Aren't they just black kids? Biracial children in the child welfare system

In the USA, African‐American children are overrepresented in the child welfare system. However, little is known about the child welfare system experiences of biracial children, who are predominately both White and African‐American. To better understand this population, data from public child welfare in a US county were used to examine biracial children in the child welfare system. Results showed significant racial differences between children in the child welfare system. Despite the common belief that biracial children will have experiences similar to African‐American children, the child welfare system seems to view them differently. Biracial children are more likely to be referred, rated as high risk and investigated compared with White or African‐American children. Their mothers were younger, and were more often assessed as having physical, intellectual or emotional problems. These caregivers were also considered to have lower parenting skills and knowledge compared with White or African‐American caregivers. Although the disproportionate representation of African‐American children in the system has been well documented, this study provides evidence that biracial children are also overrepresented. Despite the fact that this is a rapidly growing population in the USA, there is little research available about biracial children and their families.     

Tweedie's Formula and Selection Bias

We suppose that the statistician observes some large number of estimates z(i), each with its own unobserved expectation parameter μ(i). The largest few of the z(i)'s are likely to substantially overestimate their corresponding μ(i)'s, this being an example of selection bias, or regression to the mean. Tweedie's formula, first reported by Robbins in 1956, offers a simple empirical Bayes approach for correcting selection bias. This paper investigates its merits and limitations. In addition to the methodology, Tweedie's formula raises more general questions concerning empirical Bayes theory, discussed here as "relevance" and "empirical Bayes information." There is a close connection between applications of the formula and James-Stein estimation.     

Clinicians’ Perspectives on the Diagnosis of Antisocial Disorders in Adolescence

The intent of the study was to explore how professionals view the assessment and diagnosis of antisocial disorders such as oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD). Six professionals from varying theoretical orientations were interviewed in order to gain insight into how theoretical and clinical perspectives influence the diagnostic process of antisocial disorders. Data was analyzed using a qualitative, constructivist grounded theory research methodology. The findings from the research interviews suggest that clinicians perceive a multifaceted approach to diagnosis. Participants emphasized the importance of individualized assessment, differential diagnosis, the role of context and impairment, and the functional and stigmatizing effects of diagnostic labels. The results illustrate relative consistency among practitioners in the assessment and diagnostic process. Further, it appears that clinicians incorporate a biopsychosocial approach to conceptualizing ODD and CD. This type of qualitative research serves to develop a conceptual understanding of the diagnostic process related to antisocial disorders.     

Financial literacy education: An opportunity for colleges and sociology

Financial literacy represents the knowledge necessary to manage one's financial affairs in a way that contributes to overall wellbeing, yet financial literacy and financial education are understudied in sociology. While emerging adults have low rates of financial literacy overall, this article focuses on college students due to increasing college access and student loan debt. Based on the limited literature that assesses college financial literacy education, it appears that these types of programs may serve to advance college students' financial knowledge. Additional mechanisms that serve to develop college students' financial literacy include parent socialization, banking experience, and high school financial education programs. However, not everyone has the same access to these resources. Thus, given the magnitude of the US student debt crisis and persistent economic inequalities, college financial literacy education may prove beneficial for all students, particularly those from economically vulnerable backgrounds. This article serves as an invitation to sociologists to consider financial literacy education as both a worthwhile pursuit in application and as a research topic.     

Anticipated Stigma and Defensive Individualism During Postincarceration Job Searching*

Obtaining employment is one of the most difficult challenges for individuals released from prison. This research explores the strategies recently released male parolees employ in attempting to find work, with specific attention to the role of anticipated stigma from their ex‐convict status. Through the use of in‐depth longitudinal interviews, this research contributes to our understanding of returning prisoner's experiences in job searching. We find that although a majority of the sample anticipated stigma as a barrier to employment, those who did expressed an extreme self‐reliance consistent with defensive individualism. This reluctance to draw on social networks may ultimately be counter‐productive to the search for employment.     

The Self-serving Bias and Beliefs about Rationality

Most previous experiments attempting to establish the existence of the self-serving bias have confounded it with strategic behavior. We design an experiment that controls for strategic behavior (Haman effects) and isolates the bias itself. The self-serving bias that we measure concerns beliefs about the rationality of others. We find very limited support for the existence of the bias. To help understand why the bias seems to hold in some settings but not in others, we discuss a distinction between biases that are self-serving and those that are actually self-defeating. (JEL C92 )     

贝叶斯学派统计学家，频率学派统计学家和科学家

泛泛而论,19世纪统计学的主流是贝叶斯学派,20世纪统计学的主流是频率学派,至少大多数科学研究人员是这样认为的。21世纪,科学研究人员提出了更大规模的问题要统计专家解决,这些问题常包含数以百万计的数据以及数以千计的参数。而哪一种统计思想将在这些数据的统计分析中占有支配地位?根据一些最近的例子,笔者猜想,需要贝叶斯思想与频率思想的结合来适应日益浓厚的科学研究氛围。对于统计专家来说,不管是应用统计学专家还是理论统计学专家,这将是一个充满挑战的时期,它也将开辟统计应用研究的一个新纪元,并与Fisher,Neyman以及20世纪初的其他统计学巨人所处的历史时期相媲美。     

Common Mechanisms in Infant and Adult Category Learning

Computational models of infant categorization often fail to elaborate the transitional mechanisms that allow infants to achieve adult performance. In this article, we apply a successful connectionist model of adult category learning to developmental data. The Supervised and Unsupervised Stratified Adaptive Incremental Network (SUSTAIN) model is able to account for the emergence of infants' sensitivity to correlated attributes (e.g., has wings and can fly). SUSTAIN offers 2 complimentary explanations of the developmental trend. One explanation centers on memory storage limitations, whereas the other focuses on limitations in perceptual systems. Both explanations parallel published findings concerning the cognitive and sensory limitations of infants. SUSTAIN's simulations suggest that conceptual development follows a continuous and smooth trajectory despite qualitative changes in behavior and that the mechanisms that underlie infant and adult categorization might not differ significantly.