The use of the nominal group technique to isolate teacher job stressors

The nominal group technique, a small-group decision-making process which offers open and relatively unrestricted response to problem identification and resolution, was used as a means of identifying the major stressors of elementary school teachers and the concomitant solutions to their problems. Although the specific stressors that have been presented in this paper are not necessarily applicable to other school districts, the nominal group technique itself should be very useful in other school districts as well as in most any work setting.The active involvement of teachers in defining and solving their own problems is a critical aspect of the technique. Teachers, like most employees, will more actively solve problems and accept innovations if they can see some tangible benefit for themselves in doing so.“Intensity of work demands” was the most frequently mentioned job stressor and also received the highest combined ranking for the nine teacher groups. “Student misbehavior and lack of motivation” ranked a close second.     

The Social ecology of Madrid: Stratification in comparative perspective

This paper examines the characteristics of residential zones in Madrid, Spain. The primary difference between zones is found to lie in a new bourgeoisie life-style dimension. Working women are found to be the best indicator of this dimension, which also involves servants, natives of Madrid and high degrees of literacy. Fertility-related considerations, however, are unrelated to working women, and this is explained as due to the availability of domestic help and "women-oriented" working arrangements. Fertility and socioeconomic status are found to be interrelated and constitute a second dimension of residential segregation. In conclusion, Madrid is examined in relation to both more and less industrialized cities, leading to a further modification of social area theory contentions concerning the ecology of stratification in developing cities.     

DECENTRALIZED INCOME REDISTRIBUTION RECONSIDERED

In theory, a state could redistribute income at a lower cost to its taxpayers than if the national government handled it. Part of the cost is exported out of state when federal tax revenues generated by the state fall as money incomes are reduced by additional redistribution. Simulations combining labor supply and migration responses show that for some reasonable parameter values enough of the cost is exported so that states do face lower costs of redistribution. Hence, the federal tax system provides at least a partial offset to the well-known externalities generated by local redistribution.     

Religion and fertility in the United States: New patterns

In the United States, the baby boom-era pattern of high Catholic and low Protestant fertility has ended. Among non-Hispanic whites in the 1980s, Catholic total fertility rates (TFRs) were about one-quarter of a child lower than Protestant rates (1.64 vs. 1.91). Most of the Protestant-Catholic difference is related to later and less frequent marriage among Catholics. Future research on the demography of religious groups should focus on explaining the delayed marriage pattern of Catholics, the high fertility of Mormons and frequently attending Protestants, and the very low fertility of those with no religious affiliation.