What Adolescents Learn in Organized Youth Activities: A Survey of Self‐Reported Developmental Experiences

This research inventoried adolescents' reports on different developmental and negative experiences in organized youth activities, including extracurricular and community‐based activities. High school students' experiences were assessed using a newly developed instrument, the Youth Experiences Survey (YES). These youth reported higher rates of learning experiences in youth activities than in 2 other major contexts of their lives. Youth activities were associated with experiences related to initiative, identity exploration and reflection, emotional learning, developing teamwork skills, and forming ties with community members. The findings also suggest that different youth activities offer distinct patterns of learning experiences. Service, faith‐based, community, and vocational activities were reported to be frequent contexts for experiences related to identity, prosocial norms, and links to adults. Sports were a frequent context for those related to identity work and emotional development.     

Population settlement alternatives in developing countries

Until recently it was almost an article of faith that urbanization and capital intensive technology are the keys to development. However, many critics now maintain that the Western-inspired urban-industrial model may not be applicable to developing nations. The first part of this paper critically examines the role of large cities in developing countries. Although primate cities and economic dualism are associated with serious inter-class and inter-regional inequity problems, the principal alternative development strategies-promotion of medium-size growth centers and emphasis on rural development-also are beset by conceptual and practical difficulties. If no single development trategy appears to have universal validity, suggestions nevertheless are made for improving social welfare through a better organization of human settlement systems.     

The Strains and Gains of Caregiving: An Examination of the Effects of Providing Personal Care to a Parent on a Range of Indicators of Psychological Well-Being

This study explores the effect of providing regular help with personal care to a resident or non-resident parent or parent-in-law on different aspects of psychological well-being. We use cross-sectional data from the Norwegian Life Course, Ageing and Generation (LOGG) study (N ~ 15,000, age 18–79) and two-wave panel data from the Norwegian study on Life course, Ageing and Generation (NorLAG) (N ~ 3,000, age 40–79). We separate outcomes into cognitive well-being (life satisfaction, partnership satisfaction, self-esteem), affective well-being (happiness, positive and negative affect, depression, loneliness) and sense of mastery. Caregiver status is largely unrelated to these aspects of well-being, both in cross-section and longitudinally. One notable exception is that caring for a resident (but not a non-resident) parent relates to lower affective well-being among women, also longitudinally. This effect is more marked among unpartnered and lower educated women. In addition, caring for a non-resident parent is associated with a positive change in sense of mastery among women. The results reviewed and presented indicate that caregiving has less detrimental effects in the Nordic countries than in other countries, highlighting the role of social policies and care systems in shaping the impact of caregiving on well-being.     

Vasectomy: its effect upon marital stability.

50 couples were studied as to whether vasectomy had any effect on marital stability, communication, and sexual satisfaction. The procedure of the study is described and all results are tabulated. Demographic data on the couples indicate a general trend toward the mid-20s in terms of couples making the decision in favor of vasectomy. The couples seemed to have a stable marital history and to have made the decision earlier in marriage than was previously the case. The average number of children among the couples was 2. An average increase in coital frequency resulted from the vasectomy. Improved stabilization of the marriage and improved sexual satisfaction also resulted. Little change was noted in marital communication, understanding, and affection as a result of the vasectomy.     

Moving Average-Based Estimators of Integrated Variance

We examine moving average (MA) filters for estimating the integrated variance (IV) of a financial asset price in a framework where high-frequency price data are contaminated with market microstructure noise. We show that the sum of squared MA residuals must be scaled to enable a suitable estimator of IV. The scaled estimator is shown to be consistent, first-order efficient, and asymptotically Gaussian distributed about the integrated variance under restrictive assumptions. Under more plausible assumptions, such as time-varying volatility, the MA model is misspecified. This motivates an extensive simulation study of the merits of the MA-based estimator under misspecification. Specifically, we consider nonconstant volatility combined with rounding errors and various forms of dependence between the noise and efficient returns. We benchmark the scaled MA-based estimator to subsample and realized kernel estimators and find that the MA-based estimator performs well despite the misspecification.     

Designing Realized Kernels to Measure the ex post Variation of Equity Prices in the Presence of Noise

This paper shows how to use realized kernels to carry out efficient feasible inference on the ex post variation of underlying equity prices in the presence of simple models of market frictions. The weights can be chosen to achieve the best possible rate of convergence and to have an asymptotic variance which equals that of the maximum likelihood estimator in the parametric version of this problem. Realized kernels can also be selected to (i) be analyzed using endogenously spaced data such as that in data bases on transactions, (ii) allow for market frictions which are endogenous, and (iii) allow for temporally dependent noise. The finite sample performance of our estimators is studied using simulation, while empirical work illustrates their use in practice.     

The Asking Rules of Reciprocity in Networks of Care for Children

This article enumerates those unspoken but observed conventions, the asking rules, by which people abide when they are engaged in relations of give and take. By studying networks that employed parents construct to help them care for and raise their school-age children, this article analyzes the dynamics of reciprocity. It explores a distinction in Gouldner's theory between status obligation and normative reciprocity. Based on the evidence, the article argues that kinship status and class location shape the ways that asking rules are interpreted and invoked.