Implications of nested designs in school-based mental health services research

Evaluating school-based mental health services for children and youth with emotional disturbance (ED) has been a challenge for researchers. One particular challenge is the study design of using the student as the statistical unit of analysis, which in certain cases may lead to a violation of the "independence of error" assumption. However, the alternative to this nested design, including fewer students and more schools, can be costly and administratively complex. This study examines data from two national studies including 314 students with ED and served in special education programs and their caregivers from 24 schools in the US to identify the extent to which nesting or design effects occur in this population. The results show that variables focusing on psychopathology are less affected by nesting but school-related variables such as academic functioning are more affected. Design effects varied by grade level, suggesting that grade should be considered when designing such evaluations.     

An Animal Model of Slot Machine Gambling: The Effect of Structural Characteristics on Response Latency and Persistence

Despite the prevalence of problem gamblers and the ethical issues involved in studying gambling behavior with humans, few animal models of gambling have been developed. When designing an animal model it is necessary to determine if behavior in the paradigm is similar to human gambling. In human studies, response latencies following winning trials and near win trials are greater than those following clear losses. Weatherly and Derenne (Anal Gambl Behav 1:79–89, 2007) investigated whether this pattern was found with rats working in an animal analogue of slot machine gambling. They found a similar pattern of response latencies but the subjects’ behavior did not come under control of the visual stimuli signalling the different outcomes. The animal model of slot machine gambling we used addressed procedural issues in Weatherly and Derenne’s model and examined whether reinforcer magnitude and the presence of near win trials influenced response latency and resistance to extinction. Response latencies of the six female Norway Hooded rats varied as a function of reinforcer magnitude and the presence of near-win trials. These results are consistent with prior research and with the idea that near win trials serve as conditional reinforcers.     

Understanding Mexican NGOs: Goals,Strategies, and the Local Context

Research on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) largely focuses on the actions taken towards contributing to social change in communities and has characterized them into a typology of resisters or cooperators. Using extensive qualitative data, I use this case study to illustrate that NGOs use multiple repertoires of strategies that range from low to high risk. In this article, I show how and why NGO leaders in Monterrey, Mexico, choose their strategies based on their interpretation of the local sociopolitical environment and their assessment of how politically challenging a goal is within that context. By setting aside the dichotomy of NGOs as cooperators or resisters, I demonstrate the connection between strategies, goals, and the local sociopolitical context that is largely missing in our theorizing of NGOs (and other forms of collective action). These findings have implications for understanding how NGOs, as social actors, participate in an increasingly complex and interconnected global space.     

Counterterrorism resource allocation during a pandemic: The effects of dynamic target valuations when facing a strategic terrorist

The outbreak of pandemics such as COVID-19 can result in cascading effects for global systemic risk. To combat an ongoing pandemic, governmental resources are largely allocated toward supporting the health of the public and economy. This shift in attention can lead to security vulnerabilities which are exploited by terrorists. In view of this, counterterrorism during a pandemic is of critical interest to the safety and well-being of the global society. Most notably, the population flows among potential targets are likely to change in conjunction with the trend of the health crisis, which leads to fluctuations in target valuations. In this situation, a new challenge for the defender is to optimally allocate his/her resources among targets that have changing valuations, where his/her intention is to minimize the expected losses from potential terrorist attacks. In order to deal with this challenge, in this paper, we first develop a defender–attacker game in sequential form, where the target valuations can change as a result of the pandemic. Then we analyze the effects of a pandemic on counterterrorism resource allocation from the perspective of dynamic target valuations. Finally, we provide some examples to display the theoretical results, and present a case study to illustrate the usability of our proposed model during a pandemic.     

Unpacking Racial Socialization: Considering Female African American Primary Caregivers' Racial Identity

The relationship between female African American primary caregivers' racial identity and their racial socialization emphases was examined. Three components of racial identity were evaluated: (1) the importance of race to the self‐concept (centrality), (2) affective feelings toward group membership (private regard), and (3) perceptions of how group members are perceived by nonmembers (public regard). Latent class cluster analysis was used to identify racial identity profiles, or dominant combinations of racial centrality, private regard, and public regard among a sample of 208 female African American primary caregivers. Mean differences in the content of caregivers' socialization emphases by profile group were then assessed. Findings indicated that caregivers with different identity profiles emphasized different messages. These findings and their implications are discussed.     

Laughing otherwise: comic-critical approaches in alternative comedy

Abstract

The origins of ‘alternative comedy’ are difficult to pinpoint, though it coincided with the rise of Thatcher as Prime Minister in 1979 – that year saw the appearance of something called ‘alternative cabaret’, a term usually associated with Tony Allen, who combined activism and comedy. The acts this article will focus on are those which took a critical approach to comedy and/or politics – ‘alternative’ comedy (or altcom), therefore, as seeming to promise change through critical awareness. This paper will discuss parody as a means of critical (dis)engagement and transformation, in relation to context, and to influences such as punk. Altcom demonstrates an apparent eschewal of approaches which rely on irony and ambiguity, in favour of more ‘direct’ political engagement. It will be argued however that such ‘direct’ approach does not cancel out critical distance, but rather seeks alternative routes to establish it – namely comic and parodic overstatement, and the problematisation of ‘trust’. This entails the key questions of whether parody may take up critical distance without irony, as well as of the political implications of an approach which seeks to eliminate ambiguity. This more ‘direct’ approach however still depends on a balance of engagement and disengagement, requiring distancing from pre-established codes.     

Immigration Provisions in the Violence Against Women Act: Implications for Asian Indian Marriage Migrants

We explore the perspectives of 26 domestic violence advocates from 14 nonprofit organizations on gaps in the immigration-related provisions of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) as these relate to the intersectional needs and experiences of Asian Indian marriage migrants. Findings indicate that, based on immigration status and other intersectional locations, policy provisions differentially affect this population. In addition, because agencies focus on broadly defined populations (immigrants or women), but victims’ locations are intersectional, intersectional policy analysis and coordination between and across agencies formulating and administering policies are required to meet the needs of abused Asian Indian marriage migrants.     

A DECISION—RULE TECHNIQUE FOR PREDICTING ACADEMIC SUCCESS

The objective of this paper is to illustrate an application of a quantitative decision-rule strategy which incorporates the Wald classification statistic. An empirical example of this classification technique using data obtained from The University of Texas at Austin Measurement and Evaluation Center is presented. This study originated as an attempt to illustrate the usefulness of this infrequently used statistical technique as a practical tool for “predicting” academic performance. A method for measuring the operational effectiveness of the decision-rule used is also illustrated. This study emphasizes classification as an important part of statistical analysis and focuses on the Wald classification statistic to illustrate one type of problem for which it is suitable.     

Shifting Perceptions of Race and Incarceration as Adolescents Age: Addressing Disproportionate Minority Contact by Understanding How Social Environment Informs Racial Attitudes

African American youth disproportionately experience incarceration in the United States and a number of programs have been created to address disproportionate minority contact (DMC) with the juvenile justice system. Thus, we aim to understand the ways in which race and incarceration are conceptualized differently by younger and older youth. Within these age categories we explore how perceptions of incarceration and crime inform racial attitudes among African American adolescents. We also investigate how a program grounded in an operating framework that extols an achievement ideology and designed to decrease DMC among African American adolescent males shapes participants’ attitudes about race and incarceration and their perceived future trajectories Our findings suggest the older participants were less likely to embrace achievement ideology and more likely to be aware of the structural barriers related to race. Thus, a more culturally responsive, critically engaged intervention may be more appropriate for African American youth.     

L1 ESTIMATION IN SMALL SAMPLES WITH LAPLACE ERROR DISTRIBUTIONS

In this paper a Monte Carlo sampling study consisting of four experiments is described. Two error distributions were employed, the normal and the Laplace; and two small sample sizes (20 and 40) were tested. The question of simultaneous-equation bias called for two-stage estimators. The L¹, norm was employed as a means of comparing the performance of the L¹ or least squares estimators. A relatively new algorithm for computing the direct least absolute (DLA) and two-stage least absolute (TSLA) estimators was employed for the experiments. The results confirmed the hypotheses that for non-normal error distributions such as the Laplace the least absolute estimators were better.