Like the Secret Service Isn't It. People with Learning Difficulties,' Perceptions of Staff and Services: mystification and disempowerment

Seven people with learning difficulties were interviewed using unstructured, conversational interviews, about their perceptions of staff in services they use. Three major themes emerged, which were perceptions relating to the physical presence and absence of staff; the emotional impact of interactions with staff; and the political impact of interactions with staff. It was found that the participants had only superficial knowledge of staff identities and roles, and of service systems and structures, and consequently lacked the knowledge and awareness necessary to negotiate what these roles might be, or even that negotiation might be possible. It is argued that this lack of knowledge and awareness is due not to any lack of ability on the part of the participants, but the assumption by staff and service providers that this is the case. These findings are discussed in relation to Kieffer's (1984) developmental model of empowerment, and empowerment issues generally.     

The role of interactions with teachers and conflict with friends in shaping school adjustment

Fifth grade children (N = 346) identified school friends and reported on levels of conflict in relationships with these friends as well as perceived stress in relationships with teachers. Teachers and children provided ratings of problem behaviors at school, and children reported on their own perceptions of stress at school. Both less conflictual school friendships and less stressful relationships with teachers were linked with fewer feelings of stress and lower levels of problem problems at school. For the problem behaviors outcome, having more positive relationships with one set of others (teachers or friends) buffered children from experiencing negative consequences of poor relationships with the other set of individuals. The interaction effect involving friendship conflicts and stressful teacher interactions in relation to school stress was more complicated, differing for boys versus girls.     

Sex Differences in Associations Between Parental Behaviors and Characteristics and Adolescent Social Integration

One hundred and eight eighth grade students completed self-report questionnaires about their perceptions of parental warmth, structure, and psychological autonomy granting (used to compute a measure of perceived parental authoritativeness) and three measures of social integration: their own connectedness to their communities and involvement in school- versus community-based extracurricular activities. Parents of these students participated in telephone interviews during which they reported on their own relationships with their children's friends and friends' parents, and their own involvement in community activities. Parental community involvement was associated with stronger feelings of community connectedness and higher levels of community involvement among boys and more involvement in school- and community-based extracurricular activities among girls. Perceived parental authoritativeness was associated with stronger feelings of community connectedness and higher levels of involvement in community activities among girls. Parents' relationships with children's peers and peers' parents were associated with greater involvement in school-based extracurricular activities among girls.     

Peer influences on adolescent alcohol consumption: evidence using an instrumental variables/fixed effect approach

In order to address empirical difficulties in research examining peer effects in alcohol consumption, I use instrumental variables/fixed effects methodology that compares students in different grades within the same school who face a different set of classmate decisions. Within this context, I suggest that alcohol availability in classmates’ homes and classmates’ parents’ alcohol abuse can be used as instruments. Results indicate that a 10% increase in the proportion of classmates who drink increases the likelihood an individual drinks by five percentage points. This paper also provides evidence of peer effects in problem drinking, such as binge drinking and drunkenness.     

Neither real nor fictitious but ‘as if real'? A political ontology of the state

The state is one of series of concepts (capitalism, patriarchy and class being others) which pose a particular kind of ontological difficulty and provoke a particular kind of ontological controversy – for it is far from self‐evident that the object or entity to which they refer is in any obvious sense ‘real’. In this paper I make the case for developing a distinct political ontology of the state which builds from such a reflection. In the process, I argue that the state is neither real nor fictitious, but ‘as if real’ – a conceptual abstraction whose value is best seen as an open analytical question. Thus understood, the state possesses no agency per se though it serves to define and construct a series of contexts within which political agency is both authorized (in the name of the state) and enacted (by those thereby authorized). The state is thus revealed as a dynamic institutional complex whose unity is at best partial, the constantly evolving outcome of unifying tendencies and dis‐unifying counter‐tendencies.