Employment, family union and childbearing decisions in Great Britain

Summary.  The paper investigates the life-cycle relationship of work and family life in Britain based on the British Household Panel Survey. Using hazard regression techniques we estimate a five-equation model, which includes birth events, union formation, union dissolution, employment and non-employment events. We find that transitions in and out of employment for men are relatively independent of other transitions. In contrast, there are strong links between employment of females, having children and union formation. By undertaking a detailed microsimulations analysis, we show that different levels of labour force participation by females do not necessarily lead to large changes in fertility events. Changes in union formation and fertility events, in contrast, have larger effects on employment.     

School, Family and County Effects on Adolescents’ Later Life Chances

This paper explores the links between family, school and area background influences during adolescence and later adult economic outcomes. The empirical analysis is based on data covering the period 1979 to 1996, drawn from the 1979 US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. For a sample of individuals aged 14–19 in 1979, we estimate the association between family, school and area characteristics when growing up, on adult earnings capacity and poverty risk. We show that including all these influences jointly, family and school quality generally have significant associations with adult outcomes, but that area influences generally do not.Simon Burgess, Department of Economics, University of Bristol and CASE, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN, UK; e-mail: Simon.Burgess@bristol.ac.ukKaren Gardiner, Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath, Claverton Down Bath BA2 7AY, UK; e-mail: K.S.Gardiner@bath.ac.ukCarol Propper, Department of Economics, University of Bristol and CASE, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN, UK; e-mail: Carol.Propper@bristol.ac.uk     

Bringing Two Worlds Together: A Collaborative Interview With JoEllen Patterson

JoEllen Patterson is Professor in the Marital and Family Therapy Program at the University of San Diego. She is also an Associate Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, directing a medical family therapy clinic embedded in a Family Medicine residency (equivalent to General Practice in New Zealand). She also works in Pediatrics and Reproductive Medicine at UCSD. At present her work involves training family therapy students and family medicine residents to do interdisciplinary work using a biopsychosocial model. Research suggests that our bodies are influenced by our mental health; our immune systems and cardiovascular systems seem especially susceptible to mind‐body interplay. JoEllen is particularly interested in how family functioning influences the mind‐body system. In 2003, JoEllen Patterson received a Fulbright Senior Scholars award to visit the Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and the Child, Adolescent and Family Service in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. She spent two weeks between the clinical service and the academic department, teaching, consulting and advising. I was lucky enough to arrange this posting and to spend time with her during it.     

Developmental trends in proxemic spacing behavior between surrounding companions and strangers in casual groups

This study examined age differences in the pattern of proxemic behavior observed in casual groups frequenting public environments. Observations were made in the corridors of large shopping malls and along sidewalks of small towns. The relative positions of all walking subjects were inconspicuously recorded in photographs, and interpersonal distances were measured by projecting slides on a calibrated grid. Distances to first, second, and third nearest companions and first, second, and third nearest strangers were computed for subjects in six age classes: preschool children, grade school children, teenagers, young adults, middle adults, and senior adults. All classes showed significant age differences in the distances maintained to companions (p = .00001), but only senior adults differed in their spacing toward strangers, by maintaining significantly closer distances than the other age groups (p < .01). Tests of spatial patterns showed significant aggregations between first, second, and third nearest companions, and essentially random spacing toward first nearest strangers in all age groups. Senior adults showed a significant tendency to aggregate with their second and third nearest surrounding strangers. These results are discussed in the light of oer research and in the context of the ecology and development of proxemic behavior.Funding was provided by a National Science Foundation grant, BNS 79-06843, to J.W. Burgess. Additional fundint was provided by a grant from the Consumer Research Center, University of California (Robert Sommer, Director), and by Sigma Xi grants to J.W. Burgess. The author thanks Ms. Deanna Johnson for expert help in behavioral observation and decoding.     

Student views on campus sexual assault

Abstract

Objective: To report on college student opinions about the scope of college sexual misconduct (CSM), suggested university sanctions, and treatment of students found responsible of CSM.

Participants: In all, 23?US undergraduate students (14 females and 9 males) with a mean age of 20 years.

Methods: Students participated either in female, male, or mixed-sex focus groups that facilitated the discussion of factors related to CSM.

Results: Students provided in-depth feedback on the climate on US college campuses and factors related to CSM. They agreed upon CSM risk factors and context characteristics, but raised different male and female issues across sex groups. They further provided resolute suggestions for the solution of CSM, experienced treatment barriers, and limited victim reporting.

Conclusion: Student focus groups provide important information about the scope of CSM and offer valuable suggestions for the solution of the problem that may be crucial for the development of successful sexual assault interventions.     

Educator Sexual Abuse: Two Case Reports

Sexual abuse by educators has become an increasingly noted type of sexual abuse, especially among adolescents, for two reasons. First, there is a potential for these cases to be silent and prolonged and second, when disclosed, the forensic implications usually include both criminal and/or civil sanctions. For forensic case evaluations, developmental traumatology, or the intersection of the traumatic event(s) at a particular age of the student, is often the evaluating framework. We report on two forensic cases of a female student and a male student to emphasize the dynamics of adolescent sexual victimization, its impact on adolescent development, and evidence-based practice for symptom identification and treatment.     

SOUTHERN (DIS)COMFORT: SEXUAL PREJUDICE AND CONTACT WITH GAY MEN AND LESBIANS IN THE SOUTH

Recent surveys have found antigay attitudes and behavior to be commonplace. In this article, we use contact theory to explain these prejudicial attitudes. We contribute to the literature on contact and prejudice by expanding contact to include not only whether the heterosexual knows any gay men or lesbians, but also how many, for how long, and in what ways. To these, we add a new and unique measure of contact: a person's contact with the gay community. The data are from a survey of 956 undergraduate students at a large urban university in the southeastern United States. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analyses find that contact with gay men and lesbians significantly reduces prejudice toward them; although, only as contact with gay friends or the gay community. Contact has stronger effects on women's prejudice than men's prejudice; however, the attitudes of African Americans toward lesbians and gay men are unaffected by gay contact. The results suggest that contact intervenes between prejudice and sex, race, religiosity, and gender attitudes.