The Role of the Statistician: Scientist or Shoe Clerk

A carnival game is described in which a player rolls eight dice or eight marbles into holes. To win, the player must obtain a favorable outcome on a number of plays. The probability distribution for the outcome of a single play is discussed. The distribution of a winning combination of outcomes is discussed and approximated. These probabilities show that the game is essentially unbeatable.     

Creating Ethnicity: East European Jews and Lithuanian Immigrants in Chicago

Abstract

By focusing on East European Jewish and Lithuanian ethnic groups in the United States, this paper offers a three stage model for understanding the process by which assimilating groups create their ethnicity: Stage One, ethnic community and participatory organizations; Stage Two, individual perpetuation and representational organizations; Stage Three, informal behavior and residual symbols. The model considers the impact of both cultural and structural variables, instead of treating them as rival claimants to primacy. In applying the model to data gathered in the groups' Chicago communities, we found that despite particular divergencies, both groups presented a similar response to the United States, enabling their members to maintain a dual ethnic identity beyond the tightly-knit ghetto and urban village.     

Grief and Trauma Group Therapy for Children After Hurricane Katrina

Theoretical and evidence-based group therapy models that address the interplay of grief and trauma are needed for children postdisaster. This article describes a theoretically informed 10-week grief and trauma group model that was evaluated with children in schools after Hurricane Katrina. The foundation of the grief and trauma intervention includes utilizing developmentally specific methods, an ecological perspective, and culturally relevant approaches. The theoretical ordering of themes addressed occurs within three overlapping phases: (1) resilience and safety, (2) restorative retelling, (3) and reconnecting (Herman, 1997 Herman, J. L. 1997. Trauma and recovery, New York: Basic Books.  [Google Scholar]; Rynearson, 2001 Rynearson, R. 2001. Retelling violent death, Philadelphia: Brunner-Routledge.  [Google Scholar]). Techniques from cognitive behavioral therapy and narrative therapy are combined to address loss and trauma.     

In‐Hospital Paternity Establishment and Father Involvement in Fragile Families

This article assesses the effectiveness of in‐hospital paternity establishment, a federal requirement since 1993. We avoid biases in previous studies by using a national sample of nonmarital births (N= 3,254), by including detailed controls for characteristics of unwed mothers and previously unavailable controls for characteristics of fathers, and by estimating reduced form models of the effects of strong paternity establishment regimes. We find that paternity establishment rates are now quite high—69%—and that 6 of 7 paternities are established in the hospital. Even after controlling for previously unavailable characteristics, establishing paternity (in and outside the hospital) is significantly and positively associated with formal and informal child support payments and father‐child visitation. These results hold up in the reduced form models.     

What does the new boss think?: How new leaders' cognitive communities and recent “top-job” success affect organizational change and performance

Leader succession often occurs because a performance decline highlights the need for change within an organization. When this need is especially high, successors are likely to be drawn from different cognitive communities than those of the replaced incumbents. Successors representing different cognitive communities carry out more change immediately after succession. This increased, rapid change will be most effective when the new leaders have had successful recent “top-job” experience. When successors lack recent top-job success, too much change too soon will actually hurt performance. We find moderate support for these relationships using panel data from the USA's National Football League.     

A similarity analysis of curves

The authors propose a method for comparing two samples of curves. The notion of similarity between two curves is the basis of three statistics they suggest for testing the null hypothesis of no difference between the two groups. They exploit standard tools from functional data analysis to preprocess the observed curves and use the permutation distribution under the null hypothesis to obtain p‐values for their tests. They explore the operating characteristics of these tests through simulations and as an application, compare the ganglioside distribution in brain tissue between old and young rats.     

Trends in child support outcomes

This paper examines trends in child support award rates, award amounts, and receipts, We investigate four hypotheses that have been proposed to explain the downward trend in these outcomes during the 1980s: (1) changes in the demographic composition of the population eligible for child support, (2) increases in mothers/ income, (3) decreases in fathers’ income, and (4) inflation. Our results indicate that trends in nonmarital fertility can explain much of the decline in award rates. The steady downward trend in fathers’ incomes during the 1980s also explains a considerable portion of the decline in award rates, award amounts, and receipts. Our results are also consistent with the notion that persistent money illusion is responsible for the decline in real child support awards.     

Quality of life after radiation therapy: A study of 309 cancer survivors

(1) Comparison of patients with a national sample reveals no difference in income (adjusted for inflation), marital status and education level but patients, who are typically older, are more often retired or disabled. (2) Overall, perceived quality of life is nearly the same for patients and national sample; apparent differences can be readily explained by factors other than cancer or its treatment. (3) While some minor differences among patients were found as a function of their site of cancer, treatment modality, or health status, no evidence was found of significant detrimental effects due to radiation therapy or perceived quality of life. (4) Contrary to expectations of deteriorated quality of life, compared to the national baselines the patients are actually more satisfied with their lives as a whole.     

Assortative mating among unmarried parents: Implications for ability to pay child support

Assortative mating is of interest to both theoretical and applied social scientists. Previous research is based almost entirely on married couples and parents. In this paper we use data from the NSFG to examine assortative mating among unmarried parents in the US and to examine the robustness of estimates of nonresident fathers' income based on assortative mating assumptions. We find that never married parents are similar, though not identical, to married parents in their choice of partners. White unmarried women are much more likely to have a child with a non-white male than white married women. On the other hand, unmarried women are more likely than married women to have a child with a more educated male. Received: 31 May 2000/Accepted: 2 January 2001