bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Changing Technology and National Career Structures: The Work and Politics of French Engineers
Authors: Crawford Stephen
Published: March 2007

This article compares the work, careers, and social values of French engineers employed in traditional and science-based industries. Based on field research and 129 interviews in a metal-working factory and an electronics firm, it first presents a critique of three influential approaches to technical workers: the theories of professionalization, proletarianization, and a "new working class." It then develops the central argu ment : that market situations—especially markets for technical skills—have greater explanatory power than usually recognized and that the evolving structure of technical careers is a nationally distinctive product of society-specific educational and employment institutions.
Science and Technology Studies: Prospects for an Enlightened Postmodern Synthesis
Authors: Giere Ronald N.
Published: March 2007

The argument that recent attempts to model technology studies on science studies have consequences for approaches to science studies as well is presented. In particular, the move to technology studies through science studies counts against the existing extreme pictures of science, "enlightenment rationalism," and "constructivisim," which are identified with modernism and postmodernism, respectively. Some components for a moderate "enlightened post-modern synthesis" in naturalism (philosophy of science), interest theory (sociology of science), and systems theory (history of technology) are found
The Construction of Work in Artificial Intelligence
Authors: Forsythe Diana E.
Published: March 2007

Although technology is often viewed as value-free, an anthropological perspective suggests that technological tools embody values and assumptions of their builders. Drawing upon extended field research, this article investigates the construction of work in the expert systems community of artificial intelligence (AI). Describing systematic deletions in practitioners' representations of their own work, the article relates these to both the selectivity of conventional knowledge acquisition procedures and the tendency of expert systems to (in the practitioners' words) "fall off the knowledge cliff." Although system builders see the latter problem as purely technical, this article suggests that it is also the result of nontechnical factors, including the system builders' own tacit assump tions. This article supports the view that technology has a cultural dimension.
Is Science a Public Good? Fifth Mullins Lecture, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 23 March 1993
Authors: Callon Michel
Published: March 2007

Should governments accept the principle of devoting a proportion of their resources to funding basic research? From the standpoint of economics, science should be considered as a public good and for that reason it should be protected from market forces. This article tries to show that this result can only be maintained at the price of abandoning arguments traditionally deployed by economists themselves. It entails a complete reversal of our habitual ways of thinking about public goods. In order to bring this reversal about, this article draws on the central results obtained by the anthropology and sociology of science and technology over the past several years. Science is a public good, not because of its intrinsic properties but because it is a source of diversity and flexibility.
Toward a More Democratic Ethic of Technological Governance
Authors: Zimmerman Andrew D.
Published: March 2007

Recent scholarship in technology and society studies has given attention to the notion of technological citizenship. This article seeks to further integrate perspectives on this topic with theoretical contributions about the development of moral autonomy. The author challenges the presumption that the strategy of expanding opportunities for participation in technological decision making will in itself develop people's autonomy and citizenship. He argues that concurrent efforts must be made to democratize the political-economic structures of key technologies and to help people prepare morally for citizenship roles in governing these technologies. On this basis, a series of initiatives are suggested.
Standardization across Non-standard Domains: The Case of Organ Procurement
Authors: Hogle Linda F.
Published: March 2007

This article describes the work of negotiating and reinterpreting "standard" protocols and criteria at the level of local practice, using the example of the procurement of human cadaver organs for transplantation. The tension between efforts to starulardize and globalize biomedical science, on the one hand, and fitting these efforts into everyday practices and understandings of practitioners, on the other, results in new constructions of medical knowledge about bodies and persons.
Representing Uncertainty in Global Climate Change Science and Policy: Boundary-Ordering Devices and Authority
Authors: Shackley Simon , Wynne Brian
Published: March 2007

This article argues that, in public and policy contexts, the ways in which many scientists talk about uncertainty in simulations of future climate change not only facilitates communications and cooperation between scientific and policy communities but also affects the perceived authority of science. Uncertainty tends to challenge the authority of chmate science, especially if it is used for policy making, but the relationship between authority and uncertainty is not simply an inverse one. In policy contexts, many scientists are compelled to talk about uncertainty but do not wish to imply that uncertainty is a serious challenge to the authority of scientific knowledge or to its substantial use in policy making. "Boundary-ordering devices, " the contextual discursive attempts to reconcile uncertainty and authority in science, depend critically for their success on their "dual" interpretation: at a general level across a boundary and differently on either side of it. The authors empirically identify a range of such boundary-ordering devices in the climate field.
Contextual Influences on Learning Application in Practice
Authors: Ottoson Judith M. , Patterson Ilse
Published: March 2007

Although process evaluation usually ends with the program, process itself does not end. This study analyzed process or contextual influences health professionals face when returning from continuing professional education (CPE) and attempting to apply learning. Follow-up survey data were analyzed for a sample (N = 549) of physicians, nurses, counselors, and rehabilitation specialists. Contextual influences studied include resources, encouragement, support, opportunity, and authority. Logistic regression analysis found support for changes to apply training ideas was a predictor of application for the sample as a whole and for all professional groups except one. Encouragement from others was a predictor of application for rehabilitation specialists, and opportunity to apply learning was a second predictor for nurses. Sufficient resources was not a predictor in any models tested. Results indicate that the practice context can affect educational outcomes and an extended vision of process evaluation is needed to incorporate such variables in the evaluation of CPE.
Self- and Peer Assessment in a First-Year Communication and Interviewing Course
Authors: Rudy David W. , Fejfar Michele C. , Griffith Charles H. , Wilson John F.
Published: March 2007

Peer and self-evaluation are crucial in the professional development of physicians. However, these skills must be learned, and there are barriers to their acceptance and successful utilization. To overcome these obstacles, it has been suggested that these concepts should be addressed longitudinally throughout medical education. Therefore, first-year medical students were introduced to peer and self-assessment as part of a videotape review during an interviewing course by having students complete written peer and self-assessments of the interviews. Students’self-assessments were compared with the assessments of peers and faculty. Written evaluations showed peers were more lenient than faculty and students were most critical of their own performances. Students could provide balanced assessments of their peers but were predominately negative regarding their own performances. It appears first-year students are capable of evaluating their peers but have difficulty accurately assessing their own performance. Further interventions are needed to foster self-assessment skills in first-year students.
A Model for Predicting Retention in Treatment
Authors: Binstock Jean
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the development and application of a model which appears to be useful in predicting client attrition/retention within health and social service programs. Selection of variables and their statistical analyses are followed by a summary of a manpower training program study in which 100 subjects were tested along seven psycho social and educational variables in order to determine best sets of predictor variables to trainees' length of stay. A model was derived that could predict two times out of three those trainees who would remain in or leave the program early.
Review of the Literature : An Evaluation of Women Pharmacists
Authors: Young Rosalie F.
Published: March 2007

Pharmacy, resembling all autonomous medical professions, has a history of male practitioners. With the rapid increase in numbers of women entering the field, evaluation of their status and projections as to the impact upon the profession is indicated. Females currently comprise 18% of the practitioners and approximately 1/3 of the students in pharmacy schools, figures considerably in excess of the numbers of women physicians. In that the fields are similar in many respects, the comparative status of female practitioners in both was considered. Parallel patterns of stratification and representation in decision-making areas of the professions were found to exist, with males comprising the status hierarchy. A specific area of divergence was noted in that women in medicine appear to be more "career" and service motivated, while fe male pharmacists appear to value the ease to which role-blending is allowed. Pharmacy can expect to be increasingly "wom anized," particularly in the hospital practice setting. This situation may not result in status gains for the females in the field.
Medical Problem-Solving Assessment
Authors: Nu Viet Vu
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this article is to review and discuss the different methods and instru ments created to assess medical problem- solving. Discussions and comparisons of various features of the instruments and suggestions for additional data to be collected were provided in order to insure maximum efficiency in the choice of the instruments.
A Continuing Pharmacy Education Program
Authors: Fielding David W. , Jang Raymond
Published: March 2007

A "nonequivalent control group" design was employed to measure the effectiveness of a continuing education program developed to enhance a communitypharmacist's ability to respond to requests for nonpre scription medication. Trained observers were used to unobtrusively measure the pharmacist's behavior before and after the educational event. Data analyses indicated a significant improvement in the partici pant pharmacists' abilities.
Nutritional Intervention
Authors: Bejar Isaac I.
Published: March 2007

A secondary analysis of a nutrition experi ment in Cali, Colombia was conducted. The theme of the reanalysis was the notion of competing methods of analysts. Specifically, the effect of nutritional supplementa tion on the physical development of malnourished children was analyzed by means of univariate and multivariate methods for the analysis of repeated measures. It was concluded that the nutritional treatment was successful, but to assess the precise nature of the effect, it was necessary to resort to the multivariate approach.
Client Level of Functioning
Authors: Davis Forrest W. , Yates Brian T.
Published: March 2007

In this study, 22 therapists and 75 clients of a private outpatient clinic rated client fuctioning on five psychosocial dimensions at intake and three and six months after intake. Client and therapist ratings correlated poorly as a whole, mean r = .38, but were similar in average value before and at two periods during therapy (mean differences in overall ratings = .3, 2.0, and 2.1, respectively, on 20-level composite scales). Therapists seemed more conservative than clients in judging therapy effectiveness.
Collecting Mental Health Self-Evaluations
Authors: Davis Forrest W. , Yates Brian T.
Published: March 2007

The effectiveness and cost of three techniques for obtaining client ratings of their own levels of functioning were assessed in a private, outpatient, mental health clinic. Seventy-five clients were asked to rate the adequacy of their own functioning on vocational, family, social, personal, and overall dimensions. Clients were randomly assigned to (a) mail, (b) telephone, or (c) mail followed (if necessary) by telephone administration of the ratings questionnaire. Mailfollowed ifnecessary by phone administration was found to be more cost effective than either mail alone or telephone alone.
Are Validity and Reliability "Relevant" in Qualitative Evaluation Research?
Authors: Goodwin Laura D. , Goodwin William L.
Published: March 2007

Interest in and use of qualitative methodological strategies in evaluation research have increased considerably in the last few years. Many of the recent evaluationframe-works or models are entirely or partly oriented toward use of qualitative methods. A number of methodological issues and concerns have been raised, including the appropriateness of validity and reliability estimation for the measurement strategies employed in qualitative evaluations becoming more common in health and other fields. In this article, the views of prominent qualitative methodologists on this topic are briefly summarized; a case is madefor the relevance of validity and reliability estimation; definitions of validity and reliability for qualitative measurement are presented; and appropriate estimation techniques are suggested. It is hoped that discussions such as this will promote increased attention to validity and reliability concerns in qualitative evaluations and thus help improve the quality of those evaluations.
Periodic Competency Review
Authors: Mandelbaum Len
Published: March 2007

Periodic review ofprofessional competence or performance is on the public agenda as a response to rising malpractice suits, iatrogenic morbidity, and mortality resulting directly from professional incompetence, and the inadequacy of current licensing and discipline systems. This article reviews several continuing competency programs, such as mandatory education, as well as recent experiments in selective performance evaluation. The evaluation literature suggests that mandatory continuing education and most peer review programs are not sufficiently related to improvement ofperformance. An Ontario experiment provides useful data and insight about a positive reinforcement (nonpunitive) independent peer review process. Policymakers should consider, as an alternative to mandatory continuing education, directing professional associations, professional schools, and regulatory boards to design cost effective review procedures which selectively monitor performance.
Evaluation of an Innovation in a Traditional Medical School
Authors: Cleave-Hogg D. , Byrne P. N.
Published: March 2007

An innovative program, introduced into a tradition-based undergraduate medical school curriculum, was evaluated using an ethnographic approach for data collection and analysis. The objective of theevaluation study was to provide data in support of rational decision making with respect to the future of the innovation. This article describes the methodology andprocesses used to evaluate the innovation and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the evaluation.
Monitoring Program Implementation in Community Mental Health Settings
Authors: Brekke John S. , Wolkon George H.
Published: March 2007

Evaluations that monitor program implementation provide an empirical description of a programs setvices, the population seived, and a method for assessing whether the program as delivered matches the conceptual model on which it is based. This article presents the Daily Contact Log (DCL), an instrument that has been used to monitor the longitudinal form and content of services delivered in several community mental health care programs for persons with chronic mental illness. The instrument is described and directions for its use are detailed. The psychometric properties of the instrument are discussed, as is its evolution in multisite applications in various mental health care settings. The usefulness of the DCL for programmatic and research purposes is outlined, as are some secondary benefits to staff who use the instrument. While the viability and versatility of the DCL as an instrument for measuring important aspects of program implementation are stressed, its appropriateness for quality assurance analyses is also suggested.
Comparing Physicians' Responses to the First and Second Mailings of a Questionnaire
Authors: Sobal Jeffery , Ferentz Kevin Scoff
Published: March 2007

Surveys are an important data collection method in evaluation research. Low response rates often occur, with follow-ups used to increase responses. However, surveys of homogeneous groups, such as physicians, about topics of concern to them may not require high response rates. We examined physician responses to a first and second mailing of a family practice questionnaire sent to a national sample of 308 recent residency graduates, 383 residency directors, and 319 residents. Among graduates, the first mailing produced a 63% response and the second another 17%; among directors, thefirstproduced 79% and the second another 10%; and among residents, the first gave 55% and the second another 21%. No differences between the two mailings existed by demographic variables, substantive questions ornonresponse to questions, with two exceptions. The absence of differences in physicians who responded to the follow-up questionnaire suggests that remailings to obtain higher response rates may be unnecessary in some surveys.
Predictors of Hospital Readmission
Authors: Soeken Karen L. , Prescott Patricia A. , Herron Dorothy G. , Creasia Joan
Published: March 2007

Summarizing the results of research related to identifying potential predictors of hospital readmissions has been difficult because of conflicting results across studies. Using the techniques of meta-analysis, the results from 44 studies were examined in the present study. OveralI the mean readmission rate was 27%, with significant differences based on patient diagnosis. Although diagnosis, age, initial length of hospital stay, and prior use of hospital resources were related to readmission, the strength of the relationship is trivial. Combining data from 12 intervention studies designed to reduce readmission indicated that the overall treatment effect was not significant. Further research is needed to determine demographic, clinical, and social predictors of readmission if strategies are to be developed to reduce readmission and the resulting health care costs.
Use of Meta-Analysis for Testing Theory
Authors: Miller Norman , Pollock Vicki E.
Published: March 2007

Within the context of the general superiority of meta-analytic reviews over qualitative reviews, we emphasize the fragility of metaanalytic outcomes, especially when the effects of moderator variables remain unexamined. We consider the contribution to increased theoretical understanding made by moderator analyses both of methodological and substantive variables in psychological, health, and medical research. The potential contribution of meta-analysis to understanding the process underlying established relationships and to assessment of the convergent and discriminative construct validity of previously used concepts is discussed.
From Feedback to Reciprocity
Authors: Louie Brian , Byrne Niall , Wasylenki Don
Published: March 2007

Reforms to medical education have refocused curricula on the need to produce primary care physicians through a problem-based, student-centered, community-oriented, and integrated approach to instruction. Course evaluations, originally designed for traditional lecturebased, teacher-centered curricula, provide inadequate inputfrom students to support curriculum planning and change and to determine appropriate mixes of educational methods. At the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, a unique community-centered course, called "Health, Illness and the Community, " developed a student-centered course evaluation to provide adequate student input to support curriculum planning and change. A 35-item evaluation was developed to obtain data to identify student concerns, student learning styles, and preferred community agency utilization. The results suggest that student-centered course evaluation can play a role in managing and identifying key relationships in integrated and systematic courses as well as establishing a method for continual improvement.
Organizational Network Analysis as a Tool for Program Evaluation
Authors: Eisenberg Merrill , Swanson Nancy
Published: March 2007

Health program evaluation is generally focused on an examination of individual program characteristics and accomplishments, yet many programs are part of a broader service system. Evaluation of the role a program plays in that system is an important evaluation question to address. A network analysis of program referral patterns was used to evaluate Connecticuts Healthy Start program. Network analysis showed that Healthy Start played a "broker" role in 4 case study communities, sending and receiving referrals of pregnant women to a higher than average number of other programs. Further, in the urban area case study, competing market players providing services to pregnant women resulted in subsets of services with dense referral patterns within the subsets, but little referral between subsets. Healthy Start was found to be instrumental as an integrator of these otherwise disconnected service subsets.
Measuring Health Outcomes for Depression
Authors: Sherbourne Cathy Donald , Wells Kenneth B. , Sturm Roland
Published: March 2007

In this article, we describe the clinical and health-related quality of life outcome measuresfor depressedpatients in the Medical Outcomes Study, a 4-year longitudinal study that started in 1986. We prioritize the measures in terms of importance, consider how they can be improved in future studies, and discuss how they should be used in more applied evaluations, such as studies by managed care companies and group practices. We emphasize the importance of identifying appropriate evaluation questions and selecting study designs and patient populations that permit meaningful answers about evaluating outcomes of care for depression. Although the outcome measures described here may be a useful starting point, they will need to be combined with carefully constructed measures of process of care as well, so that links between the two can be maximized.
The Incorporation of Empirical Item Difficulty Data into the Angoff Standard-Setting Procedure
Authors: Taube Kurt T.
Published: March 2007

This study represents an attempt at incorporating empirical item difficulty data into the Angoff standard-setting procedure without affecting the subjective judgment of the raters. The Raschmodel ability level corresponding to minimal competence was estimated for each of 536 items on the American Association of State Social Work Boards (AASSWB) social work licensure examinations from their empirical calibrations and Angoff ratings. The mean of these estimatesforall items on a given examination was taken as the level of minimal competence for the entire examination. This procedure yielded raw passing scores that were 4 to 6 items lower (out of 150) and pass rates that were 7% to 15% higherthan those obtained using the "standard" Angoffprocedure.
What Patients Should Ask of Consumers' Guides to Health Care Quality
Authors: Rosenthal Gary E. , Chren Mary-Margaret , Lasek Rebecca J. , Landefeld C. Seth
Published: March 2007

Consumers' guides that profile the quality of care of individual health care providers may be influential in shaping health care markets. We propose four simple questions that can be used to evaluate such guides: (a) Does the guide measure distinct and important domains of health care quality? (b) Are the individual measures of quality described simply and precisely? (c) Do the measures take into account relevant differences between patients? (d) Are the ratings of quality presentedfairly? Using these four questions, we examine the validity of one prominent guide that annually identifies America's best hospitals and present a set of recommendationsfor the design of future guides. Although the evaluation of health care quality is undoubtedly complex, the four questions that we pose provide a basisfordeveloping a more rational approach to informing the public about health care quality.
Improving Appropriate Selection of Radical Prostatectomy for Prostate Cancer
Authors: Lewis John N. , Rising William
Published: March 2007

Men 70 and older should usually not have radical prostatectomies to treat prostate cancer: Using Medicare claims data, 10 hospitals were identified that perfonned 29% of the radical prostatectomies in men 70 and older in Kentucky and Indiana. A quality improvement project was conducted with the purpose of decreasing the performance of radical prostatectomy in men 70 and older. On the advice of an expert committee, the peer review organization and the 10 hospitals collaborated in developing and implementing improvement plans that included institutional review of practices and informed consent policies. The project was associated with significant improvement in the use of radical prostatectomy. In addition, substantial savings in Medicare payments were observed, and improvement in the quality of life for Medicare men was anticipated.
The `anti-Wapping'? Technological innovation and workplace reorganization at the Financial Times
Authors: Marjoribanks Timothy
Published: March 2007

This article examines how major upheavals at News International in the 1980s influenced the relationship between technological innovation and workplace reorganization at the Financial Times. Using a historical institutional theoretical framework, the article combines interviews with members of the Financial Times and documentary research to develop a case study of the influence of workplace reorganization at one media corporation on processes of reorganization at another. What emerges from the case study of the Financial Times (and News International) is the need to analyse the relationship between technological innovation and workplace reorganization by examining an organization's internal culture; its institutional context, including other organizations in the same industry; and the interaction between its actors' worldviews, choices of action and institutional context.
Dynamics of infrastructure development: the role of metaphors, political will and sunk investment
Authors: Sawhney Harmeet
Published: March 2007

This article explores how infrastructure networks get created in spite of the uncertainties in their development process. It focuses on the development of the Iowa Communications Network and North Carolina Information Highway which represent two very different models of state-wide networking. The experience with the Erie and Welland Canals provides the backdrop for the analysis. It offers insights into how metaphors provide the initial impetus, and how political will and sunk investments help sustain the effort for creating an infrastructure network.
SoundScan and the consolidation of control in the popular music industry
Authors: McCourt Tom , Rothenbuhler Eric
Published: March 2007

SoundScan is an information technology that compiles point of purchase sales data for use in constructing recording popularity charts and other marketing purposes. Although it represents the first significant procedural change in compiling Billboard charts in decades, many of SoundScan's effects have not been assessed. SoundScan shifts chart emphasis from `leading' outlets to mass-market stores, and increases the marketing efficiency of companies that can afford its price. This in turn may strengthen market barriers for smaller companies and ultimately decrease the number of new releases in the market. This article reviews the history of record charts and the SoundScan innovation, discusses industrial reactions to SoundScan and examines the implications of its use.
Thatcherism and the emergence of Sky Television
Authors: King Anthony
Published: March 2007

In the past, sociological analysis of the media has either focused on the way the media have manipulated or informed public opinion or on the political economy of the media institutions themselves. This article attempts to synthesize these two approaches through an examination of the emergence of satellite television in Britain. In particular, the article argues that the political economy of the media, the media's own principles of economic organization and their relationships with their viewers or readers are themselves meaningful, drawing on and dialectically reaffirming the wider interpretive framework of the society. In the case of Sky TV, this article maintains that the political and economic organization of this institution were constructed as based on free market principles, derived from the wider Thatcherite hegemony.
Making ethnic minority programmes inside the BBC: professional pragmatics and cultural containment
Authors: Cottle Simon
Published: March 2007

The BBC has publicly committed itself to enhancing the representation of Britain's ethnic minorities. This article examines the production context and professional aims informing the production of ethnic minority programmes by ethnic minority producers inside the corporation. With the help of producer testimonies it offers critical insights into the relatively closed world of the BBC, its corporate ethos and programme making environment and examines the professional pragmatics of producers who steer a course through a complex of institutional and cultural constraints. The concept of professional pragmatics is developed throughout the article and refers to the ways in which producers practically manage and professionally rationalize their programme making activities as well as the mantle of `professionalism' adopted by producers in their dealings with colleagues and community contacts. The examination of professional pragmatics helps reveal exactly how it is that corporate commitment to multicultural programme production and producers' stated aims to the same can become undermined in practice.
Boys on top: gender and authorship on the BBC Wednesday Play, 1964-70
Authors: MacMurraugh-Kavanagh M. K.
Published: March 2007

This article takes as its starting point the statistics surrounding female authorship on the BBC Wednesday Play: these statistics reveal that women writers, always under-represented in the strand, gradually contributed fewer and fewer plays to it until female authorship was finally eliminated from the series entirely. The debate presented here analyses this situation, intersecting archive material and textual examples with theoretical debate. Considering issues such as androcentric discourses propagated by television as an institutional and cultural hegemony, television drama as a male-defined cultural practice, and film technology as an expression of the dominant ideology, the debate culminates in a comparative analysis of two dramas presented in The Wednesday Play series. This analysis provides evidence of the impulses detected throughout the discussion by demonstrating that the strand prioritized a specifically gendered vision of dramatic and representational `relevance' that effectively eliminated female articulation in this influential genre.
Engendering communication policy: key issues in the international women-and-media arena and obstacles to forging and enforcing policy
Authors: Pandian Hannah
Published: March 2007

The first part of this article draws on empirical material from a recent series of global gender and communication policy reports which highlight the dearth of gender-equal media policy, and the sluggishness with which any existing policy is forged and/or enforced in most of the world. Consultations held by the London-based World Association for Christian Communication provided a significant volume of feedback during 1997-9, allowing for a comparison of regional material. This material emphasizes the particular difficulty of transposing western feminist agendas into other global contexts, as this article illustrates. The second part proposes that regional and national agenda differences between media activists and practitioners have complicated policy-making processes and, in some cases, stalled them entirely. In the rare events where policy of some sort is existent, factors such as media profitability have acted as obstacles to the enforcement of existing guidelines or codes of practice. The final section of this article looks briefly at successful policy-making in Canada and groundbreaking reporting guidelines devised by Inter Press Service Africa.
Religious Involvement and Mortality Risk among African American Adults
Authors: Ellison Christopher G. , Hummer Robert A. , Cormier Shannon , Rogers Richard G.
Published: March 2007

This article examines the effects of religious involvement on mortality risk among African Americans. The authors use a relatively new and innovative nationally representative data set—the National Health Interview Survey matched to the National Center for Health Statistics’ multiple cause of death file—to model this relationship. The results show that, compared with African Americans who attend religious services more than once a week, those who never attend are more than twice as likely to die during the nine-year follow-up period, even net of a large number of confounding and mediating factors. The strong effect of nonattendance on mortality risk is robust, pervasive, and remarkably strong across all subgroups of the population, whereas a moderate level of attendance is associated with higher mortality risk among young adults, men, and Southerners, but not among older adults, women, and non-Southerners. Among African Americans, lack of religious involvement appears to be associated with risk of premature death, whereas frequent religious involvement stands out as a critical protective factor that contributes to lower mortality and longer life.
Age Variation in the Relationship between Community Socioeconomic Status and Adult Health
Authors: Robert Stephanie A. , Li Lydia W.
Published: March 2007

Research demonstrating that socioeconomic status (SES) differentials in health are smaller at older ages often considers only individual SES measures (e.g., income, education) but not community SES measures (e.g., community poverty rate), although the gerontological literature suggests that community context may be particularly salient in the lives of older adults. This study uses two national surveys of adults, each matched with census data about respondents’ communities, to examine whether the association between community SES and individual health is stronger at consecutively older age groups. The association between community SES and health is nonexistent or weak during younger adulthood, stronger through middle ages, strongest at ages 60 to 69, and weak again at ages 70 and older. At ages 60 to 69, community SES effects are stronger than or comparable to individual SES effects. Community SES should be considered an important dimension of SES when exploring the impact of SES on health over the life course.
Medical and Social Adult Day Service Programs
Authors: Leitsch Sara A. , Zarit Steven H. , Townsend Aloen , Greene Rickey
Published: March 2007

This investigation evaluates the differences between medical and social adult day service models (ADS) on three levels: the program level, the client level, and the care-giver level. Two hundred sixty-one older adults with dementia and their family care-givers participated in the investigation, representing 36 ADS programs in New Jersey. The few model differences found in program characteristics were primarily in the area of services offered, with medical programs offering more physician care, personal care, and care planning services. Family caregivers rated social programs to be more home-like, to have less institutional elements, and to have increased quality of interaction between staff and clients. Throughout a three-month period, there were no significant differences in levels of caregivers’ stress or well-being or care recipients’ impairment between the models. Caregivers using medical ADS models experienced greater financial strain over the cost of ADS. This study failed to confirm claims of differential advantages by proponents of each model and instead found evidence to suggest that the demands of caring for someone with dementia result in a convergence of approaches on the dimensions investigated.
The Older Woman
Authors: Seltzer Mildred M.
Published: March 2007

Using a sociology of knowledge framework, this article looks at the recent increased interest in research and writing about older women. In an attempt to understand different stances and contradictory findings, the research and literature is classified into seven categories that are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Content analysis is also examined as one method of acquiring material about older women.
Snowbirds
Authors: Sullivan Deborah A. , Stevens Sylvia A.
Published: March 2007

The recent interest in the mobility of the elderly overlooks the temporary migration patterns of retirees. The focus of this article is on the seasonal migration of retirees to travel trailer and mobile home parks in a Sunbelt state. A comparison of the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of female participants with women of a similar age range in the United States indicates that participants are white, married, well-educated retirees usually from the north central and western states. Travel trailer residents tend to be younger, healthier, and less well-off economically than mobile home residents although there is much heterogeneity in both groups. The lifestyle of the travel trailer and mobile home park residents supports the activity model of aging.
Factors Influencing the Locational Context of Old People's Activities
Authors: Golant Stephen M.
Published: March 2007

Individual characteristics and environmental constraints were assessed as influences of where old people usually carry out their daily activities. Data were obtained from structured interviews given to a random sample of 400 persons aged 60 and older living in a middle-class urban community. Respondents selected from 4 possible locations (dwelling, neighborhood, community, outside community) to identify where they usually pursued 13 different activities. Multiple regression analyses revealed that old people who pursued their activities outside their proximate residential environment were more likely to be white, separated-divorced, Jewish, employed, had fewer hearing difficulties, had less likely experienced a decline in health, and had available to them more flexible means of transportation. Results had implications for interpreting the effects of old age and environment on the voluntariness of activity patterns.
Isolating Age, Period, and Cohort Effects in Developmental Research
Authors: Kosloski Karl
Published: March 2007

Separating age, period, and cohort effects in developmental research is complicated by their linear dependence. Differing approaches have been advanced to address this problem. These approaches generally presume that age, period, and cohort are conceptually discrete entities; that is, they are confounded statistically, but not logically. This article outlines the dilemma, reviews solutions that have been advanced, and critically examines the assumptions on which these solutions are based.
Longitudinal Design and Longitudinal Analysis
Authors: Campbell Richard T. , Mutran Elizabeth , Parker Robert Nash
Published: March 2007

The desirability of longitudinal data is generally accepted among researchers in aging and gerontology. In recent years, a great deal of such data have been collected either in the form of large scale national surveys of more local efforts. Not uncommonly, such data are underanalyzed. While part of the reason for this waste of data has to do with the unavailability of suitable methods of data analysis, recent developments provide researchers with several new and exciting ways of looking at longitudinal data. This article surveys three of them: multivariate analysis of variance, the LISREL model, and event history analysis.
County Characteristics and Elderly Net Migration Rates
Authors: Meyer Judith W.
Published: March 2007

A model comprising county characteristics measuring amenities, urbanization, service characteristics, and sociodemographic characteristics explains sub-stantial proportions of the variation in net migration rates for the young and old elderly for three different decades in New England. Over time (1940-1980), both the net migration rate patterns of the two age groups and the county characteristics that make significant contributions to explanation of the two groups' rates become more similar. The model is least successful for the 1950-1960 decade, suggesting support for the turnaround thesis. However, at the regional scale of analysis, both amenity and urbanization characteristics associated with high rates of net migration do not substantiate a turnaround in migration behavior.
Coping Resources and Selective Survival in Mental Health of the Elderly
Authors: Haug Marie R. , Breslau Naomi , Folmar Steven J.
Published: March 2007

Analysis of longitudinal data (1975-1984) from the Cleveland GAO study shows that physical health and social support emerge as major coping resources for forestalling decline in mental health among the elderly over a nine-year period. However, social resources and poorer self-assessed physical health, which are significant predictors of decline in emotional health, have no effect in loss of cognitive ability, suggesting a biological component in such loss. However mortality over the nine-year time span is related to poorer initial mental health and cognitive ability, thus revealing that selective survival masks the extent to which mental conditions decline over time, with impaired White males the least likely to survive. Although measures of mental health and cognitive skills play a major role in predicting mortality, taken together they are less significant in explanatory power than the availability of social resources.
Age Discrimination in Earnings in a Dual-Economy Market
Authors: Mueller Charles W. , Mutran Elizabeth , Boyle Elizabeth Heger
Published: March 2007

Age discrimination in earnings has been difficult to establish because of the confounding effects of human capital variables that deteriorate as workers grow older. To assess the extent to which declining earnings result from discrimination, this study examines the age-earnings relationship for a panel of older workers in 1966 and 1976, simultaneously controlling for human capital variables and other variables related to both age and earnings. In addition, following literature that suggests that the economic sector in which employed influences this relationship, interactions by core/periphery sector are examined. Age-based discrimination is found for core sector workers, and as expected, becomes more prevalent as the workers grow older. These findings are discussed in light of claims that older workers, especially in the core sector, have lost power in the work place.
Helping and Hurting
Authors: Pillemer Karl , Bachman-Prehn Ronet
Published: March 2007

Despite evidence indicating that deliberate maltreatment of patients exists in nursing homes, little is known about factors that increase the likelihood that such abuse will occur. This study employed data from a random sample survey of 577 nurses and nursing aides working in long-term care facilities to identify predictors of maltreatment of patients by staff. Three sets of variables were proposed to predict the occurrence of physical and psychological abuse: institutional characteristics, staff characteristics, and the situational characteristics. Logistic regression analysis revealed that situational characterists are the best predictors of patient maltreatment. In particular, staff burnout and level of staff-patient conflict were strongly related to engaging in abuse of patients.
Environmental Adjustments to Declining Functional Ability
Authors: Jackson David J. , Longino Charles F. , Zimmerman Rick S. , Bradsher Julia E.
Published: March 2007

Using data from the 1984 and 1986 waves of the Longitudinal Study on Aging by the National Center for Health Statistics, this study examines the probability of making an adjustment in one's living environment which is associated with differing levels of instrumental disabilities. Research concerning health and geographic mobility supports the authors' earlier view that instrumental disabilities do put pressure on older persons to change their residences. This strategy may also be taken to restore a balance between the individual and his or her living environment, more broadly defined. For this reason, perhaps, the probabilities generated by the model have an impressive range. The probability ranged from .117 for persons who improved the most to .279 for those who deteriorated the most. These findings provide support for the Litwak-Longino model of elderly migration.
Daughters-in-Law as Caregivers to the Elderly
Authors: Merrill Deborah M.
Published: March 2007

Using the 1982 Informal Caregiver's Survey, this research examines the contributions of daughters-in-law relative to daughters in the care of elderly parents (in-law) (N = 658). Findings suggest that among those who provide care, daughters-in-law assist with as many caregiving tasks and are as likely to perceive themselves as the primary caregiver. However, daughters-in-law provide, on average, 6 fewer hours of care per week. In addition, of these caregivers, 85% are daughters, whereas only 15% are daughters-in-law. Thus, although daughters-in-law are willing to assist with as many tasks and assume primary responsibility similar to daughters, they provide less overall care and are less likely to become caregivers in the first place. The relative caregiving contributions of daughters-in-law is placed within the context of the expectations and obligations of affinal versus consanguineal kin. Possible causes of lower obligation toward affinal kin are explored.
An Agenda for Work and Eldercare Research
Authors: Tennstedt Sharon L. , Gonyea Judith G.
Published: March 2007

Increasing corporate interest in the intersection of work and family life has been evidenced by the development of employer-sponsored policies, benefits, and programs. However, research to date does not provide a valid basis for estimating the prevalence of caregiving in the work population nor for accurately identifying types and prevalence of work consequences that should be of concern to employers. This article reviews the research to date on work and eldercare, providing an overview of findings and methodology. Strategies for the conduct of future research are presented, including a discussion of field procedures particularly relevant to corporate-based research.