Five-year-olds' Perceptions of Why We Go to School

Drawing on a recent study intended to reflect the five-olds' perspective of school this article addresses the question of ‘why we go to school’. Fifty children from five county council reception/year one classrooms were observed and then interviewed over a ten-week period. There occurs a socialisation of these children to the view that schooling is essential for their preparation for the future. According to the children this takes place during activities identified as ‘work’ not ‘play’ and is emphasised by the compulsory nature of schooling.     

Racial/Ethnic Differences in Court Referred Pathways to Mental Health Services for Children in Foster Care

Racial/Ethnic disparity in placement patterns and service utilization among children in foster care has been documented in a variety of studies. This study examined the role of the court process in referring children in foster care to mental health services and tested for racial/ethnic differences in the patterns of referral and service use. Court records for 142 children ages 2–16, representing Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic racial/ethnic groups were reviewed. Results indicate that the court process does play a significant role in referring children to services. Significant differences by race and ethnicity in mental health service utilization prior to the child's protective placement, as well as service orders, and post-placement service use were identified. Caucasian youth were more likely to receive orders for psychotherapy and to have documented use of psychotherapy than were African American and Hispanic youth, even when the possible confounding effects of age and type of maltreatment were controlled. Implications for the effective delivery of supportive services to those children most in need are discussed.     

COLLUSION IN PROCUREMENT AUCTIONS: AN EXPERIMENTAL EXAMINATION

Experimental methods are used to examine the existence and detectability of collusion in environments that exhibit critical parallels to procurement auctions. We find that given the opportunity sellers often raise prices considerably. Moreover, noncollusive Nash equilibrium predictions are insufficient to dismiss "suspicious" behavior as innocuous: in an environment where identical prices are predicted in a noncollusive Nash equilibrium, common prices are observed only when sellers communicate. In a second environment designed to parallel construction procurement contracting, market rotations are observed both with and without collusion, but collusion can often be detected from the pattern of losing bids.     

Bootstrapping survival times in stochastic systems by using saddlepoint approximations

The single bootstrap is implemented by using a saddlepoint approximation to determine estimates for the survival and hazard functions of first-passage times in complicated semi-Markov processes. The double bootstrap is also implemented by resampling saddlepoint inversions and provides BC_a confidence bands for these functions. Confidence intervals for the mean and variance of first-passage times are easily computed. A new characterization of the asymptotic hazard rate for survival times is presented and leads to an indirect method for constructing its bootstrap confidence interval.     

Growth and Locational Impacts for Housing in Small Communities

Abstract Many Americans believe that small rural communities are ideal places to live. They assume that small rural communities offer a safe environment, a supportive community, and affordable housing. In contrast, research indicates that rural households are more likely to live in unsuitable or inadequate housing and have lower incomes, making affordable housing difficult to obtain. Although there are data highlighting regional or urban-rural differences, very little research has been conducted on the housing situation among small rural communities. The research presented here explores housing availability and affordability in 589 Midwestern communities. Findings indicate that, based on the community's growth and location, there are significant quantitative housing affordability and availability differences among small communities. However, these differences were contradicted by focus group discussions that indicated key similarities of housing concerns across small communities. The findings have potential impacts for public policy implementation in small communities.     

Longitudinal Changes in Marital Relationships: The Role of Offspring’s Pubertal Development

This study charted the longitudinal trajectories of wives’ and husbands’ reports of marital love, satisfaction, and conflict and explored whether and how first‐ and second‐born offspring’s pubertal development was related to marital changes. Data were drawn from the first 7 years of a longitudinal study of family relationships. Participants included wives, husbands, and first‐ and second‐born children from 188 White, working‐ and middle‐class families. Multilevel models revealed declines over time in wives’ and husbands’ reports of marital love and satisfaction but only small changes in conflict. Offspring’s pubertal development was related to changes in marital qualities; declines in positivity and increases in negativity were most consistently linked to firstborns’ puberty. Overall, the results highlight the interrelatedness of family subsystems.     

Engaging with Primary-aged Children about their Emotions and Well-being: Methodological Considerations

This article notes that an increasing number of researchers are seeking to carry out studies which engage with children rather than use them as passive sources of data. Often there need to be compromises between ideals of participation and requirements of research sponsors. Some of the relevant methodological issues are illustrated with reference to a qualitative study of children's perceptions of their emotional needs and well-being. The authors describe some of the benefits of combining focus group discussions and individual interviews. Examples are given of a range of techniques that proved helpful.     

Sampling and Estimation in Hidden Populations Using Respondent‐Driven Sampling

Standard statistical methods often provide no way to make accurate estimates about the characteristics of hidden populations such as injection drug users, the homeless, and artists. In this paper, we further develop a sampling and estimation technique called respondent‐driven sampling, which allows researchers to make asymptotically unbiased estimates about these hidden populations. The sample is selected with a snowball‐type design that can be done more cheaply, quickly, and easily than other methods currently in use. Further, we can show that under certain specified (and quite general) conditions, our estimates for the percentage of the population with a specific trait are asymptotically unbiased. We further show that these estimates are asymptotically unbiased no matter how the seeds are selected. We conclude with a comparison of respondent‐driven samples of jazz musicians in New York and San Francisco, with corresponding institutional samples of jazz musicians from these cities. The results show that some standard methods for studying hidden populations can produce misleading results.