Ambivalences: a challenge to permanency for children

A key to determining a permanent plan for children in placement lies in determining and working with the history and relative intensity of parental ambivalence in the parent-child relationship as it is acted out in the placement experience. A study of cases in a public department disclosed not only indicators of parental ambivalence but also the reinforcement of that ambivalence by agency policy, working conditions, and lack of resources.     

Adolescent women's contraceptive decision making.

A modified rational decision model incorporating salient events and social influences (particularly from sexual partners) is used to analyze adolescent women's consistent use of oral contraceptives (OCs) over a six-month period. Data are taken from a panel study of 308 clients of an inner-city family planning clinic. Expected OC use was computed for each subject on the basis of subjective expected utility (SEU) theory, and is found in multivariate analyses to be a significant predictor of actual OC use. In addition, variables representing baseline and follow-up partner influences, the salience of pregnancy for the subject, and positive side effects of OCs during the first months of use are found to predict OC use. Partner's support of OC use during follow-up and positive side effects of OCs are found to predict OC use among subjects for whom OC use was not the expected decision according to baseline SEU. Implications of the findings for models of adolescents' contraceptive behavior and for clinicians are discussed.     

A note on the correlation betweenS 2 and the least squares estimator in the linear regression model

The online version of the original article can be found at     

Effects on students of teacher training in use of a drug education curriculum

The study reported here examines the effects of differential teacher training in use of a drug education curriculum on students' knowledge levels, problem-solving and coping skills, attitudes towards planned decision making, behavioral intentions and tobacco and alcohol use. An experimental design was used to compare the effects of exposure to teachers who had either intensive staff development, in-service training or no training. The findings indicate a statistically significant difference between groups of students on the intention to drink alcohol. Students whose teachers had intensive staff development were less likely to intend to take a drink if offered than students whose teachers had in-service or no training. Possible reasons for a lack of significant results on other variables are the confounding influences of school, classroom and teacher effects.     

Prediction of temporally aggregated systems involving both stock and flow variables

Two predictors for a system of temporally aggregated variables are discussed. One predictor is based on the disaggregated variables whereas the other one uses only information contained in the aggregates. In contrast to similar research on the topic it is explicity assumed that the system involves both stock and flow variables. It is shown that some results obtained by treating the two types of variables separately break down if the system contains both. In particular, equality of the two predictors under investigation holds only under extremely restrictive conditions in the latter case. The paper was presented at the European Meeting of the Econometric Society 1988 in Bologna.     

Wer erbt Mehr? Erbschaften, Sozialstruktur und Alterssicherung

How do inheritances affect social structure, wealth formation, and provision for old age? Who benefits the most from inheritances? We analyse these questions based on the 2001 wave of the Socio-Economic Panel, which gives information on the deceased, and on the type, time, chance, and amount of the inheritance. Our findings confirm the theoretical hypotheses in general. Inheritance research is intergenerational research: most inheritances come from parents and benefit the recipients in the second half of their lives. However, the chances of receiving an inheritance and amounts inherited are distributed very unevenly. West Germans inherit significantly more frequently and larger amounts than East Germans due to the continuing effects of conditions in the former GDR. Foreigners have particularly low chances of receiving an inheritance. Thus, provision for old age through inheritance is limited mainly to specific groups of people. The most advantaged groups are the highly educated classes, which already receive higher (retirement) income.     

Reaching Men who have Sex with Men in Australia. An Overview of AIDS Education: Community Intervention and Community Attachment Strategies

This paper outlines the principles underlying the Australian AIDS strategy and offers an explanation for its success in reducing the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among homosexual and bisexual men in Australia's gay communities. A brief outline of the AIDS education activities offered by the gay-community AIDS organisations is followed by results from the Social Aspects of the Prevention of AIDS (SAPA) research project based at Macquarie University. This research confirms the importance of the community-intervention strategies utilised by gay AIDS organisations. The paper then assesses progress in the development of community-attachment strategies for men who have sex with men but who are not attached to organised gay communities.