Self-Esteem and Low Status Groups: a Changing Scene?*

To insure the widest possible test of the hypothesis that individuals with lower ascribed or achieved status will demonstrate lower levels of self-esteem than higher status individuals, 972 subjects completed questionnaires which included the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. North Florida residents were sampled using a disproportionate stratified random sampling technique. Seven groups were identified: psychiatric patients, prisoners, black or white college students, city residents, married black residents, and service-oriented professionals. When analyzing data for each group, the results indicated that persons with lower ascribed status (blacks, females, and older Americans) did not, as a group, have lower self-esteem scores than persons with higher ascribed status (Whites, males, and younger Americans). However, persons with lower achieved status in the areas of educational attainment and occupational prestige did have lower self-esteem scores than did persons of higher status. Further, having an institutionalized status—confinement at a state psychiatric hospital or a maximum security prison—is correlated with low self-esteem scores. Some possible explanations of these findings are explored.     

Labor market adjustments in the unionized contract construction industry

The unionized construction labor market reaches equilibrium by means of three adjustment mechanisms: wage changes, changes in the quality of workers hired, and the migration of workers in and out of the market. The relative importance of the three mechanisms in local labor markets depends on laws and institutional rules. This paper examines some of the important institutional rules and presents a model of market clearning where wage adjustments are infrequent.     

Perceived Teacher Autonomy and the Meaning of Organizational Control*

This paper compares field data from three schools to generate explanations for teacher perceptions of their autonomy. These perceptions do not vary with control imposed on teachers in any regular way. Consideration of environmental pressure on the schools, however, reveals a pattern to the findings. Minimal environmental pressure allows the emergence of an all-pervading consensus that leads teachers to construe control as supportive of personal goals. Moderate pressure engenders teacher dependence on the principal to buffer them from uncertainty. The principal translates the dependence into control activities teachers perceive as constraints. High levels of pressure preoccupy the principal who, therefore, cannot coordinate the school effectively. This causes teachers, themselves, to feel ineffective and constrained.     

Dioxin in the Agricultural Food Chain

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin's (PCDD) behavior in the agricultural food chain was modeled in this study. The source of PCDD was a municipal solid waste (MSW) incinerator. Of the farm livestock investigated only the beef cow and the milk cow were shown to contribute significant amounts of PCDD to humans. Milk was the single highest dietary source of PCDD. Comparison of the calculated human dose of PCDD from the agricultural food chain with an estimate human PCDD dose from inhalation of contaminated air revealed that the agricultural food chain could be responsible for a vast majority of the dose to an individual impacted by these facilities. Thus, these data suggest that operating MSW facilities in agricultural areas may result in enhanced PCDD exposure to individuals via the agricultural food chain. The data also suggest that milk and beef may be good sentinels to evaluate environmental impacts of these facilities.     

The effects of governing board configuration on profound organizational change in hospitals

This study extends the literature on governing boards and organizational change by examining how governing board configurations have influenced profound organizational change in U.S. hospitals, and the conditions under which such change occurs. Hospitals governed by boards that more closely resembled a corporate governance model were more likely to experience positive changes such as diversification and merger and less likely to undergo negative changes such as closure. Organizational performance influenced change, but largely independent of governance configurations. Only in the case of closure did we find that governance configuration operated jointly with organizational performance.     

Adolescent Gambling: Understanding the Role of Stress and Coping

The central variables of stress, coping, and gambling severity were examined along three lines of inquiry. The first addressed whether adolescents with gambling problems reported a greater number of minor or major stressful (i.e., negative) life events relative to others. The second examined whether more with gambling problems employed less-effective coping styles, such as those characterized as less task- or solution-focused, and more emotion- or avoidance-focused coping. Finally, the third question explored whether adolescents’ coping styles mediated the association between stress and gambling severity. Ranging from 11 to 20 years of age, 2,156 high-school students completed instruments assessing gambling involvement, gambling severity, stressful life events, and coping styles. Results indicated that, overall, adolescents with gambling-related problems reported more negative life events relative to social gamblers and non-gamblers. When negative life events were further separated into major and minor events, results revealed that problem gamblers reported more major negative life events but not more minor negative life events relative to others. Results indicated that adolescents with gambling-related problems used less task-focused coping, and more avoidance-focused coping. Males, but not females, who experience gambling-related problems reported using more emotion-focused coping strategies. Finally, emotion-oriented coping was found to mediate the relationship between negative life events and gambling severity. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Elderly African Americans as intragenerational caregivers

A growing number of older Americans serve as caregiving resources for their elderly spouses, partners, relatives, and/or friends. Yet, little research has addressed the impact and implications of this trend among African Americans. This article describes the results of a qualitative study examining the intragenerational caregiving experiences and perspectives of two cohorts of African Americans (urban and rural, N = 129) between the ages of 58 and 89. Its findings reveal important differences and commonalities associated with elderly African American caregivers and their care giving in urban and rural settings. Additionally, the study suggests that volunteer caregivers can often fill the void left by partners and relatives who predecease or fail to assume responsibility for the care of their elderly relatives. Their efforts do not displace those of friends and family members, but rather address unmet needs in available care. The discussion focuses on the implications of the study findings for public policy and practice.     

Maximum Value of Hotelling's T 2 Statistics Based on the Successive Differences Covariance Matrix Estimator

In statistical process control applications, the multivariate T ² control chart based on Hotelling's T ² statistic is useful for detecting the presence of special causes of variation. In particular, use of the T ² statistic based on the successive differences covariance matrix estimator has been shown to be very effective in detecting the presence of a sustained step or ramp shift in the mean vector. However, the exact distribution of this statistic is unknown. In this article, we derive the maximum value of the T ² statistic based on the successive differences covariance matrix estimator. This distributional property is crucial for calculating an approximate upper control limit of a T ² control chart based on successive differences, as described in Williams et al. (2006 Williams , J. D. , Woodall , W. H. , Birch , J. B. , Sullivan , J. H. ( 2006 ). On the distribution of T ² statistics based on successive differences . J. Qual. Technol. 38 : 217 – 229 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]).