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.     

Relational Aggression, Relational Victimization, and Language Development in Preschoolers

We investigated language development, relational aggression, and relational victimization in ethnically, socioeconomically diverse preschoolers. Relational aggression was positively related to language development. Girls were more relationally aggressive than boys, and higher‐socioeconomic status (SES) children were more relationally aggressive and victimized than lower‐SES children. Neither gender nor SES conclusively moderated the relation between language and relational aggression, though some findings suggest the possibility of stronger relations among boys and lower‐SES children. Teachers agreed on ratings of relational aggression and relational victimization to a moderate extent.     

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     

Small Parts Aspiration, Ingestion, and Choking in Small Children: Findings of the Small Parts Research Project

Obtaining information on current child injury trends and their associated issues is an important factor in developing products that meet or surpass acceptable toy safety boundaries. Understanding these boundaries helps determine safe product design characteristics that reduce the risk of product-related injury. Inchcape Testing Services developed a Small Parts Aspiration, Ingestion, and Choking Hazards Research Project, independent of an ongoing consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) project. The project's purpose was to determine, independent of CPSC, whether a more stringent small parts regulatory standard was necessary and, if so, to ensure that the standard was determined objectively. This article reports on the project's findings relating to critical characteristics (size, shape, and consistency) relative to the victim's age, of objects responsible for child choking injuries and fatalities.     

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.     

Aces and Bombers: The Post-Exam Impression Management Strategies of Students

In this study we attempted to develop a classification of the strategies students employ to manage self-impressions after grades have been awarded and examination papers returned. These encounters between students are of three types: first, when students who have scored a top grade in this exam (Aces) encounter other students who received a low or even failing grade (Bombers); second, when Aces encounter other Aces; and, third, when Bombers encounter other Bombers. The impression management strategies employed in these encounters are constrained by well-known rules of modesty in regard to one's own achievements and considerateness for lesser achieving peers, dictated by the particular encounter type described above. These rules are spelled out and an attempt made to generalize the findings to a wider universe of interactions.