Emotional and behavioral problems of Asian American adolescents: A comparative study

Social, academic, emotional functioning and social support of 99 ninth-grade Asian American students were investigated using standardized measures. When compared to 404 ninth-grade Caucasian adolescents who had attended the same school, Asian American students exhibited less delinquent behavior and performed better academically. However, they were significantly more isolated, more depressed and anxious, less apt to be involved in after school activities or seek help for their problems, and internalized their social problems. Also, they had fewer role models and less social support, underscoring the psychosocial and emotional plight of Asian American adolescents and the dire need to establish proactive outreach programs.This work was supported by NIMH grant #MH41569-07.     

Creating ‘stability’ for children in step‐families: time and substance in parenting

Children are said to be in need of stability for a ‘successful’ upbringing. This article focuses on the implications of this for parenting and childrearing practices in step‐families. It addresses the ways that conceptions of stability for children in family policy are tied to a particular family form and to maintaining continuity in biological parenting obligations, while parenting research has largely been concerned with measuring the consequences of changing family forms for children. In contrast, parents and step‐parents in step‐families themselves have far more complex understandings about the creation of stability for children in their care, around issues of dis/continuity in linear time and the social and material substantive constitution of stability. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Innovations in parenting support: an evaluation of the YMCA's ‘Parenting Teenagers’ initiative

This paper describes the evaluation of a three year Initiative run by the YMCA. The aim of the Initiative was to set up 30 different projects in YMCA centres in England, to provide help and support to the parents of teenagers. The Initiative was evaluated by the Trust for the Study of Adolescence. Funding was agreed for 29 projects, which included group‐based courses, ‘Dads and Lads’ projects, mediation schemes, transition evenings, and families and computing courses. A variety of outcomes from these projects are identified, both for parents, young people, project workers, and the YMCA as an organisation. Key issues and learning points from the Initiative are also identified. Finally, some general comments are made about strategies to provide support to the parents of teenagers. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pregnancy,work and women's well-being: A review

Abstract

Pregnancy is potentially a stressful period for working women for ergonomic, psychological and organizational reasons, yet the well-being of women is seldom the focus of research on working during pregnancy. This paper reviews the literature on women's experience of being pregnant at work. It concludes that, while working conditions are usually not well suited to pregnant women, the majority of women encounter only minor difficulties and regard working in a positive way. However, for a minority of women working during pregnancy adversely affects their well-being. These are likely to be women working during pregnancy adversely affects their well-being. These are likely to be women who are most at risk from work-related stress at other times. The literature suggests that working during pregnancy has still to be accepted and accommodated by employers and colleagues.     

Robust designs for experiments with blocks

ABSTRACT

For experiments running in field plots or over time, the observations are often correlated due to spatial or serial correlation, which leads to correlated errors in a linear model analyzing the treatment means. Without knowing the exact correlation matrix of the errors, it is not possible to compute the generalized least-squares estimator for the treatment means and use it to construct optimal designs for the experiments. In this paper, we propose to use neighborhoods to model the covariance matrix of the errors, and apply a modified generalized least-squares estimator to construct robust designs for experiments with blocks. A minimax design criterion is investigated, and a simulated annealing algorithm is developed to find robust designs. We have derived several theoretical results, and representative examples are presented.     

Estimation of Human Exposure from Fish Contaminated with Dioxins and Furans Emitted by a Resource-Recovery Facility

Ingestion of contaminated fish can be an important human exposure pathway for dioxins and furans emitted from waste incineration plants. A new method for calculating fish contamination resulting from dioxin and furan emissions has been developed to overcome some of the problems of those currently used. The method is based on evidence that the major determinant of fish dioxin and furan uptake is sediment concentrations. Only two steps are necessary to calculate fish tissue levels. Step 1: Calculation of the concentration of dioxins and furans in particulate matter entering the lake or pond, and hence, the resulting sediment concentration. Step 2: Calculation of fish concentrations utilizing fish-to-sediment ratios for the various dioxin and furan isomers.