Farrell J. Webb

GENDER AND MARITAL SATISFACTION: DATA FROM THE NATIONAL SURVEY OF FAMILIES AND HOUSEHOLDS '

In 1972, Bernard argued that marriage was good for men and bad for women. Subsequent research noted that wives, on average, reported lower marital satisfaction than husbands. Furthermore, when differences within couples existed on marital satisfaction, the wife was usually the less satisfied spouse; however, most previous studies of the gender/marital satisfaction relationship had not been based on nationally representative samples. A nationally representative sample from the 1988 Survey of Families and Households was used to assess the relationship of gender with marital satisfaction. Within-couple analyses indicated that wives were less satisfied with their marriages than husbands and that, when substantial within-couple differences occurred with respect to marital satisfaction, the wife was usually the less satisfied spouse. Results provide at least small support for feminist assertions about the relatively adverse nature of marriage for women in the United States.

A Comparison of Methods for Teaching Critical Thinking Skills for U.S. Army Officers

The U.S. Army has been conducting a variety of management education programs for commissioned officers. In both its traditional and its new distance education programs, the Army has established a goal of improving critical thinking and reasoning skills among its students to prepare its future leaders and managers more effectively for the challenges of the twenty-first century. For both the distance learning and the traditional education programs, the successful promotion of critical reasoning and thinking skills appeared to be among the most critical factors in directly or indirectly predicting student satisfaction with instruction, overall training, and usefulness or relevance of training. Distance education formats proved at least as, if not more, successful on a variety of comparison measures with traditional classroom formats when evaluated by field grade student officers. By logical extension, distance education can be expected to be a useful approach for teaching critical thinking skills for civilian management and leadership training programs.

Pyridostigmine bromide and the long-term subjective health status of a sample of over 700 male reserve component gulf war era veterans

Data from a 1996–1997 survey of approximately 700 Reserve Component male veterans indicate that the consumption of pyridostigmine bromide pills, used as a pretreatment for potential exposure to the nerve agent Soman, was a significant predictor of declines in reported subjective health status after the war, even after controlling for a number of other possible factors. Reported reactions to vaccines and other medications also predicted declines in subjective health. While higher military rank generally predicted better health during and after the war, educational attainment, minority status, number of days in theater, and age generally did not predict changes in subjective health. Although servicemembers were directed to take three pills a day, veterans reported a range of compliance—less than a fourth (24%) followed the medical instructions compared to 61% who took fewer than three pills daily and 6% who took six or more pills a day. Implications for use of pyridostigmine bromide are discussed.

Understanding Mail Survey Response Rates among Female Reserve Component Veterans Serving during the Persian Gulf War

In this study of current and former female reservists and National Guard members from the state of Ohio, veterans who were older, who had more years of military service, who had participated in the Gulf War, who were Euro-Americans, who were or had been married, and who were higher in rank tended to have more valid addresses and higher response rates, thus biasing sample outcomes in those directions. Educational attainment, branch of service, component of service, and residential stability appeared to be less important, although some significant findings were noted. Implications for further research on Desert Storm are discussed. In general, those veterans who might have been expected to have a greater investment in U.S. society were more likely to respond to a survey concerning Desert Storm era military service and its aftermath.

Understanding mail survey response rates among male reserve component Gulf War era veterans.

In this study of current and former male Reserve and National Guard members from the State of Ohio, it was expected that veterans who were older, had more years of military service, who had participated in the Persian Gulf War, who were Euro-Americans, who were higher in rank, who had higher residential stability in Ohio who belonged to the Air Force, who had higher formal education, and who belong to the National Guard would have a greater investment in U.S. society as defined by 11 demographic variables. It was assumed that those with greater investment in society would more often have valid addresses and would be more likely to respond to a survey on military issues, thereby biasing sample outcomes in those directions. Results for male veterans were consistent with the hypothesis that investment in the society system would predict validity of addresses and response rates. In other words, results supported the idea that those veterans who might be expected to have a greater investment in U.S. society were more likely to be located and to respond (once located) to a survey concerning Desert Storm-era military service and its aftermath. Implications for future Desert Storm research are discussed.

COMMENTS ON THE INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE'S 2002 REPORT ON THE SAFETY OF ANTHRAX VACCINE

In April 2002, the prestigious Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences issued a final report on the safety and effectiveness of the anthrax vaccine currently in use by the United States military. It concluded that the present vaccine was completely safe and effective, but ignored evidence of several recent research studies from three different nations that have implicated vaccines, often including anthrax vaccine, in the epidemiology of Gulf War illnesses. Omissions and limitations of that report are discussed.

Predicting self-reported exposure to nerve agents by reserve component personnel during the first Persian Gulf War.

Approximately 13% of 654 Reserve Component Gulf War veterans (18% women, 65% ground forces, between 24 and 61 years of age, average 40.2 yr.) surveyed in the Ohio Desert Storm Research Project reported that they had probably been exposed to nerve or mustard gas agents, while another 32% thought such exposures were possible. Reports of exposure were found, through ordinary least squares regression analysis, to be associated with membership in ground forces (Army/Marine Corps) (b = .29), geographical location (b = .17), ethnic minority status (b = .07), education (b = –.10), intrinsic religiosity (b = .10), and also reporting having had physiological reactions to vaccines or pyridostigmine bromide pills (b = .24). Reports were not associated significantly with subjective health before the war, age, or sex.

Measurement in Practice

The use of scales in social sciences has been considered an important element in the development of ideas. Indeed, many common diagnoses in the mental health field have been aided by some very distinct and robust measures (e.g., the CIDI (Andrews & Peters, 1998) and the Beck Depression inventories (Beck, 2006)). The now-famous concepts and ideas such as social distance (Bogardus, 1933) and anomie (Srole, 1956) all find support on well-established social scales. Still others such as the BEM Sex Inventory (Bem, 1974), the Kansas Marital Satisfaction (Schumm, 2001), or Herek (1984) scale on attitudes toward lesbians and gays all share one very important trait—good design and methodological sophistication. This is not to say that each measure is without error, clearly they are not, but it is to say that the developmental approaches used by the authors reflected a level of concern and sophistication that renders these scales as useful and adaptable measures across a variety of subjects and in numerous cultural settings. With some important modifications, these instruments endure. In short, these measures meet the criteria of scale construction by providing a concrete measurement of abstract theoretical ideas. The questions then become, what are scales, how are they composed, why do they work, and how can one be sure that the scale is really an appropriate measure of the theoretical construct under examination? Throughout this book, these issues will be addressed in great detail. The purpose of this chapter is to provide some insight into these issues and offer an overview of the process. Let me begin with a very critical caveat—No scale is without its problems and not all elements can be combined to make a scale no matter the reliability score. Good research methodology along with logic and good sense must always accompany any measure worth its weight.

Testing new predictive models involving biological warfare attacks on civilians

Walden and Kaplan (2004) and Brookmeyer, Johnson, and Bollinger (2003) have recently used complex mathematical models to predict projected infections and fatalities, respectively, from biological warfare anthrax attacks on civilians. Their models have been based, in large part, on the events at Sverdlovsk when anthrax spores were released by mistake from a Soviet facility in 1979. Dr. Brookmeyer, when contacted by the senior author, provided a revised table of predictions, since his original published table had included substantial errors. Here, the new models’ predictions are validated against the anthrax epidemic that occurred at the Arms Mill in Manchester, New Hampshire in the autumn of 1957. The models predicted approximately 8 infections and 5 deaths. Nine infections occurred, providing support for the Walden and Kaplan (2004) model. Given that 4 deaths occurred with one death prevented only by timely administration of antibiotics, the mortality outcome also provides support for Brookmeyer et al.’s (2003) statistical modeling. Thus, both models appeared to predict the outcomes of the relatively small epidemic at Manchester with adequate accuracy. Whether the models would accurately predict the outcomes of much larger attacks is yet to be determined.

A MULTIVARIATE REANALYSIS OF DATA FROM 'PARENTING BEHAVIORS : A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF SITUATIONAL COMEDIES BASED ON TV FICTIONAL FAMILIES

Data presented by Bundy, Zvonkovic, and Thompson (1997) are reanalyzed, using multivariate logit analysis. While results similar to those found in their bivariate analyses were obtained in multivariate analysis, greater confidence can be placed in the findings because of the additional controls used. Rates of reinforcement modeled on regular television programs do appear to be related strongly to appropriate types of parenting behavior, especially for noncontroversial programs.