A longitudinal analysis of family migration and the gender gap in earnings in the united states and great britain

This article uses longitudinal data for the United States and Great Britain to examine the impact of residential mobility and childbirth on the earnings of women, their family earnings, and the related division of earnings by gender. This project is the _ rst to compare explicitly the impact of childbirth and family migration on women’s earnings, and it extends prior cross-sectional and longitudinal studies on isolated countries by providing a direct contrast between two major industrialized nations, using comparable measures. The results indicate that families respond in similar ways in both countries to migration and childbirth. In response to both migration and childbirth, women’s earnings fall at the time of the event and recover slowly afterward, but the magnitude of the impact is roughly twice as large for childbirth as for migration. However, migration but not the birth of a child is also associated with a significant increase in total family earnings because of increased husbands’ earnings. As a result, the effect of migration on the relative earnings of wives to husbands is similar to the effect of childbirth. These results suggest that family migration should be given consideration in the literature on the gender earnings gap.     

It's a rave new world: estimating the prevalence and perceived harm of ecstasy and other drug use among club rave attendees

The use of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or "ecstasy") appears to be increasing worldwide, with "rave" attendees being one high-risk population. To date, however, only one study has collected ecstasy use information from rave attendees in the United States. To address this limitation, we collected self-report drug use information from 70 adult "club rave" attendees within the Baltimore-Washington corridor in April and May 2002. Data collection was scheduled between 12 A.M. and 5 A.M. Participation rates were high, with 85 percent of the club rave attendees completing the interview. Eighty-six percent of the respondents reported lifetime ecstasy use, 51 percent reported 30-day use, and 30 percent reported using ecstasy within the two days preceding the interview. While past-year ecstasy users were comparable to non-users with respect to a host of demographic and drug use variables, non-ecstasy users were significantly more likely than past-year users to perceive risks associated with the regular use of alcohol and ecstasy. Not surprisingly, non-ecstasy users were significantly more likely than past-year users to perceive harmful long-term physical and psychological effects associated with ecstasy ingestion. These findings suggest that rave attendees may be an important population for ecstasy-related prevention efforts.     

Social work and the shadow father: lessons for engaging fathers in Northern Ireland

The legislative framework of social work practice has consistently highlighted the need to work in partnership with parents, with far‐reaching implications for families. However, the importance of engaging fathers in social work practice is an issue that has received limited attention within academic debate and research. A research study undertaken across six family centres, investigated paternal involvement in family centre social work in Northern Ireland. The study involved 46 semi‐structured interviews with social workers, fathers and mothers. This paper presents the views of 22 social workers on the barriers to paternal involvement in family centre interventions. A range of factors were identified which served to inhibit or promote engagement of fathers. There were substantially more deterrents than promoters, a clear indicator of the problematic nature of paternal involvement. The findings highlight that both attitudes and practices of social workers influence the engagement of fathers. Recommendations drawn from the findings are presented for the development of father – inclusive social work practices and research.     

Survival models for fertility evaluation

"Two proportional hazards models for cohort fertility evaluation are constructed. Time-dependent covariates describe sources of heterogeneity between and within women regarding fertility characteristics. In the first model, U.S. birth rates specific to maternal age, race, parity, and birth cohort are used as underlying hazard rates. Covariate effects are estimated by maximizing the full likelihood. In the second model, covariate effects are estimated via Cox regression with stratified underlying hazard rates regarded as unknown nuisance parameters." The authors illustrate the models "with an evaluation of the fertility histories of the wives of workers at a manufacturing plant with potential for hazardous exposure. Adjustments to the U.S. birth rates for maternal age and parity zero experience are required with the first approach. Then, despite differences in the model-specific estimation procedures, the point estimates of the exposure effect and the estimated standard errors from the two models are practically equivalent."     

Homelessness, Mental Illness and Citizenship

Assertive mental health outreach to homeless persons, which operates under the premise that mental illness must be understood and treated within the individual's social and economic environment, points towards the goals of community membership and 'citizenship'—a connection to the rights, responsibilities, roles, and resources that society offers through public and social institutions and informal 'associational life'—for homeless persons. We argue that the concept of citizenship is a useful framework for approaching these goals. We review the principles of assertive mental health outreach and relevant aspects of contemporary citizenship theory; present a case example of outreach leading to a 'citizenship project'; and discuss the potential benefits and pitfalls of a citizenship framework, including strategies and recommendations for program administrators, researchers and policy makers.