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.     

An evaluation of the population and development program in Egypt

Previous rural surveys analyzing the impact of the Egyptian Population and Development Program on KAP variables (knowledge, attitudes, and practices of contraception) have produced mixed results. In 1982 a survey specifically designed to measure program impact contained refinements in questionnaire measurement, sampling, and analysis. Each refinement intensified the apparent program impact. Fertility itself still appears unresponsive, and attitudes toward family size have changed little, but marked differences between program and nonprogram areas in contraceptive knowledge, attitudes, and practice suggest imminent fertility declines in program areas.     

The Mainstream of Consciousness: An Interactions Analysis of a Phenomenological Concept*

William James' concept of a personal “stream of consciousness” was carried in a phenomenological direction by Alfred Schutz, who showed that people create their individual and interpersonal reality through selective attention to one another. This idea is discussed here from a symbolic-interactionist standpoint, wherein the various “streams” become one “mainstream” of social thought, consciousness and action. Fundamental concepts of interpretive sociology such as the self, meaningful objects, interpersonal encounters and relations, and social reality, are examined through observations of a jazz ensemble during rehearsals, using James' original ideas and their further development by Schutz.     

The Co-Occurrence of Child Abuse and Domestic Violence: An Issue of Service Delivery for Social Service Professionals

In order to add to the growing literature on intergenerational rates of family violence, data were collected from a community-based child abuse agency. The study's purpose was to compare the co-occurrence of child abuse/neglect (CAN) and domestic violence (DV), and the prevalence of CAN and parent's childhood history of abuse. Data were collected from 537 families through intake and subsequent interviews in an attempt to determine the relationship among CAN and DV, and CAN and parent's childhood history of abuse. A chi-square analysis indicated significant relationships among these variables. Of the participants in this sample, 48.9% had experienced both CAN and DV. These results also indicated that 66.3% of participants had a childhood history of CAN and were currently experiencing issues of CAN with their own children. Logistic regression was utilized to examine whether families involved with Child Protective Services (CPS) were at higher risk for DV and/or parental childhood history of CAN. The results indicate that CPS-involved families were approximately three times as likely to have a parent reporting a childhood history of CAN but were not at significantly higher odds for DV. Implications for service delivery are discussed.     

Comment on ‘The random variation in rates based on total enumeration of events’ by J. R. Udry,C. Teddlie,C. M. Suchindran

This comment builds on the work of Udry et al., developing a model of random variation of vital rates in small geographical areas. The model is based on the division of the variance of vital rates into three parts; that which would occur in a homogenous population; that due to population heterogeneity; and that due to yearly fluctuations in the underlying basis for the mean value of the probability of the vital event in question. Contrary to Udry et al., this model demonstrates that population heterogeneity must decrease the overall vital rate variance. Using birth rates presented in Udry et al., a test of the new model demonstrates the importance of the third factor, yearly fluctuations, in determining year-to-year variation in birth rates.     

The role of the school library: reflections from Sweden

Libraries are critical learning spaces and may play a significant role in intercultural education initiatives, particularly in Sweden where the national curriculum ascribes central functions to libraries for learning activities. Unfortunately, the ways in which teachers and librarians may collaborate to leverage mutual resources is not fully understood. This article uses Pirjo Lahdenperä’s model of intercultural education development to consider the case of a small school library in a highly diverse urban neighbourhood. Although public libraries in Scandinavia can support intercultural educational values by addressing individual needs and complementing curriculum-based teaching, the development of new teaching practices requires additional guidance as well as institutional support.     

Stone's Hypothesis of “Personalizing” Shopping as Compensation for Urban Depersonalization: A Reconsideration*

Critics of Wirth's theory of urban life suggest that he underemphasized the extent of urban social networks that counteract trends toward depersonalization. One argument, by Stone. claims that persons who lack social ties at the neighborhood level compensate by establishing personal relationships in shopping, an activity normally considered highly pecuniary in orientation. A replication of Stone's theory for grocery shoppers shows just the opposite. If anything, persons who lack social ties at the neighborhood level also minimize “personalizing” in their grocery shopping.     

The simulation of industrial robot systems

This paper describes the GRASP computer aided design system for modelling and evaluating industrial robot workplaces. GRASP satisfies a range of simulation needs within the context of designing, implementing and operating industrial robotic systems. The GRASP software may be used to investigate robots operating by themselves or, more likely, as part of an integrated cell. Facilities within GRASP assist workplace layout, position and velocity evaluations, clash detection and co-ordination between items. A robot library exists and is being extended, and an embryo off-line programming facility has been used under restricted conditions. GRASP has been used to help solve a wide range of practical industrial robot problems and has proved itself technically, and also as an educational tool, by showing how a proposed system would operate. The paper describes the facilities within GRASP.     

Short notices

H. J. Dyos (ed.), Urban History Yearbook 1974, 192; Urban History Yearbook 1975, 188 (Leicester University Press, Leicester, £3.00).

J. R. Raveosdale, Liable to Floods: Village Landscape on the Edge of the Fens, A.D. 450–1850 (1974), xi+206 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, £5.50).

Joel Samaha, Law and Order in Historical Perspective. The Case of Elizabethan Essex (1974), xvi+176 (Academic Press, London and New York, £4.70).

Charles Carlton, The Court of Orphans (1974), 145 (Leicester University Press, Leicester, £3.50).

Hans Christian Johansen, Belolkningsudvikling og familiestruktur i det 18. árhuadrede (1975). 211 (Odense University Press, Odense, Denmark, D.kv. 60+VAT). (Population and family structure in eighteenth‐century Denmark)

Paul Butel, Les négotiants bordelais, l'Europe, et les Iles au dix‐huitième siècle (1974), 427 (Aubier‐Montaigne, Paris, 70 fr.). (Bordeaux merchants, Europe, and the French West Indies in the eighteenth century)

Marcus Cunliffe, The Age of Expansion 1848–1917 (1974), 336 (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, £4.95).

Pamela and Harold Silver, The Education of the Poor. The History of a National School, 1824–1974 (1974), z+197 (Routledge and Kegan Paul, £3.95).