Ninth-Grade Students' Attitudes Toward Nontraditional Occupations

This study explored how students choose careers, their attitudes toward vocational education, and whether or not they would consider enrolling in a nontraditional vocational education program.     

Reducing U.S. carbon dioxide emissions: an assessment of different instruments

The possibility that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use might lead to global warming has become a leading environmental concern. Many scientific and environmental organizations have called for immediate action to limit carbon dioxide production. For the most part, however, public debate has focused on a single policy instrument: a carbon tax applied to fossil fuels in proportion to their carbon content. We present a detailed model of the U.S. economy and use it to compare carbon taxes with two other instruments that could achieve the same reduction in carbon dioxide emissions: a tax on the energy content of fossil fuels (a BTU tax) and an ad valorem tax on fuel use. We find that carbon taxes can achieve a given reduction with the least overall effect on the economy, but with a large effect on coal mining. Energy taxes are fairly similar to carbon taxes but have slightly less impact on coal mining and slightly greater overall cost. In contrast, ad valorem taxes fall much more lightly on coal mining but have a much greater effect on the economy as a whole.     

Immigrants' Language Skills and Visa Category1

This article is concerned with the determinants of English language proficiency among immigrants in a longitudinal survey for Australia. It focuses on both visa category and variables derived from an economic model of the determinants of destination‐language proficiency among immigrants. Skills‐tested and economic immigrants have the greatest proficiency shortly after immigration, followed by family‐based visa recipients, with refugees having the lowest proficiency. Other variables the same, these differences disappear by 3.5 years after immigration for speaking skills; and although they diminish, they persist longer for reading and writing skills. The variables generated from the model of destination‐language proficiency (such as schooling and age at migration) are, in part, predictions of visa category, but they are more important statistically for explaining proficiency.     

Why Did House Members Vote for H.R. 4437?1

This article examines why members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted for H.R. 4437, the controversial 2005 bill to construct a 700‐mile immigration barrier along the U.S.‐Mexican border and to criminalize illegal presence and aid to undocumented immigrants. Logit analysis suggests that being a first‐term House member or a Republican and representing a district that was in the South or the West or heavily blue‐collar substantially boosted the odds of supporting H.R. 4437. If a member's district was disproportionately Asian, Latino, or, especially, African American, he or she was instead more likely to oppose the measure.     

Empowering part-time nurses in the treatment of depressed inpatients.

1. With the consistent number of part-time nurses in the workforce, hospitals would benefit by more actively integrating them into professional nursing practice. 2. Empowering part-time nurses by affording them the opportunity to provide primary care has the potential to effectively use part-time personnel, decrease the workload for full-time staff, offer more flexibility in scheduling, and result in savings for hospitals in terms of nursing recruitment and retention. 3. This program has successfully developed and implemented a model of primary nursing that places three part-time nurses on a team capable of handling two to three primary patients. The success of this model has been attributed to excellent communication, trust in one another's professional skills, and nursing expertise.     

Liability in child welfare

Child welfare workers and agencies are vulnerable to lawsuits. Recent court rulings have more clearly defined the liability of workers. The distinguishing variable is custody. Children injured while in the custody of the state are entitled to sue for damages. Children injured by their parent, even if under the supervision of a child welfare agency, are not entitled to claim a violation of their 14th Amendment rights. These cases are reviewed and strategies designed to minimize vulnerability are offered.     

Rates of pathological gambling in publicly funded outpatient substance abuse treatment

Rates of problem or probable pathological gambling were assessed in substance abusers seeking outpatient treatment in a publicly funded outpatient substance abuse treatment program. The South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) was administered to 467 consecutive admissions at three different sites. Problem gamblers comprised 6.2 percent of the total (n=29), and 4.5 percent scored as probable pathological gamblers (n=21). These rates are two and one-half times greater than would be expected according to a recent state survey using the SOGS. Implications for assessment and treatment of problem gambling are discussed.The author expresses his appreciation to John Ramsay and the staff of Epoch Counseling Center for data collection; to Les Franklin for computational analysis; and Dr. Rachel Volberg for providing supplemental data from her Maryland State Gambling Survey.     

Sex differences in nonverbal expressiveness: Emotional expression,personality, and impressions

Sex differences in expressiveness are well documented, but the reasons for and correlates of these important differences are not well studied. A comprehensive set of emotion-relevant personality measures was administered to 40 female and 39 male undergraduate participants, who were also videotaped in three situations: engaging in natural social interaction, describing a past emotional experience, and posing various emotions. Videotapes were judged by sets of naive observers as to emotion communicated and overall impression. Expressive females, who appeared friendly and dominant in social interaction, were found to have a hostile/aggressive personality (but this was not true of males). Expressive females also tended to look angry/disgusted when describing happy and sad experiences. The findings suggest that nonverbally skilled, charismatic women (but not men) may often possess a dominant/aggressive but self-controlled personality, in a new twist on the theory that sex differences in expressiveness result in part from the oppression of women in society.This research was supported in part by an intramural research grant from University of California, Riverside.