A Follow-up Study of Social Work Graduates

A study of 730 recent graduates of the University of Michigan School of Social Work was conducted. Both the quality and quantity of their practice were assessed. Quality of job performance was evaluated by supervisor ratings; quantity was assessed by the graduates' reports of their employment status and tasks performed. Major findings were that 91 percent of the respondents were employed as social workers but one-third were primarily using a method in which they had not specialized. Both those who had and had not specialized in their current prime method of practice were given equal evaluations by their supervisors.     

Sources and Implications of Maternal Accuracy About Young Adolescents’ Vulnerability to Friendship Jealousy

To assist effectively with social difficulties, parents must accurately understand the peer situations that are difficult for their child. Mothers’ insight into their young adolescent's vulnerability to friendship jealousy was assessed by posing identical vignettes to 72 young adolescents and their mothers and matching their responses. Mothers and children also completed questionnaires on their relationship and the child's adjustment. Mothers as a group were poor judges of their child's jealousy, but considerable variability existed. Accuracy was greater when mother–child pairs were closer. Polynomial regression and response surface analyses indicated that maternal accuracy could dampen the friendship and aggression risks otherwise associated with being vulnerable to jealousy.     

Fijians and Indians in Fiji

Fiji is peculiar in having within its population a component population of immigrant origin which has remained ethnically distinct from all other groups and which, in recent years, has become numerically predominant in the population. The other major component is the indigenous Fijian population and between them Fijians and Indians constituted more than 92% of the total population enumerated in the 1956 census. The Indian component is increasing more rapidly than is the Fijian and the factors contributing to these differential rates of increase have been analysed and are presented in this paper. The changes which have occurred over the last ten years in the patterns of mortality and fertility in each group are examined, and the likelihood of further changes are discussed in relation to the economic implications of the present age structure of the populations.     

Sex Differences in the Relationship between Military Service Status and Functional Limitations and Disabilities

This paper examines the relationship between military service status (active duty, veteran, never served), sex, and six functional limitations/disabilities using data from the 5% sample of the 2000 U.S. Census. We estimate multivariate logistic regression models separately for men and women, and evaluate sex differences by comparing coefficients across models using a Wald chi-square test and computing predicted probabilities. For both men and women, the highest rates of functional limitation/disability are observed among veterans, while the lowest rates are recorded among active duty personnel. The increased odds of functional limitations/disabilities associated with veteran status is higher among women than men, whereas the decreased odds of functional limitations/disabilities associated with active duty status is lower among women than men. The predicted probabilities, which are based on a subgroup of 40–49 year olds with select sociodemographic characteristics, indicate that veteran women’s probabilities of many types of functional limitations/disabilities equal or exceed those of veteran men. Overall, the findings suggest women experience a more detrimental effect of past military service and a less beneficial effect of current military service. More life course analysis with longitudinal data that accounts for factors that influence sex-differentiation with respect to selection into military service, experiences in the military, and the short- and long-term consequences of military service is needed to fully understand sex differences in the relationship between military service and functional limitations/disabilities.     

The Effects of the Tomatis Method on the Artistic Voice

In the theory of the French Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) doctor Alfred Tomatis, the voice emits the frequencies the ear can perceive. The auditory stimulation, through the treatment elaborated by Tomatis, can determine the stabilization or the improvement of some vocal parameters, as well as the effect on the formants of voice. A group of N = 19 subjects, singers and actors, were assessed by complete clinical ENT evaluations including fibrolaryngoscopy, otoscopy, and clinical audiometry. The voice analysis was carried out with the Multi-Dimensional Voice Program (MDVP) and with the Praat software. The results demonstrate that after the treatment entails an increase in the mean of energy density on the third formant of voice (F3). An improvement in the ability to maintain a constant intensity of the vocal emission resulted from MDVP analysis with a reduction on the standard deviation of the voice amplitude. The improvement in the auditory perception, particularly for 3 kHz, determines a better intelligibility and articulation of the words. The better auditory perception in the zone of 3 kHz reduces the phenomenon of nasalization and gives expressive power to the artistic voice. The decrease of Peak-Amplitude Variation (vAm) lead to a stable voice emission with a better control.     

Why do small firms produce the entrepreneurs?

Employees are significantly more likely to quit small rather than large firms to found new ventures. I examine empirically three alternative theories that might explain this finding: a transmission theory; a blocked mobility theory; and self-selection of workers. A representative sample of British panel data containing information on workplace, job and personal characteristics from 1991 to 2003 are used to explore the relationship between firm size and transitions into self-employment. The transmission and blocked mobility theories do not receive consistent empirical backing whereas the selection theory does. The implications of these findings for researchers and policy-makers are discussed.     

Was Debt Deflation Operative during the Great Depression?

We demonstrate three facts consistent with the debt deflation/credit view explanation of the Great Depression. First, private medium- and long-term nominal debt during the 1920 s exhibited a combination of a high initial value relative to income and a rapid growth rate that is unparalleled in a consistent data set covering more than half a century. Second, the debt issued during the 1920 s occurred in a stable price regime. Third, near the onset of the Depression, the price process switched to one of deflation. Taken together, the evidence suggests that debt deflation was operative during the Depression.