Some Remarks on Latent Variable Models in Categorical Data Analysis

We present an overview of some important and/or interesting contributions to the latent variable literature for the analysis of multivariate categorical responses, beginning with Lazarsfeld's introduction of latent class models. There is by now an enormous literature on latent variable models for categorical responses, especially in the context of including random effects in generalized linear mixed models, so this is necessarily a highly selective overview. Due to space considerations, we summarize the main ideas, suppressing details. As part of our presentation, we raise a couple of questions that may suggest future research work.     

The treatment of families in the Australian welfare state, 1984 to 2010

This paper uses Australian Bureau of Statistics' fiscal incidence figures to track trends in the treatment of families with children in the Australian welfare state across the period 1984 to 2010. Our four main findings are that: sole parent families gained while couple families made no net gain; there was no growth in ‘middle class welfare‘; couple families are slightly better off than elderly households in terms of their final incomes, but considerably less well off in terms of their net worth; and stated differences in policy intentions by the major political parties have had little influence on trends in actual government redistribution.     

Ten Research Questions for Family Therapy

A growing evidence‐base shows that family therapy works, but many gaps in our knowledge remain about the conditions under which family therapy is effective and how it works. In this paper, ten critical research questions about family therapy that need to be addressed are considered. In short these are:

• 1 Is family therapy as effective in community settings as it is in specialist clinics?
• 2 For what problems is family therapy cost‐effective?
• 3 Does family therapy work for under‐researched problems and populations?
• 4 Do social‐constructionist and narrative approaches to family therapy work?
• 5 Can family therapy protocols be enhanced for non‐responders?
• 6 Can family therapy be combined with other psychotherapies to effectively treat specific problems?
• 7 Can family therapy be combined with pharmacotherapy to effectively treat specific problems?
• 8 What specific factors contribute to the effectiveness of family therapy with particular problems?
• 9 What common factors contribute to the effectiveness of family therapy?
• 10 What therapist and client factors contribute to the effectiveness of family therapy?

     

Newborn Infants' Preference for Attractive Faces: The Role of Internal and External Facial Features

Several previous experiments have found that newborn and young infants will spend more time looking at attractive faces when these are shown paired with faces judged by adults to be unattractive. Two experimental conditions are described with the aim of finding whether the “attractiveness effect” results from attention to internal or external facial features, or both. Pairs of attractive and less attractive faces (as judged by adults) were shown to newborn infants (mean age 2 days, 9 hours), where each pair had either identical internal features (and different external features) or identical external features (and different internal features). In the latter, but not the former, condition the infants looked longer at the attractive faces. These findings are clear evidence that newborn infants use information about internal facial features in making preferences based on attractiveness. It is suggested that when newborn (and older) infants are presented with facial stimuli, whether dynamic or static, they are able to attend both to internal and external facial features.     

The Effects of Parenting on the Development of Adolescent Alcohol Misuse: A Six‐Wave Latent Growth Model

Alcohol use increases throughout adolescence. Based on family socialization theory, it was hypothesized that family factors, particularly parental support and monitoring, would influence individual trajectories in the development of alcohol misuse. Six waves of data were analyzed, based on interviews with 506 adolescents in the general population of a northeastern metropolitan area. Using growth‐curve longitudinal analysis, results show that parenting significantly predicts adolescents' initial drinking levels (intercepts) as well as their rates of increase in alcohol misuse (slope). This study provides evidence that effective parenting is an important factor in preventing alcohol misuse.     

WHERE THE MINIMUM WAGE BITES HARD: INTRODUCTION OF MINIMUM WAGES TO A LOW WAGE SECTOR

Between 1993 and April 1999 there was no minimum wage in the United Kingdom (except in agriculture). In this paper we study the effects of the introduction of a National Minimum Wage (NMW) in April 1999 on one heavily affected sector, the residential care homes industry. This sector contains a large number of low paid workers and as such can be viewed as being very vulnerable to minimum wage legislation. We look at the impact on both wages and employment. Our results suggest that the minimum wage raised the wages of a large number of care home workers, causing a very big wage compression of the lower end of the wage distribution, thereby strongly reducing wage inequality. There is some evidence of employment and hours reductions after the minimum wage introduction, though the estimated effects are not that sizable given how heavily the wage structure was affected. (JEL: J4, J8)     

Improving early phase oncology clinical trial design: An opportunity for statisticians

This short communication supports that rule-based study designs such as the ‘3 + 3’ study design are still being used in early phase oncology development programs despite their inferior performance to model-based and model-assisted designs. Statisticians have an opportunity to shape and improve early phase oncology drug development programs by introducing newer, more efficient study designs that estimate the Optimal Biological dose to their oncology trialist colleges.     

Part II: differences between sexually victimized and nonsexually victimized male adolescent sexual abusers and delinquent youth: further group comparisons of developmental antecedents and behavioral challenges

In a recent paper published in the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, we assessed the differences between sexually victimized and nonsexually victimized male adolescent sexual abusers ( Burton, Duty, & Leibowitz, 2011 ). We found that the sexually victimized group had more severe developmental antecedents (e.g., trauma and early exposure to pornography) and behavioral difficulties (sexual aggression, arousal, pornography use, and nonsexual offenses). The present study compares sexually victimized and nonsexually victimized adolescent sexual abusers with a group of nonsexually victimized delinquent youth. Findings included that delinquent youth had fewer behavioral and developmental problems than the comparison groups. In addition, sexually victimized sexual abusers had the highest mean scores on trauma and personality measures. Implications for research and treatment are offered.     

Youth leadership program for changing self-image and attitude toward people with disabilities

Society has a negative attitude toward people with intellectual disabilities or psychiatric disabilities. It is well documented that they are subjected to prejudice, stigma, and negative attitudes (Di Giulio, 2003 ; Finger, 1994 ). Professional literature indicates that information about disabilities and encounters with persons with disabilities can change negative attitudes (Carter, Hughes, Copeland, & Breen, 2001 ; Krajewski & Flaherty, 2000 ). This study accompanied 164 9th-grade students from various junior high schools throughout Israel. Half of the students participated in an integration program for changing attitudes toward persons with disabilities, and the other half served as the control group. The research examined the existence and the degree of relationship between participation in the program, changes in attitudes toward people with disabilities, and self-image. The research findings pointed to a positive change in attitudes of the participants of the program in comparison with the control group, resulting mainly from personal contact with people with disabilities. No relationship was found between levels of self-image of the research group and attitudes toward people with disabilities.     

Nineteenth century stature and family size: binding constraint or productive labor force?

A neglected area in historical stature studies is the relationship between stature and family size, which are documented here to be positively related. The relationship between material inequality and heath is the subject of considerable debate, and there was an inverse relationship between material inequality and stature. After controlling for family size and wealth variables, the paper supports a positive relationship between the physical environment and stature.