Parent-child connections: the essential component for positive youth development and mental health, safe communities, and academic achievement

A continuing parent-youth bond throughout adolescence and young adulthood is the foundation for genuine emotional health, academic achievement, and healthy developmental trajectories and the antidote to youth violence.     

When caregiving ends: the course of depressive symptoms after bereavement

This study describes depressive symptoms among caregivers following bereavement and connects these trajectories to earlier features of caregiving using life course and stress process theory. Data are from a six-wave longitudinal survey (five years) of spouses and adult children caring for someone with Alzheimer's Disease. The analytic subsample (N = 291) is defined by death of the care-recipient after the baseline interview. A latent class mixture model is used to identify distinctive clusters of depressive symptoms over time. Of the four trajectories identified, three represent stable symptom levels over time, with two-thirds being repeatedly symptomatic (medium symptom levels), compared to two smaller groups of repeatedly asymptomatic (effectively absent of symptoms) and repeatedly distressed (severe symptoms). In contrast, about one in five caregivers experiences improved emotional well-being over time, the temporarily distressed, who progress from severe to moderate symptom levels. Caregivers with few symptoms before bereavement tend to maintain these states afterwards, but emotionally distressed caregivers tend to become more distressed. Role overload before bereavement substantially increases the odds of following an unfavorable trajectory afterwards, whereas self-esteem and socioemotional support play protective roles. These results demonstrate that caregivers are not uniform in their emotional responses to bereavement, but follow several distinct trajectories. These trajectories are linked to their previous experiences as caregivers, in particular exposure to stressors and access to resources. These findings suggest that intervention during caregiving may facilitate adaptation following death of a loved one.     

Exploring the prevalence and correlates of methamphetamine use: findings from Sacramento's ADAM program

Anecdotal reports have suggested that the use and abuse of methamphetamine is increasing in the United States. To date, however, few scholarly works have explored the prevalence and correlates of methamphetamine use in the United States. To address this limitation, a secondary analysis was undertaken with data collected through the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program. An examination of methamphetamine-positive rates among ADAM arrestees interviewed between 1991 and 2001 identified that its use is concentrated within the Western part of the United States. Supplementary analyses of Sacramento arrestees indicated that 71% were diagnosed as needing some form of alcohol or other drug treatment. Compared to those arrestees who were detected methamphetamine-negative, methamphetamine-positive arrestees in Sacramento were three times as likely to be white and to have been diagnosed in need of drug treatment. Implications for drug control policy are discussed.     

The relationship between lead and crime

This study investigates the association between air-lead levels and crime rates across 2,772 U.S. counties. Data for the analysis come from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Bureau of Census, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Results suggest that air-lead levels have a direct effect on property and violent crime rates even after adjusting for general levels of air pollution and several structural covariates of crime. We also find that resource deprivation interacts with air-lead levels. The association between air-lead levels and crime rates-property and violent-is strongest in counties that have high levels of resource deprivation and weakest in counties that have low levels of deprivation. This interaction is consistent with arguments and evidence in the health care literature that populations most at risk of lead poisoning are least likely to get the resources required to prevent, screen, and treat the illness.     

Room assignment-rent division: A market approach

A group of friends consider renting a house but they shall first agree on how to allocate its rooms and share the rent. We propose an auction mechanism for room assignment-rent division problems which mimics the market mechanism. Our auction mechanism is efficient, envy-free, individually-rational and it yields a non-negative price to each room whenever that is possible with envy-freeness.We would like to thank seminar participants at Barcelona, Boston College, Duke, Koç, Málaga, MIT, Michigan, NYU, conference participants at the First Brazilian Workshop of Game Theory Society (Sao Paulo 2002), SED 2002-Conference on Economic Design (New York City 2002), The Sixth International Meeting of the Society for Social Choice and Welfare (Pasadena 2002), an anonymous referee for their comments and Ahmet Alkan, Selçuk Karabati, Bari Tan, nsan Tunali for insightful discussions. Sönmez gratefully acknowledges the research support of KoçBank via the KoçBank scholar program and Turkish Academy of Sciences in the framework of the Young Scientist Award Program via grant TS/TÜBA-GEBP/2002-1-19. Any errors are our own responsibility.     

The potential of the SSI program to reduce poverty among the elderly

Is it more effective to reduce poverty among the elderly by increasing the benefits paid by the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program or by increasing eligibility for the program? This paper answers that question from a policymaker's perspective. At given program cost levels, we compare the potential reduction in poverty from increasing benefit levels to the potential reduction associated with a variety of policy proposals that would increase eligibility for the program. This paper employs a microsimulation model containing an eligibility and benefits calculator, a participation model, and an optimization algorithm. The data are from the Survey of Income and Program Participation supplemented by the administrative records of the SSI program. The results show that increasing eligibility by relaxing the restrictions of the means tests can be more effective in reducing poverty than raising benefit levels.     

Migration as a consumption activity

"While a generalized utility maximization approach to migration decisionmaking is not innovative, the principal extensions of this paper involve the search for an instrument capable of measuring changes in utility levels consistent with all preferences (i.e., with all forms of utility functions), requiring only data on observed behaviour. Our approach is to construct a Location-Specific Utility Index (LSUI), whose component variables serve as proxies for the arguments in [U.S.] households' utility functions.... The testable hypothesis is formulated as follows: Assuming constant household preferences and expansion of the household's feasible set over time, the household's utility level is greater following the migration decision.... The results are compared with the households' migration decisions. The empirical evidence shows that migration may reasonably be modelled as a consumption activity by households to maximize utility." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

Ability, disability, and the oldest old

A measure of range of ability is used to profile the 85-years-old-and-older (oldest old) population, including the highly disabled institutional population. This new measure uses two new questions available in the 1990 Decennial Census concerning a self-care limitation and a mobility limitation as well as the usual question concerning a work limitation. In addition to examining the extent of disability among the oldest old, the article examines the extent of care potentially available in the household as well as the economic characteristics of this age group. It is also profiled in terms of relevant personal characteristics, including age, gender, marital status, race, ethnicity, rural residence, education, and employment. A key question addressed is the need for help or care among the oldest old and how various long-term care proposals would meet such needs. A careful analysis of this unique and growing population is necessary to both allay fears of the cost of care or help as well as to dispel stereotypes of this age group as frail and dependent, and in need of institutional care.