GENDER AND RACE PATTERNS IN THE PATHWAYS FROM SPORTS PARTICIPATION TO SELF-ESTEEM

Athletics is the most prominent extracurricular activity in U.S. secondary schools in terms of student participation and school budgets. The latter is often justified on the grounds that healthy bodies produce healthy minds, that school sports boost school spirit, and that participation in school-based sports increases students' self-esteem. In this article we examine the interrelationships among participation in a school-based sport and the benefits assumed to be associated with it. Specifically, we test a model that postulates that school spirit, operationalized as attachment to school, and healthy bodies, operationalized as a sense of physical well-being, mediate the relationship between school sports and self-esteem. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health on Caucasian and African American girls and boys were employed to test the model. School attachment and physical well-being absorbed the statistical effect of participating in a sport for all four gender-by-race groups. Among Caucasian girls a negative residual effect of sports participation was observed, which suggests that sports participation encapsulates multiple effects with contradictory influences. For African American girls school attachment by itself was not a significant mediator of the effect of sports participation on self-esteem. For all groups a sense of physical well-being was the more powerful mediator.     

Residential segregation in Australian cities: a literature review

"In this review of literature dealing with the postwar immigrant experience in urban Australia, some of the key interpretations of residential segregation are assessed. The article focuses on studies which have examined ethnic clusters formed by southern Europeans in Sydney and Melbourne and more recently by Indochinese refugees. Much of the analysis to date has been based on measuring static residential patterns rather than social interaction, and the need to question the significance of ethnic concentrations which sometimes characterize the early stages of immigrant adaptation is suggested."     

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) experiences with Earth-spirited faith

Earth-spirited faiths (e.g., Pagan and Wiccan spiritualities) have been described as more affirmative toward gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered (GLBT) members than mainstream Judeo-Christian faiths, but no research has explored Earth-spirited faiths' GLBT-affirming behaviors. This study investigated those behaviors as well as the faith experiences of GLBT Earth-spirited individuals. At time of coming out, participants who were affiliated with mainstream Judeo-Christian faiths reported greater faith conflict than those affiliated with Earth-spirited faiths; however, there were no differences in resolution of the conflict between the two groups, internalized homonegativity, or self-acceptance. In addition, Earth-spirited faiths engaged in many GLBT-affirming behaviors.     

Profile information matrix for nonlinear transformation models

For semiparametric models, interval estimation and hypothesis testing based on the information matrix for the full model is a challenge because of potentially unlimited dimension. Use of the profile information matrix for a small set of parameters of interest is an appealing alternative. Existing approaches for the estimation of the profile information matrix are either subject to the curse of dimensionality, or are ad-hoc and approximate and can be unstable and numerically inefficient. We propose a numerically stable and efficient algorithm that delivers an exact observed profile information matrix for regression coefficients for the class of Nonlinear Transformation Models [A. Tsodikov (2003) J R Statist Soc Ser B 65:759-774]. The algorithm deals with the curse of dimensionality and requires neither large matrix inverses nor explicit expressions for the profile surface.     

中国进入国际市场带来的机会和风险

1978年12月在十一届三中全会上作出的重大决策标志着中国进入了一个新的发展阶段。对这个决策应当如何来理解?中国以往的三十多年来(即从1949年10月1日全国解放以后)从事了一个空前规模的建设工作。中国在1949年这场革命主要目的是要改变社会,国家的生产资料所有制,从而使生产关系与生产力作了相应的调整。虽然中国的学者与政治家对中国革命和社会改革的发展有明显的阶段性并无异议。但对如何具体划分阶段则意见很不一致。因为解放三十年来,每个阶段都有激烈的政治运动,有人就建议用这些政治运动来作为区分阶     

美国的文化霸权

美国的力量在“9·11”以后变得截然不同。自从恐怖袭击后,世界上主要的国家——从北约到俄罗斯、中国和日本——以及其他国家都将它们同美国的分歧搁置一边。美国和俄罗斯至少在一段时间内可能成为盟友,并且不仅仅是在反恐方面。关于削减核武器和导弹防御的谈判也正在进行中,而这一切在“9·11”袭击之前是不可想象的。     

你能提高孩子的智商

仔细考虑下列情景:作为9岁和5岁孩子的父母,你认为你已经尽了自己最大努力来帮助孩子开发智力。当他们还是婴儿,你就开始读书给他们听,给他们买教育性玩具,带他们去图书馆。现在他们在学校里表现不错,你是否可以因此而居功?但是据一些科学家的观点,即使没有你的积极努力,你的孩子可能做得一样好。 例如,亚利桑那大学的罗(D.C.Rowe)在他的《家庭影响的限度》一书中认为,父母亲的作风对孩子的智力没有影响。默里(C.Murray)和已故的赫恩施泰因(R.Herrnstein)在《正态曲线》一书中认为,智力主要是遗传的并因种族的不同而不同。这本书引起了一场争论,随后,《华尔街日报》公布了一则由52名研究人员签名的声明,认为研究“表明在产生智商差异方面,遗传所起的作用比环境因素更大。” 若干年前,许多父母被告知激发孩子的智力是     

生活服务经济学

全国劳动人民物质福利和文化水平的不断提高导致居民对各类服务的需求日益增长,在各类服务中生活服务具有相当重要的意义。物质性和非物质性的服务与个人消费商品和居住条件一样,都是劳动人民福利的标准。人民的生活服务体系在解决建设共产主义社会的一系列社会-经济问题中占有愈来愈明显的地位。近     

决策、联合运输和可持续移动性:新的模式

本文讨论了现代运输系统和政策与可持续性发展的关系。当前形势的特点是 :运输政策有利于机动性但破坏了可持续性的基本要素。因此 ,我们需要可持续运输的新观念 ,能够在旅客运输和货物运输中融入联合运输。建立可持续联合运输系统需要克服很多障碍。只有依靠能够使公众真正参与的正确政策和决策系统才能克服这些困难。不过 ,当前的决策程序和公众参与机制做不到这一点。实现新的运输模式 ,需要制定和采用新的方式。