Perfectionism,Coping, and Quality of Intimate Relationships

The present study examined the associations among perfectionism, marital coping, and marital functioning in a community sample of 76 couples. A theoretical model was tested in which maladaptive coping mediates the relationship between trait perfectionism and poorer marital functioning. As predicted, one of the interpersonal dimensions of perfectionism, socially prescribed perfectionism, was associated with maladaptive marital coping and poorer marital adjustment for both the self and the partner, even after controlling for depression and neuroticism. Finally, the use of negative coping strategies mediated the relationship between socially prescribed perfectionism and poorer marital functioning for both the self and the partner. Overall, this study highlights the importance of spouse‐specific forms of perfectionism in marital adjustment.     

Putting the critique back into a Critique of Information: refusing to follow the order

This paper argues that Scott Lash's Critique of Information is one of the most important works of the new informational order: the Order. However, despite its comprehensive and insightful analysis, it illustrates a common trend amongst theorists whereby the inherent pessimism of their arguments' logic tends to be replaced by an unwarranted optimism regarding their conclusions. This criticism is applied to Lash's critique, which is further supplemented by a rejection of Lash's argument that the transcendent perspective necessary for critical theory has been supplanted in the information age by an immanent all-at-onceness. The much more negative perceptions of the social and cultural effects of the Order to be found within literature and cultural history are defended as valuable sources of critical perspectives that may still help to aid theory as it struggles to keep up with the Order's discombobulating flows.     

Penalized image averaging and discrimination with facial and fishery applications

In this paper we use a penalized likelihood approach to image warping in the context of discrimination and averaging. The choice of average image is formulated statistically by minimizing a penalized likelihood, where the likelihood measures the similarity between images after warping and the penalty is a measure of distortion of a warping. The notions of measures of similarity are given in terms of normalized image information. The measures of distortion are landmark based. Thus we use a combination of landmark and normalized image information. The average defined in the paper is also extended by allowing random perturbation of the landmarks. This strategy improves averages for discrimination purposes. We give here real applications from medical and biological areas.     

Disadvantage and Discrimination Compounded: the experience of Pakistani and Bangladeshi parents of disabled children in the UK

This paper discusses a qualitative and quantitative study of the circumstances of 20 Pakistani and Bangladeshi families with one or more severely disabled children living in Birmingham, England. Parents and other adult carers were interviewed using a combination of structured questionnaires and a semi-structured interview schedule focusing on the families' material circumstances, their use of formal services, informal care arrangements, and aspects of the parents' social and psychological well-being. The study suggests that previous national surveys of disabled families may have under-estimated the extent of material disadvantage, while it confirms that health and social care professionals should not assume that Pakistani and Bangladeshi parents have recourse to high levels of extended family support. The combination of disadvantaged circumstances and difficulties in securing access to appropriate services, which are found for the majority of families with a disabled child, was particularly acute for these ethnic minority families, suggesting the additional dimension of institutional racism.     

Measuring density dependence in survival from mark-recapture data

We discuss the analysis of mark-recapture data when the aim is to quantify density dependence between survival rate and abundance. We describe an analysis for a random effects model that includes a linear relationship between abundance and survival using an errors-in-variables regression estimator with analytical adjustment for approximate bias. The analysis is illustrated using data from short-tailed shearwaters banded for 48 consecutive years at Fisher Island, Tasmania, and Hutton's shearwater banded at Kaikoura, New Zealand for nine consecutive years. The Fisher Island data provided no evidence of a density dependence relationship between abundance and survival, and confidence interval widths rule out anything but small density dependent effects. The Hutton's shearwater data were equivocal with the analysis unable to rule out anything but a very strong density dependent relationship between survival and abundance.     

Parameter estimation with grouped data according to the linearization method — a comparison with alternative approaches

Received: January 11, 2000; revised version: August 23, 2000     

The Trouble with Harry: Why the 'New Agenda of Life Politics' Fails to Convince

via e-mail: paul.garrett{at}nottingham.ac.uk Summary Harry Ferguson (2001), referring largely to Britain and Ireland,maintains that social work should be committed to a ‘newway of thinking’ which is rooted in ‘life politics’.This idea, uncritically grounded in the ideas of Anthony Giddensand Ulrich Beck, fails to convince because: the assertion thatwe are now living in a ‘post traditional order’is undermined by the resilience of key historical forms of regulationand control which continue, for example, to limit women's choicein the sphere of reproductive rights; identified changes inthe texture of family relations are not evidenced by research;the ‘life politics’ perspective places too greatan emphasis on human agency, choice and volition and not enoughon structural constraint; the structural location of the ‘lifepolitics’ proponents is not interrogated; the analysisis too stridently dismissive of the idea that ‘emancipatorypolitics’ should be social work's primary orientation.     

The Current State of Women Print Journalists: An Analysis of the Status and Careers of Females in Newspapers Sports Departments

The purpose of this study was to provide an analysis of the current state of women journalists within the sports departments at newspapers across the United States. This investigation involved a determination of their demographic make-up, job status within the sports department, rationale for entering the field, and advice for younger women preparing to follow in their footsteps. The findings suggest that although the large majority of women have faced discrimination in the sport media, they believe improvements have been made towards equity. The majority of respondents noted that they were happy with the assignments they had been given. Subjects did, however, feel that they were assigned to cover females more than their male counterparts, and some responses regarding dissatisfaction with their positions was also noted.     

Intermarriage and the risk of divorce in the Netherlands: the effects of differences in religion and in nationality, 1974-94

A textbook hypothesis about divorce is that heterogamous marriages are more likely to end in divorce than homogamous marriages. We analyse vital statistics on the population of the Netherlands, which provide a unique and powerful opportunity to test this hypothesis. All marriages formed between 1974 and 1984 (nearly 1 million marriages) are traced in the divorce records and multivariate logistic regression models are used to analyse the effects on divorce of heterogamy in religion and national origin. Our analyses confirm the hypothesis for marriages that cross the Protestant-Catholic or the Jewish-Gentile boundary. Heterogamy effects are weaker for marriages involving Protestants or unaffiliated persons. Marriages between Dutch and other nationalities have a higher risk of divorce, the more so the greater the cultural differences between the two groups. Overall, the evidence supports the view that, in the Netherlands, new group boundaries are more difficult to cross than old group boundaries.     

An exploratory study examining the spatial dynamics of illicit drug availability and rates of drug use

This study examines the spatial relationship between drug availability and rates of drug use in neighborhood areas. Responses from 16,083 individuals were analyzed at the zip code level (n = 158) and analyses were conducted separately for youth and adults using spatial regression techniques. The dependent variable is the percentage of respondents using drugs in the past year. Neighborhood drug availability (the major independent variable) was measured by the percentage of non-drug users who had been approached to purchase drugs. Data were obtained as part of the Fighting Back community evaluation. For youth (aged 12 to 18), drug sales in adjacent and surrounding areas were positively associated with self-reported drug use in areas where youth were residents. For adults, drug sales within the neighborhood were negatively associated with drug use, while drug sales in immediately adjacent neighborhoods were positively related to self-reports of drug use. Findings suggest that the areas where rates of drug users are greatest are not necessarily the same area where drugs are sold. Designing strategies to reduce the supply of drugs should receive input from city and regional planners and developers, as well as law enforcement and public health professionals.