Passive Learning: When the Media Environment Is the Message

This article investigates the phenomenon of "passive learning,"or how people may acquire information from the mass media despitelacking the motivation to do so. A unique data source allowsus to overcome the "saturation effect" that generally makesthe study of this phenomenon difficult. Saturation conditionscommonly occur because exposure to political programming isvirtually universal. With interest controlled, two groups receivingdifferent media messages are compared over two elections. Thosewho had no interest in an election, but who lived in a media-richenvironment were 40 percentage points more likely to have acquiredinformation than their uninterested cohorts living in a media-poorenvironment.     

Participants or Recipients--Disabled People's Involvement in a European Programme

Correspondence to Jackie Powell, Department of Social Work Studies, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton S017 1BJ Summary Drawing on an evaluative study of UK participation in a Europeandisability programme (HELlOS I), this paper explores the extentto which and the ways in which disabled people were-or werenot-involved in the programme as active participants ratherthan passive recipients, at local, national and European levels.The findings presented here draw attention to the differentperspectives of the programme's various stakeholders and arediscussed in relation to two broader themes. The first of thesethemes is the involvement of disabled people themselves in anyprogramme aiming to promote the full participation of disabledpeople in society. The second is the role and value of formalizednetworks as a means of promoting information exchange and learning,as a prerequisite for promoting change in individuals (thatis in day-to-day practice) and change in organizations (thatis service developments). These two themes are pertinent tocurrent developments in social work, with its explicit attentionto anti-discriminatoiy practice and its strong tradition ofvaluing the learning gained from experience.     

SOCIAL SECURITY AND AGGREGATE CAPITAL ACCUMULATION REVISITED: DYNAMIC SIMULTANEOUS ESTIMATES IN A WEALTH-GENERATION MODEL

This paper re-examines Feldstein's(1974, 1982)results of the effect of social security on private capital accumulation in the context of a simultaneous-equation model of capital accumulation. The model incorporates dynamic feedback effects in capital accumulation and is estimated by FIML to incorporate theoretical restrictions that are tested against the data. It is then simulated as a full dynamic model to analyze the long-run effect of SSW on private capital accumulation. The simulated effects are in the same direction as found by Feldstein, but are considerably weaker.     

Dynamic Analysis of Recurrent Event Data with Missing Observations, with Application to Infant Diarrhoea in Brazil

Abstract.  This paper examines and applies methods for modelling longitudinal binary data subject to both intermittent missingness and dropout. The paper is based around the analysis of data from a study into the health impact of a sanitation programme carried out in Salvador, Brazil. Our objective was to investigate risk factors associated with incidence and prevalence of diarrhoea in children aged up to 3 years old. In total, 926 children were followed up at home twice a week from October 2000 to January 2002 and for each child daily occurrence of diarrhoea was recorded. A challenging factor in analysing these data is the presence of between-subject heterogeneity not explained by known risk factors, combined with significant loss of observed data through either intermittent missingness (average of 78 days per child) or dropout (21% of children). We discuss modelling strategies and show the advantages of taking an event history approach with an additive discrete time regression model.     

Working with Sex Offenders: A Social Skills Training Group

Summary The paper presents an account of a group of sex offenders ina local prison. Nine sessions of social skills training weregiven with the aim of facilitating relationships within theprison and possibly after release.