Frustrated Fertility: Infertility and Psychological Distress Among Women

Using a random sample of 580 Midwestern women, we test the hypothesis that women who have experienced infertility report higher psychological distress. Approximately one third of our sample reports having experienced infertility sometime in their lives, although the majority of the infertile now have biological children. Drawing hypotheses from identity and stress theories, we examine whether roles or resources condition the effects of infertility or whether its effects are limited to childless women. Infertility combined with involuntary childlessness (including biological and social) is associated with significantly greater distress. For women in this category, the risk of distress is substantial.     

Comprehensive college student suicide assessment: application of the BASIC ID

Whether one knows someone who is thinking of suicide, has attempted suicide, or has completed suicide, nearly all individuals who encounter suicide are affected. The influence and residual affects of suicide are further amplified as the issue reaches across communities such as college or university campuses. College and university staff must improve their response to suicidal ideation with comprehensive assessment and intervention. The authors discuss risk factors and basic screening methods for suicide risk. They present Lazarus' BASIC ID tool (ie, Behavior, Affective Responses, Sensations, Images, Cognitions, Interpersonal Relationships, and Drugs or Biological Influences) as a method for conducting a comprehensive suicide assessment. The authors demonstrate assessment procedures through a case vignette.     

Bringing Registration into Models of Vote Overreporting

Voting is a socially desirable act and a basic form of politicalparticipation in the United States. This social desirabilitysometimes leads respondents in surveys, such as the NationalElection Study (NES), to claim to have voted when they did not.The methodology of previous studies assumes that people onlyoverreport voting and that the sample of potential overreporters(i.e., nonvalidated voters) is not systematically differentfrom the sample of potential voters. In this research note,we explore several different ways of examining the determinantsof overreporting at two different stages (registering and voting)and with a consideration for selection bias. Comparing the traditionalprobit model used in previous research with sequential and heckitprobit models, we find that the determinants of overreportingregistering and voting differ substantially. In addition, thereis a significant selection effect at the registration stageof overreporting. We conclude with a discussion of contemporaryimplications for pre-election polling and the postelection analysisof survey data. Received for publication April 20, 2005. Revision received April 25, 2006. Accepted for publication October 17, 2006.     

WHAT PREDICTS RELIGIOUS PARTICIPATION AND GIVING? IMPLICATIONS FOR RELIGION IN THE UNITED STATES

In this article, we test whether or not positive/negative sanctioning increases religious behavior. Using data from the 1998 congregational module of the General Social Survey we find that, net of other predictors, immediate positive sanctions (receiving help from the congregation) and immediate negative sanctions (receiving criticism from the congregation) significantly increase the amount of money given by respondents to religious organizations. Our results also indicate that sanctions promised in the future (belief in Heaven and belief in Hell) have little to no effect on religious giving. Furthermore, we find that immediate positive and negative sanctions as well as future negative sanctions predict greater participation in religious organizations, while future positive sanctions show no such effects. The results are discussed in the context of the emerging trend of waning religious involvement in the contemporary United States.     

Social pensions and policy learning: The case of southern Africa

In the last decade and particularly since the publication of the Millennium Development Goals, social pensions have captured the interest of those concerned with the well-being of older people across that large part of the world where formal, contributions-financed, old-age benefit systems cover only a minority of the population. International organizations have turned their attention to such schemes and some see them as having a valuable role to play. However, information about what they are and how they work, and about their efficacy in meeting the objectives set for them, is still limited. Learning has been taking place not only in the international organizations but also in the region where they are most prominent – southern Africa. Such learning should be encouraged and the International Social Security Association has a part to play in this learning process.     

Pensions in Nigeria: The performance of the new system of personal accounts

In 2004, Nigeria copied the 1981 Chilean pension reform and established a funded system based upon personal accounts. The new system was neither appropriate for a country such as Nigeria, nor did it meet aspirations of improving pension coverage or helping economic growth. The current financial and economic crisis hit the scheme in so far as it hit stock values. However, more important has been the negative real interest rates that can be earned on government bonds and on bank deposits — where the majority of contributions are invested. Bank scandals and rising fiscal deficits do not breed confidence in the system or the government's ability to deliver meaningful benefits in old age.