Settlement assistance and intermarriage for immigrants to Canada

Canada initiated a points‐based admission system in 1967 to select immigrants, regardless of racial or ethnic origin, who were most likely to prosper economically and assimilate into the host society. If the points‐based admission system achieved its goal of selecting ‘assimilable ‘ immigrants, those persons admitted under the policy should be just as likely to marry outside of their nationality group as within it. Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Economic and Social Adaptation of Immigrants to Life in Canada, multinomial logistic regression models of spousal choice were estimated for the 3,984 respondents who were single upon arrival in Canada. Nominated immigrants (those persons admitted with promises of settlement assistance) were found to have greater odds of intramarriage than independent immigrants.     

Mothering and Peer Associations Mediate Cumulative Risk Effects for Latino Youth

The present study examined whether positive parenting and deviant peer associations mediated the relations between a cumulative risk composite comprising financial strain, neighborhood problems, and maternal psychological distress and subsequent youth adjustment problems. Drawn from the Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three City Study, the sample consisted of 449 economically disadvantaged Latino families. Structural equation modeling showed that after controlling for baseline levels of youth adjustment problems, cumulative risk, assessed when adolescents were 10 to 14 years old, was directly and indirectly predictive of youths’ deviant peer associations 16 months later, through mother’s positive parenting. Deviant peer associations, in turn, were proximally associated with youth externalizing and internalizing problems. Findings underscore the role of mothers and peers in Latino youth adjustment problems.     

The Politics of Invasive Weed Management: Gender,Race, and Risk Perception in Rural California*

Abstract “Biological invasions” are now recognized as the cause of significant ecological and economic damage. They also raise a series of less visible social issues. Management of invasive species is often a political process raising questions such as who decides which organisms are to be managed, and who benefits or is affected by different management techniques. In a rural region of northern California, the proposed use of herbicides on spotted knapweed sparked an intense social controversy. This research uses participant observation, interviews, and archival material to understand how members of the Karuk Tribe of California, the non‐Indian community, and the U.S. Forest Service developed different perceptions of safety and risk regarding herbicide use. I describe interconnected factors that frame the interpretation of risk: institutional trust, proximity to exposure, gender, and race. Gender and race, in turn, form the basis of anti‐herbicide mobilization. The larger sociological question highlighted is, who pays the price for species invasions? Use of herbicides on invasive species is increasing. Many people who face increased exposure to herbicides are members of racial minority groups. When the poor or racial minorities face disproportionate exposure, differences in risk perception become matters of environmental justice. This paper discusses the broader social implications of differences in risk perception among communities and land managers.     

Learning-related behaviors, cognitive skills, and ability grouping when schooling begins

We use ECLS-K data from a national sample of students to estimate the determinants and consequences of reading ability group placement in kindergarten and first grade. We find that prior test score performance is the strongest determinant of such placement, followed in magnitude by the teacher’s judgment of the student’s learning-related classroom behavior. These variables explain most of the race, gender, and social class differentials when students are placed into ability groups for the first time. Within kindergarten and first grade classes where grouping is used, placement into a higher group exerts a positive effect on student learning-related behavior and reading achievement. Ability group placement and the teacher’s assessment of student behavior both have significant effects on student’s growth in reading achievement, even net of their prior reading achievement scores. Such grouping takes individual and group-level performance differences that emerge during the preschool period and causes them to widen more than would otherwise be the case during the first 2 years of formal schooling.     

Reproducibility of clinical data II: categorical outcomes

In this second part of this paper, reproducibility of discrete ordinal and nominal outcomes is addressed. The first part deals with continuous outcomes, concentrating on intraclass correlation (ρ) in the context of one‐way analysis of variance. For categorical data, the focus has generally not been on a meaningful population parameter such as ρ. However, intraclass correlation has been defined for discrete ordinal data, ρ_c, and for nominal data, κ_I. Therefore, a unified approach to reproducibility is proposed. The relevance of these parameters is outlined. Estimation and inferential procedures for ρ_c and κ_I are reviewed, together with worked examples. Topics related to reproducibility that are not addressed in either this or the previous paper are highlighted. Considerations for designing reproducibility studies and for interpreting their results are provided. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Réguler ou qualifier ? Le cas des boues d'épuration urbaines

The history of urban sewage sludge, a matter of much confusion and mobilization, illustrates the impact of controversies about farming. It also casts light on the significance of new themes and on questions about the French “co-management” model. Above all, it helps us analyze the recourse to new controls that operate outside the sway of public authorities and complete official regulations - in the form either of procedures for labeling quality, which anchor the production and elimination of sludge in a locality, or of procedures that place sludge as an input in the food chain. Such procedures seek to restore confidence and strengthen the commitments made by various parties. They also provide evidence of how farming is changing. - Special issue on Agriculture and food.