The encounter with family violence and risky sexual activity among young adolescent females

In this article, we analyze the relationship between family violence and risky sexual activity for female adolescents (age 14 to 17). We examine two forms of family violence: experience (receiving physical abuse from a parent or parent-figure) and exposure (witnessing interparental physical violence). We hypothesize that either form of violence will predict greater odds of engaging in risky sexual behavior. We define risky sexual activity as any of the following: having multiple partners within the last 12 months or having sex with partners who are themselves engaging in risky behavior (e.g., having multiple partners of either sex, injecting unprescribed drugs, sharing unprescribed needles for injecting drugs). We analyzed data from 710 respondents taken from the National Survey of Family Growth, Cycle V, living with at least one biological parent. Results showed that experiencing violence from a parent greatly increased the likelihood of risky sex, even when controlling for the experience of forced sex, age, mother's age at first birth, race, socioeconomic status, and religiosity. Female adolescents who had experienced forced sex, those who were older (especially 17-year-olds), non-Hispanic Blacks (but not Hispanics), those living in a family with low educational attainment (less than a high school diploma), and those for whom religion was not or only somewhat personally important were more likely to report risky sex compared to others. These effects were not modified by whether the respondents lived in single- or two-parent families. An interaction between the two forms of physical violence suggests that either form is sufficient to increase significantly the odds of risky sex; an analysis in which respondents were differentiated by their experience of either form of violence showed a strong effect of experience on risky sex, net of the control variables.     

Approaches to the study of gender in marriage and family therapy curricula

This study compares two accredited marriage and family therapy programs: One includes a separate course on gender, and the other integrates gender throughout the curriculum. Students from the two programs rated their own and their peers' experience of how gender education effects therapy, program culture, and personal life. Results indicate that students from the integrated program view their peers as incorporating gender ideas in therapy to a significantly greater extent (t = 2.83, p < .05) than do students in the gender course program. However, students from the program that has a gender course leaned more toward agreement with feminist concepts than did students from the integrated program. Overall, students appear to be learning about gender and integrating these concepts into their work as therapists. Discussion is included on how to choose a gender curriculum.     

Impediments to Mothers Leaving Welfare: The Role of Maternal and Child Disability

This research examines the relationship between disabilities in families and exits from welfare. Controlling for variations in characteristics known to be associated with welfare exits, this study investigates and documents that specific configurations of disabilities in families are also strongly associated with reduced rates of welfare exits. The impact of a child with a disability on welfare exits is similar to the mother's own disability, with an impact equivalent in magnitude to minority status. The presence of a child with a disability limits the chances that a mother with disability will leave welfare. Our findings add to the literature on welfare dependency and have implications for welfare reforms that emphasize work, self-sufficiency, and reducing poverty.     

A goad for everyone else

The article tries to depict central strands of a Media Cultural Studies that combines various contemporary approaches to the study of the media. Different from previous, mostly disciplinary projects, it calls for an approach that is rooted in social theory, covers a wide range of conjunctures between culturalist and critical viewpoints and aims for a better understanding of the social power of the media. A retrospective look at the pioneering works of the British Cultural Studies tradition helps to delineate such a holistic, theoretical, methodological, and epistemological endeavour and finds the writings of — in this case — Williams and Hall as particularly helpful in formulating topical questions for today’s media theory.     

Removing Macho Management: Lessons from the Field of Education

This article examines discourses of management and leadership in the light of gender inequalities in social relations and in educational administration in particular. It is argued that women's viewpoints and critiques of masculinist managerial perspectives are important in debates about alternative models of leadership. Interview data from a recent study of a group of six women working in teaching/managing positions in some primary and secondary schools in New Zealand is used to analyse a leadership style and philosophy which cuts across traditional gendered splits between private and public spheres, emotionality and rationality, teaching and administration. In this holistic approach, emphasis is placed on integrating such dichotomies through affiliation with others and power sharing. The paper concludes that such a management style must be supported and valued for the contribution it can make to improving organizational cultures and enhancing school learning and teaching environments. An original version of this paper was presented at the NZARE 13th National Conference at Knox College, Dunedin, New Zealand on 30 November 1991.     

Assessing the lead market potential of countries for innovation projects

This paper presents an approach to assessing the potential of countries to lead the global adoption of an innovation and to set a global product or process standard. It can be observed that the specific design of an innovation diffuses worldwide after it has been adopted in a single country. We suggest that there are nation-specific characteristics that increase the likelihood that a locally preferred innovation design will become successful in other countries, too. Once users in a market that has lead market characteristics have adopted a specific innovation design, the possibility increases that users in other countries subsequently adopt it as well. We present a lead market concept for the development of global innovation designs. By focusing on the design of the innovation that responds to the preferences within the lead market, a company can leverage the success experienced in the lead market for a global market launch. In order to follow a lead market strategy of new product development, it is necessary to assess the lead market potential of countries before an innovation is developed and tested in the market. We use an indicator-based methodology that approximates the lead market attributes of countries. The assessment methodology is applied to two innovation projects at the truck division of DaimlerChrysler.     

The One-Box Challenge: Providing a Federated Search That Benefits the Research Process

The one-box federated search of databases brings as many challenges as promises to database searching, especially in terms of adapting these systems to user needs and the effects this new mode of searching will have on users' research behaviors. This issue of “The Balance Point” presents several librarians with strong interests in reference and instruction, who tell the story of adapting a federated search system for their libraries and reflect upon how federated searching can change the way students do research and on the implications federated searching has on information literacy skills and the quality of results found.     

Attachment Representations and Discipline in Mothers of Young School Children: An Observation Study

Previous research was extended by connecting maternal attachment representations not only to maternal emotional support and task structuring, but also to maternal discipline. A total number of 62 mothers of preschoolers (M_age = 54 months) completed the adult attachment interview and a self‐report measure of dysfunctional discipline. Two years later, a subsample of 38 mother–child dyads was observed during two laboratory interaction tasks in which the mother and child were induced to have divergent goals. In general, the hypothesized connections between maternal attachment representations and discipline were found, at least when discipline was independently observed. Specifically, as compared to autonomous mothers, non‐autonomous mothers showed more overreactivity, more psychological control and less flexibility in their discipline attempts. Also, their children were less compliant. These differences were more pronounced during a story‐eliciting task than during a block task. These findings suggest that parental behaviors in the discipline domain contribute to the explanation of the intergenerational transmission of attachment patterns.     

The Living Arrangements of Children in Immigrant Families in the United States1

Little is known about the living arrangements of first‐ and second‐generation immigrant children. Using data from the Current Population Survey and a multivariate approach, I compared living arrangements of immigrant children to U.S.‐born white children with U.S.‐born parents. Findings show, except for foreign‐born black and some Hispanic children, that foreign‐born children lived with married parents more frequently than did U.S.‐born white children with U.S.‐born parents. However, by the third generation, a pattern emerged showing a decline in living with married parents among some immigrant children and a rise in living with single parents. The noticeable “downward assimilation” amon some second and third‐generation immigrant children fits a theory of segmented assimilation and is concerning because single‐parent families confront more social problems and sociodemographic risks.