Ethnic-sensitive work with Hmong refugee children

This article examines three distinguishing characteristics of Hmong culture, and gives examples of the problems these differences can create in serving Hmong children and their families.     

Professionalism and the Public*

To explore the factor of public opinion as a component of professionalism, the prestige ratings of rehabilitation occupations, as given by a representative national sample replicating the North-Hatt technique, are analyzed. Visibility of an occupation does not necessarily increase prestige. Segmental visibility varies by exposure to the needs served by an occupation and by familiarity arising from work experiences. Stereotyping in terms of broad occupational categories, however, appears more likely to form lay opinion than specific job knowledge. Attitudes of particular segments, rather than general public views, are considered critical in professionalism.     

Characteristics of Older Adult Problem Gamblers Calling a Gambling Helpline

Background Few investigations have characterized groups of older adults with gambling problems, and published reports are currently limited by small samples of older adult problem gamblers. Gambling helplines represent a widespread mechanism for assisting problem gamblers to move into treatment settings. Given data from older adult problem gamblers in treatment, we hypothesized that older as compared with younger adult problem gamblers calling a gambling helpline would be less likely to report gambling-related problems.Design and methods Logistic regression analyses were performed on data obtained from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2001, inclusive, from callers with gambling problems (N = 1,084) contacting the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling Helpline.Results Of the 1,018 phone calls used in the logistic regression analyses, 168 (16.5%) were from older adults and 850 (83.5%) from younger adults. Age-related differences were observed in demographic features, types and patterns of gambling reported as problematic, gambling-related problems and psychiatric symptoms, substance use problems, patterns of indebtedness, and family histories of addictive disorders. Older as compared with younger adult problem gamblers were more likely to report having lower incomes, longer durations of gambling, fewer types of problematic gambling, and problems with casino slot machine gambling and less likely to report gambling-related anxiety, family problems, illegal behaviors and arrests, drug problems, indebtedness to bookies or acquaintances, family histories of drug abuse, and problems with casino table gambling.Conclusions Older as compared with younger adult problem gamblers calling a gambling helpline differ on many clinically relevant features. The findings suggest the need for improved and unique prevention and treatment strategies for older adults with gambling problems.     

Some Applications of the Rao Distance to Shrinkage Estimators

Bayesian statistics is concerned with how prior information influence inferences. This article studies this problem by comparing the value of the Rao distance between prior and posterior normal distributions. Particular cases include the linear Bayes estimator, the mixed estimator, and ridge-type estimators.     

Reliability estimation for the exponential distribution

This paper is concerned with classical statistical estimation of the reliability function for the exponential density with unknown mean failure time θ, and with a known and fixed mission time τ. The minimum variance unbiased (MVU) estimator and the maximum likelihood (ML) estimator are reviewed and their mean square errors compared for different sample sizes. These comparisons serve also to extend previous work, and reinforce further the nonexistence of a uniformly best estimator. A class of shrunken estimators is then defined, and it produces a shrunken quasi-estimator and a shrunken estimator. The mean square errors for both these estimators are compared to the mean square errors of the MVU and ML estimators, and the new estimators are found to perform very well. Unfortunately, these estimators are difficult to compute for practical applications. A second class of estimators, which is easy to compute is also developed. Its mean square error properties are compared to the other estimators, and it outperforms all the contending estimators over the high and low reliability parameter space. Since, for all the estimators, analytical mean square error comparisons are not tractable, extensive numerical analyses are done in obtaining both the exact small sample and large sample results.