The Effects of Early Institutionalization and Foster Care Intervention on Children's Social Behaviors at the Age of Eight

The present study compared the social behaviors of eight‐year‐old previously institutionalized Romanian children from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) in two groups: (1) children randomized to foster care homes (FCG), and (2) children randomized to care as usual (remaining in institutions) (CAUG). Children were observed interacting with an age‐ and gender‐matched unfamiliar, non‐institutionalized peer from the community during six interactive tasks, and their behavior was coded for speech reticence, social engagement, task orientation, social withdrawal, and conversational competence. Group comparisons revealed that FCG children were rated as significantly less reticent during a speech task than CAUG children. For CAUG children, longer time spent in institutional care was related to greater speech reticence and lower social engagement. Using an actor–partner interdependence model, CAUG children's behaviors, but not FCG, were found to influence the behavior of unfamiliar peers. These findings are the first to characterize institutionalized children's observed social behaviors toward new peers during middle childhood and highlight the positive effects of foster care intervention in the social domain.     

Precarious lives,precarious labour: family support and young men's transitions to work in the UK

This research is about young people, family support and transitions into the workforce. We provide the results of a comparative, qualitative study with young men in two southern English towns. We argue that relationships of support in families are vital to young people's ability to ‘navigate’ precarious labour market opportunities. As Youth Studies has become increasingly preoccupied with individualism, we are compelled to draw attention to the collective support that is necessary to ‘launch’ the life trajectories of young people who are transitioning into an economic environment marked by insecurity and uncertainty. We conclude with recommendations for future research.     

Bivariate kurtotic distributions of garment fibre data

Summary. A bivariate and unimodal distribution is introduced to model an unconventionally distributed data set collected by the Forensic Science Service. This family of distributions allows for a different kurtosis in each orthogonal direction and has a constructive rather than probability density function definition, making conventional inference impossible. However, the construction and inference work well with a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis.     

Strategic Management and the Performance of Public Organizations: Testing Venerable Ideas against Recent Theories

Miles and Snow, among others, argue that strategy content isan important influence on organizational performance. Theirtypology, applied recently to public organizations in the UnitedKingdom, divides strategic actors into four general types: prospectors,defenders, analyzers, and reactors. This article begins by integratingwork on strategy content or strategic management into the O'Toole-Meierformal theory of public management. This study shows that strategycontent is a subset of generally accepted management functionsin public organizations. The article then proceeds to test thestrategic management concepts in a large, multiyear sample ofpublic organizations. The results show that strategy can beseparated out from other elements of management for a distinguishableassessment of its impact on organizational performance. Unlikethe predictions of Miles and Snow and the empirical findingsof Boyne and Walker, however, we find that the defender strategyis the most effective for the primary mission of the organizationand that the prospector and reactor strategies work best inregard to the goals of the more politically powerful elementsof the organization's environment.     

Psychological factors in consumer debt: Money management, economic socialization, and credit use

A postal survey study of factors correlated with consumer debt investigated several psychological variables which have been suggested as causes or effects of debt. The survey was conducted with the help of a public utility company, and questionnaires were sent to three groups with different debt histories over the preceding two years: Non-Debtors (no debt to the company), Mild Debtors (late payment to the company), and Serious Debtors (sued for debt recovery by the company). Economic and demographic factors predicted debt category well, supporting previous results. Further variance between groups was accounted for by people's money management skills and facilities, by measures of their time horizons, and by aspects of their consumer behaviour. Non-debtors had more money management facilities (e.g. bank accounts) than debtors, and rated their abilities at money management more highly. Debtors had shorter time horizons than non-debtors. Debtors were more likely to buy cigarettes and Christmas presents for children than non-debtors. No group differences were found for attitudes to debt or locus of control. There were significant group differences for measures of economic socialization, social comparisons, use of credit, and other aspects of consumer behaviour, but these differences were not independently significant on multivariate analysis. Conclusions must be qualified because of low return rates, but the results suggest that a complex of psychological and behavioural variables affect debt and are affected by it. It is argued that these variables are linked to the psychology of poverty.