School Racial Composition Effects on Avoidance,Separatism, and Integrationist Attitudes of Adolescents*

Support for integration versus separatism and approach versus avoldance reactions among junior and senior high school students was examined in integrated and segregated schools. Two surveys of a panel of black and white students in selected Milwaukee public schools were conducted in the spring of 1974 and the spring of 1975. The approach-avoidance and integration-separatism dimensions emerged from a factor analysis of racial attitude items. Black students in all-black schools scored more on the avoidance end of the approach-avoidance dimension while the black students in the integrated schools scored more on the approach end. The black students in the all-black schools, however, tended to score on the integration end of the integration-separatism dimension while the black students in the integrated schools tended to score on the separatism end. The attitudes of the students in the all-black schools changed towards those in the integrated school during the year between interviews. Reasons for the changes are suggested and partially tested with additional analysis. White students in essentially all-white schools scored on the avoidance and separatism end of the two dimensions. White students in mixed Latin schools were more acceptant of the minority students than the white students in the mixed black schools.     

The impact of the family on diabetes adjustment: A developmental perspective

This study investigated how pubertal development may influence the relation between aspects of the family environment and diabetes adjustment. Subjects were 49 youngsters with newly diagnosed insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and their parents. Pearson correlations between aspects of the family environment and diabetes adjustment revealed many significant findings for the total sample and separately by pubertal development. Tests of differences between these correlations revealed support for our hypotheses in expected directions. These results suggest the adoption of a developmental perspective when considering how family life is related to a youngster's diabetes adjustment.     

Modeling unemployment duration in a dependent competing risks framework: Identification and estimation

Three Mixed Proportional Hazard models for estimation of unemployment duration when attrition is present are considered. The virtue of these models is that they take account of dependence between failure times in a multivariate failure time distribution context. However, identification in dependent competing risks models is not straightforward. We show that these models, independently derived, are special cases of a general frailty model. It is also demonstrated that the three models are identified by means of identification of the general model. An empirical example illustrates the approach to model dependent failure times.     

Question wording and the house vote choice : some experimental evidence

Since 1978, the vote reported for House incumbents in the American National Election Studies (NES) has been significantly higher than the actual incumbents' vote in the districts surveyed; in NES surveys before 1978, the reported vote was much closer to the actual vote. The prime suspect for the source of this bias is the new question format introduced in 1978 and used in all subsequent studies. We document the problem and review the results of several question-wording experiments that confirm the superior accuracy of a format that does not mention the candidates' names over the ballot format currently in use. We also find evidence that a modified version of the ballot format may reduce the pro-incumbent bias, so that improvement may be possible without a major interruption of the post-1978 NES times series.     

Open media or echo chamber: the use of links in audience discussions on the Facebook Pages of partisan news organizations

This study evaluates the use of hyperlinks in audience discussions on the Facebook Pages of two partisan cable news organizations: the liberal-leaning Rachel Maddow Show and the conservative O'Reilly Factor, to investigate to what extent linking might intensify partisan political discussion or infuse a variety of perspectives into online communication. The results suggest that these Facebook audiences show a preference for a small group of information resources; furthermore, the two audiences shared an even smaller number of information resources in common. The findings support previous research that suggests a relatively small number of information resources receive most of the news audience traffic, and provide some support for other studies that indicate that partisan political discussions on social media are segregated by political orientation.     

Learning from mistakes: What do inconsistent choices over risk tell us?

We implement a risk experiment that allows for judgment errors to investigate who makes mistakes and whether it matters. The experiments are conducted with a random sample of the adult population in Rwanda, and data on financial decisions are collected. We find a high proportion of inconsistent choices, with over 50% of the participants making at least one mistake. Importantly, errors are informative. While risk aversion alone does not explain financial decisions, risk aversion and inconsistent choices interact in significant and sensible ways. As we would expect, risk-averse individuals are more likely to belong to a savings group and less likely to take out an informal loan. For those more likely to make mistakes, however, as they become more risk averse, they are less likely to belong to a savings group and more likely to take up informal credit, suggesting that mistakes correlate with less than optimal behavior.

Experiences of internal and hybrid employee assistance program managers: Factors associated with successful,at-risk,and eliminated programs

Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) originated as workplace-focused programs delivered largely by peer employees. Over the past 25 years, the once standard internal EAP has largely been replaced by internal/external hybrid programs or outsourced EAP vendors. Many long-standing internal programs have been downsized or eliminated, along with their internal program manager positions. This qualitative study examined the organizational, leadership, and programmatic characteristics associated with the internal and internal/hybrid EAPs from the perspectives of EAP managers working in programs that have thrived and those that have depreciated. Twenty-four current and former internal or internal/hybrid EAP managers were interviewed using a semistructured interview schedule. Qualitative methods were used to identify patterns and themes within the data to describe the experience of internal and internal/hybrid EAP managers and the critical success and risk factors associated with their positions and programs. Five final themes, with 15 subthemes emerged from the data, suggesting that both individual and organizational characteristics of EAP internal and hybrid programs are important to the program’s sustainability. These findings offer insights regarding best practices and critical success factors to EAP professionals, EAP purchasers, and the EAP industry.