History, accomplishments, issues and prospects of supportive service programs in Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities in new York State: lessons learned

Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs) provide unique settings for the delivery of a variety of supportive services to the elderly. New York State's experience with the development of supportive service programs within NORCs provides valuable information for community planners and practitioners in terms of factors that contribute to the evolution and shaping of supportive service programs and lessons learned from existing programs.     

Coping with daily work problems. Contributions of problem content,appraisals, and person factors

Abstract

This paper presents the result of an analysis of coping with daily work-related problems reported by a community sample of working adults. The methodology used differs from that employed elsewhere not only in its intensive longitudinal approach but also in its technique for measing coping Coping with work and non-work problems was compared. It is argued that the results provide strong support for the transactional model of stress, appraisal and coping, but also point up the importance of nonspecific (and unmeasured) person factors in predicting coping.     

NEIGHBORHOOD NORMS AND SUBSTANCE USE AMONG TEENS

This paper uses new data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A. FANS) to examine how neighborhood norms shape teenagers' substance use. Specifically, it takes advantage of clustered data at the neighborhood level to relate adult neighbors' attitudes and behavior with respect to smoking, drinking, and drugs, which we treat as norms, to teenagers' own smoking, drinking, and drug use. We use hierarchical linear models to account for parents' attitudes and behavior and other characteristics of individuals and families. We also investigate how the association between neighborhood norms and teen behavior depends on: (1) the strength of norms, as measured by consensus in neighbors' attitudes and conformity in their behavior; (2) the willingness and ability of neighbors to enforce norms, for instance, by monitoring teens' activities; and (3) the degree to which teens are exposed to their neighbors. We find little association between neighborhood norms and teen substance use, regardless of how we condition the relationship. We discuss possible theoretical and methodological explanations for this finding.     

Effects of Diverse Forms of Family Structure on Female and Male Homicide

Utilizing 2000 data on 1,618 counties and seemingly unrelated regression, I assess whether family structure effects on homicide vary across family structure measures and gender. There is evidence of robust, multidimensional family structure effects across constructs reflecting the presence of two‐parent families: mother/father absence, shortages of employed men, and nonmarital/teen childbearing. Findings indicate mainly gender similarity in family structural sources of homicide, but subtle gender differences include stronger effects on male homicide patterns and female‐specific mediating effects of the care burden on homicide. Further exploration of diverse family constructs is warranted, but, methodologically, father absence is adequate as a control for family structure. Public policies and social programs aimed at strengthening families could lessen violence among both women and men.     

Empirical Bayes and Adjusted Estimates Approach to Estimating the Relation of Mortality to Exposure of PM10

Forward Links to Citing Articles Retraction . Risk Analysis 25: 6, 1683
In the framework of the APHEIS program (Air Pollution and Health: A European Information System), a health impact assessment of air pollution in 26 European cities was performed for particles of an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 10 μm (PM₁₀). For short-term effects, it was based on overall estimates from the APHEA-2 project (Air Pollution and Health: A European Approach). These city-specific risk assessments require city-specific concentration-response functions, raising the question of which concentration-response is most appropriate. Estimates from city-specific models are more specific, but have greater uncertainty than those provided from multicity analyses. We compared several estimates derived from the city-specific analyses in cities that were part of the APHEA-2 project, as well as in a city that was not included in APHEA-2 but was part of the APHEIS project. These estimates were: the estimates from a local regression model, the adjusted estimates based on two significant effect modifiers identified through meta-regression models, and the city-specific empirical Bayes (shrunken) estimates and their underlying distribution. The shrunken and adjusted estimates were used to improve the estimation of city-specific concentration-response function. From these different estimates, attributable numbers of deaths per year were calculated. The advantages and limits of the different approaches are discussed through real data and in a simulation study.     

A multilevel analysis of the determinants of willingness to pay to prevent environmental pollution across countries

This paper discusses the extent to which individual and contextual level factors influence the likelihood of individuals’ willingness to pay (WTP) to prevent environmental pollution. A multilevel probit regression framework was set up to explain WTP to prevent environmental pollution. We use data from the World Values Survey (WVS), which contains socio-economic and socio-demographic information, and merged it with country level covariates. Compared to many previous studies, our dataset encompasses a more indepth set of individual level covariates. We find that rich people, individuals with higher education, as well as those who possess post-materialist values are more likely to be concerned about environmental pollution. This study reveals that in developed countries, 90% of country variation in WTP to prevent environmental pollution can be explained by individual characteristics. This portion reduces to 80% in the case of developing countries. An interesting feature in our study is the ability to investigate the effect of contextual factors on individuals’ willingness to contribute for the environment. We observe that both democracy and government stability reduce individuals’ intention to donate to prevent environmental damage mainly in developed countries.     

Social Status,Perceived Social Reputations,and Perceived Dyadic Relationships in Early Adolescence

This investigation examined social acceptance and popularity as correlates of perceived social reputations and perceived dyadic relationships in a cross‐sectional sample of 418 6th and 7th grade students (approximate average age of 12 years). We assessed early adolescents' social status using peer nominations and measured their perceptions of their social status, behavioral reputations, and friendships from a combination of self‐ratings and peer nominations. Social acceptance was positively related to perceptions of social acceptance and friendships and negatively related to perceptions of rejection and a victimized reputation. Popularity was positively associated with perceptions of popularity, rejection, and an aggressive reputation and negatively associated with perceptions of unpopularity and a socially withdrawn reputation. Our results were, in general, consistent with the suggestion that social acceptance is related to perceiving facets of reputations and relationships relevant to forming and maintaining friendships whereas popularity is related to perceiving facets pertinent to gaining social power.