Adaptation and Evaluation of a Nonviolent Resistance Intervention for Foster Parents: A Progress Report

Foster care faces serious challenges, such as behavioral problems in foster children and parental stress and ineffective parenting behavior in foster parents. The results of a pilot study that evaluated a training program for foster parents based on nonviolent resistance are described. In a pretest–posttest design, data were collected from 25 families. Significant reductions in externalizing, internalizing, and total problem behavior in the foster children and in parenting stress were found. Using a reliable change index, significant improvements in externalizing, internalizing, and total problem behavior were found in, respectively, 72, 44, and 80% of the cases. Most improvements proved to be clinically relevant. Effect sizes ranged from medium to large for problem behavior, and from small to medium for parenting stress.     

Well-Being in Older Gays and Lesbians: A Comparison of Predictors

This study aims to examine the predictors of subjective well-being and their variations between older gays and older lesbians. Participants were 143 gays and 66 lesbians aged 56–80 who reside in Israel. Assessments included subjective well-being, hope, health, participation, activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental ADLs, environment and living conditions, and accessibility and availability of community services. In the fully-adjusted models, hope and health were the most potent predictors of subjective well-being, respectively, among gays and lesbians. Additional significant predictors, among gays, were community availability and accessibility and satisfaction with one’s environment and living conditions. Findings suggest that while primary predictors of subjective well-being are similar among gays and lesbians, communal and residential factors are unique significant contributors to the subjective well-being of gays. It may be that among older lesbians, but not among older gays, personal resources are more important contributors to subjective well-being in comparison to community-based resources.     

Metropolitan migration efficiency

The migration efficiency ratio of an area is defined as the net migration of the area (in-migrants minus out-migrants) divided by the total number of moves whose origin or destination is that area (in-migrants plus out-migrants) multiplied by 100. This paper investigates variations in migration efficiency from 1955 to 1960 among Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas with populations of 250,000 or more. Regional variation in migration efficiency was evident, ranging from an average of ?9.7 in the Northeast to 19.6 for SMSA’s in the Western region. Nonwhites tended to have higher migration efficiency than whites. Rapidly growing metropolitan areas had higher migration efficiency ratios than areas growing at a lower rate or losing population. The educational level of a metropolitan area, as measured by the percent of the population 25 years old or over with at least a high school education, was positively related to migration efficiency. The composition of the migrant population, both in- and outmigrants for a given area, was related to the value of the migration efficiency ratio. If the migrant population contained a large proportion of persons aged 20–34, migration efficiency was low, regardless of the direction of the major migration stream. Region was found to have a major effect. Variables that had a strong and positive relationship with migration efficiency in one region were usually found to have no relation, or a negative relation, with it in other areas. Obviously, further research is needed for the identification of factors producing these strong regional effects.     

Poison or antidote: How subnational informal institutions exacerbate and ameliorate institutional voids

We explore the mechanisms through which subnational informal institutions exacerbate or ameliorate voids in national formal institutions. Informed by a within-country, cross-sub-region case comparison, we find two exacerbating mechanisms: Competition between the logics embedded in national and subnational institutions and the sabotage of a formal national institution by a void in a subnational informal institution. We also find two ameliorating mechanisms: Strong subnational informal institutions substitute for weak national institutions and bridge voids in formal institutions. Finally, we identify the conditions of expectation alignment and engagement associated with the competition, sabotage, substitution, and bridging mechanisms. Our findings contribute to institutional theory by providing a more subtle and contingent understanding of the interaction between informal and formal, and subnational and national, institutions. Our results also suggest ways in which constrained managers and bureaucrats can reduce the effects of voids in national formal institutions.     

Structural Relations of Personal and Collective Self-Esteem to Subjective Well-Being: Attachment as Moderator

A model indicating that the relationship between collective self-esteem and indicators of subjective well-being, happiness and life satisfaction, was mediated by personal self-esteem was tested by structural equation modeling. The model, including all participants, fitted well to the data. The results suggested that the relationship of collective self-esteem to happiness was fully mediated by personal self-esteem, whereas a partial mediation was the case for life satisfaction. When tested in four groups of attachment styles, however, the results indicated a full mediation for fearful, preoccupied and dismissing groups, but a partial mediation for the secure group. The results are discussed in the “pursuing self-esteem” framework.     

Migration and metropolitan opportunity structures: A demographic response to racial inequality

This paper examines the impact of racial inequality on black and white migration rates for a sample of metropolitan areas in the United States 1975–1980. A conceptual framework for migration that includes a measure of racial inequality is developed and evaluated. The results indicate that blacks are attracted to areas with lower levels of inequality, but contrary to our expectations, the rate of black out-migration is lower in Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas with higher levels of racial inequality. In addition, whites seem to be attracted to labor markets where whites have the greatest advantage as measured by occupational inequality, and they are more likely to leave areas where the competition with blacks for jobs is greater. Implications for theory and further research for the comparative study of black and white migration are outlined.