Cognitive Self‐Regulation and Depression: Examining Academic Self‐Efficacy and Goal Characteristics in Youth of a Northern Plains Tribe

The relationship between cognitive self‐regulatory processes and depression was examined in American Indian adolescents from a Northern Plains tribe. Students completed measures of negative life events, self‐efficacy, goals, and depressive symptoms. Results indicated that academic self‐efficacy was strongly associated with depression. Academic self‐efficacy also correlated with intrinsically motivating goal representations, such that students who indicated high academic self‐efficacy had goals that were more important to them, goals they thought more about, and goals they viewed as wanted by the self instead of as imposed on by others. However, we did not find the hypothesized mediational model in which academic self‐efficacy influenced depression indirectly by influencing goal characteristics. Rather, this indirect model varied by grade, and differed from what we expected. Specifically, for older adolescents, higher levels of academic self‐efficacy predicted goals that were more likely to be identified as the adolescent's own, and in turn, these self‐ as opposed to other‐oriented goals predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms. Results are discussed as providing support for continued investigations into the role of specific cognitive self‐regulatory processes in youth adjustment.     

Differences in Perception of Risk Between People Who Have and Have Not Experienced Salmonella Food Poisoning

It is believed that food hygiene precautions in domestic kitchens are an important strategy in efforts to reduce the incidence of sporadic food poisoning, but recent research has shown that people who have suffered food poisoning handle the same types of foods and adopt similar food hygiene precautions in their kitchens to the rest of the population. This suggests the need to examine other factors. A case-control study of sporadic Salmonella food poisoning was conducted to investigate several domestic kitchen risk factors. Measures of perception of risk, knowledge, and control associated with food poisoning in case and control respondents are reported here. It was found that perceived personal risk from food poisoning in the home was less than perceived risk to other people. In contrast, ratings of personal knowledge about food poisoning and personal control over food poisoning in the home were seen to be greater than other people's knowledge and control. There were no differences between the cases and the controls in their ratings of knowledge about food poisoning or their control over food poisoning. However, cases perceived their personal risk from food poisoning to be higher than controls. Both case and control samples exhibited optimistic bias but this was reduced in the case sample, suggesting that experience with food poisoning may reduce optimistic bias.     

Meeting the statistical needs of 21st-century science

Kanti Mardia and Walter Gilks consider the future role of statistics in scientific explanation and prediction, through views expressed by eminent scientists, philosophers and statisticians and through their own experience, particularly in the field of bioinformatics.     

The impact of missing values in the concentration–time curve on the assessment of bioequivalence

A complication that may arise in some bioequivalence studies is that of ‘incomplete subject profiles’, caused by missing values that occur at one or more sampling points in the concentration–time curve for some study subjects. We assess the impact of incomplete subject profiles on the assessment of bioequivalence in a standard two‐period crossover design. The specific aim of the investigation is to assess the impact of four different patterns of missing concentration values on the coverage level of a 90% nominal two‐sided confidence interval for the ratio of geometric means and then to consider the impact on the probability of concluding bioequivalence. An overall conclusion from the results is that random missingness – that is, missingness for reasons unrelated to the bioavailability of the formulation involved or, more generally, to any aspect of the study design and conduct – has a damaging effect on the study conclusions only when the number of missing values is fairly large. On the other hand, a missingness pattern that potentially has a very damaging effect on the study conclusions is that which arises when values are missing ‘late’ in the concentration–time curve. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd     

Plural forms versus franchise and company-owned systems: A DEA approach of hotel chain performance

Plural form tends to be the most popular organization form in retail and service networks compared to purely franchised or purely company-owned systems. In the first part, this paper exposes the evolution of researchers’ state of mind from the way of thinking which considers franchising and ownership as substitutable organizational forms to theories which analyze the utilization of both franchise and company arrangements. The paper describes the main attempts to explain theoretically the superiority of plural forms. In the second part, the paper discusses the hypothesis which says that there is a relationship between the organizational form of the chain and its efficiency score. It is demonstrated through the application of a data envelopment analysis method on French hotel chains that plural form networks are in average more efficient than strictly franchised and wholly owned chains. The Kruskal–Wallis test which is a distribution-free rank-order statistic is used to statistically verify this relationship. The result does not permit the rejection of the null hypothesis regarding whether an organizational form is more efficient than another one. Hence, this paper opens prospects for researches aiming at testing the organizational form effect on different samples and with other methods.     

Fehlende und fehlerhafte Daten in der amtlichen Statistik. Neue Herausforderungen und L?sungsans?tze

Zusammenfassung Die Datenerhebungsprozesse in der amtlichen Statistik unterliegen einem tief greifenden Wandel. Zu diesem Wandel haben verschiedene Faktoren beigetragen: So verlangen die Auskunftgebenden oftmals eine spürbare Verringerung der Belastung. Gleichzeitig wünschen viele Nutzer tiefer gegliederte Informationen in einer wachsenden Zahl von Bereichen. Die statistischen ?mter sehen sich dabei mit immer neuen Budgetkürzungen konfrontiert, die ihre Reaktionsm?glichkeiten nicht selten einschr?nken. Schlie?lich ist im Europ?ischen Statistischen System eine weitere Harmonisierung der Datenerhebungsprozesse erforderlich. Der Wandel der Datenerhebungsprozesse hat nahezu alle Bereiche der amtlichen Statistik erfasst. Vielfach ersetzen heute Verwaltungsregister (wie im Fall des Unternehmensregisters oder des geplanten registergestützten Zensus) traditionelle Totalerhebungen. Bei neuen Statistiken tritt nicht selten die Freiwilligkeit der Auskunftserteilung an die Stelle der Auskunftspflicht. In der Unternehmensstatistik werden die Abl?ufe bei Befragung und Aufbereitung darüber hinaus grundlegend ver?ndert, wenn etwa die Unternehmen ihre Angaben automatisch aus dem betrieblichen Rechnungswesen an das statistische Amt senden. In anderen Bereichen erfordert eine gesunkene Teilnahmebereitschaft an Erhebungen den Einsatz zunehmend komplexer Stichprobenverfahren, wie etwa im Fall der Dauerstichprobe befragungsbereiter Haushalte. All diese Ver?nderungen haben erhebliche Auswirkungen auf die Messung, insbesondere auf die Behandlung fehlender und fehlerhafter Daten. Die Konzepte zur Messung von Fehlern in statistischen Erhebungen sind h?ufig noch immer ausgerichtet an der traditionellen Prim?rstatistik. Um eine Bewertung der ver?nderten Ans?tze in der Datenerhebung vornehmen zu k?nnen, bedürfen die Fehlertypen daher einer konzeptionellen Neuausrichtung. So unterscheiden sich z. B. registergestützte und traditionelle Erhebungen hinsichtlich der Konstruktion der Grundgesamtheit grundlegend. Mit den genannten Ver?nderungen des Erhebungsprozesses sind zugleich neue Ans?tze zur Erkennung und Korrektur von Antwortausf?llen erforderlich, z. B. im Fall fehlender oder fehlerhafter Werte in Verwaltungsregistern. Unterschiede zwischen den Merkmalsdefinitionen in Verwaltungsregistern und der amtlichen Statistik k?nnen schlie?lich zu neuen Typen von Messfehlern führen, die bislang nur selten Beachtung finden. Dieser Beitrag entwirft ein “Fehlerportfolio”, das bei der ?nderung von Erhebungsprozessen die Auswirkungen auf den Fehler der Ergebnisse bewerten hilft.

---

Data collection processes in official statistics are currently facing many pressures. Respondents ask for a reduced response burden. Users ask for more detailed information in a growing number of subject matter areas. Governments restrict the budget, thus at the same time restricting the possible use of data collection methods. And the European Statistical System requires a further harmonisation of the data collection methods used within the member states. These pressures are also reflected by fundamental changes in the way official statistics are collecting data. Administrative registers replaced traditional censuses in many areas (like the population census or in the whole field of business statistics). Voluntary surveys more and more replace surveys with mandatory response. In some fields, the logic of the response process is being radically reshaped: For example, in German business surveys, enterprises can now report their data directly from their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. And in many areas increasingly complex sampling designs are used in order to enhance the efficiency of the fieldwork and to counteract a growing reluctance to participate in surveys. The paper focuses on the implications of these changes on survey errors. We argue that the concepts used to measure and assess survey errors still reflect the perspective of the ‘traditional’ survey with primary data collection. With the current changes in the data collection processes these concepts are no longer fully appropriate. For example, an assessment of the coverage errors has to take into account the differences in the construction of the target population in registers and traditional censuses. The changes in the response process necessitate changes in the way we measure and correct for nonresponse errors (e. g. detection of erroneous or missing values in registers). Measurement errors have to be conceived differently in order to cover, e. g., errors due to lacks in compliance of statistical concepts with the concepts used in public administration. We propose an ‘error portfolio’ enabling an assessment the impacts of changes in data collection processes on the survey error.

JEL classification C80     

Bequest motives and barriers to giving: The case of direct mail donors

Charitable bequests currently account for 9 percent of overall giving in the United States. In this study we examine the motives for this form of support and the potential barriers to giving perceived by members of bequest societies or legacy clubs solicited through direct mail. Through a series of eight focus groups we delineate the individual motives for offering a bequest, the organizational factors that drive gifts of this type, and the potential barriers that could prevent such a gift from being made. The implications for professional fundraising practice are explored.     

Psychologische Verträge und Arbeitsbeziehungen im Downsizing

Today, human resource downsizing and parallel organizational restructuring are on the agenda of many German companies. These changes not only produce work specific emotions for employees and members of work councils but also change psychological contracts embedded in the regulating context of different co-determination structures. This article presents partial results on the topic, from a research project promoted by the ?Hans-Böckler-Foundation“. It analyses the subjective patterns of interpretation, the employees and the work council–s response to continuous human resource downsizing processes.