Economic feasibility of a primary care practice

To make informed career decisions, the new physician must acquire basic skills in medical management and health care economics and learn how to evaluate the potential survival and growth of a primary care practice. The authors have developed a model designed to aid physicians in determining the economic feasibility of establishing a practice in a specific community or joining an established practice.     

Female marital mobility within Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: a log-linear analysis

A series of log-linear models predicting the exchange marital experiences of Irish wives are prevented for the Irish Republic. The best explanatory model is one in which the relationship between a husband's occupational status and that of his father-in-law remains homogeneous across age levels, Women show a marked propensity to marry husbands at a similar occupational status as that of their fathers and long-range upward or downward mobility across the manual/nonmanual divide is unlikely. This tendency towards endogamy is particularly pronounced within the two upper non-manual categories and the manual strata generally the same general model of homogeneous association holds for Northern Ireland across age levels and religious affiliation. In the North, however, more short-range mobility occurs, particularly between the two upper non-manual groups. Despite this the norm for both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland is marital immobility rather than marital mobility with no evidence of a fundamental trend towards increased marital mobility. Furthermore. The mobility through marriage that did occur does not result in an overall net advantage for women.     

The Japanese management theory jungle

Many competing hypotheses have been advanced to account for the apparent effectiveness of Japanese management practices. The present review of some of the leading theories attempts to classify and clarify the state of knowledge of Japanese management. Although each theory may be correct as a partial explanation of Japan's success, no single conceptualization has captured the complexity of Japan's managerial achievement. Further development of integrated, internally consistent models is needed.     

Human Capital,Social Support,and Economic Well-being among Rural,Low-income Mothers: A Latent Growth Curve Analysis

The purpose of this study was to better understand human capital and social support in the long-term economic well-being of rural, low-income mothers in the US. Three waves of data from a multi-state, longitudinal investigation tracking the well-being of rural families, known as “Rural Families Speak,” were used to test two latent growth curve models of economic well-being. Results indicated that human capital alone is not a good predictor of economic well-being over time for this sample. A model of economic well-being that includes both social support and human capital provides a better fit for these data. Findings suggest that social support is a key contributor to long-term economic success for this sample. Implications for public policy are presented.

Officer friendly and the tough cop:gays and lesbians navigate homophobia and policing

Despite attempts to expand social diversity, policing is still dominated by a white, masculine, heterosexual ethos. As a consequence, employment of lesbians and gay men as police officers may be especially threatening to members of this occupation. Within the context of potential hostility and homophobia, nontraditional officers must negotiate their contradictory presence on the police force. This paper investigates that negotiation. Using the Bem Sex Role Inventory and open-ended survey data from a sample of "out" and "closeted" gay and lesbian police officers, we ask how gays and lesbians manage their images as "good cops" in the face of gender norm violations associated with their sexual orientation. Our findings indicate that masculinity and femininity do not hold together in a cohesive, dichotomous manner for these officers. Instead, other characteristics that enhance policing are emphasized to support their occupational competence. These officers see themselves as "good cops." The gendered/sexualized character of their self-perceptions appears to matter less than the context of the job, more than for a comparison sample of heterosexual police officers. We conclude that although gay and lesbian officers see their sexuality as an occupational asset, they are also likely to work harder to prove themselves as crime fighters.     

A model of the determinants in married women of sterilization method choice

A model for predicting sterilization method selection is constructed on the basis of hypotheses about 1. the relationship between the fertility termination, sterilization, and method selection decisions and 2. the influence of substantive, processual, and contextual factors in those decisions. The model is found to have an acceptably good fit to data from almost five hundred women in married couples selecting either tubal ligation or vasectomy. A number of interesting dynamic pathways leading to method selection are observed. Some weaknesses in the model are discussed. It is desirable that further confirmation and elaboration of the model using longitudinal and husband-wife data be undertaken.This paper is based on a study funded by the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, Center for Population Research, Grant Number 13459.     

An operational framework for policy modeling in the social sciences

The apparent inability (or unwillingness) of social scientists to do policy relevant, applied research is discussed. One aspect of the problem is identified as a lack of an analytic framework designed specifically with policy research in mind. Such a framework is developed from a synthesis of the assumptions of: (1) what constitutes policy and the policy research process, and (2) what should be involved in social indicator research. The policy implications of sundry structural forms assumed by the general model are discussed.     

Second Births and the Second Shift: A Research Note on Gender Equity and Fertility

In a set of propositions on fertility transition, Peter McDonald recently proposed that the decline from replacement‐level fertility to low fertility is associated with a combination of high levels of gender equity in individual‐oriented institutions, such as education and market employment, and low levels of gender equity in the family and family‐oriented institutions. Similarly, the “second shift,” or the share of domestic work performed by formally employed women, forms a critical piece of current cross‐national explanations for low fertility. Building on this scholarship, the authors explore whether there is empirical evidence at the individual level for a relationship between gender equity at home, as indicated by the division of housework among working couples with one child, and the transition to a second birth. Results, based on a sample of US couples, indicate a U‐shaped relationship between gender equity and fertility. Both the most modern and the most traditional housework arrangements are positively associated with fertility. This empirical test elaborates the family‐fertility relationship and underscores the need to incorporate family context, including gender equity, into explanations for fertility change.     

Immigrant earnings: Language skills, linguistic concentrations and the business cycle

This study of the determinants of earnings among adult foreign-born men using the 1990 Census of Population focuses on the effects of the respondent's own English language skills, the effects of living in a linguistic concentration area, and the effects of the stage of the business cycle at entry into the U.S. labor market. The analysis demonstrates the importance of English language fluency among the foreign born from non-English speaking countries. There is also strong evidence for the complementarity between language skills and other forms of human capital. Furthermore, there is strong evidence using selectivity correction techniques for the endogeneity between language and earnings. Received: 30 November 1999/Accepted: 6 February 2001     

Consideration of future consequences and unprotected anal intercourse among men who have sex with men

This study of men who have sex with men (MSM) examined whether tendencies to consider the future consequences of one's actions were associated with sexual behaviors that place oneself at risk for HIV infection. A total of 339 HIV-negative MSM responded to the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale (CFC; Strathman et al., 1994) and to questions about their anal intercourse practices in the past year. In bivariate analyses, men with a stronger future orientation were less likely to engage in anal intercourse unprotected by a condom (p < .05). Multivariate analyses revealed that CFC accounted for significant variance in three of four measures of unprotected anal sex after statistically controlling for demographic covariates (education, income, ethnicity, age). CFC was a better predictor of sexual behavior and accounted for more unique variance than any of the demographic factors. Additional research is needed to confirm that CFC is an antecedent of behavior and to examine the feasibility and efficacy of focusing on CFC in HIV prevention interventions.