Latinas’ Transition to First Marriage: An Examination of Four Theoretical Perspectives

National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and census data are used to examine the effect of both individual‐ and contextual‐level determinants on Latinas’ transition to first marriage (n= 745). Hypotheses derived from 4 leading theories of marriage timing are evaluated. Discrete‐time event‐history models that control for clustering within Labor Market Areas suggest that foreign‐born Latina and Anglo women have virtually identical marriage trajectories. Analyses further demonstrate that Latinas’ individual human capital, and residence in areas characterized by a relatively large supply of single foreign‐born Latino men, are associated with higher probabilities of marriage, whereas women’s aggregate economic opportunities are correlated with the predicted postponement of first marriage.     

ENCOUNTERS WITH STATISTICAL INFERENCE – AN INTERVIEW WITH EVAN WILLIAMS

Emeritus Professor Evan J. Williams was interviewed at the CSIRO Division of Mathematics and Statistics in Melbourne on 13 February 1991. Three major phases of his working life were discussed: time at CSIRO; time in the United States of America; time at The University of Melbourne. This article is based on an edited recording of the interview.     

Regression-based estimation of the false negative fraction when multiple negatives are unverified

Summary.  The paper describes a method of estimating the false negative fraction of a multiple-screening test when individuals who test negatively on all K tests do not have their true disease status verified. The method proposed makes no explicit assumptions about the underlying heterogeneity of the population or about serial correlation of test results within an individual. Rather, it is based on estimating false negative fractions conditionally on observed diagnostic histories and extrapolating the observed patterns in these empirical frequencies by using logistic regression. The method is illustrated on, and motivated by, data on a multiple-screening test for bowel cancer.     

Participation in Athletics and Academic Achievement: A Replication and Extension*

Accumulating research based upon cross-sectional designs has shown relationships between involvement in athletics and academic achievement and aspiration. These results have been interpreted as contrary to Coleman's early conclusion that athletics diverted talent from academic programs. However, more recent study of this relationship in five metropolitan high schools seriously questions the causal interpretation of the effects of high school athletics upon academic achievement. Athletes have higher GPAs at the end of their high school career than at the start, but they do not gain as much as nonathletes over the years of high school, thus experiencing a relative decline in achievement. These results replicate an earlier study in twenty Wisconsin high schools. These similar results obtained in schools separated in time and space support Coleman's original view of the effect of athletics.     

Father's Occupation and Son's Personality: Findings and Questions for the Emerging Linkage Hypothesis*

In the past decade an impressive body of research has accumulated on the association between social structure and personality. An important development in that literature has been the emergence of a linkage hypothesis relating the personality of the child to the characteristics of the father's occupation through the intervening linkages of father's personality and family socialization. This study uses survey data from senior males in twenty high schools to make a partial test of the occupational linkage hypothesis. We examine the relationship between the occupational complexity of the father's job and the son's achievement patterns and work orientations while controlling for the related variables of family income, father's education, and occupational status. The findings and interpretations raise questions for the occupational linkage hypothesis. When related extrinsic aspects of the father's occupation are controlled adequately, there are no direct relationships between the substantive complexity of the father's job and son's personality as measured in this study. Thus, we conclude that previous research findings on the occupational linkage hypothesis are open to alternative interpretations and that satisfactory evidence for the full, cross-generational linkage hypothesis does not yet exist.     

Treating cardiovascular disease in women

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the most common cause of death in women but some of the challenges of management differ from those in men. This article addresses the gender-specific issues of cardiovascular management, with emphasis on ischaemic heart disease and modification of coronary risk factors. Women with ischaemic heart disease present later than men, and are therefore older and more likely to suffer from co-morbidities such as diabetes and hypertension. Proven CVD risk factors in women can be divided into those that are modifiable and those that are non-modifiable. The former include diabetes, dyslipidaemia, hypertension, smoking, obesity, sedentary lifestyle and poor nutrition; the latter include family history of heart disease and older age at presentation. It is this difference in age and general health that explains much of the variability in response to treatment. Pharmacotherapy, percutaneous intervention, surgical revascularization, and cardiac rehabilitation and disease prevention are discussed.     

Attitudes Toward Divorce and Their Relationship With Psychosocial Factors Among Social Work Students

This study aimed to explore attitudes toward divorce and their relationship with general satisfaction with life, spiritual beliefs, parental bonding, and depressive symptomatology among a sample of 210 social work students from two different universities in Florida. Results indicated that the majority of students had favorable attitudes toward divorce overall, perceiving divorce as a solution to unhappy marriage. Participants also reported strong feelings regarding marital obligation and the effect of divorce on children and society. Attitudes toward divorce were associated with spiritual beliefs and parental bonding.     

The use of population‐level data to advance interdisciplinary methodology: a cell‐through‐society sampling framework for child development research

The authors argue that population‐level data should be used to advance interdisciplinary research about community effects on early development. These data permit the identification of neighborhoods in which development patterns deviate from predictions based on local socioeconomic status (SES). So‐called ‘off‐diagonal’ places signal where researchers are likely to discover processes that either deflect the risks of low SES or dampen the salutary impact of favorable SES. Since such neighborhoods will be best understood relative to nearby ‘on‐diagonal’ neighborhoods where macro‐economic and/or public policy factors are constant, the authors present a methodology for illuminating these regional clusters. The method is deployed in British Columbia, Canada, where a team has collected developmental observations from two censuses of kindergarten children (n = 82,632). The article discusses how these clusters can be used to coordinate sampling decisions among academics representing the range of disciplines needed to study child development from cell‐through‐society, as is recommended in the literature.