Gender and work: The occupational expectations of young women and men in the 1990s

This article uses data from a longitudinal survey of youth to examine the effects of gender on the occupational expectations and attitudes of youth in the 1990s. Twelve hundred youth from central and eastern Canada were surveyed in 1989 and 1994. Results show few gender differences in the status rankings in the youths' expected occupations, or in their intentions to enter the paid labour force. However, there were differences in the ways females and males saw themselves combining work and family responsibilities—especially pre-school aged children. The attitudes and experiences of the young women's mothers appeared to affect these plans—plans that were unrelated to social class background. The results are discussed in the context of McCall's notion on gendered dispositions. where she has been faculty since 1975. Her research interests include the sociology of education, youth and gender issues. She currently holds two research grants funded by Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, one as principal investigator, the other as a member of a research network on longitudinal studies of youth. Her research interests include sociology of education and work, youth and gender issues.     

Analysis of familial aggregation in the presence of varying family sizes

Summary.  Family studies are frequently undertaken as the first step in the search for genetic and/or environmental determinants of disease. Significant familial aggregation of disease is suggestive of a genetic aetiology for the disease and may lead to more focused genetic analysis. Of course, it may also be due to shared environmental factors. Many methods have been proposed in the literature for the analysis of family studies. One model that is appealing for the simplicity of its computation and the conditional interpretation of its parameters is the quadratic exponential model. However, a limiting factor in its application is that it is not reproducible , meaning that all families must be of the same size. To increase the applicability of this model, we propose a hybrid approach in which analysis is based on the assumption of the quadratic exponential model for a selected family size and combines a missing data approach for smaller families with a marginalization approach for larger families. We apply our approach to a family study of colorectal cancer that was sponsored by the Cancer Genetics Network of the National Institutes of Health. We investigate the properties of our approach in simulation studies. Our approach applies more generally to clustered binary data.     

Domestic Violence and Intergenerational Rates of Child Sexual Abuse: A Case Record Analysis

Using case review at a shelter for battered women and their children, this exploratory study investigated the association between physical abuse, exposure to domestic violence and intergenerational occurrence of child sexual abuse. The charts of 570 children were reviewed in an attempt to explore the relationship between the children's experiences with sexual abuse and their nonoffending parent's own history of having been sexually abused. Results indicated that a significant percentage of nonoffending parents who reported a history of child sexual abuse also had children who were sexually abused. Additionally, we found that most (93%) of the children studied had been exposed to domestic violence, and while the base rate of sexual abuse was relatively low (11%), the rate of physical abuse of the children was substantial (41%). Logistic regression results indicated that children of sexually abused nonoffending parents may be at heightened risk for sexual abuse. Implications for treatment and intervention are discussed.     

Accuracy and fairness of rain rules for interrupted one-day cricket matches

In this paper, we investigate the relative merits of rain rules for one-day cricket matches. We suggest that interrupted one-day matches present a missing data problem: the outcome of the complete match cannot be observed, and instead the outcome of the interrupted match, as determined at least in part by the rain rule in question, is observed. Viewing the outcome of the interrupted match as an imputation of the missing outcome of the complete match, standard characteristics to assess the performance of classification tests can be used to assess the performance of a rain rule. In particular, we consider the overall and conditional accuracy and the predictive value of a rain rule. We propose two requirements for a ‘fair’ rain rule, and show that a fair rain rule must satisfy an identity involving its conditional accuracies. Estimating the performance characteristics of various rain rules from a sample of complete one-day matches our results suggest that the Duckworth–Lewis method, currently adopted by the International Cricket Council, is essentially as accurate as and somewhat more fair than its best competitors. A rain rule based on the iso-probability principle also performs well but might benefit from re-calibration using a more representative data base.     

Women in Social Work Education: Progress or Promise?

Abstract

The literature on the status of female social work educators has addressed the problems these educators face in the areas of salaries, academic rank and tenure, publication rates, and level of decision making. Given this attention to the status of these educators, one might expect positive resolutions to these problems. This article, which is based on a review of both the current literature and statistics on US social work faculty, evaluates the status of women faculty in social work academia to determine if progress has been made. Findings reveal that female educators are seeing slow improvment in some areas; however, inequalities continue. The authors suggest strategies for supporting the development and retention of women faculty.     

The joy of victory,the agony of defeat: Stereotypes in newspaper sports feature photographs 1

Newspaper sports feature photographs are highly conventionalized images made with a limited visual vocabulary to tell a limited number of “stories” in a way that fits into the work confines of daily newspapers. The resulting images, though made by many different people, look the same. The same organizational constraints result in similar conventionalizing of all journalistic imagery.     

Understanding Men's Health and Illness: A Gender-relations Approach to Policy,Research, and Practice

Abstract

Men's health has emerged as an important public concern that may require new kinds of healthcare interventions and increased resources. Considerable uncertainty and confusion surround prevailing understandings of men's health, particularly those generated by media debate and public policy, and health research has often operated on oversimplified assumptions about men and masculinity. A more useful way of understanding men's health is to adopt a gender-relations approach. This means examining health concerns in the context of men's and women's interactions with each other, and their positions in the larger, multidimensional structure of gender relations. Such an approach raises the issue of differences among men, which is a key issue in recent research on masculinity and an important health issue. The gender-relations approach offers new ways of addressing practical issues of healthcare for men in college environments.     

Longitudinal Prevalence and Correlates of Elder Mistreatment Among Older Adults Receiving Home Visiting Nursing

The objectives of this study were to identify elder mistreatment (EM) prevalence among a cohort of older adults receiving visiting nurse care in their homes, determine EM subtypes, and identify factors associated with EM. EM data were collected by nurses during monthly home visits for up to 24 months. It took the nurses a mean of 10.5 visits to discern EM. Fifty-four (7.4%) of 724 patients were identified as mistreated, of which 33 had enough information to subtype the EM. Of these 33, 27 were victims of neglect, 16 of psychological abuse, and 10 of financial exploitation, and 17 suffered more than one type. Among the entire sample, 11 variables were positively correlated with EM presence. Nurses visiting older adults in their homes should be aware that their patients are, as a group, vulnerable to EM, and that the factors identified here may be specific markers of greater risk.     

Weight-related issues and high-risk sexual behaviors among college students

Individuals with high body mass index (BMI), negative body image, and unhealthy weight control behaviors may be more likely to engage in high-risk sexual behaviors than others. Researchers have not fully investigated these relationships in a sample of college students. The authors collected data regarding several weight-related issues and high-risk sexual behaviors (response rate = 39%) from 1,168 college students. Over half reported at least 1 high-risk sexual behavior. After the authors controlled for several demographic characteristics, they found that higher BMIs were associated with increased odds of having a casual sexual partner (odds ratio [OR] = 2.70) and being intoxicated at last intercourse (OR = 2.25). Among women, unhealthy weight control behaviors were associated with having a casual partner (OR = 2.12), using no or unreliable contraception (OR = 1.98), and being intoxicated at last intercourse (OR = 2.31). Weight-related issues were not associated with sexual behaviors among college men. The authors describe their findings within two health behavior frameworks, and they discuss implications for research and health education.