Operationalizing the Construct of Friendship among Children: A Psychometric Comparison of Sociometric-Based Definitional Methodologies

Peer relations researchers generally agree that friendship involves a close, mutual, dyadic relationship. However, the lack of consensus on how to operationalize this construct has limited our understanding of the role of friendship in social adjustment. The present study directly compared the psychometric properties (i.e., number of friendships identified, concordances, and stability) of the five major different definitions of friendship used in the literature. Fourth- and fifth-grade students (N = 90) completed a battery of sociometric measures at two different times separated by eight weeks. Friendship dyads were then identified using the following definitional criteria: (1) mutual positive nominations; (2) mutal high ratings (i.e., 4 or 5 on a five-point Likert-type scale); (3) one positive nomination reciprocated by a rating of 5; (4) one positive nomination and mutual high ratings; and (5) one positive nomination and mutual ratings averaging at least 4. Frequency and concordance analyses indicated differences across the five definitions. In addition, the friendships identified by each of the five definitions were similarly moderate in their stability. Explanations for, and the possible implications of, these differences are discussed.     

李大钊早期文章校注的一些认识和体会

李大钊的著作反映着他所处时代的特色 ,以及当时中外文化交流的特色。他的文章中包含着中、日、英、法、德、俄等不同语种间的语际、语境关系 ,以及由此引发出的不同时空中的观念交汇与融合。理清与整合这些关系和观念 ,是解读李大钊著作、理解李大钊思想的关键     

UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF THE MOTHER-CHILD RELATIONSHIP ON SEX WORKERS’ DECISION TO ENTER AND LEAVE THE STREETS – LESSONS FOR SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

This paper focuses on ‘streetwalkers’ and ‘street sex workers’ who are unlicensed sex workers not belonging to a brothel and subject to criminalization. They often face great stigmatization and are usually considered victims by service providers. Five Singaporean ex-streetwalkers (n = 5), who had left the streets for at least six months and were currently receiving or had previously received skills training at a social service agency, participated in this study. Using an agentic framework and social relational theory principles, this qualitative study explored the impact of streetwalkers’ relationship with their children on their decision to enter and leave the streets and reasons for their successful help-seeking experiences. Findings revealed them to be agents who actively used strategies to meet their goals and to sustain close relationships with their children. The mother–child relationship context was a key influence on their decision to enter and/or leave the streets. Social work practice implications include tailoring service delivery to tap into their agentic capacities and identity as mothers; research and training in provision of proactive social services in a non-judgmental manner to preserve the dignity of these women while meeting both their own and their children’s needs.     

Special Needs,Relationship Type and Distributive Justice Norms in Early and Later Years of Middle Childhood

Sensitivity to relationship type and level of need in distributing rewards for work done was investigated with classmates who were best friends, acquaintances, or children with special educational needs (SEN). Children (N = 142) aged 8–11 years completed measures of reward allocation, monitoring of task inputs and belief in a just world (BJW). An increase in children's sensitivity to relationship type and need was found with age in reward allocation and monitoring of task inputs. Among older children, BJW varied with relationship type and monitoring of task inputs. Findings support the characterization of relationships with acquaintances as exchange relationships, with best friends as symmetrical communal relationships, and with children who have SEN as asymmetrical communal relationships.     

论新农村建设中的十大关系

为了解决“三农”问题、缩小城乡差距、全面建设小康社会、实现社会和谐发展,中共十六届五中全会提出了“建设社会主义新农村”这一重大历史任务。社会主义新农村建设是在新的社会历史背景和经济发展条件下,用系统思想和全新理念指导的一次农村综合变革和跨越式发展,是一项庞大的系统工程,涉及面广,周期性长,任务艰巨。因此,在新农村建设过程中,需要正确处理各种关系,以保证新农村建设的顺利进行。     

Quantal resp0nse assays by inverse regression

A general inverse regression procedure for estimating dose-response curves in quanta1 response assays is presented. Asymptotic distributional properties are developed. The special case is given, where after suitable transformation, the -dose response curve is linear. The inverse method has a decided advantage over the more classical methods in this case, both inflexibility and in ease of application. The procedure will be shown to be fully efficient, in the asymptotic context*     

Adjustment to Stepfatherhood:

Marital history and characteristics of stepchildren were viewed as factors ,which influence adjustment to step- fatherhood. It was hypothesized that marital history affected the amount of conflict present in the relationship between the stepfather and his stepchildren. Characteristics of the stepchildren were viewed as factors which allowed stepfathers to successfully handle potential conflict. Using a sample of stepfathers who were married in 1980- 1983 in Orange County, California, it was found that marital history was somewhat related to the stepfathers' involvement with theu stepchildren in some activities. Marital history was also somewhat related to the stepfather's feelings about and reactions to his step- children. However, the key to the stepfather's adjustment was whether his biological children were present in the household. The effects of this variable were found to be positive. It was concluded that the relationship between marital history and stepfather adjust- ment is complex and varying.     

Comparison of Six Dose-Response Models for Use with Food-Borne Pathogens

Food-related illness in the United States is estimated to affect over six million people per year and cost the economy several billion dollars. These illnesses and costs could be reduced if minimum infectious doses were established and used as the basis of regulations and monitoring. However, standard methodologies for dose-response assessment are not yet formulated for microbial risk assessment. The objective of this study was to compare dose-response models for food-borne pathogens and determine which models were most appropriate for a range of pathogens. The statistical models proposed in the literature and chosen for comparison purposes were log-normal, log-logistic, exponential, -Poisson and Weibull-Gamma. These were fit to four data sets also taken from published literature, Shigella flexneri, Shigella dysenteriae,Campylobacter jejuni, and Salmonella typhosa, using the method of maximum likelihood. The Weibull-gamma, the only model with three parameters, was also the only model capable of fitting all the data sets examined using the maximum likelihood estimation for comparisons. Infectious doses were also calculated using each model. Within any given data set, the infectious dose estimated to affect one percent of the population ranged from one order of magnitude to as much as nine orders of magnitude, illustrating the differences in extrapolation of the dose response models. More data are needed to compare models and examine extrapolation from high to low doses for food-borne pathogens.     

Cancer Dose-Response Modeling of Epidemiological Data on Worker Exposures to Aldrin and Dieldrin

The paper applies classical statistical principles to yield new tools for risk assessment and makes new use of epidemiological data for human risk assessment. An extensive clinical and epidemiological study of workers engaged in the manufacturing and formulation of aldrin and dieldrin provides occupational hygiene and biological monitoring data on individual exposures over the years of employment and provides unusually accurate measures of individual lifetime average daily doses. In the cancer dose-response modeling, each worker is treated as a separate experimental unit with his own unique dose. Maximum likelihood estimates of added cancer risk are calculated for multistage, multistage-Weibull, and proportional hazards models. Distributional characterizations of added cancer risk are based on bootstrap and relative likelihood techniques. The cancer mortality data on these male workers suggest that low-dose exposures to aldrin and dieldrin do not significantly increase human cancer risk and may even decrease the human hazard rate for all types of cancer combined at low doses (e.g., 1 g/kg/day). The apparent hormetic effect in the best fitting dose-response models for this data set is statistically significant. The decrease in cancer risk at low doses of aldrin and dieldrin is in sharp contrast to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's upper bound on cancer potency based on mouse liver tumors. The EPA's upper bound implies that lifetime average daily doses of 0.0000625 and 0.00625 g/kg body weight/day would correspond to increased cancer risks of 0.000001 and 0.0001, respectively. However, the best estimate from the Pernis epidemiological data is that there is no increase in cancer risk in these workers at these doses or even at doses as large as 2 g/kg/day.     

Does Modern Organization and Governance Threat Solidarity?

This article focuses on solidarity behaviours of employees to team members (horizontal solidarity behaviour) and to their manager (vertical solidarity behaviour). The question is asked to what extend and how are both types of solidarity related to three aspects of modern organization and governance: dual earner families, flexible labour contracts, and formal and informal governance structures. Survey data of 17 Dutch organizations (N = 1347) show in relation to dual-earner families that having children has a positive relationship with horizontal solidarity behaviour, and working overtime has a positive relationship with vertical solidarity behaviour. Related to the flexible labour contracts, no relationship was found with type of labour contract and expected years within the organization. Finally, some traits of informal and formal governance structures, namely information on rules and the presence of explicit fair play rules are fond to be positively related to solidarity.She worked on this article during a visit at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.