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Elderly Americans commit suicide at higher rates than other age groups. We contend that macro- and micro-social variables contribute distinct aspects to explanations of this tragic loss: the former focus on circumstances that affect overall rates, the latter reveal why certain individuals succumb to suicide. Our analysis focuses on the macro-social end of a causal sequence including variables at both levels. We describe how elderly suicide rates vary among states, show that macrosocial indicators of social integration contribute to cross-state variation in elderly suicide rates, and explain how selected aspects of state-level public policy contribute to reducing elderly suicide rates.

Research indicates an association between parents' disciplinary practices and their children's developmental outcomes. Research also suggests that disciplinary practices vary with demographic factors such as class, ethnicity, and gender. This article draws on the Douglas-Wildavsky grid-group theory to explain the association between demographic factors and disciplinary practices in microsocial terms. This theory links disparate sets of core beliefs and value priorities to contrasting conceptions of the family (including distinctive orientations toward parenting) and parental preferences for different disciplinary strategies. Studies by other researchers provide empirical support for these linkages. This grid-group theory application contributes to theory development through (a) bridging macroexplanations and microexplanations by showing how culture contributes to shaping parental practices, (b) distinguishing rival sets of core beliefs and value priorities that help researchers and practitioners understand parents, and (c) indicating ways for practitioners to apply these distinctions in family intervention.

Identifies and describes the genres that a group of tertiary level English-as-a-Second-Language students produced during a process writing class in which they were free to decide their own topics, purposes, and audiences. Characteristics of these genres, the relationships among them, and their schematic structures are described. (Author/VWL)

Describes the development of a project designed to build a positive role for peer observation in a language program, reports the reactions of the participants, and gives guidelines for the use of peer observation in a language program. (seven references) (GLR)

All the U.S. states create residential property tax abatement policies that provide important benefits for a rapidly growing older population. These policies vary sharply, and we seek to explain variation in their generosity. We employ regression in conjunction with a cross-sectional data set of the 50 states focused early in the current decade. Several variables prominent in explaining cross-state variation in other public policies exert only modest effects on these programs. Rather, the primary influence is a positive one for a cultural orientation toward government helping a broad swath of the citizenry. We attribute this unusual pattern of explanatory factors to (1) abatement programs' older target populations; (2) their tax expenditure status; and (3) their tendency to be categorized as economic development rather than social programs. This explanatory pattern holds theoretical importance inasmuch as it provides few constraints on the growth of at least some programs serving older citizens. Keywords: Residential Property Taxes, Senior Tax Relief, State Senior Residential Property Tax Abatement, State Tax Policy, Tax Abatement. Todos los estados de la Union Americana establecen politicas de reduccion de impuestos para las propiedades residenciales que dan beneficios importantes para la poblacion, en rapido crecimiento, de adultos mayores. Estas politicas varian bruscamente y buscamos explicar la variacion en su generosidad. Empleamos una regresion conjuntamente con datos transversales de 50 estados y enfocados en el principio de la decada actual. Diversas variables que explican la variacion entre estados en otras politicas publicas solo ejercen efectos modestos en estos programas de reduccion de impuestos. En cambio, la influencia mas importante es una positiva para la orientacion cultural relacionada con la ayuda del gobierno para una amplia porcion de la ciudadania. Atribuimos este diseno inusual de factores explicativos a: (1) la poblacion objetivo de adultos mayores de estos programas de reducciones; (2) al estatus de los adultos mayores en los programas de reducciones y (3) a la tendencia de que la reduccion de impuestos para las propiedades residenciales sea categorizada como desarrollo economico en lugar de programas sociales. Este patron explicativo mantiene una importancia teorica dado que provee pocas restricciones para el desarrollo en el futuro de al menos algunos programas de ayuda a la ciudadania de adultos mayores., We examine the bases for variation in the residential property tax advantages that states grant to older adults. Such abatements either reduce elders' taxes in comparison with other residential property [...]

States employ home and community-based services (HCBS) increasingly in Medicaid support of long-term care and rely less on nursing facilities. We examine how states' nursing facilities and HCBS programs compare and whether states' long-term care responses' match their ideological inclination toward, material capacity for supporting, and their citizens' need for these public social programs. We use cross-sectional panel data on structural, process, and outcome quality for nursing facilities and HCBS congregate residential programs. We rank states, correlate these measures, and use regression to link inclination, capacity, and need to quality. We find that states' nursing facility and HCBS program quality are not closely related and that state HCBS congregate residential program quality is independent of inclination, capacity, and need. This latter result underscores a need for uniform HCBS standards and better data on quality. KEYWORDS home and community-based services, long-term care, Medicaid, nursing facility care, state long-term care policy

We address two issues in this exploratory study. First, to what degree do variables prominent in explaining cross-state variation in the generosity of other public assistance programs also help to explain the resources states devote to nursing facility long-term care for the elderly, a service supported largely by states' Medicaid programs? Second, to what degree do the resources that states commit to this purpose influence the quality of state nursing facility processes and, in turn, translate into state nursing facility residents' quality-of-life outcomes? We find unusual features to the pattern of factors explaining state resource levels. We also find surprises in relations among the three aspects of quality, but overall, raising resource adequacy improves nursing facility process quality, which, in turn, bolsters nursing facility residents' quality-of-life outcomes. We close with suggestions for further improvement. doi: 10.1300/J031v19n04_01 KEYWORDS. Elder care, long-term care quality, nursing facility quality, state-level public social programs, state policy differences

As the number of persons affected by divorce rises, controversies develop within states over the appropriate character of laws about grandparents' visitation rights (GVR). Consequently, there is considerable cross-state variation in GVR statutes, and we link this variation with state political culture. We argue that adherents of the rival cultures distinguished by Douglas-Wildavsky 'grid-group' theory will: (1) hold different conceptions of the family, (2) adopt contrasting orientations toward grandparenting and (3) create distinctive GVR statutes. Our empirical analysis supports our theory-based explanation and prediction for the pattern of variation in state GVR statutes, but the predicted relations are not as strong as we had anticipated. KEYWORDS. Culture, divorce, grandparenting, grandparents' rights, grid-group theory

Family researchers disagree on the family characteristics essential for meeting children's developmental needs. Some argue that a particular family structure, two biological parents, is crucial. Others maintain that specific parenting behaviors and access to resources are more important than a particular structure for meeting children's needs. We examine this issue in the instance of children's moral development for which two distinct literatures, those on gender-related conception of morality and communitarian social theory, suggest the importance of two biological parents for meeting children's needs. These literatures place moral development in the position of a test case for the importance of family structure. If it is not essential in this instance, is it likely to be crucial with respect to other development needs? While the evidence is incomplete and mixed, our review of family studies research on children's moral development reveals no clear-cut case for a particular family structure. We conclude by suggesting a political strategy focused on meeting children's developmental needs. By virtue of its friendliness to families with two biological parents as well as the importance it places on parenting behavior and family support systems, both social conservatives and liberals might support this focus, thus fostering common ground for policy development. Keywords. Child development, parenting, family structure, divorce

Reviewed by Charles Lockhart, Texas Christian University I have been a social democrat since late adolescence and have thus represented a branch of what has lately been called communitarianism, although [...]

Relying on culture as an important explanatory variable is regarded with skepticism by many contemporary political scientists. Yet, doubts about culture's usefulness rest in large part on false perceptions of various sorts. These misunderstandings relegate an important explanatory variable to the social science scrap heap. Accordingly, the author engages in three tasks. First, selected prominent arguments for culture's lack of explanatory usefulness are discussed. Second, it is demonstrated how at least one conceptualization of culture, Mary Douglas and Aaron Wildavsky's grid-group theory, overcomes aspects of these difficulties and contributes to explaining institutional form and political change. Third, it is argued that grid-group theory contributes significantly to both institutional analysis and rational choice theory. Grid-group theory augments each of these latter two approaches and, more important, reveals complementary aspects, linking these modes of analysis together as mutually supportive elements of a more inclusive explanatory scheme.

Integrated and cost-effective decision analysis methods of risk assessment help contractors, engineers, and owners to take effective measures in mitigating the uncertainties of construction works. Around 57 subsurface failure modes are qualitatively analyzed to determine the effectiveness of integrated decision analysis method. Assessment of cost and delay related implementation of risk strategies should be carried on and compared with the benefits. An overall periodic updating of risk-assessment is required for the effective management of risk-assessment.

Scholars have identified a number of societal features that contribute to the support of human rights. Controlling for the most prominent of these factors, we examine the degree to which judicial independence (JI) exerts an autonomous positive effect on human rights. We use a cross-sectional design, drawing on data for the 27 European Union members and its four prospective members, in conjunction with ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. We find that multiple indices of JI based on expert judgment, which include institutional but predominantly behavioral measures, reveal JI producing the most powerful positive effect in the support of human rights among the variables included in the analysis. Multiple measures of JI based on public surveys of the trustworthiness of a society's judicial institutions exert a positive, but not statistically significant, effect on support of human rights. Indeed, these latter effects are eclipsed by the relative equality of a society's national executive and legislature and its GDP/capita. Surprisingly, judicial review exerts no statistically significant effect on human rights protection, counter to the conventional wisdom that has driven so many constitutional designers in the post-World War II era. Our findings suggest that, while an independent judiciary holds the greatest potential for protecting human rights, constitutional drafters should focus less on institutional elements related to judicial independence and judicial review. Rather, those crafting constitutions intended to protect human rights should look to dispersing government power by enhancing electoral competitiveness and fostering judicial independence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Increasing women in state legislatures is associated with greater legislative support for social policies serving families with children. We examine whether the family friendly impact of women legislators extends to supporting family elders. We draw on a cross-sectional data set of the American states in conjunction with regression. We find that, controlling for prominent alternative factors shaping state policies, women's legislative presence exerts a strong positive influence on state elderly friendliness. Our results are more exploratory than definitive, but they suggest that states with more extensive legislative representation of women better meet the growing challenges of an aging population. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recently, some researchers have argued that high state rates of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Online Survey, Certification and Reporting (OSCAR) nursing facility deficiencies indicate stringent enforcement, leaving the impression of better-quality care soon to follow; others maintain that the rank ordering of states' quality of nursing facility care remains fairly constant, resting on deep-seated state characteristics that change slowly, so that short-term improvement in poor-quality care is unlikely. The authors examine change in the process and outcome quality of states' Medicare nursing facility long-term care programs across 1999 to 2005, using linear and two-stage least squares regression. They find that (1) nationally, process quality generally falls across this period while outcome quality generally increases; (2) neither a prominent enforcement stringency index nor state culture, a relatively stable state characteristic, exerts much influence on state process and outcome quality scores over time, but (3) the relative costs and benefits for CMS compliance appear to contribute to explaining change in states' quality of resident outcomes over time; and (4) states' process quality is much less stable than outcome quality, and outcome indices distinct from OSCAR deficiency data provide more reliable and possibly more valid measures of care quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the interaction during peer response as it occurs in an authentic writing class. Identification of reader stances; Determination of the characteristics of these stances; Analysis of language functions and topics discussed during the response sessions.

The primary purpose of this paper is to introduce an alternative, grid-group theory, to the conventional liberal-conservative continuum for understanding the structure of mass belief systems. We also examine the potential advantages of this alternative in explaining preference formation with a series of exploratory empirical comparisons of the relative strengths and weaknesses of grid-group theory and the conventional measure of political ideology. While certain data limitations make our results tentative, we conclude that political ideology retains the advantage of parsimony as the single most powerful predictor of mass attitudes across a range of social and economic issues. But grid-group theory allows us to unpack distinct social logics that are conflated in a unidimensional model. These logics not only tell us more about the bases for persons' attitudes, they offer an explanation for the shifting structure of political conflicts and coalitions. Thus grid-group theory helps us explain who holds which 'core values' and why. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offers an overview on several books about political science. `The Dynamics of the Arms Race,' edited by David Carlton and Carlo Schaerf; `The Analysis of Foreign Policy Outputs,' edited by William O. Chittick; `Uncontrollable Spending for Social Services Grants,' by Martha Derthick; `A Study of Future Worlds,' by Richard A. Falk.