A Comparison of Methods of Increasing Parental Consent Rates in Social Research

Previous research on children requiring written parental consenthas indicated that this requirement reduces samples to halfthe size they might otherwise be and results in overrepresentationof whites and underrepresentation of blacks. Within the courseof a four-year study, four methods were utilized to increaseparental consent rates, particularly for black students. Allmethods increased consent rates. Providing an incentive to theparents increased consent rates significantly more for the whitestudents than for the black students, while communication withthe children and incentives to the children resulted in consentrates which were more similar for the two racial groups. Communicationwith the parents was the most effective method for both blackand white children, but was also the most time consuming.     

A Cultural-Psychological Theory of Contemporary Islamic Martyrdom

What political, economic, religious, and emotional factors are involved in a person's decision to kill civilians and military personnel through the sacrifice of his or her own life? Data for this research were secondary analyses of interviews with Islamic martyrs, as well as their leaders’ speeches. This investigation into the cultural‐psychological explanations for Islamic martyrdom leads to a model explaining a person's decision to carry out the mission as resulting from a combination of four factors: the historical‐cultural context, group processes, immediate and anticipated rewards, and mechanisms to eradicate possible doubts and guilt regarding this decision. Compared to existing models, this model is more integrative and focused on the psychological processes involved.     

Two‐Sample Test Against One‐Sided Alternatives

Abstract. This paper proposes, implements and investigates a new non‐parametric two‐sample test for detecting stochastic dominance. We pose the question of detecting the stochastic dominance in a non‐standard way. This is motivated by existing evidence showing that standard formulations and pertaining procedures may lead to serious errors in inference. The procedure that we introduce matches testing and model selection. More precisely, we reparametrize the testing problem in terms of Fourier coefficients of well‐known comparison densities. Next, the estimated Fourier coefficients are used to form a kind of signed smooth rank statistic. In such a setting, the number of Fourier coefficients incorporated into the statistic is a smoothing parameter. We determine this parameter via some flexible selection rule. We establish the asymptotic properties of the new test under null and alternative hypotheses. The finite sample performance of the new solution is demonstrated through Monte Carlo studies and an application to a set of survival times.     

A note on admissibility of some tests of independence against “Positive Dependence” in R×C contingeney table

Admissibility of some asymptotically optimal tests of independence against “positive dependence” in a R × C contingency table is deduced from earlier results of the author. “Positive dependence” is specified to be positive regression dependence and positive quadrant dependence.