Psychosocial Treatment of Children in Foster Care: A Review

A substantial number of children in foster care exhibit psychiatric difficulties. Recent epidemiologi-cal and historical trends in foster care, clinical findings about the adjustment of children in foster care, and adult outcomes are reviewed, followed by a description of current approaches to treatment and extant empirical support. Available interventions for these children can be categorized as either symptom-focused or systemic, with empirical support for specific methods ranging from scant to substantial. Even with treatment, behavioral and emotional problems often persist into adulthood, resulting in poor functional outcomes. We suggest that self-regulation may be an important mediat-ing factor in the appearance of emotional and behavioral disturbance in these children

Hierarchical Zoning, Incompatible Uses and Price Discounts

This study examines an aspect of hierarchical zoning. Hierarchical zoning, unlike mutually exclusive zoning, is uni-directional in that it protects upper-level residential uses from nonconforming, non-residential uses but not "vice versa." The result is that the lower-level zones can be a mixture of several nonconforming, incompatible uses. This unique attribute of hierarchical zoning offers a window of opportunity for choices for affordable housing at affordable locations. Using hedonic analysis, empirical evidence shows that huge price discounts (over 15%) are associated with apartments that are situated in nonconforming zones. Arguments here support more flexible zoning. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.

Design issues in the British Household Panel Study

The British Household Panel Study is the largest single project ever funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council. Housed in the ESRC's Centre on Micro-social Change in Britain at the University of Essex, the BHPS will comprise an initial 5000 households and 10000 individuals. This paper introduces the Study through an overview of its coverage and some key aspects of its design. A short discussion of some of the analytic advantages of panel data is complemented by three examples of substantive research issues where panel data can assist in our understanding of micro-social change. The BHPS is discussed as an instance of a dynamic approach to social change and its overall rationale is briefly examined. The Study's six substantive research areas - household organisation and dynamics; labour market behaviour and activity; income and wealth dynamics; housing; health; and socio-economic values - are described. The remainder of the paper is concerned with three key design issues for panel studies and explains how these have been tackled on the BHPS. The issues are (1) changing populations; (2) non-sampling errors (and especially non-response and panel conditioning); and (3) sample design. The paper is accompanied by a substantial bibliography on panel design and methodology