Reviews and abstracts

Felstein, Ivor. Sex and the longer life. London: Allen Lane The Penguin Press. 1970. pp. 143, $4.95.

Gallino, Tilde Giani. Il sesso e l'adolescente (Sex and the adolescent). Torino, Italy: Ediscientifica S.F.A. Settore Editoriale, 1971. Student text 103 pp. 2500 lire. Instructor's manual 60 pp. 2000 lire.

Greenwald, Harold and Ruth Greenwald (Eds.). The Sex‐Life Letters, Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher, Inc. 1972, Distributed by Crown Publishers, Inc., N.Y. XXV & 436 pp.

Kuiper, P. C., M.D. The Neuroses. A Psychoanalytic Survey. New York: International Universities Press, 1972. 261 pages. $9.00.

Lieberman, Bernhardt (Ed.). Human Sexual Behavior—A Book of Readings. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1971. 444 pages.

Martin, Del and Phyllis Lyon. San Francisco, California: Glide Publications, 1972. 283 pp; hardcover $7.95.

Neubardt, Selig, M.D. and Harold Schulman, M.D. Techniques of Abortion. Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Co. 172 pages. $11.50.

Orth, Penelope. An Enviable Position. New York: David McKay Co., 1972. 303 pages. $7.95.

Zatuchini, Gerald I. (Ed). Post‐partum Planning: A Report on the International Program. New York: McGraw‐Hill Book Co., 1970. XXX and 477 pp.     

Race,SES, and Obesity Among Men

Over the last decade, obesity has increased significantly among men but few national studies have empirically examined racial and socioeconomic differences in obesity among men. In this paper, we utilized logistic regression to evaluate the potential associations that race and socioeconomic status may have with obesity among men in the National Survey of American Life: an in-person household survey of non-institutionalized U.S. blacks and whites who lived in communities where at least 10% of the community residents were black Americans. A greater proportion of black men were likely to be obese than white men, but no interaction among race, SES, and obesity was detected when potential confounding variables were included. There was not a relationship between SES and obesity for white men, but there was an apparent positive relationship between SES and obesity for black men that did not remain significant in adjusted models. No relationship was found between age and obesity among black men, though white men who were 55 and older were more likely than those 18–34 to be obese in confounder adjusted models. Among white men, no relationships were found between obesity and education, household income, or marital status. Black men in the lowest income category were less likely to be obese than those in the highest income category, in bivariate but not adjusted models. These findings suggest that the way racial, economic, stress and behavioral factors combine to affect obesity in black and white men may be different.     

Linking Social Development with the Capacity to Carry Debt: Towards an MDG‐Consistent Debt‐Sustainability Concept

Owing to concerns among low‐income countries that the new debt sustainability framework of the Bretton Woods institutions may lock them into a so‐called ‘low debt‐low growth’ scenario, the United Nations has called for a more MDG‐consistent debt‐sustainability concept. This article shows that there is a robust relationship between achieving the Millennium Development Goals and having a higher capacity to carry debt. It then discusses options for modifying the current debt‐sustainability framework, and suggests that including progress made in achieving the MDGs in determining borrowing limits would be a first step towards adopting such a concept.     

Noisy Winter: The DDT Controversy in the Years before Silent Spring

Abstract In this paper, we examine three unanticipated findings from a social constructionist analysis of popular media coverage of the pesticide DDT from the years 1944 to 1961. The first unanticipated finding was the early (1945) appearance of negative or cautionary claims in the media source examined, the New York Times. Second, while negative or cautionary claims about the pesticide did constitute a minority voice during this time period, it was nonetheless a persistent voice. The third unanticipated finding was the predominance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the State Agricultural Experiment Stations among those claimsmakers initially cautioning potential users about unintended and potentially deleterious impacts. The concept of "routine monitoring mechanisms" is introduced to explain this third finding. We conclude by considering the potential impact of this coverage on the subsequent development of the controversy.     

Problems in using birth-history analysis to estimate trends in fertility

Summary The problem investigated is the adequacy of birth-history analysis as a method for estimating fertility change. The analysis demonstrates that inaccurate reporting of the dates of birth of live-born children can, under reasonable assumptions, significantly distort cohort fertility schedules in such a way that estimates of change in fertility will be biased in the direction of exaggerating declines in fertility. This kind of bias is shown to exist in fertility estimates obtained from survey data in El Salvador and Bangladesh. An important implication is that birth history questionnaires should begin with the most recent, rather than the earliest, event in a respondent's experience.     

Competition between spontaneous and induced abortion

Because of their similar timing in pregnancy, spontaneous and induced abortions can be viewed as competing outcomes. Some intended abortion operations are anticipated by earlier miscarriages while some potential miscarriages are forestalled by earlier deliberate interruptions of pregnancy. Previous treatments of this competition are reviewed, and a new analysis is made on the basis of New York data. A simple rule for approximating the reduction in apparent incidence of spontaneous abortion in the presence of induced abortion is presented. The effects of nonreporting and misreporting of pregnancy outcomes upon this rule are examined by means of the Perrin-Sheps renewal process. Two expectations are tested on Taiwanese data.

     

A Behavioral Look at the Training of Alex: A Review of Pepperberg’s The Alex Studies: Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey Parrots

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - The Alex Studies: Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey Parrots by Irene Pepperberg is reviewed from a behavior analytic orientation. The results of the...