This study uses data from an experimental employment program and instrumental variables (IV) estimation to examine the effects of maternal job loss on child classroom behavior. Random assignment to the treatment at one of three program sites is an exogenous predictor of employment patterns. Cross-site variation in treatment-control differences is used to identify the effects of employment levels and transitions. Under certain assumptions, this method controls for unobserved correlates of job loss and child well-being, as well as measurement error and simultaneity. IV estimates suggest that maternal job loss sharply increases problem behavior but has neutral effects on positive social behavior. Current employment programs concentrate primarily on job entry, but these findings point to the importance of promoting job stability for workers and their children.

This paper discusses the relation between absence from work and wage level and absence and the number of dependants. The extent of overtime working is also considered. The investigation was made in a large iron and steel works. Description of FirmThe plant is modern and the various processes of preparing the iron ores through to steel rolling are highly mechanized. There is a considerable diversity of occupations and physical conditions of work with few men employed on any one operation. Owing to the processes involved most production men are on continuous three-shift work, the plant being manned 24 hours a day throughout the year. The remainder of the men are mainly on discontinuous three-shift systems, work stopping over the whole or part of the weekend.The majority of jobs in a section are arranged in promotion grades with corresponding differences in basic pay. In addition to the basic rate, men on production work receive a bonus dependent upon the output of their own or an associated section.Since the productivity of a department is largely determined by the capacity of the plant, skilful maintenance, and the supply of materials, this bonus is often relatively remote from individual effort and may be considered as part of a fixed wage. As well as the various wage levels within a department there are also differences in wage level between departments which have developed over the years. Thus jobs at the same wage level do not necessarily require the same skill and responsibility.Other factors relevant to the study are the existence of a comprehensive medical service with two fulltime medical officers and a staff of qualified nurses, and an employees' benevolent scheme which provides just over £1 per week after 14 days' sickness absence. There was a labour shortage in the works during the period studied. The absence rate was about 4 % at which level the management did not consider absence to be a problem.

Walker, J., and de la Mare, Gwynneth (1971). Brit. J. industr. Med., 28, 36-44. Absence from work in relation to length and distribution of shift hours. A long period on night shift or even permanent night work has sometimes been suggested for those on continuous shift work to allow circadian rhythms to adapt. As the weekly hours of work have been reduced there is some evidence that a permanent night shift is practical, and about 12% of all shift workers are on this type of work. However, the case for permanent night shift must be established on grounds of both effectiveness and acceptability.The present studycompares the absence experience, including sickness absence, ofpermanent day workers and permanent night workers matched for age and job in three undertakings which contained a range of working conditions.The question of the relationship between absence from work and total hours worked including overtime has been reopened, and in comparing absence from work according to the type of shift the total hours worked must also be taken into account. The relationship between the average hours when a man was at work and the amount of absence was tested. The men in the three undertakings worked a wide range of voluntary overtime.The results showed that in two undertakings long-term absence, mainly sickness absence, was higher on the night shift than on the day shift; and, in the third, absence was about the same on the two shifts. As the work load was less in the two undertakings with a higher absence on the night shift it was suggested that selective factors were operating. These results may be contrasted to studies which have compared the absence of rotating shift workers and day workers.In all three undertakings there was a tendency for absence to be less among high overtime workers than among those who worked medium or small amounts of overtime, although the trends were not consistent. There was no evidence at all that high overtime and absence from work were positively associated.The implications of these results are discussed.During recent years there has been an increase in the tends to emerge is that absence rates are higher amount of shift working in industry and this has led among day workers than among shift workers to greater interest in the human problems associated (Wyatt and Marriott, 1953) and the result is conwith abnormal hours. One question which arises is firmed in sickness absence studies (Thiis-Evensen, whether shift work affects absence from work, in-1958;Aanonsen, 1964;Taylor, 1967Taylor, , 1968b. The cluding sickness absence. Reviews of previous research has, in general, been carried out on men research (Andlauer and Fourre, 1962;Menzel, 1962)

New Hope, an employment-based poverty-reduction intervention for adults evaluated in a random-assignment experimental design, had positive impacts on children’s achievement and social behavior two and five years after random assignment. The question addressed in this paper was the following: Did the positive effects of New Hope on younger children diminish or even reverse when children reached the challenges of adolescence (eight years after random assignment)? Small positive impacts on school progress, school motivation, positive social behavior, child well-being, and parent control endured, but impacts on school achievement and problem behavior were no longer evident. The most likely reasons for lasting impacts were that New Hope families were slightly less likely to be poor, and children had spent more time in center-based child care and structured activities. New Hope represents a model policy that could produce modest improvements in the lives of low-income adults and children.

During a multiphasic screening survey the eye colour of 82 subjects was assessed by two observers independently, using a three-figure code with six colour categories. Colour photographs were also taken with electronic flash and similarly assessed later under standardized lighting conditions. No difference in colour vision was found on testing the two observers.The results showed that the inter-observer error on the survey was high, as were both intra-observer errors for the two methods. In contrast, the inter-observer error for the slides was low, giving a reproducibility of 75 %. There were considerable variations in frequency and agreement for the different colour categories.The Smoking Habits of Medical Students. E. ROSEMARY