Fertility Decline in Prussia: Estimating Influences on Supply,Demand, and Degree of Control

Change in marital fertility in 407 Prussian Kreise from 1875 to 1910 is modeled to depend on the gap between the number of desired surviving births, N*, divided by child survival, s, and the number that would be born under natural marital fertility, M, given the age at marriage. Some fraction of this gap is averted, depending on the propensity to avert unwanted births, D. Although none of these components is observed directly, we can estimate each indirectly under strong assumptions. Decline in N*/s accounts for twice as much of the decline in fertility as does an increase in D. Natural fertility rose during the period. Unwanted births increased slightly, despite a tripling of births averted. The most important causes of decline in N* were increases in female labor supply, real income, and health workers. A rising level of education is the most important cause of increasing propensity to avert births. Demand-side changes were important causes of the transition, but changes in readiness to contracept also were important, as was the interaction of the two.     

Evaluation of Smoking Cessation Classes for the Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,and Transgender Community

ABSTRACT

This study evaluates the effectiveness of a smoking cessation course tailored to meet the needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Of the 44 individuals who participated, 36 were in attendance in the final class, and 88.9% of those had successfully quit smoking. The study found an increase in importance to having cessation classes in gay-identified contexts, high ratings of the cultural appropriateness of the course content, and decreasing anxiety across the classes. Participants’ assessment of their health shifted differentially based on whether they were successful at quitting.     

The aborted sibling factor: A case study

The number of abortions in the world is steadily increasing, and there are now millions of children who have survived the abortion of a sibling. There is increasing evidence that even very young children may be aware of maternal abortions despite family attempts to maintain secrecy. For those children experiencing other powerfully unresolved conflicts, the abortion of a sibling may trigger a severe reaction. A case is presented in which it gradually became clear that a 5-year-old girl's withdrawn regression was related to her mother's multiple abortions and her own fear of being destroyed through maternal aggression.     

Reciprocity Counseling: Practice and Research*

This paper reviews the literature on reciprocity counseling. Evidence is presented for the usefulness of reciprocity counseling with young, well educated, white clients with slight to moderate marital distress. Research into the effectiveness of several components of reciprocity counseling including contracting, problem solving training and feedback is reviewed. Findings suggest that contracting alone is an important positive influence in increasing couples' reciprocating reinforcement. The impact of problem solving training is unclear. Sex of the therapist may influence husband and wife outcomes in problem solving training differentially. Couples' performance of problem-solving behavior appears to be under the control of other as yet unspecified variables. Feedback as a single treatment has unpredictable and sometimes negative results. Therefore use of feedback alone or without careful supervision appears questionable at this time. Issues raised for further research include use of token economies for more severely distressed couples, use of multiple therapists, and the development of a classification scheme for the severity of marital distress.     

Self-interest and Expectations of Altruism in Exchange Situations*

This research focuses on norms concerning altruistic behavior and how information is used in assessing these norms. The research context was situations involving conflicting norms of self-interest versus altruism. Five categories of information were used: (1) ego's stake in the encounter, (2) relationship between ego and alter, (3) audience to the behavior, (4) legitimacy for self-interest behavior, and (5) alter's cost if ego fails to help him. Sex and SES of respondents were analyzed. The first four categories in addition to sex and SES served as between-subjects variables, each with two levels. Cost-to-alter was within-subjects variable and contained 4 levels. There were 16 groups containing 9 subjects with the same combination of sex and SES characteristics, thus, creating a 2×2×2×2×2×2×9×4 design. Respondents were asked to predict ego's behavior in a situation. Analysis of variance showed that altruism behavior was expected under the following conditions of (1) low cost to ego, (2) close relationship between ego and alter, (3) presence of audience to the encounter, and (4) high cost-to-alter. Females predicted more altruistic responses while SES produced no significant differences in predictions.     

Lifestyle and home energy conservation in the United States: the poor accept lifestyle cutbacks while the wealthy invest in conservation

The extent to which United States consumers have taken lifestyle cutbacks in eleven expenditure areas as a result of higher energy prices is examined. Data are from a general population sample survey of 8,392 households in ten western states, covering approximately 24 percent of all U.S. households. It was found that an index summarizing the extent to which respondents had taken lifestyle cutbacks was somewhat related in a positive direction to making temporary home adjustments to save energy, but was not related to taking permanent home-related energy conservation actions. The findings bring into question whether a market-oriented conservation policy will increase the taking of conservation actions, but also raise a disturbing question about existing tax credit programs.     

Four issues unique to socio-cultural indicators

Four value commitments act as barriers to the development of sociocultural indicators. First, no specialists exist to develop socio-cultural indicators. Second, society is seen only as an order-seeking entity. Third, we fail to see the phenomenon as a living system. Fourth, our commitment to a pseudo-pragmatism dictates that such indicators must be ‘useful’ to those who bankroll their collection. Perhaps systems philosophers should be contracted to guide the task.