Contraceptive determinants in three leading countries

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative importance of access to family planning and the motivation to restrict fertility in determining contraceptive use in three countries that have led the fertility transitions in their regions: Colombia, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe. A structural equations model is estimated where endogenous fertility intentions are allowed to affect contraceptive method use. Simulation methods are then used to quantify the size of the impact of intentions and access on method choice for the three countries. The results demonstrate that even after controlling for fertility intentions, family planning program variables still have important effects in all three countries.     

A Trivariate Distribution for the Height,Weight, and Fat of Adult Men*

Using exploratory data analysis, probability plots, scatterplots, and computer animations to rotate and visualize the data, we fit a trivariate Normal distribution to data for the height, the natural logarithm of body weight, and the body fat for 646 men between the ages of 50 and 80 years as reported by the medical staff of the U.S. Veterans Administration's “Normative Aging Study” in Boston, MA. Although these data do not include any children, women, or young men, the measurements represent the best data that we could find through a 4-year search. We believe that these data are well measured and reliable for men in the specified age range and that these data reveal an interesting statistical pattern for use in probabilistic PBPK models.     

TRAINEES' CONJUGAL FAMILY EXPERIENCE, CURRENT INTERGENERATIONAL FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS, AND THE THERAPEUTIC ALLIANCE

This study examines the relaionship between trainees' conjugal family experience, current intergenerational family relationships, and the client's perception of the therapeutic alliance. Participants were 74 first practicum family therapy trainees, representing two family therapy programs and 90 clients. Results indicated a moderately significant relationship between conjugal family experience and trainees' reported intergenerational intimacy with parents. Additionally, Clients whose therapists had conjugal family experience reported a slightly more favorable therapeutic alliance than clients whose therapists did not have conjugal family experience. Additionally, trainees with conjugal family experience reported more current intimacy and individuation than nonconjugal trainees and felt less intimidated by their parents.     

Identity development and cultural production in the Chinese diaspora to the United States, 1850–2004: new perspectives

Diaspora studies have grown in importance in the modern world as world travel and relocation have become more feasible; as the numbers of persecuted peoples and those seeking exile or new beginnings in new lands has increased; as globalization has created new classes of diaspora movement based on economic motivations; and as technology and modern communication has linked people worldwide and made virtual diasporas and identities readily possible. In the present time, the concept of the diaspora has become the most relevant and usefully adaptable way to view global cultural interaction and human situational practices. This paper examines change and development in Chinese diaspora populations in the US, which have encountered the entire range of diaspora experience, old and new, from 1850 to the present day. The aim is threefold: (1) comparatively to sketch new ideas in diaspora studies, add to them where possible, and employ them in an analysis of individual and community identity construction in the Chinese diaspora, while comparing and contrasting these experiences with those of the Jewish and black diasporas; (2) to present a four-stage model of diasporic literary production and attendant personal and community identity construction, through which varied examples of Chinese American writing will be examined; and (3) within this model, to give extended attention to Chinese American writer Maxine Hong Kingston's China Men (1980), a pivotal text defining and describing Chinese American diaspora identity and experience in the US. The paper concludes with a look forward, and thoughts about possible new conditions modifying ‘new diasporas’.     

Where angels fear to tread: Richard Schoenherr (1935–1996)

Richard Schoenherr, professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin — Madison, passed away unexpectedly on 9 January 1996. He is memorialized in this essay for his scholarly contributions in the areas of teaching, research, and service.     

Interparental Conflict and Preschoolers' Peer Relations: The Moderating Roles of Temperament and Gender

The relations between destructive interparental conflict (IPC) and three‐ to six‐year‐olds’ (N = 62) peer relations were examined as a function of child temperament and gender. Regression analyses indicated that effortful control moderated the relations of IPC with children's amount of peer interaction as well as with their problematic relations with peers. Specifically, high IPC was associated with low amount of interaction and high problematic relations for preschoolers low in effortful control, but it was related to high amount of interaction and low problems for those high in effortful control. Additionally, gender differences in the relations between IPC and the amount of peer interaction indicated that IPC was negatively related to the amount of interaction for girls but positively related to the amount for boys. The findings highlight the need for examining individual differences in the relations between IPC and the development of early peer relations.