Some Dimensions of Mand Variability and Implications for Research and Practice

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - Since Skinner’s conceptualization of the mand, applied behavior analysis researchers have used the concept to develop stimulus control transfer procedures...     

Comparison of Robust Estimators of Standard Deviation in Normal Distributions Within the Context of Quality Control

Pitman criterion is used in simulation to determine the “closer” estimator of the standard deviation among selected choices. The initial simulation utilizes a standard normal distribution from which samples are taken of specific sizes. Popular and commonly used estimators of standard deviation are compared with the known population standard deviation in this study. Closeness criterion is calculated for each comparison and sample size. A secondary simulation applies the findings to variables control charts, in order to verify the ability of each estimator to identify out-of-control conditions.     

Access to Health Care: Social Determinants of Preventive Cancer Screening Use in Northern British Columbia

The purpose of this study was to examine theextent to which social factors are influentialin determining women's access to cancerscreening services in Prince George, BritishColumbia. Specifically, this study evaluatedthe association of age, income, education, workstatus, disability, marital status, andimmigrant status with previous use of screeningmammography and Pap tests. Data was obtainedfrom the 1994 National Population HealthSurvey, which contains a sample of 416 womenfrom the Prince George area. A series oflogistic regression analyses were used todistinguish ever versus never beenscreened as well as recency of previousscreening. Participation rates in screeningmammography in Prince George are comparativelyhigh; however, no association was found betweensocial factors and previous mammography use.This suggests women in Prince George areparticipating in mammography servicesregardless of social background. Participationrates in Pap test screening in Prince Georgeare high and are similar to provincialaverages; however, while a large percentage ofwomen have been screened, this percentagevaries across social groups. Immigrant women,single women, and women with less education areover represented among women who have never hada Pap test. In addition, older women are lesslikely to obtain a recent Pap test whencompared to younger women. This study suggeststhat certain groups of women in northernBritish Columbia experience low participationin health services, resulting in a higher riskfor poor health and a poor quality of life.     

Observer,Self‐, and Partner Reports of Hostile Behaviors in Romantic Relationships

The present study examines how different observers of romantic relationships differ in their reports of hostility. Using confirmatory factor analysis with structured means, the results from 236 young adults and their romantic partners indicated that (a) the correlations among targets’ self‐reports, partners’ reports, and observers’ reports of targets’ behaviors were moderate; (b) targets’ self‐reports of their own level of hostility were lower than their partners’ reports of them; (c) young couples who were living together demonstrated a higher level of hostility than dating couples; and (d) women showed a higher level of hostility toward their partners than did men.     

Are we investing less in the next generation? Historical trends in time spent caring for children

Historical and current data sets are used to trace the time married women and men spend caring for their own children on a daily basis. The data are also used to estimate the total time parents spend in raising two children to the age of 18. The analysis is restricted to primary child care time; i.e., the actual, direct administration of personal care, including physical care (feeding, bathing, dressing, putting to bed) and such other direct personal care as teaching, chauffering, supervising, counseling, managing, training, amusing, and entertaining. Secondary parental child care time is not studied. Although white married women spent about. 56 hours per day per child in primary child care in the 1924–1931 period, by 1981, the time had decreased to about 1.00 hour per day per child. Married men spent 0.25 hours per day per child in 1975, the first year for which national data exists. By 1981, this figure had increased to 0.33 hours per day per child. Raising two children to age 18 required about 5,789 hours of a white, employed, married woman's time and 14,053 hours of a white, unemployed, married woman's time in 1981. Husbands of white, employed married women spent about 1,500 more hours in raising two children to age 18 than the husbands of white, unemployed married women.His research interests include the economics of family time use, household production, consumption, and demand.Her research interests include household production, family structure and family well-being, and family policy.     

Measuring Housework in Time Use Surveys

A methodology is devised to decompose the error in the measurement of housework time in surveys. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the Americans' Use of Time Survey, we estimate that a telephone (mail) survey rather than an interview survey leads to a mean underestimation of 60 (30) min/week for women and 18 (13) min for men. We also find that the errors created by using a narrow definition of housework leads to an underestimation of between 10 and 12 h/week for both men and women in the PSID. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Psychosocial,Motivational, and Contextual Profiles of Youth Reporting Different Patterns of Substance Use During Adolescence

This research examined patterns of substance use and academic factors among a sample of 733 African‐American and European‐American adolescents from a metropolitan area. First, youth were classified into 11th grade high, moderate, or no substance use groups and classified as users, initiators, desistors, and nonusers based on eighth and 11th grade use. Nonusers did not differ in eighth grade from 11th grade moderate users and initiators over time. Eighth graders who reported misbehavior and having low‐achieving friends were more likely to be high 11th grade users and users at both grades. Direct achievement effects were not found; however, interactions indicated achievement was protective when paired with having fun at school, high task value, and low levels of socioeconomic status (SES); and was a risk factor when paired with positive self regard, low fun at school and high SES. Cluster analyses indicated the most prevalent group of substance users reported high grades, social reasons for going to school, and having friends who do well in school.     

Negotiated Project Engagements: Learning from Experience

How far is it possible to capture the lessons tobe drawn from successive projects that involveintervention by social scientists within or betweenorganizations, whether acting as researchers, asconsultants, as agents of change, or in some combination ofthese roles? This paper outlines the way in which aframework was developed, by staff and associates of TheTavistock Institute, for examining the varied and often subtle influences of successive“negotiated project engagements” on thedevelopment of wider personal, institutional, anddisciplinary programs. This framework is designed totake into account the contrasting perspectives of the investigatorsthemselves, of their organizational hosts, and of anyexternal sponsors whose primary concern will normally bewith project outcomes at a more generalized level. As an illustration, particular reference ismade to the experience of a pioneering project concernedwith policy-making in city government. This project wasundertaken to advance the understanding and practice of public planning, while also exploring thepotential for synergy between the perspectives ofoperational research and applied social science. Thepaper concludes with some speculations about thepotential for further developing this kind of frameworkin supporting experiential learning.