WHY DOES CULTURAL CAPITAL MATTER FOR HIGH SCHOOL ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE? An Empirical Assessment of Teacher‐Selection and Self‐Selection Mechanisms as Explanations of the Cultural Capital Effect

Many scholars have argued that students' cultural capital has a positive effect on academic performance because students with cultural capital have better relationships with their teachers (the "teacher-selection" effect). However, theory also points to the importance of a "self-selection" effect, whereby students' cultural capital has a positive effect on academic performance by enhancing students' expectations for future educational attainment. Using National Education Longitudinal Study data, I estimate structural equation models to empirically assess the extent to which teachers' perceptions of students and educational expectations act as mechanisms of the cultural capital effect on grades and standardized test scores. The results show that, contrary to theoretical expectations, teachers' perceptions do not mediate the effect of cultural capital on academic performance. However, educational expectations account for portions of the cultural capital effect on grades and test scores.     

Exploring the Moderating Influence of Delinquent Peers on the Link Between Trauma, Anger, and Violence Among Male Youth: Implications for Social Work Practice

This study’s objective was to explore the influence of delinquent peer exposure, on the relationship between male youths’ histories of trauma, anger, and violent behavior. Using a nationally representative sample of male adolescents aged 12–17 and self report interviews, information was gathered on their levels of exposure to violence, stressful life events (SLE), anger, depression, delinquent peer exposure, and violent behavior. Results of a moderation analyses revealed that youth who reported higher levels of exposure to trauma, anger, and delinquent peers were at an increased risk for anger and for violent offending. Delinquent peer exposure exerted a significant interaction effect on the relationship between anger and violent offending. The implications for prevention and intervention efforts are delineated.     

Does familiarity breed contempt?: Analyses of the relationship among company familiarity,company reputation,company citizenship,and company personality on corporate equity

The effects of familiarity have received little attention in the areas of public relations. This study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to predict the influence of familiarity on corporate equity, which is measured by willingness to invest in a corporation or purchase its products or services using several mediating variables such as citizenship, reputation, and personality. The Roper Corporate Reputation Scorecard was used to study these variables using an online panel survey from NOP World of 1500 participants. Results found familiarity does have a positive relationship in each industry regarding citizenship, reputation, and personality. In addition, the latter three variables had a significant positive effect on corporate equity.     

What's wrong is right: A response to the state of the discipline

In the June issue ofSociological Forum, several authors addressed the question, What's Wrong with Sociology. Answers included increased fragmentation of the discipline, and the lack of an identifiable cumulative core of sociological knowledge. This paper examines many of the claims made by the contributors to the June 1994Sociological Forum, reframes their arguments, and by placing debates regarding the problems in sociology in a broader perspective, identifies many of the recent advances made by the discipline. Focusing on such notable contributions to the field as feminist and postmodern scholarship, we locate the positive side of multiple perspective research.Feminist Scholars in Sociology is a collective of researchers and teachers at the University of Colorado interested in exploring and sharing feminist theory and methodology.     

Focus on the first years: Correlates of substantiation of child maltreatment for families with children 0 to 4

The overall purpose of this study was to examine the correlates of substantiation of child neglect or child abuse in children 0–48 months of age in five areas: (1) child characteristics, (2) parent characteristics, (3) home characteristics, (4) social characteristics, and (5) maltreatment characteristics. A second purpose was to compare the results of this study to the current body of child maltreatment research.This study uses an ex-post facto design. A random sample of cases from a large metropolitan area in the southwest was obtained. Families whose cases were substantiated for maltreatment were compared to families whose cases were not substantiated. The exposure of children to a dangerous environment and poor parental skill were predictive of the substantiation in the multivariate analysis. Parents with fewer parenting skills, such as the inability to effectively communicate, lack of impulse control and use of harsh discipline, were predictive of child maltreatment in the multivariate analysis. The bivariate analysis revealed additional 22 variables as correlates of the substantiation within the 5 factors.     

Robust Confidence Intervals for the Bernoulli Parameter

Despite the simplicity of the Bernoulli process, developing good confidence interval procedures for its parameter—the probability of success p—is deceptively difficult. The binary data yield a discrete number of successes from a discrete number of trials, n. This discreteness results in actual coverage probabilities that oscillate with the n for fixed values of p (and with p for fixed n). Moreover, this oscillation necessitates a large sample size to guarantee a good coverage probability when p is close to 0 or 1.

It is well known that the Wilson procedure is superior to many existing procedures because it is less sensitive to p than any other procedures, therefore it is less costly. The procedures proposed in this article work as well as the Wilson procedure when 0.1 ≤p ≤ 0.9, and are even less sensitive (i.e., more robust) than the Wilson procedure when p is close to 0 or 1. Specifically, when the nominal coverage probability is 0.95, the Wilson procedure requires a sample size 1, 021 to guarantee that the coverage probabilities stay above 0.92 for any 0.001 ≤ min {p, 1 ?p} <0.01. By contrast, our procedures guarantee the same coverage probabilities but only need a sample size 177 without increasing either the expected interval width or the standard deviation of the interval width.