Adolescent Religiosity and School Contexts*

Objectives. Schools serve as the primary social organizations for adolescents, structuring their lives and conveying a variety of skills, norms, and values, but relatively little is known about how schools influence the development of religious belief, attitudes, and behavior during adolescence. We explore how schools' religious norms, coupled with adolescents' pursuit of social status through conformity, affect public and private religiosity. Methods. Employing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we use multilevel modeling to examine the impact of school context on adolescents' public and private religiosity. Results. We find that school norms are influential in shaping both public religious expressions and private devotional activities, but pursuit of social status is a motivation for change across religious contexts only of public religious activity. The effect of social status as a motivator of religious change was moderated by the strength of the adolescent's identification with the school, especially for private religiosity. Conclusions. Schools play a key role in the social development of adolescents, and students' religious beliefs and behaviors are influenced systematically and observably by the type of religious climate within the school.     

Research on environmental health interventions: ethical problems and solutions

This article reviews a variety of ethical issues one must consider when conducting research on environmental health interventions on human subjects. The paper uses the Kennedy Krieger Institute lead abatement study as well as a hypothetical asthma study to discuss questions concerning benefits and risks, risk minimization, safety monitoring, the duty to warn, the duty to report, the use of control groups, informed consent, equitable subject selection, privacy, conflicts of interest, and community consultation. Research on environmental health interventions can make an important contribution to our understanding of human health and disease prevention, provided it is conducted in a manner that meets prevailing scientific, ethical, and legal standards for research on human subjects.     

The Legalization of Abortion and Subsequent Youth Homicide: A Time Series Analysis

In this article, we examine the association between the legalization of abortion with the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and youth homicide in the 1980s and 1990s. An interrupted time series design was used to examine the deaths of all U.S. 15- to 24-year-olds that were classified as homicides according to the International Classification of Diseases (codes E960-969) from 1970 to 1998. The legalization of abortion is associated over a decade later with a gradual reduction in the homicides of White and non-White young men. The effect on the homicides of young women is minimal. We conclude that the 1990s decline in the homicide of young men is statistically associated with the legalization of abortion. Findings are not consistent with several alternative explanations, such as changes in the crack cocaine drug market. It is almost inconceivable that in the United States of today, policies affecting the choice to have children would be justified as a means to control crime. Yet, if the legalization of abortion had this unintended effect, the full range of policy implications needs to be discussed.     

Chemical Accidents in the United States, 1990–1996

Objective. Much of the empirical work on environmental justice centers on the geographic distribution of potential chronic health risks (e.g., planned toxic releases or treatment storage and disposal facilities). Far less attention has been devoted to the geographic distribution of acute health risks that cause immediate harm. The purpose of this work is to examine environmental justice in terms of potential acute health risks by examining the distribution of serious chemical accidents across diverse subpopulations. Methods. We draw upon 1990 census data for the United States to study the relationship between the racial, ethnic, and economic characteristics of census block groups ( N = 226,398) and the presence or absence of chemical accidents that caused at least one injury, death, or evacuation for the time period of 1990–1996. The data used to map the location of the chemical accidents were obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency's Accidental Release Information Program (ARIP) database. Results. Our results indicate that the acute risk associated with chemical accidents at fixed facilities is greater for individuals living in low–income census block groups, especially when comparisons are made within the counties where the chemical accidents occur. Our results concerning race and ethnicity are less consistent and somewhat weaker. Conclusions. Although these results do not show large and dramatic effects, as have often been found in the study of the social distribution of chronic environmental risk, they do stand as one of a relatively few social analyses of social variation in exposure to acute environmental risk.     

全球经济及其理论辨析

由关贸总协定、世界贸易组织、世界银行、欧共体、美洲自由贸易区等国际协定和跨国公司体现的世界经济一体化是由私有化进程和打破区域垄断的自由主义经济目标推动的不可逆转的趋势。在这一过程之中经济和经济学成了世界的结构信息。经济学的两个预设———自私自利的经济人和人的世界———非人世界的二元论是全球经济的深层理论基石。经济人的实践活动造成贫富不均 ,二元论把人溺爱成肆无忌惮地破坏环境的动物。人类应该冷静思索这一新的世界形势 ,提出合理对策     

俄罗斯是否面临着人口趋减的境况?

在 1 992年至 1 993年期间 ,俄罗斯的人口总数开始呈现出下降的态势 ,随后便逐年递减。自1 991年苏联解体以来 ,人们对俄罗斯人口统计方面的诸多变化十分关注 ,并力图搞清楚下列问题 ,即这些变化是否由一系列政治事件直接引起。目前 ,俄罗斯人口逐年下降的现状和未来已经成为报刊杂志以及学术著作的热门话题。俄罗斯是前苏联遗产的继承者 ,这一点已得到人们的普遍认同。在构成苏联的 1 5个加盟共和国当中 ,俄罗斯是最大的加盟共和国。 1 989年 ,俄罗斯的人口总数占苏联总人口的 5 1 %。当时苏联的人口总数已达到 2 8亿 ,而目前俄罗斯的人口…     

Social workers' perceptions of their power and service outcomes

While social workers are becoming increasingly interested in methods of client empowerment, little attention has yet focused on the links between workers' own power and the services they provide to clients. The authors examine the link between workers' perceptions of their power on the job and perceived service outcomes. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted on survey responses from 591 direct practice social workers in Israel. Results indicate that power perceptions are significantly associated with an array of perceived service outcomes. These findings highlight the relevance of self-efficacy and control theory in understanding social workers' efforts toward effective service delivery. Further, they underscore a need to consider more carefully direct practitioners' own power concerns as they increasingly consider empowerment of their clients.     

Trilateral Labour Markets, Pricing and the Demand for Personal Social Services

Correspondence to Dr B. Burkitt, Department of Social and Economic Studies, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD7 1DP. Summary The authors examine recent trends in labour markets and employmentexperience, which have altered significantly the socio-economiccharacteristics of social work clients. They argue that thesechanges have reduced the relevance of proposals for the increaseduse of pricing and the introduction of vouchers in the provisionof personal social services. The needs of clients are unlikelyto be met by a further concentration of analytical attentionon such largely unworkable proposals.