Rural/Urban Residence,Migration, HIV/AIDS,and Safe Sex Practices among Men in Zimbabwe*

Abstract The AIDS epidemic was initially thought to be primarily an urban phenomenon. However, migration between rural and urban areas has resulted in the spread of the virus to all segments of the population. Prevention efforts continue to focus on the ABCs of AIDS, namely, abstinence among young adults, being faithful within a monogamous relationship, and/or using condoms at each sexual encounter. We examine the effects of residence, migration status, and selected social and demographic variables on the use of these three practices among men in Zimbabwe, a nation experiencing one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the world. Both residence and migration status were found to be significantly related to safe sex practices. Knowledge of a source with easy access to condoms was the strongest predictor of this behavior. Knowledge of prevention methods and experience with persons with AIDS also exerted significant effects, although not always in the manner hypothesized. Possible reasons for the findings and implications for policy are discussed.     

Helping black grandparents and older parents cope with child rearing: a group method

The extended family and informal adoption practices of the black culture are frequently misunderstood by workers from different backgrounds. Particularly prominent is the responsibility for child rearing assumed by older family members. The authors present procedures, issues, and argument for use of a group method to strengthen the coping abilities of these families through attention to the needs of their senior members.     

Ranked set sampling with concomitant variables

Ranked set sampling is a procedure which may be used to improve the precision of the estimator of the mean. It is useful in cases where the variable of interest is much more difficult to measure than to order. However, even if ordering is difficult, but there is an easily ranked concomitant variable available, then it may be used to “judgment order” the original variable. The amount of increase in the precision of the estimator is dependent upon the correlation between the 2 variables.     

Print Magazines for American College Libraries

Abstract

This paper opens discussion about the periodicals that are left behind in the debate over the transition from print to electronic journals in academic libraries, particularly college libraries. The author annotates 100 English-language print magazines titles that support a liberal arts curriculum and the leisure reading of an American college community. These titles should be maintained in print versions for browsing and usefulness, even if online availability exists. Magazines, with their mix of articles, illustrations, sidebars, tables, charts, graphs, lists, and short features, still have an important place in college libraries.     

Estimating the Size of a Subdomain: An Application in Auditing

This article suggests an alternative to the ratio estimator for estimating the total size of a subdomain of a population. The application that served as the genesis for this work is from auditing. The problem is to estimate the total of sales transactions that are not tax exempt from an audit sample of the population of nontaxed sales transactions. A superpopulation approach, which models the unit's probability of belonging to the subdomain as a function of its size, leads to a family of estimators. The simplest member of this famiiy is one in which that function is specified to be a constant. The optimal estimator for this model performs markedly better than the ratio estimator when the assumption is true and often performs better when it is not, though in that case it is biased. Stratification is shown to reduce this bias and at the same time make the ratio estimator more similar to the optimal estimator. A simulation experiment shows that the theoretical advantages hold in a real audit population.     

OBLIGATED CLINICAN SELF-DISCLOSURE: JONE THERAPITS'S INTERVENTIONS FOLLOWING A FAMILY MEMBERS'S PUBLICIZED MURDER*

This article describes a family therapist's management of the sudden collision between profesional and personal boundaries following the publicized murder of her spouse. Reasons are offered to explain why it is becoming difficult for all clinicians to control the process of self-disclosure in therapy. Strategies used to meet the demands of affirming professional distance while maintaining therapeutic effectiveness are described. Brief recommendations are proposed for therapists in group, medical, rural, inpatient, and underserved settings. It is hoped that this case study will generate further discussion and assist health care providers who may face this challenge in the future.     

Early Marriage in the United States

Despite drastic changes in the American family, a significant minority of Americans marry early. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N= 14,165), this study evaluates the prevalence and antecedents of early marriage in the United States. The results indicate 25% of women and 16% of men marry before age 23, and early marriage varies widely across a number of characteristics. Individuals who marry earlier are more likely to be from disadvantaged families, from conservative Protestant or Mormon families, to value their religious faith more highly, to have a high‐school diploma but a lower educational trajectory, and to cohabit before marriage. Scholars and policymakers interested in marriage should pay adequate attention to understanding and supporting these individuals’ marriages.     

Sources of Population Aging in More and Less Developed Countries

We provide the first global assessment of the sources of population aging by tracing its origins to the demographic histories of more and less developed countries. In more developed countries, improvements in survival among successive cohorts have accounted for the large majority of the recent increase in the population's mean age. Improved survivorship and declines in the growth rate of births have made roughly equal contributions to the aging that is occurring in less developed countries. Aging is more rapid in less developed countries because the number of births has declined faster, with China and India making large contributions. Use of the proportion of the population above age 65, 70, or 75 as measures of aging produces results similar to those using the mean age. Mortality decline becomes an even larger contributor to aging using all these measures, and its contribution grows as age advances.