Relationship power,decision making,and sexual relations: an exploratory study with couples of Mexican origin

This study explored how couples of Mexican origin define power in intimate relationships, what makes men and women feel powerful in relationships, and the role of each partner in decision making about sexual and reproductive matters. Interviews were conducted with each partner of 39 sexually active couples and data were analyzed using content analysis. Results indicate that power is perceived as control over one s partner and the ability to make decisions. Women say they feel more powerful in relationships when they make unilateral decisions and have economic independence. Men feel powerful when they have control over their partner and bring home money. Respondents agreed that women make decisions about household matters and children, while men make decisions related to money. Findings indicate that whereas couples share decision making about sexual activities and contraceptive use, men are seen as initiators of sexual activity and women are more likely to suggest condom use.     

Instructions for Authors

Instructions for Authors

Instructions for Authors     

Attitudes toward and desire for assisted suicide among persons with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

This study aimed at investigating attitudes toward assisted suicide among individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and the differences in health status (illness severity and functional disability) and psychosocial adjustment (depression, perceived stress, social support, and coping) between those in favor of and those against assisted suicide. This study also aimed at describing the characteristics of terminally-ill individuals who acknowledge contemplating assisted suicide. Forty-four individuals diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis were surveyed about their attitudes and the circumstances that would make them contemplate assisted suicide and filled out standardized measures of mood, stress, social support, coping, and illness status. Seventy percent of the sample found assisted suicide morally acceptable and 60% thought it should be legalized. In addition, 60% of patients agreed they could foresee circumstances that would make them contemplate assisted suicide, but only three (7%) indicated they would have requested it already if it had been legal. Willingness to contemplate assisted suicide was associated with reports of elevated levels of depressive symptoms and reports of hopelessness. Results highlight the need to assess psychological status carefully when terminally ill individuals begin contemplating assisted suicide or voice a request for it.     

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Instructions for Authors

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Second order asymptotic relations of M-estimators and R-estimators in two-sample location model

Let T_M be an M-estimator (maximum likelihood type estimator) and T_R be an R-estimator (Hodges-Lehmann's estimator) of the shift parameter Δ in the two-sample location model. The asymptotic representation of √N(T_M-T_R) up to a term of the order O_p(N^{-$\text{1}\text{4}$}) is derived which is valid if the functions Ψ and ? generating T_M and T_R, respectively, decompose into an absolutely continuous and a step-function components; the order O_p(N^{-$\text{1}\text{4}$}) cannot be improved unless the discontinuous components vanish. As a consequence, the conditions under which √N(T_M-T_R)=O_p(N^{-$\text{1}\text{4}$}) are obtained. The main tool for obtaining the results is the second order asymptotic linearity of the pertaining linear rank statistics which is proved here under the assumption that the score-generating function ? has some jump-discontinuities.     

Unemployment and the Future of Social Policy

In the context of a seminar seeking to canvass public administration responses to the topic ‘A Generation Unemployed’ the paper canvasses the extent of hidden unemployment and where the burdens of unemployment are falling. Some of the future implications for social policy, including potential effects on social cohesion and the possible policy responses to that, and potential effects on economic dependency and likely policy implications are examined.     

Advancing Gender Equality: The Role of Women‐Only Trade Union Education

The need to improve the level of membership and the number of women activists has been a central feature of overall ‘renewal’ strategies of many British trade unions. Within this, equality education has been a key part of policy‐making. This research draws on detailed case studies of two trade unions and focuses on their women‐only education courses. We suggest that a greater understanding of the contribution of different types of trade union education to the advance of equality is a key factor in the ability of unions to maintain a central role at workplace level, within the context of an increasingly diverse labour market.     

Treating Chronic Crisis Bearers and Their Families*

This article presents a method for family crisis intervention, utilizing a case history approach. The goal is extended from restoring the crisis bearing unit to its pre-crisis level of coping to a basic restructuring of maladaptive pre-crisis behaviors. It is aimed at general behavior change as well as resolution of the immediate situation. It adapts crisis intervention theory to intervention involving chronic crisis bearers and their families. It eliminates the tendency to identify one member of the family unit as the patient without considering the impact of the other members. This approach consists of short term intensive treatment combined with selected traditional techniques.     

THE FERTILITY AND LANGUAGE CHARACTERISTICS OF MEXICAN-AMERICAN AND NON-HISPANIC HUSBANDS AND WIVES

In this article cultural and socioeconomic explanations of the effects of language characteristics on the fertility of Mexican-American and non-Hispanic white couples are considered. The impact of husbands' as well of wives' characteristics are estimated on the fertility of a sample drawn from 1980 U.S. census data, using a dynamic model for fertility. The pattern of effects presented is consistent with a cultural explanation that includes the relevence of pronatalist values to the higher fertility of Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans. The greater detail provided by this method also results in the identification of a subset of English-speaking Mexican-American couples who appear to be using a very low fertility strategy and a subset of non-Hispanic whites whose higher fertility is also tied to language characteristics.