The Impact of the National Child Development Study

SUMMARY. For the first 20 years of the National Children's Bureau's life, the massive and many-sided National Child Development Study was the flagship of the Bureau's research. The Study's impact on policy and practice was very considerable and it also earned itself an international reputation scientifically. This article highlights some of the study's major findings in education, health and social policy over the period when the 15,000 or so children involved were still at school     

Who participates,who does not,and why? An analysis of voluntary neighborhood organizations in the United States and Israel

Lack of participation in voluntary associations and the associated issues of why people do or do not participate are major areas of interest in the research literature concerning citizen participation. The present study used three types of variables (demographic, social psychological, and costs/benefits) to investigate the characteristics of participants and nonparticipants in neighborhood-type organizations in the United States and Israel. Findings from analysis of the demographic variables show some cross-cultural similarities (including a surprising lack of race/ethnic and education differences between participants and nonparticipants). There were striking cross-cultural similarities using the social psychological variables. The data from the Israel sample provide important information on the costs and benefits of participation. A discriminant analysis points to the predictive strength of social psychological and cost/benefit variables in comparison to demographic variables. Implications of these results for explanatory and predictive purposes are discussed.     

Empathy — Still at the Heart of Therapy; The Interplay of Context and Empathy

Developing skilled and delicate approaches and interventions aimed at assisting families (or systems) to solve entrenched problems has been an exciting and stimulating aspect of family therapy over its relatively short existence. Recently, more and more authors have re-emphasised the need for respect and mutuality in dealing with clients, the need for the therapist to be aware of the clients' frames of reference and idiosyncratic solutions, some arguing that it is preferable to take less of the expert, interventionist stance. The necessity for empathy underlined in many earlier approaches to therapy is mentioned, though generally ‘in the small print’, in the reports of the processes being investigated and developed. This article re-considers empathy, always known to be at the heart of the counselling/therapy¹ process, but perhaps too easily assumed at present. It contends that empathy remains essential, that it can be understood more fully, and thereby used more effectively. Some of the traditional understandings of empathy, mostly from writings on individual therapy, are considered. Working with families and systems demands a broader understanding and different applications. The therapist must be capable of empathy with the context and the relationships as well as with individuals. While asserting that human beings are generally capable of empathy, the article examines some particular aspects of its use in therapy, particularly with families; it contends further that a fuller understanding of empathy can enrich the whole process of therapy. The article argues that empathy remains an indispensable guide to intervention with the family, the system or the person, whatever form the intervention (or non-intervention) may take.     

Impartial Nominations for a Prize

A group of peers must choose one of them to receive a prize; everyone cares only about winning, not about who gets the prize if someone else. An award rule is impartial if one's message never influences whether or not one wins the prize. We explore the consequences of impartiality when each agent nominates a single (other) agent for the prize. On the positive side, we construct impartial nomination rules where both the influence of individual messages and the requirements to win the prize are not very different across agents. Partition the agents in two or more districts, each of size at least 3, and call an agent a local winner if he is nominated by a majority of members of his own district; the rule selects a local winner with the largest support from nonlocal winners, or a fixed default agent in case there is no local winner. On the negative side, impartiality implies that ballots cannot be processed anonymously as in plurality voting. Moreover, we cannot simultaneously guarantee that the winner always gets at least one nomination, and that an agent nominated by everyone else always wins.     

Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Female Adolescents: Relations with Parental Psychopathology and Parenting Behavior

Parental psychopathology and parenting behavior are known to be related to adolescents depression and anxiety, but unique roles of mothers and fathers are not clear. Our aim was to examine the relation of maternal and paternal psychopathology, emotional support, and respect for autonomy, and their interaction to depression and anxiety symptoms in adolescents. In total, 142 female adolescents participated, together with 138 mothers and 113 fathers. Data were analyzed using latent growth curve modeling. Paternal emotional support was negatively related to adolescent baseline level of depression and anxiety symptoms. Further, we found that there was a positive association between respect for autonomy and depression symptoms in adolescents for higher levels of paternal symptoms of psychological problems.     

Native Migrant Labour in the Southern Alberta Sugar-beet Industry: Coercion and Paternalism in the Recruitment of Labour*

Les recherches commencent à révéler de façon de plus en plus évidente la présence des autochtones dans les emplois salariés au Canada. Bien que nous constations la participation des autochtones au travail salarié, nous savons peu de choses sur le rôle joué par l'État en vue de les mobiliser pour qu'ils travaillent dans l'industrie canadienne. À partir de l'exemple des autochtones qui sont venus dans le sud de l'Alberta au cours des années cinquante et soixante travailler dans l'industrie de la betterave à sucre, cet article analyse le rôle de l'État dans leur mobilisation. Nous montrons qu'à diffé-rents échelons l'État, par l'intermédiaire de comités de main-d'?uvre fédéraux et provinciaux ainsi que du ministère fédéral des Affaires indiennes, a eu recours à diverses mesures paternalistes et coer-citives pour aider les fermiers du sud de l'Alberta à recruter et à retenir ces travailleurs. L'une des principales mesures utilisées par les gouvernements fédéral et provincial pour pousser les autochtones àémigrer a été de priver de leurs prestations d'aide sociale ceux et celles que l'on jugeait aptes au travail. Research has begun to increasingly document Native peoples' participation in wage employment in Canada. Despite an acknowledgement of native participation in wage labour, little is known of the role of the state in mobilizing Native workers for Canadian industry. Using the case of Native migration to the southern Alberta sugar-beet industry in the 1950s and 1960s, this paper analyzes the role of the state in the mobilization of the native workers for employment. We show that the various levels of the state, acting through federal/provincial manpower committees and the Indian Affairs Branch of the federal government, used a variety of paternalistic and coercive measures to help farmers in southern Alberta recruit and retain Native workers. One of the main measures used by the federal and provincial governments to coerce Native people into migration was to cut off social assistance benefits to those Native people deemed to be employable.     

The Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus: A Modest Proposal

I model an attempt by radical parties to topple a modus vivendi between a ruling government and a moderate opposition group. Cooperation between the regime and the moderate opposition is possible if each player prefers mutual cooperation to mutual confrontation. If each player also prefers mutual confrontation to cooperating while the other defects then radical parties have a chance at breaking up this accord. Radical parties can succeed in bringing the government and opposition to mutual confrontation if they can agree on power-sharing arrangements after regime change. This paper also resolves central questions surrounding the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. I use an institutional approach to infer player preferences from historical and biblical sources and then use game theory to model the interactions between participants in these events. In so doing, I clarify aspects of the Gospel narrative that have puzzled readers for the past 2000 years.     

Independent child protection assessments: incorporating a therapeutic focus from an integrated service context

Assessment following serious child abuse is a significant activity for the social work, psychology and psychiatric professions. Notwithstanding the profound significance of the consequences for abused children and their families from recommendations made by such assessments, there is little research which examines the process and outcome of child protection assessments. This paper describes the professional practice principles of an independent assessment team and presents preliminary findings from a retrospective examination of 160 major independent assessments undertaken over a period of 11 years. The review suggests that nearly 60% of the families gained some therapeutic benefit from the assessment process and outlines the areas in which such benefits occurred. It is argued that structuring assessments in a way which maximizes the possibility of parents/carers effecting changes in problem areas is the essence of a constructive partnership relation with families. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.