Physical Discipline and Behavior Problems in African American,European American,and Hispanic Children: Emotional Support as a Moderator

Using data collected over a 6‐year period on a sample of 1,039 European American children, 550 African American children, and 401 Hispanic children from the children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study assessed whether maternal emotional support of the child moderates the relation between spanking and behavior problems. Children were 4–5 years of age in the first of 4 waves of data used (1988, 1990, 1992, 1994). At each wave, mothers reported their use of spanking and rated their children's behavior problems. Maternal emotional support of the child was based on interviewer observations conducted as part of the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment. For each of the 3 racial‐ethnic groups, spanking predicted an increase in the level of problem behavior over time, controlling for income‐needs ratio and maternal emotional support. Maternal emotional support moderated the link between spanking and problem behavior. Spanking was associated with an increase in behavior problems over time in the context of low levels of emotional support, but not in the context of high levels of emotional support. This pattern held for all 3 racial‐ethnic groups.     

HIV/AIDS Knowledge Sources and Risk Behavior among Adolescent African American Males: Toward Developing HIV/AIDS Pedagogy

Black male adolescent HIV incidence and prevalence account for a disproportionate number of AIDS cases. Their cultural experiences are significantly different than other sectors of the U.S. population. Among adolescents, they constitute 37 percent of the cases, which is more than double their representation in the general adolescent population. The authors ask where do African American males receive information about HIV/ AIDS.     

The Relation of Patterns of Coping of Inner–City Youth to Psychopathology Symptoms

This study provides empirical verification that variations in patterns of coping can explain current and future functioning of youth. The study evaluated the methods and styles of coping of inner–city youth and their relation to age, gender, ethnicity, stress levels, and internalizing and externalizing symptom levels. Three hundred seventy–two 12– to 16–year–old adolescents from inner–city schools (67.0% African American, 24.4% Hispanic; 53.41% males) participated. One hundred forty–nine were also included in a follow–up evaluation of the prospective relation of coping to functioning. A seven–factor model of coping methods was identified and found to be applicable across age groups, genders, and ethnic groups. The model was robust over time. Coping methods were categorized through cluster analysis into five styles. Styles were found to relate somewhat to demographic characteristics and stress levels. Controlling for demographic characteristics and stress levels, coping style related concurrently and prospectively to internalizing and externalizing symptom levels. Except in one instance, age, ethnicity, and gender did not interact with coping in predicting symptoms. Implications for further coping research and risk and intervention design are discussed.     

Remembrances of things past: test–retest reliability of retrospective migration histories

Summary Matched retrospective life history data collected from the same individuals in two waves of the Malaysian Family Life Survey provide a unique opportunity to evaluate the quality of long-term recall data in a rapidly changing developing country. Recall quality, measured by consistency of incidence and dating of moves reported 12 years apart, is higher among the better educated. Respondents better remember more salient moves, those linked with other important life events such as marriage, childbirth or a job change and moves that lasted a long time. Migrations that dim in memory as time passes are typically shorter duration or local moves, often made while the respondent was young. The dating of moves is also significantly improved when linked with other salient events. Our findings suggest concrete and practical steps that can be followed to improve the quality of retrospective life-histories collected in field surveys.     

SOURCES OF EARNINGS INEQUALITY IN THE BLACK AND WHITE FEMALE LABOR FORCES

Earnings inequality trends and their sources from 1975 to 1986 are evaluated for two historically subordinate working groups—black and white women—using Current Population Survey data. The dual nature of women's employment, improved earnings opportunities, and continuing segregation into low-paying positions create conditions under which earnings inequality in these two groups is expected to increase. Two sources of changing inequality levels are examined to determine which better explains inequality trends: the redistribution of women across labor market positions, which should have occurred due to industrial restructuring; and changes in the rates of earnings returns to labor market positions. For both groups, changes in returns better explain positive inequality trends in the 1980s, although black women's earnings are somewhat more influenced than whites' by their redistribution across labor market positions.     

Immigrant Incorporation in Western Democracies1

How much variation is there in immigrant incorporation policies and practices across the Western democracies? Concluding that the effort to capture variation in typologies of incorporation schemes is likely to prove both futile and misleading, I propose a radically dis‐aggregated perspective that conceives of incorporation as the product of the intersection of migrant aspirations and strategies with regulatory frameworks in four domains — state, market, welfare, and culture. Because some but not all of the regulatory institutions in these domains were created with immigrant incorporation in mind, national incorporation frameworks are not fully cohesive, are constantly changing, and at best can be described as belonging to a handful of loosely connected syndromes.     

Patterns of delinquent careers: An assessment of three perspectives

The literature on careers of juvenile delinquents has been divided as to whether or not career specialization occurs. It has recently been proposed that the careers of delinquents may be viewed as arising from a Markov process with the observed arrest histories the result of a series of stochastic events. This approach has considerable appeal for it provides a wealth of information about criminal behavior, including predictions concerning the length and diversification of a delinquent career, the long-run distribution of various types of crimes, the extent of specialization in delinquency, and offense switching over the course of a delinquent career. In the present paper, the career patterns for a sample of highly delinquent, incarcerated juveniles are investigated. Although some support is found for specialization in delinquent careers, especially among robbery offenders, the findings generally support situational theories of crime.     

Evaluability assessment: Reflections on the process

As a formal process, evaluability assessment is 10 years old. In the Cooperative Extension Service (CES), the process is 5 years old. Since 1984, evaluability assessments have been implemented in five states with six different major programs in an effort to define the process in a practical methodological sense and to encourage its adoption in CES. Implementation proceeded iteratively and after each study, procedures were analyzed, clarified, and, wherever possible, simplified to make the process more usable and more “operator robust.” The purpose of this article is to reflect on the process as it evolved in applications in CES. Underlying philosophy and methodological considerations are discussed. To put these in perspective, background information is provided on the evaluability assessment process and on the studies conducted in CES.