Strategic planning: One workable approach

This article outlines one method or model that over 130 companies around the world are using successfully. Not all planning efforts are successful, and obviously there is more than one successful technique or system of corporate planning in use. It has been adopted by national and international corporations, and by at least one religious order.     

Adult day care participation among impaired elderly

This study evaluates 35 impaired elderly clients of a social day care center and compares them with 116 impaired persons taken from a random sample of community elderly using the Duke Older Americans Resources and Services (OARS) functional assessment instrument. Multiple discriminant analysis is used to determine if factors exist which predict use of adult day care facilities. Results indicate that three domains distinguish day care participation; social resources, economic, and mental health. Discussion and implications center on the conclusion that day care clients are more likely labeled as dependent by their families than are impaired community elderly.Charles M. Barresi is Professor of Sociology and a Fellow in the Institute for Life Span Development and Gerontology at the University of Akron at Akron, Ohio. He earned his Ph.D. at the State University of New York at Buffalo. His research interests include ethnicity in aging, gender differences in widowhood and patterns of family care-giving. He is co-editor of the forthcoming book, Ethnic Dimensions of Aging.Donna J. McConnell is a graduate of the University of Akron, Department of Sociology. She holds the degree of M.A. Specialist in Gerontology, and Donna is currently serving as rehabilitation counselor for the Mahoning County Transitional Homes in Youngstown, Ohio.Direct all correspondence to: Charles M. Barresi, Department of Sociology, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325.Revision of a paper presented at the 37th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, San Antonio, Texas, November 16–20, 1984. The authors would like to thank John Allen, Ronald Huiatt, and the Summit Senior's Team Corporation, for making the PISCES Project data available. Dennis Byrne and Geoffery Greer provided helpful suggestions with the analysis.     

Social inequality, ‘the deviant parent’ and child protection practice

Child protection cases typically involve families struggling through socio‐economic hardship. That said, in child protection practice there is a readiness to see the parent as the problem with parent reform or child removal as the preferred remedy. In this paper, the emergence and ongoing legitimacy of this child protection response is traced to the de‐politicisation of social inequality.     

Modelling the effect of pupil mobility on school differences in educational achievement

Summary.  The recently introduced national pupil database in England allows the tracking of every child through the compulsory phases of the state education system. The data from key stage 2 for three local education authorities are studied, following cohorts of pupils through their schooling. The mobility of pupils among schools is studied in detail by using multiple-membership multilevel models that include prior achievement and other predictors and the results are compared with traditional 'value-added' approaches that ignore pupil mobility. The analysis also includes a cross-classification of junior and infant schools attended. The results suggest that some existing conclusions about schooling effects may need to be revised.     

Psychiatric emergencies: the check effect revisited.

Federal income support to persons with alcohol and drug related disabilities was ended in 1997. The argument for ending the programs was that recipients were using their benefits to purchase drugs and alcohol. This supposedly led to the "check effect," an increase in psychiatric emergencies in American communities in the days following the receipt of disability benefits. We test two hypotheses implied by this argument. The first is that psychiatric emergencies are elevated in the fourth through eighth day of the month. The second is that the excess of emergencies in these days was significantly reduced when benefits were ended. The tests are based on 35,500 psychiatric emergencies in San Francisco, California occurring over 1,551 days. Results support the first hypothesis but not the second. The implications are that there is a general check effect and that it was not reduced by ending benefits to persons with drug and alcohol related disabilities.     

Housing Cost Burden and New Lawful Immigrants in the United States

Housing in the United States constitutes the largest expenditure for many households. Increasing rents and home prices, changes in the mortgage industry, and the growing importance of immigrants in the U.S. housing market underscore the value of examining the economic hardship that housing costs pose for immigrants. As is true for the native-born, immigrants’ allocation of financial resources to housing influences the funds available for savings, investments, survival of emergencies, and the overall economic well-being of children and families. This project employs 2003 national-level data of legal permanent residents from the New Immigrant Survey to examine an outcome lacking sufficient empirical study: the proportion of household income spent on housing. The study examines whether disparities in immigrant housing cost burden by country/region of origin persist after accounting for differences in human capital, stage in the life cycle, assimilation, and other factors. The analyses disaggregate immigrants from Latin America, Asia, Europe and other areas into more nuanced categories. The results document that after controlling for a diverse array of variables, legal immigrants vary widely in housing cost burdens by country/region of origin. These disparities have implications for the future wealth accumulation and long-term financial security of immigrants in the United States.     

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder's effects on individuals' scan paths during a simulated drive

Individuals who have Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) experience adverse effects relating to driving; additionally, they experience deficits in scanning ability. The present study examined the effects of ADHD on eye tracking while driving. This study consisted of ten participants, of which, five have ADHD. It was hypothesized that individuals who have ADHD will make more saccadic eye movements and thus shorter fixations than individuals without ADHD (Control). Furthermore, it was hypothesized that despite the fact that individuals who have ADHD will make more saccadic eye movements than individuals without ADHD, those individuals with ADHD will commit more traffic violations including collisions compared to the control group. Findings indicated that hypothesis one was not supported by the data, whereas hypothesis two was supported in that ADHD individuals' had more collisions and committed more traffic violations than the control group. Additionally, a significant difference was found in the spatial distributions of the fixations between the ADHD and Control groups. The findings of this study could help better understand the factors involved in ADHD driving and could be used to train individuals with ADHD to become more aware of their surroundings and driving habits and thus become safer drivers.     

The Sexual Value System*

This paper has adopted an historical approach in order to elucidate the principal schools of thought which account for the differences among peoples' sexual value systems. It is argued that differential development is a manifestation of the conflict which exists over the moral implications of sexual behavior. Three traditions are identified as the primary forces influencing the developmental process associated with the acquisition of a sexual value system. The three systems of inquiry are examined for their variant interpretations of sex. Attention also is focused on the implications the three traditions have for contemporary sex counselors.     

Book Review Betrayal of Science and Reason: How Anti-Environmental Rhetoric Threatens Our Future. Paul R. and Anne H. Ehrlich. Washington DC: Island Press. 1996. 335 P. ISBN 1-55963-483-9 (cloth)

Population and Environment -     

Who has Housing Affordability Problems? Disparities in Housing Cost Burden by Race, Nativity, and Legal Status in Los Angeles

Housing costs are a substantial component of US household expenditures. Those who allocate a large proportion of their income to housing often have to make difficult financial decisions with significant short-term and long-term implications for adults and children. This study employs cross-sectional data from the first wave of the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey collected between 2000 and 2002 to examine the most common US standard of housing affordability, the likelihood of spending 30 % or more of income on shelter costs. Multivariate analyses of a low-income sample of US-born Latinos, whites, African Americans, authorized Latino immigrants, and unauthorized Latino immigrants focus on baseline and persistent differences in the likelihood of being cost burdened by race, nativity, and legal status. Nearly half or more of each group of low-income respondents experience housing affordability problems. The results suggest that immigrants’ legal status is the primary source of disparities among those examined, with the multivariate analyses revealing large and persistent disparities for unauthorized Latino immigrants relative to most other groups. Moreover, the higher odds of housing cost burden observed for unauthorized immigrants compared with their authorized immigrant counterparts remains substantial, accounting for traditional indicators of immigrant assimilation. These results are consistent with emerging scholarship regarding the role of legal status in shaping immigrant outcomes in the United States.