Sounds of Silence: narrative research with inarticulate subjects

This article addresses the challenge of using narrative methods with people who have learning difficulties. Such informants present four particular interview problems: inarticulateness; unresponsiveness; a concrete frame of reference; and difficulties with the concept of time. The authors focus on the first two of these problems and argue that neither of them constitutes an insuperable barrier to people telling their story. Drawing on detailed interview material from an informant with learning difficulties, the authors set out to show in practical terms how these problems might be tackled, emphasising in particular the importance of being attentive to what goes unsaid. They conclude that researchers should put more emphasis on overcoming the barriers that impede the involvement of inarticulate subjects in narrative research instead of dwelling on their limitations as informants.     

Parental divorce and subsequent disadvantage: A cross-cohort comparison

Although many studies have examined the link between parental divorce and subsequent well-being, some theories of the effects of divorce suggest that the negative associations should have declined over time. However, few studies have examined the extent to which the associations have remained stable over time. Using data from two British cohorts, we analyzed both shorter- and longer-term outcomes of children who experienced parental divorce and the extent to which the associations have changed over time. Estimating similar models for both cohorts, we found little evidence of any change in the size of the relationship as divorce became more commonplace.     

Playing with conflict: a longitudinal study of varieties of spontaneous verbal conflict during mother-child interaction at home

Although conflict is central to major developmental theories, relatively little is known about the ways in which young children and caregivers argue at home. The existing psychological research focuses narrowly on serious, ‘problem-solving’ conflicts. In contrast, this in-depth longitudinal study describes varieties of spontaneous conflict talk occurring at home between nine middle-class Caucasian American mothers and their 2- to 4-year-old children. All dyads produced conflicts with nonse-rious, imaginary and/or ritual markings for a mean of 31% (± 2.8%) of all mother-child conflicts. Overall, most mother-child marked conflicts were nonserious, but the percentage of marked conflicts that were imaginary increased with age. Mothers used marked conflicts to manage ongoing problematic interactions with their children, while children apparently introduced marked conflicts primarily during play. Available data on child-child conflicts showed that some of these conflicts also were marked and were introduced primarily during play. Implications for how varieties of conflict may contribute to social competence within the family and peer group are discussed.     

Son preference and educational opportunities of children in China— “I wish you were a boy!”

Gender bias in family formation, such as sex selected-abortion, imbalance of the sex ratio, child abandonment, and sibling size/order in relation to fertility is well documented in China. Much less is known about continued gender bias after birth in relation to children's status inside the family. In particular, there is a relative scarcity of research on the impact of the parental son preference in determining differential educational opportunities of male and female children. Continued and fast economic growth in China is not accompanied by the dramatic change in traditional value, and many peasants still hold son preference value. Using 1990 China census data and drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Beijing and its suburbs, I examine children's educational opportunities, and investigate the relationship between parents who hold the son preference value and their unequal treatment when rearing children. The results demonstrated that the continued son preference value, based on traditional views as well as on perceived financial returns to families, leads to a lower level of educational attainment among daughters in rural areas of China. The lower educational attainment and higher labor force participation rates of rural female adolescents reflect unequal opportunities provided by their parents in addition to social inequality in China. Children who live in urban areas with educated parents received better educational opportunities and experience less gender bias. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1993. Her research interests include social demography, social deviance, social psychology, race and ethnicity, and quantitative sociology. Her recent publications include illegal drug rehabilitation and detoxification, international migration, sociology of emotions, and gender inequality.     

儿童游戏的权利——世界范围内游戏在儿童生活中重要性的考察（连载之二）

本文系统考察世界范围内游戏在儿童生活中重要性,将儿童的游戏权看做1989年联合国《儿童权利公约》（CRC）第31条中的一个独立的权利,旨在为世界范围内和整个联合国《儿童权利公约》框架内探究“儿童的游戏权”提供理论基础,并提出人们为何要承认、尊重儿童游戏权,并阐明将游戏提升为一种儿童权利的理论依据,主张全面深刻理解儿童游戏权利的丰富内涵,特别是作为自我保护方式及作为参与日常生活方法的游戏的社会价值,应积极创设提供儿童游戏发生的条件,努力推进实现儿童的游戏权利。     

Affairs of the Heart: Qualities of Adolescent Romantic Relationships and Sexual Behavior

We know more about parent and peer influences than about the ways in which specific qualities of adolescent romantic relationships may influence sexual decision‐making. Using data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study, we focus on communication processes and emotional feelings, as well as more basic contours of adolescent romantic relationships, including power and influence dynamics. Controlling for traditional predictors and duration of the relationship, results suggest that subjectively experienced relationship qualities matter for understanding teens' sexual behavior choices. Further, findings indicate a similar effect of most relationship qualities on male and female reports of sexual behavior. However, influence and power dynamics within the relationship were not related to the likelihood that boys reported sexual intercourse in a focal relationship. In contrast, girls who perceived a more favorable power balance were less likely to report sexual intercourse than their female counterparts who perceived a less favorable power balance. Recognizing that the results capture reciprocal influence processes, longitudinal and qualitative data are used to further explore the complex nature of these associations.     

Mixture structure analysis using the Akaike Information Criterion and the bootstrap

Given i.i.d. observations x1,x2,x3,...,xn drawn from a mixture of normal terms, one is often interested in determining the number of terms in the mixture and their defining parameters. Although the problem of determining the number of terms is intractable under the most general assumptions, there is hope of elucidating the mixture structure given appropriate caveats on the underlying mixture. This paper examines a new approach to this problem based on the use of Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) based pruning of data driven mixture models which are obtained from resampled data sets. Results of the application of this procedure to artificially generated data sets and a real world data set are provided.     

Friends of the Circuits: Interest Group Influence on Decision Making in the U.S. Courts of Appeals*

Objective. Though there is an extensive literature focused on the participation and efficacy of interest group amici curiae in the U.S. Supreme Court, there is little rigorous analysis of amici curiae in the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Here, we systematically analyze the influence of amicus curiae briefs on U.S. Court of Appeals decision making to provide insights regarding both judicial decision making and the efficacy of interest groups. Methods. We use a probit model to capture influences on appellant success in the courts of appeals from 1997–2002. Results. We find that amicus briefs filed in support of the appellant enhance the likelihood of that litigant's probability of success, but that amicus briefs filed in support of the appellee have no effect on litigation outcomes. Conclusion. Amici can help level the playing field between appellants and appellees by serving to counter the propensity to affirm in the U.S. Courts of Appeals.