Informal caregivers' leisure time and stress

This article explores the disruption informal caregiving creates in the caregiver's family life and the relationship between leisure and stress caused by caregiving. The study finds that the caregiving setting, caregiver's sociodemographic characteristics, and economic variables (i.e., wage rate, nonwage income, and Medicaid coverage) significantly affect the caregiver's leisure. Additionally, reducing leisure leads to emotional and physical stress and less satisfaction with life overall. The article concludes with implications for public policy. Her research interests include long-term health care and medical service utilization for minority populations. She holds a doctorate from Northwestern University. He has published extensively in the areas of health services research and nonprofit organizations. His doctorate is from the University of Virginia.     

The psychiatric technician: trespasser or welcomed ally?

1. The increasing shortage of nurses, higher patient acuity levels, and greater demands placed on nursing to meet standards of care have contributed to the use of psychiatric technicians to alleviate the burden on nursing and ensure the delivery of quality patient care. 2. Psychiatric technicians provide care for a select group of patients under the supervision of the primary nurse. The patients assigned to psychiatric technicians require minimal direct nursing intervention. 3. Psychiatric technicians reported increased self-confidence and self-esteem; the nurses were able to perform more professional nursing activities, increasing their job satisfaction and promoting staff retention; and the patients received high-quality care.     

Software review: Bootstrapping and jacknifing with BOJA

Conclusion Apart from its use by statisticians and researchers, another major application of BOJA is in teaching statistics. It is easy to use and the onscreen display during a resampling analysis, together with the graphical display, makes it a useful teaching aid. This review was protracted because I wanted to keep playing with the package, especially by thinking up new ways to use it. I found it a thoroughly rewarding experience.     

Algebraic Methods for Polynomial Statistical Models

We describe applications of computational algebra to statistical problems of parameter identifiability, sufficiency, and estimation. The methods work for a family of statistical models that includes Poisson and binomial examples in network tomography.     

THE INFLUENCE OF CLASSROOM CHARACTERISTICS ON HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER TURNOVER

This paper examines the effect of class load and other factors on teacher turnover. Unlike previous studies, class load characteristics–class size, number of classes taught, and percentage of class time spent in areas outside a teacher's certification area–are included along with salary, personal characteristics, and district characteristics in a discrete time hazard model to simulate the effects of changing classroom characteristics on high school teacher turnover. The results indicate that class load characteristics are important correlates of job turnover. Policy implications for school districts, given a growing school-age population, are discussed.     

Invoking Public Opinion: Policy Elites and Social Security

Do policy elites invoke public opinion? When they do, are theirclaims based on evidence from public opinion surveys? To learnabout the claims that policy elites make, we examined statementsthe president and members of Congress, experts, and interestgroup leaders in congressional hearings made about Social Security.To learn about opinion data on Social Security, we conducteda Lexis-Nexis search of the archives of the Roper Center forPublic Opinion Research. Our analyses show that policy elitesdiscussing Social Security did invoke public opinion. Contraryto our expectations, however, few of the elite invocations ofpublic opinion cited specific surveys or concrete facts aboutthe distribution of opinion. Although claims directly contradictingsurvey evidence were relatively rare, only with the rather fewspecific claims by congressional elites did we find much clear-cutsupport in the available polling data. Relatively seldom couldwe find clear-cut support for the elites' general claims. Moreover,some of the most frequent claims about public opinion—couldhave been contested but seldom were. The highly visible andwell-polled case of Social Security suggests that specific,data-based elite invocations of public opinion may be even lesscommon on other, lower-visibility and less-polled issues. Italso suggests that survey research professionals might do wellto intensify their scrutiny of public discourse about publicopinion and to increase their efforts to bring scientific expertiseto bear upon such discourse.     

Why self-care fails: Implementing policy at a low-income sickle cell clinic

This paper addresses health care service delivery—its practice and its meanings—to a low income African-American population. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews at a sickle cell clinic, I explain why assumptions in the literature on self-care do not apply to a population historically excluded from access to health services. Self-care, a practice in which the individual assumes primary responsibility for health care, is typically seen as empowering patients and reducing the use of professional health services. While these predictions may apply to white, middle-class populations, they were not borne out in the low-income African-American population I studied. Self-care did not increase client control, nor was it associated with sparing use of health services. In this paper I explain why this was the case. I argue that conditions of poverty and the meanings clients attach to self-care impinge upon the implementation of policy producing results directly contrary to those that are predicted.     

Moderating the Effects of Childhood Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence: The Roles of Parenting Characteristics and Adolescent Peer Support

We investigate parenting characteristics and adolescent peer support as potential moderators of the effects of childhood exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) on adolescent outcomes. Lehigh Longitudinal Study (N=416) data include parent and adolescent reports of childhood IPV exposure. Exposure to IPV predicted nearly all adverse outcomes examined; however, after accounting for co‐occurring child abuse and early child behavior problems, IPV predicted only 1 outcome. Several moderator effects were identified. Parental “acceptance” of the child moderated the effects of IPV exposure on the likelihood of teenage pregnancy and running away from home. Both peer communication and peer trust moderated the relationship between exposure to IPV and depression and running from home. Peer communication also moderated the effects of IPV exposure on high school dropout. Interventions that influence parenting practices and strengthen peer support for youth exposed to IPV may increase protection and decrease risk of several tested outcomes.     

Toward a Mediation Model of Employability Enhancement: A Study of Employee‐Supervisor Pairs in the Building Sector

This study examines whether jobs that enable competence development and a constructive leadership style enhance workers' employability or career potential through their assumed positive relationship with work‐related flow (absorption, work enjoyment, and intrinsic work motivation). The authors conducted an explorative study with 303 pairs of employees and their direct supervisors working in a Dutch building company. Results indicate that self‐ratings of learning value of the current job and transformational leadership have an indirect relationship with supervisor ratings of employability through work‐related flow.