Determinants of Subjective Quality of Life Among Rural Adolescents: A Developmental Perspective

This study examines youths' experiences of loneliness and community connectedness in relation to seven domains of subjective quality of life among pre-adolescents, early adolescents, and middle adolescents. Participants consisted of 464 youth, ranging in age from 11 to 17 years, from two rural towns. Youth reported on their subjective experiences of loneliness and their perceptions of their community environments (neighbourhood and school). Hierarchical regressions indicated the importance of loneliness in accounting for subjective quality of life for early adolescents, and less so for middle and pre-adolescents. Community factors significantly accounted for additional variance in pre-adolescents' reports of their quality of life, compared with early and middle adolescents' reports. Discussion highlights the importance of understanding the determinants of quality of life from an individual, community, and developmental perspective.     

Race and Environmental Voting in the U.S. Congress

Objective. This article examines long-term trends in the environmental voting behavior in Congress and attempts to identify the factors that account for racial differences in voting patterns. Methods. Hypotheses about the various possible influences on environmental voting behavior are tested using longitudinal analyses and path analysis techniques. Results. Findings indicate African American members of Congress have been consistently more supportive of proenvironment legislation than either Republican or Democrat colleagues from 1981 to 1998. The data further suggest that much of these overall differences are explained by an especially large racial gap in proenvironmental voting among members from the South. Although such a gap among members from outside the South is eliminated by controlling for ideology and other variables, it remains substantial among Southern members. Conclusions. Based on the strong and consistent support for environmental legislation by African American members of Congress in the past, we expect significant racial differences in environmental voting to endure. Although results suggest that ideology plays a partial role in explaining such differences, future research will be needed to identify the reasons for the especially large racial gap in proenvironmental voting among members from the South. Given the growth in their numbers, their relatively safe seats, and their potential to chair important committees as they gain seniority, we expect African American legislators to play an increasingly important role in shaping and deciding the fate of national environmental policy in the future.     

Comparing methods for weighting decision criteria

Several metbods have been proposed to weight decision criteria. In this field study a decision group, like that used by public agencies, was formed to establish project priorities. The decision group used a variety of criteria weighting methods to study how these methods influence the magnitude of the weights assigned by members of the decision group. Direct criteria weighting methods (scaling, rank-weight, point assignment and odds procedures) and an indirect approach (weights derived from hypothetical projects) were considered. The study compared the methods in terms of the magnitude of the weights assigned, the variance in weights among members of the decision group, and the similarity of the decisions based on weights assigned by each method. The time to apply each method and the preferences of the decision makers were also determined. The linear rating scale that defined the meaning of scale increments, called an ‘anchored ratin scale’, was found to be favorably received and efficient and led to the most defensible decisions.     

Bayesian estimation of the difference between two proportions

This paper is concerned with the problem of allocating a fixed number of trials between two independent binomial populations with unknown success probabilities θ₁ and θ₂, in order to estimate θ₁ - θ₂ with squared error loss. Introducing independent beta priors on θ₁ and θ₂, a heuristic allocation procedure is introduced and compared both with the optimal and with the best fixed allocation procedure. Numerical and asymptotic results of these comparisons are given and seem to indicate that there are situations when the best fixed allocation procedure performs almost as well as the optimal procedure.     

The international division of labour and strategies for global reform: Issues and implications for professional manpower and training

The manual dexterity of the oriental female is famous all over the world. Her hands are small and she works fast with extreme care. Who, therefore, could be better qualified by nature and inheritance to contribute to the efficiency of a bench assembly production line than the oriental girl.