The Ancestry Question and Ethnic Heterogeneity: The Case of Arab Americans

This article uses US Census data to investigate change over time in Arab American profiles. In 2000, a higher proportion of children (0 to 13 years of age), women, and those who lived in the Northeast identified with an Arab/non‐Arab ancestry compared to an Arab‐only ancestry. In 1980 and 2000, a higher proportion (~90%) of those who identified with an Arab/non‐Arab ancestry was US born compared to only one‐half of those who identified with an Arab‐only ancestry. Those who identified with an Arab‐only ancestry were more likely to not be US citizens than those who identified with an Arab/non‐Arab ancestry. These findings suggest Arab Americans are a heterogeneous group.     

Prediction intervals with a Dirichlet-process prior distribution

Let X₁, …,X_n, and Y₁, … Y_n be consecutive samples from a distribution function F which itself is randomly chosen according to the Ferguson (1973) Dirichlet-process prior distribution on the space of distribution functions. Typically, prediction intervals employ the observations X₁,…, X_n in the first sample in order to predict a specified function of the future sample Y₁, …, Y_n. Here one- and two-sided prediction intervals for at least q of N future observations are developed for the situation in which, in addition to the previous sample, there is prior information available. The information is specified via the parameter α of the Dirichlet process prior distribution.     

Essay Review: Nonmarital, Marital, and Family Relationships: Understanding and Treating the Coming Togethers and Splitting Aparts

Bell, J. E. Family therapy .
Howells, J. G. Theory and practice of family psychiatry .
Rogers, C. R. Becoming partners: Marriage and its alternatives .     

Religious Cults, the Individual and the Family

Relatively little attention has been paid in the professional literature to the cult phenomenon: what it is, how it attracts converts, what differentiates the vulnerable youth from the non-vulnerable; the effects of cult membership on the convert's family, and, particularly, in what ways the family can be aided during and after involvement with the cult. The authors have drawn on clinical observations, interviews, and extant literature from a variety of disciplines in constructing a portrait of the vulnerable youth; the techniques used by cults to attract, recruit, and convert members; the dynamics of the recruits family; and the most effective modes of therapy for intervening. The intent of the article is to stimulate: 1) professional awareness of and knowledge about the cults, and 2) further research into related family dynamics and therapeutic techniques.