Informing ourselves about early childhood services

Using a range of examples, the paper argues that there is an information deficit concerning early childhood services; even on the most basic issues, there is either no information or such information as does exists is unreliable, limited or outdated. This matters because information is a necessary condition for good policy, for open and democratic decision making and for giving visibility to young children. The article concludes by considering how an adequate information system might be developed based on annual returns from individual services and regular surveys of households with children.     

Block diagrams and splitting criteria for classification trees

Various aspects of the classification tree methodology of Breiman et al., (1984) are discussed. A method of displaying classification trees, called block diagrams, is developed. Block diagrams give a clear presentation of the classification, and are useful both to point out features of the particular data set under consideration and also to highlight deficiencies in the classification method being used. Various splitting criteria are discussed; the usual Gini-Simpson criterion presents difficulties when there is a relatively large number of classes and improved splitting criteria are obtained. One particular improvement is the introduction of adaptive anti-end-cut factors that take advantage of highly asymmetrical splits where appropriate. They use the number and mix of classes in the current node of the tree to identify whether or not it is likely to be advantageous to create a very small offspring node. A number of data sets are used as examples.     

The Nature and Correlates of Sibling Influence in Two‐Parent African American Families

Guided by research and theory on sibling similarities and differences, this study explored the nature and correlates of 2 processes of sibling influence—social learning and sibling differentiation—during adolescence. Participants included 2 adolescent‐age siblings (M = 16.29 years for older siblings and M = 12.59 years for younger siblings, respectively) from 166 two‐parent African American families. Significant nonlinear associations between these two influence dynamics and some sibling relationship qualities were discovered. For sibling differentiation, but not social learning, these links were further moderated by gender composition of the sibling dyad. Additional analyses revealed that youths' reports of social learning were generally linked to smaller differences between siblings, whereas differentiation processes were linked to greater differences in siblings' individual characteristics.     

EMPLOYER CHOICES IN EAP DESIGN AND WORKSITE SERVICES

In today's complex private healthcare market, employers have varied preferences for particular features of behavioral health products such as Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). Factors which may influence these preferences include: establishment size, type of organization, industry, workplace substance abuse regulations, and structure of health insurance benefits. This study of 103 large employer purchasers from a single managed behavioral healthcare organization investigated the impact of such variables on the EAP features that employers select to provide to workers and their families. Our findings indicate that for this group of employers, preferences for the type and delivery mode of EAP counseling services are fairly universal, while number of sessions provided and choices for EAP-provided worksite activities are much more varied, and may be more reflective of the diverse characteristics, organizational missions and workplace culture found among larger employers in the US.     

Ties,sites and irregularities: pitfalls and benefits in using respondent-driven sampling for surveying a homeless population

Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) is a survey method for hidden populations and, as such, it offers a suitable approach for sampling the homeless. Surprisingly, the practical use of RDS in surveying homeless populations has only sporadically been described in the professional literature so far, and the specifics of using RDS for sampling this group have not been reflected in depth. The goal of the article is to investigate how three specific concerns, namely the transitional character of social ties among the homeless, problems with locating the interview site, and the irregular use of coupons, affect the sampling process. The findings of the article are based on experience using RDS for creating two independent samples of homeless persons in two Czech cities. Worries of poor referral effectiveness were disproved, but poor validity of the network size indicator, tendency towards irregular use of coupons, and negative effects arising from selecting service centres for the homeless as survey sites were confirmed.     

Ce que peut la sociologie

When it is relational, processual, and it articulates the incorporated dispositions of the actors and the contexts of their actions, sociology “desevidentialize,” denaturalize, desubstantialize, and historicize the social world by contributing to do away with spontaneous representations that distort the reality of things. Besides, when sociology studies the social at the level of the individuals and individual actions, it destroys the fictions (juridical and philosophical) of the isolated individuals, enclosed on himself, free and fully conscious of everything. By producing images of the real state of the social world, sociology fully participates in the democratic life of our societies and should, therefore, be at the heart of the formation of citizens. Lorsqu'elle est relationnelle, processuelle, et qu'elle articule les dispositions incorporées des acteurs et les contextes de leurs actions, la sociologie ‘désévidentialise’, dénaturalise, désubstantialise et historicise le monde social en contribuant à chasser les représentations spontanées qui déforment la réalité des choses. Lorsque, par ailleurs, elle étudie le social à l’échelle des individus et des actions individuelles, elle détruit les fictions (juridique comme philosophique) de l'individu isolé, enfermé sur lui‐même, libre et pleinement conscient de tout. Produisant des images un tant soit peu précises et justes de l’état réel du monde social, la sociologie participe pleinement à la vie démocratique de nos sociétés et devrait, pour cette raison, être au c?ur de la formation des citoyens.     

Levels and patterns of internal migration in Europe: A cohort perspective

Europe displays important variations in the level of internal migration, with a clear spatial gradient of high mobility in northern and western Europe but lower mobility in the south and east. However, cross-national variation in levels of internal migration remains poorly understood, because it is analysed almost exclusively using cross-sectional data and period measures. This paper seeks to advance understanding of cross-national variation in migration levels in 14 European countries by drawing on a recently proposed suite of migration cohort measures, coupled with internationally comparable retrospective residential histories. It shows that differences in migration levels are mainly attributable to variation in the extent of repeat movement, which is underpinned by the differences in mean ages at first and last move that together delineate the average length of migration careers. Cohort analysis provides a robust foundation for exploring the demographic mechanisms underpinning variation in migration levels across countries and over time.     

A nonparametric statistical procedure for the detection of marine pollution

This paper is devoted to the estimation of the derivative of the regression function in fixed-design nonparametric regression. We establish the almost sure convergence as well as the asymptotic normality of our estimate. We also provide concentration inequalities which are useful for small sample sizes. Numerical experiments on simulated data show that our nonparametric statistical procedure performs very well. We also illustrate our approach on high-frequency environmental data for the study of marine pollution.     

The Public Finance Implications of Private Pensions: An Analysis with Special Reference to the United Kingdom

In an effort to take the costs of pensions "off the books", many have advocated giving a greater role to funded benefits, privately provided. However, where governments have adopted such an approach, they have both mandated contributions to the private schemes and sought, in the interests of consumer protection, to regulate them. Moreover, in many cases, either explicitly or implicitly, they have made some guarantees about the benefits that will be received. This paper, which makes special reference to plans and debates in the United Kingdom, argues that governments have, therefore, taken on some contingent liabilities, and that these liabilities have public finance implications. Even with privatization, not all the costs of pensions will be "off budget".