From the Mute God to the Lesser God: disability in Medieval Celtic and Old Norse literature

The oldest Norse and Celtic literature is likely to treat of exceptionalities, including those that we would call disabilities, in a fashion quite unlike that to which we are accustomed to find in modern literature. In the archaic literature, we find mythological motifs about contact with the supernatural and the related notion of a trade-off of a body part for superhuman abilities, and at the same time we notice a general disinterest in impairments as they might affect a character's competence. While there does seem to be some concern for dangers an individual's impairment might pose to society and some desire for cures, there is no evidence for the later disabling notion of daemonic possession, little recognition that impairments might be medical conditions or personal tragedies, and no hint of marginalizing pity or consequent charity.     

Community Organization and Social Activism: Black Boston and the Antislavery Movement*

This paper uses data from an intensive study of Boston's antebellum black community to demonstrate how sustained social activism is embedded in the formal and informal institutions of the community. The social networks of cooperative institutions were primary factors in this community's ability to mobilize and sustain protest actions and to call attention to social injustice. This examination of antebellum black Boston indicates that the issue of slavery was crucial to social activism. This suggests that the presence of a salient issue which links the everyday lives of participants with a public issue may be an important factor in building a social movement based in a poor, relatively powerless community.     

Abuses and Uses of Evaluation

In its recent report entitled Through a Glass Darkly, the Senate Standing Committee on Social Welfare claims that there is insufficient evidence available to evaluate welfare services, yet even within a brief paper this can be demonstrated to be not so. The Senate Committee however chose to ignore information about services as such, in order to discuss the process of evaluation. The apparent shortcomings of current services and the way the committee largely ignored these must be viewed in the light of the role welfare fulfils within the state—a role in which serving the interests of claimants is clearly not the major component.     

Sex role perceptions and the abortion decision

This paper is concerned with the relationship between two aspects of self‐concept—perception of gender role and perceived competence—and the decision to have an abortion as a solution to a problem pregnancy. It was hypothesized that (1) there will be a positive relationship between the choice of abortion and perceived competence, and (2) there will be a negative relationship between the choice of abortion and the degree to which female role is perceived traditionally. The data came from a broader study conducted throughout Michigan during 1974–75. The study group consisted of 921 women who chose to have an abortion. A comparison group included 360 women with problem pregnancies who chose to keep their child. Data were obtained through an anonymous questionnaire which included the two relevant indices. The abortion group was found to be significantly higher in perceived competence than those who chose to keep the child, and the black abortion group was significantly less traditional than the black group which chose to keep the child. These relationships remained significant when age was controlled. Race did not affect subjects' degree of perceived competence, but blacks were more traditional than whites regardless of decision.     

A global disability indicator

Disability is difficulty performing roles and activities due to health problems. It is largely experienced by older persons as they accumulate progressive chronic conditions. To measure functional status of individuals and populations, contemporary surveys include sets of detailed items about disability. Little effort has gone into developing global indicators of disability that cover the concept briefly but well. A global disability indicator is a compact and inexpensive device for public health surveillance and scientific study of disablement. I present and critique items that have been used in North American surveys. Good candidates are selected for methodological study. Both laboratory-based cognitive studies and large-scale statistical studies are recommended; the first will reveal meanings of items and responses and the second, items' systematic structure and prediction ability. The ultimate goal is to identify one or a few fine indicators for widespread inclusion in population health surveys.     

Postnatal Effects of Prenatal Insult

Exogenous agents may perturb development during the embryonic period and adversely affect the formation of organs. However, adverse effects on development are not limited to the embryonic period nor are the manifestations restricted solely to outright gross structural malformation, but may instead be expressed as a decrement or abberration of postnatal function. Susceptibility to altered development may extend well into the postnatal period. Studies of functional parameters in several organ systems have demonstrated the broad-based susceptibility, subtlety of expression and potential of long-lasting effects of altered development assessed by physiologic assays. Adverse effects on functional development, whether in the CNS, reproductive, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, respiratory, or immune systems, etc., merit continuing investigation. From the viewpoint of risk estimation and hazard detection, evaluations of postnatal functional parameters may be relevant for several reasons. First, such parameters may serve as low-dose triggers. Second, they may be useful as a focal point for epidemiological studies. Finally, a more thorough understanding of the degree and magnitude of such postnatal functional deficits is needed since an adverse maternal effect may be transient, considered acceptable, or unperceived, but the effect on the conceptus may be permanent and severe. The immune and respiratory systems are discussed as two examples of how subtle and protean adverse effects on functional development may be.     

What Narrows the Stepgap? Closeness Between Parents and Adult (Step)Children in Germany

Using data from the German Family Panel (pairfam) based on 11,746 intergenerational family relationships, the present study examined differences in parental closeness across relations with multiple, coresidential, and non‐coresidential adolescent and adult children. Replicating previous research in a multilevel analysis across families, the authors found a strong positive effect of biological descent on closeness in comparison to adoptive and steprelations; this parental favoritism toward biological offspring was partly explained by selection via parental resources and attitudes. Supplemental within‐parent fixed effect analyses suggested that the relative disadvantage of stepchildren was offset by longer duration of the stepparent–stepchild relationship, lower household income, fewer children in the household, and high parental affirmation of familism.