Lesbians Define Themselves: Diversity in Lesbian Identification

Ninety-nine self-identified lesbians provided definitions of what being a lesbian meant to them. A content analysis revealed two major categories: politically-based definitions and nonpolitical definitions. The political definitions included two highly interrelated subgroups, one of definitions based on woman-identification and the other including a broader world view that included affiliations with other oppressed groups. Nonpolitical definitions included four subgroups; those who defined lesbianism as sex/love with women, lesbianism as a true essence, just happening to love a woman, and lesbianism as only one small aspect of the person. There were only a few differences between women who cited political definitions and those with nonpolitical definitions. Lesbians who provided political definitions were more likely to identify themselves as feminists, were more involved in political activities and slightly more of them had a history of depression and eating disorders. Lesbians who provided nonpolitical definitions were more likely to have children, to have been raised in a conservative religion, and to think that they were born as lesbians. Various interpretations of the categories of definitions are provided.     

Labor Supply Decisions of Disabled Male Workers

We use unique survey data, collected by the Workers’ Compensation Board of Ontario, to estimate the labor supply response of disabled male workers to benefit payouts and their post-injury wage. Our data enable us to fill gaps in the existing literature by estimating the hours as well as the return-to-work response for younger as well as older workers, based on objective rather than subjective self-reporting of disability status. Our results suggest a strong positive incentive effect from higher wages a and that lump-sum benefit payouts that are not reduced if earnings increased generally do not have adverse incentives on the return-to-work and hours decision, except for an income effect over the longer life cycle of younger men. We also discuss the policy implications of our estimates.

Are peer educators really peers?

OBJECTIVE, PARTICIPANTS, AND METHODS: To determine whether peer educators are considered peers by their audiences, the authors compared 28 peer educators and 28 college students on their personal qualities using self-report surveys. RESULTS: Students who wanted to become peer educators reported higher self-esteem, greater leadership skills, and fewer risky health behaviors than did demographically similar college students. However, peer educators appeared similar to their colleagues in terms of personal values and personality temperament. CONCLUSIONS: Although peer educators are natural leaders with strong self-esteem and more healthy behaviors, they appear to be quite similar to their audiences in regard to values and temperaments, making them successful role models and arguably true peers.     

A new approach to stock price modelling and the efficiency of the Italian stock exchange

In this paper, we propose a new model of asset prices which takes account of the investment strategies of three different kinds of agents: the market-makers, who operate rationally on the basis of the asset fundamentals, the smart buy-and-sell agents, who intervene when the prices reach particular levels and the non-smart buy-and-sell agents, who trade infrequently, mainly following psychological motivations. The different behavior of these groups of agents can determine temporary inefficiences on financial markets and we show that, by considering these inefficiences, it is possible to improve forecasting of asset prices.     

An Examination of the Perceptions of Organizational Politics Model: Replication and Extension

This study examined the Perceptions of PoliticsModel (Ferris, Russ, & Fandt, 1989) in a three-phaseprocess. In the first phase, the model was examinedusing Anderson and Gerbing's (1988) two-step approach to structural equations modeling. Themodel was tested on data collected from 786 employees ofa state government agency and 469 employees of anelectric utility cooperative. Results from this phase indicated that the model had acceptablefit and was more parsimonious than any of the competingmodels to which it was compared. In the second phase,understanding as a moderator of the relationships between perceptions of organizational politicsand several outcome variables was examined. Resultsindicated that understanding only moderated the outcomerelationship between politics and job satisfaction, not intent to turnover or job anxiety. Finally,in phase three, the additional outcome variables oforganizational satisfaction, supervisor effectiveness,and self-reported individual performance were included in an effort to expand the Ferris et al. (1989)framework. Additionally, the moderating effects ofunderstanding on the relationships between perceptionsof politics and these new outcome variables were explored. Results from the final step indicatedthat adding the new outcome variables increased theparsimonyof the model without decreasing model fit. Withrespect to the moderating effects, only thepolitics-performance relationship was moderated byunderstanding.Allof these results are discussed in light of theirimplications for future research.     

Revealing representations of jazz in the Weimar Republic

While in America and elsewhere jazz made its debut in the middle and late 1910s, the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) remained relatively isolated from jazz until 1920. Touring groups opted for travel in economically and politically stable areas. Until the first live jazz concert in 1924, Germans learned of jazz through sheet music, recordings, and soldiers returning from World War I. Lasting records of jazz culture exist due to the advances in sound recording, photography, and publishing. Jazz images from the Weimar Republic offer a glimpse into the triangular relationship of ethnic African and African-American jazz artists with jazz culture and with German audiences. Many images de-emphasize the African-American jazz artists by using stereotypical tropes, masking the artist, and avoiding physical portrayals of the artist. These techniques reflect the adaptation of jazz culture for audiences within a nation recovering economic and political stability.     

Optimal design for epidemiological studies subject to designed missingness

In large epidemiological studies, budgetary or logistical constraints will typically preclude study investigators from measuring all exposures, covariates and outcomes of interest on all study subjects. We develop a flexible theoretical framework that incorporates a number of familiar designs such as case control and cohort studies, as well as multistage sampling designs. Our framework also allows for designed missingness and includes the option for outcome dependent designs. Our formulation is based on maximum likelihood and generalizes well known results for inference with missing data to the multistage setting. A variety of techniques are applied to streamline the computation of the Hessian matrix for these designs, facilitating the development of an efficient software tool to implement a wide variety of designs.     

Specialist police units and the joint investigation of child abuse

The last ten years have witnessed a significant shift in the police response to investigations of child abuse. One of the most ‘visible’ manifestations of this shift has been the establishment of specialist units where children can be interviewed, medical examinations conducted and, in some cases, overnight accommodation made available to children and their non-abusive carers. The history of these units in Scotland is summarized in this article, together with a brief outline of their remit and some of the current issues facing them. A closer examination of the way in which Scottish units have responded to the issue of joint child abuse investigations with social workers is made, drawing on evidence from research conducted in Scotland.     

Beyond Regional Institutions: Widening Unemployment Differentials in Italy

Abstract. Building on Layard and Jackman's framework, we propose a simple model to analyse the relation between labour productivity and unemployment differentials in Italy and present some panel data evidence to support the theoretical predictions of the model. The empirical analysis strongly suggests that the productivity differential is one of the main factors driving the dynamics of the unemployment differential in Italy.