LABOR‐MARKET HETEROGENEITY,AGGREGATION, AND POLICY (IN)VARIANCE OF DSGE MODEL PARAMETERS

Data from a heterogeneous‐agents economy with incomplete asset markets and indivisible labor supply are simulated under various fiscal policy regimes and an approximating representative‐agent model is estimated. Preference and technology parameter estimates of the representative‐agent model are not invariant to policy changes and the bias in the representative‐agent model’s policy predictions is large compared to predictive intervals that reflect parameter uncertainty. Since it is not always feasible to account for heterogeneity explicitly, it is important to recognize the possibility that the parameters of a highly aggregated model may not be invariant with respect to policy changes.     

Income Inequality and Opioid Prescribing Rates: Exploring Rural/Urban Differences in Pathways via Residential Stability and Social Isolation

While opioid prescribing rates have drawn researchers' attention, little is known about the mechanisms through which income inequality affects opioid prescribing rates and even less focuses on whether there is a rural/urban difference in mediating pathways. Applying mediation analysis techniques to a unique ZIP code level dataset from several sources maintained by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, we explicitly examine two mechanisms through residential stability and social isolation by rural/urban status and find that (1) income inequality is not directly related to opioid prescribing rates, but it exerts its influence on opioid prescribing via poor residential stability and elevated social isolation; (2) social isolation accounts for two‐thirds of the mediating effect of income inequality on opioid prescribing rates among urban ZIP codes, but the proportion halves among rural ZIP codes; (3) residential stability plays a larger role in understanding how income inequality matters in rural than in urban ZIP codes; and (4) beneficiary characteristics only matter in urban ZIP codes. These findings offer nuanced insight into how income inequality affects opioid prescribing rates and suggests that the determinants of opioid prescribing rates vary by rural/urban status. Future research may benefit from identifying place‐specific factors for opioid prescribing rates.     

Freedom and struggling openly in psychotherapy: A qualitative inquiry with LGBQ young adults from religious families

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) young people from religious families are at increased risk of family rejection, poor mental health outcomes, and are overrepresented in mental health services. This article describes a two‐part qualitative study aimed at exploring the experiences of LGBQ young adults from religious families in psychotherapy, identifying positive and negative psychotherapy experiences, and understanding the influence of family and religion on the psychotherapy experience. Data were collected through a web‐based survey (n = 77) and interviews (n = 7) with LGBQ young adults (ages 18–25) from religious families. The study followed an interpretative phenomenological approach. Integrated results found often invisible, relational therapy processes, and religious discourses as significant to LGBQ young people who seek psychotherapy. Implications for future research, effective systemic family therapy practices with LGBQ young people from religious families, and a critique on ethical and legal limits of confidentiality with policy implications are outlined.     

A note on the Jarque–Bera normality test for GARCH innovations

In this paper, we consider the validity of the Jarque–Bera normality test whose construction is based on the residuals, for the innovations of GARCH (generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic) models. It is shown that the asymptotic behavior of the original form of the JB test adopted in this paper is identical to that of the test statistic based on true errors. The simulation study also confirms the validity of the original form since it outperforms other available normality tests.     

Mental disease postpartum and parent‐infant interaction—evaluation of videotaped sessions

In order to investigate the influence of maternal mental illness postpartum on mother‐infant and father‐infant interaction, infants of 14 mentally ill women admitted to hospital within 6 months after delivery were compared to infants of 22 women who had been somatically ill. Videotaped sessions when the infant was 10 months old revealed that mothers in the psychiatric sample showed less sensitivity in comparison to mothers in the somatic sample. When the infant was 2 years old, mothers in the psychiatric sample showed less positive affect and less link‐infant follow (stimulation dimension) as compared to the somatic mothers. However, there were no differences between fathers in the psychiatric sample and fathers in the somatic sample in any of the interaction variables. In the psychiatric sample, fathers showed more warmth as compared to mothers. In the somatic sample, fathers scored higher than mothers on autonomy but lower than mothers on link‐infant follow (stimulation dimension). A possible interpretation of our data was that the mental illness of the mothers may lead to a more active parenting role of the father in order to buffer the deficit in the mother‐infant relation. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attitude Differences Between Paid Workers and Volunteers

This study addresses the extension of research on paid employees to volunteer workers. Pearce (1978, 1993b) has postulated that job attitudes are substantially different between volunteers and paid employees, based on her work studying fourteen organizations employing either entirely volunteer workgroups or entirely paid workgroups. Another interpretation of her data would be that the organizational culture of such workgroups is different, not the individual job attitudes.     

Adolescent Transitions to Young Adulthood: Antecedents,Correlates, and Consequences of Adolescent Employment

The antecedents, correlates, and consequences of adolescent employment were investigated in a sample of 251 low‐income, African American youth that were followed since birth. The youth (age: M at preschool = 4.89, SD= .70; M at adolescence = 16.44, SD= .66; M at transition to adulthood = 19.36, SD= .76; and M at early adulthood = 27.67, SD= .75) were the firstborn children of African American teenage mothers who gave birth in Baltimore in the 1960s. Analyses examined the antecedents and correlates of age of entry into employment and stability of employment during adolescence. The associations of adolescent work experiences with subsequent adult education and employment outcomes also were considered. Findings indicate that among this sample of low‐income, African American youth, those who repeated a grade in school during middle childhood were more likely to enter the workforce at later ages than their peers who did not repeat a grade. The small subset of adolescents who never worked (n= 12) appear to be markedly more disadvantaged than their peers who worked. At the transition to adulthood, adolescents who entered the workforce earlier were more likely to complete high school than their peers. In addition, stable employment during the adolescent years had more beneficial effects on young men's chances of attending college than young women's postsecondary education. This pattern of findings is consistent with ethnographic accounts of adolescent employment among poor, minority, urban youth.     

No Compelling Evidence That Newborns Imitate Oral Gestures

Newborns (N = 83) were presented with 3 conditions, each for 160 sec: tongue protrusion (TP), mouth opening (MO), and control (CO). In TP and MO, a female model alternated between demonstrating the gesture for 20 sec and presenting a passive, motionless face for 20 sec. In CO, she presented a passive face in both the “demonstration” and “passive” intervals. The participants' eyes were more widely open in the demonstration intervals of TP and MO than in the passive intervals, indicating that they were attending to the gestures. In TP, the participants produced more TP responses than MO responses, but in MO there was no effect, undermining the neonatal imitation hypothesis.     

Welfare and Work: Complementary Strategies forLow‐Income Women?

We examine the effects of mothers' strategies of combining employment and welfare receipt during the first 3 years of their child's life on the child's cognitive development, behavior problems, and home learning environment at ages 5 to 6. We compare the child outcomes of those mothers who were continuously employed and received no welfare with (a) those who worked some or all of the 3 years and also received public assistance and (b) those who were totally dependent on public assistance. We studied children in single‐parent families (N= 1271 ) living below 200% of the poverty threshold using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth—Child Supplement. No negative association was found on most child outcomes with a mother's employment whether or not it was combined with public assistance. However, mothers' not working at all and receiving financial support solely from AFDC was associated with negative child outcomes. We discuss the implications of these findings for the possible effects of the new welfare laws on families and young children.