Often in sociology, researchers are confronted with nonnormal variables whose joint distribution they wish to explore. Yet, assumptions of common measures of dependence can fail or estimating such dependence is computationally intensive. This article presents the copula method for modeling the joint distribution of two random variables, including…

The present study examined a model of life satisfaction among a diverse sample of 184 adults who had been unemployed for an average of 10.60 months. Using the Lent (2004) model of life satisfaction as a framework, a model was tested with 5 hypothesized predictor variables: optimism, job search self-efficacy, job search support, job search…

This paper examines the factors that are theorized to be determinants of school quality in the 67 counties of Florida from 2000 to 2011. The model constructed for this purpose is comprised of a mix of independent variables that include county educational attainment (number of high school graduates and State University System enrollees) and…

The extent to which community college students experience labor market success depends on both the attributes of the individual students and the characteristics of the community colleges they attend. In this paper, we examine the impact of community college characteristics on the earnings of first-time college students who enrolled in the North…

A longitudinal sample from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 was used to determine differences in work outcomes between (a) individuals with learning disabilities or emotional-behavior disorders and (b) individuals with or without disabilities. Twelve factors were arranged into individual, family, school-peer, and community categories.…

A variety of theories have emerged that offer plausible explanations, one from the political institutional perspective and others from sociological perspective. There has been renewed interest in the effect of local political structure on police strength in the policing literature. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to assess the two main…

This paper investigates the role of economic variables in predicting regional disparities in reported life satisfaction of European Union (EU) citizens. European subnational units (regions) are defined according to the first-level EU nomenclature of territorial units. We use multilevel modeling to explicitly account for the hierarchical nature of…

Much analysis of youth transitions focuses on the first year after education, or outcomes at a specific age. Such work looks, for example, at the effect of education on the likelihood of being employed or unemployed. This study takes a different angle by considering the effect of education on the persistence of labour market outcomes. For example,…

The development of a predictive equation capable of explaining a significant percentage of enrollment variability at Florida International University is described. A model utilizing trend analysis and a multiple regression approach to enrollment forecasting was adapted to investigate enrollment dynamics at the university. Four independent…

The focus of this study was to identify factors that differentiate women drug abusers who had experienced suicidal ideation from those who did not. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 221 cocaine-using women in Atlanta, GA, 88 (39.8%) of whom reported thinking about committing suicide at least once during the 90 days prior to interview and…

A socioeconomic status (SES) variable was developed and tested as a way to help identify high risk college students at the Community College of Philadelphia. Each city zip code was placed into either the lower, middle, or upper category, and students were assigned a SES measure based on their resident zip code. Using city-wide census data, the…

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) conducted a thematic review to identify changes in young people's transition to working life during the 1990s and to identify those policies and programs that are effective in delivering successful transition outcomes for young people. The review focused on 14 countries with widely…

This document contains 18 papers from the human resource development and manpower training section of an international conference on vocational education and training (VET) for lifelong learning in the information era. The following papers are included: "Use of Social and Economic Modeling to Plan Vocational Education and Training"…