Child witness support and preparation: are parents/caregivers ignored?

Over recent decades research has confirmed the sensible belief that to participate in criminal proceedings (that were designed for adults) child witnesses may benefit from support and preparation. This is so even in countries where special measures have been introduced to make it less arduous for children to give their testimony (e.g. closed circuit television to allow children to testify away from the actual courtroom; video recorded evidence‐in‐chief). Indeed, it could be argued that as more and more children provide testimony (e.g. as alleged victims or witnesses), the more comprehensive should be preparation and support programmes for them. However, while in some countries preparation and support programmes are now offered to such children, the needs of these children's (non‐offending) parents/caregivers seem to be ignored. This paper contends not only that these adults need preparation and support but also that the provision of this is likely to benefit child witnesses. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Geographic Mobility and Spatial Assimilation among U. S. Latino Immigrants1

Although the spatial assimilation of immigrants to the United States has important implications for social theory and social policy, few studies have explored the atterns and determinants of interneighborhood geographic mobility that lead to immigrants’residential proximity to the white, non‐Hispanic majority. We explore this issue by merging data from three different sources ‐ the Latino National Political Survey, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and tract‐level census data ‐ to begin unraveling causal relationships among indicators of socioeconomic, social, cultural, segmented, and spatial assimilation. Our longitudinal analysis of 700 Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban immigrants followed from 1990 to 1995 finds broad support for hypotheses derived from the classical account of minority assimilation. High income, English language use, and embeddedness in Anglo social contexts increase Latino immigrants’geographic mobility into Anglo neighborhoods. U. S. citizenship and years spent in the United Stares are ppsidvely associated with geographic mobility into more Anglo neighbor oods, and coethnic contact is inversely associated with this form of mobility, but these associations operate largely through other redictors. Prior experiences of ethnic discrimination increase and residence in public housing decreases the likelihood that Latino immigrants will move from their origin neighborhoods, while residing in metropolitan areas with large Latino populations leads to geographic moves into “less Anglo” census tracts.     

Implicit Family Process Rules in Eating-Disordered and Non-Eating-Disordered Families

Family environment has been shown to be one of the factors related to the presence of eating disorders among young-adult females. Clinical experience and theories about eating disorders postulate that implicit family rules are an intricate part of family process that may have a great effect on the creation and maintenance of such problems. This study compared implicit family process rules (specifically rules pertaining to kindness; expressiveness and connection; constraining thoughts, feelings, and self; inappropriate caretaking; and monitoring) in families with a young-adult female diagnosed with an eating disorder—either anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or eating disorder not otherwise specified—and families with a young-adult female without an eating disorder diagnosis. One hundred two families (51 eating disordered and 51 comparison) participated in the study. Mothers, fathers, young-adult female children, and siblings completed the Family Implicit Rules Profile ( Harper, Stoll, & Larson, 2007 ). Results indicated that eating-disordered families are governed by a greater proportion of constraining family rules than are non-eating-disordered families. Additionally, eating-disordered youth reported a lower proportion of facilitative family rules and a higher proportion of constraining family rules than did parents and siblings. Theoretical, research, and clinical implications are discussed.     

Bilingual Education in the United States: A window on the Latvian situation

In this paper, we look at US experiences with bilingual education, both past and present. We especially focus on various theoretical models and their applications. After a discussion of these models and applications, we identify a number of best practices.     

Direct Observation of Road Construction Worker Behavior

Many construction workers are paid with public dollars and typically earn large salaries within the manual labor workforce. The present study used a momentary time sampling procedure to directly observe the proportion of road construction workers engaged in work-related behavior and compared the observation to repeated observations of one worksite. Both observations suggested that a small number of highway workers may be performing work tasks at any time, suggesting a need for behavior analysts to devise more effective work-related contingencies to ensure taxpayers receive more return on their investment.     

Labor Union Political Strategy in an Era of Decline and Revitalization

U.S. labor unions faced sharp membership losses over the last few decades, and some responded by ushering in a new, revitalized model of organizing. Yet we know little about how these forces may be shaping the political activities of the labor movement. Has crisis prompted unions to take aim at public policies inhibiting union vitality, or have unions turned outward to embrace broader social causes? This paper uses an original dataset of union appearances in congressional hearings to analyze unions’ legislative advocacy activities. Findings suggest substantial differences between those unions that are likely to appear in hearings on core labor‐related topics and those that appear in hearings on broad social issues: AFL‐CIO unions are more likely to participate in hearings on core labor issues, while unions commonly cited as “revitalized” and public sector unions are more likely to appear in hearings on broad social issues.     

Playing by the rules: Restricted endowment assets in colleges and universities

Endowments serve as financial buffers and safety nets for post‐secondary institutions in uncertain financial times. Donor‐restricted gifts and bequests often complicate the management and deployment of endowment assets. Public policy concerns, the Uniform Management of Institutional Funds Acts, and related case law are changing approaches used by states to alter the donors' “dead hand” when time and circumstances make carrying out conditions of restricted bequests unworkable.     

Adolescent Work Intensity and Substance Use: The Mediational and Moderational Roles of Parenting

The dialectic between the adolescent quest for autonomy and parents’ desire to regulate this quest are explored by examining the extent to which the association between adolescent work intensity and substance use is mediated and moderated by parenting practices. Results using data from the National Survey of Youth and Religion (N = 3,290) show that the association between work intensity and alcohol use is mediated by parenting practices. There is also limited support for the moderational role of parental monitoring with respect to heavy drinking. Finally, connections among work intensity, parenting practices, and substance use are pronounced for adolescents younger than 16 years of age. These findings suggest the importance of a multifaceted view of parenting practices that both shape and are shaped by their adolescent’s search for independence.     

Moving The Mentally Ill Into The Community: The Problem Of Acceptance And The Effect Of Contact

Community acceptance of the mentally ill is fundamental to a successful change to community-based care, now being implemented in New South Wales. This policy was based on an inquiry that viewed acceptance optimistically and postulated that contact with the mentally ill would be a favourable influence. The applicability of this extension of the ‘contact hypothesis’ from its original racial context is tested in one area of Sydney. The results indicate that the type of contact arising from community mental health facilities is not an effective catalyst of relevant attitude change, and suggest particular difficulties among the lower two socioeconomic classes.