THE EFFECT OF YOUTH ALCOHOL INITIATION ON HIGH SCHOOL COMPLETION

The social environment inherent in schools impacts both alcohol consumption onset and high school completion. The results reported here, based on data from the 1979–96 NLSY panels, show that the social coincidences between alcohol consumption and education are important determinants of both education completion and alcohol onset. Ignoring the social nature of these simultaneous decisions underestimates the impact of alcohol onset on education. After correcting for the presence of an endogenous positive relationship between schooling and alcohol consumption, we find that alcohol initiation before age 14 significantly reduces the probability of timeously completing high school by between 7% and 22%. (JEL I18 , I21 )     

Let's be PALS: User‐Driven Organizational Change in Healthcare*

This paper explores user‐driven organizational change in the National Health Service (NHS). The NHS Plan ( Department of Health, 2000 ) created Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS) to provide information, solve problems and drive user‐led change. Evidence is drawn from a study of PALS in London acute, primary care, mental health and specialist trusts, drawing on discussion forums, interviews with PALS officers and documentation. From context and role profiles, two conclusions are evident. First, organizational instability, boundary disputes, variable management support, resource limitations, financial insecurity and multi‐site working characterize the context in which PALS operate, and the officer role is characterized by problem diversity, overlap with complaints systems, monitoring problems, relationship building and ‘serial users’. Second, these context and role attributes restrict PALS to ‘repair and maintenance’, ensuring that established systems work correctly. While PALS sit on the bottom rung of a ‘participation ladder’, their contribution is more than tokenistic. However, a processual perspective demonstrates how a fluid, networked, and diversified context isolates PALS structures from management decision‐making, constraining their power base, and inhibiting the promotion of substantive change agendas.     

In Two Minds? — Parental Attitudes toward Physical Punishment in the UK

Since the Millennium, the use of physical punishment in the home has been a widely debated topic across the UK. Reliance on public opinion has been an important feature of this debate with a variety of UK surveys showing that many find physical punishment acceptable and do not support a complete ban on smacking. Drawing on the results from a comprehensive review of the literature, this article highlights that public/parental opinion is less than straightforward. Parents are often ambivalent about physical discipline, do not view it as an optimal method of behaviour management and are more prone to smack when stressed or angry. Likewise, a survey of the disciplinary practices and attitudes of 1000 parents in Northern Ireland shows that majority of parents have negative attitudes towards physical discipline. Nonetheless, many parents continue to smack despite the fact they do not believe it to be effective. Lack of parental support for legislative reform should be reconsidered in the light of this ambivalence. Most important, the UK Government needs to reframe the smacking debate in terms of children’s rights rather than relying on public opinion if it is to fulfil its commitment to protect children from harm as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.     

Human dimensions of forest management: an empirical study of stakeholder perspectives

Although much has been written on the human dimensions of forest management, there has been little empirical investigation of how forest stakeholders themselves conceptualize this domain. We used a conceptual content cognitive mapping (3CM) task along with a short survey to explore the perspectives of 23 forest stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest on the human factors relevant to appropriate forest management. Study participants were chosen from three groups: employees of the U.S. Forest Service at the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie Forest, employees of a large timber company, and area environmentalists. Three distinct human dimensions emerged: Traditional intangible benefits (aesthetic concerns, recreation and cultural resources), Values and expectations (considering multiple values, maintaining public expectations, considering social acceptability and maintaining public confidence in forestry), and Process issues indecision making (public involvement, communication across boundaries, collaboration and taking an interdisciplinary approach). In this article, we discuss these three dimensions, the differences found among the stakeholder groups in the importance they placed on each of these dimensions, and the benefits of the 3CM method in this context.     

Anal Cancer Screening: Barriers and Facilitators Among Ethnically Diverse Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Other Men Who Have Sex With Men

Knowledge and beliefs about anal cancer screening among gay and other men who have sex with men remains unclear, despite data that suggests significant risk for intra-anal HPV-related cancers. Nevertheless, community-based screening activities may be most effective when stake-holder perspectives are addressed. We conducted four focus groups among 16 male and 3 female health care advocates experienced in working with diverse gay and other men who have sex with men in Los Angeles. Barriers to anal cancer screening included lack of awareness, stigma, psychological and physical discomfort, the anus as hidden/private, primary concern with HIV, and men's lack of healthcare seeking. Facilitators were community screening sites, novel strategies such as home testing, health care system changes and targeted educational campaigns, which may increase anal cancer awareness and screening among ethnically diverse men who have sex with men.     

Weaving new retail and consumer landscapes in the Scottish Borders

New retail locations and formats and changing consumer capabilities and behaviours (including “switching”) have encouraged “outshopping” from rural to urban areas. Rural areas have been suffering from a decline in the provision of services, including retailing. One “solution” has been the strengthening of market towns in rural areas by the development of new major retail stores. The effects of this are perhaps not fully understood, particularly where the rural area comprises a network of towns rather than a single centre. Three comparable consumer surveys (1988, 1998, 2004) of shopping behaviour in the Scottish Borders are analysed. Consumer place and store switching data are used to examine the impact of new retail opportunities on shopping patterns. Two different switching strands are identified: clawback and redistribution. Redistribution within the rural network is a new finding.     

Mothering and Peer Associations Mediate Cumulative Risk Effects for Latino Youth

The present study examined whether positive parenting and deviant peer associations mediated the relations between a cumulative risk composite comprising financial strain, neighborhood problems, and maternal psychological distress and subsequent youth adjustment problems. Drawn from the Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three City Study, the sample consisted of 449 economically disadvantaged Latino families. Structural equation modeling showed that after controlling for baseline levels of youth adjustment problems, cumulative risk, assessed when adolescents were 10 to 14 years old, was directly and indirectly predictive of youths’ deviant peer associations 16 months later, through mother’s positive parenting. Deviant peer associations, in turn, were proximally associated with youth externalizing and internalizing problems. Findings underscore the role of mothers and peers in Latino youth adjustment problems.     

Adults Rule? Children,Advocacy and Complaints to Social Services

This article sets out results from a Welsh Assembly government‐funded study of complaints involving children and their use of advocacy services commissioned by local authorities in Wales. As this is the first study of its kind in Wales there is no baseline against which to compare the findings, hence we discuss the data in the context of a wider UK research literature and in relation to two key themes. These are (a) the number of complaints to social services involving children and the main characteristics of these complaints, particularly the involvement of an advocacy service and (b) the views of children about making a complaint and their experience of independent advocacy. The article reveals the adult‐dominated nature of the children's complaints system and the limited involvement of advocacy in supporting children who make a complaint. The pressing need for a more child‐focused approach that gives authentic voice to children and their rights is the key conclusion drawn from the evidence gathered in this study.     

Heterogeneity in the Transition to Adulthood: The Cases of Australia, Canada, and the United States

The prolongation and diversification of the transition to adulthood is known to have occurred in all advanced industrialized countries, although to different extents and following different patterns. A number of comparative studies have explored single-events such as leaving the parental home or making the transition to a first birth, but few have examined the transitions to adulthood more holistically by examining multiple events. We do so in this article for Australia, Canada, and the United States. We find that youth in the United States experience a more uniform and shorter transition to adulthood than their peers in Australia or Canada, even though this transition is increasingly prolonged in all three countries. The earlier transition in the United States is mostly due to the concentration of education in traditional school ages, an earlier entry into employment, and to a lesser extent, an earlier and more coordinated transition into marriage and household headship. We argue that the transition to adulthood differs quantitatively and qualitatively since entry into marriage reflects the more traditional values of the United States.