Working with Parents of Exceptional Children: The Need for More Careful Thought and More Positive Action

The majority of studies relating to families of handicapped children emphasise the negative emotions of the parents, particularly initial shock followed by guilt, chronic sorrow and anxiety. Rarely have these studies relied on the parents' assessments of their own reactions. As a consequence of this, there is little recognition in the relevant literature of either the wide range of parental reaction or the successful and satisfying adjustments which many parents make. A second important limitation in these studies is the absence of a theoretical framework either to test the occasional contradictions that can occur or arising out of the findings themselves.

As an alternative approach, it is suggested that a theoretical position could be developed from the concept of need recognising that the needs of the parents are distinct from those of their handicapped child, although usually consistent with them. An analysis of the research literature (Burden, 1981) has already identified five areas of need-the need for information, support, advice, access to resources and opportunities for social interaction.

It is recognised that the concept of need is a necessary but insufficient basis for an adequate theory. The notion of support coinciding with the parents' reaction to transitions in the child's life is offered as an additional factor in the family's successful adjustment. Three other variables are cited as affecting parental adjustment-individual differences in resistance to stress; the extent and nature of the child's disability and the tolerance of the community to that particular disability. In developing this theoretical framework, reference is made to some of the practical problems associated with the implementation of professional services.     

Do davis-bacon minimum wages raise product quality?

The Davis-Bacon Act requires labor on most federally financed construction projects to be paid a minimum wage, often equal to the union wage. Since contractors are apt to employ higher quality labor at this higher wage, Davis-Bacon supporters argue that higher quality output will result. Contrary to this reasoning, our paper shows that a Davis-Bacon type rule need not improve output quality. The switch to higher quality labor, combined with a competitive bidding process, produces an important possibility of perverse output quality results from Davis-Bacon.     

Discrepancies in Perceived Organizational Control: their Incidence and Importance in Local Churches*

The effects of discrepancies between preferred and perceived control among church members are investigated in terms of amount and distribution of control. For each dimension of control, three categories of respondents are identified: those who preferred a greater amount or wider distribution of control than they perceived to exist within their churches (deficit); those whose preferred and perceived control scores were identical (balance); and those who preferred a lesser amount or more concentrated distribution of control in their churches than they perceived to exist (surplus). For both amount and distribution of control, a perceived deficit is more common than a surplus. Respondents experiencing discrepancies in either direction are more dissatisfied and alienated than those with a balance in desired and perceived organizational control. A deficit is associated with more dissatisfaction (but not necessarily more alienation) than a surplus. Subsample comparisons show these findings hold for both officers and non-officers. Regression analyses show that discrepancies regarding organizational control are important even after other aspects of control have been introduced.     

Recent migration from Ontario to Atlantic Canada: a comparison of returning and non-return migrants

Parmi les gens qui chaque année quittent les provinces atlantiques pour l'Ontario, certains y demeurent et d'autres retournent dans leur province d'origine. C'est cette migration du retour, de l'Ontario vers les Maritimes, qui est étudiée ici à partir des données du recensement de 1981, pour la période allant de 1976 à 1981. Entre les deux groupes de migrants — ceux qui restent en Ontario et ceux qui retournent — des différences importantes existent: différences socio-démographiques et différences relatives aux types d'emploi détenus. En appliquant le modèle analytique de l'emploi marginal aux situations d'emploi de ces migrants interprovinciaux, nous montrons que ceux et celles qui retournent dans les provinces atlantiques se retrouvent de façon disproportionnée dans les industries traditionnelles de la région: la pêche et les industries qui s' y rattachent. La migration interprovinciale est un phénomène complexe et, bien que le recensement soit une source précieuse de données sur les migrants, sa compréhension requiert des types de données qui échappent au recensement; d'autres sources, qui ont prise sur des dimensions plus subjectives du phénomène migratoire, doivent être mises à profit. An analysis of 1981 Canadian Census data on recent migration (between 1976 and 1981) from Ontario to Atlantic Canada reveals some important socio-demographic and employment differences between broadly defined groups of ‘return’ and ‘non-return’ migrants. Application of the Marginal Work World Model (Clairmont and Wien, 1974) to the employment outcomes of recent interprovincial migrants clearly illustrates that returning migrants of both sexes are found in greater proportions in marginal, more traditional Atlantic Canada industries (such as fishing and the related fish products industry). While the Canadian Census is a particularly useful data source for constructing a statistical profile of the dominant characteristics of recent returning and non-returning migrants, it provides a limited picture of the complex phenomenon of internal migration. Hence, it     

Distribution of multivariate quadratic forms under certain covariance structures

Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for the covariance structure of all the observations in a multivariate factorial experiment under which certain multivariate quadratic forms are independent and distributed as a constant times a Wishart. It is also shown that exact multivariate test statistics can be formed for certain covariance structures of the observations when the assumption of equal covariance matrices for each normal population is relaxed. A characterization is given for the dependency structure between random vectors in which the sample mean and sample covariance matrix have certain properties.     

Portfolio analysis in practice

Much has been written about the theory of portfolio management and the consultant's approach to its use. This article describes a practical example of the implementation of the technique by a management without the assistance of external consultants. It shows how the technique was adapted and extended to meet the needs of the company. It further describes how the practical problems encountered during implementation led to the development of a system that provided strategically important data both for staff and operating management in a relatively digestible format.     

Growing Up a Little Faster: The Experience of Growing Up in a Single-Parent Household

On the basis of interviews with single parents, and with adolescent children living with single parents, a theory of the structure and functioning of single-parent households is proposed. The premise of this theory is that the two-parent household maintains a hierarchy—an echelon structure—that the one-parent household can forgo. The absence of hierarchy permits the single parent who works full time to share managerial responsibility for the household with the children. The consequences for the children may be a fostering of an early maturity.     

A specification of marital fertility by parents’ age,age atmarriage and marital duration

The positive association between wife's age at marriage and fertility experienced at the older reproductive ages, cited in recent natural fertility literature, is explored using Mormon birth cohorts from 1840 to 1879. When this relationship is specified by husband's age at marriage and marriage duration, the results indicate that older-aged husbands depress marital fertility only at higher marriage durations. The general decomposition of age-specific fertility utilizing both mother's and father's age is also considered. The results show that mother's aging is the most important factor, while father's aging has a moderately negative effect under a natural fertility regime.     

Sondages et savoir sociologiques

During the last decades, the survey method became of major importance to sociological research and gave rise to significant strides in social science, especially in fostering the working up of increasingly precise and sophisticated techniques of measurement. Nevertheless, one question, preliminary to any formal or quantitative analysis of a survey's outcomes, should be further examined: that of the very nature of what is actually gathered or investigated in sociological surveys. After sketching some of the main historical roots of the survey method, this paper addresses itself to this latter issue and discusses the meaning and limits of the sociological knowledge derived from scientific surveys.
Depuis quelques décennies, la méthode du sondage scientifique a pris une importance grandissante dans la recheiche sociologique; cette méthode a, en outre, permis d'importants progres des sciences sociales et nécessité l'élaboration d'instruments et de techniques de mesure de plus en plus raffinés. Après avoir rappelé les principales racines historiques de cette méthode d'investigation des phénomènes sociaux, cet article pose la question, préalable à toute formalisation et à toute analyse des résultats, de la nature même des objets susceptibles d'être appréhendés par une telle méthode. II cherche ainsi à déterminer la valeur et les limites du savoir sociologique généréà I'aide des sondages scientifiques.