Book reviews

Theory and Society -     

Catholic NGOs following the 1995 referendum on divorce in the Republic of Ireland

This article examines patterns of political, social, and economic change within the Republic of Ireland that led to passage of the 1995 Referendum of Divorce. It also looks at this policy's impact on public and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that provide court‐related services. Because the passing of the referendum is in many ways a reflection of the changing role of the Catholic church in public life, considerable attention is granted to the evolving nature of this institution, from policymaker to service provider. Implications include how Catholic NGOs partner with public institutions in providing services to families experiencing divorce.     

A longitudinal analysis of some risk and protective factors in marijuana use by adolescents receiving child welfare services

The present study sought to identify risk and protective factors in marijuana use by adolescents involved in child welfare services. Longitudinal records of 1797 adolescents were extracted from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being data set. The obtained multivariate results from generalized estimating equations showed that an adolescent's likelihood of being a current marijuana user rose with prior lifetime use of the drug and was also associated with out-of-home child welfare services, perceived parental monitoring, perceived closeness to parent, engagement with school environment, and age. Implications for child welfare services are discussed.     

Factor Structure and Convergent Validity of the Long and Abbreviated Versions of the Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale in an Italian Sample

We examined the psychometric characteristics of the long and abbreviated versions of the Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS) in the Italian contexts. In study 1 we assessed the factorial validity and reliability of the long and abbreviated versions of the MSLSS among Italian adolescents, while in study 2 we assessed the convergent validity of the abbreviated Italian version of the MSLSS by examining the associations between life satisfaction and well-established measures of adjustment. Furthermore, we explored the effect of adolescent gender and age on life satisfaction. Participants in the study 1 were 996 adolescents (48 % males) from 14 to 18 years of age (M = 16.06; SD = 1.51). Participants in study 2 were 380 adolescents (52 % males) from 14 to 19 years of age (M = 15.76; SD = 1.65). Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the hypothesized five-factor solution of the MSLSS, with a better goodness of fit for the abbreviated version of MSLSS. Moreover, indices of internal consistency revealed acceptable reliability coefficients across the five domains. Convergent validity was confirmed by the expected associations between the domains of the MSLSS and indexes of adjustment. Finally, results evidenced age differences, with oldest adolescents showing the highest levels of satisfaction on most of the domains.     

The future of gerontological social work: a case for structural lag

The US population is aging. Traditional perspectives have emphasized that a substantial increase in the number of gerontological social workers is needed to care for this population. However, published evidence demonstrates that, along with population growth, economic and social factors must be taken into account before predicting future gerontological social work demand. Structural lag theory is introduced to explain how these factors affect the profession and may limit its presence in gerontological work settings. Recommendations are made to correct the lag, allowing the social work profession a more substantive voice in the aging enterprise.     

Tests for properties of residual life

The lOOα -percentile (0 < α < 1) residual life function at time x is defined to be the lOOα -percentile of the remaining life given survival up to time x. Joe and Proschan (1982b) develop tests for testing the alternatives representing decreasing 100α-percentile residual life (DPRL-α ) and the property ‘new better than used with respect to the lOOα -percentile’ (NBUP-α ). In this paper, tests are developed for DPRL[α, l) and NBUP[α, l) alternatives, where DPRL[α, l) is the class of life distributions which are DPRL-β distributions for all a ≤ β < 1 if 0 ≤ α < 1 and for all 0 < β < 1 if α = 0, and NBUP[α, l) is similarly defined. When α = 0, the DPRL[α, l) class of life distributions corresponds to the increasing failure rate class and the NBUP[α, l) class of life distributions corresponds to the new better than used class, and the test statistics are respectively asymptotically equivalent to the Hollander and Proschan (1975) test statistics for decreasing mean residual life and new better than used in expectation alternatives.     

Noras on the road: family and marriage of lesbian women in Shanghai

During the past decade, we have witnessed the rise of Shanghai as a new metropolitan centre in China. The city has also become one of the most vibrant sites of lesbian community in the country. The author interviewed 20 lesbian women in the city in 2005. It is found that almost all of the women interviewed are experiencing the pressure of social conformity most severely from their immediate family, and the social expectation of marriage. In this paper, the author demonstrates the conflicts of family and marriage that many of the informants have encountered and how the hegemony of heterosexuality is still securely reproduced and carried out through the discourses of family and marriage in contemporary urban China, and finally, how the informants deal with the controls enacted by the institution of heterosexuality. doi:10.1300/ J155v10n03_06.     

The flower intersection problem for Kirkman triple systems

The flower at a point x in a Steiner triple system is the set of all triples containing x. Denote by I_R^*[r] the set of all integers k such that there exists a pair of KTS(2r+1) having k+r triples in common, r of them being the triples of a common flower. In this article we determine the set I_R^*[r] for any positive integer r≡1 (mod 3) (only nine cases are left undecided for r=7,13,16,19), and establish that I_R^*[r]=J[r] for r≡1 (mod 3) and r22 where J[r]={0,1,…,2r(r−1)/3−6,2r(r−1)/3−4,2r(r−1)/3}.