Introduction Private and Public: Gender,Generation and Family Life in Flux

In the past four decades, Hong Kong has seen a dramatic transformation of the social location of women in the public sphere, with deep and far-reaching ramifications for courtship, marriage, fertility, conceptions of parenthood, familial power, and equality and freedom. A sociology of the family is thus by necessity a sociology of women in particular, and of gender relations in general. Indeed, recent developments in research on marriage and the family in Hong Kong reflect this new awareness. Using rigorous sociological frameworks, this new line of research has begun to meet with some success in analyzing contemporary social issues that are prominent in the public consciousness. This essay reviews studies of four topical areas: determinants of the postponement of first marriage among women, the effect of live-in foreign domestic workers on family dynamics, violence against women and children in the family, and the livelihood strategies of cross-border families. These studies have attempted to integrate the interplay of the impact of a changing economy and society on the family and the role played by women in the family. The resulting dynamic interactions amongst the members within the family and the changes they bring about become propellants for change in the economy and society and pose new challenges. The family is indeed a troubled institution. It is so because myriad public issues are being taken on, confronted, worked through, and acted out within the family. The agony, and indeed the ecstasy, of the family is a reflection of the success, and failure, of society.     

Trends in Socioeconomic Achievement among Immigrant and Native-Born Asian-Americans, 1960–1976*

The first waves of Asian immigration to the United States were halted by exclusionary and racist legislation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. With the reforms of the 1965 Immigration Act, there has been a resurgence of immigration from Asia. This study analyzes changes in the socioeconomic composition of immigrant and native-born Asian-Americans (Japanese, Chinese, and Filipinos) from 1960 to 1976. The educational levels of all Asian groups, immigrant and native-born, have equaled or exceeded those of whites in recent years. Asians are more likely to be found in professional occupations than are whites, although there is also a concentration of immigrant Chinese and Filipinos in service occupations and the retailtrade sector. Native-born Asian-Americans have reached parity with whites in terms of average earnings, though immigrant Asians remain far behind. The findings are discussed in light of the changing structural conditions and opportunities of Asians in American society.     

Shapiro,A.C.: Multinational Financial Management

RJB Review of Journals and Books

Shapiro, A.C.: Multinational Financial Management     

Interval Estimation of the Stress-Strength Reliability with Independent Normal Random Variables

This article develops a procedure to obtain highly accurate confidence interval estimates for the stress-strength reliability R = P(X > Y) where X and Y are data from independent normal distributions of unknown means and variances. Our method is based on third-order likelihood analysis and is compared to the conventional first-order likelihood ratio procedure as well as the approximate methods of Reiser and Guttman (1986 Reiser, B., Guttman, I. (1986). Statistical inference for Pr(Y < X): the normal case. Technometrics 28: 253257.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Guo and Krishnamoorthy (2004 Guo, H., Krishnamoorthy, K. (2004). New approximate inferential methods for the reliability parameter in a stress-strength model: the normal case. Commun. Statist. Theor. Meth. 33: 17151731.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The use of our proposed method is illustrated by an empirical example and its superior accuracy in terms of coverage probability and error rate are examined through Monte Carlo simulation studies.     

Random sampling from the watson distribution

An envelope-rejection method is used to generate random variates from the Watson distribution. The method is compact and is competitive with, if not superior to, the existing sampling algorithms. For the girdle form of the Watson distribution, a faster algorithm is proposed. As a result, Johnson's sampling algorithm for the Bingham distribution is improved.     

Effects of mediator competence and mediation process on user satisfaction with child custody,finances, and property outcomes

This study draws on survey data from 205 family mediation service users concerning their satisfaction with the outcomes of mediation to address two research questions: (a) how satisfied are service users? and (b) what factors account for users' satisfaction with the outcome of child custody arrangements and the allocation of finances and property? Overall, users' level of satisfaction with outcomes was high. While the mediation process explained a significant variance in satisfaction with the outcomes for child custody and for finances and property, the mediator's perceived professional competence did not predict user satisfaction with the outcomes for either issue. This study contributes to our knowledge on the significance of mediators' process skill, specifically their calm and clear responses to the socioemotional needs of the mediated parties, on the service outcomes for both types of dispute. The implications for mediation training are discussed.     

Examining risk and protective factors on progression of romantic relational aggression among young adults: Parental control,parental care,and peer social support

Abstract

Romantic relational aggression is related to numerous mental health consequences but risk and protective factors of perpetrating this type of aggression, historically, have been unclear. This study fills in the research gap by evaluating the impact of parental control, parental care, and peer social support on later perpetration in romantic relational aggression among 84 predominately Chinese college students. Results revealed the positive association between parental control and perpetration in romantic relational aggression, however, this association diminished in the presence of high peer social support (HSS). Despite insignificance in the main effect, parental care was negatively correlated with later perpetration in romantic relationship in the HSS group while a positive association was found in the low peer social support (LSS) group. These highlights provided evidences how parental control and parental care during childhood could be risk factors for later romantic relational aggression as well as how current social support from peer could serve as a protective factor on the negative influence from parent–child relationships.     

Internal versus External Control: An Analysis of Board Composition and Ownership in UK Takeovers

This paper examines the relationship between board composition, ownership structure and takeovers in the UK in the period 1989–1993. We compare board composition and ownership characteristics for a sample of 166 takeover targets with a matched sample of nontarget firms. We further disaggregate our sample depending on target management's attitude to the bid as well as the eventual outcome of the bid. We find little difference between board composition and ownership structure between all targets and the control group of nontargets. However, when we disaggregate the samples, we find that hostile targets are more likely to have different individuals in the role of chairman and CEO, and exhibit significantly lower levels of managerial ownership compared to both the control group of nontargets and targets of friendly takeovers. We also find that managerial ownership is positively related to takeover success. Overall, our results support the findings of a number of recent studies in the US by highlighting the important role managerial share ownership plays in the takeover process.