bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Audience Effects on Self‐Presentation in Childhood
Authors: Banerjee Robin 
Published: March 2003

Abstract Controlling one's public image in front of different audiences is an important element of social behaviour, but little is known about the way in which primary school children develop this skill. In three experiments, children's judgements about appropriate self‐descriptions in front of different audiences were examined. In Experiment 1, 74 children aged between 6 and 11 were given pairs of self‐descriptive statements in the domains of academic skills, physical/athletic skills, and interpersonal skills. They were asked to decide which one of each pair would be better for a story character to say when getting acquainted with either an unfamiliar peer or an unfamiliar adult, assuming all self‐descriptive options were true. Results showed clear differentiation between the two audiences only in the oldest children. In Experiment 2, 72 children from the same age range completed a similar task, but specific information was given in advance about the audiences’ preferences (e.g., for clever people vs. sporty people). It was found that children from across the age range were able to regulate their choices of self‐descriptions in accordance with the audience preferences. However, the extent of audience differentiation increased significantly with age. In Experiment 3, 68 children from the same age range completed the task from the previous experiment, but additionally provided sociometric nominations of classmates with whom they played. As hypothesised, correlational analysis showed that the variability in audience differentiation was associated significantly with the variability in the proportion of nominations that were reciprocated. Results are discussed in the light of theoretical connections between children's social experience and their developing appreciation of self‐presentational concerns.
Gendered Social Worlds in Preschool: Dominance, Peer Acceptance and Assertive Social Skills in Boys’ and Girls’ Peer Groups
Authors: Sebanc Anne M. , Pierce Susan L. , Cheatham Carol L. , Gunnar Megan R. 
Published: March 2003

Abstract How dominance in the competitive MovieViewer (MV) task relates to peer preference and assertive behavior, and whether these relations differ for boys and girls were explored. Ninety‐one preschool children in same‐sex quartets were videotaped interacting in the MV task and dominance ranks were assigned according to viewing time. Peer preference was explored by looking separately at the number of likes and dislikes a child received in sociometric interviews. Multivariate analyses revealed that sex interacted with rank to explain peer acceptance but not peer rejection. High ranked boys were accepted more by peers than low ranked boys, while low ranked girls were accepted more than high ranked girls. Further analyses revealed that girls, but not boys, accepted the low ranked girls. The difference in girls’ and boys’ acceptance of same‐sex peers who act assertively in the MV task is consistent with the notion that gendered cultures develop in the preschool years.
Social Policy in Greece: Rhetoric versus Reform
Authors: Venieris Dimitris 
Published: March 2003

AbstractThis paper reviews the major social policy developments in Greece during the 1980s and 1990s, focusing on social security, health and employment policies. It argues that the concept of social policy and the practice of politics have been distorted in this country. Social policy reflects the legacy of a heavily politicized and centralized policy‐making system, an impoverished administrative infrastructure and poorly developed social services. Its emergence is characterized by the pursuit of late and ineffective policies. It lacks continuity, planning and coordination, being oriented towards short‐term political expediency. It is largely insurance‐based, reproducing huge inequalities and institutional arrangements which are behind the times. It provides mainly cash benefits, low‐quality but rather expensive health services and marginal social welfare protection. Moreover, the lack of a minimum income safety net confirms the country's weak culture of universalism and social citizenship. By implication, complex policy and interlocking interest linkages have tarnished the “system” with a reputation for strong resistance to progressive change. At the same time, sources of change such as globalization, demographic developments, new household and family/gender patterns, unstable economic growth, fiscal imperatives, programme maturation, as well as persisting unemployment, changing labour markets and rising health care costs, have produced mounting pressures for welfare reform.
6. Regression Models with Parametrically Weighted Explanatory Variables
Authors: Yamaguchi Kazuo 
Published: March 2003

This paper describes linear regression models with parametrically weighted explanatory variables and related logistic regression models that estimate parameters characterizing (1) the effects of weighted variables on the dependent variable and (2) weights for the components of weighted variables. The models also characterize parsimoniously the interaction effects between weighted variables and covariates on the dependent variable by the use of various constraints on parameters. In particular, the models are concerned with testing the significance of variation with covariates in the weights of weighted variables separately from the significance of variation with those covariates in the effects of weighted variables. The usefulness of these models in sociological research is demonstrated by an illustrative analysis of the class identifications of married working women using education, occupational prestige, and income as three variables weighted between own and spousal attributes, and using year, age, race, part-time–full-time distinction, and employment status as covariates.
Anyone for Tennis? Social Class Differences in Children's Responses to National Curriculum Mathematics Testing
Authors: Cooper Barry , Dunne Máiréad 
Published: March 2003

Mathematics is a central part of the school curriculum. Alongside studies in the dominant language of a society, success and failure in the discipline play an important role in the distribution of opportunities to children and young people. Until fairly recently, in England and elsewhere, success in primary school mathematics was achieved by demonstrating a capacity to memorise, reproduce and use relatively simple algorithms. However, in recent years, there has been considerable change in primary school mathematics with an increasing stress being laid, at least rhetorically, on understanding, investigation and the application of mathematics in ‘realistic’ settings. It seems likely that such changes, in so far as they affect the form and content of National Curriculum assessment, will produce changes in who succeeds and who fails, ie in selective processes within schooling. The paper draws on preliminary results from an ESRC project which is examining National Curriculum assessment in mathematics for 10–11 and 13–14 year-old children in relation to class, gender and ‘ability’. The paper examines the ways in which children from different sociocultural backgrounds approach assessment items which embed mathematics in supposedly ‘realistic’ contexts. Early data from the Key Stage 2 sample of 10–11 year olds will be presented which shows that there does seem be a social class effect in the response of children to ‘realistic’ items – one which leads to some working class children failing to demonstrate competences they have. The paper uses quantitative and qualitative methods, relating its findings to Basil Bernstein's account of sociocultural codes –in particular his theorising of the social distribution of recognition and realisation rules for reading educational contexts – and to Bourdieu's theorising of habitus.
Recall Bias in Self‐reported Childhood Health: Differences by Age and Educational Level
Authors: Van De Mheen H. , Stronks K. , Looman C.W.N. , Mackenbach J.P. 
Published: March 2003

This study examines the impact of recall bias on self‐reported childhood health. In a population of people aged from 25 to 74 years, childhood health was assessed retrospectively to explore its influence on socio‐economic inequalities in adult health. Data were obtained from a postal survey in the baseline of a prospective cohort‐study (the Longitudinal Study on Socio‐Economic Health Differences in The Netherlands). Childhood health was measured as self‐reported periods of severe disease in childhood. Relationships between childhood health on the one hand and adult educational level on the other were analysed using logistic regression models.A negative association between childhood health problems and adult educational level was found in the youngest age group (25–34 years). In the older age groups, however, a lower adult socio‐economic status was not clearly associated with more health problems in childhood. In view of what we know about socio‐economic inequalities in childhood health in the past, it is likely that the lack of association between educational level and childhood health in the older age groups is (partly) caused by a recall bias. Using simple questions on self‐reported childhood health problems, the measurement of childhood health in older age groups will be biased by differential recall between socio‐economic groups. Other possibilities in the use of retrospective data in studying childhood health problems should be explored.
Medicine as discursive resource: legitimation in the work narratives of midwives
Authors: Foley Lara , Faircloth Christopher A. 
Published: March 2003

AbstractThis article examines the work narratives of midwives practicing in the United States, specifically in the State of Florida. We focus analytic attention on how the discourse of medicine is used as a resource in constructing a sense of legitimation for midwifery. Data are drawn from in‐depth interviews with 26 direct‐entry, licensed midwives and certified nurse‐midwives. Historically, social scientific literature on midwifery has placed a midwifery, or a holistic, model of childbirth in polar opposition to a technocratic or medical model. In practical work, however, midwives demonstrate knowledge of, and make use of, a discourse of medicine to serve their purpose‐at‐hand. In these ‘narratives of legitimation’, the medical model does not emerge as an entity definable as separate and necessarily at odds with the midwifery model. Rather, the medical model is a resource through which midwives work narratively to construct the validity of their profession. The midwives interviewed use the discourse of medicine in three specific ways. First, they draw upon it as a contrast device, setting themselves and their work apart from the medical establishment. Second, midwives use the medical model to communicate necessary daily aspects of their work. Finally, they construct a story of medical collaboration to equate their work with that of physicians.
Depressive symptoms in the Netherlands 1975–1996: a theoretical framework and an empirical analysis of socio‐demographic characteristics, gender differences and changes over time
Authors: Meertens Vivian , Scheepers Peer , Tax Bert 
Published: March 2003

AbstractThis article examines the longitudinal trend of depressive symptoms in the Netherlands, using large‐scale national data recorded over the period 1975–1996. Our analyses showed fluctuations in the overall longitudinal trend. On the basis of a general theoretical framework, we formulated hypotheses concerning which socio‐demographic characteristics determine the likelihood of suffering from depressive symptoms and how these associations might have changed over time. Our results revealed that people on low incomes, unemployed people, unmarried people and those who had given up their church membership were associated with depressive symptoms. Some associations between socio‐demographic categories and depressive symptoms have changed over time. Divorced people have become progressively less likely to suffer from depressive symptoms compared with married people, whereas the reverse holds for those who were never married. People on low incomes have become more likely to suffer from depressive symptoms over time in comparison to people with the highest incomes. Gender differences in these associations were also found: educational level and church attendance were more beneficial to women in protecting them from depressive symptoms than they were to men.
From first submission to citation: an empirical analysis
Authors: Franses Philip Hans 
Published: March 2003

The academic publication process consists of two stages. The first stage covers for example the conception of a paper, its submission to a journal, possible revisions due to comments made by (anonymous) reviewers, and acceptance of the manuscript. The second stage concerns the eventual publication of the paper and the second part of its academic life–cycle, which is usually measured by a citation score.Next to describing this process in some detail, this paper describes the results of an empirical analysis of my personal database with detailed records of 66 published papers. Descriptive statistics give insights as to how long it takes (on average) before the editor returns to the author with the reviews, and also how long it takes for the editor to make a final decision on acceptance, based on a revised manuscript. Econometric models are used to see if, for example, the number of pages, the number of authors, and the number of previous rejections have an impact on these durations. Also, it is examined if a special issue makes a difference. It is found that it does, in the sense that special issue papers get cited more often. Finally, it is studied whether the editorial process and observable properties of the paper have any effect on the number of citations, which can be seen as a measure of quality.
Two–step sequential sampling
Authors: Moors J. J. A. , Strijbosch L. W. G. 
Published: March 2003

Choosing the sample size in advance is a familiar problem: often, additional observations appear to be desirable. The final sample size then becomes a random variable, which has rather serious consequences.Two such sample extension situations will be considered here. In the first situation, the observed sample variance determines whether or not to double the original sample size. In the second situation, the variances observed in two independent samples are compared; their ratio determines the number of additional observations.
Linkage between Adiabatic Invariance and Symmetry of Solutions
Authors: Hu Jishan 
Published: March 2003

In this article, for the symmetric pendulum equationand the symmetric bisuperlinear equationrespectively, we show that there are two one‐parameter families of solutions, ys and ya, so that one is adiabatically symmetric, ys(−t)=ys(t)+o(εk) for all k≥0, and the other adiabatically antisymmetric, ya(−t)=−ya(t)+o(εk) for all k≥0. By using the techniques of exponential asymptotics to calculate y′s(0) and ya(0), we demonstrate that, in general, they are not genuinely symmetric or antisymmetric, because these quantities are in fact exponentially small. Finally, after establishing a relationship between the total change in the leading‐order adiabatic invariant and the quantity y′s(0) for the family of solutions ys of the bisuperlinear equation, we are able to reveal explicitly how the behavior of the adiabatic invariant depends on the complex singularities of the equation.
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Statistical Laboratories Using Minitab, SPSS and Excel: A Practical Comparison
Authors: Prvan Tania , Reid Anna , Petocz Peter 
Published: March 2003

SummaryThis article discusses three statistical laboratories – on descriptive statistics, statistical inference and regression – for introductory statistics courses. They are presented in Minitab, SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) and Excel, three packages widely used in statistics education, and are available from the Web.
Spongelike acquisition of sight vocabulary in beginning readers?
Authors: Stuart Morag , Masterson Jackie , Dixon Maureen 
Published: March 2003

We report two training studies designed to investigate the relation between phonological awareness, sound‐to‐letter mapping knowledge, and printed word learning in novice five‐year‐old readers. Effects of visual memory and of teaching methods are also explored.In our first study, novice five‐year‐old readers able to segment initial phonemes and with good knowledge of mappings between sounds and letters learned words more easily from repeated exposure to texts. Results suggested that visual memory influenced word learning in non‐segmenting but not in segmenting children. Spelling regularity did not affect ease of learning. Nouns were easier to learn than function words.In the second study, although phonological awareness and sound‐to‐letter mapping knowledge still exerted a significant influence, all novice five‐year‐olds were able to learn words more easily if these were taught out‐of‐context singly on flashcards.Results support the view that mental representations of printed words are more easily formed by beginners who are able to match at least some of the phonological segments detected in the spoken word to letters in the printed word.
What Works?: Selectivity Models and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Copas John 
Published: March 2003

Summary
What works seeks to identify rehabilitative treatments which are successful in reducing the likelihood that offenders will reoffend. A large number of small case–control studies have been reported in the literature, but with conflicting results. Meta-analysis has been used to reconcile these findings, but again with conflicting results. We reanalyse one of the published meta-analyses in the corrections literature and argue the importance of specifically modelling heterogeneity and selection bias. A sensitivity approach is advocated, suggesting lower average effects and substantially increased measures of uncertainty. The method is tested on a medical example where independent confirmation from a large controlled trial is also available.
Multivariate Shrinkage Estimation of Small Area Means and Proportions
Authors: Longford Nicholas T. 
Published: March 2003

Summary
The familiar (univariate) shrinkage estimator of a small area mean or proportion combines information from the small area and a national survey. We define a multivariate shrinkage estimator which combines information also across subpopulations and outcome variables. The superiority of the multivariate shrinkage over univariate shrinkage, and of the univariate shrinkage over the unbiased (sample) means, is illustrated on examples of estimating the local area rates of economic activity in the subpopulations defined by ethnicity, age and sex. The examples use the sample of anonymized records of individuals from the 1991 UK census. The method requires no distributional assumptions but relies on the appropriateness of the quadratic loss function. The implementation of the method involves minimum outlay of computing. Multivariate shrinkage is particularly effective when the area level means are highly correlated and the sample means of one or a few components have small sampling and between-area variances. Estimations for subpopulations based on small samples can be greatly improved by incorporating information from subpopulations with larger sample sizes.
Analysis of Cervical Cancer Mortality and Incidence Data from England and Wales: Evidence of a Beneficial Effect of Screening
Authors: Sasieni Peter D. , Adams Joanna 
Published: March 2003

Summary
Incidence and mortality rates for invasive cervical cancer in England and Wales have changed considerably since records began in 1950s. It is well known that cervical cancer rates show substantial birth cohort effects and these make the interpretation of secular trends difficult. Here the incidence data (from 1971) and mortality data (from 1950) are analysed by using generalized additive models. The goodness of fit is evaluated by using residual plots and scaled changes in deviance. The incidence of squamous cell and adenocarcinoma of the cervix were analysed separately after making an adjustment for those with unknown histology. Although the age and cohort model provides an adequate description of the data up to the mid-1980s, additional terms are required to model the more recent data. Reasonable fits are obtained by adding functions of calendar year since 1978 in each of three age bands. Estimates of the cohort effects obtained from the incidence of squamous cancer and mortality data are remarkably similar and fit with hypothesized effects of changing sexual norms on cervical cancer rates. Secular trends suggest that cervical screening had little effect on cervical cancer rates before the mid-1980s and that since then the effect on mortality and incidence of squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix has been substantial whereas the effect on the incidence of adenocarcinoma of the cervix has been modest. Secular trends are greatest in younger women. They are minimal in women aged 70 years and over. If the secular trends are attributed to cervical screening, the models estimate that, as a result of screening, approximately 6000 fewer deaths occurred between 1991 and 1997 and that approximately 4000 fewer squamous cancers were diagnosed between 1989 and 1992.
Disease Clusters: Should They Be Investigated, And, If So, When and How?
Authors: Elliott Paul , Wakefield Jon 
Published: March 2003

Summary
Individual cluster reports are subject to several difficulties in interpretation. Although they rarely lead to new aetiological insights, a public health response to delineate the size and extent of any excess risk may be warranted. Further investigation, where merited, should usually include an examination of data for different areas and/or different time periods. A statistical evaluation of disease clusters is often secondary to a detailed appreciation of issues such as the availability and quality of data, confounding and bias in the selection of areas for study.
Ecological Regression Analysis of Environmental Benzene Exposure and Childhood Leukaemia: Sensitivity to Data Inaccuracies, Geographical Scale and Ecological Bias
Authors: Best Nicky , Cockings Samantha , Bennett James , Wakefield Jon , Elliott Paul 
Published: March 2003

Summary
Benzene is classified as a group 1 human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and it is now accepted that occupational exposure is associated with an increased risk of various leukaemias. However, occupational exposure accounts for less than 1% of all benzene exposures, the major sources being cigarette smoking and vehicle exhaust emissions. Whether such low level exposures to environmental benzene are also associated with the risk of leukaemia is currently not known. In this study, we investigate the relationship between benzene emissions arising from outdoor sources (predominantly road traffic and petrol stations) and the incidence of childhood leukaemia in Greater London. An ecological design was used because of the rarity of the disease, the difficulty of obtaining individual level measurements of benzene exposure and the availability of data. However, some methodological difficulties were encountered, including problems of case registration errors, the choice of geographical areas for analysis, exposure measurement errors and ecological bias. We use a Bayesian hierarchical modelling framework to address these issues, and we investigate the sensitivity of our inference to various modelling assumptions.