Modelling Converging Hazards in Survival Analysis

The Cox proportional hazards model has become the standard model for survival analysis. It is often seen as the null model in that "... explicit excuses are now needed to use different models" (Keiding, Proceedings of the XIXth International Biometric Conference, Cape Town, 1998). However, converging hazards also occur frequently in survival analysis. The Burr model, which may be derived as the marginal from a gamma frailty model, is one commonly used tool to model converging hazards. We outline this approach and introduce a mixed model which extends the Burr model and allows for both proportional and converging hazards. Although a semi-parametric model in its own right, we demonstrate how the mixed model can be derived via a gamma frailty interpretation, suggesting an E-M fitting procedure. We illustrate the modelling techniques using data on survival of hospice patients.     

The South Oaks Gambling Screen Revised for Adolescents (SOGS-RA): Further Psychometric Findings from a Community Sample

The broad expansion of gambling across North America during the last two decades has generated concern about the extent of gambling and problem gambling in youth, and the need to more accurately monitor it. The South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised for Adolescents (SOGS-RA) is a promising instrument for screening problem gambling (Winters, Stinchfield, & Fulkerson, 1993) that requires more evaluation. Accordingly, further psychometric analysis of the instrument was conducted as part of a community survey of gambling in a sample of 1,000 male and female youth, aged 12 to 17 years. The analyses extended previous focus by including females, young adolescents, and an evaluation of youth classified as at-risk. Consistent with preliminary findings obtained during scale development, the distribution of item endorsement revealed trends of over-endorsement for some items (e.g., gambled more than intended, felt bad about the amount bet), and under-endorsement for others (e.g., criticized or told you had a gambling problem). These results suggest consideration of some form of weighting procedure, item deletion or re-wording. A factor analysis of the SOGS-RA items suggested a two-factor solution, with one factor interpreted as Control over Gambling and the other Gambling Consequences. It is proposed that the two factors may represent early versus more severe levels of gambling problems, respectively. The results highlight the need for further psychometric evaluation and refinement of instruments used to identify gambling problems in young people.     

Family Structure and Children's Socioeconomic Attainment: A Canadian Sample

With the proliferation of different family forms in many western countries over the last few decades, research investigating the influence of family structure on children's socioeconomic status attainment has expanded dramatically, especially in the United States. The purpose of this study was to estimate the relative influence of family structure, maternal resources, and family mental health on predicting socioeconomic attainment in young adulthood. Data for this study were derived from a case‐comparison, three‐wave panel study of single‐parent, and two‐parent families living in London, Ontario, with interviews conducted in 1993 (wave 1), 1994 (wave 2), and between 2005 and 2008 (wave 3). There were virtually no differences in status attainment by family structure. Unexpectedly, however, we found that children raised in temporally stable single‐parent families, and those whose mothers transitioned from a single‐parent family to a two‐parent family had higher socioeconomic status occupations for their longest job held than did children raised in temporally stable two‐parent families. Maternal education was positively related to the likelihood that children would graduate from college/university. For those concerned with social policy, this implies that greater attention ought to be paid to addressing disparities in education and family income than to concerns with the kinds of families in which children grow up. Avec la prolifération de différentes formes de familles dans plusieurs pays occidentaux depuis quelques décennies, la recherche sur l'influence de la structure da la famille sur l'acquisition de statu socioéconomique des enfants s'est dramatiquement élargie, surtout aux Etats‐Unis. L'intention de cette étude était d'estimer l'influence relative de la structure de famille, les ressources maternelles et la santé mentale de la famille sur la prédiction d'acquisition socioéconomique d'un jeune adulte. Les données de cette étude résultent d'une comparaison de cas, sur un échantillonnage de 3 séries de familles monoparentales et de familles à 2 parents vivant à London, Ontario, avec des entrevues réalisées en 1993 (série 1), 1994 (série 2) et entre 2005 et 2008 (série 3). Il n'y a avait virtuellement pas de différence d'acquisition de statu par structure de famille. De manière inattendue, cependant, nous avons établis que les enfants élevés de par des familles monoparentales stables dans le temps, ainsi que ceux dont la mère avait opéré une transition d'une structure monoparentale vers une structure à 2 parents, occupaient des fonctions d'un statu socioéconomique plus élevé durant leur période d'emploi la plus longue comparés aux enfants élevés dans des familles à 2 parents stables dans le temps. L’éducation maternelle était positivement liée à la probabilité que les enfants obtiendraient un diplôme d'un niveau post‐secondaire (collège / université). Pour ceux concernés par les politiques sociales, cela induit qu'une plus grande attention devrait être accordée à la disparité entre l’éducation et les revenus de la famille plutôt que de s'attarder sur les types de famille dans lesquelles les enfants grandissent.     

Spiritual development and camp experiences

Camps have long addressed multiple components of young people's development, including spiritual development. In particular, transcendental communion with nature and the outdoors may provide one pathway for young people's spiritual development.     

Markets,Institutions and Technology: Missing Links in Livelihoods Analysis

The benefits of livelihoods thinking and approaches are widely recognised. This article focuses on an important gap in much of the conceptualization and application of ‘livelihood approaches’— a lack of emphasis on markets and their roles in livelihood development and poverty reduction. The omission is important, as it can lead to failure to identify and act on a wider range of market, institutional and technological opportunities and constraints. An alternative conceptualisation is proposed, with markets as one particular set of institutional mechanisms for co‐ordination and exchange in an economy. It is argued that more explicit attention to interactions between institutions, technology and assets in livelihood analysis may be valuable in conceptualising and managing programmes for livelihood development and poverty reduction.     

Maternal neural reactivity during pregnancy predicts infant temperament

Maternal biological systems impact infant temperament as early as the prenatal period, though the mechanisms of this association are unknown. Using a prospective, longitudinal design, we found that maternal (N = 89) amplitudes of the late positive potential (LPP) in response to negative stimuli during the second, but not the third, trimester of pregnancy predicted observed and physiological indices of temperamental reactivity in infants at age 4 months. Maternal LPP was positively associated with observed infant fear and negatively associated with frontal EEG asymmetry and cortisol reactivity in infants at age 4 months. Results identify a putative mechanism, early in pregnancy, for the intergenerational transmission of emotional reactivity from mother to infant.     

Adolescent Offenders' Qualitative Reflections on Desistance From Crime

Although many young offenders desist from crime during adolescence, little is known about this process. This study used a qualitative approach to elucidate adolescent offenders' experiences in desisting from crime. Thirty‐nine male adolescent offenders (M_age = 16.59 years) participated in a semistructured interview about the desistance process. One of four themes characterized adolescents' reflections on their own desistance: having a psychological reorientation, reacting to consequences, persisting, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Adolescents discussed five agentic moves they make to facilitate desistance: seeking and maintaining supportive relationships, navigating peer groups, working toward long‐term goals, structuring time, and finding sanctuaries from the outside. These findings highlight adolescents' strengths, resources, and active role in desisting from crime.     

World society and the natural environment

We review the world society approach to explaining macrohistorical change generally and as it relates to the natural environment specifically. Our review includes work describing the rise of the environmental world society as well as empirical evidence of the consequences of national ties to world society for policy adoption, practices, and individual attitudes at the national level. Additionally, we suggest the application of world society theory to state and substate structures. Throughout the review, we situate the world society literature in relationship to work in the fields of cross‐national comparative and environmental sociology from a variety of other perspectives. We take a forward‐looking approach to our review of theoretical and empirical work in the field and consider the implications for normative change and resistance to prevailing world cultural norms. We conclude with a discussion of the resurgence of nationalism especially as it relates to antienvironmentalism.     

An Introduction to Nonparametric Regression for Labor Economists

In this article we overview nonparametric (spline and kernel) regression methods and illustrate how they may be used in labor economics applications. We focus our attention on issues commonly found in the labor literature such as how to account for endogeneity via instrumental variables in a nonparametric setting. We showcase these methods via data from the Current Population Survey.     

The governance of primary mental health planning by Primary Health Networks

The establishment of Primary Health Networks (PHNs) was accompanied by assignment of responsibility for funding for primary mental healthcare. To ensure this funding is spent in line with government priorities, the Federal government developed a planning document with established priorities and guidance documents for how the planning document should be completed. This paper examines how these documents shape service delivery through enabling some activities and excluding others and identifies the assumptions that underpin these documents. Data were drawn from discourse and content analysis of completed planning documents from the PHNs and of the guidance documents and from reflection upon mental health planning from 55 interviews with key personnel from six PHNs. Service delivery is shaped by outcome measures that promote service access, cost‐effectiveness and clinical effectiveness, contributing to service options that favour self‐management for mild mental illness and clinical (but not social) services for people with severe mental illness. There is also limited scope for mental health promotion with prevention activities focused upon populations identified by the government as being at‐risk. This occurs to the detriment of other at‐risk populations.