Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Despite a perception that the scholarship and practice of public service and medicine transcend race and racism, it is imperative to situate both in their wider social context in order to capture the implications of both issues in analysis. The health gap that exists among racial groups in the US is an important consequence of social inequities that exist in the healthcare system. The disparity in health outcome and opportunity is so widespread, in fact, that the United States Department of Health and Human Services has declared the elimination of such disparities as one of the major goals of the nation in its Healthy People 2010 Initiative. These gaps are seen in overall health, health care service utilization, and access to treatment and prevention. This paper offers a meta-analysis of the competing explanations for health disparities and a framework for assessing the causes of inequity and analyzing the policies aimed at improving social equity in healthcare. Illustrates a rationale for examining the the implementation of equity in healthcare and the epistemology of health disparity that drives policy formulation. Also addressed is the extent to which the policy objectives and capabilities of the policy-makers are aligned.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Problem: Work related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs) remain a costly problem; hence the need to improve treatment effectiveness, including secondary prevention. An “injury management” model, which draws on patient-reported functional health status and work role performance measures, has emerged to address injury recovery and re-injury avoidance. Method: In a non-randomized control trial, effects on treatment outcomes were tested of augmenting standard occupational health services care with the Worker-Based Outcomes Assessment System (WBOAS). The WBOAS avails physical and occupational therapists of outcomes trends graphics and trends-based referral guidelines to worksite evaluation/redesign and behavioral health care. Results: Augmented care did improve (p< .05) subjects' physical functioning, new injury/re-injury avoidance, and evaluated provider performance on physical examination and, for men, also on knowledge of patient; did not improve (p>.05) subjects’ behavioral health or pain symptoms, return to work or stay at work success, or evaluated provider performance on six other dimensions including clinician-patient communication; did improve cost-adjusted outcome on physical functioning and new injury/re-injury avoidance; did not raise referral rates to worksite evaluation/redesign and behavioral health care. Conclusion: Employers may consider WBOAS-augmented care a sound investment in WRMSD treatment and secondary prevention improvement.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The relationship between interstate war duration and interstate war outcomes has not
received sufficient attention in the current conflict literature. Research in international relations
has focused on either war duration or war termination separately. However, this
literature does not examine the link between the length of a war and its eventual ending.
Studies of war duration only examine those factors associated with the length of a war and
do not consider how a particular war ends. They, therefore, examine the average effect a
covariate has on all potential war outcomes. However, there is reason to believe that the two
dimensions, duration and outcome, may in fact be interdependent. That is, as a war evolves
the costs and benefits of continuing the war are likely to vary and thus alter the probability
of the war ending in a particular way. In turn the probability of war outcomes affects the
survival time of the war since a war ceases to be at risk when it ends. Thus, there is an
interdependent relationship between war duration and outcome.
We model the interdependence between war duration and outcomes using a competing
risks duration model (Box-Steffensmeier and Jones 2004) on a sample of interstate wars for
the period 1816-2001. The competing risks approach treats outcomes as a set of possible alternative
endings during the course of a war and models the relative probability for particular
outcomes as competing risks. By considering alternative endings, the competing risks model
allows us to obtain a more refined effect of the covariates for different types of outcomes.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The Impact of Welfare
Reform on Academic Outcomes
Parental Workforce Participation, Welfare Receipt, and Children’s
Academic Outcomes In this paper, we will examine how changes in the
welfare system brought about by the 1996 Personal Responsibility and
Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) have affected parental
report of children’s academic outcomes. PRWORA put into place the
Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) program, which was intended to
increase welfare recipients’ workforce participation and decrease their
welfare receipt. These TANF policies, including the 30-hour-per-week
work requirement and 60-month time limit, have led to a nationwide
decrease in the welfare rolls of 56 percent between 1993 and 2000 (U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, 2000). Thus, the 1996 welfare
reform has generally been heralded as a great success.
In spite of the overwhelming public support for welfare reform, many of
its consequences remain as of yet unknown. For example, we have yet to
find out the kinds of effects that the reform will have on the children
of current and former welfare recipients. Applying the life-course
perspective to the families, the principle of “linked lives” states
that the lives of the parents and children “are lived interdependently,
and social and historical influences are expressed through this network
of shared relationships” (Elder, 1998, p. 4). Thus, policies aimed at
recipients’ workforce participation and welfare receipt will inevitably
affect the recipients’ children as well. We hypothesize that a number
of TANF policies, including the 30-hour-per-week work requirement, may
affect children’s academic and behavioral outcomes through their impact
on parents’ workforce participation and welfare receipt. We also
theorize that parents’ workforce participation and welfare receipt will
have differential affects on children according to their age, with
younger children being more impacted by changes in family income due to
parent’s workforce participation and welfare receipt and adolescents
being more impacted by the amount of time parents spend at work.
Sample, Method, and Findings The data to be used in this study are
taken from the first two waves of the Illinois Families Study (IFS), a
longitudinal study of 1362 respondents who were receiving TANF in the
State of Illinois during September, October, and November of 1998. Our
findings show that children whose parents transitioned from not working
in Wave 1 to working in Wave 2 were significantly more likely to be
achieving academically – receiving A’s and B’s – at Wave 2. Parental
employment at Wave 2 was not found to be a positive factor in all
cases, however. We found that children whose parents were employed in
both waves were significantly less likely to receive A’s and B’s at
Wave 2 than were children whose parents transitioned from not working
to working. We also found that receiving welfare during Wave 2 had a
positive relationship with receiving A’s and B’s at Wave 2, which
suggests that welfare payments may be a protective factor for families.
We argue that parental employment may be beneficial for children’s
academic achievement, particularly if families are able to continue
receiving welfare benefits.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Few political scientists would disagree with the notion that practical experience in a non-US political arena can be a valuable contributor to an undergraduate’s educational experience. In fact, a quick survey of recent articles in PS and elsewhere would attest to the fact that “experiencing” politics has a powerful effect on student learning outcomes. Despite what would appear to be widespread agreement regarding the benefits of international encounters where politics can be experienced firsthand, little has been done to assess student learning outcomes. Conclusions about student learning as a result of international experience are based primarily on only a handful of studies of study abroad experiences—a qualitatively different experience than an international internship. This presentation will outline the internship programs at the Scottish Parliament and the European Parliament and identify some of the problems with using the study abroad model for assessing student learning outcomes in those internship programs. The presentation will outline an alternative assessment model and discuss preliminary conclusions regarding student learning.