Gender Jeopardy: What is the Impact of Gender Differences in Political Knowledge on Political Participation?*

Objective. We explore whether observed sex‐based differences in political knowledge have an impact on men's and women's participation in six different political activities. Methods. Utilizing ANES data from the five presidential elections between 1984 and 2000, we employ logistic regression to estimate the likelihood of voting, influencing a vote, attending a political meeting, working on a political campaign, wearing a political button, and making a campaign donation. Results. At lower levels of political knowledge, women's lower political knowledge depresses their participation in politics. The participation gap disappears at higher levels of political knowledge for three participatory acts: attempting to influence a vote, attending a political meeting, and donating to a political campaign. Furthermore, at higher levels of political knowledge, women are more likely than men to vote, wear a political button, or work for political campaigns. Conclusion. Our analysis reveals that political knowledge differentially affects men's and women's political participation. These findings complement existing scholarship that finds women hold themselves to a higher standard before engaging in political activities such as running for elected office.     

Discrete Trial Instruction vs. Mand Training for Teaching Children With Autism to Make Requests

The present study compared the effects of discrete trial instruction (DTI) and mand training on the acquisition of independent requests in 6 children with autism. Two multiple-probe designs across participants were conducted with 3 participants receiving mand training followed by DTI and the other 3 receiving DTI followed by mand training. Eye contact and challenging behaviors were also assessed across conditions. Results indicate that 5 of 6 participants made more independent requests and acquired requesting faster in the mand training condition, had slightly better eye contact in the DTI condition, and fewer challenging behaviors in the mand training condition. Overall, the results indicate that mand training is a more efficient method for teaching children with autism to make requests.     

Globalization and workplace performance in Canada: Cross-sectional and dynamic analyses of productivity and wage outcomes

We start from the premise that firm productivity differences need to be taken into account in the examination of the determination of wages and, more broadly, earnings inequality. Unlike most sociological studies of globalization, in this study using Canadian data we incorporate direct measurement (of some aspects) of globalization, and examine closely the association between workplace productivity and wages on the one hand, and exporting, foreign ownership and outsourcing on the other. We conduct cross-sectional and dynamic analyses. We find the following: (i) there is a relationship between exporting and productivity across different model specifications; (ii) the effects on productivity kick in when a workplace is substantially rather than marginally engaged in export markets; (iii) productivity increases are markedly greater in workplaces where export intensity has increased in prior periods; (iv) productivity is higher in workplaces that are wholly foreign owned; (v) wages are also associated with productivity and with both exporting and foreign ownership.     

Club Amigas: a promising response to the needs of adolescent Latinas

The Latino population in the USA is growing faster than any other group. Latinas are at risk for mental health and substance-abuse problems and school dropout. Research has shown that the ability to adapt to life in the USA while retaining one's cultural heritage is essential for successful acculturation and may increase the chances for success in school. There is strong evidence that mentoring relationships can enhance teens' social and emotional competence. This paper describes Club Amigas , a mentoring project that paired Latina college students with Latina middle-school girls. Initial quantitative and qualitative evaluations of programme effectiveness found that, as predicted, mentees' self-esteem was related to a positive commitment to their Latina identity, and that self-esteem and positive commitment to Latina identity increased over the programme year.     

Rejected by the Nation: The Electoral Defeat of Candidates Included in the Self Is Experienced as Personal Rejection

The current research was designed to examine how the outcome of the 2008 United States presidential election would affect participants' feelings of being rejected. Specifically, we set out to test whether participants who favored the losing candidate would feel as if they had been personally rejected. Additionally, we were interested in whether these feelings of rejection would be predicted by the extent to which participants included the major party candidates in their own self-representation, as measured with the Inclusion of Other in the Self (IOS) scale. We find that conservative participants who included John McCain in the self reported feeling less satisfaction of their basic needs (a composite of belonging, self-esteem, belief in a meaningful existence, and sense of control), compared with conservative participants low in McCain IOS, and these effects are independent of mood. Applied and theoretical implications of these results are discussed.     

Issues of shared parenting of LGBTQ children and youth in foster care: preparing foster parents for new roles

Foster parents have increasingly assumed new and challenging roles during the past decade. Meeting the developmental, attachment, and grieving needs of children and youth in out of home care is challenging by itself, but can become even more difficult with the issues that arise when the child is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ). Preservice and in-service foster parent training programs can strengthen shared parenting skills by focusing on the universal critical issues of safety, well being, and permanence for children and youth in foster care. This article will focus on these skill areas: (1) sharing parenting to promote healthy growth and development of LGBTQ youth in foster care, (2) threats to safety of LGBTQ youth in foster care, and (3) general challenges and strategies for preparing foster parents of LGBTQ youth to build support systems.     

中美老人对专业帮助服务的态度比较研究

文章本着探索中国老人和美国老人对使用以咨询为基础的服务的不同态度的目的,以150位中国老人和145位美国老人为样本,采用"害怕亲近量表"调查了中美老年人对专业帮助服务态度的现状,比较了中美老年人对专业帮助服务所持态度的不同特点。结果发现:相较美国老人,中国老人对专业帮助的态度更不积极;不同的因素影响着中国老人和美国老人对帮助服务的信心。     

Applying Lee-Carter under conditions of variable mortality decline

The Lee-Carter method of mortality forecasting assumes an invariant age component and most applications have adopted a linear time component. The use of the method with Australian data is compromised by significant departures from linearity in the time component and changes over time in the age component. We modify the method to adjust the time component to reproduce the age distribution of deaths, rather than total deaths, and to determine the optimal fitting period in order to address non-linearity in the time component. In the Australian case the modification has the added advantage that the assumption of invariance is better met. For Australian data, the modifications result in higher forecast life expectancy than the original Lee-Carter method and official projections, and a 50 per cent reduction in forecast error. The model is also expanded to take account of age-time interactions by incorporating additional terms, but these are not readily incorporated into forecasts.