AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF PATTERNS OF PRIORITIES AND TRADE-OFFS AMONG OPERATIONS MANAGERS

A survey of 15 firms showed that agreement among operations managers on competitive priorities is related to agreement on long-run strategic trade-off decisions and not to agreement on shortrun trade-offs. Furthermore, intended short-run actions were often in conflict with stated competitive priorities. Use of management-by-objectives linked to performance appraisal was related to agreement on competitive priorities.     

Dual citizenship or dual identity? Does ‘transnationalism’ supplant ‘nationalism’ among returning Trinidadians?

In this article we focus on the dual identities of relatively young Trinidadians who have decided to return to the island of their birth, or of their parents, while still in their thirties and forties. Highly‐educated professional transnational migrants mostly make up our sample of 36; 26 possess dual citizenship. We focus on our informants’ narratives about their transnational experiences, self‐appraisals of their dual identities and how they value dual citizenship. More generally, we ask, does transnationalism supplant nationalism among our returning informants? Unsurprisingly, the diverse responses we document do not support the commonly held explanatory relationship between return adaptations, ‘national belonging’ and the expected dominance of ‘transnational belonging’. Family relations intervene significantly, both to encourage transnationalism and to strengthen nationalism. Feelings of national belonging often accompany transnationalism. Notably, we view dual citizenship strategically and pragmatically as advantageous to the continuation of transnational practices.     

Adding valued data to social network measures: Does it add to associations with adolescent substance use?

This research examines whether adding information about adolescent friendships (feeling of closeness to friend, visits to friend's home, interaction outside school, and parent involvement in the friendship) to social network measures increases associations with adolescent substance use. In 2002, friendship nominations were obtained from more than 4700 students in grades 6 to 8 in 13 schools. Social network measures weighted and unweighted for the valued information were created from those data and compared. The findings suggest that, although non-valued network measures and ego substance use were associated, the valued network measures did not add to those associations.     

The Development of Four Types of Adolescent Dating Abuse and Selected Demographic Correlates

This study determined the shape of trajectories from ages 13 to 19 of 4 types of dating abuse perpetration and examined whether the demographic characteristics of sex, minority status, socioeconomic status, and family structure systematically explained variation in the trajectories. The data are from 5 waves of data collected from 973 adolescents participating in the control group of a randomized trial. The mean trajectory for psychological dating abuse was positive linear, but the mean trajectories were curvilinear for moderate physical, severe physical, and sexual dating abuse. At all ages, boys reported more severe physical and sexual dating abuse than girls, minorities reported more moderate and severe physical dating abuse than Whites, adolescents in single‐parent households reported more psychological and severe physical dating abuse than those in 2‐parent‐households, and parental education was negatively associated with psychological and moderate physical dating abuse perpetration. The findings have implications for future research and for practice.     

Social network characteristics associated with risky behaviors among runaway and homeless youth.

Runaway and homeless youth are at high risk for substance abuse and unsafe sexual behavior. Our study describes the personal social networks of these youth and examines network characteristics associated with risky behaviors. In 1995 and 1996, we interviewed a purposive sample of youth aged 14 through 21 who were living in Washington, DC and were identified on the streets or through shelters or other service agencies (N = 327). Although we found that most youth reported current social relationships, a significant minority (26%) did not. Youth without a social network were significantly more likely to report current illicit drug use, multiple sex partners, and survival sex than youth with a network. For youth with a network, the networks were small, strong in affective and supportive qualities, comprised primarily of friends, typically included an alcohol or illicit drug user, and usually were not a source of pressure for risky behaviors. Our results indicate that networks had risk-enhancing and risk-decreasing properties in that network characteristics were associated in both positive and negative directions with risky behaviors.     

Developmental Associations Between Adolescent Alcohol Use and Dating Aggression

Although numerous studies have established a link between alcohol use and partner violence in adulthood, little research has examined this relation during adolescence. The current study used multivariate growth models to examine relations between alcohol use and dating aggression across Grades 8 through 12, controlling for shared risk factors (common causes) that predict both behaviors. Associations between trajectories of alcohol use and dating aggression were reduced substantially when common causes were controlled. Concurrent associations between the two behaviors were significant across nearly all grades but no evidence was found for prospective connections from prior alcohol use to subsequent dating aggression or vice versa. Findings suggest that prevention efforts should target common causes of alcohol use and dating aggression.     

Adolescent aggression: The role of peer group status motives,peer aggression,and group characteristics

Recent studies of youth aggression have emphasized the role of network-based peer influence processes. Other scholars have suggested that aggression is often motivated by status concerns. We integrate these two veins of research by considering the effects of peer status motivations on subsequent adolescent aggression, net of their own status motivations, prior aggression, and peer behavior. We also explore different levels at which peer effects may occur, considering the effects of reciprocated and unreciprocated friendships as well as larger, meso-level peer groups. We anticipate that peer group effects are magnified by both size and boundedness as measured by Freeman's (1972) segregation index. We find that, net of the adolescent's aggression at time 1, both the aggressive behaviors and the status valuations of friends independently increase the likelihood of aggression at time 2, 6 months later. The aggressive behavior of friends who do not reciprocate the adolescent's friendship nomination has particular impact. The average status valuation of peer groups increases their members’ likelihood of aggression, even after controlling for their own attitudes about status, their friends’ attitudes, and their friends’ aggressive behavior. This effect is magnified in large groups and groups with high Freeman segregation scores.