bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Family Background and Economic Status in Finland
Authors: Osterbacka Eva
Published: March 2003

The importance of family background for economic outcomes is analyzed, using a Finnish data set. The estimates for intergenerational and sibling correlations in earnings are comparatively low. By estimating the magnitude of family influence conditional on parental earnings, children with poor parents are found to have lower intergenerational elasticities, while the sibling resemblance is higher. Children with rich parents have higher intergenerational elasticities and the sibling resemblance is also higher, except for daughters. The results also indicate that the largest share of the intergenerational correlation is transmitted through observed characteristics, such as education and, in particular, occupation.

JEL classification: D1; D3; J6
Measuring post‐traumatic stress: A psychometric evaluation of symptom‐ and coping questionnaires based on a Norwegian sample
Authors: Eid Jarle , Thayer Julian F. , Johnsen BJØRN H.
Published: March 2003

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of the Norwegian versions of the Impact of Event Scale, the Post Traumatic Stress Scale‐10 item version and General Coping Questionnaire‐30 item version. A group of 40 male and 56 female medical students was tested one week and four months after having started dissection of cadavers for the first time. The results showed that all scales had good internal consistency and test–retest reliability. The student sample scored lower on the IES and PTSS‐10 than comparable groups of traumatized subjects. A gender difference emerged, with female subjects scoring higher than male subjects. The factor analysis of the instruments indicated good construct validity for the symptom scales. The analysis of content validity related to DSM IV criteria indicated that the IES and PTSS‐10 may have some limitations in their predictive validity of PTSD. Taken together, the three scales have shown good psychometric properties and could be used in future research and clinical work.
Problem drinking and psychological well‐being: A five year follow‐up study for adolescence to young adulthood
Authors: Pitkäned Tuuli
Published: March 2003

The psychological well‐being of 651 Finnish adolescents (approximately age 17) was followed to young adulthood (age 22) and examined in terms of their drinking styles at age 22. The young adults were grouped into four categories delineating drinking style (non‐users, non‐problem drinkers, presumptive problem drinkers, and problem drinkers), and each group was examined for evolved paths of psychological well‐being. The psychological profile of the participants was comprised of seven variables: self‐esteem, trait anxiety, somatic symptoms, eating concerns, and mature, neurotic, and immature defense styles. The comparsion of the drinking style categories revealed that future problem drinkers had lower states of psychological well‐being already in adolescence and that the differences became more pronounced during the transition to young adulthood. Poor psychological well‐being is a risk for the development of later problem drinking, although the profile of this poor psychological state is somewhat different in women and men.
Dimensions of fatigue in different working populations
Authors: Åhsberg Elizabeth
Published: March 2003

Perceived fatigue related to work has often been measured in one dimension. The main purpose of the present study was to validate a proposed five‐factor model of perceived fatigue in a new sample. 597 persons, employed in five occupations with different types of work loads, rated their fatigue after work. The ratings were subjected to analyses of linear structural equation models. The results suggest a slightly revised model for perceived fatigue, still with the five dimensions;Lack of energy, Physical exertion, Physical discomfort, Lack of motivation and Sleepiness. As expected, the rating profiles describing fatigue states differed between the five occupations. On the basis of these results, a revised version of the Swedish Occupational Fatigue Inventory (SOFI) is presented.
The role of derivational morphology in vocabulary acquisition: Get by with a little help from my morpheme friends
Authors: Bertram Raymond , Laine Matti , Virkkala Minna Maria
Published: March 2003

This study explores the role of morphology in vocabulary knowledge of 3rd and 6th grade Finnish elementary school children. In a word definition task, children from both grades performed overall better on derived words than on monomorphemic words. However, the results were modified by the factors Frequency and Productivity. Most strikingly, performance on monomorphemic words was disproportionately weaker than on derived words at the low frequency range. At the high‐frequency range, derived words with low‐productive suffixes yielded poorest performance. We partly make an appeal to the lexical‐statistical properties of the Finnish language to explain the interaction of Frequency and Word Structure. At any rate, the results suggest that Finnish elementary school children benefit significantly from utilizing morphology in determining word meanings.
Negative emotions and coronary heart disease: Causally related or merely coexistent? A review
Authors: Smith Donald F.
Published: March 2003

Negative emotions have been claimed to be a cause of coronary heart disease (CHD) as well as a consequence of cardiovascular disorders. Early case studies of cardiac disorders of soldiers in battle drew attention to the possibility that strong negative emotional states could cause CHD. Subsequent reports of reactions to natural disasters supported the notion that intense negative emotions could precipitate somatic disorders such as CHD. Since then, numerous studies have investigated relations between negative emotions and CHD. Over the years, retrospective studies have found, for example, that negative emotions are often present before the occurrence of CHD. Cross–sectional studies have indicated that symptoms of depression and anxiety are often present in CHD patients. Prospective studies have shown that the likelihood of CHD tends to be higher for people with negative emotions than for those without them. The main symptoms of negative emotional states that seem to be most closely associated with CHD are nervousness, getting easily upset, feeling fatigue, being indecisive, having sleep disturbances, being usually worried about something, and feeling that others would be better off if oneself were dead. Although the findings appear to support the notion of causal connections between negative emotions and CHD, they fail to provide conclusive proof of such relations. An alternative explanation that could also account for the findings is simply that negative emotions and CHD often coexist.
Inducing and reducing false memories: A Swedish version of the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm
Authors: Johansson Mikael , Stenberg Georg
Published: March 2003

Participants tend to falsely remember a nonpresented critical word after having studied a list of the word’s primary associates. We present here a Swedish version of the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm, which provides a tractable method of experimentally inducing and investigating such illusory memories. In Experiment 1 it was demonstrated that the constructed stimulus material induced highly reliable false–recall and false–recognition effects, and, moreover, that veridical and false memories were associated with a similar phenomenological experience of remembering. The results from Experiment 2 indicated that the susceptibility to false recognition can be substantially reduced when participants are explicitly required to monitor the sources of their memories. These findings are consistent with predictions derived from the source–monitoring framework.
A Limit Theorem for Solutions of Inequalities
Authors: Molchanov Ilya S.
Published: March 2003

LetH(p) be the set {x∈X:h(x) ≤p} whereh is a real‐valued lower semicontinuous function on a locally compact separable metric spaceX. This paper presents a general limit theorem for the sequence of random setsHn(p) = {x∈X:hn(x) ≤p}n≥ 1, wherehn,n≥ 1, are functions that estimateh
On the Validity of the Markov Interpretation of Path Diagrams of Gaussian Structural Equations Systems with Correlated Errors
Authors: Koster Jan T. A.
Published: March 2003

Pearl's d‐separation concept and the ensuing Markov property is applied to graphs which may have, between each two different vertices i and j, any subset of {i←j, i→j, i↔j} as edges. The class of graphs so obtained is closed under marginalization. Furthermore, the approach permits a direct proof of this theorem: “The distribution of a multivariate normal random vector satisfying a system of linear simultaneous equations is Markov w.r.t. the path diagram of the linear system”.
Independence Structure of Natural Conjugate Densities to Exponential Families and the Gibbs' Sampler
Authors: Piccioni Mauro
Published: March 2003

In this paper the independence between a block of natural parameters and the complementary block of mean value parameters holding for densities which are natural conjugate to some regular exponential families is used to design in a convenient way a Gibbs' sampler with block updates. Even when the densities of interest are obtained by conditioning to zero a block of natural parameters in a density conjugate to a larger “saturated” model, the updates require only the computation of marginal distributions under the “unconditional” density. For exponential families which are closed under marginalization, including both the zero mean Gaussian family and the cross‐classified Bernoulli family such an implementation of the Gibbs' sampler can be seen as an Iterative Proportional Fitting algorithm with random inputs.
Estimating the Nitrous Oxide Emission Rate from the Soil Surface by Means of a Diffusion Model
Authors: Pedersen Asger Roer
Published: March 2003

Soil cover methods are probably the most widely used methods for measuring the nitrous oxide emission rate from the soil surface. The methodology involves estimation of the emission rate from repeated measurements of the nitrous oxide concentration beneath a soil cover. Based on a deterministic model proposed by Hutchinson & Mosier (1981) we propose to use a diffusion process as a stochastic model for the evolution of the nitrous oxide concentrations beneath a soil cover. From this model we derive methods for statistical inference about the emission rate that significantly extend the method proposed by Hutchinson & Mosier (1981). In particular, the derived methods provide solutions to important problems with the method proposed by Hutchinson & Mosier (1981).
Modelling Heterogeneity With and Without the Dirichlet Process
Authors: Green Peter J. , Richardson Sylvia
Published: March 2003

We investigate the relationships between Dirichlet process (DP) based models and allocation models for a variable number of components, based on exchangeable distributions. It is shown that the DP partition distribution is a limiting case of a Dirichlet–multinomial allocation model. Comparisons of posterior performance of DP and allocation models are made in the Bayesian paradigm and illustrated in the context of univariate mixture models. It is shown in particular that the unbalancedness of the allocation distribution, present in the prior DP model, persists a posteriori. Exploiting the model connections, a new MCMC sampler for general DP based models is introduced, which uses split/merge moves in a reversible jump framework. Performance of this new sampler relative to that of some traditional samplers for DP processes is then explored.
Penalized Maximum Likelihood Estimator for Normal Mixtures
Authors: CIUPERCA GABRIELA , RIDOLFI ANDREA , IDIER JÉRÔME
Published: March 2003

The estimation of the parameters of a mixture of Gaussian densities is considered, within the framework of maximum likelihood. Due to unboundedness of the likelihood function, the maximum likelihood estimator fails to exist. We adopt a solution to likelihood function degeneracy which consists in penalizing the likelihood function. The resulting penalized likelihood function is then bounded over the parameter space and the existence of the penalized maximum likelihood estimator is granted. As original contribution we provide asymptotic properties, and in particular a consistency proof, for the penalized maximum likelihood estimator. Numerical examples are provided in the finite data case, showing the performances of the penalized estimator compared to the standard one.
Goodness of fit tests with interval censored data
Authors: REN JIAN‐JIAN
Published: March 2003

Cramér–von Mises type goodness of fit tests for interval censored data case 2 are proposed based on a resampling method called the leveraged bootstrap, and their asymptotic consistency is shown. The proposed tests are computationally efficient, and in fact can be applied to other types of censored data, including right censored data, doubly censored data and (mixture of) case k interval censored data. Some simulation results and an example from AIDS research are presented.
‘Small Steps’ or ‘Great Leaps’: How the Swedish Greens Are Learning the Lessons of Government Participation
Authors: Burchett Jon
Published: March 2003

As Green parties have solidified their positions within the Western European party systems, they have increasingly faced opportunities and pressures to participate in government at varying levels. This has raised significant questions regarding both how the Greens should progress strategically in relation to other longstanding political parties and also whether participation in government represents a process of ‘institutionalisation’ and a loss of the Greens’‘new politics’ credentials. This paper examines the strategic changes and developments within the Swedish Green Party (Miljöpartiet de Gröna) as it has come to terms with opportunities to participate in government. It argues that the decisions within the party have reflected not only internal ideological debates, but also external pressures and opportunities. It also demonstrates that the experiences of the party at local and municipal levels have played a major role in encouraging the national party to consider negotiating with other parties. The paper attempts to draw lessons from the experiences of the Swedish Greens which may prove useful in trying to comprehend the future challenges and pressures facing the continued development of Europe’s Green parties.
Housing as a Social Right: Implications for Welfare State Theory
Authors: Bengtsson Bo
Published: March 2003

The article contributes to two central and interrelated discourses in welfare state theory and housing policy. One concerns the meaning of a ‘right to housing’, and the other concerns the meaning of the dichotomy ‘universal’–‘selective’ in housing policy. The right to housing is best seen as a political ‘marker of concern’ pointing out housing as an area for welfare state policy. The more precise meaning of the idea is always defined socially, in a specific national context of relations between state, citizen, and markets in housing provision. Two alternative interpretations of a right to housing are suggested, each related to a certain logic of housing provision. In a selective housing policy, the state provides a ‘protected’ complement to the general housing market, and the right to housing implies some legalistic minimum rights for households of lesser means. In a universal housing policy, the state provides correctives to the general housing market in order to make housing available to all types of households, and the right to housing is best seen as a social right in Marshall’s meaning of an obligation of the state towards society as a whole. The concepts of ‘universal’ and ‘selective’ may be applied to either the political discourse or the social outcome of policies. Furthermore, they may refer to different political levels (e.g. welfare state level, sector level, and policy instrument level). If the dichotomy is not specified in those two respects, the distinction between a universal and a selective policy will always be seriously blurred.
Social Class, Sector Employment, and Gender as Party Cleavages in the Scandinavian Countries: A Comparative Longitudinal Study, 1970–95
Authors: Knutsen Oddbjørn
Published: March 2003

This article studies the changing impact of social class, sector employment, and gender with regard to party choice in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, from the 1970s to the 1990s, using election survey data. Political parties in the three countries are grouped into four party groups: left socialist, social democratic, centrist, and rightist parties.

Class voting has declined in all three countries. The focus on the four party groups shows that differences between the wage‐earner classes have declined for the social democratic and rightist party groups. By contrast, ‘class voting’ has increased for the left socialist parties, which increasingly have concentrated their support among the new middle class.

Sector employment became an important party cleavage in all three countries in the 1990s. The impact of sector was generally largest in Denmark and Norway in the 1980s and 1990s. The sector cleavage also follows the left–right division of parties to a greater degree than previously. Sector differences in voting behaviour are most pronounced with regard to voting for the left socialist and the rightist parties.

Gender differences in voting behaviour have increased and changed character in all three countries. In the 1970s, men supported the socialist parties to a greater extent than women; in the 1990s men supported the rightist parties to a greater extent than women in all three countries, whereas women supported the left socialist parties and (in Sweden) the Green Party to a greater degree than men. The effects of gender are generally reduced when sector employment is introduced into the multivariate analysis, indicating that the different sector employment of men and of women explains part of the gender gap in voting behaviour.
Dialect and Dialectic in a British War Film
Authors: Marriott Stephanie
Published: March 2003

British popular cinema in the 1940s was a key site of struggle over images of national identity and national unity. This paper discusses the representation of sociolectal variation in one British film, the 1942 In Which We Serve, and argues that the distribution of sociolinguistic variants in the film makes a significant contribution to the film’s construction of a hierarchical model of social organisation. The simultaneous privileging of a standard variety and emphasis on sociolectal diversity is discussed in terms of an underlying Churchillian paternalistic rhetoric, and it is argued that there is a correlation between particular representations of sociolectal variation in films of this period and particular kinds of hegemonic effect.
Be like et al. beyond America: The quotative system in British and Canadian youth
Authors: Tagliamonte Sali , Hudson Rachel
Published: March 2003

In this paper we study the quotative system of contemporary British and Canadian youth. Multivariate analysis of nearly 1300 quotative verbs demonstrates that the innovative form belike is productive in both Canada and Britain. Traditional quotatives such as say, go,think, are used according to somewhat different patterns in the two corpora. We suggest that this is the result of differing narrative styles across varieties. However, the linguistic trajectory of the innovative form belike is remarkably parallel, not only across the British and Canadian corpora, but is also comparable with previous reports of this form in the United States. This finding provides evidence for a systematic global diffusion of belike across geographically separated speech communities and calls for further research into the social and linguistic mechanisms underlying such internationally circumscribed linguistic change.
The interpreter as institutional gatekeeper: The social‐linguistic role of interpreters in Spanish‐English medical discourse
Authors: Davidson Brad
Published: March 2003

Increases in immigration have led to an enormous growth in the number of cross‐linguistic medical encounters taking place throughout the United States. In this article the role of hospital‐based interpreters in cross‐linguistic, internal medicine ‘medical interviews’ is examined. The interpreter's actions are analyzed against the historical and institutional context within which she is working, and also with an eye to the institutional goals that frame the patient‐physician discourse. Interpreters are found not to be acting as ‘neutral’ machines of semantic conversion, but are rather shown to be active participants in the process of diagnosis. Since this process hinges on the evaluation of social and medical relevance of patient contributions to the discourse, the interpreter can be seen as an additional institutional gatekeeper for the recent immigrants for whom she is interpreting. Cross‐linguistic medical interviews may also be viewed as a form of cross‐cultural interaction; in this light, the larger political ramifications of the interpreters' actions are explored.

‘Interpreters are the most powerful people in a medical conversation.’ Head of Interpreting Services at a major private U.S. hospital, May 1999.
‘I hereby come out’: What sort of speech act is coming out?
Authors: Chirrey Deborah A.
Published: March 2003

The process of coming out linguistically as a lesbian or as a gay man is occasionally referred to as a speech act (e.g. Harvey 1997: 72; Liang 1997: 293). This analogy is taken as a starting point to explore the extent to which coming out is a performative act, and what sort of speech act coming out may be. The discussion draws on the perspective of both the speaker and the hearer to consider how the acts involved in coming out are open to interpretation. Parallels are drawn between the act of coming out as a lesbian or a gay man and other instances of self–disclosure or of individuals’ constructions of new facets of their identities.
Adam Smith’s Problems and Ours
Authors: Donald Winch
Published: March 2003

The paper contrasts what modern economists, reflecting the priorities of general equilibrium theory, expect to find in the Wealth of Nationswith Smith’s own much broader theoretical and policy concerns. A theory of growth in which increasing returns are pervasive conflicts not only with neo‐classical expectations but with the emphasis on diminishing returns to be found in Smith’s classical successors. Smith’s assumptions on rationality, technology, firms, ‘projectors’, and the incompleteness of markets do not square with post‐Walrasian criteria. In advancing practical solutions Smith also shows more concern for the problems of living in a second‐best world than is common in pure theories of the invisible hand and the thinking of some of his free‐market admirers.
Explaining the Growth of Divorce in Great Britain
Authors: Smith Ian
Published: March 2003

This paper tests whether the liberalisation of divorce law or economic factors can explain the post‐war growth of divorce rates in Great Britain. Timing differences regarding the dates of legal innovations in England & Wales relative to Scotland are exploited to test for divorce law effects. No effect on marital dissolution of extending the grounds for the divorce can be detected, though other innovations in family law have had a powerful but generally temporary impact on divorce rates via their effect on transaction costs and settlement rules. Economic theory suggests that rising relative wages of women have reduced the gains from remaining married by inter alia diminishing the benefits of household specialisation and that rising real earnings of women have increased post divorce welfare by providing a measure of financial independence. The results are consistent with the real, but not the relative, wage hypothesis.
Seasonality, Cointegration, and Forecasting UK Residential Energy Demand
Authors: Clements Michael P. , Madlener Reinhard
Published: March 2003

Much of the short‐run movement in energy demand in the UK is seasonal, and the contribution of long‐run factors to short‐run forecasts is slight. Nevertheless, using a variety of techniques, including a recently developed estimation procedure that is applicable irrespective of the orders of integration of the data, we obtain a long‐run income elasticity of demand of about one third, and we are unable to reject a zero price elasticity. An econometric model is shown to provide superior short‐run forecasts to well‐known seasonal time series models ex post, but is inferior to Box‐Jenkins SARMA models when the determinants themselves have to be forecast. However, the relatively short data sample and small number of forecasts suggest caution in generalising these results.
Housing cycles and efficiency
Authors: Meen Geoffrey
Published: March 2003

This paper has four objectives. First, a small model of the UK housing market is constructed, including equations for house prices, housing starts, construction costs and interest rates. The model is used in an analysis of housing market cycles, employing techniques developed for the analysis of general business cycles. Second, the model is used to consider housing market efficiency. Third, the model is extended to examine the relationship between house prices and property transactions. Finally, the role of monetary policy in the generation of housing cycles and stability is discussed.
Distribution Dynamics and Cross‐Country Convergence: A New Approach
Authors: Bulli Sandra
Published: March 2003

Distribution dynamics is a method for studying the evolution in time of an entire cross‐section distribution and has been initially employed to assess cross‐country convergence of per capita incomes. It has subsequently seen a widespread application in many different economic areas. When describing the law of motion of the distribution as a Markovian stochastic process, working in a discrete state‐space set up has several advantages, but the arbitrary discretisation of a continuous state‐space process has the undesired effect of removing the Markov property. This paper outlines a rigorous method for discretising a continuous state‐space Markov chain. The method is then applied to the distribution of per capita income across countries to reassess the (non‐) convergence phenomenon. It is found that the long run polarisation of per capita incomes across countries emerges even more dramatically than in previous studies.
EU Enlargement and the Future of the Welfare State
Authors: Sinn Hans–Werner
Published: March 2003

The eastern enlargement of the EU resembles German unification in its momentousness. Whereas the latter led to a 26% increase in the population of the Federal Republic, the former will increase the population of the EU by 28% if all ten entry aspirants are accepted. A special problem will be posed by migration. Given the existing wage differences between eastern and western European countries, a massive westward migration can be expected after enlargement. A temporary east–to–west migration until the eastern countries create an efficient capital stock makes economic sense if this is driven by wage differences and meets with a flexible labour market. Migration does not make economic sense, however, if, and to the extent that, it is induced by the current social assistance systems. Moreover, welfare–motivated migration would create competition among western European states to frighten off potential migrants, and this would lead to an erosion of the traditional social welfare state. If the EU plan incorporated limitation on the free movement of labour, beneficial migration would also cease. A better solution would be to limit access to the western social systems, at least for a transitional period, in order to filter out migration induced by differing social standards. An EU–wide application of the home–country principle in the granting of social benefits would achieve this goal.
Individual Differences in Infant Skills as Predictors of Child‐Caregiver Joint Attention and Language
Authors: Markus Jessica , Mundy Peter , Morales Michael , Delgado Christine E. F. , Yale Marygrace
Published: March 2003

Current research suggests that the extent to which child‐caregiver dyads engage in interactions involving episodes of joint or coordinated attention can have a significant impact on early lexical acquisition. In this regard it has been recognized that individual differences in early developing child communication skills, such as capacity to follow gaze and early infant language, may contribute to these child‐caregiver interactional patterns, as well as to subsequent language development. To address this expectation, 21 infant‐parent dyads were recruited for participation in a longitudinal study. Early infant language, responding to joint attention skill, and cognitive development were assessed at 12 months of age. Child‐caregiver joint attention episodes, as well as responding to joint attention skill and child language, were assessed at 18 months of age. Developmental outcome, using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development‐II, was assessed at 21 and 24 months of age. Consistent with previous findings, results indicated that individual differences in child‐caregiver episodes of joint attention were related to language at 18 months. In addition, though, 12 month vocabulary and responding to joint attention skill were associated with some aspects of 18 month child‐caregiver interaction, as well as subsequent language development. In general, 12 month child measures and 18 month child‐caregiver interaction measures appeared to make unique contributions to language development in this sample. These results suggest the need to further consider the role of infant skills in the connections between child‐caregiver joint attention episodes and language development.
A Behaviour‐Based Peer‐Nomination Measure of Social Withdrawal in Children
Authors: Younger Alastair J. , Schneider Barry H. , Guirguis Manal , Bergeron Natasha
Published: March 2003

Research on social withdrawal has been impeded by problems in the definition of the construct and in its measurement. The purpose of this study was to develop a behaviourally‐based peer‐nomination measure useful in measuring two types of withdrawal: Inhibited/Wary and Self‐Conscious/Anxious. In Study 1, we report the development of the measure. We examined whether this two‐factor structure would be supported by data obtained from multiple informants. Data were collected from children in grades 3, 5, and 7, and their peers and teachers. Intercorrelations of peer‐, teacher‐, and self‐reports of the Behaviour‐Based Peer‐Nomination Measures of social withdrawal supported the validity of the Inhibited/Wary dimension; teacher‐peer agreement also provided support for the validity of the Self‐Conscious/Anxious dimension. In Study2, the Behaviour‐Based Peer‐Nomination Measure of Social Withdrawal was cross‐validated against observed play behaviour with 120 boys and girls. Results revealed some concordances between observational and peer‐nomination data.
Intention Understanding and Partner‐Sensitive Behaviors in Young Children’s Peer Interactions
Authors: Smiley Patricia A.
Published: March 2003

Recent research on peer interaction shows that complex, coordinated play emerges around 24 months. Increased understanding of others’ intentions has been proposed as a reason for its emergence at this juncture. In this study, we assessed understanding of the intentional structure of human action in children aged 19 to 39 months by eliciting verbal explanations of observed action. We hypothesized that more elaborated understanding of intention would be related to more partner‐sensitive behaviors during interactions with familiar, same‐age peers at home. We found that level of intention understanding predicted types of overtures made, types of objects offered, monitoring partner responses, partner compliance, and types of speech acts addressed to partners. Results are discussed in terms of the contribution of intention understanding to interactive competence, the role of linguistic competence in conceptual development, the effects of context on the production of speech acts and developing theory of mind.
A Longitudinal Examination of the Associations between Fathers’ and Children's Attributions and Negative Interactions
Authors: MacKinnon‐Lewis Carol , Castellino Domini R. , Brody Gene H. , Fincham Frank D.
Published: March 2003

The present investigation examined the concurrent and longitudinal relations between attributions and negative behavioral interactions in the context of the father‐child dyad. Participants were 177 fathers and their young adolescents recruited from non‐metropolitan counties in the southeast. Results indicated that for children, attributions about their father play a significant role in their negative behavioral interactions with their father both within and across time. Interestingly, father’s earlier negative behavioral interactions with their children predicted children’s subsequent attributions about their father in the longitudinal analyses. In addition, both attributions and behavioral interactions were highly stable across time for both fathers and children.
Children's Social Constructions of Popularity
Authors: Lease A. Michele , Kennedy Charlotte A. , Axelrod Jennifer L.
Published: March 2003

Children's social constructions of popularity were assessed with perceived popularity nominations (i.e., ‘Who are the most [least] popular students?’) in a sample of 487 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade elementary school students. Correlational and group‐difference analyses demonstrated that perceived popularity is moderately and positively related to sociometric popularity and social dominance. Perceived popular girls were viewed as prosocial, bright, and in possession of the expressive equipment of popularity (i.e., attractiveness and spending power); perceived popular girls who were not well‐liked (i.e., sociometrically popular) had these characteristics as well but also were above‐average (>.5 SD) on social aggression and social visibility (i.e., cool and athletic). Perceived popular boys were reported to be socially visible (i.e., cool and athletic) and with low levels of social withdrawal; perceived popular boys who were not well‐liked had these characteristics but also were reported to be socially aggressive, attractive, and to possess spending power. Finally, group comparisons revealed that perceived popularity, either alone or in combination with sociometric popularity, is accompanied by more social prerogatives (i.e., admiration, leadership, social control) than sociometric popularity alone. It was argued that being perceived as popular is a key determinant of social power in peer groups of older elementary school students.
An Integrative Examination of Peer Conflict: Children's Reported Goals, Emotions, and Behaviors
Authors: Murphy Bridget C. , Eisenberg Nancy
Published: March 2003

The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the interrelations among children's typical emotions, goals, and behavior during peer conflict and to examine emotions and goals as joint predictors of behavior. Children (7 to 11 years old) described recent conflicts with peers and were questioned about their emotions, goals, and behaviors. The friendliness of children's reported goals during conflict was associated with low anger intensity and with high intensity of sadness. Children who tended to report nonconstructive behavior also tended to report relatively intense anger and relatively unfriendly goals. Furthermore, in regression analyses, the friendliness of goals uniquely predicted the constructiveness of children's behavior after controlling for the effects of anger intensity, age, gender, provoking event, and friendship with the peer. Although boys and girls reported similar levels of anger and sadness, girls reported friendlier goals and more constructive behavior than did boys. The use of self‐reports of actual events to examine peer conflict during middle childhood is also discussed.
Factors Related to Social Competence in Elementary School Among Children of Adolescent Mothers
Authors: Bates Laura , Luster Tom , Vandenbelt Marcia
Published: March 2003

This study examined factors related to social competence in first grade among children of low‐income, adolescent mothers. The sample included 83 mother–child dyads who had participated in a family support program for adolescent mothers. Characteristics of the child, mother, and the child's living context were examined for their relationship to children's social skills and problem behaviors. Several factors had significant bivariate relationships with social competence. Children with higher social skills and lower levels of problem behaviors were more likely to have received higher quality parenting, to have higher academic skills, and to live in neighborhoods with lower poverty rates. Children with higher social skills were less likely to have changed schools. In a path analysis, only academic skills were significantly related to either measure of social competence when other factors were controlled. Quality of parenting was indirectly related to social competence, and the effect was mediated by academic skills. School transience was also related to academic skills in the path analysis.
Lone Parents in Northern Ireland: The Effectiveness of Work Incentives
Authors: Evason Eileen , Robinson Gillian
Published: March 2003

In recent years social policy in relation to lone parents has placed heavy emphasis on increasing the participation of this group in the labour market. If anything, the newly elected Labour government appears to be more committed to this objective than its predecessor. This paper details some of the findings from a focus‐groups exercise with lone mothers in Belfast conducted in 1995. The data underline the limitations of many aspects of the measures taken to encourage lone parents to work and raise questions about the appropriateness of current policy.
Child and Family Policies in the United States at the Opening of the Twenty‐first Century
Authors: Kamerman Sheila B. , Kahn Alfred J.
Published: March 2003

A repeated theme, characterizing US social policies toward children and their families, is that the US has no explicit family policy, nor does it have a coherent package of social policies that are targeted on children and their families. Nonetheless, there is general agreement that the US does have policies that have consequences for children and their families, and that many of these might constitute ‘implicit’ family policies. However, these policies tend to be limited in scale, coverage, and generosity and are usually categorical and narrowly focused. They lack the comprehensiveness and universality of policies in other advanced industrialized countries. Furthermore, the US has consistently invested a significantly smaller share of GDP in children and their families than almost all the other such countries. One consequence is that the situation of children in the US seems to be much worse than that of children in other advanced industrialized countries. In more recent years, however, there have been some efforts at improving child and family policies and the story now is a mixed one—but there remain major deficits in our policies and programs. Fortunately, children’s issues are emerging on the national policy agenda. In this article, we describe current US child and family policies, touch on earlier history for context, and discuss the issues facing the US as we enter the twenty‐first century. Ultimately, we need to confront the question of what can be done now to advance the children’s cause on the national agenda.
The Role of the Private Market in Day‐care Provision for Children in Need
Authors: Dillon Jean , Statham June , Moss Peter
Published: March 2003

This article examines the role that the private day‐care market plays within the range of day‐care services offered by 12 local authorities for children in need. It examines how local authorities have developed their use of private day‐care services generally, and goes on to discuss three models of sponsored childminding practice which were identified in the study. Although authorities have generally been innovative in developing their work with independent day‐care providers, if they are to continue to purchase good quality services for children in need they need to ensure that private day‐care providers receive adequate levels of training and support, and that steps are taken to address existing gaps in both private and local authority day‐care services.
Understanding Accountability: Theoretical Models and their Implications for Social Service Organizations
Authors: Walker Peter
Published: March 2003

This article examines the concept of accountability and its implications for social service organizations. Accountability, it is argued, is a theoretically embedded concept, with each theory producing various conflicting models of accountability. The article seeks to map and structure the various models of accountability, highlighting the differences between the models and their implications for social service organizations. The models chosen are relevant to the Aotearoa/New Zealand context and also to countries in western Europe as they include the systems of political economy present within recent history: social democratic and neo‐liberal, and also a coherent alternative, the communitarian model.
Institutional Developments in the Russian System of Social Security: Organizational and Interorganizational Aspects
Authors: Axelsson Runo
Published: March 2003

In the course of the present transition in Russian society, a new system of social security has been developed. The previous Soviet system has been replaced by a system of four more or less independent social funds, covering the main branches of social security. These funds are supposed to be run according to insurance principles and to be financed by contributions, mainly from employers. Given the difficult economic and social situation of the country, there have been increasing demands for effectiveness in the management of the different funds and also in the management of the whole social security system. The results of this study show that the social funds have developed different organizational structures with different degrees of centralization and decentralization. Only one of the funds seems to be relatively well‐functioning and effective, while the others have experienced more or less serious problems in fulfilling their main tasks and functions. The most serious problems, however, seem to stem from the structure of the social security system as a whole, which is perceived as fragmented and badly coordinated. In order to improve the coordination of the system, there have been proposals to merge two or more funds into a unified social security organization. This strategy is open to question, however, since it would increase the bureaucracy of the system. There are other ways in which the structure of the social security system might be advanced. Such developments should be based on an analysis of the system from the perspective of the individual client or patient.
Social Security in Hungary: A Balance Sheet after Twelve Years
Authors: Ferge Zsuzsa , Tausz Katalin
Published: March 2003

The social and political transformation in Hungary contributed to the development of a democratic political system and to the establishment of the rule of law and a market economy. The process was accompanied by a series of economic and social problems. The paper first reviews the social policy orientation of the three free consecutive governments elected since the transition. None of them has had a clear political profile: they have constituted mixed and unclear welfare regimes. None of them has sketched a clear welfare policy except perhaps the current government. In its case central redistribution is consistently biased in favour of the middle and upper strata at the expense of the poor. Instead of a consensual plan defining priorities, decisions and reforms in the last ten years have been motivated by political interests, at hoc ideas, and authoritarian rulings. The paper next shows what reform meant in the case of the different instruments and various fields of social policy, namely unemployment, health, pensions, family benefits and social assistance. It concludes that while both the inherited and the newly created systems had contributed to alleviate the shocks of the transition, yet there never was enough political will to give sufficient or adequate help to those needing it. As a consequence of the “reforms” public expenditures have been significantly reduced. The welfare gap between East and West has thereby grown. The consequence is that the country has become gravely divided, and that poverty is greater and deeper than it might have been under a different set of policies.
Reorganizing Social Policies through Social Partnerships: Greece in European Perspective
Authors: Kioukias Dimitris
Published: March 2003

In postwar Western Europe social policies in the wider sense relied in many countries on neo‐corporatist policies of implementation. Since the 1980s such policies have ceased to be as dominant as they used to be, being associated with what has been called “policy communities” and “policy networks”. As far as the reforms pursued by many countries in order to readjust their economies and labour markets are concerned, significant shifts of such a kind were observed. Illustrations of these trends are presented in a comparative section. We attempt to demonstrate the dual structures of social policy formation and implementation, i.e. neo‐corporatist and network/policy community policies, and to discuss the “how” of such policies, i.e. their “raison d’être” and their “real world” enforcement. Against a background of various semi‐corporatisms and adversarial trade union politics, Greece is trying at the moment to adopt this pattern in several social policy areas, though this is not yet quite visible. Neo‐corporatism is also enhanced. We attempt to show where neo‐corporatism is tried (e.g. certain “social dialogue” structures) and where policy communities are encouraged (e.g. public health, local social policies, etc.). Sometimes the boundaries between the two systems are blurred, with some social dialogue committees appearing as quasi‐policy communities. Finally we endeavour to examine the outcomes of such policies and to see their inner logic against the theoretical background. The concept of multilevel governance as a wider policy instrument which incorporates both the above systems is of special interest here.
The Emergence of Welfare State Rationality in Finnish Agricultural Policy
Authors: Granberg Leo
Published: March 2003

This article analyses of the emergence and adaptation of the welfare state in Finnish agricultural policy. It is based on earlier studies of the development of Finnish agricultural policy in 1930‐1980. The data used in these studies consist of statistical analyses, as well as information gleaned from newspapers and documents issued by the Finnish Parliament and agricultural administration. The documents describe the arguments in favour of the new policy schemes presented by policy makers during that period. Equality was a major component of these arguments, with a shift from creating equality of opportunity to equality of results. This change in argumentation is interpreted as an indication of a growing institutionalization of welfare rationality in agricultural policy. Welfare state rationality started to develop in agricultural policy at the same time and sometimes even earlier as in social policy. This outcome can be used to reinterpret the characteristics and the development of the Finnish welfare state.