserved species of animals; estimation of vocabulary size, etc. We describe the results of a simulation comparison of three principal frequent-ist' procedures for estimating the number of cells (or species). The first procedure postulates a functional form for the cell probabilities; the second procedure approxi mates the distribution of the probabilities by a parametric probability density function; and the third procedure is based on an estimate of the sample coverage, i.e. the sum of the probabilities of the observed cells. Among the procedures studied, we find that the third (non-parametric) method is globally preferable; the second (functional parametric) method cannot be recommended; and that, when based on the inverse Gaussian density, the first method is competitive in some cases with the third method. We also discuss Sichel's recent generalized inverse Gaussian-based procedure which, with some refine ment, promises to perform at least as well as the non-parametric method in all cases.     

HIV-infected woman. Illness cognition assessment.

1. Special attention is particularly important in addressing the mental health needs of HIV-infected women. These needs may involve issues such as concerns about present or future pregnancy; child-rearing, often as single parents; poverty, illicit drug use or addiction; and the potential lack of support services. 2. Diagnosis of HIV infection in women may be overlooked, as the clinical signs that routinely trigger the suspicion of HIV illness in men are often interpreted to reflect depression or psychological factors, such as stress or overwork, rather than raise the suspicion of HIV infection in women. 3. Understanding a woman's illness cognition is an important component of designing strategies that can enhance coping. The picture a woman generates regarding her illness is a composite of her experiences and responses, and determines to a large extent what she will do in response to her illness.     

Gender-specific changes in students' sexual behaviors and attitudes at a southeastern university between 1973 and 1988.

This study investigated the gender-specific, self-reported sexual behaviors and attitudes of never-married college students attending a southeastern university in 1973 and 1988. Data were collected by means of a mailed questionnaire that remained essentially unchanged for both years. The authors found that both men and women reported an increase in heterosexual relationships that included sexual intercourse and a decrease in nonsexual relationships with the other gender. The majority of the students perceived themselves as adequately informed about sexuality and satisfied with their relationships, although the proportion of men who reported being satisfied with their relationships declined over the 15 years. The students indicated that sexuality education should focus primarily on information about AIDS and on preparation for marriage.     

The effect of 1980s tort reform legislation on general liability and medical malpractice insurance

A large number of states adopted tort reforms in the mid-1980s to limit the dramatic surge in insurance losses and premiums. Evidence based on liability insurance data by state indicates that these reforms substantially influenced general liability insurance. The levels of losses, premiums, and loss ratios (a measure of insurance profitability) all reflected the impact of the reforms. The large-scale reform efforts in 1986 were particularly influential. Medical malpractice insurance was much less sensitive to the reform efforts.