Cleaning up their act: The effects of marriage and cohabitation on licit and illicit drug use

We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to estimate changes in binge drinking, marijuana use, and cigarette smoking surrounding young adults' first experiences of cohabitation and marriage. Both marriage and cohabitation are accompanied by decreases in some risk behaviors, but reductions surrounding marriage are larger and most consistent, particularly for men. Binge drinking and marijuana use respond to these events, especially marriage, but smoking does not.     

A Comparison of Horse-Race, Bingo, and Video Poker Gamblers in Brazilian Gambling Settings

In the present study Brazilian gamblers from different settings were compared on socio-demographic characteristics, gambling behavior, and use of drugs. The SOGS was administered to 171 subjects at bingo (BG), video poker (VP), and horse-racing clubs (HR) of São Paulo. BG concentrated most women, VP the youngest and single gamblers, and HR the lowest income subjects. More VP than HR or BG gamblers reported taking time off work to gamble, as well as returning another day to win back lost money. They also had a higher number of scorable responses on the SOGS. The differences observed suggest that VP gamblers bear a greater risk of developing a pathological gambling pattern. The authors suggest that measures should be taken aimed at the prevention of pathological gambling, particularly among the young population of video poker gamblers.     

Playing safe: Media coverage of child sexual abuse prevention strategies

This paper examines the media coverage of preventing child sexual abuse. It draws on a content analysis of all press and TV news coverage about child sexual abuse that appeared in the UK during a complete 12-month period. The findings demonstrate that the bulk of the coverage was case-based, for example focusing on the Orkney case. There was very little opportunity for broader discussion of general issues of concern, including how sexual assaults against children might be prevented. The coverage of ‘prevention’ which did exist drew on a very narrow range of debates and was disproportionately concerned with abuse outside the home (abductions by strangers, or abuse within institutions such as schools or children's homes). Discussions about prevention were dominated by reactive news stories generated by particular ‘scandals’. The coverage was also largely drawn from a small constituency of official source agencies (such as government officials, court proceedings and police statements). There were few attempts to address the broader social conditions which might facilitate or inhibit sexual violence or to examine explicitly political analyses of the problem. The paper argues for a more diverse discussion about ways of preventing sexual violence against children, especially assaults by fathers, uncles, brothers and friends of the family. This demands close attention to the ways in which the mass media operate, as well as the priorities of source agencies. The paper points to factors within news production practices which both obstruct and facilitate debate about prevention and concludes by suggesting strategies to promote this issue as a vital part of the public agenda.     

Medcamp's Effect on Junior High School Students' Medical Career Self-Efficacy

Medcamp, a 3-day problem-based career intervention for students entering the 9th grade, implemented each of the 4 antecedents for self-efficacy. Ten boys and 35 girls participated in Medcamp; of these, 35 completed and returned the Medical Career Self-Efficacy Scales (developed by the authors for their study) both at the beginning and at the end of the program. Three scales measured specific self-efficacy (tasks students had performed during Medcamp), related self-efficacy (other tasks students would complete by the second year of medical school), and general self-efficacy (included lifestyle variables and study habits). Results demonstrated significant increases in self-efficacy on all 3 scales.     

The influence of cooperative programs on union-management relations,flexibility, and other labor relations outcomes

There has been considerable interest recently in joint union-management committees as a means of promoting union-management cooperation. At the same time, many unionized firms have been experimenting with quality of worklife and other workplace-level programs aimed at the average employee in the bargaining unit. Survey data were obtained concerning firms’ actual experiences with these programs with regard to union officer-management relations, grievances and the ability to resolve them informally, labor flexibility, absenteeism, and turnover. There is no indication that the workplace-level programs impede union-management cooperation. Instead, they generally have positive effects on the union-management relations outcomes examined, although those effects generally are smaller than those of the joint committees.     

Union loyalty antecedents: A justice perspective

Using a justice perspective, this study investigates the relationship between union instrumentality and union loyalty in terms of union ability to address both outcome-based and process-based membership concerns. The results of hierarchical regression analysis using a sample of 451 train crew members from four railroads showed that member satisfaction with outcome-based concerns (i.e., pay, time spent away from home, safety climate) did not significantly affect union loyalty, but that member satisfaction with process-based concerns (i.e., effectiveness of the grievance procedure and satisfaction with communication from national union leaders) was significantly related to union loyalty. Moreover, process-based concerns explained additional variance in union loyalty beyond that accounted for by outcome-based concerns. Results are discussed in light of the justice and human resource literatures.     

The effect of welfare eligibility on the labor force participation of women of Mexican origin in California

The relationship between AFDC, Food Stamp, and Medi-Cal Program eligibility, on the one hand, and labor force participation, on the other, was analyzed by comparing the labor force participation rates of women of Mexican origin who were fully eligible for these programs with those of less eligible women. Marital status, husband's income, and legal residence in the United States were used to define levels of program eligibility for this sample. The effects of education, English fluency, age, the number and ages of children, and the number of other adults in the household (excluding the mother and spouse) were controlled in logistic regression procedures. The results of the multivariate analyses show that AFDC, food stamps, and Medi-Cal combined inhibit the labor force participation of unmarried mothers. There is no evidence, however, that food stamps and Medi-Cal influence the labor force participation of married mothers. Earnings information on this sample of California women indicate that welfare benefits for unmarried mothers are highly competitive with net earnings, primarily because of the cost childcare. The data imply that free or subsidized childcare would increase labor force participation and reduce AFDC enrollment.     

“I feel recycling matters… sometimes”: The negative influence of ambivalence on waste separation among teenagers

This study uses the theory of reasoned action to examine how measures of subjective and indirect ambivalence affect the separation of paper and packaging for recycling. The relationships between recycling beliefs and recycling attitudes and between recycling intention and behavior are stronger for lower levels of subjective ambivalence. Indirect ambivalence moderates the relationship between ecological self-identity and recycling behavior in the same way. One exception is that the relationship between recycling intention and behavior is stronger for higher levels of indirect ambivalence. Moreover, indirect ambivalence mediates the effect of subjective ambivalence both on recycling intention and behavior. However, this mediation is imperfect, which suggests that there is a need to measure the two types of ambivalence when studying conservation practices.     

Bias in meta-analysis due to outcome variable selection within studies

Although bias in meta-analysis arising from selective publication has been studied, within-study selection has received little attention. Chronic diseases often have several possible outcome variables. Methods based on the size of the effect allow results from studies with different outcomes to be combined. However, the possibility of selective reporting of outcomes must be considered. The effect of selective reporting on estimates of the size of the effect and significance levels is presented, and sensitivity analyses are suggested. Substantial publication bias could arise from multiple testing of outcomes in a study, followed by selective reporting. Two meta-analyses, on anthelminth therapy and a treatment for incontinence, are reassessed allowing for within-study selection, as it is clear that more outcomes had been measured than were reported. The sensitivity analyses show that the robustness of the anthelminth results is dependent on what assumption one makes about the reporting strategy for the largest trial. The possible influence of correlation between within-child measurements was such that the conclusions could easily be reversed. The effect of a mild assumption on within-trial selection alone could alter general recommendations about the treatment for incontinence.