The Treatment of Relationship Status in Research on Dating and Mate Selection

The relationship status of study participants (e.g., daters, cohabitors, marrieds, or unmarrieds) has implications for understanding dating and mate selection. Procedures used in studies may blur or ignore status distinctions. The authors examined methods used in 791 studies published from 1991 – 2001. Most commonly, status of participants is unspecified, and different statuses are collapsed for analysis. Status of participants is associated with recruitment method, and type (e.g., romantic, friendship) and form (e.g., perceived, current) of relationship measured. Unspecified samples are associated with research on the topics of universal properties or causal conditions, and specified samples with mate selection. The connection between status and topic is becoming more blurred over time. Recommendations for studying and reporting status are provided.     

乌蒙山区农村社会转型与基督教的影响

“社会主义新农村建设”是当前构建和谐社会的现实任务的一个重要组成部分。它应该强调五个方面——“协调推进农村经济建设、政治建设、文化建设、社会建设和党的建设”。这些都密切联系到农村中新老价值观的碰撞、调适、整合,联系到社会转型。这当中,宗教作为既成的社会意识形态和社会组织系统,宗教信徒作为国家公民,都是社会运动中的参与力量与资源。宗教、社会与政府三者之间如何互动,如何实现协调合力,推动社会发展？这成为了需要认真研究的问题．本文本着“一切从实际出发,理论联系实际”的马克思主义认识论原则,重点考察苗族信教群众聚居村寨,力图把握当前西部贫困地区农村社会中,基督教对新农村社区发展的各种影响,实事求是地提出“整合社会既有资源,发展农村和谐社会”的理论思考。     

From Natural Variation to Optimal Policy? The Importance of Endogenous Peer Group Formation

We take cohorts of entering freshmen at the United States Air Force Academy and assign half to peer groups designed to maximize the academic performance of the lowest ability students. Our assignment algorithm uses nonlinear peer effects estimates from the historical pre‐treatment data, in which students were randomly assigned to peer groups. We find a negative and significant treatment effect for the students we intended to help. We provide evidence that within our “optimally” designed peer groups, students avoided the peers with whom we intended them to interact and instead formed more homogeneous subgroups. These results illustrate how policies that manipulate peer groups for a desired social outcome can be confounded by changes in the endogenous patterns of social interactions within the group.     

海峡西岸经济区视角下的福建周边临界地区发展比较研究

在比较福建周边临界地区经济发展状况与“十一五”发展动向的基础上,认为福建与周边临界地区存在很强的互补性,边界崛起是海峡西岸经济区建设的必然,是突破省际行政区划限制,促进周边地区融入海峡西岸经济区建设过程的关键。提出福建要抓住国家“东中西互动”特别是中部崛起战略实施的有利时机,凸显东出西进战略,打通中部,带动边界地区崛起,整体推进海峡西岸经济区建设。     

The practice of clinical research in accredited marriage and family therapy programs

This study aims to explore the prevalence of clinic-based research among accredited marriage and family therapy (MFT) programs and reveal rationales explaining why academic settings may or may not be conducting clinical research. Findings of this project are the result of electronic-mail surveys completed by 26 accredited MFT programs. Approximately one-half of the respondents reported currently conducting clinic-based research. Open-ended responses reveal factors that lead to research success and failure, as well as reasons research was not being conducted at training programs.     

Project northland in Croatia: a community-based adolescent alcohol prevention intervention

War and social transition in Croatia have increased unemployment and rates of substance abuse. A decrease in prevention programs places adolescents at an increased risk. Data collected from the 2002 Split Youth Behavior Risk Survey (YRBS) showed that adolescents are at risk for alcohol use and related problems. Thus, there is a need to strengthen primary and secondary prevention activities to empower adolescents and counteract negative societal change. A public health partnership between the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Public Health (UMDNJ-SPH) and Split, Croatia was formed in 2001. Adolescent alcohol prevention was identified as our focus and Project Northland, a model U.S. program, was selected. A strong network of NGOs and government officials support the project. Qualitative evaluation showed strong parent, teacher, and student satisfaction. Preliminary analysis shows a heightened awareness on the part of students that will likely contribute to the overall success of the program.