Adolescents' Plans for Family Formation: Is Parental Socialization Important?

This study examines adolescents' plans for family formation (marriage and parenthood) and the congruence between their plans and their mothers' expectations and behaviors within these spheres. Using log‐linear and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models to analyze data from the National Survey of Children (N= 724 ), this study addresses mechanisms of family socialization (e.g., modeling and defining influence) informed by social learning and symbolic interactionist theories. It also reveals whether and how these mechanisms vary according to gender. Results reveal that family factors best predict children's plans, although peer groups also may be important. In addition, defining influence is stronger than modeling influence.     

An examination of relationships between children's protective services social worker assessment of risk and independent LONGSCAN measures of risk constructs

Risk assessment as a Child Protective Services (CPS) decision-making model has been implemented in the field since the late 1980s. Research activities on risk assessment have included comparative analyses, prioritization, classification studies, implementation, and cultural sensitivity analyses. In the last decade, the major research focus has been on studies related to predictive validity. Little research on risk assessment has focused on other types of construct validity, including convergent validity. Using data from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) and CPS investigation records, this study examined the correlations between CPS workers' ratings of risk on nine risk factors and independent measures of the same risk constructs collected by research interviewers. The data indicate significant correlations with caregiver risk factors such as physical/mental/emotional impairment, however there is little correlation with child risk factors associated with developmental or behavioral issues, or socio-economic factors such as stress and social support. Implications of the findings for policy and practice are discussed.     

Employability,Poverty and the Spheres of Sociability – Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey

Policymakers in the UK and beyond have sought to promote interventions to encourage social capital‐building among disadvantaged groups. One specific concern is that those with limited access to social capital/social network relationships will be at greater risk of experiencing both unemployment and poverty. By analyzing longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), we seek to identify significant relationships between poverty and the likelihood of entering employment, and different measures of ‘sociability’ and social isolation. Crucially, we discuss if and how measures of sociability/social isolation are associated with jobseekers' varying chances of exiting and re‐entering work and how this varies with their experience of poverty. These issues are important because if sociability impacts on the likelihood of entering employment from a state of worklessness, then policymakers need to understand how cycles of social and labour market exclusion are associated with the rates of entering employment in order to develop effective interventions to improve jobseekers' employability and combat poverty. Following an analysis of BHPS data, we identify lessons for policy for combating long‐term unemployment and promoting social inclusion.     

Heterosexual Anal Intercourse among Men in Long Beach,California

Anal intercourse poses a greater risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission than vaginal intercourse, and in recent years there has been a growing understanding that heterosexual anal intercourse (HAI) is not uncommon. However, the majority of the anal intercourse literature has focused on men who have sex with men. The little research on HAI has mostly looked at women, with limited work among men. This analysis examined the association between HAI and high-risk behaviors (N = 1,622) and sexual sensation seeking (N = 239) in a sample of men recruited from 2001 to 2012 in Long Beach, California. Almost half of the sample was non-Hispanic Black. The median age was 42 years, 42% were homeless, and 20% reported recent HAI. Men who reported HAI were likely to be Hispanic, were likely to be homeless, had a male partner, engaged in sex exchange, and used cocaine or amphetamines during sex. Men who reported HAI scored higher on the Sexual Sensation Seeking scale. This research supports other work showing the relationship between HAI and high-risk behaviors. More important, it contributes new knowledge by demonstrating the association between HAI and sexual sensation seeking. This research highlights the importance of personality traits when trying to understand sexual behavior and when developing HIV prevention interventions.     

Effecting change in local government: local authority chief executives as emotional actors

Most change management initiatives fail. Here, we explore data which emerged from a larger research study of local authority chief executives’ subjective experiences of New Labour’s modernisation programme and argue that the route to change so often taken by central government is detrimental to the successful embedding of change within local government because it ignores fundamental human reactions to coercion and control. We demonstrate that the seeds of failure are sown in the processes adopted as much as in the content of any programme of change. A contributory factor to such failures is the apparent reliance on the part of legislators that their policies and procedures will receive a neutral reaction. We show that the reality is that legislation is responded to and enacted by people who react in ways designed to defend their own positions, irrespective of the worth of those positions. Whether seen as actors in the policy implementation process, or as agents of change, chief executives act and react emotionally. This contributes to our theoretical understanding of the policy process and the practical application of change programmes. This article will be of interest to those in central and local government who are promoting or responding to change.     

Efficient Estimation of Data Combination Models by the Method of Auxiliary-to-Study Tilting (AST)

We propose a locally efficient estimator for a class of semiparametric data combination problems. A leading estimand in this class is the average treatment effect on the treated (ATT). Data combination problems are related to, but distinct from, the class of missing data problems with data missing at random (of which the average treatment effect (ATE) estimand is a special case). Our estimator also possesses a double robustness property. Our procedure may be used to efficiently estimate, among other objects, the ATT, the two-sample instrumental variables model (TSIV), counterfactual distributions, poverty maps, and semiparametric difference-in-differences. In an empirical application, we use our procedure to characterize residual Black–White wage inequality after flexibly controlling for “premarket” differences in measured cognitive achievement. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

Mother–infant Interaction Quality and Infants' Ability to Encode Actions as Goal‐directed

The current study investigated the relationship between mother–child interaction quality and infants' ability to interpret actions as goal‐directed at 7 months in a sample of 37 dyads. Interaction quality was assessed in a free play interaction using two distinct methods: one assessed the overall affective quality (emotional availability), and one focused on the mother's proclivity to treat her infant as an intentional agent (mind‐mindedness). Furthermore, infants' ability to interpret human actions as goal‐directed was assessed. Analyses revealed that only maternal emotional availability, and not maternal mind‐mindedness, was related to infants' goal‐encoding ability. This link remained stable even when controlling for child temperament, working memory, and maternal education. These findings provide first evidence that emotionally available caregiving promotes social‐cognitive development in preverbal infants.     

Unit training to increase support for military personnel with mental health problems

The present study examined the effectiveness of training designed to increase support toward military personnel with mental health problems. Soldiers from two Battalions (N?=?349) were randomly assigned by squad to receive the training (n?=?179) or to a survey-only control group (n?=?170). Soldiers completed survey assessments at baseline and three months later. Soldiers also completed an implicit association test assessing attitudes toward mental health treatment at the three-month follow-up. Results revealed that soldiers in the training condition reported an increase in supportive behaviours toward soldiers with mental health problems three months following the training, whereas there was no increase in soldiers assigned to the control group. Soldiers in the training condition were also marginally more likely to increase their own treatment seeking in the three months following the training. Discussion focuses on the importance of unit member support for military personnel with mental health problems and the implications for employees in other occupations characterised by the expectation for resilience.