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• Agricultural practices
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Articles in anthropology.

The Anthropological Index Online (AIO) is published by the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) in cooperation with Anthropology Library and Research Centre at the British Museum. It is an index to articles in journals taken by the Library, which incorporates the former RAI holdings, covering all branches and areas of anthropology. In addition, AIO includes journals and periodicals of anthropological interest that are not in the Library’s catalogues. Films held at the Royal Anthropological Institute are equally indexed as part of the bibliography. The Library holds some 4,000 periodical titles (1,500 current). Nearly 650 journals, published in more than 40 languages, are indexed on a continuing basis. Records cover 1957 to the present.

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Comprehensive coverage of communication topics in Communication Abstracts and Communication & Mass Media Complete.

Covers major journals in communication, mass media, and other closely-related fields of study as far back as 1915. Includes indexing/abstracting for 600+ journals; full text of 500+ journals.

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Indexes literature in linguistics and related disciplines.

Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA) abstracts and indexes the international literature in linguistics and related disciplines in the language sciences. The database covers all aspects of the study of language including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Complete coverage is given to various fields of linguistics including descriptive, historical, comparative, theoretical and geographical linguistics. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,500 serials publications, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, and dissertations. 

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1887-present. Includes journals, books, book chapters, and dissertations in psychology.  Short video tutorials on using PsycINFO

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Provides access to the international literature in sociology, social services, and related disciplines, 1952-present.

Includes the databases Sociological Abstracts, Social Services Abstracts, and Sociology Database, which may each be searched separately. Sociological Abstracts abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,800 serials publications, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Many records from key journals in sociology, added to the database since 2002, also include the references cited in the bibliography of the source article. Each individual reference may also have links to an abstract and/or to other papers that cite that reference; these links increase the possibility of finding more potentially relevant articles. These references are linked both within Sociological Abstracts and across other social science databases available on ProQuest. Updated monthly, with approximately 30,000 records added per year. (Description from the publisher's website.)

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• Published: 27 January 2022

The future of human behaviour research

• Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier 1 ,
• Jean Burgess 2 , 3 ,
• Maurizio Corbetta 4 , 5 ,
• Kate Crawford 6 , 7 , 8 ,
• Esther Duflo 9 ,
• Laurel Fogarty 10 ,
• Alison Gopnik 11 ,
• Sari Hanafi 12 ,
• Mario Herrero 13 ,
• Ying-yi Hong 14 ,
• Yasuko Kameyama 15 ,
• Tatia M. C. Lee 16 ,
• Gabriel M. Leung 17 , 18 ,
• Daniel S. Nagin 19 ,
• Anna C. Nobre 20 , 21 ,
• Merete Nordentoft 22 , 23 ,
• Aysu Okbay 24 ,
• Andrew Perfors 25 ,
• Laura M. Rival 26 ,
• Cassidy R. Sugimoto 27 ,
• Bertil Tungodden 28 &
• Claudia Wagner 29 , 30 , 31  

Nature Human Behaviour volume  6 ,  pages 15–24 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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Human behaviour is complex and multifaceted, and is studied by a broad range of disciplines across the social and natural sciences. To mark our 5th anniversary, we asked leading scientists in some of the key disciplines that we cover to share their vision of the future of research in their disciplines. Our contributors underscore how important it is to broaden the scope of their disciplines to increase ecological validity and diversity of representation, in order to address pressing societal challenges that range from new technologies, modes of interaction and sociopolitical upheaval to disease, poverty, hunger, inequality and climate change. Taken together, these contributions highlight how achieving progress in each discipline will require incorporating insights and methods from others, breaking down disciplinary silos.

Genuine progress in understanding human behaviour can only be achieved through a multidisciplinary community effort. Five years after the launch of Nature Human Behaviour , twenty-two leading experts in some of the core disciplines within the journal’s scope share their views on pressing open questions and new directions in their disciplines. Their visions provide rich insight into the future of research on human behaviour.

Artificial intelligence

Kate Crawford

Much has changed in artificial intelligence since a small group of mathematicians and scientists gathered at Dartmouth in 1956 to brainstorm how machines could simulate cognition. Many of the domains that those men discussed — such as neural networks and natural language processing — remain core elements of the field today. But what they did not address was the far-reaching social, political, legal and ecological effects of building these systems into everyday life: it was outside their disciplinary view.

Since the mid-2000s, artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly expanded as a field in academia and as an industry, and now a handful of powerful technology corporations deploy these systems at a planetary scale. There have been extraordinary technical innovations, from real-time language translation to predicting the 3D structures of proteins 1 , 2 . But the biggest challenges remain fundamentally social and political: how AI is widening power asymmetries and wealth inequality, and creating forms of harm that need to be prioritized, remedied and regulated.

The most urgent work facing the field today is to research and remediate the costs and consequences of AI. This requires a deeper sociotechnical approach that can contend with the complex effect of AI on societies and ecologies. Although there has been important work done on algorithmic fairness in recent years 3 , 4 , not enough has been done to address how training data fundamentally skew how AI models interpret the world from the outset. Second, we need to address the human costs of AI, which range from discrimination and misinformation to the widespread reliance on underpaid labourers (such as the crowd-workers who train AI systems for as little as US $2 per hour) 5 . Third, there must be a commitment to reversing the environmental costs of AI, including the exceptionally high energy consumption of the current large computational models, and the carbon footprint of building and operating modern tensor processing hardware 6 . Finally, we need strong regulatory and policy frameworks, expanding on the EU’s draft AI Act of 2021.

By building a more interdisciplinary and inclusive AI field, and developing a more rigorous account of the full impacts of AI, we give engineers and regulators alike the tools that they need to make these systems more sustainable, equitable and just.

Kate Crawford is Research Professor at the Annenberg School, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research New York, New York, NY, USA; and the Inaugural Visiting Chair of AI and Justice at the École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France.

Anthropology

Laura M. Rival

The field of anthropology faces fundamental questions about its capacity to intervene more effectively in political debates. How can we use the knowledge that we already have to heal the imagined whole while keeping people in synchrony with each other and with the world they aspire to create for themselves and others?

The economic systems that sustain modern life have produced pernicious waste cultures. Globalization has accelerated planetary degradation and global warming through the continuous release of toxic waste. Every day, like millions of others, I dutifully clean and prepare my waste for recycling. I know it is no more than a transitory measure geared to grant manufacturers time to adjust and adapt. Reports that most waste will not be recycled, but dumped or burned, upset me deeply. How can anthropology remain a critical project in the face of such orchestrated cynicism, bad faith and indifference? How should anthropologists deploy their skills and bring a sense of shared responsibility to the task of replenishing the collective will?

To help to find answers to these questions, anthropologists need to radically rethink the ways in which we describe the processes and relations that tie communities to their environments. The extinction of experience (loss of direct contact with nature) that humankind currently suffers is massive, but not irreversible. New forms of storytelling have successfully challenged modernist myths, particularly their homophonic promises 7 . But there remain persistent challenges, such as the seductive and rampant power of one-size-fits-all progress, and the actions of elites, who thrive on emulation, and in doing so fuel run-away consumerism.

To combat these challenges, I simply reassert that ‘nature’ is far from having outlasted its historical utility. Anthropologists must join forces and reanimate their common exploration of the immense possibilities contained in human bodies and minds. No matter how overlooked or marginalized, these natural potentials hold the key to what keeps life going.

Laura M. Rival is Professor of Anthropology of Nature, Society and Development, ODID and SAME, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK .

Communication and media studies

Jean Burgess

The communication and media studies field has historically been animated by technological change. In the process, it has needed to navigate fundamental tensions: communication can be understood as both transmission (of information), and as (social) ritual 8 ; relatedly, media can be understood as both technology and as culture 9 .

The most important technological change over the past decade has been the ‘platformization’ 10 of the media environment. Large digital platforms owned by the world’s most powerful technology companies have come to have an outsized and transformative role in the transmission (distribution) of information, and in mediating social practices (whether major events or intimate daily routines). In response, digital methods have transformed the field. For example, advances in computational techniques enabled researchers to study patterns of communication on social media, leading to disciplinary trends such as the quantitative description of ‘hashtag publics’ in the mid-2010s 11 .

Platforms’ uses of data, algorithms and automation for personalization, content moderation and governance constitute a further major shift, giving rise to new methods (such as algorithmic audits) that go well beyond quantitative description 12 . But platform companies have had a patchy — at times hostile — relationship to independent research into their societal role, leading to data lockouts and even public attacks on researchers. It is important in the interests of public oversight and open science that we coordinate responses to such attempts to suppress research 13 , 14 .

As these processes of digital transformation continue, new connections between the humanities and technical disciplines will be necessary, giving rise to a new wave of methodological innovation. This next phase will also require more hybrid (qualitative and quantitative; computational and critical) methods 15 , not only to get around platform lockouts but also to ensure more careful attention is paid to how the new media technologies are used and experienced in everyday life. Here, innovative approaches such as the use of data donations can both aid the ‘platform observability’ 16 that is essential to accountability, and ensure that our research involves the perspectives of diverse audiences.

Jean Burgess is Professor of Digital Media at the School of Communication and Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC), Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland Australia; and Associate Director at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S), Melbourne, Victoria, Australia .

Computational social science

Claudia Wagner

Computational social science has emerged as a discipline that leverages computational methods and new technologies to collect, model and analyse digital behavioural data in natural environments or in large-scale designed experiments, and combine them with other data sources (such as survey data).

While the community made critical progress in enhancing our understanding about empirical phenomena such as the spread of misinformation 17 and the role of algorithms in curating misinformation 18 , it has focused less on questions about the quality and accessibility of data, the validity, reliability and reusability of measurements, the potential consequences of measurements and the connection between data, measurement and theory.

I see the following opportunities to address these issues.

First, we need to establish privacy-preserving, shared data infrastructures that collect and triangulate survey data with scientifically motivated organic or designed observational data from diverse populations 19 . For example, longitudinal online panels in which participants allow researchers to track their web browsing behaviour and link these traces to their survey answers will not only facilitate substantive research on societal questions but also enable methodological research (for example, on the quality of different data sources and measurement models), and contribute to the reproducibility of computational social science research.

Second, best practices and scientific infrastructures are needed for supporting the development, evaluation and re-use of measurements and the critical reflection on potentially harmful consequences of measurements 20 . Social scientists have developed such best practices and infrastructural support for survey measurements to avoid using instruments for which the validity is unclear or even questionable, and to support the re-usability of survey scales. I believe that practices from survey methodology and other domains, such as the medical industry, can inform our thinking here.

Finally, the fusion of algorithmic and human behaviour invites us to rethink the various ways in which data, measurements and social theories can be connected 20 . For example, product recommendations that users receive are based on measurements of users’ interests and needs: however, users and measurements are not only influenced by those recommendations, but also influence them in turn. As a community we need to develop research designs and environments that help us to systematically enhance our understanding of those feedback loops.

Claudia Wagner is Head of Computational Social Science Department at GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Köln, Germany; Professor for Applied Computational Social Sciences at RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany; and External Faculty Member of the Complexity Science Hub, Vienna, Austria .

Criminology

Daniel S. Nagin

Disciplinary silos in path-breaking science are disappearing. Criminology has had a longstanding tradition of interdisciplinarity, but mostly in the form of an uneasy truce of research from different disciplines appearing side-by-side in leading journals — a scholarly form of parallel play. In the future, this must change because the big unsolved challenges in criminology will require cooperation among all of the social and behavioural sciences.

These challenges include formally merging the macro-level themes emphasized by sociologists with the micro-, individual-level themes emphasized by psychologists and economists. Initial steps have been made by economists who apply game theory to model crime-relevant social interactions, but much remains to be done in building models that explain the formation and destruction of social trust, collective efficacy and norms, as they relate to legal definitions of criminal behaviour.

A second opportunity concerns the longstanding focus of criminology on crimes involving the physical taking of property and interpersonal physical violence. These crimes are still with us, but — as the daily news regularly reports — the internet has opened up broad new frontiers for crime that allow for thefts of property and identities at a distance, forms of extortion and human trafficking at a massive scale (often involving untraceable transactions using financial vehicles such as bitcoin) and interpersonal violence without physical contact. This is a new and largely unexplored frontier for criminological research that criminologists should dive into in collaboration with computer scientists who already are beginning to troll these virgin scholarly waters.

The final opportunity I will note also involves drawing from computer science, the primary home of what has come to be called machine learning. It is important that new generations of criminologists become proficient with machine learning methods and also collaborate with its creators. Machine learning and related statistical methods have wide applicability in both the traditional domains of criminological research and new frontiers. These include the use of prediction tools in criminal justice decision-making, which can aid in crime detection, and the prevention and measuring of crime both online and offline, but also have important implications for equity and fairness due to their consequential nature.

Daniel S. Nagin is Teresa and H. John Heinz III University Professor of Public Policy and Statistics at the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA .

Behavioural economics

Bertil Tungodden

Behavioural and experimental economics have transformed the field of economics by integrating irrationality and nonselfish motivation in the study of human behaviour and social interaction. A richer foundation of human behaviour has opened many new exciting research avenues, and I here highlight three that I find particularly promising.

Economists have typically assumed that preferences are fixed and stable, but a growing literature, combining field and laboratory experimental approaches, has provided novel evidence on how the social environment shapes our moral and selfish preferences. It has been shown that prosocial role models make people less selfish 21 , that early-childhood education affects the fairness views of children 22 and that grit can be fostered in the correct classroom environment 23 . Such insights are important for understanding how exposure to different institutions and socialization processes influence the intergenerational transmission of preferences, but much more work is needed to gain systematic and robust evidence on the malleability of the many dimensions that shape human behaviour.

The moral mind is an important determinant of human behaviour, but our understanding of the complexity of moral motivation is still in its infancy. A growing literature, using an impartial spectator design in which study participants make consequential choices for others, has shown that people often disagree on what is morally acceptable. An important example is how people differ in their view of what is a fair inequality, ranging from the libertarian fairness view to the strict egalitarian fairness view 24 , 25 . An exciting question for future research is whether such moral differences reflect a concern for other moral values, such as freedom, or irrational considerations.

A third exciting development in behavioural and experimental economics is the growing set of global studies on the foundations of human behaviour 26 , 27 . It speaks to the major concern in the social sciences that our evidence is unrepresentative and largely based on studies with samples from Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic societies 28 . The increased availability of infrastructure for implementing large-scale experimental data collections and methodological advances carry promise that behavioural and experimental economic research will broaden our understanding of the foundations of human behaviour in the coming years.

Bertil Tungodden is Professor and Scientific Director of the Centre of Excellence FAIR at NHH Norwegian School of Economics, Bergen, Norway .

Development economics

Esther Duflo

The past three decades have been a wonderful time for development economics. The number of scholars, the number of publications and the visibility of the work has dramatically increased. Development economists think about education, health, firm growth, mental health, climate, democratic rules and much more. No topic seems off limits!

This progress is intimately connected with the explosion of the use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and, more generally, with the embrace of careful causal identification. RCTs have markedly transformed development economics and made it the field that it is today.

The past three decades (until the COVID-19 crisis) have also been very good for improving the circumstances of low-income people around the world: poverty rates have fallen; school enrolment has increased; and maternal and infant mortality has been halved. Although I would not dare imply that the two trends are causally related, one of the reasons for these improvements in the quality of life — even in countries where economic growth has been slow — is the greater focus on pragmatic solutions to the fundamental problems faced by people with few resources. In many countries, development economics researchers (particularly those working with RCTs) have been closely involved with policy-makers, helping them to develop, implement and test these solutions. In turn, this involvement has been a fertile ground for new questions, which have enriched the field.

I imagine future change will, once again, come from an unexpected place. One possible driver of innovation will come from this meeting between the requirements of policy and the intellectual ambition of researchers. This means that the new challenges of our planet must (and will) become the new challenges of development economics. Those challenges are, I believe, quite clear: rethinking social protection to be better prepared to face risks such as the COVID-19 pandemic; mitigating, but unfortunately also adapting to, climate changes; curbing pollution; and addressing gender, racial and ethnic inequality.

To address these critical issues, I believe the field will continue to rely on RCTs, but also start using more creatively (descriptively or in combination with RCTs) the huge amount of data that is increasingly available as governments, even in poor countries, digitize their operations. I cannot wait to be surprised by what comes next.

Esther Duflo is The Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA, USA; and cofounder and codirector of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) .

Political science

Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier

Political science remains one of the most pluralistic disciplines and we are on the move towards engaged pluralism. This takes us beyond mere tolerance to true, sincere engagement across methods, methodologies, theories and even disciplinary boundaries. Engaged pluralism means doing the hard work of understanding our own research from the multiple perspectives of others.

More data are being collected on human behaviour than ever before and our advances in methods better address the inherent interdependencies of the data across time, space and context. There are new ways to measure human behaviour via text, image and video. Data creation can even go back in time. All these advancements bode well for the potential to better understand and predict behaviour. This ‘data century’ and ‘golden age of methods’ also hold the promise to bridge, not divide, political science, provided that there is engaged methodological pluralism. Qualitative methods provide unique insights and perspectives when joined with quantitative methods, as does a broader conception of the methodologies underlying and launching our research.

I remain a strong proponent of leveraging dynamics and focusing on heterogeneity in our research questions to advance our disciplines. Doing so brings in an explicit perspective of comparison around similarity and difference. Our questions, hypotheses and theories are often made more compelling when considering the dynamics and heterogeneity that emerges when thinking about time and change.

Striving for a better understanding of gender, race and ethnicity is driving deeper and fuller understandings of central questions in the social sciences. The diversity of the research teams themselves across gender, sex, race, ethnicity, first-generation status, religion, ideology, partisanship and cultures also pushes advancement. One area that we need to better support is career diversity. Supporting careers in government, non-profit organizations and industry, as well as academia, for graduate students will enhance our disciplines and accelerate the production of knowledge that changes the world.

Engaged pluralism remains a foundational key to advancement in political science. Engaged pluralism supports critical diversity, equity and inclusion work, strengthens political scientists’ commitment to democratic principles, and encourages civic engagement more broadly. It is an exciting time to be a social scientist.

Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier is Vernal Riffe Professor of Political Science, Professor of Sociology (courtesy) and Distinguished University Professor at the Department of Political Science, Ohio State University, Columbus OH, USA; and immediate past President of the American Political Science Association .

Cognitive psychology

Andrew Perfors

Cognitive psychology excels at understanding questions whose problem-space is well-defined, with precisely specified theories that transparently map onto thoroughly explored experimental paradigms. That means there is a vast gulf between the current state of the art and the richness and complexity of cognition in the real world. The most exciting open questions are about how to bridge that gap without sacrificing rigour and precision. This requires at least three changes.

First, we must move beyond typical experiments. Stimuli must become less artificial, with a naturalistic structure and distribution. Similarly, tasks must become more ecologically valid: less isolated, with more uncertainty, embedded in natural situations and over different time-scales.

Second, we must move beyond considering individuals in isolation. We live in a rich social world and an environment that is heavily shaped by other humans. How we think, learn and act is deeply affected by how other people think and interact with us; cognitive science needs to engage with this more.

Third, we must move beyond the metaphor of humans as computers. Our cognition is deeply intertwined with our emotions, motivations and senses. These are more than just parameters in our minds; they have a complexity and logic of their own, and interact in nontrivial ways with each other and more typical cognitive domains such as learning, reasoning and acting.

How do we make progress on these steps? We need reliable real-world data that are comparable across people and situations, reflect the cognitive processes involved and are not changed by measurement. Technology may help us with this, but challenges surrounding privacy and data quality are huge. Our models and analytic approaches must also grow in complexity — commensurate with the growth in problem and data complexity — without becoming intractable or losing their explanatory power.

Success in this endeavour calls for a different kind of science that is not centred around individual laboratories or small stand-alone projects. The biggest advances will be achieved on the basis of large, rich, real-world datasets from different populations, created and analysed in collaborative teams that span multiple domains, fields and approaches. This requires incentive structures that reward team-focused, slower science and prioritize the systematic construction of reliable knowledge over splashy findings.

Andrew Perfors is Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Complex Human Data Hub, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia .

Cultural and social psychology

Ying-yi Hong

I am writing this at an exceptional moment in human history. For two years, the world has faced the COVID-19 pandemic and there is no end in sight. Cultural and social psychology are uniquely equipped to understand the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically examining how people, communities and countries are dealing with this extreme global crisis — especially at a time when many parts of the world are already experiencing geopolitical upheaval.

During the pandemic, and across different nations and regions, a diverse set of strategies (and subsequent levels of effectiveness) were used to curb the spread of the disease. In the first year of the pandemic, research revealed that some cultural worldviews — such as collectivism (versus individualism) and tight (versus loose) norms — were positively associated with compliance with COVID-19 preventive measures as well as with fewer infections and deaths 29 , 30 . These worldview differences arguably stem from different perspectives on abiding to social norms and prioritizing the collective welfare over an individual’s autonomy and liberty. Although in the short term it seems that a collectivist or tight worldview has been advantageous, it is unclear whether this will remain the case in the long term. Cultural worldviews are ‘tools’ that individuals use to decipher the meaning of their environment, and are dynamic rather than static 31 . Future research can examine how cultural worldviews and global threats co-evolve.

The pandemic has also amplified the demarcation of national, political and other major social categories. On the one hand, identification with some groups (for example, national identity) was found to increase in-group care and thus a greater willingness to sacrifice personal autonomy to comply with COVID-19 measures 32 . On the other hand, identification with other groups (for example, political parties) widened the ideological divide between groups and drove opposing behaviours towards COVID-19 measures and health outcomes 33 . As we are facing climate change and other pressing global challenges, understanding the role of social identities and how they affect worldviews, cognition and behaviour will be vital. How can we foster more inclusive (versus exclusive) identities that can unite rather than divide people and nations?

Ying-yi Hong is Choh-Ming Li Professor of Management and Associate Dean (Research) at the Department of Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China .

Developmental psychology

Alison Gopnik

Developmental psychology is similar to the kind of book or band that, paradoxically, everyone agrees is underrated. On the one hand, children and the people who care for them are often undervalued and overlooked. On the other, since Piaget, developmental research has tackled some of the most profound philosophical questions about every kind of human behaviour. This will only continue into the future.

Psychologists increasingly recognize that the minds of children are not just a waystation or an incomplete version of adult minds. Instead, childhood is a distinct evolutionarily adaptive phase of an organism, with its own characteristic cognitions, emotions and motivations. These characteristics of childhood reflect a different agenda than those of the adult mind — a drive to explore rather than exploit. This drive comes with motivations such as curiosity, emotions such as wonder and surprise and remarkable cognitive learning capacities. A new flood of research on curiosity, for example, shows that children actively seek out the information that will help them to learn the most.

The example of curiosity also reflects the exciting prospects for interdisciplinary developmental science. Machine learning is increasingly using children’s learning as a model, and developmental psychologists are developing more precise models as a result. Curiosity-based AI can illuminate both human and machine intelligence. Collaborations with biology are also exciting: for example, in work on evolutionary ‘life history’ explanations of the effects of adverse experiences on later life, and new research on plasticity and sensitive periods in neuroscience. Finally, children are at the cutting edge of culture, and developmental psychologists increasingly conduct a much wider range of cross-cultural studies.

But perhaps the most important development is that policy-makers are finally starting to realize just how crucial children are to important social issues. Developmental science has shown that providing children with the care that they need can decrease poverty, inequality, disease and violence. But that care has been largely invisible to policy-makers and politicians. Understanding scientifically how caregiving works and how to support it more effectively will be the most important challenge for developmental psychology in the next century.

Alison Gopnik is Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Professor of Philosophy at the Department of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA .

Science of science

Cassidy R. Sugimoto

Why study science? The goal of science is to advance knowledge to improve the human condition. It is, therefore, essential that we understand how science operates to maximize efficiency and social good. The metasciences are fields that are devoted to understanding the scientific enterprise. These fields are distinguished by differing epistemologies embedded in their names: the philosophy, history and sociology of science represent canonical metasciences that use theories and methods from their mother disciplines. The ‘science of science’ uses empirical approaches to understand the mechanisms of science. As mid-twentieth-century science historian Derek de Solla Price observed, science of science allows us to “turn the tools of science on science itself” 34 .

Contemporary questions in the science of science investigate, inter alia, catalysts of discovery and innovation, consequences of increased access to scientific information, role of teams in knowledge creation and the implications of social stratification on the scientific enterprise. Investigation of these issues require triangulation of data and integration across the metasciences, to generate robust theories, model on valid assumptions and interpret results appropriately. Community-owned infrastructure and collective venues for communication are essential to achieve these goals. The construction of large-scale science observatories, for example, would provide an opportunity to capture the rapidly expanding dataverse, collaborate and share data, and provide nimble translations of data into information for policy-makers and the scientific community.

The topical foci of the field are also undergoing rapid transformation. The expansion of datasets enables researchers to analyse a fuller population, rather than a narrow sample that favours particular communities. The field has moved from an elitist focus on ‘success’ and ‘impact’ to a more-inclusive and prosopographical perspective. Conversations have shifted from citations, impact factors and h -indices towards responsible indicators, diversity and broader impacts. Instead of asking ‘how can we predict the next Nobel prize winner?’, we can ask ‘what are the consequences of attrition in the scientific workforce?’. The turn towards contextualized measurements that use more inclusive datasets to understand the entire system of science places the science of science in a ripe position to inform policy and propel us towards a more innovative and equitable future.

Cassidy R. Sugimoto is Professor and Tom and Marie Patton School Chair, School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA .

Sari Hanafi

In the past few years, we have been living through times in which reasonable debate has become impossible. Demagogical times are driven by the vertiginous rise of populism and authoritarianism, which we saw in the triumph of Donald Trump in the USA and numerous other populist or authoritarian leaders in many places around the globe. There are some pressing tasks for sociology that can be, in brief, reduced to three.

First, fostering democracy and the democratization process requires disentangling the constitutive values that compose the liberal political project (personal liberty, equality, moral autonomy and multiculturalism) to address the question of social justice and to accommodate the surge in people’s religiosity in many parts in the globe.

Second, the struggle for the environment is inseparable from our choice of political economy, and from the nature of our desired economic system — and these connections between human beings and nature have never been as intimate as they are now. Past decades saw rapid growth that was based on assumptions of the long-term stability of the fixed costs of raw materials and energy. But this is no longer the case. More recently, financial speculation intensified and profits shrunk, generating distributional conflicts between workers, management, owners and tax authorities. The nature of our economic system is now in acute crisis.

The answer lies in a consciously slow-growing new economy that incorporates the biophysical foundations of economics into its functioning mechanisms. Society and nature cannot continue to be perceived each as differentiated into separate compartments. The spheres of nature, culture, politics, social, economy and religion are indeed traversed by common logics that allow a given society to be encompassed in its totality, exactly as Marcel Mauss 35 did. The logic of power and interests embodied in ‘ Homo economicus ’ prevents us from being able to see the potentiality of human beings to cultivate gift-giving practices as an anthropological foundation innate within social relationships.

Third, there are serious social effects of digitalized forms of labour and the trend of replacing labour with an automaton. Even if digital labour partially reduces the unemployment rate, the lack of social protection for digital labourers would have tremendous effects on future generations.

In brief, it is time to connect sociology to moral and political philosophy to address fundamentally post-COVID-19 challenges.

Sari Hanafi is Professor of Sociology at the American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon; and President of the International Sociological Association .

Environmental studies (climate change)

Yasuko Kameyama

Climate change has been discussed for more than 40 years as a multilateral issue that poses a great threat to humankind and ecosystems. Unfortunately, we are still talking about the same issue today. Why can’t we solve this problem, even though scientists pointed out its importance and urgency so many years ago?

These past years have been spent trying to prove the causal relationship between an increase in greenhouse gas concentrations, global temperature rise and various extreme weather events, as well as developing and disseminating technologies needed to reduce emissions. All of these tasks have been handled by experts in the field. At the same time, the general public invested little time in this movement, probably expecting that the problem would be solved by experts and policy-makers. But that has not been the case. No matter how much scientists have emphasized the crisis of climate change or how many clean energy technologies engineers have developed, society has resisted making the necessary changes. Now, the chances of keeping the temperature rise within 1.5 °C of pre-industrial levels — the goal necessary to minimize the effects of climate change — are diminishing.

We seem to finally be realizing the importance of social scientific knowledge. People need to take scientific information seriously for clean technology to be quickly diffused. Companies are more interested in investing in newer technology and product development when they know that their products will sell. Because environmental problems are caused by human activity, research on human behaviour is indispensable in solving these problems.

Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have not devoted many pages to the areas of human awareness and behaviour ( https://www.ipcc.ch/ ). The IPCC’s Third Working Group, which deals with mitigation measures, has partially spotlighted research on institutions, as well as on concepts such as fairness. People’s perception of climate change and the relationship between perception and behavioural change differ depending on the country, societal structure and culture. Additional studies in these areas are required and, for that purpose, more studies from regions such as Asia, Africa and South America, which are underrepresented in terms of the number of academic publications, are particularly needed.

Yasuko Kameyama is Director, Social Systems Division, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan .

Sustainability (food systems)

Mario Herrero

The food system is in dire straits. Food demand is unprecedented, while malnutrition in all its forms (obesity, undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies) is rampant. Environmental degradation is pervasive and increasing, and if it continues, the comfort zone for humanity and ecosystems to thrive will be seriously compromised. From bruises and shapes to sell-by dates, we tend to find many reasons to exclude perfectly edible food from our plates, whereas in other cases not enough food reaches hungry mouths owing to farming methods, pests and lack of adequate storage. These types of inequalities are common and — together with inherent perverse incentives that maintain the status quo of how we produce, consume and waste increasingly cheap and processed food — they are launching us towards a disaster.

We are banking on a substantial transformation of the food system to solve this conundrum. Modifying food consumption and waste patterns are central to the plan for achieving healthier diets, while increasing the sustainability of our food system. This is also an attractive policy proposition, as it could lead to gains in several sectors. Noncommunicable diseases such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease could decline, while reducing the effects of climate change, deforestation, excessive water withdrawals and biodiversity loss, and their enormous associated — and largely unaccounted — costs.

Modifying our food consumption and waste patterns is very hard, and unfortunately we know very little about how to change them at scale. Yes, many pilots and small examples exist on pricing, procurement, food environments and others, but the evidence is scarce, and the magnitude of the change required demands an unprecedented transdisciplinary research agenda. The problem is at the centre of human agency and behaviour, embodying culture, habits, values, social status, economics and all aspects of agri-food systems. Certainly, one of the big research areas for the next decade if we are to reach the Sustainable Development Goals leaving no one behind.

Mario Herrero is Professor, Cornell Atkinson scholar and Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences at the Department of Global Development, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA .

Cultural evolution

Laurel Fogarty

Humans are the ultimate ‘cultural animals’. We are innovative, pass our cultures to one another across generations and build vast self-constructed environments that reflect our cultural biases. We achieve things using our cultural capacities that are unimaginable for any other species on earth. And yet we have only begun to understand the dynamics of cultural change, the drivers of cultural complexity or the ways that we adapt culturally to changing environments. Scholars — anthropologists, archaeologists and sociologists — have long studied culture, aiming to describe and understand its staggering diversity. The relatively new field of cultural evolution has different aims, one of the most important of which is to understand the mechanics in the background — what general principles, if any, govern human cultural change?

Although the analogy of culture as an evolutionary process has been made since at least the time of Darwin 36 , 37 , cultural evolution as a robust field of study is much younger. From its beginnings with the pioneering work of Cavalli-Sforza & Feldman 38 , 39 , 40 and Boyd & Richerson 41 , 42 , the field of cultural evolution has been heavily theoretical. It has drawn on models from genetic evolution 40 , 43 , 44 , 45 , ecology 46 , 47 and epidemiology 40 , 48 , extending and adapting them to account for unique and important aspects of cultural transmission. Indeed, in its short life, the field of cultural evolution has largely been dominated by a growing body of theory that ensured that the fledgling field started out on solid foundations. Because it underpins and makes possible novel applications of cultural evolutionary ideas, theoretical cultural evolution’s continued development is not only crucial to the field’s growth but also represents some of its most exciting future work.

One of the most urgent tasks for cultural evolution researchers in the next five years is to develop, alongside its theoretical foundations, robust principles of application 49 , 50 , 51 . In other words, it is vital to develop our understanding of what we can — and, crucially, cannot — infer from different types of cultural data. Where do we draw those boundaries and how can we apply cultural evolutionary theory to cultural datasets in a principled way? The tandem development of robust theory and principled application has the potential to strengthen cultural evolution as a robust, useful and ground-breaking inferential science of human behaviour.

Laurel Fogarty is Senior Scientist at the Department of Human Behaviour, Ecology, and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany .

Over the past decade, research using molecular genetic data has confirmed one of the main conclusions of twin studies: all human behaviour is partly heritable 52 , 53 . Attempts at examining the link between genetics and behaviour have been met with concerns that the findings can be abused to justify discrimination — and there are good historical grounds for these concerns. However, these findings also show that ignoring the contribution of genes to variation in human behaviour could be detrimental to a complete understanding of social phenomena, given the complex ways that genes and environment interact.

Uncovering these complex pathways has become feasible only recently thanks to rapid technological progress reducing the costs of genotyping. Sample sizes in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have risen from tens of thousands to millions in the past decade, reporting thousands of genetic variants associated with different behaviours 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 . New ways to use GWAS results have emerged, the most important one arguably being a method to aggregate the additive effects of many genetic variants into a ‘polygenic index’ (PGI) (also known as a ‘polygenic score’) that summarizes an individual’s genetic propensity towards a trait or behaviour 58 , 59 . Being aggregate measures, PGIs capture a much larger share of the variance in the trait of interest compared to individual genetic variants 60 . Thus, they have paved the way for follow-up studies with smaller sample sizes but deeper phenotyping compared to the original GWAS, allowing researchers to, for example, analyse the channels through which genes operate 61 , 62 , how they interact with the environment 63 , 64 , and account for confounding bias and boost statistical power by controlling for genetic effects 65 , 66 .

Useful as they are, PGIs and the GWAS that they are based on can suffer from confounding due to environmental factors that correlate with genotypes, such as population stratification, indirect effect from relatives or assortative mating 67 . Now that the availability of genetic data enables large-scale within-family GWAS, the next big thing in behaviour genetic research will be disentangling these sources 68 . While carrying the progress further, it is important that the field prioritizes moving away from its currently predominant Eurocentric bias by extending data collection and analyses to individuals of non-European ancestries, as the exclusion of non-European ancestries from genetic research has the potential to exacerbate health disparities 69 . Researchers should also be careful to communicate their findings clearly and responsibly to the public and guard against their misappropriation by attempts to fuel discriminatory action and discourse 70 .

Aysu Okbay is Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics, School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands .

Cognitive neuroscience

Anna C. Nobre

Since the ‘decade of the brain’ in the 1990s, ingenuity in cognitive neuroscience has focused on measuring and analysing brain signals. Adapting tools from statistics, engineering, computer science, physics and other disciplines, we studied activity, states, connectivity, interactions, time courses and dynamics in brain regions and networks. Unexpected findings about the brain yielded important insights about the mind.

Now is a propitious time to upgrade the brain–mind duumvirate to a brain–mind–behaviour triumvirate. Brain and mind are embodied, and their workings are expressed through various effectors. Yet, experimental tasks typically use simple responses to capture complex psychological functions. Often, a button press — with its limited dimensions of latency and accuracy — measures anticipating, focusing, evaluating, choosing, reflecting or remembering. Researchers venturing beyond such simple responses are uncovering how the contents of mind can be studied using various continuous measures, such as pupil diameter, gaze shifts and movement trajectories.

Most tasks also restrict participants’ movements to ensure experimental control. However, we are learning that principles of cognition derived in artificial laboratory contexts can fail to generalize to natural behaviour. Virtual reality should prove a powerful methodology. Participants can behave naturally, and experimenters can control stimulation and obtain quality measures of gaze, hand and body movements. Noninvasive neurophysiology methods are becoming increasingly portable. Exciting immersive brain–mind–behaviour studies are just ahead.

The next necessary step is out of the academic bubble. Today the richest data on human behaviour belong to the information and technology industries. In our routines, we contribute data streams through telephones, keyboards, watches, vehicles and countless smart devices in the internet of things. These expose properties such as processing speed, fluency, attention, dexterity, navigation and social context. We supplement these by broadcasting feelings, attitudes and opinions through social media and other forums. The richness and scale of the resulting big data offer unprecedented opportunities for deriving predictive patterns that are relevant to understanding human cognition (and its disorders). The outcomes can then guide further hypothesis-driven experimentation. Cognitive neuroscience is intrinsically collaborative, combining a broad spectrum of disciplines to study the mind. Its challenge now is to move from a multidisciplinary to a multi-enterprise science.

Anna C. Nobre is Chair in Translational Cognitive Neuroscience at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK; and Director of Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, UK .

Social and affective neuroscience

Tatia M. C. Lee

Social and affective neuroscience is a relatively new, but rapidly developing, field of neuroscience. Social and affective neuroscience research takes a multilevel approach to make sense of socioaffective processes, focusing on macro- (for example, social environments and structures), meso- (for example, social interactions) and micro (for example, socio-affective neural processes and perceptions)-level interactions. Because the products of these interactions are person-specific, the conventional application of group-averaged mechanisms to understand the brain in a socioemotional context has been reconsidered. Researchers turn to ecologically valid stimuli (for example, dynamic and virtual reality instead of static stimuli) and experimental settings (for example, real-time social interaction) 71 to address interindividual differences in social and affective responses. At the neural level, there has been a shift of research focus from local neural activations to large-scale synchronized interactions across neural networks. Network science contributes to the understanding of dynamic changes of neural processes that reflect the interactions and interconnection of neural structures that underpin social and affective processes.

We are living in an ever-changing socioaffective world, full of unexpected challenges. The ageing population and an increasing prevalence of depression are social phenomena on a global scale. Social isolation and loneliness caused by measures to tackle the current pandemic affect physical and psychological well-being of people from all walks of life. These global issues require timely research efforts to generate potential solutions. In this regard, social and affective neuroscience research using computational modelling, longitudinal research designs and multimodal data integration will create knowledge about the basis of adaptive and maladaptive social and affective neurobehavioural processes and responses 72 , 73 , 74 . Such knowledge offers important insights into the precise delineation of brain–symptom relationships, and hence the development of prediction models of cognitive and socioaffective functioning (for example, refs. 75 , 76 ). Therefore, screening tools for identifying potential vulnerabilities can be developed, and timely and precise interventions can be tailored to meet individual situations and needs. The translational application of social and affective neuroscience research to precision medicine (and policy) is experiencing unprecedented demand, and such demand is met with unprecedented clinical and research capabilities.

Tatia M. C. Lee is Chair Professor of Psychology at the State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Laboratory of Neuropsychology and Human Neuroscience, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China .

Maurizio Corbetta

Focal brain disorders, including stroke, trauma and epilepsy, are the main causes of disability and loss of productivity in the world, and carry a cumulative cost in Europe of about € 500 billion per year 77 . The disease process affects a specific circuit in the brain by turning it off (as in stroke) or pathologically turning it on (as in epilepsy). The cause of the disabling symptoms is typically local circuit damage. However, there is now overwhelming evidence that symptoms reflect not only local pathology but also widespread (network) functional abnormalities. For instance, in stroke, an average lesion — the size of a golf ball — typically alters the activity of on average 25% of all brain connections. Furthermore, normalization of these abnormalities correlates with optimal recovery of function 78 , 79 .

One exciting treatment opportunity is ‘circuit-based’ stimulation: an ensemble of methods (optogenetic, photoacoustic, electrochemical, magnetic and electrical) that have the potential to normalize activity. Presently, this type of therapy is limited by numerous factors, including a lack of knowledge about the circuits, the difficulty of mapping these circuits in single patients and, most importantly, a principled understanding of where and how to stimulate to produce functional recovery.

A possible solution lies in a strategy (developed with G. Deco, M. Massimini and M. Sanchez-Vivez) that starts with an in-depth assessment of behaviour and physiological studies of brain activity to characterize the affected circuits and associated patterns of functional abnormalities. Such a multi-dimensional physiological map of a lesioned brain can be then fed to biologically realistic in silico models 80 . A model of a lesioned brain affords the opportunity to explore, in an exhaustive way, different kinds of stimulation to normalize faulty activity. Once a suitable protocol is found it can be exported first to animal models, and then to humans. Stimulation alone will not be enough. Pairing with behavioural training (rehabilitation) will stabilize learning and normalize connections.

The ability to interface therapy (stimulation, rehabilitation and drugs) with brain signals or other kinds of behavioural sensor offers another exciting opportunity, to open the ‘brain’s black box’. Most current treatments in neuroscience are given with no regard to their effect on the underlying brain signals or behaviour. Giving patients conscious access to their own brain signals may substantially enhance recovery, as the brain is now in the position to use its own powerful connections and learning mechanisms to cure itself.

Maurizio Corbetta is Professor and Chair of Neurology at the Department of Neuroscience and Director of the Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padova, Italy; and Principal Investigator at the Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM), Padova, Italy .

Merete Nordentoft

Schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders are among the costliest and most debilitating disorders in terms of personal sufferings for those affected, for relatives and for society 81 . These disorders often require long-term treatment and, for a substantial proportion of the patients, the outcomes are poor. This has motivated efforts to prevent long-lasting illness by early intervention. The time around the onset of psychotic disorders is associated with an increased risk of suicide, of loss of affiliation with the labour market, and social isolation and exclusion. Therefore, prevention and treatment of first-episode psychosis will be a key challenge for the future.

There is now solid evidence proving that early intervention services can improve clinical outcomes 82 . This was first demonstrated in the large Danish OPUS trial, in which OPUS treatment — consisting of assertive outreach, case management and family involvement, provided by multidisciplinary teams over a two-year period — was shown to improve clinical outcomes 83 . Moreover, it was also cost-effective 84 . Although the positive effects on clinical outcomes were not sustainable after five and ten years, there was a long-lasting effect on use of supported housing facilities (indicating improved ability to live independently) 85 . Later trials proved that it is possible to maintain the positive clinical outcomes by extending the services to five years or by offering a stepped care model with continued intensive care for the patients who are most impaired 86 . However, even though both clinical and functional outcomes (such as labour market affiliation) can be improved by evidence-based treatments 82 , a large group of patients with first-episode psychosis still have psychotic symptoms after ten years. Thus, there is still an urgent need for identification of new and better options for treatment.

Most probably, some of the disease processes start long before first onset of a psychotic disorder. Thus, identifying disease mechanisms and possibilities for intervention before onset of psychosis will be extremely valuable. Evidence for effective preventive interventions is very limited, and the most burning question — of how to prevent psychosis — is still open.

The early intervention approach is also promising also for other disorders, including bipolar affective disorder, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, personality disorders, autism and attention-deficient hyperactivity disorder.

Merete Nordentoft is Clinical Professor at the Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; and Principal Investigator, CORE - Copenhagen Research Centre for Mental Health, Mental Health Centre Copenhagen, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark .

Epidemiology

Gabriel M. Leung

In a widely anthologized article from the business field of marketing, Levitt 87 pointed out that often industries failed to grow because they suffered from a limited market view. For example, Kodak went bust because it narrowly defined itself as a film camera company for still photography rather than one that should have been about imaging writ large. If it had had that strategic insight, it would have exploited and invested in digital technologies aggressively and perhaps gone down the rather more successful path of Fujifilm — or even developed into territory now cornered by Netflix.

The raison d’être of epidemiology has been to provide a set of robust scientific methods that underpin public health practice. In turn, the field of public health has expanded to fulfil the much-wider and more-intensive demands of protecting, maintaining and promoting the health of local and global populations, intergenerationally. At its broadest, the mission of public health should be to advance social justice towards a complete state of health.

Therefore, epidemiologists should continue to recruit and embrace relevant methodology sets that could answer public health questions, better and more efficiently. For instance, Davey Smith and Ebrahim 88 described how epidemiology adapted instrumental variable analysis that had been widely deployed in econometrics to fundamentally improve causal inference in observational epidemiology. Conversely, economists have not been shy in adopting the randomized controlled trial design to answer questions of development, and have recognized it with a Nobel prize 89 . COVID-19 has brought mathematical epidemiology or modelling to the fore. The foundations of the field borrowed heavily from population dynamics and ecological theory.

In future, classical epidemiology, which has mostly focused on studying how the exposome associates with the phenome, needs to take into simultaneous account the other layers of the multiomics universe — from the genome to the metabolome to the microbiome 90 . Another area requiring innovative thinking concerns how to harness big data to better understand human behaviour 91 . Finally, we must consider key questions that are amenable to epidemiologic investigation arising from the major global health challenges: climate change, harmful addictions and mental wellness. What new methodological tools do we need to answer these questions?

Epidemiologists must keep trying on new lenses that correct our own siloed myopia.

Gabriel M. Leung is Helen and Francis Zimmern Professor in Population Health at WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control, School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong; Chief Scientific Officer at Laboratory of Data Discovery for Health, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park; and Dean of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China .

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Box-Steffensmeier, J.M., Burgess, J., Corbetta, M. et al. The future of human behaviour research. Nat Hum Behav 6 , 15–24 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01275-6

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Community Safety as a Social Determinant of Health: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief  (2024)

Incorporating Integrated Diagnostics into Precision Oncology Care: Proceedings of a Workshop  (2024)

The Science of Engaging Youth Lived Experience in Health Research, Practice, and Policy: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief  (2024)

Creating an Integrated System of Data and Statistics on Household Income, Consumption, and Wealth: Time to Build  (2024)

Harassment and Violence Against Health Professionals Who Provide Reproductive Care: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief  (2024)

Reproductive Health, Equity, and Society: Exploring Data Challenges and Needs in the Wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization Decision: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief  (2024)

Aging in Place with Dementia: Proceedings of a Workshop  (2024)

Developing an Agenda for Population Aging and Social Research in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs): Proceedings of a Workshop  (2024)

Toward a 21st Century National Data Infrastructure: Managing Privacy and Confidentiality Risks with Blended Data  (2024)

State-Level Legal and Political Strategies Following the Repeal of Roe v. Wade: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief  (2024)

Types of publications.

Proceedings: Proceedings published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine chronicle the presentations and discussions at a workshop, symposium, or other event convened by the National Academies. The statements and opinions contained in proceedings are those of the participants and are not endorsed by other participants, the planning committee, or the National Academies.

Consensus Study Reports: Consensus Study Reports published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine document the evidence-based consensus on the study’s statement of task by an authoring committee of experts. Reports typically include findings, conclusions, and recommendations based on information gathered by the committee and the committee’s deliberations. Each report has been subjected to a rigorous and independent peer-review process and it represents the position of the National Academies on the statement of task.

Rapid Expert Consultation: Rapid Expert Consultations published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are authored by subject-matter experts on narrowly focused topics that can be supported by a body of evidence. The discussions contained in rapid expert consultations are considered those of the authors and do not contain policy recommendations. Rapid expert consultations are reviewed by the institution before release.

Behavioral and Social Sciences | Topic

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Innovative Ideas to Counter Disinformation

A National Academies workshop will bring together a wide range of participants on April 10-11 to explore actionable technological, legal, educational, and social science solutions to identify and counter disinformation on social media. The event will investigate promising ideas that the workshop planning committee selected from more than 100 submissions.

Coordinating Economic Data on U.S. Households

A new report calls for a national data infrastructure to produce more accurate and consistent data and statistics about household income, wealth, and consumption. Coordination would improve data on economic disparities and better inform research to understand patterns of well-being and the economic impacts of policies.

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• Implementing A New Vision for High Quality Pre-K Curriculum: A Workshop
• Agriculture, Food Systems and Climate Security: A Workshop
• Global Forced Migration and U.S. Resettlement
• Artificial Intelligence in Education and Mental Health for a Sustainable Future: A Workshop
• Public Infrastructure for Effective Climate Mitigation and Adaptation: A Workshop
• After Roe: A Webinar Series
• Engaging and Supporting Leaders to Develop an Inclusive and Equitable STEMM Research Ecosystem in Higher Education: A Workshop
• Health in Buildings Roundtable

Publications

The National Academies Roundtable on Population Health Improvement and the Forum on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders held a public workshop in December 2023 to explore various dimensions of community safety and violence prevention in the U.S. Speakers highlighted attributes of physical spaces and social structures that create and reinforce safer communities. Discussions also covered identity-based violence, threats to interpersonal safety, frameworks for reimagining safety, and related policy and program solutions.

Community Safety as a Social Determinant of Health: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The convergence of imaging, pathology, and laboratory testing data, augmented with information technology, is referred to as integrated diagnostics. To examine the current state of the science and strategies to facilitate precision cancer care through integrated diagnostics, the National Academies National Cancer Policy Forum hosted a public workshop in collaboration with the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board and the Board on Human-Systems Integration.

Incorporating Integrated Diagnostics into Precision Oncology Care: Proceedings of a Workshop

There is a growing body of evidence demonstrating the value of incorporating youth voices in the development of research and programming aimed at supporting youth well-being. On October 11 and 12, 2023, the Forum for Childrens Well-Being hosted a two-day virtual public workshop, The Science of Engaging Youth Lived Experience in Health Research, Practice, and Policy, which was designed to explore the impacts of youth participatory methods including the potential for participatory methods to produce more effective, relevant, and sustainable interventions; the potential for participatory methods to engage historically marginalized communities among youth; the challenges of instituting participatory methods, including time, budgetary expenditures, and training; and opportunities to better incorporate participatory methods into research, systems, and programs for child well-being.

The Science of Engaging Youth Lived Experience in Health Research, Practice, and Policy: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Many federal agencies provide data and statistics on inequality and related aspects of household income, consumption, and wealth (ICW). However, because the information provided by these agencies is often produced using different concepts, underlying data, and methods, the resulting estimates of poverty, inequality, mean and median household income, consumption, and wealth, as well as other statistics, do not always tell a consistent or easily interpretable story. Measures also differ in their accuracy, timeliness, and relevance so that it is difficult to address such questions as the effects of the Great Recession on household finances or of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing relief efforts on household income and consumption. The presence of multiple, sometimes conflicting statistics at best muddies the waters of policy debates and, at worst, enable advocates with different policy perspectives to cherry-pick their preferred set of estimates. Achieving an integrated system of relevant, high-quality, and transparent household ICW data and statistics should go far to reduce disagreement about who has how much, and from what sources. Further, such data are essential to advance research on economic wellbeing and to ensure that policies are well targeted to achieve societal goals.

Creating an Integrated System of Data and Statistics on Household Income, Consumption, and Wealth reviews the major household ICW statistics currently produced by U.S. statistical agencies and provides guidance for modernizing the information to better inform policy and research, such as understanding trends in inequality and mobility. This report provides recommendations for developing an improved 21st century data system for measuring the extent to which economic prosperity is shared by households throughout the population and for understanding how the distribution of resources is affected by government policy and economic events.

Creating an Integrated System of Data and Statistics on Household Income, Consumption, and Wealth: Time to Build

Protecting privacy and ensuring confidentiality in data is a critical component of modernizing our national data infrastructure. The use of blended data - combining previously collected data sources - presents new considerations for responsible data stewardship. Toward a 21st Century National Data Infrastructure: Managing Privacy and Confidentiality Risks with Blended Data provides a framework for managing disclosure risks that accounts for the unique attributes of blended data and poses a series of questions to guide considered decision-making.

Technical approaches to manage disclosure risk have advanced. Recent federal legislation, regulation and guidance has described broadly the roles and responsibilities for stewardship of blended data. The report, drawing from the panel review of both technical and policy approaches, addresses these emerging opportunities and the new challenges and responsibilities they present. The report underscores that trade-offs in disclosure risks, disclosure harms, and data usefulness are unavoidable and are central considerations when planning data-release strategies, particularly for blended data.

Toward a 21st Century National Data Infrastructure: Managing Privacy and Confidentiality Risks with Blended Data

Facial recognition technology is increasingly used for identity verification and identification, from aiding law enforcement investigations to identifying potential security threats at large venues. However, advances in this technology have outpaced laws and regulations, raising significant concerns related to equity, privacy, and civil liberties.

This report explores the current capabilities, future possibilities, and necessary governance for facial recognition technology. Facial Recognition Technology discusses legal, societal, and ethical implications of the technology, and recommends ways that federal agencies and others developing and deploying the technology can mitigate potential harms and enact more comprehensive safeguards.

Facial Recognition Technology: Current Capabilities, Future Prospects, and Governance

In December 2023, the National Academies hosted a public webinar in which medical and human rights experts explored concerns related to harassment, threats, and physical attacks against health care professionals working to provide essential reproductive health care. The event was the fourth in a webinar series designed to consider society-wide effects of limits to reproductive health care access in the U.S. following the 2022 Supreme Court Decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization. This Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief highlights the presentations and discussions that occurred at the webinar.

Harassment and Violence Against Health Professionals Who Provide Reproductive Care: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

In the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision, the U.S. Supreme Court removed the constitutional right to abortion by overturning Roe v. Wade, challenging and restricting the access and quality of Americans reproductive health care. In October 2023, the National Academies hosted a hybrid public workshop discussing new partnerships and methodologies in data generation, data integrity, data-sharing, and patient privacy needed to enable the health care and policymaking communities to understand the effects of resulting policies across the United States.

Reproductive Health, Equity, and Society: Exploring Data Challenges and Needs in the Wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization Decision: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) is one of the U.S. Census Bureau’s major surveys with features making it a uniquely valuable resource for researchers and policy analysts. However, the Census Bureau faces the challenge of protecting the confidentiality of survey respondents which has become increasingly difficult because numerous databases exist with personal identifying information that collectively contain data on household finances, home values, purchasing behavior, and other SIPP-relevant characteristics.

A Roadmap for Disclosure Avoidance in the Survey of Income and Program Participation addresses these issues and how to make data from SIPP available to researchers and policymakers while protecting the confidentiality of survey respondents. The report considers factors such as evolving privacy risks, development of new methods for protecting privacy, the nature of the data collected through SIPP, the practice of linking SIPP data with administrative data, the types of data products produced, and the desire to provide timely access to SIPP data. The report seeks to balance minimizing the risk of disclosure against allowing researchers and policymakers to have timely access to data that support valid inferences.

A Roadmap for Disclosure Avoidance in the Survey of Income and Program Participation

Although much research has been conducted on community-level factors related to the risk of dementia in general, less is known about the factors that affect the ability of older adults with dementia to age in place successfully. Additional research could lead to a better understanding of the data and resources needed to support innovative approaches for adaptive housing, services, and supports so that people living with dementia can remain in their communities.

To explore these needs and develop effective strategies for the future, the Committee on Population and Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a virtual workshop on aging in place with dementia on September 13-15, 2023. Sponsored by the National Institute on Aging, this workshop highlighted the state of knowledge and identified research gaps to inform conceptual approaches to guide research on dementia-friendly communities in the U.S. context, building on existing approaches in the field.

Aging in Place with Dementia: Proceedings of a Workshop

In September 2023, the Committee on Population at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop, Developing an Agenda for Population Aging and Social Research in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). The explicit goal of the workshop was to identify the most promising directions for behavioral and social research and data infrastructure investments for studying life-course health, aging, and Alzheimers disease and Alzheimers disease and related dementias in LMICs. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Developing an Agenda for Population Aging and Social Research in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs): Proceedings of a Workshop

The National Academies Standing Committee on Reproductive Health, Equity, and Society hosted a virtual public webinar in October 2023 to explore state-level legal and political strategies to increase access to reproductive health care services, including abortion care, following the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization ruling, which overturned the 1972 Roe v. Wade decision. Discussions included updates on state and federal legal challenges to abortion bans, the role of ballot initiatives in reproductive rights, additional strategic avenues such as legislative advocacy, how the legal landscape affects the science of reproductive health care, and more.

State-Level Legal and Political Strategies Following the Repeal of Roe v. Wade: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

Between 1980 and mid-2023, 232 billion-dollar disasters occurred in the U.S. Gulf Coast region, with the number of disasters doubling annually since 2018. The variety and frequency of storms have exacerbated historic inequalities and led to cycles of displacement and chronic stress for communities across the region. While disaster displacement is not a new phenomenon, the rapid escalation of climate-related disasters in the Gulf increases the urgency to develop pre-disaster policies to mitigate displacement and decrease suffering. Yet, neither the region nor the nation has a consistent and inclusionary process to address risks, raise awareness, or explore options for relocating communities away from environmental risks while seeking out and honoring their values and priorities.

Community-Driven Relocation: Recommendations for the U.S. Gulf Coast Region and Beyond examines how people and infrastructure relocate and why community input should drive the planning process. This report provides recommendations to guide a path for federal, state, and local policies and programs to improve on and expand existing systems to better serve those most likely to be displaced by climate change.

Community-Driven Relocation: Recommendations for the U.S. Gulf Coast Region and Beyond

Pediatric subspecialists are critical to ensuring quality care and pursuing research to improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment for children. However, there are substantial disincentives to pursuing a career as a pediatric subspecialist, which are often heightened for individuals from groups underrepresented in medicine, and more effective collaboration with primary care clinicians is needed. Changing health care needs, increasing care complexity, and access barriers to pediatric subspecialty care have raised concerns about the current and future availability of pediatric subspecialty care and research.

In response, the National Academies, with support from a coalition of sponsors, formed the Committee on the Pediatric Subspecialty Workforce and Its Impact on Child Health and Well-Being to recommend strategies and actions to ensure an adequate pediatric subspecialty physician workforce to support broad access to high quality subspecialty care and a robust research portfolio to advance the health and health care of infants, children, and adolescents. This report outlines recommendations that, if fully implemented, can improve the quality of pediatric medical subspecialty care through a well-supported, superbly trained, and appropriately used primary care, subspecialty, and physician-scientist workforce.

The Future Pediatric Subspecialty Physician Workforce: Meeting the Needs of Infants, Children, and Adolescents

Retaliation in any form can result in a range of negative consequences for those who experience it either directly or indirectly. Individuals can experience limitations in the opportunities to contribute and advance in their career, and they may feel as if their only response to the adversity is to leave the field. When an institution allows such retaliation to take place, the target’s sense of trust and dependency in the institution to maintain their safety and act on their behalf is negatively impacted. Retaliation can also have consequences for the broader community and the institution. For example, observers of retaliation can be affected by the low morale in the department or unit stemming from retaliation. The paper illustrates how legal protections can fall short when various types of retaliatory actions occur in academia and explores how institutions can creatively address retaliation with broader policies—policies that expand on and hone institutions’ current anti-retaliation practices, engender effective communication of their response to various forms of retaliation.

This individually-authored issue paper was created by members of the Remediation Working Group of the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education to explore the full implications of retaliation in higher education and develop a paper that provides relevant information as discussed in the 2018 National Academies report Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine brings together academic and research institutions and key stakeholders to work toward targeted, collective action on addressing and preventing sexual harassment across all disciplines and among all people in higher education. The Action Collaborative includes four working groups (Prevention, Response, Remediation, and Evaluation) that identify topics in need of research, gather information, and publish resources for the higher education community.

Preventing and Addressing Retaliation Resulting from Sexual Harassment in Academia

From April 25-26, 2023 the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop to identify challenges in and opportunities for measuring suicide in the law enforcement occupation. Experts in the field met to identify ways to improve the measurement of suicide by current and former police and corrections officers, dispatchers, and other sworn and civilian personnel, in public and private organizations. This proceedings provides a synthesis of key themes identified during the workshop.

Measuring Law Enforcement Suicide: Challenges and Opportunities: Proceedings of a Workshop

Since 1790, the U.S. census has been a recurring, essential civic ceremony in which everyone counts; it reaffirms a commitment to equality among all, as political representation is explicitly tied to population counts. Assessing the 2020 Census looks at the quality of the 2020 Census and its constituent operations, drawing appropriate comparisons with prior censuses. The report acknowledges the extraordinary challenges the Census Bureau faced in conducting the census and provides guidance as it plans for the 2030 Census. In addition, the report encourages research and development as the goals and designs for the 2030 Census are developed, urging the Census Bureau to establish a true partnership with census data users and government partners at the state, local, tribal, and federal levels.

Assessing the 2020 Census: Final Report

Responding to climate change will entail massive socio-emotional and behavioral changes. Translating policies, investments, or built infrastructure-reshaping mandates into real and sustained local impact that incorporates accountability and culture change will require hands-on work. Adaptive societal responses to climate change will succeed or fail based on the attitudes, behaviors, social cohesion and capital, organizational and emotional strengths, and collective impact and input of all stakeholders.

To consider how to integrate, align, and converge the broad mix of social, behavioral, and cognitive sciences to produce new insights and inform efforts for enhanced human responses to environmental change, Board on Environmental Change and Society of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine convened this 2023 workshop, entitled Committee on Integrating the Human Sciences to Scale Societal Responses to Environmental Change: A Workshop. The workshop was intended to investigate ways to accelerate and deepen conversations within the social sciences and to focus on synthesis, especially for the purpose of increasing community capacity to understand and effectively respond to climate change-induced environmental changes - at scales ranging from the individual to the household to the community, and all the way up to the level of state and international governance. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop.

Integrating the Human Sciences to Scale Societal Responses to Environmental Change: Proceedings of a Workshop

Population surveys collect information from participants by asking questions. Today, many surveys also collect biologic specimens that can be used to analyze a respondents DNA and other biomarkers. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is a population survey that also administers a physical examination, collects biospecimens, and reports some test results (e.g., cholesterol levels) to the participant. While visiting communities large and small throughout the country, NHANES collects health and nutrition data from a representative sample of individuals through in-person interviews and health examinations that take place at special mobile examination centers. The examination component consists of medical, dental, and physiological examinations, as well as laboratory tests.

On December 2, 7, and 8, 2022, a workshop was convened to focus on anticipated future collections of genomic data by NHANES. The 2022 workshop explored ethical considerations and current practices for returning genomic information from active research and population surveys. This Proceedings of a Workshop summarizes the presentations and discussions at the workshop.

Considerations for Returning Individual Genomic Results from Population-Based Surveys: Focus on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey: Proceedings of a Workshop

To explore existing evidence-based guidance and best practices on supporting the well-being of transgender and gender diverse youth, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Forum for Childrens Well-Being held a workshop on April 25, 2023. The workshop included presentations from experts as well as perspectives from youth and parents. This Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief provides a high-level summary of the topics addressed in the workshop.

Supporting the Health and Well-Being of Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Many young children in the United States are thriving and have access to the conditions and resources they need to grow up healthy. However, a substantial number of young children face more challenging conditions such as: poverty; food insecurity; exposure to violence; and inadequate access to health care, well-funded quality schools, and mental health care. In many cases, the historical origins of unequal access to crucial supports for children's physical, emotional, and cognitive development are rooted in policies that intentionally segregated and limited various populations' access to resources and create opportunity gaps that intertwine and compound to affect academic, health, and economic outcomes over an individual's life course and across generations.

Closing the Opportunity Gap for Young Children , identifies and describes the causes, costs, and effects of the opportunity gap in young children and explores how disparities in access to quality educational experiences, health care, and positive developmental experiences from birth through age eight intersect with key academic, health, and economic outcomes. The report identifies drivers of these gaps in three key domains—education, mental health, and physical health—and offers recommendations for policy makers for addressing these gaps so that all children in the United States have the opportunity to thrive. In addition, the report offers a detailed set of recommendations for policy makers, practitioners, community organizations, and philanthropic organizations to reduce opportunity gaps in education, health, and social-emotional development.

Closing the Opportunity Gap for Young Children

Experiencing poverty during childhood can lead to lasting harmful effects that compromise not only children’s health and welfare but can also hinder future opportunities for economic mobility, which may be passed on to future generations. This cycle of economic disadvantage weighs heavily not only on children and families experiencing poverty but also the nation, reducing overall economic output and placing increased burden on the educational, criminal justice, and health care systems.

Reducing Intergenerational Poverty examines key drivers of long- term, intergenerational poverty, including the racial disparities and structural factors that contribute to this cycle. The report assesses existing research on the effects on intergenerational poverty of income assistance, education, health, and other intervention programs and identifies evidence-based programs and policies that have the potential to significantly reduce the effects of the key drivers of intergenerational poverty. The report also examines the disproportionate effect of disadvantage to different racial/ethnic groups. In addition, the report identifies high-priority gaps in the data and research needed to help develop effective policies for reducing intergenerational poverty in the United States.

Reducing Intergenerational Poverty

The rapid proliferation of wearable devices that gather data on physical activity and physiology has become commonplace across various sectors of society. Concurrently, the development of advanced wearables and sensors capable of detecting a multitude of compounds presents new opportunities for monitoring environmental exposure risks. Wearable technologies are additionally showing promise in disease prediction, detection, and management, thereby offering potential advancements in the interdisciplinary fields of both environmental health and biomedicine.

To gain insight into this burgeoning field, on June 1 and 2, 2023, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a 2-day virtual workshop titled Developing Wearable Technologies to Advance Understanding of Precision Environmental Health. Experts from government, industry, and academia convened to discuss emerging applications and the latest advances in wearable technologies. The workshop aimed to explore the potential of wearables in capturing, monitoring, and predicting environmental exposures and risks to inform precision environmental health.

Developing Wearable Technologies to Advance Understanding of Precision Environmental Health: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

Much of the statistical information currently produced by federal statistical agencies - information about economic, social, and physical well-being that is essential for the functioning of modern society - comes from sample surveys. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of data from other sources, including data collected by government agencies while administering programs, satellite and sensor data, private-sector data such as electronic health records and credit card transaction data, and massive amounts of data available on the internet. How can these data sources be used to enhance the information currently collected on surveys, and to provide new frontiers for producing information and statistics to benefit American society?

Toward a 21st Century National Data Infrastructure: Enhancing Survey Programs by Using Multiple Data Sources, the second report in a series funded by the National Science Foundation, discusses how use of multiple data sources can improve the quality of national and subnational statistics while promoting data equity. This report explores implications of combining survey data with other data sources through examples relating to the areas of income, health, crime, and agriculture.

Toward a 21st Century National Data Infrastructure: Enhancing Survey Programs by Using Multiple Data Sources

The National Academies Standing Committee on Reproductive Health, Equity, and Society and the National Academy of Medicine, committed to equitable access to quality reproductive health, hosted a webinar, After Roe: Physician Perspectives and Workforce Implications, in May 2023. Discussions increased awareness and promoted dialogue in the medical, public health, societal, and general population. Speakers explored clinician workforce impacts of legal restrictions on the provision of reproductive health services in the U.S. Practicing physicians from obstetrics-gynecology, maternal-fetal medicine, family medicine, emergency medicine, and oncology provided their perspectives on the effects of the legal limitations on their well-being (e.g., moral distress), professional futures, and institutional supports. Perspectives included individuals from a range of states with varying legal restrictions. This proceedings document summarizes the discussions held during the webinar.

Physician Perspectives and Workforce Implications Following the Repeal of Roe v. Wade: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the lives of children and their families, who have faced innumerable challenges such as illness and death; school closures; social isolation; financial hardship; food insecurity; deleterious mental health effects; and difficulties accessing health care. In almost every outcome related to social, emotional, behavioral, educational, mental, physical, and economic health and well-being, families identifying as Black, Latino, and Native American, and those with low incomes, have disproportionately borne the brunt of the negative effects of the pandemic.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and families will be felt for years to come. While these long-term effects are unknown, they are likely to have particularly significant implications for children and families from racially and ethnically minoritized communities and with low incomes.

Addressing the Long-Term Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Families identifies social, emotional, behavioral, educational, mental, physical, and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and looks at strategies for addressing the challenges and obstacles that the pandemic introduced for children and families in marginalized communities. This report provides recommendations for programs, supports, and interventions to counteract the negative effects of the pandemic on child and family well-being and offers a path forward to recover from the harms of the pandemic, address inequities, and prepare for the future.

Addressing the Long-Term Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Families

Experiencing poverty during childhood can lead to lasting harmful effects in which poverty is passed on to future generations - a cycle that disproportionately affects Native American families.

To identify policies and programs that can reduce long-term, intergenerational poverty among Native Americans in the United States, the Board on Children, Youth, and Families held information-gathering sessions on July 22, 2022 and July 25, 2022. In these sessions, key historical and structural factors that lead to entrenched poverty were examined as well as promising interventions for addressing them. Importantly, these sessions included a conversation with community leaders on their experiences with and work on intergenerational poverty as well as key data and trends on this topic.

Intergenerational Poverty and Mobility Among Native Americans in the United States: Proceedings of a Workshop

The second annual report of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion highlights the milestones, projects, and activities achieved in 2022–2023 and outlines goals for the upcoming year. The annual report details how the National Academies have implemented diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across the organization, including creating a DEI Action Plan and accountability mechanisms.

Office of Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report 2022–2023: Turning Vision into Action to Implement Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives

An accurate measure of poverty is necessary to fully understand how the economy is performing across all segments of the population and to assess the effects of government policies on communities and families. In addition, poverty statistics are essential in determining the size and composition of the population whose basic needs are going unmet and to help society target resources to address those needs.

An Updated Measure of Poverty: (Re)Drawing the Line recommends updating the methodology used by the Census Bureau to calculate the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) to reflect household basic needs. This report recommends that the more comprehensive SPM replace the current Official Poverty Measure as the primary statistical measure of poverty the Census Bureau uses. The report assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the SPM and provides recommendations for updating its methodology and expanding its use in recognition of the needs of most American families such as medical care, childcare, and housing costs.

An Updated Measure of Poverty: (Re)Drawing the Line

Behavioral economics - a field based in collaborations among economists and psychologists - focuses on integrating a nuanced understanding of behavior into models of decision-making. Since the mid-20th century, this growing field has produced research in numerous domains and has influenced policymaking, research, and marketing. However, little has been done to assess these contributions and review evidence of their use in the policy arena.

Behavioral Economics: Policy Impact and Future Directions examines the evidence for behavioral economics and its application in six public policy domains: health, retirement benefits, climate change, social safety net benefits, climate change, education, and criminal justice. The report concludes that the principles of behavioral economics are indispensable for the design of policy and recommends integrating behavioral specialists into policy development within government units. In addition, the report calls for strengthening research methodology and identifies research priorities for building on the accomplishments of the field to date.

Behavioral Economics: Policy Impact and Future Directions

Genetic and genomic information has become far more accessible, and research using human genetic data has grown exponentially over the past decade. Genetics and genomics research is now being conducted by a wide range of investigators across disciplines, who often use population descriptors inconsistently and/or inappropriately to capture the complex patterns of continuous human genetic variation.

In response to a request from the National Institutes of Health, the National Academies assembled an interdisciplinary committee of expert volunteers to conduct a study to review and assess existing methodologies, benefits, and challenges in using race, ethnicity, ancestry, and other population descriptors in genomics research. The resulting report focuses on understanding the current use of population descriptors in genomics research, examining best practices for researchers, and identifying processes for adopting best practices within the biomedical and scientific communities.

Using Population Descriptors in Genetics and Genomics Research: A New Framework for an Evolving Field

Individuals from minoritized racial and ethnic groups continue to face systemic barriers that impede their ability to access, persist, and thrive in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) higher education and workforce. Without actively dismantling policies and practices that disadvantage people from minoritized groups, STEMM organizations stand to lose much needed talent and innovation as well as the ideas that come from having a diverse workforce.

A new report from the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences examines the backdrop of systemic racism in the United States that has harmed and continues to harm people from minoritized groups, which is critical for understanding the unequal representation in STEMM. The report outlines actions that top leaders and gatekeepers in STEMM organizations, such as presidents and chief executive officers, can take to foster a culture and climate of antiracism, diversity, equity, and inclusion that is genuinely accessible and supportive to all.

Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Organizations: Beyond Broadening Participation

Roughly every four years, the U.S. Global Change Research Program produces a congressionally mandated assessment of global change science and the impacts, adaptation, and mitigation of climate change in the United States. The draft Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5), released publicly in November 2022, covers a wide range of U.S. impacts, from human health and community well-being to the built environment, businesses and economies, and ecosystems and water resources. NCA5 had the largest scale of collaboration to date in the series, with input from hundreds of experts from all levels of governments, academia, non-government organizations, the private sector, and the public. The National Academies report provides an independent, comprehensive review and makes recommendations to strengthen the accuracy, credibility, and accessibility of the draft NCA5 report.

The National Academies’ review of the draft NCA5 report finds that it successfully meets the requirements of the federal mandate, provides accurate information, and effectively communicates climate science to the public, decision makers, and other stakeholders. The review makes recommendations for ways the draft NCA5 report could be strengthened, including: adopting more clear and consistent structure for key messages and figures across the report; resolving inconsistencies between chapters in how terms and topics are discussed, for example the use of scenarios and projections; intentionally applying an equity and justice lens across chapters; and increasing emphasis on certain topical areas.

Review of the Draft Fifth National Climate Assessment

The history of the U.S. criminal justice system is marked by racial inequality and sustained by present day policy. Large racial and ethnic disparities exist across the several stages of criminal legal processing, including in arrests, pre-trial detention, and sentencing and incarceration, among others, with Black, Latino, and Native Americans experiencing worse outcomes. The historical legacy of racial exclusion and structural inequalities form the social context for racial inequalities in crime and criminal justice. Racial inequality can drive disparities in crime, victimization, and system involvement.

Reducing Racial Inequality in Crime and Justice: Science, Practice, and Policy synthesizes the evidence on community-based solutions, noncriminal policy interventions, and criminal justice reforms, charting a path toward the reduction of racial inequalities by minimizing harm in ways that also improve community safety. Reversing the effects of structural racism and severing the close connections between racial inequality, criminal harms such as violence, and criminal justice involvement will involve fostering local innovation and evaluation, and coordinating local initiatives with state and federal leadership.

This report also highlights the challenge of creating an accurate, national picture of racial inequality in crime and justice: there is a lack of consistent, reliable data, as well as data transparency and accountability. While the available data points toward trends that Black, Latino, and Native American individuals are overrepresented in the criminal justice system and given more severe punishments compared to White individuals, opportunities for improving research should be explored to better inform decision-making.

Reducing Racial Inequality in Crime and Justice: Science, Practice, and Policy

This proceedings summarizes the presentations and discussions at the Workshop on the 2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics File, held June 21-22, 2022. The workshop was convened by the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to assist the U.S. Census Bureau with its new disclosure avoidance system for 2020 Census data products, which implements algorithms providing differential privacy. The workshop focused specifically on the Demographic and Housing Characteristics File, a major source of data for local governments, particularly those with small populations, and many other data users in the federal, state, academic, and business sectors. The intent was to garner feedback from users on the usability of the privacy-protected data by evaluating DHC demonstration files produced with the proposed TopDown Algorithm on 2010 Census data.

2020 Census Data Products: Demographic and Housing Characteristics File: Proceedings of a Workshop

With the support of the National Academies leadership and the more than 1,500 Academy members who actively support our work, the Committee on Human Rights (CHR) continues to assist colleagues under threat around the world and integrate human rights into the work of the National Academies. This publication highlights the assistance provided by CHR to at-risk colleagues and advocacy work and events hosted by CHR during 2022 to draw attention to colleagues suffering human rights abuses as a consequence of their professional activities and their exercise of internationally protected rights.

Committee on Human Rights: Annual Report 2022

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) expanded EEO-1 data collection for reporting years 2017 to 2018 in an effort to improve its ability to investigate and address pay disparities between women and men and between different racial and ethnic groups. These pay disparities are well documented in national statistics. For example, the U.S. Census Bureau (2021) found that Black and Hispanic women earned only 63 percent and 55 percent as much, respectively, of what non-Hispanic White men earned.

Evaluation of Compensation Data Collected Through the EEO-1 Form examines the quality of pay data collected using the EEO-1 form and provides recommendations for future data collection efforts. The report finds that there is value in the expanded EEO-1 data, which are unique among federal surveys by providing employee pay, occupation, and demographic data at the employer level. Nonetheless, both short-term and longer-term improvements are recommended to address significant concerns in employer coverage, conceptual definitions, data measurement, and collection protocols. If implemented, these recommendations could improve the breadth and strength of EEOC data for addressing pay equity, potentially reduce employer burden, and better support employer self-assessment.

Evaluation of Compensation Data Collected Through the EEO-1 Form

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee on Law and Justice convened a workshop through its Planning Committee on Crime Rates during the SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 pandemic on November 10, 2022, to explore crime rate changes during the pandemic, potential explanations for those rates, and opportunities for future methods, data, and research. Specifically, it sought to (1) explore existing data on the trends in multiple criminal offenses during the pandemic; (2) explore existing explanations for the crime rate changes in multiple offense types during the pandemic for their scope, logical consistency, empirical support, and limitations, with special attention to explanations related to the pandemic and associated population restrictions (e.g., stay at home orders, social gathering restrictions, etc.), as well as the diffusion and availability of firearms; and (3) discuss methodological issues, data infrastructure needs, and research gaps to inform understanding of crime problems and rates. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Crime Rates During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated challenges facing workers engaged in precarious employment - those in positions commonly characterized by little to no job security, low wages, and few or no benefits. Through the first three years of the pandemic, many of these workers reported increased exposure to COVID-19, limited access to sick leave, job losses, and reduced hours.

The latest guidance from the Societal Experts Action Network (SEAN) identifies strategies that state and local decision makers can use to mitigate COVID-19-related challenges facing individuals engaged in precarious employment, with particular attention to strategies that can remedy existing inequalities.

Addressing COVID-19–Related Challenges Facing Individuals Engaged in Precarious Employment

In the face of growing threats to child and youth well-being - whether it be the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, systemic racism, or new crises that have yet to arise - it is imperative that youth well-being be promoted through the development of strong resilience skills. To explore strategies for building youth resilience, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Forum for Childrens Well-Being held a 3-day workshop in October 2022. The workshop included presentations from experts, as well as moderated conversations between the presenters and youth discussants. This Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief provides a high-level summary of the topics addressed in the workshop.

Building Resilience in the Face of Emerging Threats to Child and Youth Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

On July 22 and 25, 2022, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held an information gathering meeting titled, Intergenerational Poverty and Mobility Among Native Americans in the U.S. The meeting was held to inform the future consensus report of the National Academies Committee on Policies and Programs to Reduce Intergenerational Poverty. Building on the findings of the 2019 report, A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty, this ad hoc committee was convened by the Board on Children, Youth, and Families to identify policies and programs with the potential to reduce long-term, intergenerational poverty. The harmful effects of living in poverty during childhood can entrench families and communities in poverty, leading to the transmission of poverty from one generation to the next. This cycle has a disproportionate effect on Native American families. This public information-gathering meeting was held to engage with leaders, researchers, and practitioners on issues surrounding intergenerational poverty and mobility among Native American families in the United States, including exploring key structural determinants of entrenched poverty and promising interventions designed to address those determinants.

Intergenerational Poverty and Mobility Among Native Americans in the United States: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Historically, the U.S. national data infrastructure has relied on the operations of the federal statistical system and the data assets that it holds. Throughout the 20th century, federal statistical agencies aggregated survey responses of households and businesses to produce information about the nation and diverse subpopulations. The statistics created from such surveys provide most of what people know about the well-being of society, including health, education, employment, safety, housing, and food security. The surveys also contribute to an infrastructure for empirical social- and economic-sciences research. Research using survey-response data, with strict privacy protections, led to important discoveries about the causes and consequences of important societal challenges and also informed policymakers. Like other infrastructure, people can easily take these essential statistics for granted. Only when they are threatened do people recognize the need to protect them.

Toward a 21st Century National Data Infrastructure: Mobilizing Information for the Common Good develops a vision for a new data infrastructure for national statistics and social and economic research in the 21st century. This report describes how the country can improve the statistical information so critical to shaping the nation's future, by mobilizing data assets and blending them with existing survey data.

Toward a 21st Century National Data Infrastructure: Mobilizing Information for the Common Good

In 2021, the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine sponsored a two-year consensus study, Managed Retreat in the U.S. Gulf Coast Region, to examine and make findings and recommendations regarding the unique challenges associated with managed retreat among vulnerable coastal communities in the region.

To gather information for the consensus report, the authoring committee convened a series of three public workshops in the Gulf Coast region. The workshops, held in June and July of 2022, focused on policy and practice considerations, research and data needs, and community engagement strategies. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions of the workshops.

Assisted Resettlement and Community Viability on Louisiana's Gulf Coast: Proceedings of a Workshop

Suicide Prevention in Indigenous Communities: Proceedings of a Workshop

The aging population of the United States has significant implications for the workforce - challenging what it means to work and to retire in the U.S. In fact, by 2030, one-fifth of the population will be over age 65. This shift has significant repercussions for the economy and key social programs. Due to medical advancements and public health improvements, recent cohorts of older adults have experienced better health and increasing longevity compared to earlier cohorts. These improvements in health enable many older adults to extend their working lives. While higher labor market participation from this older workforce could soften the potential negative impacts of the aging population over the long term on economic growth and the funding of Social Security and other social programs, these trends have also occurred amidst a complicating backdrop of widening economic and social inequality that has meant that the gains in health, improvements in mortality, and access to later-life employment have been distributed unequally.

Understanding the Aging Workforce: Defining a Research Agenda offers a multidisciplinary framework for conceptualizing pathways between work and nonwork at older ages. This report outlines a research agenda that highlights the need for a better understanding of the relationship between employers and older employees; how work and resource inequalities in later adulthood shape opportunities in later life; and the interface between work, health, and caregiving. The research agenda also identifies the need for research that addresses the role of workplaces in shaping work at older ages, including the role of workplace policies and practices and age discrimination in enabling or discouraging older workers to continue working or retire.

Understanding the Aging Workforce: Defining a Research Agenda

Strategically moving communities and infrastructure—including homes and businesses—away from environmentally high-risk areas, such as vulnerable coastal regions, has been referred to as "managed retreat." Of all the ways humans respond to climate-related disasters, managed retreat has been one of the most controversial due to the difficulty inherent in identifying when, to where, by whom, and the processes by which such movement should take place. In 2021, the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine sponsored a two-year consensus study, Managed Retreat in the U.S. Gulf Coast Region , to learn about and respond to the unique challenges associated with managed retreat. As part of this study, the committee convened a series of three public workshops in 2022 in the Gulf Coast region to gather information for the consensus report. Each workshop focused on policy and practice considerations, research and data needs, and community engagement strategies. This proceedings recounts the first workshop in Houston and Port Arthur, Texas.

Environmental Challenges and Prospects for Community Relocation in Houston and Port Arthur, Texas: Proceedings of a Workshop

The U.S. Department of State, through its Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), provides foreign assistance and supports capacity building for criminal justice systems and police organizations in approximately 90 countries around the world. It has a mandate to strengthen fragile states, support democratic transitions, and stabilize conflict-affected societies by helping partner countries develop effective and accountable criminal justice sector institutions and systems.

At the request of INL, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine assembled the Committee on Evidence to Advance Reform in the Global Security and Justice Sectors to review the available research evidence on police and policing practices, with emphasis on how police reform can promote the rule of law and protect the public. The 5 consensus studies that are part of this project provide evidence-driven policy and research recommendations for key stakeholders with the goal of informing capacity-building activities. This report is a compilation of those 5 studies.

Evidence to Advance Reform in the Global Security and Justice Sectors: Compilation of Reports

The US Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) provides assistance and supports capacity building for criminal justice systems and police organizations in approximately 90 countries. In order to support and inform that work, this report explores high-level corruption and its effects on police organizations, as well as strategies that police can use to effectively contribute to efforts to combat that corruption.

Police Strategies to Control High-Level Corruption: A Global Perspective

Strategically moving communities and infrastructure - including homes and businesses - away from environmentally high-risk areas, such as vulnerable coastal regions, has been referred to as managed retreat. Of all the ways humans respond to climate-related hazards, managed retreat has been one of the most controversial due to the difficulty inherent in identifying when, to where, by whom, and the processes by which such movement should take place.

To understand and respond to the unique challenges associated with managed retreat, the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine sponsored a committee of experts to provide in-depth analysis and identify short- and long-term next steps for Gulf Coast communities that may need to relocate. The committee convened a series of three public workshops in the Gulf Coast region to gather information about on policy and practice considerations, research and data needs, and community engagement strategies. The workshops focused on elevating the voices of communities and individuals contemplating, resisting, undertaking, or facing barriers to relocation (including systemic issues such as structural racism), as well as individuals who have resettled and communities that have received such individuals. Each workshop included community testimonials and panels of local decision makers and experts discussing study-relevant processes and obstacles faced by communities. The first workshop was held in two parts in Houston and Port Arthur, Texas; the second workshop was held in St. Petersburg, Florida; and the third workshop was held in two parts in Thibodaux and Houma, Louisiana. This Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief recounts the second workshop, held in July 2022 in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Relocation and Other Climate Adaptations on Florida's Gulf Coast: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Structural racism refers to the public and private policies, institutional practices, norms, and cultural representations that inherently create unequal freedom, opportunity, value, resources, advantage, restrictions, constraints, or disadvantage for individuals and populations according to their race and ethnicity both across the life course and between generations. Developing a research agenda on structural racism includes consideration of the historical and contemporary policies and other structural factors that explicitly or implicitly affect the health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities, as well as strategies to measure those factors.

The Committee on Population of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a 2-day public workshop on May 16-17, 2022, to identify and discuss the mechanisms through which structural racism operates, with a particular emphasis on health and well-being; to develop an agenda for future research and data collection on structural racism; and to strengthen the evidence base for policy making. Speaker presentations and workshop discussions provided insights into known sources of structural racism and rigorous models of health inequity, revealed novel sources and approaches informed by other disciplines and related fields, and highlighted key research and data priorities for future work on structural racism and health inequity.

Structural Racism and Rigorous Models of Social Inequity: Proceedings of a Workshop

Scholars, policymakers, and the public view police legitimacy and community trust in the police alike as essential components of an effective police organization. An extensive network of international and regional organizations, bilateral donors, international financial institutions, and civil society organizations aims to work with governments to improve policing practices and enhance police legitimacy. As a part of that network, the U.S. Department of State, through its Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), provides foreign assistance to and supports capacity building for criminal justice systems and police organizations in approximately 90 countries. Like many donors, it strives to direct its resources to the most effective approaches to achieve its mission.

At the request of INL, the Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened an ad hoc committee to review, assess, and reach consensus on existing evidence on policing institutions, police practices and capacities, and police legitimacy in the international context. The committee produced five reports, addressing questions of interest to INL and the State Department. Developing Policing Practices that Build Legitimacy, the fourth in this series, responds to the question: What policing practices build community trust and legitimacy in countries with low-to-moderate criminal justice sector capacity? This report focuses on the concept of legitimacy and ways of building legitimacy to foster this kind of trust and expectations.

Developing Policing Practices that Build Legitimacy

An estimated 10 percent of children in the United States are living with disabilities, including a disproportionate number of children living in poverty and children of marginalized racial and ethnic groups. During the pandemic, children with disabilities suffered disproportionately compared to their peers without disabilities. To learn more about what policies and practices might be sustained or implemented beyond the pandemic to support children with disabilities and their families, the Board on Children, Youth, and Families hosted a workshop on June 13-15, 2022. Workshop presenters included service providers, researchers, government leaders, youth with disabilities, and caregivers of children and youth with disabilities. In this workshop, practices were identified that could improve the system of care for children with disabilities as well as improve access to services for underserved and marginalized populations.

Supporting Children with Disabilities: Lessons from the Pandemic: Proceedings of a Workshop

Most empirical research in psychology historically has been conducted in North America and Western Europe, despite the importance placed on culture in theoretical models. The consequence of conducting basic science only in high-income, Western countries is that psychological science is defined by the experiences of individuals in those countries. Collecting data in a wide range of countries, establishing international collaborations, and incorporating diverse cultural perspectives are central to the effort to expand cultural context. Publishing the research in high-quality, peer-reviewed journals is also critical.

To discuss the challenges of publishing high quality international work in U.S. journals and suggest solutions to incorporate international perspectives into U.S. psychological journals, the U.S. National Committee for Psychological Science of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine invited journal editors, society representatives, and publishers to a virtual workshop on June 28 and 29, 2021. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions of the workshop.

International Perspectives in U.S. Psychological Science Journals: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Adolescence is a crucial period of life for the prevention of substance use disorders. Research has shown that early intervention can significantly reduce rates of substance use disorder in adulthood. To learn more about effective family-focused interventions in primary care settings for preventing substance use disorder, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a workshop on May 5-6, 2022. The proceedings from that workshop explores existing efforts to incorporate family-focused interventions into state health care policies. It also examines barriers to implementing such interventions as well as lessons learned from successful efforts to scale up these interventions.

Family-Focused Interventions to Prevent Substance Use Disorders in Adolescence: Proceedings of a Workshop

While the science of policing outcomes has grown in recent years, it is limited in context, with much of the research conducted on policing taking place in the Global North countries (e.g., the United Kingdom and United States). It is also limited in purpose, with much research focused on examining crime reduction as opposed to examining the harms to the public as the result of crimes, violence, and any effects of policing activities.

At the request of INL, Policing to Promote the Rule of Law and Protect the Population explores the organizational policies, structures, or practices (e.g., HR and recruiting, legal authorities, reporting lines, etc.) that will enable a police service to promote the rule of law and protect the population. This report presents an overview of the state of research and highlights promising areas to guide policing reform and interventions.

Policing to Promote the Rule of Law and Protect the Population: An Evidence-Based Approach

Injury and death from use of excessive force by police officers remain a common concern in countries across the globe. Despite local, national, and international attempts to legislate and provide guidance for police use of force, there continue to be global accounts of excessive force by law enforcement. Reports of officer-involved killings, injuries to citizens, and attempts to control protests and demonstrations with chemical irritants, rubber bullets, and sometimes shooting into crowds with live ammunition frequently appear in the press worldwide. However, reliable data on and accounting for these incidents are both lacking.

A large network of international and regional organizations, bilateral donors, international financial institutions, and civil society organizations aim to work with governments to improve policing practices and reduce police use of excessive force. As a part of that network, the U.S. Department of State, through its Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), provides foreign assistance to and supports capacity building for criminal justice systems and police organizations in approximately 90 countries. Like many donors, it strives to direct its resources to the most effective approaches to achieve its mission.

Policies and Practices to Minimize Police Use of Force Internationally, the third in a series of five reports produced for INL, addresses what policies and practices for police use of force are effective in promoting the rule of law and protecting the population (including the officers themselves). This report looks at what is known about effective practices and their implementation and identifies promising actions to be taken by international donors in their efforts to strengthen the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies.

Policies and Practices to Minimize Police Use of Force Internationally

Training police in the knowledge and skills necessary to support the rule of law and protect the public is a substantial component of the activities of international organizations that provide foreign assistance. Significant challenges with such training activities arise with the wide range of cultural, institutional, political, and social contexts across countries. In addition, foreign assistance donors often have to leverage programs and capacity in their own countries to provide training in partner countries, and there are many examples of training, including in the United States, that do not rely on the best scientific evidence of policing practices and training design. Studies have shown disconnects between the reported goals of training, notably that of protecting the population, and actual behaviors by police officers. These realities present a diversity of challenges and opportunities for foreign assistance donors and police training.

At the request of the U.S. State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, the Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine examined scientific evidence and assessed research needs for effective policing in the context of the challenges above. This report, the second in a series of five, responds to the following questions: What are the core knowledge and skills needed for police to promote the rule of law and protect the population? What is known about mechanisms (e.g., basic and continuing education or other capacity building programs) for developing the core skills needed for police to promote the rule of law and protect the population?

Police Training to Promote the Rule of Law and Protect the Population

Since around 1980, fewer Americans than before are doing better than their parents had – that is, more are experiencing downward social and economic mobility in terms of occupational status and income. This trend in downward mobility is occurring amidst high and rising levels of inequality in income, wealth, health, and life expectancy. To better understand the factors that influence social and economic mobility, the Committee on Population and the Committee on National Statistics hosted a workshop on February 14-15, 2022. The proceedings from this workshop identify key priorities for future research and data collection to improve social and economic mobility.

Research and Data Priorities for Improving Economic and Social Mobility: Proceedings of a Workshop

Intelligence analysts conduct these analyses every day, using decades of propriety tradecraft techniques and an arsenal of clandestine information gathering sources, but the resources available are not unlimited. Open source public opinion tools can provide timely and relatively inexpensive methods of understanding fast-moving conditions, acting as a force multiplier to help policymakers have a truly all-source understanding of complex events. By providing analysts with the best practices in survey methodology and nonsurvey methods for gathering data on public opinion, they will be armed with a clearer sense of important shifts in attitudes, elections, and unrest.

In order to provide guidance to analysts on strategies for assessing public opinion, representatives from the intelligence community approached the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to request preparation of a framework on Measuring and Analyzing Public Opinion. This analytic framework includes three layers of information. Layer 1 comprises four authored papers that review literature from various disciplines containing overview information as well as how the topic/situation of interest can enable better analysis across different situational constraints. Layer 2 is a distilled layer of information in the form of an authored summary of the four Layer 1 papers, both summarizing and describing key points. Finally, Layer 3 provides an even further distillation of the key concepts, in a one-page visual graphic, that displays key drivers from the work in Layers 1 and 2 to help the intended audience apply knowledge to the situation of interest.

Measurement and Analysis of Public Opinion: An Analytic Framework

Measuring and analyzing public opinion comes with tremendous challenges, as evidenced by recent struggles to predict election outcomes and to anticipate mass mobilizations. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine publication Measurement and Analysis of Public Opinion: An Analytic Framework presents in-depth information from experts on how to collect and glean insights from public opinion data, particularly in conditions where contextual issues call for applying caveats to those data. The Analytic Framework is designed specifically to help intelligence community analysts apply insights from the social and behavioral sciences on state-of-the-art approaches to analyze public attitudes in non- Western populations. Sponsored by the intelligence community, the National Academies’ Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences hosted a 2-day hybrid workshop on March 8–9, 2022, to present the Analytic Framework and to demonstrate its application across a series of hypothetical scenarios that might arise for an intelligence analyst tasked with summarizing public attitudes to inform a policy decision. Workshop participants explored cutting-edge methods for using large-scale data as well as cultural and ethical considerations for the collection and use of public opinion data. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions of the workshop.

Applications of an Analytic Framework on Using Public Opinion Data for Solving Intelligence Problems: Proceedings of a Workshop

More intense heat waves, extended wildfire seasons and other escalating impacts of climate change have made it more important than ever to fill knowledge gaps that improve society's understanding, assessment, and response to global change. The US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) - a collection of 13 Federal entities charged by law to help the United States and the world fill those knowledge gaps - laid out proposed mechanisms and priorities for global change research over the next decade in its draft Decadal Strategic Plan 2022-2031. The draft plan recognizes that priority knowledge gaps have shifted over the past decade as demand has grown for more useful and more inclusive data to inform decision-making, and as the focus on resilience and sustainability has increased.

As part of its work in advising the USGCRP since 2011, the National Academies reviewed USGCRP's draft plan to determine how it might be enhanced. Advances in the draft plan include an increased emphasis on social sciences, community engagement with marginalized groups, and promotion of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in the production of science. Strengthening the interconnections between the plan's core pillars and expanding opportunities for coordination among federal agencies tasked with responding to global climate change would improve the plan. The draft plan could more strongly convey a sense of urgency throughout the plan and would benefit from additional examples of key research outputs that could advance policy and decision making on global change challenges.

Review of the U.S. Global Change Research Program's Draft Decadal Strategic Plan, 2022-2031

Nearly 600,000 people are released from state and federal prisons annually. Whether these individuals will successfully reintegrate into their communities has been identified as a critical measure of the effectiveness of the criminal legal system. However, evaluating the successful reentry of individuals released from prison is a challenging process, particularly given limitations of currently available data and the complex set of factors that shape reentry experiences.

The Limits of Recidivism: Measuring Success After Prison finds that the current measures of success for individuals released from prison are inadequate. The use of recidivism rates to evaluate post-release success ignores significant research on how and why individuals cease to commit crimes, as well as the important role of structural factors in shaping post-release outcomes. The emphasis on recidivism as the primary metric to evaluate post-release success also ignores progress in other domains essential to the success of individuals returning to communities, including education, health, family, and employment.

In addition, the report highlights the unique and essential insights held by those who have experienced incarceration and proposes that the development and implementation of new measures of post-release success would significantly benefit from active engagement with individuals with this lived experience. Despite significant challenges, the report outlines numerous opportunities to improve the measurement of success among individuals released from prison and the report’s recommendations, if implemented, will contribute to policies that increase the health, safety, and security of formerly incarcerated persons and the communities to which they return.

The Limits of Recidivism: Measuring Success After Prison

New research in psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, and other fields is published every day, but the gap between what is known and the capacity to act on that knowledge has never been larger. Scholars and nonscholars alike face the problem of how to organize knowledge and to integrate new observations with what is already known. Ontologies - formal, explicit specifications of the meaning of the concepts and entities that scientists study - provide a way to address these and other challenges, and thus to accelerate progress in behavioral research and its application.

Ontologies help researchers precisely define behavioral phenomena and how they relate to each other and reliably classify them. They help researchers identify the inconsistent use of definitions, labels, and measures and provide the basis for sharing knowledge across diverse approaches and methodologies. Although ontologies are an ancient idea, modern researchers rely on them to codify research terms and findings in computer-readable formats and work with large datasets and computer-based analytic techniques.

Ontologies in the Behavioral Sciences: Accelerating Research and the Spread of Knowledge describes how ontologies support science and its application to real-world problems. This report details how ontologies function, how they can be engineered to better support the behavioral sciences, and the resources needed to sustain their development and use to help ensure the maximum benefit from investment in behavioral science research.

Ontologies in the Behavioral Sciences: Accelerating Research and the Spread of Knowledge

The first annual report of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion highlights the milestones, projects, and activities achieved in 2021-2022. The report establishes a shared understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion and the strategy for future goals.

Office of Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report 2021–2022: Building Capacity to Advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Across the country, mental health concerns are affecting children and youth in every community. Mental health providers are witnessing increased numbers of patients and increased severity in reported concerns. In the midst of this crisis, communities are exploring strategies for addressing children and youth's mental health, including increased investment in prevention. Given this current crisis, and the unprecedented response and potentially increased funding, there are opportunities to learn how to better incorporate prevention and promotion strategies into systems and programs for children and youth support. To explore these opportunities, the National Academies' Forum for Children's Well-Being held a 3-day workshop in May 2022. This Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief provides a high-level summary of the topics addressed in the workshop.

Responding to the Current Youth Mental Health Crisis and Preventing the Next One: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), is the most widely used measure of inflation in the U.S. It is used to determine cost-of-living allowances and, among many other important private- and public-sector applications, influences monetary policy. The CPI has traditionally relied on field-generated data, such as prices observed in person at grocery stores or retailers. However, as these data have become more challenging and expensive to collect in a way that reflects an increasingly dynamic marketplace, statistical agencies and researchers have begun turning to opportunities created by the vast digital sources of consumer price data that have emerged. The enormous economic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, including major shifts in consumers' shopping patterns, presents a perfect case study for the need to rapidly employ new data sources for the CPI.

Modernizing the Consumer Price Index presents guidance to BLS as the agency embarks on a strategy of accelerating and enhancing the use of scanner, web-scraped, and digital data directly from retailers in compiling the CPI. The report also recommends strategies for BLS to more accurately estimate the composition of households' expenditures - or market basket shares - by updating this information more frequently and using innovative survey techniques and alternative data sources where possible. The report provides targeted guidance for integrating new data sources to improve the CPI's estimation of changes in the prices of housing and medical care, two consumer expenditure categories that are traditionally difficult to measure. Because of the urgency of issues related to income and wealth inequality, the report also recommends that BLS identify data sources that would allow it to estimate price indexes defined by income quintile or decile.

Modernizing the Consumer Price Index for the 21st Century

Misinformation about outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics is a decades-old problem that has been exacerbated by the rise of the internet and the widespread use of social media. Some false claims may be addressed through sound scientific analysis, suggesting that scientists can help counter misinformation by providing evidence-based, scientifically defensible information that may discredit or refute these claims. This report explains how scientists can work collaboratively across scientific disciplines and sectors to identify and address inaccuracies that could fuel mis- and disinformation. Although the study focused on a scientific network primarily in Southeast Asia, it is relevant to scientists in other parts of the world. A companion "how-to-guide", available in print and in digital form, outlines practical steps that scientists can take to assess mis- or disinformation, determine whether and how they should address it, and effectively communicate the corrective information they develop.

Addressing Inaccurate and Misleading Information About Biological Threats Through Scientific Collaboration and Communication in Southeast Asia

On March 28 and 29, 2022, the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a virtual symposium entitled Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants to gain a better understanding of social determinants influencing the recent increase in suicide risk and how currently available practice guidelines can inform community-level preventive interventions, particularly those targeting veteran populations. Presenters and participants explored the relevant social, cultural, and economic factors driving changes in suicide risk among veterans and ways that current best practices for suicide prevention and treatment can be applied at the community level. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussion of the symposium.

Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The Role of Social Determinants: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium

Communities across the United States are subject to ever-increasing human suffering and financial impacts of disasters caused by extreme weather events and other natural hazards amplified in frequency and intensity by climate change. While media coverage sometimes paints these disasters as affecting rich and poor alike and suggests that natural disasters do not discriminate, the reality is that they do. There have been decades of discriminatory policies, practices, and embedded bias within infrastructure planning processes. Among the source of these policies and practices are the agencies that promote resilience and provide hazard mitigation and recovery services, and the funding mechanisms they employ. These practices have resulted in low-income communities, often predominantly Indigenous people and communities of color, bearing a disproportionate share of the social, economic, health, and environmental burdens caused by extreme weather and other natural disasters.

At the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Resilient America Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened the Committee on Applied Research Topics for Hazard Mitigation and Resilience to assist the FEMA in reducing the immense human and financial toll of disasters caused by natural hazards and other large-scale emergencies. FEMA asked the committee to identify applied research topics, information, and expertise that can inform action and collaborative priorities within the natural hazard mitigation and resilience fields. This report explores equitable and infrastructure investments for natural hazard mitigation and resilience, focusing on: partnerships for equitable infrastructure development; systemic change toward resilient and equitable infrastructure investment; and innovations in finance and financial analysis.

Equitable and Resilient Infrastructure Investments

The education landscape in the United States has been changing rapidly in recent decades: student populations have become more diverse; there has been an explosion of data sources; there is an intensified focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility; educators and policy makers at all levels want more and better data for evidence-based decision making; and the role of technology in education has increased dramatically. With awareness of this changed landscape the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to provide a vision for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)—the nation's premier statistical agency for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating statistics at all levels of education.

A Vision and Roadmap for Education Statistics (2022) reviews developments in using alternative data sources, considers recent trends and future priorities, and suggests changes to NCES's programs and operations, with a focus on NCES's statistical programs. The report reimagines NCES as a leader in the 21st century education data ecosystem, where it can meet the growing demands for policy-relevant statistical analyses and data to more effectively and efficiently achieve its mission, especially in light of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 and the 2021 Presidential Executive Order on advancing racial equity. The report provides strategic advice for NCES in all aspects of the agency's work including modernization, stakeholder engagement, and the resources necessary to complete its mission and meet the current and future challenges in education.

A Vision and Roadmap for Education Statistics

Sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation are key indicators of the demographic diversity in the United States. Sex and gender are often conflated under the assumptions that they are mutually determined and do not differ from each other; however, the growing visibility of transgender and intersex populations, as well as efforts to improve the measurement of sex and gender across many scientific fields, has demonstrated the need to reconsider how sex, gender, and the relationship between them are conceptualized. This is turn affects sexual orientation, because it is defined on the basis of the relationship between a person's own sex or gender and that of their actual or preferred partners. Sex, gender, and sexual orientation are core aspects of identity that shape opportunities, experiences with discrimination, and outcomes through the life course; therefore, it is crucial that measures of these concepts accurately capture their complexity.

Recognition of the diversity within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and other sexual and gender minorities - the LGBTQI+ population - has also led to a reexamination of how the concepts of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation are measured. Better measurement will improve the ability to identify sexual and gender minority populations and understand the challenges they face. LGBTQI+ people continue to experience disparate and inequitable treatment, including harassment, discrimination, and violence, which in turn affects outcomes in many areas of everyday life, including health and access to health care services, economic and educational attainment, and family and social support. Though knowledge of these disparities has increased significantly over the past decade, glaring gaps remain, often driven by a lack of reliable data.

Measuring Sex, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation recommends that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) adopt new practices for collecting data on sex, gender, and sexual orientation - including collecting gender data by default, and not conflating gender with sex as a biological variable. The report recommends standardized language to be used in survey questions that ask about a respondent's sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Better measurements will improve data quality, as well as the NIH's ability to identify LGBTQI+ populations and understand the challenges they face.

Measuring Sex, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

The annual report of the Committee on Human Rights (CHR) provides an overview of the CHR's activities in 2021, including information on its advocacy, events, and awareness-raising projects.

Committee on Human Rights: Year in Review 2021

The decennial census is foundational to the functioning of American democracy, and maintaining the public's trust in the census and its resulting data is a correspondingly high-stakes affair. The 2020 Census was implemented in light of severe and unprecedented operational challenges, adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, and other disruptions. This interim report from a panel of the Committee on National Statistics discusses concepts of error and quality in the decennial census as prelude to the panel’s forthcoming fuller assessment of 2020 Census data, process measures, and quality metrics. The panel will release a final report that will include conclusions about the quality of the 2020 Census and make recommendations for further research by the U.S. Census Bureau to plan the 2030 Census.

Understanding the Quality of the 2020 Census: Interim Report

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), in partnership with other agencies and divisions of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, coordinates a portfolio of projects that build data capacity for conducting patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR). PCOR focuses on producing scientific evidence on the effectiveness of prevention and treatment options to inform the health care decisions of patients, families, and health care providers, taking into consideration the preferences, values, and questions patients face when making health care choices.

ASPE asked the National Academies to appoint a consensus study committee to identify issues critical to the continued development of the data infrastructure for PCOR. The committee's work will contribute to ASPE's development of a strategic plan that will guide their work related to PCOR data capacity over the next decade.

As part of its information gathering activities, the committee organized three workshops to collect input from stakeholders on the PCOR data infrastructure. This report, the third in a series of three interim reports, summarizes the discussion and committee conclusions from the third workshop, which focused on ways of enhancing collaborations, data linkages, and the interoperability of electronic databases to make the PCOR data infrastructure more useful in the years ahead. Participants in the workshop included researchers and policy experts working in these areas.

Building Data Capacity for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research: Interim Report 3 - A Comprehensive Ecosystem for PCOR

This Proceedings of a Workshop summarizes the presentations and discussions at the Workshop on Improving Consent and Response in Longitudinal Studies of Aging, which was held virtually and live-streamed on September 27-28, 2021. The workshop was convened by the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine to assist the National Institute on Aging (NIA) with its methodological research agenda and inform the different longitudinal survey programs sponsored by NIA about practices and research to improve response and consent in other survey programs. The workshop was structured to bring together scientists and researchers from multiple disciplines and countries to share their research and insights on how to improve response and consent in large, representative longitudinal studies on aging.

Improving Consent and Response in Longitudinal Studies of Aging: Proceedings of a Workshop

Although artificial intelligence (AI) has many potential benefits, it has also been shown to suffer from a number of challenges for successful performance in complex real-world environments such as military operations, including brittleness, perceptual limitations, hidden biases, and lack of a model of causation important for understanding and predicting future events. These limitations mean that AI will remain inadequate for operating on its own in many complex and novel situations for the foreseeable future, and that AI will need to be carefully managed by humans to achieve their desired utility.

Human-AI Teaming: State-of-the-Art and Research Needs examines the factors that are relevant to the design and implementation of AI systems with respect to human operations. This report provides an overview of the state of research on human-AI teaming to determine gaps and future research priorities and explores critical human-systems integration issues for achieving optimal performance.

Human-AI Teaming: State-of-the-Art and Research Needs

As part of its information gathering activities, the committee organized three workshops to collect input from stakeholders on the PCOR data infrastructure. This report, the second in a series of three interim reports, summarizes the discussion and committee conclusions from the second workshop, focused on data standards, methods, and policies that could make the PCOR data infrastructure more useful in the years ahead. Participants in the workshop included researchers and policy experts working in these areas.

Building Data Capacity for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research: Interim Report 2–Data Standards, Methods, and Policy

To better understand the inequalities facing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth and the promising interventions being used to address these inequalities, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Board on Children, Youth, and Families hosted a virtual public workshop titled Reducing Inequalities Between LGBTQ Adolescents and Cisgender, Heterosexual Adolescents, which convened on August 25–27, 2021. The workshop was developed by a planning committee composed of experts from the fields of sociology, medicine, public health, psychology, social work, policy, and direct-service provision. This Proceedings of a Workshop summarizes the presentations and discussions from that workshop.

Reducing Inequalities Between Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Adolescents and Cisgender, Heterosexual Adolescents: Proceedings of a Workshop

As the federal moratorium on rental eviction is set to expire on July 31st, 2021, actionable guidance is urgently needed on how to ensure that renters can stay in their homes and housing aid reaches the communities that need it most. This report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends that the Executive Office of the President of the United States should consider establishing a task force to prevent rental evictions and mitigate housing instability caused by the pandemic. Rental Eviction and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Averting a Looming Crisis recommends actions to be taken both urgently and over the next three years aimed at addressing the immediate crisis as well as long-standing needs related to housing choice, affordability, and security across the United States. These include: building on existing social programs that support those struggling with poverty and housing instability; efficiently channeling emergency relief to renters and landlords; increasing the availability of housing choice vouchers; reforming unemployment insurance; and reducing discriminatory practices and systemic inequities.

Rental Eviction and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Averting a Looming Crisis

Ontologies in the Behavioral Sciences: Accelerating Research and the Spread of Knowledge describes how ontologies support science and its application to real-world problems. That report details how ontologies function, how they can be engineered to better support the behavioral sciences, and the resources needed to sustain their development and use to help ensure the maximum benefit from investment in behavioral science research. The full report published in May, 2022. This digest version summarizes the primary ideas presented in that report.

Ontologies in the Behavioral Sciences: Accelerating Research and the Spread of Knowledge: Digest Version

The Committee on Exploring the Opportunity Gap for Young Children from Birth to Age Eight is conducting a consensus study on the causes and consequences of the opportunity gap, which generally refers to the unequal or inequitable distribution of resources and opportunities on the basis of factors such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, English proficiency, community wealth, geography, or familial situations. These gaps can contribute to or perpetuate inequities in well-being across groups of young children in a number of outcome domains. As part of its work, the committee held a virtual public information-gathering workshop on May 24, 2021. The purpose of the workshop was to inform the committee in its work, which will also draw on other public information-gathering sessions, peer-reviewed research, and commissioned papers from subject-matter experts, as well as the expertise of its members. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Measuring the Opportunity Gap for Children from Birth to Age Eight and Understanding Barriers to Access: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

As the largest generation in U.S. history - the population born in the two decades immediately following World War II - enters the age of risk for cognitive impairment, growing numbers of people will experience dementia (including Alzheimer's disease and related dementias). By one estimate, nearly 14 million people in the United States will be living with dementia by 2060. Like other hardships, the experience of living with dementia can bring unexpected moments of intimacy, growth, and compassion, but these diseases also affect people's capacity to work and carry out other activities and alter their relationships with loved ones, friends, and coworkers. Those who live with and care for individuals experiencing these diseases face challenges that include physical and emotional stress, difficult changes and losses in their relationships with life partners, loss of income, and interrupted connections to other activities and friends. From a societal perspective, these diseases place substantial demands on communities and on the institutions and government entities that support people living with dementia and their families, including the health care system, the providers of direct care, and others.

Nevertheless, research in the social and behavioral sciences points to possibilities for preventing or slowing the development of dementia and for substantially reducing its social and economic impacts. At the request of the National Institute on Aging of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Reducing the Impact of Dementia in America assesses the contributions of research in the social and behavioral sciences and identifies a research agenda for the coming decade. This report offers a blueprint for the next decade of behavioral and social science research to reduce the negative impact of dementia for America's diverse population. Reducing the Impact of Dementia in America calls for research that addresses the causes and solutions for disparities in both developing dementia and receiving adequate treatment and support. It calls for research that sets goals meaningful not just for scientists but for people living with dementia and those who support them as well.

By 2030, an estimated 8.5 million Americans will have Alzheimer's disease and many more will have other forms of dementia. Through identifying priorities social and behavioral science research and recommending ways in which they can be pursued in a coordinated fashion, Reducing the Impact of Dementia in America will help produce research that improves the lives of all those affected by dementia.

Reducing the Impact of Dementia in America: A Decadal Survey of the Behavioral and Social Sciences

Back in School: Addressing the Well-Being of Students in the Wake of COVID-19, a virtual workshop hosted by the National Academy of Sciences' Forum for Children's Well-Being on May 20, 25, and 27, 2021, focused on the effects of COVID-19 on the intersection of students' learning and mental health. The workshop featured lived experience perspectives and expert presentations. This Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief provides a high-level summary of the topics addressed in the workshop.

Back in School: Addressing the Well-Being of Students in the Wake of COVID-19: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is a collection of 13 Federal entities charged by law to assist the United States and the world to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change. Global Change Research Needs and Opportunities for 2022-2031 advises the USGCRP on how best to meet its mandate in light of climate change impacts happening today and projected into the future. This report identifies critical climate change risks, research needed to support decision-making relevant to managing these risks, and opportunities for the USGCRP's participating agencies and other partners to advance these research priorities over the next decade.

Global Change Research Needs and Opportunities for 2022-2031

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Committee on Addressing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism in 21st Century STEMM Organizations convened a national summit in July 2021 that highlighted how racism operates at different levels in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) settings; reviewed policies and practices for confronting systemic racism; and explored ways to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEMM settings.

The 2-day, public webcast summit explored the empirical and experiential evidence related to the ways in which systemic racism and other barriers impede STEMM careers for historically marginalized racial/ethnic groups, and explored ways to address these barriers, including strategies undertaken by stakeholder communities. In this summit, speakers discussed how diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism impact STEMM organizations. The workshop presentations focused on issues related to the history of racism in the United States, the lasting legacy of biased policies in the nation, and the research on practices to address systemic and structural racism in STEMM organizations. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of summit.

Addressing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism in 21st Century STEMM Organizations: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

On June 28-29, 2021, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a virtual workshop, "Behavioral and Social Research and Clinical Practice Implications of Biomarkers and Other Preclinical Diagnostics of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias" (AD/ADRD). The workshop was sponsored by the National Institute on Aging with the primary objective to engage in meaningful discussions about the implications of biomarkers and other preclinical diagnostics of AD and ADRD and to generate ideas for future research that might be of interest to the NIA. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Implications for Behavioral and Social Research of Preclinical Markers of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

On June 21-22, 2021, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a virtual workshop on behalf of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). This was the final in a series of workshops undertaken as part of a consensus study to prepare a resource planning and staffing methodology for VHA Facility Management (Engineering) Programs. In its consensus study report, the committee determined that the implementation of a staffing methodology is necessary for the VHA - both in response to congressional mandates for workforce projections and for the purpose of making better, data-informed staffing decisions; thus, the VHA began to develop an engineering staffing tool. The purpose of this workshop was to provide an update on the current status of and future opportunities for the VHA staffing tool, examine benchmarking for facilities, and discuss implementation. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop.

Testing and Validating the Staffing Methodology for the Veterans Health Administration: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

Promoting the Health and Well-Being of Children in Immigrant Families in the Post-Pandemic Economic Recovery Efforts, a workshop jointly hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Forum for Children's Well-Being and the Brandeis University Institute for Child, Youth, and Family Policy on April 21, 2021, explored the research evidence on the access immigrant families have to U.S. social programs and its effects on children's mental, emotional, behavioral, and physical well-being. During this workshop, three speakers discussed the negative health impacts of current social policies on children, and highlighted promising public policy approaches to mitigate these impacts and promote children's well-being. This Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief provides a high-level summary of the topics addressed in the workshop and policy options presented by the speakers that could better support children in immigrant families.

Promoting the Health and Well-Being of Children in Immigrant Families: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The annual report of the Committee on Human Rights (CHR) provides an overview of the CHR's activities in 2017, including information on its advocacy, events, and awareness-raising projects.

Committee on Human Rights: Year in Review 2017

Government statistics are widely used to inform decisions by policymakers, program administrators, businesses and other organizations as well as households and the general public. Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency, Seventh Edition will assist statistical agencies and units, as well as other agencies engaged in statistical activities, to carry out their responsibilities to provide accurate, timely, relevant, and objective information for public and policy use. This report will also inform legislative and executive branch decision makers, data users, and others about the characteristics of statistical agencies that enable them to serve the public good.

Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency: Seventh Edition

On December 7-8, 2017, the Committee on Human Rights of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine gathered leading scholars and practitioners for a symposium on Protecting the Rights of Individuals Fleeing Conflict: The Role of Scientists, Engineers, and Health Professionals. Participants discussed ongoing efforts to help address difficulties faced by forcibly displaced persons, including scholars forced to flee their homes. Speakers also identified potential areas for further engagement of the academic community in response to these difficulties, highlighting methodological, ethical, and other considerations. The Proceedings of a Symposium briefly summarizes themes discussed at the symposium, with selected examples of participants' work on displacement.

Protecting the Rights of Individuals Fleeing Conflict: The Role of Scientists, Engineers, and Health Professionals: Proceedings of a Symposium–in Brief

Digital technologies provide a means of anticipating, analyzing, and responding to human rights concerns, but they also present human rights challenges. These technologies have expanded opportunities for individuals and organizations to mobilize, document, and advocate, including around human rights and humanitarian crises; however, with these opportunities come certain concerns. Digital technologies have, for instance, been used to spread disinformation, surveil human rights defenders, and promote and incite violence. Discrimination in the use of, and access to, digital technologies presents another serious concern.

On September 18, 2019, the Committee on Human Rights of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine gathered experts in the fields of human rights and digital technology to examine these and other challenges and to explore ways of leveraging digital innovations in a manner that helps protect internationally recognized human rights. Human Rights and Digital Technologies: Proceedings of a Symposium of Scholars and Practitioners briefly summarizes themes discussed at the symposium.

Human Rights and Digital Technologies: Proceedings of a Symposium of Scholars and Practitioners–in Brief

The annual report of the Committee on Human Rights (CHR) provides an overview of the CHR's activities in 2018, including information on its advocacy, events, and awareness-raising projects.

Committee on Human Rights: Year in Review 2018

The annual report of the Committee on Human Rights (CHR) provides an overview of the CHR's activities in 2019, including information on its advocacy, events, and awareness-raising projects.

Committee on Human Rights: Year in Review 2019

The annual report of the Committee on Human Rights (CHR) provides an overview of the CHR's activities in 2020, including information on its advocacy, events, and awareness-raising projects.

Committee on Human Rights: Year in Review 2020

On February 24-25, 2021, an ad hoc planning committee under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Committee on Science, Technology, and Law hosted a workshop titled Emerging Areas of Science, Engineering, and Medicine for the Courts. The workshop was organized to explore emerging issues in science, technology, and medicine that might be the basis of new chapters in a fourth edition of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence. The Reference Manual, a primary resource for federal judges on questions of science in litigation, is a joint publication of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the Federal Judicial Center, the research and education arm of the federal judiciary.

Over the course of the workshop, judges discussed how they evaluate scientific evidence in court and scientists and others spoke about emerging issues in science and technology that may come before the courts in coming years. This publication highlights the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Emerging Areas of Science, Engineering, and Medicine for the Courts: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The Committee on Reducing Racial Inequalities in the Criminal Justice System of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop in April 2021 as part of its exploration of ways to reduce racial inequalities in criminal justice outcomes in the United States. This workshop, the third in a series of three, enabled the committee to gather information from a diverse set of stakeholders and experts to inform the consensus study process. Speakers at the workshop presented on deeply rooted inequalities within the criminal justice system, which exist not only in readily measured areas such as incarceration, but also in a much larger footprint that includes contact with police, monetary sanctions, and surveillance and supervision. This publication highlights the presentations and discussion of the workshop.

Reducing Racial Inequalities in Criminal Justice: Data, Courts, and Systems of Supervision: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The past century has witnessed remarkable advances in life expectancy in the United States and throughout the world. In 2010, however, progress in life expectancy in the United States began to stall, despite continuing to increase in other high-income countries. Alarmingly, U.S. life expectancy fell between 2014 and 2015 and continued to decline through 2017, the longest sustained decline in life expectancy in a century (since the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919). The recent decline in U.S. life expectancy appears to have been the product of two trends: (1) an increase in mortality among middle-aged and younger adults, defined as those aged 25-64 years (i.e., "working age"), which began in the 1990s for several specific causes of death (e.g., drug- and alcohol-related causes and suicide); and (2) a slowing of declines in working-age mortality due to other causes of death (mainly cardiovascular diseases) after 2010.

High and Rising Mortality Rates among Working Age Adults highlights the crisis of rising premature mortality that threatens the future of the nation's families, communities, and national wellbeing. This report identifies the key drivers of increasing death rates and disparities in working-age mortality over the period 1990 to 2017; elucidates modifiable risk factors that could alleviate poor health in the working-age population, as well as widening health inequalities; identifies key knowledge gaps and make recommendations for future research and data collection to fill those gaps; and explores potential policy implications. After a comprehensive analysis of the trends in working-age mortality by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and geography using the most up-to-date data, this report then looks upstream to the macrostructural factors (e.g., public policies, macroeconomic trends, social and economic inequality, technology) and social determinants (e.g., socioeconomic status, environment, social networks) that may affect the health of working-age Americans in multiple ways and through multiple pathways.

High and Rising Mortality Rates Among Working-Age Adults

During the COVID-19 pandemic, disruptions to key services for populations experiencing homelessness may lead to secondary effects in the context of a disaster, including effects on health and safety, which require additional population-specific support. Reducing disaster vulnerability for people experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic requires adapting existing preparedness guidance to an evolving situation. Addressing Disaster Vulnerability among Homeless Populations during COVID-19 reviews research on disaster vulnerability, homelessness, the pandemic, and intersecting hazards and disasters. This rapid expert consultation includes considerations for alternative shelter facilities for homeless populations during a disaster; suggestions on how to navigate service reductions and support population-specific needs; and guidance for supporting populations experiencing homelessness in the aftermath of disasters.

This rapid expert consultation was produced through the Societal Experts Action Network (SEAN), an activity of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. SEAN links researchers in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences with decision makers to respond to policy questions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. This project is affiliated with the National Academies' Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.

Addressing Disaster Vulnerability among Homeless Populations during COVID-19

On March 22-23, 2021, an ad hoc planning committee under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Committee on Science, Technology, and Law hosted a virtual workshop titled The Science of Implicit Bias: Implications for Law and Policy. Implicit bias has been commonly defined as any unconscious or unacknowledged preferences that can affect a person's beliefs or behaviors, and in particular, an unconscious favoritism toward or prejudice against people of a certain race, gender, or group that influences one's own actions or perceptions. The methods for identifying the presence and degree of an individual's implicit bias, the presence of implicit bias throughout society, and the successes or failures of attempts to mitigate implicit bias are topics of much scientific inquiry, with ramifications for law and policy as well as a multitude of organizational settings. The ways in which implicit bias reflects or contributes to structural and systemic racism in the U.S. remains an open and urgent question. The workshop, organized by the Committee on the Science of Implicit Bias: Implications for Law and Policy, was convened to better understand the state of the science on this topic in the context of critical and ongoing discussions about racism in the United States.

The Science of Implicit Bias: Implications for Law and Policy: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The economic and physical and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were disproportionately borne by Black, Hispanic, and Native Americans. The true impacts on children and families may not be fully known until after the pandemic ends, but many agree that a new system of care is needed to promote the well-being of children and families in the pandemic’s aftermath.

On September 14-15, 2020, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Forum for Children’s Well-Being organized a workshop focused on building systems to support children and families in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Workshop speakers and organizers paid particular attention to how economic, behavioral, and public health systems that can combat racism and promote the well-being of children and families. Participants engaged in discussionsabout a broad range of existing tools and resources that could be used to further promote family well-being and health equity in the United States.

Reimagining a System of Care to Promote the Well-Being of Children and Families: Proceedings of a Workshop

The Committee on Reducing Racial Inequalities in the Criminal Justice System of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop in March 2021 as part of its exploration of ways to reduce racial inequalities in criminal justice outcomes in the United States. This workshop, the second in a series of three, enabled the committee to gather information from a diverse set of stakeholders and experts to inform the consensus study process. Speakers discussed the numerous interrelated factors that shape racial inequalities in the criminal justice system. Presentations focused on issues and promising solutions in health and well-being, in both neighborhood and opportunity contexts, as well as in youth-serving systems, as they relate to reducing racial inequality. This publication highlights the presentations of the workshop.

Addressing the Drivers of Criminal Justice Involvement to Advance Racial Equity: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

This Proceedings of a Workshop summarizes the presentations and discussions at the Workshop on the Implications of Convergence for How the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) Measures the Science and Engineering Workforce, which was held virtually and livestreamed on October 22-23, 2020. The workshop was convened by the Committee on National Statistics to help NCSES, a division of the National Science Foundation, set an agenda to inform its methodological research and better measure and assess the implications of convergence for the science and engineering workforce and enterprise. The workshop brought together scientists and researchers from multiple disciplines, along with experts in science policy, university administration, and other stakeholders to review and provide input on defining and measuring convergence and its impact on science and scientists.

Measuring Convergence in Science and Engineering: Proceedings of a Workshop

Retail trade has experienced dramatic changes over the past several decades in the United States, with changes in the types of outlets where goods are sold, the nature of the transactions that provide goods to consumers, and the structure of retail operations behind the scenes. The recent changes include the rise of warehouse stores and e-commerce and the further growth of imports and large retail chains. These changes highlight and typify many aspects of the broader evolution of the economy as a whole in recent years - with the growing role of large firms and information technology - while taking place in a sector that directly serves the vast majority of the American population and provides substantial employment.

Despite the everyday experience of these dramatic changes in retail, there is concern that the most transformational aspects of those changes may not be captured well by the economic indicators about the sector. In order to develop appropriate economic policies, we need to be able to capture more detailed data, including data about changes to productivity.

At the request of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, this report evaluates changes in the retail trade sector, assesses measures of employment and labor productivity for the sector, and recommends a new satellite account that could measure retail-related employment and labor productivity in ways that would better capture the transformation.

A Satellite Account to Measure the Retail Transformation: Organizational, Conceptual, and Data Foundations

Over the past several decades, fertility rates have fallen substantially in low- and middle-income countries, and efforts to limit fertility, primarily through the implementation of family planning programs, have become increasingly widespread. Although there is a substantial scholarly literature on the determinants of contraceptive use and other measures to limit fertility and on the resulting differentials in fertility, relatively little is known about the role played by women's empowerment as both a determinant and a consequence of fertility decline. In addition, there continues to be little consensus about the link between fertility decline and broader societal impacts, including economic development.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop, "Family Planning, Women's Empowerment, and Population and Societal Impacts," in September 2020. This event brought together experts and stakeholders to discuss conceptual, methodological, and policy issues regarding the relationships among family planning, women's empowerment, fertility decline, and population and societal impacts. The discussion was intended to inform research and policy focused on the issues of women's roles and empowerment and on longstanding questions surrounding the determinants and consequences of fertility reduction behavior. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop.

Family Planning, Women's Empowerment, and Population and Societal Impacts: Proceedings of a Workshop

The Committee on Reducing Racial Inequalities in the Criminal Justice System of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop in January 2021 as part of its exploration of ways to reduce racial inequalities in criminal justice outcomes in the United States. In this workshop, speakers described the historical underpinnings that have linked policing with systemic racism and explored how policing in specific communities has shaped disparities in rates of crime and victimization across racial and ethnic groups. Speakers from both the criminal justice system and several communities spoke about how they are working to address racial inequalities today and about the problems of over-policing and under-protection in certain communities. This workshop, the first in a series of three, enabled the committee to gather information from a diverse set of stakeholders and experts to inform the consensus study process. This publication highlights the presentations of the workshop.

Community Safety and Policing: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

Over the last few decades, research, activity, and funding has been devoted to improving the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women in the fields of science, engineering, and medicine. In recent years the diversity of those participating in these fields, particularly the participation of women, has improved and there are significantly more women entering careers and studying science, engineering, and medicine than ever before. However, as women increasingly enter these fields they face biases and barriers and it is not surprising that sexual harassment is one of these barriers.

Over thirty years the incidence of sexual harassment in different industries has held steady, yet now more women are in the workforce and in academia, and in the fields of science, engineering, and medicine (as students and faculty) and so more women are experiencing sexual harassment as they work and learn. Over the last several years, revelations of the sexual harassment experienced by women in the workplace and in academic settings have raised urgent questions about the specific impact of this discriminatory behavior on women and the extent to which it is limiting their careers.

Sexual Harassment of Women explores the influence of sexual harassment in academia on the career advancement of women in the scientific, technical, and medical workforce. This report reviews the research on the extent to which women in the fields of science, engineering, and medicine are victimized by sexual harassment and examines the existing information on the extent to which sexual harassment in academia negatively impacts the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women pursuing scientific, engineering, technical, and medical careers. It also identifies and analyzes the policies, strategies and practices that have been the most successful in preventing and addressing sexual harassment in these settings.

Harcèlement sexuel des femmes: Climat, culture et conséquences dans les filières universitaires de sciences, d'ingénierie et de médecine

The USAir Force human capital management (HCM) system is not easily defined or mapped. It affects virtually every part of the Air Force because workforce policies, procedures, and processes impact all offices and organizations that include Airmen and responsibilities and relationships change regularly. To ensure the readiness of Airmen to fulfill the mission of the Air Force, strategic approaches are developed and issued through guidance and actions of the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower, Personnel and Services and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.

Strengthening US Air Force Human Capital Management assesses and strengthens the various U.S. Air Force initiatives and programs working to improve person-job match and human capital management in coordinated support of optimal mission capability. This report considers the opportunities and challenges associated with related interests and needs across the USAF HCM system as a whole, and makes recommendations to inform improvements to USAF personnel selection and classification and other critical system components across career trajectories. Strengthening US Air Force Human Capital Management offers the Air Force a strategic approach, across a connected HCM system, to develop 21st century human capital capabilities essential for the success of 21st century Airmen.

Strengthening U.S. Air Force Human Capital Management: A Flight Plan for 2020-2030

The increase in prevalence and visibility of sexually gender diverse (SGD) populations illuminates the need for greater understanding of the ways in which current laws, systems, and programs affect their well-being. Individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, transgender, non-binary, queer, or intersex, as well as those who express same-sex or -gender attractions or behaviors, will have experiences across their life course that differ from those of cisgender and heterosexual individuals. Characteristics such as age, race and ethnicity, and geographic location intersect to play a distinct role in the challenges and opportunities SGD people face.

Understanding the Well-Being of LGBTQI+ Populations reviews the available evidence and identifies future research needs related to the well-being of SDG populations across the life course. This report focuses on eight domains of well-being; the effects of various laws and the legal system on SGD populations; the effects of various public policies and structural stigma; community and civic engagement; families and social relationships; education, including school climate and level of attainment; economic experiences (e.g., employment, compensation, and housing); physical and mental health; and health care access and gender-affirming interventions.

The recommendations of Understanding the Well-Being of LGBTQI+ Populations aim to identify opportunities to advance understanding of how individuals experience sexuality and gender and how sexual orientation, gender identity, and intersex status affect SGD people over the life course.

Understanding the Well-Being of LGBTQI+ Populations

The Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a 2-day public workshop from December 11-12, 2019, to discuss the suite of data products the Census Bureau will generate from the 2020 Census. The workshop featured presentations by users of decennial census data products to help the Census Bureau better understand the uses of the data products and the importance of these uses and help inform the Census Bureau's decisions on the final specification of 2020 data products. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

2020 Census Data Products: Data Needs and Privacy Considerations: Proceedings of a Workshop

With rapidly rising rates of mental health disorders, changing patterns of occurrence, and increasing levels of morbidity, the need for a better understanding of the developmental origins and influence of mental health on children’s behavioral health outcomes has become critical. This need for better understanding extends to both the growing prevalence of mental health disorders as well as the role and impact of neurodevelopmental pathways in their onset and expression. Addressing these changes in disease patterns and effects on children and families will require a multifaceted approach that goes beyond simply making changes to clinical care or adding personnel to the health services system. New policies, financing, and implementation can put established best practices and numerous research findings from around the country into action.

The Maternal and Child Health Life Course Intervention Research Network and the Forum for Children's Well-Being at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine jointly organized a webinar series to explore how mental health disorders develop over the life course, with a special emphasis on prenatal, early, middle, and later childhood development. This series centered on identifying gaps in our knowledge, exploring possible new strategies for using existing data to enhance understanding of the developmental origins of mental disorders, reviewing potential approaches to prevention and optimization, and proposing new ways of framing how to understand, address, and prevent these disorders from a life course development perspective. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the series.

Children's Mental Health and the Life Course Model: A Virtual Workshop Series: Proceedings of a Workshop

The conditions and characteristics of correctional facilities - overcrowded with rapid population turnover, often in old and poorly ventilated structures, a spatially concentrated pattern of releases and admissions in low-income communities of color, and a health care system that is siloed from community public health - accelerates transmission of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) responsible for COVID-19. Such conditions increase the risk of coming into contact with the virus for incarcerated people, correctional staff, and their families and communities. Relative to the general public, moreover, incarcerated individuals have a higher prevalence of chronic health conditions such as asthma, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease, making them susceptible to complications should they become infected. Indeed, cumulative COVID-19 case rates among incarcerated people and correctional staff have grown steadily higher than case rates in the general population.

Decarcerating Correctional Facilities during COVID-19 offers guidance on efforts to decarcerate, or reduce the incarcerated population, as a response to COIVD-19 pandemic. This report examines best practices for implementing decarceration as a response to the pandemic and the conditions that support safe and successful reentry of those decarcerated.

Decarcerating Correctional Facilities during COVID-19: Advancing Health, Equity, and Safety

Adolescence is a dynamic time for both brain development and social pressures, making it a critical period to understand mental, emotional, and behavioral health, yet it is often overlooked in terms of policies and service interventions, which makes many young people feel unheard when communicating their own challenges.

To explore best practices in providing and supporting adolescent health services and key messaging and communication strategies related to the mental, emotional, and behavioral health of adolescents, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Forum for Children's Well-Being held a workshop on May 5, 2020. The workshop featured a panel of youth representatives who shared their own experiences related to mental, emotional, and behavioral health. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Flourishing in Adolescence: A Virtual Workshop: Proceedings of a Workshop

Despite the changing demographics of the nation and a growing appreciation for diversity and inclusion as drivers of excellence in science, engineering, and medicine, Black Americans are severely underrepresented in these fields. Racism and bias are significant reasons for this disparity, with detrimental implications on individuals, health care organizations, and the nation as a whole. The Roundtable on Black Men and Black Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine was launched at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in 2019 to identify key levers, drivers, and disruptors in government, industry, health care, and higher education where actions can have the most impact on increasing the participation of Black men and Black women in science, medicine, and engineering.

On April 16, 2020, the Roundtable convened a workshop to explore the context for their work; to surface key issues and questions that the Roundtable should address in its initial phase; and to reach key stakeholders and constituents. This proceedings provides a record of the workshop.

The Impacts of Racism and Bias on Black People Pursuing Careers in Science, Engineering, and Medicine: Proceedings of a Workshop

Headlines frequently appear that purport to highlight the differences among workers of different generations and explain how employers can manage the wants and needs of each generation. But is each new generation really that different from previous ones? Are there fundamental differences among generations that impact how they act and interact in the workplace? Or are the perceived differences among generations simply an indicator of age-related differences between older and younger workers or a reflection of all people adapting to a changing workplace?

Are Generational Categories Meaningful Distinctions for Workforce Management? reviews the state and rigor of the empirical work related to generations and assesses whether generational categories are meaningful in tackling workforce management problems. This report makes recommendations for directions for future research and improvements to employment practices.

Are Generational Categories Meaningful Distinctions for Workforce Management?

Approximately 30 percent of the edible food produced in the United States is wasted and a significant portion of this waste occurs at the consumer level. Despite food's essential role as a source of nutrients and energy and its emotional and cultural importance, U.S. consumers waste an estimated average of 1 pound of food per person per day at home and in places where they buy and consume food away from home. Many factors contribute to this waste—consumers behaviors are shaped not only by individual and interpersonal factors but also by influences within the food system, such as policies, food marketing and the media. Some food waste is unavoidable, and there is substantial variation in how food waste and its impacts are defined and measured. But there is no doubt that the consequences of food waste are severe: the wasting of food is costly to consumers, depletes natural resources, and degrades the environment. In addition, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has severely strained the U.S. economy and sharply increased food insecurity, it is predicted that food waste will worsen in the short term because of both supply chain disruptions and the closures of food businesses that affect the way people eat and the types of food they can afford.

A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level identifies strategies for changing consumer behavior, considering interactions and feedbacks within the food system. It explores the reasons food is wasted in the United States, including the characteristics of the complex systems through which food is produced, marketed, and sold, as well as the many other interconnected influences on consumers' conscious and unconscious choices about purchasing, preparing, consuming, storing, and discarding food. This report presents a strategy for addressing the challenge of reducing food waste at the consumer level from a holistic, systems perspective.

A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level

Business structures, employment relationships, job characteristics, and worker outcomes have changed in the United States over the last few decades—in some ways unpredictably. A high level of interest exists among policy makers and researchers in addressing concerns about the future of work in the United States. These concerns are heightened by the perceived fracturing of relationships between workers and employers, the loss of safety net protections and benefits to workers, the growing importance of access to skills and education as the impacts of new technologies and automation are felt, and the market-based pressure that companies face to produce short-term profits, sometimes at the expense of long-term value.

These issues, as well as related ones such as wage stagnation and job quality, are often associated with alternative work arrangements (AWAs)—which include independent-contractor and other nonemployee jobs, work through intermediaries such as temporary help agencies and other contract companies, and work with unpredictable schedules—although they also pertain to many standard jobs. A better understanding of the magnitude of and trends in AWAs, along with the implications for job quality, is needed to develop appropriate policies in response to the changing nature of work.

Measuring Alternative Work Arrangements for Research and Policy reviews the Contigent Worker Supplement (CWS) of the Current Population Survey (CPS) for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in the U.S. Department of Labor. The CWS provides key measures of temporary (contingent) work, alternative work arrangements, and the "gig" economy. Disagreements, however, exist among researchers, policy makers, and other stakeholders about the definitions and measures of these concepts and priorities for future data collection. The report also reviews measures of employment, earnings, and worker well-being in temporary and alternative work arrangements that can be estimated using household survey data, such as those generated by the CWS, as well as measures that can be produced using administrative, commercial, and combined data sources. The comparative advantages and complementarities of different data sources will be assessed, as well as methodological issues underpinning BLS's measurement objectives.

Measuring Alternative Work Arrangements for Research and Policy

To explore how mobile technology can be employed to enhance the lives of older adults, the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine commissioned 6 papers, which were presented at a workshop held on December 11 and 12, 2019. These papers review research on mobile technologies and aging, and highlight promising avenues for further research.

Mobile Technology for Adaptive Aging: Proceedings of a Workshop

On July 8, 2020, the Committee on Developing a Behavioral and Social Science Research Agenda on Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease-Related Dementias hosted a public workshop via webcast. This Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief summarizes the key points made by the workshop participants during the presentations and discussions.

Quality of Life, Preventing Elder Abuse, and Fostering Living Well After a Dementia Diagnosis: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

On July 7, 2020, the Committee on Developing a Behavioral and Social Science Research Agenda on Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease-Related Dementias hosted a public workshop via webcast. This Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief summarizes the key points made by the workshop participants during the presentations and discussions.

Understanding Nursing Home, Hospice, and Palliative Care for Individuals with Later-Stage Dementia: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

Thirty scientists, engineers, researchers, and analysts from the United States, Russia, and Europe gathered December 3-5, 2019, in Moscow for a workshop on the scientific aspects of the intersections of violent extremism, terrorism, and radiological security. The primary goal of the workshop was to contribute to U.S., Russian, and European appreciation of how, why, when, and where radiological terrorism could be a near-term outcome of the spread of violent extremism as well as highlight opportunities for international collaboration to help prevent terrorism. Also the workshop was designed to promote subsequent interactions between U.S. and Russian specialists with attention to the types of expertise, themes, and structure of follow-on activities that are needed. This publication highlights the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Scientific Aspects of Violent Extremism, Terrorism, and Radiological Security: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

How can states and schools use data to support their efforts to improve educational equity? Building Educational Equity Indicator Systems: A Guidebook for States and School Districts , provides information to help state and school district leaders develop ways of tracking educational equity within their preK – 12 systems.

The guidebook expands on the indicators of educational equity identified in the 2019 National Academies report, Monitoring Educational Equity , showing education leaders how they can measure educational equity within their states and school districts. Some of the indicators focus on student outcomes, such as kindergarten readiness or educational attainment, while others focus on student access to opportunities and resources, such as effective instruction and rigorous curriculum. Together, the indicators provide a robust picture of the outcomes and opportunities that are central to educational equity from preK through grade 12.

For each indicator of educational equity identified in the report, the guidebook describes what leaders should measure and what data to use, provides examples of data collection instruments, and offers considerations and challenges to keep in mind. The guidebook is meant to help education leaders catalogue data they already collect and identify new data sources to help them fill gaps.

Building Educational Equity Indicator Systems: A Guidebook for States and School Districts

Social isolation and loneliness are serious yet underappreciated public health risks that affect a significant portion of the older adult population. Approximately one-quarter of community-dwelling Americans aged 65 and older are considered to be socially isolated, and a significant proportion of adults in the United States report feeling lonely. People who are 50 years of age or older are more likely to experience many of the risk factors that can cause or exacerbate social isolation or loneliness, such as living alone, the loss of family or friends, chronic illness, and sensory impairments. Over a life course, social isolation and loneliness may be episodic or chronic, depending upon an individual's circumstances and perceptions.

A substantial body of evidence demonstrates that social isolation presents a major risk for premature mortality, comparable to other risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, or obesity. As older adults are particularly high-volume and high-frequency users of the health care system, there is an opportunity for health care professionals to identify, prevent, and mitigate the adverse health impacts of social isolation and loneliness in older adults.

Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults summarizes the evidence base and explores how social isolation and loneliness affect health and quality of life in adults aged 50 and older, particularly among low income, underserved, and vulnerable populations. This report makes recommendations specifically for clinical settings of health care to identify those who suffer the resultant negative health impacts of social isolation and loneliness and target interventions to improve their social conditions. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults considers clinical tools and methodologies, better education and training for the health care workforce, and dissemination and implementation that will be important for translating research into practice, especially as the evidence base for effective interventions continues to flourish.

Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults: Opportunities for the Health Care System

Over the past decade, providers, policy makers, and stakeholders across a range of disciplines have taken various approaches to addressing the rising incidence of mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) health concerns in children and adults. With the recent opioid crisis affecting young people and families across race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic level, and thus adding to the national concern, new efforts and interventions have emerged. However, an overarching system is lacking for the collection of data on these efforts and their efficacy. A strong system for evaluating programs and distributing information could create more opportunities to improve efforts and reduce inefficiencies across programs. Additionally, through engagement of an array of stakeholders from all sectors involved with youth and families, more possibilities for solutions can be realized. To bring together some of these relevant stakeholders and to highlight some of these potential solutions, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop in October 2019. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

The State of Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Health of Children and Youth in the United States: Proceedings of a Workshop

The delivery of high quality and equitable care for both mothers and newborns is complex and requires efforts across many sectors. The United States spends more on childbirth than any other country in the world, yet outcomes are worse than other high-resource countries, and even worse for Black and Native American women. There are a variety of factors that influence childbirth, including social determinants such as income, educational levels, access to care, financing, transportation, structural racism and geographic variability in birth settings. It is important to reevaluate the United States' approach to maternal and newborn care through the lens of these factors across multiple disciplines.

Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access, and Choice reviews and evaluates maternal and newborn care in the United States, the epidemiology of social and clinical risks in pregnancy and childbirth, birth settings research, and access to and choice of birth settings.

Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access, and Choice

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is America's largest integrated health care system, providing care at 1,243 health care facilities, including 172 medical centers and 1,063 outpatient sites of care of varying complexity, serving 9 million enrolled Veterans each year. In addition, VHA has opened outpatient clinics and established telemedicine and other services to accommodate a diverse veteran population and continues to cultivate ongoing medical research and innovation. Facilities specific to VHA fulfill clinical, operational, research laboratory, and administrative functions. Each site is designed to serve a geographical location with specific health care needs. VHA's building inventory has sites of different ages, and often there is a mix of building size and age at each site or campus.

At the request of the VHA, this study presents a comprehensive resource planning and staffing methodology guidebook for VHA Facility Management Programs by reviewing the tasks of VHA building facilities staff and recommending actions for the VHA to meet the mission goals of delivering patient care, research, and effective operations.

Facilities Staffing Requirements for the Veterans Health Administration–Resource Planning and Methodology for the Future

The Minerva Research Initiative is a Department of Defense (DoD) social science grant program that funds unclassified basic research relevant to national security. The goal of the program is to make use of the intellectual capital of university-based social scientists to inform understanding of issues important to DoD and the broader national security community. Evaluation of the Minerva Research Initiative discusses the program's successes and challenges over its first decade of operation, and highlights ways to strengthen the program's foundations and take advantage of opportunities for broadening its reach and usefulness.

Evaluation of the Minerva Research Initiative

Patterns of food consumption and nutritional intake strongly affect the population's health and well-being. The Food Economics Division of USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) engages in research and data collection to inform policy making related to the leading federal nutrition assistance programs managed by USDA's Food and Nutrition Service. The ERS uses the Consumer Food Data System to understand why people choose foods, how food assistance programs affect these choices, and the health impacts of those choices.

At the request of ERS, A Consumer Food Data System for 2030 and Beyond provides a blueprint for ERS's Food Economics Division for its data strategy over the next decade. This report explores the quality of data collected, the data collection process, and the kinds of data that may be most valuable to researchers, policy makers, and program administrators going forward. The recommendations of A Consumer Food Data System for 2030 and Beyond will guide ERS to provide and sustain a multisource, interconnected, reliable data system.

A Consumer Food Data System for 2030 and Beyond

Human trafficking has many names and can take many forms - pimp control, commercial sex, exploitation, forced labor, modern slavery, child labor, and several others - and the definitions vary greatly across countries and cultures, as well as among researchers. In the United States, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) is the cornerstone of counter-trafficking efforts. It provides guidance for identifying and defining human trafficking, and it authorizes legislation and appropriations for subsequent counter-trafficking measures both within and outside of the federal government. First enacted in 2000, the TVPA has since been reauthorized by three administrations, and it includes a directive for the President to establish an Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking. The subsequent Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2018 also includes provisions for victim services and plans to enhance collaboration efforts to fight trafficking abroad.

To explore current and innovative sampling methods, technological approaches, and analytical strategies for estimating the prevalence of sex and labor trafficking in vulnerable populations, a 2-day public workshop, Approaches to Estimating the Prevalence of Human Trafficking in the United States, was held in Washington, D.C. in April 2019. The workshop brought together statisticians, survey methodologists, researchers, public health practitioners, and other experts who work closely with human trafficking data or with the survivors of trafficking. Participants addressed the current state of research on human trafficking, advancements in data collection, and gaps in the data. They discussed international practices and global trends in human trafficking prevalence estimation and considered ways in which collaborations across agencies and among the U.S. government and private-sector organizations have advanced counter-trafficking efforts. This proceedings summarizes the presentations and discussions of the workshop.

Estimating the Prevalence of Human Trafficking in the United States: Considerations and Complexities: Proceedings of a Workshop

Adolescence is a critical growth period in which youth develop essential skills that prepare them for adulthood. Prevention and intervention programs are designed to meet the needs of adolescents who require additional support and promote healthy behaviors and outcomes. To ensure the success of these efforts, it is essential that they include reliably identifiable techniques, strategies, or practices that have been proven effective.

Promoting Positive Adolescent Health Behaviors and Outcomes: Thriving in the 21st Century identifies key program factors that can improve health outcomes related to adolescent behavior and provides evidence-based recommendations toward effective implementation of federal programming initiatives. This study explores normative adolescent development, the current landscape of adolescent risk behavior, core components of effective programs focused on optimal health, and recommendations for research, programs, and policies.

Promoting Positive Adolescent Health Behaviors and Outcomes: Thriving in the 21st Century

On August 14, 2019, the Committee on Developing a Behavioral and Social Science Research Agenda on Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease-Related Dementias convened a public workshop in Washington, D.C., as part of the study "Developing a Behavioral and Social Science Research Agenda on Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease-Related Dementias." As the first public event of the study, the workshop was designed to inform the public about the study and to gather information on how dementia affects individuals, families, and communities; the epidemiology of dementia; and how best to provide care to individuals with dementia. To achieve these goals, the workshop included four panel discussions: sponsors' perspectives on the study; perspectives from individuals living with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias and caregivers; epidemiological perspectives; and a discussion on models of care initiatives. This Proceedings of a Workshop - in Brief summarizes the key points made by the participants.

Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias: Experience and Caregiving, Epidemiology, and Models of Care: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

On October 17, 2019, the Committee on Developing a Behavioral and Social Science Research Agenda on Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease-Related Dementias hosted a public workshop in Washington, D.C., as part of the study "Developing a Behavioral and Social Science Research Agenda on Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease-Related Dementias." The workshop included six presentations by six authors of papers commissioned by the committee; these presentations were followed by a panel on measuring the effects of caregiving, including discussants who serve on the advisory panel to the committee. This Proceedings of a Workshop - in Brief summarizes the key points made by the workshop participants during the presentations and discussions.

Challenging Questions about Epidemiology, Care, and Caregiving for People with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias and Their Families: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

For children and youth, summertime presents a unique break from the traditional structure, resources, and support systems that exist during the school year. For some students, this time involves opportunities to engage in fun and enriching activities and programs, while others face additional challenges as they lose a variety of supports, including healthy meals, medical care, supervision, and structured programs that enhance development. Children that are limited by their social, economic, or physical environments during the summer months are at higher risk for worse academic, health, social and emotional, and safety outcomes. In contrast, structured summertime activities and programs support basic developmental needs and positive outcomes for children and youth who can access and afford these programs. These discrepancies in summertime experiences exacerbate pre-existing academic inequities. While further research is needed regarding the impact of summertime on developmental domains outside of the academic setting, extensive literature exists regarding the impact of summertime on academic development trajectories. However, this knowledge is not sufficiently applied to policy and practice, and it is important to address these inequalities.

Shaping Summertime Experiences examines the impact of summertime experiences on the developmental trajectories of school-age children and youth across four areas of well-being, including academic learning, social and emotional development, physical and mental health, and health-promoting and safety behaviors. It also reviews the state of science and available literature regarding the impact of summertime experiences. In addition, this report provides recommendations to improve the experiences of children over the summertime regarding planning, access and equity, and opportunities for further research and data collection.

Shaping Summertime Experiences: Opportunities to Promote Healthy Development and Well-Being for Children and Youth

The Digest Version of A Decadal Survey of the Social and Behavioral Sciences: A Research Agenda for Advancing Intelligence Analysis summarizes the most important ideas from the full report for the Intelligence Community to consider in the coming decade. This volume provides an overview of the primary opportunities that research in the social and behavioral sciences offers for strengthening national security, specifically the work of the intelligence analyst, and the conclusions and recommendations of the Committee on a Decadal Survey of Social and Behavioral Sciences for Applications to National Survey. This digest version is a succinct roadmap to the critical contribution researchers from these fields make to national security.

A Decadal Survey of the Social and Behavioral Sciences: A Research Agenda for Advancing Intelligence Analysis: Digest Version

Healthy mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) development is a critical foundation for a productive adulthood. Much is known about strategies to support families and communities in strengthening the MEB development of children and youth, by promoting healthy development and also by preventing and mitigating disorder, so that young people reach adulthood ready to thrive and contribute to society. Over the last decade, a growing body of research has significantly strengthened understanding of healthy MEB development and the factors that influence it, as well as how it can be fostered. Yet, the United States has not taken full advantage of this growing knowledge base. Ten years later, the nation still is not effectively mitigating risks for poor MEB health outcomes; these risks remain prevalent, and available data show no significant reductions in their prevalence.

Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development in Children and Youth: A National Agenda examines the gap between current research and achievable national goals for the next ten years. This report identifies the complexities of childhood influences and highlights the need for a tailored approach when implementing new policies and practices. This report provides a framework for a cohesive, multidisciplinary national approach to improving MEB health.

Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development in Children and Youth: A National Agenda

In 2018, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated 70.8 million people could be considered forced migrants, which is nearly double their estimation just one decade ago. This includes internally displaced persons, refugees, asylum seekers, and stateless people. This drastic increase in forced migrants exacerbates the already urgent need for a systematic policy-related review of the available data and analyses on forced migration and refugee movements.

To explore the causes and impacts of forced migration and population displacement, the National Academies convened a two-day workshop on May 21-22, 2019. The workshop discussed new approaches in social demographic theory, methodology, data collection and analysis, and practice as well as applications to the community of researchers and practitioners who are concerned with better understanding and assisting forced migrant populations. This workshop brought together stakeholders and experts in demography, public health, and policy analysis to review and address some of the domestic implications of international migration and refugee flows for the United States. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Forced Migration Research: From Theory to Practice in Promoting Migrant Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop

Patient-centered, high-quality health care relies on the well-being, health, and safety of health care clinicians. However, alarmingly high rates of clinician burnout in the United States are detrimental to the quality of care being provided, harmful to individuals in the workforce, and costly. It is important to take a systemic approach to address burnout that focuses on the structure, organization, and culture of health care.

Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems Approach to Professional Well-Being builds upon two groundbreaking reports from the past twenty years, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System and Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century , which both called attention to the issues around patient safety and quality of care. This report explores the extent, consequences, and contributing factors of clinician burnout and provides a framework for a systems approach to clinician burnout and professional well-being, a research agenda to advance clinician well-being, and recommendations for the field.

Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems Approach to Professional Well-Being

The syndemics model is used to describe co-occurring epidemics that have a multiplicative effect on bodily systems through the adverse interaction of two or more diseases or health conditions. Additionally, in these situations, interactions with social conditions exacerbate both the prognosis and the burden of disease. There are two layers of interaction in this model—the way diseases interact with each other and the way diseases are promoted by the social conditions in which people are living. It is important to understand this concept in order to create and implement effective multilevel preventive and intervention strategies that address these global public health issues by moving beyond the traditional silos of focusing on one epidemic.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a public workshop on May 16-17, 2019 to explore the syndemic model and three syndemics/co-occuring epidemics. This includes 1) opioid use disorder (OUD), violence, suicide, and mental health in the United States, 2) adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and childhood trauma; adult violence and victimization; and health outcomes from a global perspective, and 3) human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and violence. The workshop participants considered the perspectives of survivors, researchers studying these interactions, public health professionals engaged with affected communities and in the creation and implementation of prevention and intervention measures, and policy makers who are seeking multilevel interventions. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Interpersonal Violence Syndemics and Co-Occurring Epidemics: Preventing Violence in the Context of Opioid Misuse, Suicide, Social Disparities, and HIV: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

The opioid crisis is especially prevalent in rural and economically disadvantaged communities where poverty is associated with poor physical and mental wellbeing, health access is limited, opioid prescription rates are higher, and treatment programs are few. Children are one of the most vulnerable populations caught in this public health crisis, as a growing number are sent to live with other relatives or placed in foster care following the death of a parent or a parent's inability to continue as a primary caretaker while in recovery. Additionally, health care systems around the country have seen a dramatic increase in babies who are born with neonatal abstinence syndrome. All children affected by the opioid crisis, whether born with withdrawal symptoms or struggling as an older child surrounded by uncertainty, need dedicated attention, likely including specialized services, to achieve optimal levels of health and well-being. Unfortunately, because so many resources directed to the crises have been dedicated to the immediate and long-term needs of people who have overdosed, children often become a forgotten population.

In response to this need, the Forum for Children's Well-Being convened a workshop in June 2019 on Fostering Children's Physical, Developmental and Social/Behavioral Health in the Face of the Opioid Crisis. The goal of the workshop was to explore multigenerational approaches and policy strategies to promote health and well-being, using the opioid crisis as a case study. Multigenerational approaches and policy strategies that are successful in fostering children's health in this crisis may be adaptable in the future. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.

Multigenerational Approaches to Fostering Children's Health and Well-Being: The Opioid Crisis as a Case Study: Proceedings of a Workshop

The U.S. military has been continuously engaged in foreign conflicts for over two decades. The strains that these deployments, the associated increases in operational tempo, and the general challenges of military life affect not only service members but also the people who depend on them and who support them as they support the nation – their families.

Family members provide support to service members while they serve or when they have difficulties; family problems can interfere with the ability of service members to deploy or remain in theater; and family members are central influences on whether members continue to serve. In addition, rising family diversity and complexity will likely increase the difficulty of creating military policies, programs and practices that adequately support families in the performance of military duties.

Strengthening the Military Family Readiness System for a Changing American Society examines the challenges and opportunities facing military families and what is known about effective strategies for supporting and protecting military children and families, as well as lessons to be learned from these experiences. This report offers recommendations regarding what is needed to strengthen the support system for military families.

Strengthening the Military Family Readiness System for a Changing American Society

The high rate of incarceration in the United States contributes significantly to the nation’s health inequities, extending beyond those who are imprisoned to families, communities, and the entire society. Since the 1970s, there has been a seven-fold increase in incarceration. This increase and the effects of the post-incarceration reentry disproportionately affect low-income families and communities of color. It is critical to examine the criminal justice system through a new lens and explore opportunities for meaningful improvements that will promote health equity in the United States.

The National Academies convened a workshop on June 6, 2018 to investigate the connection between incarceration and health inequities to better understand the distributive impact of incarceration on low-income families and communities of color. Topics of discussion focused on the experience of incarceration and reentry, mass incarceration as a public health issue, women’s health in jails and prisons, the effects of reentry on the individual and the community, and promising practices and models for reentry. The programs and models that are described in this publication are all Philadelphia-based because Philadelphia has one of the highest rates of incarceration of any major American city. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions of the workshop.

The Effects of Incarceration and Reentry on Community Health and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop

A 2-day public workshop on estimating the prevalence of human trafficking in the United States was held by the Committee on National Statistics in collaboration with the Committee on Population April 8-9, 2019. The workshop explored current and innovative sampling methods, technological approaches, and analytical strategies for estimating the prevalence of sex and labor trafficking in vulnerable populations. The workshop, sponsored by the Office on Women's Health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), brought together statisticians, survey methodologists, researchers, public health practitioners, and other experts who work closely with human trafficking data or with the survivors of trafficking.

Participants addressed the current state of research on human trafficking, advancements in data collection, and gaps in the data. They discussed international practices and global trends in human trafficking prevalence estimation and considered ways in which collaborations across agencies and among the U.S. government and private-sector organizations have advanced counter-trafficking efforts. The workshop highlighted the importance of understanding the scope of human trafficking in order to inform and receive support from policy makers and change agents.

Estimating the Prevalence of Human Trafficking in the United States: Considerations and Complexities: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine was tasked by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to prepare a comprehensive resource planning and staffing methodology guidebook for VHA Facility Management (Engineering) Programs. The resource and staffing methodology must take into account all significant parameters and variables involved in the VHA Engineering Programs. The methodology should yield customized outputs based on site-specific input data, to enable specification of the optimal budget and staffing levels for each site.

Currently, the VHA does not utilize a staffing model for defining its facilities workforce. Each medical center defines its required facilities staffing. This interim report focuses on the types, availability, usage, and limitations of models in the staffing processes.

Facilities Staffing Requirements for the Veterans Health Administration—Resource Planning and Methodology for the Future: Interim Report

The strengths and abilities children develop from infancy through adolescence are crucial for their physical, emotional, and cognitive growth, which in turn help them to achieve success in school and to become responsible, economically self-sufficient, and healthy adults. Capable, responsible, and healthy adults are clearly the foundation of a well-functioning and prosperous society, yet America's future is not as secure as it could be because millions of American children live in families with incomes below the poverty line. A wealth of evidence suggests that a lack of adequate economic resources for families with children compromises these children's ability to grow and achieve adult success, hurting them and the broader society.

A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty reviews the research on linkages between child poverty and child well-being, and analyzes the poverty-reducing effects of major assistance programs directed at children and families. This report also provides policy and program recommendations for reducing the number of children living in poverty in the United States by half within 10 years.

A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop on May 8-9, 2019, to gather data on performance management and financing associated with the complex and diverse physical plants that support a wide variety of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities. This workshop was the fourth in a series undertaken to assist the larger effort by an ad hoc committee of the National Academies for the Veterans Administration to prepare a resource planning and staffing methodology guidebook for VHA Facility Management (Engineering) Programs. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Performance Management and Financing of Facility Engineering Programs at the Veterans Health Administration: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

Every ten years, the Department of Health and Human Service’s Healthy People Initiative develops a new set of science-based, national objectives with the goal of improving the health of all Americans. Defining balanced and comprehensive criteria for healthy people enables the public, programs, and policymakers to gauge our progress and reevaluate efforts towards a healthier society. Criteria for Selecting the Leading Health Indicators for Healthy People 2030 makes recommendations for the development of Leading Health Indicators for the initiative’s Healthy People 2030 framework. The authoring committee’s assessments inform their recommendations for the Healthy People Federal Interagency Workgroup in their endeavor to develop the latest Leading Health Indicators. The finalized Leading Health Indicators will establish the criteria for healthy Americans and help update policies that will guide decision-marking throughout the next decade. This report also reviews and reflects upon current and past Healthy People materials to identify gaps and new objectives.

Criteria for Selecting the Leading Health Indicators for Healthy People 2030

Adolescence—beginning with the onset of puberty and ending in the mid-20s—is a critical period of development during which key areas of the brain mature and develop. These changes in brain structure, function, and connectivity mark adolescence as a period of opportunity to discover new vistas, to form relationships with peers and adults, and to explore one's developing identity. It is also a period of resilience that can ameliorate childhood setbacks and set the stage for a thriving trajectory over the life course.

Because adolescents comprise nearly one-fourth of the entire U.S. population, the nation needs policies and practices that will better leverage these developmental opportunities to harness the promise of adolescence—rather than focusing myopically on containing its risks. This report examines the neurobiological and socio-behavioral science of adolescent development and outlines how this knowledge can be applied, both to promote adolescent well-being, resilience, and development, and to rectify structural barriers and inequalities in opportunity, enabling all adolescents to flourish.

The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop on March 5-6, 2019, to explore staffing considerations for engineering administration at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Workshop speakers shared information about (1) data and data management, (2) contracting strategies, and (3) perspectives on challenges and expectations at various VHA facilities. This Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief summarizes the presentations and discussions that took place during the workshop.

Facilities Staffing Requirements for the Veterans Health Administration–Engineering Administration: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop on February 19-20, 2019. The purpose of this 2-day workshop was to explore the tools, techniques, and models being used by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and other organizations both within and outside the federal government for facilities asset and data management, capital planning, and project management relevant to Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals, and in particular the staffing challenges relative to those functions. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Facilities Staffing Requirements for the Veterans Health Administration–Capital Asset Inventory Database Management and Strategic Capital: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

On February 5-6, 2019 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop to discuss current information and future research possibilities that could inform the continued effort to develop a resource planning and staffing methodology guidebook for Veterans Health Administration Facility Management (Engineering) Programs. Discussions focused on the impacts of plant operations and maintenance (O&M) on patient care and outcomes, measuring O&M effectiveness, cost management, regulatory and accreditation requirements impacting plant O&M, O&M staff competencies, and customer-service feedback. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Facilities Staffing Requirements for the Veterans Health Administration–Operations and Maintenance of the Physical Plant and Equipment: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

In January 2019, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened the 2-day Workshop on Resourcing, Workforce Modeling, and Staffing. This workshop is one of several data-gathering sessions to support the committee’s iterative study. The overarching goal of the study is to help the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) assess the overall resource needs of its Facilities Management Program and to develop budget and staffing methodologies. Such methodologies can provide better justification for ensuring that local VHA programs are adequately and consistently staffed to accomplish the mission and meet all requirements. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Facilities Staffing Requirements for the Veterans Health Administration–Resourcing, Workforce Modeling, and Staffing: Proceedings of a Workshop

The Committee on Applying Lessons of Optimal Adolescent Health to Improve Behavioral Outcomes for Youth is conducting a study to identify key components of youth-serving programs that have proved successful in improving health outcomes related to adolescent behavior. As a part of this work, the committee held a public information-gathering session on April 17, 2019. The day-long session consisted of five panels: (1) health education decision making in public education systems, (2) effective measurement and evaluation of adolescent behaviors and behavioral interventions, (3) effective elements of programs focused on adolescent behavior, (4) evaluations of the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program and sex education programs, and (5) a discussion with youth. This public session represents just one of the ways in which the committee is gathering information for their report.

This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the session.

Applying Lessons of Optimal Adolescent Health to Improve Behavioral Outcomes for Youth: Public Information-Gathering Session: Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief

The primary function of the intelligence analyst is to make sense of information about the world, but the way analysts do that work will look profoundly different a decade from now. Technological changes will bring both new advances in conducting analysis and new risks related to technologically based activities and communications around the world. Because these changes are virtually inevitable, the Intelligence Community will need to make sustained collaboration with researchers in the social and behavioral sciences (SBS) a key priority if it is to adapt to these changes in the most productive ways.

A Decadal Survey Of The Social and Behavioral Sciences provides guidance for a 10-year research agenda. This report identifies key opportunities in SBS research for strengthening intelligence analysis and offers ideas for integrating the knowledge and perspectives of researchers from these fields into the planning and design of efforts to support intelligence analysis.

A Decadal Survey of the Social and Behavioral Sciences: A Research Agenda for Advancing Intelligence Analysis

Since its origin 23 years ago as a pilot test conducted in four U.S. counties, the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) has been the focus of continuous research, development, and refinement. The survey cleared critical milestones 14 years ago when it began full-scale operations, including comprehensive nationwide coverage, and 5 years later when the ACS replaced a long-form sample questionnaire in the 2010 census as a source of detailed demographic and socioeconomic information. Throughout that existence and continuing today, ACS research and testing has worked to improve the survey’s conduct in the face of challenges ranging from detailed and procedural to the broad and existential.

This publication summarizes the presentations and discussion at the September 26–27, 2018, Workshop on Improving the American Community Survey (ACS), sponsored by the U.S. Census Bureau. Workshop participants explored uses of administrative records and third-party data to improve ACS operations and potential for boosting respondent participation through improved communication.

Improving the American Community Survey: Proceedings of a Workshop

From Research to Reward: The Hospital Checklist: How Social Science Insights Improve Health Care Outcomes

In November 2017, the The Forum on Promoting Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health, in collaboration with the Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity, convened a workshop on promoting children's behavioral health equity. The workshop used a socio-ecological developmental model to explore health equity of children and families, including those with complex needs and chronic conditions. Particular attention was paid to challenges experienced by children and families in both rural and urban contexts, to include but not limited to poverty, individual and institutional racism, low-resourced communities, and hindered access to educational and health care services. Workshop participants also engaged in solution-oriented discussions of initiatives, policies, and programs that aim to improve social determinants of health, opportunities for behavioral health promotion, and access to quality services that address the behavioral health of all children and families. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussion of the event.

Achieving Behavioral Health Equity for Children, Families, and Communities: Proceedings of a Workshop

Suicide prevention initiatives are part of much broader systems connected to activities such as the diagnosis of mental illness, the recognition of clinical risk, improving access to care, and coordinating with a broad range of outside agencies and entities around both prevention and public health efforts. Yet suicide is also an intensely personal issue that continues to be surrounded by stigma.

On September 11-12, 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in Washington, DC, to discuss preventing suicide among people with serious mental illness. The workshop was designed to illustrate and discuss what is known, what is currently being done, and what needs to be done to identify and reduce suicide risk. Improving Care to Prevent Suicide Among People with Serious Mental Illness summarizes presentations and discussions of the workshop.

Improving Care to Prevent Suicide Among People with Serious Mental Illness: Proceedings of a Workshop

In 2014 the National Science Foundation (NSF) provided support to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine for a series of Forums on Open Science in response to a government-wide directive to support increased public access to the results of research funded by the federal government. However, the breadth of the work resulting from the series precluded a focus on any specific topic or discussion about how to improve public access. Thus, the main goal of the Workshop on Transparency and Reproducibility in Federal Statistics was to develop some understanding of what principles and practices are, or would be, supportive of making federal statistics more understandable and reviewable, both by agency staff and the public. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Methods to Foster Transparency and Reproducibility of Federal Statistics: Proceedings of a Workshop

America’s farms and farmers are integral to the U.S. economy and, more broadly, to the nation’s social and cultural fabric. A healthy agricultural sector helps ensure a safe and reliable food supply, improves energy security, and contributes to employment and economic development, traditionally in small towns and rural areas where farming serves as a nexus for related sectors from farm machinery manufacturing to food processing. The agricultural sector also plays a role in the nation’s overall economic growth by providing crucial raw inputs for the production of a wide range of goods and services, including many that generate substantial export value.

If the agricultural sector is to be accurately understood and the policies that affect its functioning are to remain well informed, the statistical system’s data collection programs must be periodically revisited to ensure they are keeping up with current realities. This report reviews current information and makes recommendations to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and Economic Research Service (ERS) to help identify effective methods for collecting data and reporting information about American agriculture, given increased complexity and other changes in farm business structure in recent decades.

Improving Data Collection and Measurement of Complex Farms

The U.S. Census Bureau maintains an important portfolio of economic statistics programs, including quinquennial economic censuses, annual economic surveys, and quarterly and monthly indicator surveys. Government, corporate, and academic users rely on the data to understand the complexity and dynamism of the U.S. economy. Historically, the Bureau's economic statistics programs developed sector by sector (e.g., separate surveys of manufacturing, retail trade, and wholesale trade), and they continue to operate largely independently. Consequently, inconsistencies in questionnaire content, sample and survey design, and survey operations make the data not only more difficult to use, but also more costly to collect and process and more burdensome to the business community than they could be.

This report reviews the Census Bureau's annual economic surveys. Specifically, it examines the design, operations, and products of 11 surveys and makes recommendations to enable them to better answer questions about the evolving economy.

Reengineering the Census Bureau's Annual Economic Surveys

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop in April 2018 to examine how the criminal justice system affects the fundamental status of people as members of society and to consider next steps for research, practice, and policy for the field. The goal of the workshop was to find common ground to work toward a criminal justice system that avoids social exclusion and instead reflects the principles of citizenship and social justice with a fair distribution of rights, resources and opportunities.

The workshop was specifically designed to explore the reasons for the disparate experiences of individuals involved with the criminal justice system by race, ethnicity, and gender, the mechanisms that cause them to persist, and what can be done through policy and practice to minimize those differences. Participants—including researchers, policy makers, and advocates for victims and offenders—discussed issues in five areas: (1) the role of criminal justice in social exclusion; (2) patterns of inequality in criminal justice; (3) collateral sanctions of the criminal justice system; (4) special concerns for youth and young adult populations; and (5) next steps for research, policy, and practice. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

The Criminal Justice System and Social Exclusion: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy

The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop on March 12-14, 2018 at the behest of the U.S. Air Force Vice Chief of Staff. The goal of the workshop was to address the challenge of innovation adoption within the organization with a focus on understanding how complex organizations envision their future state, embrace innovation, and overcome impediments to change. Against this backdrop, workshop participants explored high-impact actions that the Air Force could quickly adopt that would unleash a culture of innovation. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Creating Capability for Future Air Force Innovation: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) established a Task Force on the 2020 Census to consider challenges for the Census Bureau in conducting the 2020 decennial census. This letter report contains the findings and conclusions.

Letter Report on the 2020 Census

Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

There has been a significant increase in research applying behavioral economics and related behavioral science to health. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop June 4–5, 2018, to discuss behavioral economics research with the goal of extending such research to be of benefit to older and middle-aged adults. The goals of the workshop were (1) to share knowledge about successful applications; (2) to encourage investigations that will deepen understanding of the specific conditions, people, and contexts for which such applications are more and less effective; and (3) to identify the mechanisms underlying the interventions. Specifically, there was a focus on considering interventions that could generate long-term benefits in areas of interest to the National Institute on Aging, such as decreasing sedentary behavior, promoting volunteering and social engagement, improving medical regimen adherence, and reducing inappropriate use of opioids and using opioids when medically necessary. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Behavioral Economics and the Promotion of Health Among Aging Populations: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

High-quality early care and education for children from birth to kindergarten entry is critical to positive child development and has the potential to generate economic returns, which benefit not only children and their families but society at large. Despite the great promise of early care and education, it has been financed in such a way that high-quality early care and education have only been available to a fraction of the families needing and desiring it and does little to further develop the early-care-and-education (ECE) workforce. It is neither sustainable nor adequate to provide the quality of care and learning that children and families need—a shortfall that further perpetuates and drives inequality.

Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education outlines a framework for a funding strategy that will provide reliable, accessible high-quality early care and education for young children from birth to kindergarten entry, including a highly qualified and adequately compensated workforce that is consistent with the vision outlined in the 2015 report, Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation . The recommendations of this report are based on essential features of child development and early learning, and on principles for high-quality professional practice at the levels of individual practitioners, practice environments, leadership, systems, policies, and resource allocation.

Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education

Technological advances in noninvasive neuroimaging, neurophysiology, genome sequencing, and other methods together with rapid progress in computational and statistical methods and data storage have facilitated large-scale collection of human genomic, cognitive, behavioral, and brain-based data. The rapid development of neurotechnologies and associated databases has been mirrored by an increase in attempts to introduce neuroscience and behavioral genetic evidence into legal proceedings.

In March 2018, the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine organized a workshop in order to explore the current uses of neuroscience and bring stakeholders from neuroscience and legal societies together in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Participants worked together to advance an understanding of neurotechnologies that could impact the legal system and the state of readiness to consider these technologies and where appropriate, to integrate them into the legal system. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Neuroforensics: Exploring the Legal Implications of Emerging Neurotechnologies: Proceedings of a Workshop

Beginning in October 2017, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a set of workshops designed to gather information for the Decadal Survey of Social and Behavioral Sciences for Applications to National Security. The fourth workshop focused on the science of cognition and perception, and this publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from this workshop.

Learning from the Science of Cognition and Perception for Decision Making: Proceedings of a Workshop

Almost 25 years have passed since the Demography of Aging (1994) was published by the National Research Council. Future Directions for the Demography of Aging is, in many ways, the successor to that original volume. The Division of Behavioral and Social Research at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to produce an authoritative guide to new directions in demography of aging. The papers published in this report were originally presented and discussed at a public workshop held in Washington, D.C., August 17-18, 2017.

The workshop discussion made evident that major new advances had been made in the last two decades, but also that new trends and research directions have emerged that call for innovative conceptual, design, and measurement approaches. The report reviews these recent trends and also discusses future directions for research on a range of topics that are central to current research in the demography of aging. Looking back over the past two decades of demography of aging research shows remarkable advances in our understanding of the health and well-being of the older population. Equally exciting is that this report sets the stage for the next two decades of innovative research–a period of rapid growth in the older American population.

Future Directions for the Demography of Aging: Proceedings of a Workshop

Since the end of the Second World War, the United States has developed the world's preeminent system for biomedical research, one that has given rise to revolutionary medical advances as well as a dynamic and innovative business sector generating high-quality jobs and powering economic output and exports for the U.S. economy. However, there is a growing concern that the biomedical research enterprise is beset by several core challenges that undercut its vitality, promise, and productivity and that could diminish its critical role in the nation's health and innovation in the biomedical industry.

Among the most salient of these challenges is the gulf between the burgeoning number of scientists qualified to participate in this system as academic researchers and the elusive opportunities to establish long-term research careers in academia. The patchwork of measures to address the challenges facing young scientists that has emerged over the years has allowed the U.S. biomedical enterprise to continue to make significant scientific and medical advances. These measures, however, have not resolved the structural vulnerabilities in the system, and in some cases come at a great opportunity cost for young scientists. These unresolved issues could diminish the nation's ability to recruit the best minds from all sectors of the U.S. population to careers in biomedical research and raise concerns about a system that may favor increasingly conservative research proposals over high-risk, innovative ideas.

The Next Generation of Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences Researchers: Breaking Through evaluates the factors that influence transitions into independent research careers in the biomedical and behavioral sciences and offers recommendations to improve those transitions. These recommendations chart a path to a biomedical research enterprise that is competitive, rigorous, fair, dynamic, and can attract the best minds from across the country.

The Next Generation of Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences Researchers: Breaking Through

Many different groups of people are subject to stereotypes. Positive stereotypes (e.g., "older and wiser") may provide a benefit to the relevant groups. However, negative stereotypes of aging and of disability continue to persist and, in some cases, remain socially acceptable. Research has shown that when exposed to negative images of aging, older persons demonstrate poor physical and cognitive performance and function, while those who are exposed to positive images of aging (or who have positive self-perceptions of aging) demonstrate better performance and function. Furthermore, an individual's expectations about and perceptions of aging can predict future health outcomes. To better understand how stereotypes affect older adults and individuals with disabilities, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, with support from AARP, convened a public workshop on October 10, 2017. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Aging and Disability: Beyond Stereotypes to Inclusion: Proceedings of a Workshop

Beginning in October 2017, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a set of workshops designed to gather information for the Decadal Survey of Social and Behavioral Sciences for Applications to National Security . The second workshop focused on emerging trends and methods in international security and this publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from this workshop.

Emerging Trends and Methods in International Security: Proceedings of a Workshop

Beginning in October 2017, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a set of workshops designed to gather information for the Decadal Survey of Social and Behavioral Sciences for Applications to National Security . The first workshop focused on changing sociocultural dynamics and implications for national security, and this publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from this workshop.

Changing Sociocultural Dynamics and Implications for National Security: Proceedings of a Workshop

Beginning in October 2017, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a set of workshops designed to gather information for the Decadal Survey of Social and Behavioral Sciences for Applications to National Security . The third workshop focused on advances in social network thinking, and this publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from this workshop.

Leveraging Advances in Social Network Thinking for National Security: Proceedings of a Workshop

Prior to 2012, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) technology had been primarily used by the military and hobbyists, but it has more recently transitioned to broader application, including commercial and scientific applications, as well as to expanded military use. These new uses encroach on existing structures for managing the nation's airspace and present significant challenges to ensure that UASs are coordinated safely and suitably with existing manned aircraft and air traffic management systems, particularly with the National Airspace System (NAS). Of particular concern is the interaction between human pilots, operators, or controllers and increasingly automated systems. Enhanced understanding of these interactions is essential to avoid unintended consequences, especially as new technologies emerge. In order to explore these issues, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a 2-day workshop in January 2018. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Human-Automation Interaction Considerations for Unmanned Aerial System Integration into the National Airspace System: Proceedings of a Workshop

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop on March 7, 2018, to help inform research, programs, and policies to better meet the mental health needs of women in the United States. Participants examined trends in mental health as well as risk and protective factors for diverse populations of women, and they considered the research needed for a better understanding of women’s mental health. Important issues of practice and policy also were discussed. Experts explored these topics from a life-course perspective and at biological, behavioral, social/cultural, and societal levels of analysis. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Women's Mental Health across the Life Course through a Sex-Gender Lens: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The increasing diversity of population of the United States presents many challenges to conducting health research that is representative and informative. Dispersion and accessibility issues can increase logistical costs; populations for which it is difficult to obtain adequate sample size are also likely to be expensive to study. Hence, even if it is technically feasible to study a small population, it may not be easy to obtain the funding to do so. In order to address the issues associated with improving health research of small populations, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop in January 2018. Participants considered ways of addressing the challenges of conducting epidemiological studies or intervention research with small population groups, including alternative study designs, innovative methodologies for data collection, and innovative statistical techniques for analysis.

Improving Health Research on Small Populations: Proceedings of a Workshop

Since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill, efforts to improve safety in the offshore oil industry have resulted in the adoption of new technological controls, increased promotion of safety culture, and the adoption of new data collection systems to improve both safety and performance. As an essential element of a positive safety culture, operators and regulators are increasingly integrating strategies that empower workers to participate in process safety decisions that reduce hazards and improve safety.

While the human factors of personal safety have been widely studied and widely adopted in many high-risk industries, process safety – the application of engineering, design, and operative practices to address major hazard concerns – is less well understood from a human factors perspective, particularly in the offshore oil industry. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a workshop in January 2018 to explore best practices and lessons learned from other high-risk, high-reliability industries for the benefit of the research community and of citizens, industry practitioners, decision makers, and officials addressing safety in the offshore oil industry. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

The Human Factors of Process Safety and Worker Empowerment in the Offshore Oil Industry: Proceedings of a Workshop

To illuminate the role of violence and its prevention in the post-2015 global agenda, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Forum on Global Violence Prevention convened a 2-day meeting to explore the ways in which violence prevention efforts fit into the global agenda and to begin to identify the ways in which the U.S. government as well as state governments, industries, multilaterals, nongovernmental organizations, and other institutions might be able to support and advance both the sustainable development agenda and the violence prevention objectives within it. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the meeting.

Identifying the Role of Violence and Its Prevention in the Post-2015 Global Agenda: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Childhood experiences, both positive and negative, can affect an individual’s health and opportunities as an adult and have far-reaching effects on future violence victimization and perpetration. To better understand the impact of violence and trauma on neurocognitive functions and psychosocial well-being, the Forum on Global Violence Prevention convened a 2-day workshop on July 31– August 1, 2017. The workshop approached childhood experiences, violence, and trauma from a broad range of perspectives and participants heard from survivors of trauma, researchers, and practitioners. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

The Neurocognitive and Psychosocial Impacts of Violence and Trauma: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Social and cultural norms are rules or expectations of behavior and thoughts based on shared beliefs within a specific cultural or social group. While often unspoken, norms offer social standards for appropriate and inappropriate behavior that govern what is (and is not) acceptable in interactions among people. Social and cultural norms are highly influential over individual behavior in a broad variety of contexts, including violence and its prevention, because norms can create an environment that can either foster or mitigate violence and its deleterious effects.

To better understand how social and cultural norms are related to violence and violence prevention, the Forum on Global Violence Prevention convened a workshop on October 29–30, 2015, to explore the social and cultural norms that underlie the acceptance of violence, with a focus on violence against women across the lifespan, violence against children, and youth violence. The workshop addressed causes, effects, characteristics, and contextual variations related to social and cultural norms related to violence; what is known about the effectiveness of efforts to alter those norms in order to prevent and mitigate such violence; and the role of multiple sectors and stakeholders in the prevention of this violence. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Addressing the Social and Cultural Norms That Underlie the Acceptance of Violence: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

The workplace is where 156 million working adults in the United States spend many waking hours, and it has a profound influence on health and well-being. Although some occupations and work-related activities are more hazardous than others and face higher rates of injuries, illness, disease, and fatalities, workers in all occupations face some form of work-related safety and health concerns. Understanding those risks to prevent injury, illness, or even fatal incidents is an important function of society.

Occupational safety and health (OSH) surveillance provides the data and analyses needed to understand the relationships between work and injuries and illnesses in order to improve worker safety and health and prevent work-related injuries and illnesses. Information about the circumstances in which workers are injured or made ill on the job and how these patterns change over time is essential to develop effective prevention programs and target future research. The nation needs a robust OSH surveillance system to provide this critical information for informing policy development, guiding educational and regulatory activities, developing safer technologies, and enabling research and prevention strategies that serves and protects all workers.

A Smarter National Surveillance System for Occupational Safety and Health in the 21st Century provides a comprehensive assessment of the state of OSH surveillance. This report is intended to be useful to federal and state agencies that have an interest in occupational safety and health, but may also be of interest broadly to employers, labor unions and other worker advocacy organizations, the workers' compensation insurance industry, as well as state epidemiologists, academic researchers, and the broader public health community. The recommendations address the strengths and weaknesses of the envisioned system relative to the status quo and both short- and long-term actions and strategies needed to bring about a progressive evolution of the current system.

A Smarter National Surveillance System for Occupational Safety and Health in the 21st Century

On February 26–27, 2014, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Forum on Global Violence Prevention convened a workshop titled Mental Health and Violence: Opportunities for Prevention and Early Intervention. The workshop brought together advocates and experts in public health and mental health, anthropology, biomedical science, criminal justice, global health and development, and neuroscience to examine experience, evidence, and practice at the intersection of mental health and violence. Participants explored how violence impacts mental health and how mental health influences violence and discussed approaches to improve research and practice in both domains. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Violence and Mental Health: Opportunities for Prevention and Early Detection: Proceedings of a Workshop

To derive statistics about crime – to estimate its levels and trends, assess its costs to and impacts on society, and inform law enforcement approaches to prevent it - a conceptual framework for defining and thinking about crime is virtually a prerequisite. Developing and maintaining such a framework is no easy task, because the mechanics of crime are ever evolving and shifting: tied to shifts and development in technology, society, and legislation.

Interest in understanding crime surged in the 1920s, which proved to be a pivotal decade for the collection of nationwide crime statistics. Now established as a permanent agency, the Census Bureau commissioned the drafting of a manual for preparing crime statistics—intended for use by the police, corrections departments, and courts alike. The new manual sought to solve a perennial problem by suggesting a standard taxonomy of crime. Shortly after the Census Bureau issued its manual, the International Association of Chiefs of Police in convention adopted a resolution to create a Committee on Uniform Crime Records —to begin the process of describing what a national system of data on crimes known to the police might look like.

Report 1 performed a comprehensive reassessment of what is meant by crime in U.S. crime statistics and recommends a new classification of crime to organize measurement efforts. This second report examines methodological and implementation issues and presents a conceptual blueprint for modernizing crime statistics.

Modernizing Crime Statistics: Report 2: New Systems for Measuring Crime

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals generate a stream of scientific discoveries and technological innovations that fuel job creation and national economic growth. Ensuring a robust supply of these professionals is critical for sustaining growth and creating jobs growth at a time of intense global competition. Undergraduate STEM education prepares the STEM professionals of today and those of tomorrow, while also helping all students develop knowledge and skills they can draw on in a variety of occupations and as individual citizens. However, many capable students intending to major in STEM later switch to another field or drop out of higher education altogether, partly because of documented weaknesses in STEM teaching, learning and student supports. Improving undergraduate STEM education to address these weaknesses is a national imperative.

Many initiatives are now underway to improve the quality of undergraduate STEM teaching and learning. Some focus on the national level, others involve multi-institution collaborations, and others take place on individual campuses. At present, however, policymakers and the public do not know whether these various initiatives are accomplishing their goals and leading to nationwide improvement in undergraduate STEM education.

Indicators for Monitoring Undergraduate STEM Education outlines a framework and a set of indicators that document the status and quality of undergraduate STEM education at the national level over multiple years. It also indicates areas where additional research is needed in order to develop appropriate measures. This publication will be valuable to government agencies that make investments in higher education, institutions of higher education, private funders of higher education programs, and industry stakeholders. It will also be of interest to researchers who study higher education.

Indicators for Monitoring Undergraduate STEM Education

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop on December 1–2, 2016, with the aim of illuminating the ways in which violence prevention practitioners can effectively share their evidenced-based research findings with policy makers in order to positively affect and amplify violence prevention efforts. The workshop explored this topic through three lenses: (1) economics and costing, (2) research and evidence, and (3) effective communications and messaging. This approach underscored the fact that violence prevention is a complex and multi-faceted issue that requires an interdisciplinary approach. This 2-day workshop brought together a diverse group of experts from various domains and backgrounds to foster multi-sectoral dialogues on the topic. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Public Policy Approaches to Violence Prevention: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Proactive policing, as a strategic approach used by police agencies to prevent crime, is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. It developed from a crisis in confidence in policing that began to emerge in the 1960s because of social unrest, rising crime rates, and growing skepticism regarding the effectiveness of standard approaches to policing. In response, beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, innovative police practices and policies that took a more proactive approach began to develop. This report uses the term "proactive policing" to refer to all policing strategies that have as one of their goals the prevention or reduction of crime and disorder and that are not reactive in terms of focusing primarily on uncovering ongoing crime or on investigating or responding to crimes once they have occurred.

Proactive policing is distinguished from the everyday decisions of police officers to be proactive in specific situations and instead refers to a strategic decision by police agencies to use proactive police responses in a programmatic way to reduce crime. Today, proactive policing strategies are used widely in the United States. They are not isolated programs used by a select group of agencies but rather a set of ideas that have spread across the landscape of policing.

Proactive Policing reviews the evidence and discusses the data and methodological gaps on: (1) the effects of different forms of proactive policing on crime; (2) whether they are applied in a discriminatory manner; (3) whether they are being used in a legal fashion; and (4) community reaction. This report offers a comprehensive evaluation of proactive policing that includes not only its crime prevention impacts but also its broader implications for justice and U.S. communities.

Proactive Policing: Effects on Crime and Communities

The National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), one of the nation’s principal statistical agencies, is charged to collect, acquire, analyze, report, and disseminate statistical data related to the science and engineering enterprise in the United States and other nations that is relevant and useful to practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and to the public. NCSES data, based primarily on several flagship surveys, have become the major evidence base for American science and technology policy, and the agency is well respected globally for these data.

This report assesses and provides guidance on NCSES’s approach to measuring the science and engineering workforce population in the United States. It also proposes a framework for measuring the science and engineering workforce in the next decade and beyond, with flexibility to examine emerging issues related to this unique population while at the same time allowing for stability in the estimation of key trends

Measuring the 21st Century Science and Engineering Workforce Population: Evolving Needs

Our ability to observe and forecast severe weather events has improved markedly over the past few decades. Forecasts of snow and ice storms, hurricanes and storm surge, extreme heat, and other severe weather events are made with greater accuracy, geographic specificity, and lead time to allow people and communities to take appropriate protective measures. Yet hazardous weather continues to cause loss of life and result in other preventable social costs.

There is growing recognition that a host of social and behavioral factors affect how we prepare for, observe, predict, respond to, and are impacted by weather hazards. For example, an individual's response to a severe weather event may depend on their understanding of the forecast, prior experience with severe weather, concerns about their other family members or property, their capacity to take the recommended protective actions, and numerous other factors. Indeed, it is these factors that can determine whether or not a potential hazard becomes an actual disaster. Thus, it is essential to bring to bear expertise in the social and behavioral sciences (SBS)—including disciplines such as anthropology, communication, demography, economics, geography, political science, psychology, and sociology—to understand how people's knowledge, experiences, perceptions, and attitudes shape their responses to weather risks and to understand how human cognitive and social dynamics affect the forecast process itself.

Integrating Social and Behavioral Sciences Within the Weather Enterprise explores and provides guidance on the challenges of integrating social and behavioral sciences within the weather enterprise. It assesses current SBS activities, describes the potential value of improved integration of SBS and barriers that impede this integration, develops a research agenda, and identifies infrastructural and institutional arrangements for successfully pursuing SBS-weather research and the transfer of relevant findings to operational settings.

Integrating Social and Behavioral Sciences Within the Weather Enterprise

The environment for obtaining information and providing statistical data for policy makers and the public has changed significantly in the past decade, raising questions about the fundamental survey paradigm that underlies federal statistics. New data sources provide opportunities to develop a new paradigm that can improve timeliness, geographic or subpopulation detail, and statistical efficiency. It also has the potential to reduce the costs of producing federal statistics.

The panel's first report described federal statistical agencies' current paradigm, which relies heavily on sample surveys for producing national statistics, and challenges agencies are facing; the legal frameworks and mechanisms for protecting the privacy and confidentiality of statistical data and for providing researchers access to data, and challenges to those frameworks and mechanisms; and statistical agencies access to alternative sources of data. The panel recommended a new approach for federal statistical programs that would combine diverse data sources from government and private sector sources and the creation of a new entity that would provide the foundational elements needed for this new approach, including legal authority to access data and protect privacy.

This second of the panel's two reports builds on the analysis, conclusions, and recommendations in the first one. This report assesses alternative methods for implementing a new approach that would combine diverse data sources from government and private sector sources, including describing statistical models for combining data from multiple sources; examining statistical and computer science approaches that foster privacy protections; evaluating frameworks for assessing the quality and utility of alternative data sources; and various models for implementing the recommended new entity. Together, the two reports offer ideas and recommendations to help federal statistical agencies examine and evaluate data from alternative sources and then combine them as appropriate to provide the country with more timely, actionable, and useful information for policy makers, businesses, and individuals.

Federal Statistics, Multiple Data Sources, and Privacy Protection: Next Steps

Focusing on young children in a global context is an approach to end the cycle of poverty and improve the well-being of nations. Improving well-being necessarily begins with core elements such as health, education, nutrition, and social protection; many efforts to improve child development in the first decade of life focus on areas to meet young children's basic needs. Young children living in low-resourced settings are vulnerable to developmental and educational risk factors, such as stunting and undernutrition, disease, caregiver depression, lack of access to quality preprimary and primary education, disabilities, poverty, and societal and familial violence. While each of these areas is important for children's growth and development, there are potential increased benefits from integrated programs and coordinated policies that address more than one of these areas simultaneously, particularly for children living in low-resourced communities. An integrated and coordinated "all system" approach may be the best way to guarantee that children will have the prerequisites for healthy development.

The Forum on Investing in Young Children Globally was established with the goal of integrating knowledge with action in regions around the world to inform evidence-based, strategic investments in young children, birth through age 8. The forum held nine workshops across five continents over 3 years. The goal was to learn from experiences in multiple regions and engage in culturally embedded dialogue. This publication summarizes the key themes from the presentations and discussions of the workshops.

Forum sur l'Investissement dans les Jeunes Enfants à l'Échelle Mondiale: Synthèse de neuf ateliers mondiaux Exploration fondée sur les faits des investissements stratégiques dans les jeunes enfants

Foro sobre Inversión Global en la Infancia: Síntesis de nueve talleres globales que exploran inversiones estratégicas basadas en la evidencia

Increasing numbers of evidence-based interventions have proven effective in preventing and treating behavioral disorders in children. However, the adoption of these interventions in the health care system and other systems that affect the lives of children has been slow. Moreover, with few exceptions, current training in many fields that involve the behavioral health of children falls short of meeting the needs that exist. In general, this training fails to recognize that behavioral health disorders are among the largest challenges in child health and that changing cognitive, affective, and behavioral health outcomes for children will require new and more integrated forms of care at a population level in the United States.

To examine the need for workforce development across the range of health care professions working with children and families, as well as to identify innovative training models and levers to enhance training, the Forum on Promoting Children’s Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health held a workshop in November 2016. Workshop panelists and participants discussed the needs for workforce development across the range of health care professions working with children, youth, and families, and identified innovative training models and levers for change to enhance training. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Training the Future Child Health Care Workforce to Improve the Behavioral Health of Children, Youth, and Families: Proceedings of a Workshop

Educating girls is a universally accepted strategy for improving lives and advancing development. Girls’ schooling is associated with many demographic outcomes, including later age at marriage or union formation, lower fertility, and better child health. However, the causal pathways between education and demographic outcomes are not well understood.

To advance understanding of the relationships between girls’ education and demographic outcomes and to encourage more research on the determinants, content, context, and consequences of girls’ education the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conducted a workshop addressing these issues on May 11 and 12, 2017. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Demographic Effects of Girls' Education in Developing Countries: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is the primary statistical data collection agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). NASS conducts hundreds of surveys each year and prepares reports covering virtually every aspect of U.S. agriculture. Among the small-area estimates produced by NASS are county-level estimates for crops (planted acres, harvested acres, production, and yield by commodity) and for cash rental rates for irrigated cropland, nonirrigated cropland, and permanent pastureland. Key users of these county-level estimates include USDA’s Farm Services Agency (FSA) and Risk Management Agency (RMA), which use the estimates as part of their processes for distributing farm subsidies and providing farm insurance, respectively.

Improving Crop Estimates by Integrating Multiple Data Sources assesses county-level crop and cash rents estimates, and offers recommendations on methods for integrating data sources to provide more precise county-level estimates of acreage and yield for major crops and of cash rents by land use. This report considers technical issues involved in using the available data sources, such as methods for integrating the data, the assumptions underpinning the use of each source, the robustness of the resulting estimates, and the properties of desirable estimates of uncertainty.

Improving Crop Estimates by Integrating Multiple Data Sources

A strong body of research demonstrates associations between the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and individuals’ personality characteristics, level of social engagement, and educational attainment. To advance understanding of the causal pathways leading to Alzheimer’s, the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences convened a workshop in June 2017. This workshop was designed to build on a 2015 workshop that focused on the importance of delineating causal relationships underlying associations between behavioral, social, and biological factors and long-term health. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Understanding Pathways to Successful Aging: Behavioral and Social Factors Related to Alzheimer's Disease: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

Graduate training in the social and behavioral sciences (SBS) has largely remained unchanged in the past 35 years despite trends toward multidisciplinary research and varying pathways given changing workforce needs. To help identify how SBS graduate education could be adapted given these trends, the Board on Science Education convened a 2-day workshop in June 2017 on graduate training in the social and behavioral sciences. Participants included current SBS graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and academic leaders, members of professional societies, funding agencies, and leaders in government and business. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Graduate Training in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: Proceedings of a Workshop--in Brief

Every year roughly 100,000 fatal and injury crashes occur in the United States involving large trucks and buses. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in the U.S. Department of Transportation works to reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities involving large trucks and buses. FMCSA uses information that is collected on the frequency of approximately 900 different violations of safety regulations discovered during (mainly) roadside inspections to assess motor carriers’ compliance with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, as well as to evaluate their compliance in comparison with their peers. Through use of this information, FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System (SMS) identifies carriers to receive its available interventions in order to reduce the risk of crashes across all carriers.

Improving Motor Carrier Safety Measurement examines the effectiveness of the use of the percentile ranks produced by SMS for identifying high-risk carriers, and if not, what alternatives might be preferred. In addition, this report evaluates the accuracy and sufficiency of the data used by SMS, to assess whether other approaches to identifying unsafe carriers would identify high-risk carriers more effectively, and to reflect on how members of the public use the SMS and what effect making the SMS information public has had on reducing crashes.

Improving Motor Carrier Safety Measurement

In October 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a 1-day public workshop on Principles and Practices for Federal Program Evaluation. The workshop was organized to consider ways to bolster the integrity and protect the objectivity of the evaluation function in federal agencies—a process that is essential for evidence-based policy making. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Principles and Practices for Federal Program Evaluation: Proceedings of a Workshop

The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) is a national, longitudinal household survey conducted by the Census Bureau. SIPP serves as a tool to evaluate the effectiveness of government-sponsored social programs and to analyze the impacts of actual or proposed modifications to those programs. SIPP was designed to fill a need for data that would give policy makers and researchers a much better grasp of how effectively government programs were reaching their target populations, how participation in different programs overlapped, and to what extent and under what circumstances people transitioned into and out of these programs. SIPP was also designed to answer questions about the short-term dynamics of employment, living arrangements, and economic well-being.

The Census Bureau has reengineered SIPP—fielding the initial redesigned survey in 2014. This report evaluates the new design compared with the old design. It compares key estimates across the two designs, evaluates the content of the redesigned SIPP and the impact of the new design on respondent burden, and considers content changes for future improvement of SIPP.

The 2014 Redesign of the Survey of Income and Program Participation: An Assessment

Educating dual language learners (DLLs) and English learners (ELs) effectively is a national challenge with consequences both for individuals and for American society. Despite their linguistic, cognitive, and social potential, many ELs—who account for more than 9 percent of enrollment in grades K-12 in U.S. schools—are struggling to meet the requirements for academic success, and their prospects for success in postsecondary education and in the workforce are jeopardized as a result.

Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures examines how evidence based on research relevant to the development of DLLs/ELs from birth to age 21 can inform education and health policies and related practices that can result in better educational outcomes. This report makes recommendations for policy, practice, and research and data collection focused on addressing the challenges in caring for and educating DLLs/ELs from birth to grade 12.

Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures

One of the strategic objectives of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) is to “support the development of population-based data sets, especially from longitudinal studies, suitable for analysis of biological, behavioral, and social factors affecting health, well-being, and functional status through the life course.” To contribute to that objective and to inform the development of a methodological research program for longitudinal studies, the Committee on National Statistics held a public workshop in June 2017. The discussion focused on challenges that are specific to the types of longitudinal studies supported by NIA and aimed to identify areas of methodological research that could be pursued in order to benefit from emerging methods, new techniques, or other opportunities to enhance the data and increase data collection efficiency. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Developing a Methodological Research Program for Longitudinal Studies: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Publicly available statistics from government agencies that are credible, relevant, accurate, and timely are essential for policy makers, individuals, households, businesses, academic institutions, and other organizations to make informed decisions. Even more, the effective operation of a democratic system of government depends on the unhindered flow of statistical information to its citizens.

In the United States, federal statistical agencies in cabinet departments and independent agencies are the governmental units whose principal function is to compile, analyze, and disseminate information for such statistical purposes as describing population characteristics and trends, planning and monitoring programs, and conducting research and evaluation. The work of these agencies is coordinated by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Statistical agencies may acquire information not only from surveys or censuses of people and organizations, but also from such sources as government administrative records, private-sector datasets, and Internet sources that are judged of suitable quality and relevance for statistical use. They may conduct analyses, but they do not advocate policies or take partisan positions. Statistical purposes for which they provide information relate to descriptions of groups and exclude any interest in or identification of an individual person, institution, or economic unit.

Four principles are fundamental for a federal statistical agency: relevance to policy issues, credibility among data users, trust among data providers, and independence from political and other undue external influence.  Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency: Sixth Edition presents and comments on these principles as they’ve been impacted by changes in laws, regulations, and other aspects of the environment of federal statistical agencies over the past 4 years.

Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency: Sixth Edition

Forum on Investing in Young Children Globally: A Synthesis of Nine Global Workshops Exploring Evidence-Based, Strategic Investments in Young Children

Nearly every major challenge the United States faces—from alleviating unemployment to protecting itself from terrorism—requires understanding the causes and consequences of people's behavior. Even societal challenges that at first glance appear to be issues only of medicine or engineering or computer science have social and behavioral components. Having a fundamental understanding of how people and societies behave, why they respond the way they do, what they find important, what they believe or value, and what and how they think about others is critical for the country's well-being in today's shrinking global world. The diverse disciplines of the social, behavioral, and economic (SBE) sciences ―anthropology, archaeology, demography, economics, geography, linguistics, neuroscience, political science, psychology, sociology, and statistics―all produce fundamental knowledge, methods, and tools that provide a greater understanding of people and how they live.

The Value of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences to National Priorities evaluates whether the federal government should fund SBE research at the National Science Foundation (NSF), and, specifically, whether SBE research furthers the mission of the NSF to advance national priorities in the areas of health, prosperity and welfare, national defense, and progress in science; advances the missions of other federal agencies; and advances business and industry, and to provide examples of such research. This report identifies priorities for NSF investment in the SBE sciences and important considerations for the NSF for strategic planning.

The Value of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences to National Priorities: A Report for the National Science Foundation

In 2015, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened two workshops with oversight from the Committee on the Science of Changing Behavioral Health Social Norms. The workshops provided input to the committee’s deliberations and contributed to the development of the report Ending Discrimination against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders . That report was issued to help the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, utilize the scientific evidence base in improving public attitudes toward and understanding of behavioral health, specifically in the areas of mental health and substance use disorders. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions at the two workshops.

Lessons Learned from Diverse Efforts to Change Social Norms and Opportunities and Strategies to Promote Behavior Change in Behavioral Health: Proceedings of Two Workshops

Communities provide the context in which programs, principles, and policies are implemented. Their needs dictate the kinds of programs that community organizers and advocates, program developers and implementers, and researchers will bring to bear on a problem. Their characteristics help determine whether a program will succeed or fail. The detailed workings of programs cannot be separated from the communities in which they are embedded.

Communities also represent the front line in addressing many behavioral health conditions experienced by children, adolescents, young adults, and their families. Given the importance of communities in shaping the health and well being of young people, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in June 2016, to examine the implementation of evidence- based prevention by communities. Participants examined questions related to scaling up, managing, and sustaining science in communities. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Implementing Evidence-Based Prevention by Communities to Promote Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health in Children: Proceedings of a Workshop

The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration finds that the long-term impact of immigration on the wages and employment of native-born workers overall is very small, and that any negative impacts are most likely to be found for prior immigrants or native-born high school dropouts. First-generation immigrants are more costly to governments than are the native-born, but the second generation are among the strongest fiscal and economic contributors in the U.S. This report concludes that immigration has an overall positive impact on long-run economic growth in the U.S.

More than 40 million people living in the United States were born in other countries, and almost an equal number have at least one foreign-born parent. Together, the first generation (foreign-born) and second generation (children of the foreign-born) comprise almost one in four Americans. It comes as little surprise, then, that many U.S. residents view immigration as a major policy issue facing the nation. Not only does immigration affect the environment in which everyone lives, learns, and works, but it also interacts with nearly every policy area of concern, from jobs and the economy, education, and health care, to federal, state, and local government budgets.

The changing patterns of immigration and the evolving consequences for American society, institutions, and the economy continue to fuel public policy debate that plays out at the national, state, and local levels. The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration assesses the impact of dynamic immigration processes on economic and fiscal outcomes for the United States, a major destination of world population movements. This report will be a fundamental resource for policy makers and law makers at the federal, state, and local levels but extends to the general public, nongovernmental organizations, the business community, educational institutions, and the research community.

The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration

In the coming years, complex domestic and international environments and challenges to national security will continue. Intelligence analysts and the intelligence community will need access to the appropriate tools and developing knowledge about threats to national security in order to provide the best information to policy makers. Research and knowledge from the social and behavioral sciences (SBS) can help inform the work of intelligence analysis; however, in the past, bringing important findings from research to bear on the day-to-day work of intelligence analysis has been difficult.

In order to understand how knowledge from science can be directed and applied to help the intelligence community fulfill its critical responsibilities, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will undertake a 2-year survey of the social and behavioral sciences. To launch this discussion, a summit designed to highlight cutting-edge research and identify future directions for research in a few areas of the social and behavioral sciences was held in October 2016. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the summit.

Social and Behavioral Sciences for National Security: Proceedings of a Summit

Childhood diagnoses of cognitive, affective, and behavioral disorders are increasing in both absolute numbers and as a proportion of the total childhood population in the United States, and they are imposing a large and growing burden on children, youth, and families. However, the adoption of evidence-based interventions that have proven effective in preventing and treating behavioral health disorders in children has been slow. A contributing factor for this slow adoption may be that current training in many fields involving the behavioral health of children is falling short of meeting their needs.

To examine workforce development across the range of health care professions working with children and families, as well as to identify innovative training models and levers to enhance training, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in November 2016. The main objective of the workshop was to examine the development and training of an integrated health care workforce that can promote family-focused behavioral health care for children and their families. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Training the Future Child Health Care Workforce to Improve Behavioral Health Outcomes for Children, Youth, and Families: Proceedings of a Workshop--in Brief

Communities represent the front line in addressing many behavioral health conditions that children, adolescents, young adults, and their families have to face. These conditions are not rare: during their lifetimes, almost half of all Americans will meet one or more clinical criteria for behavioral health or substance abuse disorders. These disorders impose a tremendous personal burden on the affected individuals and their families, as well as substantial costs on the broader society. The first onset of such conditions is usually in childhood or adolescence, and communities can be a key opportunity for prevention, early intervention, and treatment.

Given the importance of communities in shaping the health and well-being of young people, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in June 2016, to examine the implementation of evidence-based prevention by communities. The workshop brought together researchers, program developers and implementers, state and local of officials, community leaders, health care providers, patient advocates, and other stakeholders to examine how knowledge from researchers and practitioners can best be implemented in community settings. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Implementing Evidence-Based Prevention by Communities to Promote Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health in Children: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

As the demographics of the United States shift toward a population that is made up of an increasing percentage of older adults and people with disabilities, the workforce that supports and enables these individuals is also shifting to meet the demands of this population. For many older adults and people with disabilities, their priorities include maximizing their independence, living in their own homes, and participating in their communities. In order to meet this population’s demands, the workforce is adapting by modifying its training, by determining how to coordinate among the range of different professionals who might play a role in supporting any one older adult or individual with disabilities, and by identifying the ways in which technology might be helpful.

To better understand how the increasing demand for supports and services will affect the nation’s workforce, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a public workshop in June 2016, in Washington, DC. Participants aimed to identify how the health care workforce can be strengthened to support both community living and community participation for adults with disabilities and older adults. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Strengthening the Workforce to Support Community Living and Participation for Older Adults and Individuals with Disabilities: Proceedings of a Workshop

The development of character is a valued objective for many kinds of educational programs that take place both in and outside of school. Educators and administrators who develop and run programs that seek to develop character recognize that the established approaches for doing so have much in common, and they are eager to learn about promising practices used in other settings, evidence of effectiveness, and ways to measure the effectiveness of their own approaches.

In July 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop to review research and practice relevant to the development of character, with a particular focus on ideas that can support the adults who develop and run out-of-school programs. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Approaches to the Development of Character: Proceedings of a Workshop

In October 2016 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a 1-day public workshop on principles and practices for federal program evaluation. Participants focused on reviews of existing policies of the Administration for Children and Families, the Institute for Education Sciences, the Chief Evaluation Office in the U.S. Department of Labor, and other federal agencies. The scope of the workshop included evaluations of interventions, programs, and practices intended to affect human behavior, carried out by the federal government or its contractual agents and leading to public reports intended to provide information on impacts, cost, and implementation. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Principles and Practices for Federal Program Evaluation: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

Federal government statistics provide critical information to the country and serve a key role in a democracy. For decades, sample surveys with instruments carefully designed for particular data needs have been one of the primary methods for collecting data for federal statistics. However, the costs of conducting such surveys have been increasing while response rates have been declining, and many surveys are not able to fulfill growing demands for more timely information and for more detailed information at state and local levels.

Innovations in Federal Statistics examines the opportunities and risks of using government administrative and private sector data sources to foster a paradigm shift in federal statistical programs that would combine diverse data sources in a secure manner to enhance federal statistics. This first publication of a two-part series discusses the challenges faced by the federal statistical system and the foundational elements needed for a new paradigm.

Innovations in Federal Statistics: Combining Data Sources While Protecting Privacy

In the U.S. criminal justice system in 2014, an estimated 2.2 million people were in incarcerated or under correctional supervision on any given day, and another 4.7 million were under community supervision, such as probation or parole. Among all U.S. adults, 1 in 31 is involved with the criminal justice system, many of them having had recurring encounters.

The ability to measure the effects of criminal justice involvement and incarceration on health and health disparities has been a challenge, due largely to limited and inconsistent measures on criminal justice involvement and any data on incarceration in health data collections. The presence of a myriad of confounding factors, such as socioeconomic status and childhood disadvantage, also makes it hard to isolate and identify a causal relationship between criminal justice involvement and health. The Bureau of Justice Statistics collects periodic health data on the people who are incarcerated at any given time, but few national-level surveys have captured criminal justice system involvement for people previously involved in the system or those under community supervision—nor have they collected systematic data on the effects that go beyond the incarcerated individuals themselves.

In March 2016 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop meant to assist the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) and Office of the Minority Health (OMH) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in identifying measures of criminal justice involvement that will further their understanding of the socioeconomic determinants of health. Participants investigated the feasibility of collecting criminal justice experience data with national household-based health surveys. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Improving Collection of Indicators of Criminal Justice System Involvement in Population Health Data Programs: Proceedings of a Workshop

The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is an interagency program, established by the Global Change Research Act (GCRA) of 1990, mandated by Congress to "assist the Nation and the world to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change". Since the USGCRP began, scientific understanding of global change has increased and the information needs of the nation have changed dramatically.

A better understanding of what is changing and why can help decision makers in the public and private sectors cope with ongoing change. Accomplishments of the U.S. Global Change Research Program highlights the growth of global change science in the quarter century that the USGCRP has been in existence, and documents some of its contributions to that growth through its primary functions of interagency planning and coordination, and of synthesis of research and practice to inform decision making.

Accomplishments of the U.S. Global Change Research Program

The Forum on Investing in Young Children Globally, in partnership with the Jacobs Foundation, the Institute for Human Development at Aga Khan University, and the Bernard van Leer Foundation, convened its ninth and final workshop
in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, on October 20–21, 2016, to explore topics related to innovations in investing in young children globally. During the course of the 2-day workshop, researchers, policy makers, program practitioners, industry partners, funders, and other experts came together to highlight innovative research, policy, business models, and implementation strategies occurring in West Africa and around the world that positively affect investments made in young children. Innovations ranged from prioritizing the needs of children in national agendas
to unique partnerships that enable services to reach children in remote contexts. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Innovations in Investing in Young Children Globally: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

In July 2016 The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop with the goal of bringing together industrial and organizational (I-O) psychologists, experts on personnel selection and testing, forensic scientists, and other researchers whose work has a nexus with workforce needs in the forensic science field with a focus on pattern evidence. Participants reviewed the current status of selection and training of forensic scientists who specialize in pattern evidence and discussed how tools used in I-O psychology to understand elements of a task and measure aptitude and performance could address challenges in the pattern evidence domain of the forensic sciences. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Personnel Selection in the Pattern Evidence Domain of Forensic Science: Proceedings of a Workshop

Because of the role of innovation as a driver of economic productivity and growth and as a mechanism for improving people's well-being in other ways, understanding the nature,determinants, and impacts of innovation has become increasingly important to policy makers.

To be effective, investment in innovation requires this understanding, which, in turn, requires measurement of the underlying inputs and subsequent outcomes of innovation processes. In May 2016, at the request of the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics of the National Science Foundation, the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop - bringing together academic researchers, private and public sector experts, and representatives from public policy agencies - to develop strategies for broadening and modernizing innovation information systems.This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the event.

Advancing Concepts and Models for Measuring Innovation: Proceedings of a Workshop

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), more than 168 million children are affected by child labor worldwide, with a predominance of child labor occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. ILO estimated in 2012 that 6 million children and more than 15 million adults were victims of forced labor. While strides have been made in understanding the problems of child labor and forced labor, as well as in approaches to reduce the global burden of both issues, additional research could help fill the remaining gaps in knowledge.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop on October 18, 2016, in Washington, DC, to illuminate the current gaps in knowledge within the research fields of child labor and forced labor. The workshop also explored key needs and priority research questions to ensure a robust and rigorous global research platform. This proceedings of the workshop - in brief highlights the presentations and discussion of this event.

Exploring the Development of a U.S. Department of Labor Research Strategy on Child Labor and Forced Labor in International Settings: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Although people in the United States have historically been reasonably supportive of federal censuses and surveys, they are increasingly unavailable for or not willing to respond to interview requests from federal—as well as private—sources. Moreover, even when people agree to respond to a survey, they increasingly decline to complete all questions, and both survey and item nonresponse are growing problems.

In March 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop to consider the respondent burden and its challenges and opportunities of the American Community Survey, which is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Reducing Response Burden in the American Community Survey: Proceedings of a Workshop

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the family—which includes all primary caregivers—are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger.

Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting.

Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

Parenting Matters: Supporting Parents of Children Ages 0-8

What children and adolescents do and learn in the summertime can have profound effects on their health and well-being, educational attainment, and career prospects. To explore the influence of summertime activities on the lives of young people, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in August 2016. The participants discussed a wide range of topics, including the value of play, healthy eating and physical activity, systemic approaches to skill development, program quality and measurement, and the interconnected ecosystem of activities that supports healthy development. The workshop highlighted the latest research on summer programming, as well as gaps in that research, and explored the key policy and practice issues for summertime opportunities to promote healthy child and adolescent development. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Summertime Opportunities to Promote Healthy Child and Adolescent Development: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

Children with disabilities and complex medical and educational needs present a special challenge for policy makers and practitioners. These children exhibit tremendous heterogeneity in their conditions and needs, requiring a varied array of services to meet those needs. Uneven public and professional awareness of their conditions and a research base marked by significant gaps have led to programs, practices, and policies that are inconsistent in quality and coverage. Parents often have to navigate and coordinate, largely on their own, a variety of social, medical, and educational support services, adding to the already daunting financial, logistical, and emotional challenges of raising children with special needs. The unmet needs of children with disabilities and complex medical and educational needs can cause great suffering for these children and for those who love and care for them.

To examine how systems can be configured to meet the needs of children and families as they struggle with disabilities and complex health and educational needs, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in December 2015. The goal of the workshop was to highlight the main barriers and promising solutions for improving care and outcome of children with complex medical and educational needs. Workshop participants examined prevention, care, service coordination, and other topics relevant to children with disabilities and complex health and educational needs, along with their families and caregivers. More broadly, the workshop seeks actionable understanding on key research questions for enhancing the evidence base; promoting and sustaining the quality, accessibility, and use of relevant programs and services; and informing relevant policy development and implementation. By engaging in dialogue to connect the prevention, treatment, and implementation sciences with settings where children are seen and cared for, the forum seeks to improve the lives of children by improving the systems that affect those children and their families. This publications summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Ensuring Quality and Accessible Care for Children with Disabilities and Complex Health and Educational Needs: Proceedings of a Workshop

In June 2016, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop titled “Moving from Evidence to Implementation of Early Childhood Development: Strategies for Implementation.” The focus of the workshop was bringing science to practice at scale in order to bridge research to practice in local communities. Also discussed was the critical issue of the implementation of early childhood development programs. Reaching entire populations requires understanding the challenges of implementation at scale and applying the best knowledge available to ensure effective and sustainable delivery to children and their caregivers. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Moving from Evidence to Implementation of Early Childhood Programs: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

With the worst human refugee crisis since World War II as the backdrop, from March 16 through March 18, 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, in partnership with UNICEF and the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Center for Inter-religious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), held a workshop in Amman, Jordan, to explore topics related to investing in young children for peaceful societies. Over the course of the workshop, researchers, policy makers, program practitioners, funders, youth, and other experts came together to understand the effects of conflict and violence on children, women, and youth across areas of health, education, nutrition, social protection, and other domains. The goal of the workshop was to continue to fill in gaps in knowledge and explore opportunities for discourse through a process of highlighting the science and practice. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Investing in Young Children for Peaceful Societies: Proceedings of a Joint Workshop by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; UNICEF; and the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID)

From Research to Reward: Social Science Studies the Most Hazardous Thing on the Road: You

Recognizing the importance of eyewitness identifications in courts of law and motivated by data showing that at least one erroneous eyewitness identification was associated with almost 75% of cases where defendants were later exonerated by DNA evidence, in 2013 the Laura and John Arnold Foundation asked the National Academy of Sciences to undertake an assessment of the scientific research on eyewitness identification and offer recommendations to improve eyewitness performance. The appointed committee issued its report, Identifying the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification , in 2014.

In order to stimulate new and innovative research on statistical tools and the interrelationships between system and estimator variables, the Arnold Foundation in 2015 again called upon the National Academies. This report describes the development of the request for proposals, the processes followed by the committee as it evaluated the proposals, and the committee’s assessment of the scientific merit and research design of the proposals.

Review of Proposals for Research on Statistical Methodologies for Assessing Variables in Eyewitness Performance

In February 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop to explore options for expanding the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) behavioral health data collections to include measures of recovery from substance use and mental disorder. Participants discussed options for collecting data and producing estimates of recovery from substance use and mental disorders, including available measures and associated possible data collection mechanisms. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Measuring Recovery from Substance Use or Mental Disorders: Workshop Summary

Bullying has long been tolerated as a rite of passage among children and adolescents. There is an implication that individuals who are bullied must have "asked for" this type of treatment, or deserved it. Sometimes, even the child who is bullied begins to internalize this idea. For many years, there has been a general acceptance and collective shrug when it comes to a child or adolescent with greater social capital or power pushing around a child perceived as subordinate. But bullying is not developmentally appropriate; it should not be considered a normal part of the typical social grouping that occurs throughout a child's life.

Although bullying behavior endures through generations, the milieu is changing. Historically, bulling has occurred at school, the physical setting in which most of childhood is centered and the primary source for peer group formation. In recent years, however, the physical setting is not the only place bullying is occurring. Technology allows for an entirely new type of digital electronic aggression, cyberbullying, which takes place through chat rooms, instant messaging, social media, and other forms of digital electronic communication.

Composition of peer groups, shifting demographics, changing societal norms, and modern technology are contextual factors that must be considered to understand and effectively react to bullying in the United States. Youth are embedded in multiple contexts and each of these contexts interacts with individual characteristics of youth in ways that either exacerbate or attenuate the association between these individual characteristics and bullying perpetration or victimization. Recognizing that bullying behavior is a major public health problem that demands the concerted and coordinated time and attention of parents, educators and school administrators, health care providers, policy makers, families, and others concerned with the care of children, this report evaluates the state of the science on biological and psychosocial consequences of peer victimization and the risk and protective factors that either increase or decrease peer victimization behavior and consequences.

Preventing Bullying Through Science, Policy, and Practice

Note: This is the French translation of Recent Fertility Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa .

Fertility rates and population growth influence economic development. The marked declines in fertility seen in some developing nations have been accompanied by slowing population growth, which in turn provided a window of opportunity for rapid economic growth. For many sub-Saharan African nations, this window has not yet opened because fertility rates have not declined as rapidly there as elsewhere.

Fertility rates in many sub-Saharan African countries are high: the total rate for the region is estimated to be 5.1 births per woman, and rates that had begun to decline in many countries in the region have stalled. High rates of fertility in these countries are likely to contribute to continued rapid population growth: the United Nations projects that the region's population will increase by 1.2 billion by 2050, the highest growth among the regions for which there are projections.

In June 2015, the Committee on Population organized a workshop to explore fertility trends and the factors that have influenced them. The workshop committee was asked to explore history and trends related to fertility, proximate determinants and other influences, the status and impact of family planning programs, and prospects for further reducing fertility rates. This study will help donors, researchers, and policy makers better understand the factors that may explain the slow pace of fertility decline in this region, and develop methods to improve family planning in sub-Saharan Africa.

Tendances Récentes de la Fécondité en Afrique Subsaharienne: Synthèse de l'Atelier

Estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans will experience a mental health problem or will misuse alcohol or drugs in their lifetimes. These disorders are among the most highly stigmatized health conditions in the United States, and they remain barriers to full participation in society in areas as basic as education, housing, and employment. Improving the lives of people with mental health and substance abuse disorders has been a priority in the United States for more than 50 years. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 is considered a major turning point in America's efforts to improve behavioral healthcare. It ushered in an era of optimism and hope and laid the groundwork for the consumer movement and new models of recovery. The consumer movement gave voice to people with mental and substance use disorders and brought their perspectives and experience into national discussions about mental health.

However over the same 50-year period, positive change in American public attitudes and beliefs about mental and substance use disorders has lagged behind these advances. Stigma is a complex social phenomenon based on a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype that assigns undesirable labels, qualities, and behaviors to a person with that attribute. Labeled individuals are then socially devalued, which leads to inequality and discrimination. This report contributes to national efforts to understand and change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that can lead to stigma and discrimination. Changing stigma in a lasting way will require coordinated efforts, which are based on the best possible evidence, supported at the national level with multiyear funding, and planned and implemented by an effective coalition of representative stakeholders.

Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change explores stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental or substance use disorders and recommends effective strategies for reducing stigma and encouraging people to seek treatment and other supportive services. It offers a set of conclusions and recommendations about successful stigma change strategies and the research needed to inform and evaluate these efforts in the United States.

Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change

In recent years, the U.S. federal government has invested approximately $463 billion annually in interventions that affect the overall health and well-being of children and youth, while state and local budgets have devoted almost double that amount. The potential returns on these investments may not only be substantial but also have long-lasting effects for individuals and succeeding generations of their families.

Ideally, those tasked with making these investments would have available to them the evidence needed to determine the cost of all required resources to fully implement and sustain each intervention, the expected returns of the investment, to what extent these returns can be measured in monetary or nonmonetary terms, and who will receive the returns and when. As a result of a number of challenges, however, such evidence may not be effectively produced or applied. Low-quality evidence and/or a failure to consider the context in which the evidence will be used may weaken society's ability to invest wisely, and also reduce future demand for this and other types of evidence.

Advancing the Power of Economic Evidence to Inform Investments in Children, Youth, and Families highlights the potential for economic evidence to inform investment decisions for interventions that support the overall health and well-being of children, youth, and families. This report describes challenges to the optimal use of economic evidence, and offers recommendations to stakeholders to promote a lasting improvement in its quality, utility, and use.

Advancing the Power of Economic Evidence to Inform Investments in Children, Youth, and Families

The Workshop on Integrating New Measures of Trauma into the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Data Collection Programs, held in Washington, D.C. in December 2015, was organized as part of an effort to assist SAMHSA and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in their responsibilities to expand the collection of behavioral health data to include measures of trauma. The main goals of the workshop were to discuss options for collecting data and producing estimates on exposure to traumatic events and PTSD, including available measures and associated possible data collection mechanisms. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Measuring Trauma: Workshop Summary

The United States has seen major changes in recent decades in family structures, gender roles, immigration pat- terns, occupational and industrial patterns, and labor markets. All of these factors—and others—affect people’s long-term health, social status, educational attainment, and economic opportunity. At the same time, the country’s capacity to monitor trends and make long-term evidence-based policy to effect positive change has languished.

The American Opportunity Study (AOS) is envisioned to create an intergenerational panel—using existing data at the person level—to study both social and economic mobility and the effectiveness of programs and policies that affect that mobility. It will develop the capacity to link existing data as needed for approved research purposes within a secure data environment. To begin work on the AOS, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine established the Standing Committee on Creating the American Opportunity Study.

To begin its work, the committee has explored the feasibility of capturing names of the people in the 1990 census and convened its first workshop. The committee’s goal for the workshop, held on May 9, 2016, in Washington, D.C., was to more fully explore the value and potential uses of the AOS throughout a broad range of social science research. The committee also wanted to explore researchers’ data needs and how those might converge with the vision for the AOS. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Using Linked Census, Survey, and Administrative Data to Assess Longer-Term Effects of Policy: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

To derive statistics about crime – to estimate its levels and trends, assess its costs to and impacts on society, and inform law enforcement approaches to prevent it – a conceptual framework for defining and thinking about crime is virtually a prerequisite. Developing and maintaining such a framework is no easy task, because the mechanics of crime are ever evolving and shifting: tied to shifts and development in technology, society, and legislation.

The key distinction between the rigorous classification proposed in this report and the “classifications” that have come before in U.S. crime statistics is that it is intended to partition the entirety of behaviors that could be considered criminal offenses into mutually exclusive categories. Modernizing Crime Statistics: Report 1: Defining and Classifying Crime assesses and makes recommendations for the development of a modern set of crime measures in the United States and the best means for obtaining them. This first report develops a new classification of crime by weighing various perspectives on how crime should be defined and organized with the needs and demands of the full array of crime data users and stakeholders.

Modernizing Crime Statistics: Report 1: Defining and Classifying Crime

With the worst human refugee crisis since World War II as the backdrop, from March 16 to March 18, 2016, the Forum on Investing in Young Children Globally, in partnership with UNICEF and the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), held a workshop in Amman, Jordan, to explore topics related to investing in young children for peaceful societies toward individual and structural transformation. Over the course of the 3-day workshop under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, researchers, policy makers, program practitioners, funders, youth, and other experts came together to understand the effects of conflict and violence on children, women, and youth across areas of health, education, nutrition, social protection, and other service domains.

Investing in Young Children for Peaceful Societies: Individual and Structural Transformation: Workshop in Brief

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2015-2030 strive for a world that is "just, equitable, and inclusive," in which everyone receives care, education, and opportunities to thrive. Yet many children are living on the margins of society, face multiple disadvantages, and are excluded from full participation in all that life has to offer. To examine the science, economics, and politics of investing in the health, education, nutrition, and social protection of children at the margins, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in Prague, Czech Republic in November 2015. Held in partnership with the Open Society Foundations and the International Step by Step Association, the workshop convened a diverse group of stakeholders from around the world for 2 days of discussion. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Reaching and Investing in Children at the Margins: Summary of a Joint Workshop by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Open Society Foundations; and the International Step by Step Association (ISSA)

Living independently and participating in one’s community are priorities for many people. In many regions across the United States, there are programs that support and enable people with disabilities and older adults to live where they choose and with whom they choose and to participate fully in their communities. Tremendous progress has been made. However, in many cases, the programs themselves – and access to them – vary not only between states but also within states. Many programs are small, and even when they prove to be successful they are still not scaled up to meet the needs of the many people who would benefit from them. The challenges can include insufficient workforce, insufficient funding, and lack of evidence demonstrating effectiveness or value.

To get a better understanding of the policies needed to maximize independence and support community living and of the research needed to support implementation of those policies, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a public workshop in October 2015. Participants explored policies in place that promote independence and community living for older adults and people with physical disabilities, and identified policies and gaps in policies that can be barriers to independence and the research needed to support changing those policies. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Policy and Research Needs to Maximize Independence and Support Community Living: Workshop Summary

On November 5-6, 2014, the Forum on Promoting Children’s Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health held a workshop in Washington, D.C., to address advances and gaps in measurement systems to promote children's mental and behavioral health. The workshop featured presentations on the use of data linkage and integration to inform research and practice; the use of quality measures to facilitate change in health care, classroom, and juvenile justice settings; and tools to measure implementation of evidence-based prevention programs. Workshop presenters and participants discussed examples of innovative design and utilization of measurement systems, new approaches to build on existing data structures, and new data systems that could support the cognitive, affective, and behavioral health and well-being of children. This report highlights the presentations and discussion of the workshop.

Innovations in Design and Utilization of Measurement Systems to Promote Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health: Workshop in Brief

On December 9-10, 2015, the Forum on Promoting Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health held a 2-day workshop, "Ensuring Quality and Accessible Care for Children with Disabilities and Complex Health and Educational Needs." The goal of the workshop was to explore the needs and challenges faced by individuals and families affected by disabilities and complex conditions, as well as opportunities and innovative approaches for those conditions. Presenters and workshop participants discussed the epidemiology of disabilities, the behavioral health implications of having multiple or chronic medical conditions, early identification and interventions in different population groups, and the role of the media in shaping perceptions and misperceptions of disabilities. A special focus was how best to configure and coordinate systems of care to improve the lives of children with disabilities and complex health and educational needs. This brief summary of the workshop highlights topics raised by presenters and participants.

Ensuring Quality and Accessible Care for Children with Disabilities and Complex Health and Educational Needs: Workshop in Brief

The adoption of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) 2010 was a turning point in the history of behavioral health for children and adolescents in the United States. The ACA requires most health insurance plans to conduct behavioral health assessments for children, as well as depression screening for adults. Looking ahead, however, questions have been raised about how to promote children's behavioral health, how to make use of innovations, and how to sustain funding over time. To respond to these questions, the Forum on Promoting Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in Washington, D.C., on April 1-2, 2015. The workshop focused on how recent reforms in health care provide new opportunities to promote children's cognitive, affective, and behavioral health. It also assessed behavioral health needs of all children, including those with special physical or behavioral health conditions, and programs that support families.This report summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop.

Opportunities to Promote Children's Behavioral Health: Health Care Reform and Beyond: Workshop in Brief

The U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) provides benefits to disabled adults and children, offering vital financial support to more than 19 million disabled Americans. Of that group, approximately 5.5 million have been deemed – by virtue of youth or mental or physical impairment - incapable of managing or directing the management of their benefits. Hence, a representative payee has been appointed to receive and disburse SSA payments for these beneficiaries to ensure that their basic needs for shelter, food, and clothing are met. Periodically, however, concerns have been expressed about the accuracy of the process by which SSA determines whether beneficiaries are capable of managing their benefits, with some evidence suggesting that underdetection of incapable recipients may be a particular problem.

The importance of creating as accurate a process as possible for incapability determinations is underscored by the consequences of incorrectly identifying recipients either as incapable when they can manage their benefits or as capable when they cannot. Failure to identify beneficiaries who are incapable of managing their funds means abandoning a vulnerable population to potential homelessness, hunger, and disease.

Informing Social Security's Process for Financial Capability Determination considers capability determination processes used by other similar benefit programs, abilities required to manage, and direct the management of, benefits, and effective methods and measures for assessing capability. This report evaluates SSA's capability determination process for adult beneficiaries and provides recommendations for improving the accuracy and efficiency of the agency's policy and procedures for making these determinations.

Informing Social Security's Process for Financial Capability Determination

The United States prides itself on being a nation of immigrants, and the country has a long history of successfully absorbing people from across the globe. The integration of immigrants and their children contributes to our economic vitality and our vibrant and ever changing culture. We have offered opportunities to immigrants and their children to better themselves and to be fully incorporated into our society and in exchange immigrants have become Americans - embracing an American identity and citizenship, protecting our country through service in our military, fostering technological innovation, harvesting its crops, and enriching everything from the nation's cuisine to its universities, music, and art.

Today, the 41 million immigrants in the United States represent 13.1 percent of the U.S. population. The U.S.-born children of immigrants, the second generation, represent another 37.1 million people, or 12 percent of the population. Thus, together the first and second generations account for one out of four members of the U.S. population. Whether they are successfully integrating is therefore a pressing and important question. Are new immigrants and their children being well integrated into American society, within and across generations? Do current policies and practices facilitate their integration? How is American society being transformed by the millions of immigrants who have arrived in recent decades?

To answer these questions, this new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine summarizes what we know about how immigrants and their descendants are integrating into American society in a range of areas such as education, occupations, health, and language.

The Integration of Immigrants into American Society

To examine the science, policy, and practice surrounding supporting family and community investments in young children globally and children in acute disruptions, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in partnership with the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from July 27-29, 2015. The workshop examined topics related to supporting family and community investments in young children globally. Examples of types of investments included financial and human capital. Participants also discussed how systems can better support children, families, and communities through acute disruptions such as the Ebola outbreak. Over the course of the 3-day workshop, researchers, policy makers, program practitioners, funders, young influencers, and other experts from 19 countries discussed how best to support family and community investments across areas of health, education, nutrition, social protection, and other service domains. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Supporting Family and Community Investments in Young Children Globally: Summary of a Joint Workshop by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences

On November 19, 2015, the Forum on Promoting Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine cohosted a webinar with the American Academy of Pediatrics on prevention and intervention methods to address the development of clinical depression in children and adolescents. The webinar featured three presentations focused on various opportunities to identify and intervene in developing cases of clinical depression within current health care settings, viewing the detection and care of depression as a series of steps that a practice could take.

Identifying Opportunities for Prevention and Intervention in the Youth Depression Cascade: Workshop in Brief

Recent Fertility Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa: Workshop Summary

The US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is a collection of 13 Federal entities charged by law to assist the United States and the world to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change. As the understanding of global change has evolved over the past decades and as demand for scientific information on global change has increased, the USGCRP has increasingly focused on research that can inform decisions to cope with current climate variability and change, to reduce the magnitude of future changes, and to prepare for changes projected over coming decades.

Overall, the current breadth and depth of research in these agencies is insufficient to meet the country's needs, particularly to support decision makers. This report provides a rationale for evaluating current program membership and capabilities and identifying potential new agencies and departments in the hopes that these changes will enable the program to more effectively inform the public and prepare for the future. It also offers actionable recommendations for adjustments to the methods and procedures that will allow the program to better meet its stated goals.

Enhancing Participation in the U.S. Global Change Research Program

The workshop summarized in this report was organized as part of a study sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, with the goal of assisting SAMHSA in its responsibilities of expanding the collection of behavioral health data in several areas. The workshop brought together experts in child mental health, psychiatric epidemiology and survey methods to facilitate discussion of the most suitable measures and mechanisms for producing estimates of serious emotional disturbance in children, which are necessary to enable the distribution of block grants that support state-level mental health services for children. The report discusses existing measures and data on mental disorders and functional impairment, challenges associated with collecting these data in large-scale population-based studies, as well as study design and estimation options.

Measuring Serious Emotional Disturbance in Children: Workshop Summary

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service (USDA/ERS) maintains four highly related but distinct geographic classification systems to designate areas by the degree to which they are rural. The original urban-rural code scheme was developed by the ERS in the 1970s. Rural America today is very different from the rural America of 1970 described in the first rural classification report.

At that time migration to cities and poverty among the people left behind was a central concern. The more rural a residence, the more likely a person was to live in poverty, and this relationship held true regardless of age or race. Since the 1970s the interstate highway system was completed and broadband was developed. Services have become more consolidated into larger centers. Some of the traditional rural industries, farming and mining, have prospered, and there has been rural amenity-based in-migration. Many major structural and economic changes have occurred during this period. These factors have resulted in a quite different rural economy and society since 1970.

In April 2015, the Committee on National Statistics convened a workshop to explore the data, estimation, and policy issues for rationalizing the multiple classifications of rural areas currently in use by the Economic Research Service (ERS). Participants aimed to help ERS make decisions regarding the generation of a county rural-urban scale for public use, taking into consideration the changed social and economic environment. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Rationalizing Rural Area Classifications for the Economic Research Service: A Workshop Summary

In 1982 the Census Bureau requested the Committee on National Statistics to establish a panel to suggest research and experiments, to recommend improved methods, and to guide the Census Bureau on technical problems in appraising contending methods with regard to the conduct of the decennial census. In response, the panel produced an interim report that focused on recommendations for improvements in census methodology that warranted early investigation and testing. This report updates and expands the ideas and conclusions about decennial census methodology.

The Bicentennial Census: New Directions for Methodology in 1990: 30th Anniversary Edition

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was signed into law in 2010, has several provisions that could greatly improve the behavioral health of children and adolescents in the United States. It requires that many insurance plans cover mental health and substance use disorder services, rehabilitative services to help support people with behavioral health challenges, and preventive services like behavioral assessments for children and depression screening for adults. These and other provisions provide an opportunity to confront the many behavioral health challenges facing youth in America.

To explore how the ACA and other aspects of health care reform can support innovations to improve children's behavioral health and sustain those innovations over time, the Forum on Promoting Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health held a workshop on April 1-2, 2015. The workshop explicitly addressed the behavioral health needs of all children, including those with special health needs. It also took a two-generation approach, looking at the programs and services that support not only children but also parents and families. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions of this workshop.

Opportunities to Promote Children's Behavioral Health: Health Care Reform and Beyond: Workshop Summary

On July 27-29, 2015, the Forum on Investing in Young Children Globally, in partnership with the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences, held a workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to examine topics related to supporting family and community investments in young children globally. In addressing the specific circumstances of acute disruptions, workshop participants discussed lessons learned from examples across natural disasters, human-induced disasters, and outbreaks and suggested targeted areas for policy action aimed at strengthening investments and minimizing the negative impacts of acute disruptions on the health and well-being of children in the future. This brief summary of the presentations and discussions at the workshop highlights the major issues raised by individual workshop participants, including suggestions for future discussion and action.

Supporting Family and Community Investments in Young Children Globally: Workshop in Brief

Reliable and valid forensic science analytic techniques are critical to a credible, fair, and evidence-based criminal justice system. There is widespread agreement that the scientific foundation of some currently available forensic science methods needs strengthening and that additional, more efficient techniques are urgently needed. These needs can only be met through sustained research programs explicitly designed to ensure and improve the reliability and validity of current methods and to foster the development and use of new and better techniques. This task is challenging due to the broad nature of the field.

Concerns have been raised repeatedly about the ability of the criminal justice system to collect and analyze evidence efficiently and to be fair in its verdicts. Although significant progress has been made in some forensic science disciplines, the forensic science community still faces many challenges. Federal leadership, particularly in regard to research and the scientific validation of forensic science methods, is needed to help meet the pressing issues facing state and local jurisdictions.

This report reviews the progress made by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to advance forensic science research since the 2009 report, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward and the 2010 report, Strengthening the National Institute of Justice . Support for Forensic Science Research examines the ways in which NIJ develops its forensic science research priorities and communicates those priorities as well as its findings to the scientific and forensic practitioner communities in order to determine the impact of NIJ forensic science research programs and how that impact can be enhanced.

Support for Forensic Science Research: Improving the Scientific Role of the National Institute of Justice

Does the public trust science? Scientists? Scientific organizations? What roles do trust and the lack of trust play in public debates about how science can be used to address such societal concerns as childhood vaccination, cancer screening, and a warming planet? What could happen if social trust in science or scientists faded? These types of questions led the Roundtable on Public Interfaces of the Life Sciences of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a 2-day workshop on May 5-6, 2015 on public trust in science.

This report explores empirical evidence on public opinion and attitudes toward life sciences as they relate to societal issues, whether and how contentious debate about select life science topics mediates trust, and the roles that scientists, business, media, community groups, and other stakeholders play in creating and maintaining public confidence in life sciences. Does the Public Trust Science? Trust and Confidence at the Interfaces of the Life Sciences and Society highlights research on the elements of trust and how to build, mend, or maintain trust; and examine best practices in the context of scientist engagement with lay audiences around social issues.

Trust and Confidence at the Interfaces of the Life Sciences and Society: Does the Public Trust Science? A Workshop Summary

Recent demographic trends in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region will shape the growth and age composition of its populations for decades to come. The rapid mortality decline that began during the 1950s, and the more recent and even sharper reduction in fertility, will produce unusually high rates of growth of the older population, a large change in overall population age composition, and significant increases in the ratio of older to younger population. According to the 2013 United Nations projections, the number of people aged 60 and over in LAC is expected to increase from 59 million in 2010 to 196 million in 2050, and the number of people aged 80 and over will increase from 8.6 million to more than 44 million during the same period.

To explore the process of rapid aging in the LAC, a workshop took place at the National Academy of Medicine in May 2015. Participants of the workshop presented scientific research emphasizing what is unique about aging in LAC and what is similar to other processes around the world, highlighted the main areas where knowledge of the aging process in LAC is insufficient and new research is required, and proposed data collection that will produce information for policymaking while being responsive to the needs of the research community for harmonized, highly comparable information. The workshop afforded participants an opportunity to consider strategies for articulating data collection and research in the region so that country-based teams can reap the benefits from being part of a larger enterprise while simultaneously maintaining their own individuality and responding to the particular needs of each country. Strengthening the Scientific Foundation for Policymaking to Meet the Challenges of Aging in Latin America and the Caribbean summarizes the presentations and discussions of the workshop.

Strengthening the Scientific Foundation for Policymaking to Meet the Challenges of Aging in Latin America and the Caribbean: Summary of a Workshop

The U.S. population is aging. Social Security projections suggest that between 2013 and 2050, the population aged 65 and over will almost double, from 45 million to 86 million. One key driver of population aging is ongoing increases in life expectancy. Average U.S. life expectancy was 67 years for males and 73 years for females five decades ago; the averages are now 76 and 81, respectively. It has long been the case that better-educated, higher-income people enjoy longer life expectancies than less-educated, lower-income people. The causes include early life conditions, behavioral factors (such as nutrition, exercise, and smoking behaviors), stress, and access to health care services, all of which can vary across education and income.

Our major entitlement programs – Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and Supplemental Security Income – have come to deliver disproportionately larger lifetime benefits to higher-income people because, on average, they are increasingly collecting those benefits over more years than others. This report studies the impact the growing gap in life expectancy has on the present value of lifetime benefits that people with higher or lower earnings will receive from major entitlement programs. The analysis presented in The Growing Gap in Life Expectancy by Income goes beyond an examination of the existing literature by providing the first comprehensive estimates of how lifetime benefits are affected by the changing distribution of life expectancy. The report also explores, from a lifetime benefit perspective, how the growing gap in longevity affects traditional policy analyses of reforms to the nation’s leading entitlement programs. This in-depth analysis of the economic impacts of the longevity gap will inform debate and assist decision makers, economists, and researchers.

The Growing Gap in Life Expectancy by Income: Implications for Federal Programs and Policy Responses

Research has identified many behavioral, social, and biological factors that are associated with healthy aging. Less well understood are possible causal relationships between such factors and positive aging outcomes or the mechanisms through which these factors may influence the aging process. Improved understanding of these relationships is needed to support the design of interventions to promote healthy outcomes at midlife and older ages.

On June 11-12, 2015, the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences held a workshop to explore research strategies and ways to build on existing knowledge about influences on aging. During the workshop, presenters reviewed what is known about three exemplar factors that research has demonstrated are associated with healthy aging: optimism, marital satisfaction, and educational attainment; subsequent discussions focused on possible research designs to expand understanding of causal relationships and the mechanisms through which such factors influence aging, including longitudinal studies, molecular and quantitative genetic approaches, and experimental approaches. This report provides a brief summary of the workshop discussions.

Understanding Pathways to Successful Aging: How Social and Behavioral Factors Affect Health at Older Ages: Workshop in Brief

Professional Learning for the Care and Education Workforce

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well.

Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning.

Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation

The past half-century has witnessed a dramatic increase in the scale and complexity of scientific research. The growing scale of science has been accompanied by a shift toward collaborative research, referred to as "team science." Scientific research is increasingly conducted by small teams and larger groups rather than individual investigators, but the challenges of collaboration can slow these teams' progress in achieving their scientific goals. How does a team-based approach work, and how can universities and research institutions support teams?

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science synthesizes and integrates the available research to provide guidance on assembling the science team; leadership, education and professional development for science teams and groups. It also examines institutional and organizational structures and policies to support science teams and identifies areas where further research is needed to help science teams and groups achieve their scientific and translational goals. This report offers major public policy recommendations for science research agencies and policymakers, as well as recommendations for individual scientists, disciplinary associations, and research universities. Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science will be of interest to university research administrators, team science leaders, science faculty, and graduate and postdoctoral students.

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science

Tobacco use has declined because of measures such as high taxes on tobacco products and bans on advertising, but worldwide there are still more than one billion people who regularly use tobacco, including many who purchase products illicitly. By contrast to many other commodities, taxes comprise a substantial portion of the retail price of cigarettes in the United States and most other nations. Large tax differentials between jurisdictions increase incentives for participation in existing illicit tobacco markets. In the United States, the illicit tobacco market consists mostly of bootlegging from low-tax states to high-tax states and is less affected by large-scale smuggling or illegal production as in other countries. In the future, nonprice regulation of cigarettes - such as product design, formulation, and packaging - could in principle, contribute to the development of new types of illicit tobacco markets.

Understanding the U.S. Illicit Tobacco Market reviews the nature of illicit tobacco markets, evidence for policy effects, and variations among different countries with a focus on implications for the United States. This report estimates the portion of the total U.S. tobacco market represented by illicit sales has grown in recent years and is now between 8.5 percent and 21 percent. This represents between 1.24 to 2.91 billion packs of cigarettes annually and between $2.95 billion and $6.92 billion in lost gross state and local tax revenues.

Understanding the U.S. Illicit Tobacco Market describes the complex system associated with illicit tobacco use by exploring some of the key features of that market - the cigarette supply chain, illicit procurement schemes, the major actors in the illicit trade, and the characteristics of users of illicit tobacco. This report draws on domestic and international experiences with the illicit tobacco trade to identify a range of possible policy and enforcement interventions by the U.S. federal government and/or states and localities.

Understanding the U.S. Illicit Tobacco Market: Characteristics, Policy Context, and Lessons from International Experiences

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) of the National Science Foundation is responsible for national reporting of the research and development (R&D) activities that occur in all sectors of the United States economy. For most sectors, including the business and higher education sectors, NCSES collects data on these activities on a regular basis. However, data on R&D within the nonprofit sector have not been collected in 18 years, a time period which has seen dynamic and rapid growth of the sector. NCSES decided to design and implement a new survey of nonprofits, and commissioned this workshop to provide a forum to discuss conceptual and design issues and methods.

Measuring Research and Development Expenditures in the U.S. Nonprofit Sector: Conceptual and Design Issues summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop. This report identifies concepts and issues for the design of a survey of R&D expenditures made by nonprofit organizations, considering the goals, content, statistical methodology, data quality, and data products associated with this data collection. The report also considers the broader usefulness of the data for understanding the nature of the nonprofit sector and their R&D activities. Measuring Research and Development Expenditures in the U. S. Nonprofit Sector will help readers understand the role of nonprofit sector given its enormous size and scope as well as its contribution to identifying new forms of R&D beyond production processes and new technology.

Measuring Research and Development Expenditures in the U.S. Nonprofit Sector: Conceptual and Design Issues: Summary of a Workshop

Every year, the U.S. Army must select from an applicant pool in the hundreds of thousands to meet annual enlistment targets, currently numbering in the tens of thousands of new soldiers. A critical component of the selection process for enlisted service members is the formal assessments administered to applicants to determine their performance potential. Attrition for the U.S. military is hugely expensive. Every recruit that does not make it through basic training or beyond a first enlistment costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Academic and other professional settings suffer similar losses when the wrong individuals are accepted into the wrong schools and programs or jobs and companies. Picking the right people from the start is becoming increasingly important in today's economy and in response to the growing numbers of applicants. Beyond cognitive tests of ability, what other attributes should selectors be considering to know whether an individual has the talent and the capability to perform as well as the mental and psychological drive to succeed?

Measuring Human Capabilities: An Agenda for Basic Research on the Assessment of Individual and Group Performance Potential for Military Accession examines promising emerging theoretical, technological, and statistical advances that could provide scientifically valid new approaches and measurement capabilities to assess human capability. This report considers the basic research necessary to maximize the efficiency, accuracy, and effective use of human capability measures in the military's selection and initial occupational assignment process. The research recommendations of Measuring Human Capabilities will identify ways to supplement the Army's enlisted soldier accession system with additional predictors of individual and collective performance. Although the primary audience for this report is the U.S. military, this book will be of interest to researchers of psychometrics, personnel selection and testing, team dynamics, cognitive ability, and measurement methods and technologies. Professionals interested in of the foundational science behind academic testing, job selection, and human resources management will also find this report of interest.

Measuring Human Capabilities: An Agenda for Basic Research on the Assessment of Individual and Group Performance Potential for Military Accession

With more than 200 prevention-centered, evidence-based health interventions in their toolbox, pediatric health practitioners stand to reap a bounty of benefits for their clients and communities. But how should all these data be harvested and evaluated, particularly in light of the changes introduced by the Affordable Care Act and the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, as well as reduced funding, implementation barriers, and the demands of balancing public health against individual patient treatment choices?

To address these questions, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council Forum on Promoting Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health hosted the workshop "Harvesting the Scientific Investment in Prevention Science to Promote Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health" from June 16â€"17, 2014. This report summarizes the presentation and discussions of the workshop.

Harvesting the Scientific Investment in Prevention Science to Promote Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health: Workshop in Brief

On April 1-2, 2014, the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council held a 2-day workshop to discuss the successes and challenges of scaling family-focused interventions. A range of settings involved in preventive family-focused interventions were highlighted, including primary care settings, schools, homes, and on the Web. Collectively this knowledge will be used to explore new and innovative ways to broaden the reach of effective programs and to generate alternative paradigms for strengthening families. This brief summary of the workshop highlights topics raised by presenters and participants.

Strategies for Scaling Tested and Effective Family-Focused Preventive Interventions to Promote Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health: Workshop in Brief

A high percentage of defense systems fail to meet their reliability requirements. This is a serious problem for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), as well as the nation. Those systems are not only less likely to successfully carry out their intended missions, but they also could endanger the lives of the operators. Furthermore, reliability failures discovered after deployment can result in costly and strategic delays and the need for expensive redesign, which often limits the tactical situations in which the system can be used. Finally, systems that fail to meet their reliability requirements are much more likely to need additional scheduled and unscheduled maintenance and to need more spare parts and possibly replacement systems, all of which can substantially increase the life-cycle costs of a system.

Beginning in 2008, DOD undertook a concerted effort to raise the priority of reliability through greater use of design for reliability techniques, reliability growth testing, and formal reliability growth modeling, by both the contractors and DOD units. To this end, handbooks, guidances, and formal memoranda were revised or newly issued to reduce the frequency of reliability deficiencies for defense systems in operational testing and the effects of those deficiencies. Reliability Growth evaluates these recent changes and, more generally, assesses how current DOD principles and practices could be modified to increase the likelihood that defense systems will satisfy their reliability requirements. This report examines changes to the reliability requirements for proposed systems; defines modern design and testing for reliability; discusses the contractor's role in reliability testing; and summarizes the current state of formal reliability growth modeling. The recommendations of Reliability Growth will improve the reliability of defense systems and protect the health of the valuable personnel who operate them.

Reliability Growth: Enhancing Defense System Reliability

The American Community Survey (ACS) was conceptualized as a replacement to the census long form, which collected detailed population and housing data from a sample of the U.S. population, once a decade, as part of the decennial census operations. The long form was traditionally the main source of socio-economic information for areas below the national level. The data provided for small areas, such as counties, municipalities, and neighborhoods is what made the long form unique, and what makes the ACS unique today. Since the successful transition from the decennial long form in 2005, the ACS has become an invaluable resource for many stakeholders, particularly for meeting national and state level data needs. However, due to inadequate sample sizes, a major challenge for the survey is producing reliable estimates for smaller geographic areas, which is a concern because of the unique role fulfilled by the long form, and now the ACS, of providing data with a geographic granularity that no other federal survey could provide. In addition to the primary challenge associated with the reliability of the estimates, this is also a good time to assess other aspects of the survey in order to identify opportunities for refinement based on the experience of the first few years.

Realizing the Potential of the American Community Survey provides input on ways of improving the ACS, focusing on two priority areas: identifying methods that could improve the quality of the data available for small areas, and suggesting changes that would increase the survey's efficiency in responding to new data needs. This report considers changes that the ACS office should consider over the course of the next few years in order to further improve the ACS data. The recommendations of Realizing the Potential of the American Community Survey will help the Census Bureau improve performance in several areas, which may ultimately lead to improved data products as the survey enters its next decade.

Realizing the Potential of the American Community Survey: Challenges, Tradeoffs, and Opportunities

Measuring the Risks and Causes of Premature Death is the summary of two workshops conducted by The Committee on Population of the National Research Council at the National Academies to address the data sources, science and future research needs to understand the causes of premature mortality in the United States. The workshops reviewed previous work in the field in light of new data generated as part of the work of the NRC Panel on Understanding Divergent Trends in Longevity in High-Income Countries (NRC, 2011) and the NRC/IOM Panel on Understanding Cross-National Differences Among High-Income Countries (NRC/IOM, 2013). The workshop presentations considered the state of the science of measuring the determinants of the causes of premature death, assessed the availability and quality of data sources, and charted future courses of action to improve the understanding of the causes of premature death. Presenters shared their approaches to and results of measuring premature mortality and specific risk factors, with a particular focus on those factors most amenable to improvement through public health policy. This report summarizes the presentations and discussion of both workshops.

Measuring the Risks and Causes of Premature Death: Summary of Workshops

Young adulthood - ages approximately 18 to 26 - is a critical period of development with long-lasting implications for a person's economic security, health and well-being. Young adults are key contributors to the nation's workforce and military services and, since many are parents, to the healthy development of the next generation. Although 'millennials' have received attention in the popular media in recent years, young adults are too rarely treated as a distinct population in policy, programs, and research. Instead, they are often grouped with adolescents or, more often, with all adults. Currently, the nation is experiencing economic restructuring, widening inequality, a rapidly rising ratio of older adults, and an increasingly diverse population. The possible transformative effects of these features make focus on young adults especially important. A systematic approach to understanding and responding to the unique circumstances and needs of today's young adults can help to pave the way to a more productive and equitable tomorrow for young adults in particular and our society at large.

Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults describes what is meant by the term young adulthood, who young adults are, what they are doing, and what they need. This study recommends actions that nonprofit programs and federal, state, and local agencies can take to help young adults make a successful transition from adolescence to adulthood. According to this report, young adults should be considered as a separate group from adolescents and older adults. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults makes the case that increased efforts to improve high school and college graduate rates and education and workforce development systems that are more closely tied to high-demand economic sectors will help this age group achieve greater opportunity and success. The report also discusses the health status of young adults and makes recommendations to develop evidence-based practices for young adults for medical and behavioral health, including preventions.

What happens during the young adult years has profound implications for the rest of the life course, and the stability and progress of society at large depends on how any cohort of young adults fares as a whole. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults will provide a roadmap to improving outcomes for this age group as they transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Investing in the Health and Well-Being of Young Adults

Over the past few decades there have been major successes in creating evidence-based interventions to improve the cognitive, affective, and behavioral health of children. Many of these interventions have been put into practice at the local, state, or national level. To reap what has been learned from such implementation, and to explore how new legislation and policies as well as advances in technology and analytical methods can help drive future implementation, the Institute of Medicine-National Research Council Forum on Promoting Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health held the workshop "Harvesting the Scientific Investment in Prevention Science to Promote Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health" in Washington, DC, on June 16 and 17, 2014.

The workshop featured panel discussions of system-level levers and blockages to the broad implementation of interventions with fidelity, focusing on policy, finance, and method science; the role of scientific norms, implementation strategies, and practices in care quality and outcomes at the national, state, and local levels; and new methodological directions. The workshop also featured keynote presentations on the role of economics and policy in scaling interventions for children's behavioral health, and making better use of evidence to design informed and more efficient children's mental health systems. Harvesting the Scientific Investment in Prevention Science to Promote Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop.

Harvesting the Scientific Investment in Prevention Science to Promote Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health: Workshop Summary

Identifying the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification makes the case that better data collection and research on eyewitness identification, new law enforcement training protocols, standardized procedures for administering line-ups, and improvements in the handling of eyewitness identification in court can increase the chances that accurate identifications are made. This report explains the science that has emerged during the past 30 years on eyewitness identifications and identifies best practices in eyewitness procedures for the law enforcement community and in the presentation of eyewitness evidence in the courtroom. In order to continue the advancement of eyewitness identification research, the report recommends a focused research agenda.

Identifying the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification

The United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Economic Research Service's (ERS) Food Availability Data System includes three distinct but related data series on food and nutrient availability for consumption. The data serve as popular proxies for actual consumption at the national level for over 200 commodities (e.g., fresh spinach, beef, and eggs). The core Food Availability (FA) data series provides data on the amount of food available, per capita, for human consumption in the United States with data back to 1909 for many commodities. The Loss-Adjusted Food Availability (LAFA) data series is derived from the FA data series by adjusting for food spoilage, plate waste, and other losses to more closely approximate 4 actual intake. The LAFA data provide daily estimates of the per capita availability amounts adjusted for loss (e.g., in pounds, ounces, grams, and gallons as appropriate), calories, and food pattern equivalents (i.e., "servings") of the five major food groups (fruit, vegetables, grains, meat, and dairy) available for consumption plus the amounts of added sugars and sweeteners and added fats and oils available for consumption. This fiscal year, as part of its initiative to systematically review all of its major data series, ERS decided to review the FADS data system. One of the goals of this review is to advance the knowledge and understanding of the measurement and technical aspects of the data supporting FADS so the data can be maintained and improved.

Data and Research to Improve the U.S. Food Availability System and Estimates of Food Loss is the summary of a workshop convened by the Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council and the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine to advance knowledge and understanding of the measurement and technical aspects of the data supporting the LAFA data series so that these data series and subsequent food availability and food loss estimates can be maintained and improved. The workshop considered such issues as the effects of termination of selected Census Bureau and USDA data series on estimates for affected food groups and commodities; the potential for using other data sources, such as scanner data, to improve estimates of food availability; and possible ways to improve the data on food loss at the farm and retail levels and at restaurants. This report considers knowledge gaps, data sources that may be available or could be generated to fill gaps, what can be learned from other countries and international organizations, ways to ensure consistency of treatment of commodities across series, and the most promising opportunities for new data for the various food availability series.

Data and Research to Improve the U.S. Food Availability System and Estimates of Food Loss: A Workshop Summary

In recent years, as science becomes increasingly international and collaborative, the importance of projects that involve research teams and research subjects from different countries has grown markedly. Such teams often cross disciplinary, cultural, geographic and linguistic borders as well as national ones. Successfully planning and carrying out such efforts can result in substantial advantages for both science and scientists. The participating researchers, however, also face significant intellectual, bureaucratic, organizational and interpersonal challenges.

Building Infrastructure for International Collaborative Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences is the summary of a workshop convened by the National Research Council's Committee on International Collaborations in Social and Behavioral Sciences in September 2013 to identify ways to reduce impediments and to increase access to cross-national research collaborations among a broad range of American scholars in the behavioral and social sciences (and education), especially early career scholars. Over the course of two and a half days, individuals from universities and federal agencies, professional organizations, and other parties with interests in international collaboration in the behavior and social sciences and education made presentations and participated in discussions. They came from diverse fields including cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, comparative education, educational anthropology, sociology, organizational psychology, the health sciences, international development studies, higher education administration, and international exchange.

Building Infrastructure for International Collaborative Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: Summary of a Workshop

All reports in this set are available to purchase separately.

Every day in the United States, children and adolescents are victims of commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. These are not only illegal activities, but also forms of violence and abuse that result in immediate and long-term physical, mental, and emotional harm to victims and survivors.

In 2013, the Institute of Medicine/National Research Council released the report Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States . The report found that the United States is in the very early stages of recognizing, understanding, and developing solutions for these crimes.

Providers of victim and support services, health care providers, and the legal community all have important roles to play in responding to commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors in the United States. Their knowledge and ability to identify victims, investigate cases, and make appropriate referrals is crucial to the development of an overall response to these crimes. These practitioner guides provide a summary of information from the original report that is most relevant to individuals within each sector who interact in some way with victims, survivors, and perpetrators of commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors.

Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors: 4-Volume Set

In the past decade, a number of state, local, and tribal jurisdictions have begun to take significant steps to overhaul their juvenile justice systems - for example, reducing the use of juvenile detention and out-of-home placement, bringing greater attention to racial and ethnic disparities, looking for ways to engage affected families in the process, and raising the age at which juvenile court jurisdiction ends. These changes are the result of heightening awareness of the ineffectiveness of punitive practices and accumulating knowledge about adolescent development. Momentum for reform is growing. However, many more state, local, and tribal jurisdictions need assistance, and practitioners in the juvenile justice field are looking for guidance from the federal government, particularly from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in the Department of Justice.

Implementing Juvenile Justice Reform identifies and prioritizes strategies and policies to effectively facilitate reform of the juvenile justice system and develop an implementation plan for OJJDP. Based on the 2013 report Reforming Juvenile Justice , this report is designed to provide specific guidance to OJJDP regarding the steps that it should take, both internally and externally, to facilitate juvenile justice reform grounded in knowledge about adolescent development. The report identifies seven hallmarks of a developmental approach to juvenile justice to guide system reform: accountability without criminalization, alternatives to justice system involvement, individualized response based on needs and risks, confinement only when necessary for public safety, genuine commitment to fairness, sensitivity to disparate treatment, and family engagement. Implementing Juvenile Justice Reform outlines how these hallmarks should be incorporated into policies and practices within OJJDP, as well as in actions extended to state, local, and tribal jurisdictions to achieve the goals of the juvenile justice system through a developmentally informed approach.

This report sets forth a detailed and prioritized strategic plan for the federal government to support and facilitate developmentally oriented juvenile justice reform. The pivotal component of the plan is to strengthen the role, capacity, and commitment of OJJDP, the lead federal agency in the field. By carrying out the recommendations of Implementing Juvenile Justice Reform , the federal government will both reaffirm and advance the promise of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.

Implementing Juvenile Justice Reform: The Federal Role

Law enforcement professionals, attorneys, and judges all have important roles to play in responding to commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors in the United States. Their knowledge and ability to identify victims, investigate cases, and make appropriate referrals is crucial to the development of an overall response to these crimes.

This Guide for the Legal Sector provides a summary of information from the original report that is most relevant to individuals within the legal sector who interact in some way with victims, survivors, and perpetrators of commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors. This includes federal, state, county, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies; police officers and investigators; probation officers; parole officers; corrections officers; prosecutors and defense attorneys; victim advocates; and judges.

This guide includes definitions of key terms and an overview of risk factors and consequences; noteworthy examples of efforts by law enforcement personnel, attorneys, the juvenile and criminal justice systems, and the judiciary; multisector and interagency efforts in which the legal sector plays an important role; and recommendations aimed at identifying, preventing, and responding to these crimes.

Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States: A Guide for the Legal Sector

People's bonds, associations and networks - as well as the civil, political, and institutional characteristics of the society in which they live - can be powerful drivers affecting the quality of life among a community's, a city's, or a nation's inhabitants and their ability to achieve both individual and societal goals. Civic engagement, social cohesion, and other dimensions of social capital affect social, economic and health outcomes for individuals and communities. Can these be measured, and can federal surveys contribute toward this end? Can this information be collected elsewhere, and if so, how should it be collected?

Civic Engagement and Social Cohesion identifies measurement approaches that can lead to improved understanding of civic engagement, social cohesion, and social capital - and their potential role in explaining the functioning of society. With the needs of data users in mind, this report examines conceptual frameworks developed in the literature to determine promising measures and measurement methods for informing public policy discourse. The report identifies working definitions of key terms; advises on the feasibility and specifications of indicators relevant to analyses of social, economic, and health domains; and assesses the strength of the evidence regarding the relationship between these indicators and observed trends in crime, employment, and resilience to shocks such as natural disasters. Civic Engagement and Social Cohesion weighs the relative merits of surveys, administrative records, and non-government data sources, and considers the appropriate role of the federal statistical system. This report makes recommendations to improve the measurement of civic health through population surveys conducted by the government and identifies priority areas for research, development, and implementation.

Civic Engagement and Social Cohesion: Measuring Dimensions of Social Capital to Inform Policy

Natural gas in deep shale formations, which can be developed by hydraulic fracturing and associated technologies (often collectively referred to as "fracking") is dramatically increasing production of natural gas in the United States, where significant gas deposits exist in formations that underlie many states. Major deposits of shale gas exist in many other countries as well. Proponents of shale gas development point to several kinds of benefits, for instance, to local economies and to national "energy independence". Shale gas development has also brought increasing expression of concerns about risks, including to human health, environmental quality, non-energy economic activities in shale regions, and community cohesion. Some of these potential risks are beginning to receive careful evaluation; others are not. Although the risks have not yet been fully characterized or all of them carefully analyzed, governments at all levels are making policy decisions, some of them hard to reverse, about shale gas development and/or how to manage the risks.

Risks and Risk Governance in Shale Gas Development is the summary of two workshops convened in May and August 2013 by the National Research Council's Board on Environmental Change and Society to consider and assess claims about the levels and types of risk posed by shale gas development and about the adequacy of existing governance procedures. Participants from engineering, natural, and social scientific communities examined the range of risks and of social and decision-making issues in risk characterization and governance related to gas shale development. Central themes included risk governance in the context of (a) risks that emerge as shale gas development expands, and (b) incomplete or declining regulatory capacity in an era of budgetary stringency. This report summarizes the presentations on risk issues raised in the first workshop, the risk management and governance concepts presented at the second workshop, and the discussions at both workshops.

Risks and Risk Governance in Shale Gas Development: Summary of Two Workshops

Over the last three decades, researchers have made remarkable progress in creating and testing family-focused programs aimed at fostering the cognitive, affective, and behavioral health of children. These programs include universal interventions, such as those for expecting or new parents, and workshops for families whose children are entering adolescence, as well as programs targeted to especially challenged parents, such as low-income single teens about to have their first babies, or the parents of children with autism. Some family-focused programs have been shown to foster significantly better outcomes in children, including enhanced educational performance, and reduced rates of teen pregnancy, substance abuse, and child conduct and delinquency, as well as reduced child abuse. The favorable cost-benefit ratios of some of these programs are due, in part, to the multiple and far-ranging effects that family-focused prevention programs targeting children can have. Other family-focused programs have shown success in smaller academic studies but have not been widely applied, or have not worked as effectively or failed when applied to more diverse real-world settings.

Strategies for Scaling Effective Family-Focused Preventive Interventions to Promote Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health is the summary of a workshop convened by the Institute of Medicine Forum on Promoting Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health to explore effective preventive interventions for youth that can modify risk and promote protective factors that are linked to mental, emotional, and behavioral health, and how to apply this existing knowledge. Based on the 2009 report Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People , this report considers how to build a stronger research and practice base around the development and implementation of programs, practices, and policies that foster children's health and well-being across the country, while engaging multi-sectorial stakeholders. While research has advanced understanding of risk, promotive, and protective factors in families that influence the health and well-being of youth, a challenge remains to provide family-focused interventions across child and adolescent development at sufficient scale and reach to significantly reduce the incidence and prevalence of negative cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes in children and adolescents nationwide, as well as to develop widespread demand for effective programs by end users. This report explores new and innovative ways to broaden the reach and demand for effective programs and to generate alternative paradigms for strengthening families.

Strategies for Scaling Effective Family-Focused Preventive Interventions to Promote Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health: Workshop Summary

Sociality, Hierarchy, Health: Comparative Biodemography is a collection of papers that examine cross-species comparisons of social environments with a focus on social behaviors along with social hierarchies and connections, to examine their effects on health, longevity, and life histories. This report covers a broad spectrum of nonhuman animals, exploring a variety of measures of position in social hierarchies and social networks, drawing links among these factors to health outcomes and trajectories, and comparing them to those in humans. Sociality, Hierarchy, Health revisits both the theoretical underpinnings of biodemography and the empirical findings that have emerged over the past two decades.

Sociality, Hierarchy, Health: Comparative Biodemography: A Collection of Papers

Population surveys traditionally collect information from respondents about their circumstances, behaviors, attitudes, and other characteristics. In recent years, many surveys have been collecting not only questionnaire answers, but also biologic specimens such as blood samples, saliva, and buccal swabs, from which a respondent's DNA can be ascertained along with other biomarkers (e.g., the level of a certain protein in the blood). The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), sponsored by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), has been collecting and storing genetic specimens since 1991, and other surveys, such as the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) funded by the National Institute on Aging, have followed suit. In order to give their informed consent to participate in a survey, respondents need to know the disposition and use of their data. Will their data be used for one research project and then destroyed, or will they be archived for secondary use? Sponsors of repeated cross-sectional surveys, such as NHANES, and of longitudinal surveys that follow panels of individuals over time, such as HRS, generally want to retain data for a wide range of secondary uses, many of which are not explicitly foreseen at the time of data collection. They typically inform respondents that their data will be stored in a secure manner and may be provided to researchers with suitable protections against individual identification.

The addition of biologic specimens to a survey adds complications for storing, protecting, and providing access to such data and measurements made from them. There are also questions of whether, when, and for which biologic measurements the results should be reported back to individual respondents. Recently, the cost of full genomic sequencing has plummeted, and research findings are beginning to accumulate that bear up under replication and that potentially have clinical implications for a respondent. For example, knowing that one possesses a certain gene or gene sequence might suggest that one should seek a certain kind of treatment or genetic counseling or inform one's blood relatives. Biomedical research studies, in which participants are asked to donate tissues for genetic studies and are usually told that they will not be contacted with any results, are increasingly confronting the issue of when and which DNA results to return to participants.

Issues in Returning Individual Results from Genome Research Using Population-Based Banked Specimens, with a Focus on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey is the summary of a workshop convened in February 2013 by the Committee on National Statistics in the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education of the National Research Council. This report considers how population surveys, in particular NHANES, should implement the reporting of results from genomic research using stored specimens and address informed consent for future data collection as well as for the use of banked specimens covered by prior informed consent agreements. The report will be of interest to survey organizations that include or contemplate including the collection of biologic specimens in population surveys for storing for genetic research. The issues involved are important for advancing social, behavioral, and biomedical knowledge while appropriately respecting and protecting individual survey respondents.

Issues in Returning Individual Results from Genome Research Using Population-Based Banked Specimens, with a Focus on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey: Workshop Summary

Bullying - long tolerated as just a part of growing up - finally has been recognized as a substantial and preventable health problem. Bullying is associated with anxiety, depression, poor school performance, and future delinquent behavior among its targets, and reports regularly surface of youth who have committed suicide at least in part because of intolerable bullying. Bullying also can have harmful effects on children who bully, on bystanders, on school climates, and on society at large. Bullying can occur at all ages, from before elementary school to after high school. It can take the form of physical violence, verbal attacks, social isolation, spreading rumors, or cyberbullying. Increased concern about bullying has led 49 states and the District of Columbia to enact anti-bullying legislation since 1999. In addition, research on the causes, consequences, and prevention of bullying has expanded greatly in recent decades. However, major gaps still exist in the understanding of bullying and of interventions that can prevent or mitigate the effects of bullying.

Building Capacity to Reduce Bullying is the summary of a workshop convened by the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council in April 2014 to identify the conceptual models and interventions that have proven effective in decreasing bullying, examine models that could increase protective factors and mitigate the negative effects of bullying, and explore the appropriate roles of different groups in preventing bullying. This report reviews research on bullying prevention and intervention efforts as well as efforts in related areas of research and practice, implemented in a range of contexts and settings, including schools, peers, families, communities, laws and public policies, and technology. Building Capacity to Reduce Bullying considers how involvement or lack of involvement by these sectors influences opportunities for bullying, and appropriate roles for these sectors in preventing bullying. This report highlights current research on bullying prevention, considers what works and what does not work, and derives lessons learned.

Building Capacity to Reduce Bullying: Workshop Summary

The National Children's Study (NCS) was authorized by the Children's Health Act of 2000 and is being implemented by a dedicated Program Office in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The NCS is planned to be a longitudinal observational birth cohort study to evaluate the effects of chronic and intermittent exposures on child health and development in the U.S.. The NCS would be the first study to collect a broad range of environmental exposure measures for a national probability sample of about 100,000 children, followed from birth or before birth to age 21.

Detailed plans for the NCS were developed by 2007 and reviewed by a National Research Council / Institute of Medicine panel. At that time, sample recruitment for the NCS Main Study was scheduled to begin in 2009 and to be completed within about 5 years. However, results from the initial seven pilot locations, which recruited sample cases in 2009-2010, indicated that the proposed household-based recruitment approach would be more costly and time consuming than planned. In response, the Program Office implemented a number of pilot tests in 2011 to evaluate alternative recruitment methods and pilot testing continues to date.

At the request of Congress, The National Children's Study 2014 reviews the revised study design and proposed methodologies for the NCS Main Study. This report assesses the study's plan to determine whether it is likely to produce scientifically sound results that are generalizable to the United States population and appropriate subpopulations. The report makes recommendations about the overall study framework, sample design, timing, content and need for scientific expertise and oversight.

The National Children's Study has the potential to add immeasurably to scientific knowledge about the impact of environmental exposures, broadly defined, on children's health and development in the United States. The recommendations of this report will help the NCS will achieve its intended objective to examine the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of American children.

The National Children's Study 2014: An Assessment

Since the 1950s, under congressional mandate, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) - through its National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) and predecessor agencies - has produced regularly updated measures of research and development expenditures, employment and training in science and engineering, and other indicators of the state of U.S. science and technology. A more recent focus has been on measuring innovation in the corporate sector. NCSES collects its own data on science, technology, and innovation (STI) activities and also incorporates data from other agencies to produce indicators that are used for monitoring purposes - including comparisons among sectors, regions, and with other countries - and for identifying trends that may require policy attention and generate research needs. NCSES also provides extensive tabulations and microdata files for in-depth analysis.

Capturing Change in Science, Technology, and Innovation assesses and provides recommendations regarding the need for revised, refocused, and newly developed indicators of STI activities that would enable NCSES to respond to changing policy concerns. This report also identifies and assesses both existing and potential data resources and tools that NCSES could exploit to further develop its indicators program. Finally, the report considers strategic pathways for NCSES to move forward with an improved STI indicators program. The recommendations offered in Capturing Change in Science, Technology, and Innovation are intended to serve as the basis for a strategic program of work that will enhance NCSES's ability to produce indicators that capture change in science, technology, and innovation to inform policy and optimally meet the needs of its user community.

Capturing Change in Science, Technology, and Innovation: Improving Indicators to Inform Policy

Every day in the United States, children and adolescents are victims of commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. These are not only illegal activities, but also forms of violence and abuse that result in immediate and long-term physical, mental, and emotional harm to victims and survivors. In 2013, the Institute of Medicine/National Research Council released the report Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States . The report found that the United States is in the very early stages of recognizing, understanding, and developing solutions for these crimes.

Health care professionals need to be able to recognize past, ongoing, or potential victimization by commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking among the youth in their care. Failure to do so increases the possibility that those at risk may become victims, and victims may miss opportunities for assistance and remain vulnerable to further exploitation and abuse.

This Guide for the Health Care Sector provides a summary of information from the original report that is most relevant to individuals who and settings that see children and adolescents for prevention and treatment of injury, illness, and disease. This includes physicians, nurses, advanced practice nurses, physician assistants, mental health professionals, and dentists who practice in settings such as emergency departments, urgent care, primary care clinics, adolescent medicine clinics, school clinics, shelters, community health centers, and dental clinics among others.

This guide includes definitions of key terms and an overview of risk factors and consequences; barriers to identifying victims and survivors as well as opportunities for overcoming these barriers; examples of current practices in the health care sector; and recommendations aimed at identifying, preventing, and responding to these crimes.

Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States: A Guide for the Health Care Sector

The United States Army faces a variety of challenges to maintain a ready and capable force into the future. Missions are increasingly diverse, ranging from combat and counterinsurgency to negotiation, reconstruction, and stability operations, and require a variety of personnel and skill sets to execute. Missions often demand rapid decision-making and coordination with others in novel ways, so that personnel are not simply following a specific set of tactical orders but rather need to understand broader strategic goals and choose among courses of action. Like any workforce, the Army is diverse in terms of demographic characteristics such as gender and race, with increasing pressure to ensure equal opportunities across all demographic parties. With these challenges comes the urgent need to better understand how contextual factors influence soldier and small unit behavior and mission performance.

Recognizing the need to develop a portfolio of research to better understand the influence of social and organizational factors on the behavior of individuals and small units, the U.S. Army Research Institute (ARI) requested the National Research Council's Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences to outline a productive and innovative collection of future basic science research projects to improve Amy mission performance for immediate implementation and lasting over the next 10-20 years. This report presents recommendations for a program of basic scientific research on the roles of social and organizational contextual factors, such as organizational institutions, culture, and norms, as determinants and moderators of the performance of individual soldiers and small units.

The Context of Military Environments: Basic Research Opportunities on Social and Organizational Factors synthesizes and assesses basic research opportunities in the behavioral and social sciences related to social and organizational factors that comprise the context of individual and small unit behavior in military environments. This report focuses on tactical operations of small units and their leaders, to include the full spectrum of unique military environments including: major combat operations, stability/support operations, peacekeeping, and military observer missions, as well as headquarters support units. This report identifies key contextual factors that shape individual and small unit behavior and assesses the state of the science regarding these factors. The Context of Military Environments recommends an agenda for ARI's future research in order to maximize the effectiveness of U.S. Army personnel policies and practices of selection, recruitment, and assignment as well as career development in training and leadership. The report also specifies the basic research funding level needed to implement the recommended agenda for future ARI research.

The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units

The Earth's population, currently 7.2 billion, is expected to rise at a rapid rate over the next 40 years. Current projections state that the Earth will need to support 9.6 billion people by the year 2050, a figure that climbs to nearly 11 billion by the year 2100. At the same time, most people envision a future Earth with a greater average standard of living than we currently have - and, as a result, greater consumption of our planetary resources. How do we prepare our planet for a future population of 10 billion? How can this population growth be achieved in a manner that is sustainable from an economic, social, and environmental perspective?

Can Earth's and Society's Systems Meet the Needs of 10 Billion People? is the summary of a multi-disciplinary workshop convened by the National Academies in October 2013 to explore how to increase the world's population to 10 billion in a sustainable way while simultaneously increasing the well-being and standard of living for that population. This report examines key issues in the science of sustainability that are related to overall human population size, population growth, aging populations, migration toward cities, differential consumption, and land use change, by different subpopulations, as viewed through the lenses of both social and natural science.

Can Earth's and Society's Systems Meet the Needs of 10 Billion People? : Summary of a Workshop

On April 9-10, 2014, the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council held a 2-day workshop titled "Building Capacity to Reduce Bullying and Its Impact on Youth Across the Lifecourse." The purpose of this workshop was to bring together representatives of key sectors involved in bullying prevention to identify the conceptual models and interventions that have proved effective in decreasing bullying, to examine models that could increase protective factors and mitigate the negative effects of bullying, and to explore the appropriate roles of different groups in preventing bullying. This report summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop.

Building Capacity to Reduce Bullying: Workshop in Brief

Microbial forensics is a scientific discipline dedicated to analyzing evidence from a bioterrorism act, biocrime, or inadvertent microorganism or toxin release for attribution purposes. This emerging discipline seeks to offer investigators the tools and techniques to support efforts to identify the source of a biological threat agent and attribute a biothreat act to a particular person or group. Microbial forensics is still in the early stages of development and faces substantial scientific challenges to continue to build capacity.

The unlawful use of biological agents poses substantial dangers to individuals, public health, the environment, the economies of nations, and global peace. It also is likely that scientific, political, and media-based controversy will surround any investigation of the alleged use of a biological agent, and can be expected to affect significantly the role that scientific information or evidence can play. For these reasons, building awareness of and capacity in microbial forensics can assist in our understanding of what may have occurred during a biothreat event, and international collaborations that engage the broader scientific and policy-making communities are likely to strengthen our microbial forensics capabilities. One goal would be to create a shared technical understanding of the possibilities - and limitations - of the scientific bases for microbial forensics analysis.

Science Needs for Microbial Forensics: Developing Initial International Research Priorities , based partly on a workshop held in Zabgreb, Croatia in 2013, identifies scientific needs that must be addressed to improve the capabilities of microbial forensics to investigate infectious disease outbreaks and provide evidence of sufficient quality to support legal proceedings and the development of government policies. This report discusses issues of sampling, validation, data sharing, reference collection, research priorities, global disease monitoring, and training and education to promote international collaboration and further advance the field.

Science Needs for Microbial Forensics: Developing Initial International Research Priorities

Commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors in the United States are frequently overlooked, misunderstood, and unaddressed domestic problems. In the past decade, they have received increasing attention from advocates, the media, academics, and policy makers. However, much of this attention has focused internationally. This international focus has overshadowed the reality that commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors also occur every day within the United States. Commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors not only are illegal activities, but also result in immediate and long-term physical, mental, and emotional harm to victims and survivors. A nation that is unaware of these problems or disengaged from solving them unwittingly contributes to the ongoing abuse of minors and all but ensures that these crimes will remain marginalized and misunderstood.

The 2013 Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council report Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States increases awareness and understanding of the crucial problem of commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors in the United States. By examining emerging strategies for preventing and identifying these crimes, for assisting and supporting victims and survivors, and for addressing exploiters and traffickers, that report offers a path forward through recommendations designed to increase awareness and understanding and to support efforts to prevent, identify, and respond to these crimes.

Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States: A Guide for Providers of Victim and Support Services offers a more concise and focused perspective on the problem and emerging solutions for providers of victim and support services for children and adolescents. These service providers include policy makers, leaders, practitioners, organizations, and programs at the local, state, and federal levels. This guide will be a valuable resource for them, and for child welfare and child protective services, other agencies and programs within the state and federal governments (e.g., the U.S. Department of Justice's Office for Victims of Crime), and nongovernmental organizations.

Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States: A Guide for Providers of Victim and Support Services

After decades of stability from the 1920s to the early 1970s, the rate of imprisonment in the United States more than quadrupled during the last four decades. The U.S. penal population of 2.2 million adults is by far the largest in the world. Just under one-quarter of the world's prisoners are held in American prisons. The U.S. rate of incarceration, with nearly 1 out of every 100 adults in prison or jail, is 5 to 10 times higher than the rates in Western Europe and other democracies. The U.S. prison population is largely drawn from the most disadvantaged part of the nation's population: mostly men under age 40, disproportionately minority, and poorly educated. Prisoners often carry additional deficits of drug and alcohol addictions, mental and physical illnesses, and lack of work preparation or experience. The growth of incarceration in the United States during four decades has prompted numerous critiques and a growing body of scientific knowledge about what prompted the rise and what its consequences have been for the people imprisoned, their families and communities, and for U.S. society.

The Growth of Incarceration in the United States examines research and analysis of the dramatic rise of incarceration rates and its affects. This study makes the case that the United States has gone far past the point where the numbers of people in prison can be justified by social benefits and has reached a level where these high rates of incarceration themselves constitute a source of injustice and social harm.

The Growth of Incarceration in the United States recommends changes in sentencing policy, prison policy, and social policy to reduce the nation's reliance on incarceration. The report also identifies important research questions that must be answered to provide a firmer basis for policy. The study assesses the evidence and its implications for public policy to inform an extensive and thoughtful public debate about and reconsideration of policies.

The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences

The Bureau of Justice Statistics' (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) measures the rates at which Americans are victims of crimes, including rape and sexual assault, but there is concern that rape and sexual assault are undercounted on this survey. BJS asked the National Research Council to investigate this issue and recommend best practices for measuring rape and sexual assault on their household surveys. Estimating the Incidence of Rape and Sexual Assault concludes that it is likely that the NCVS is undercounting rape and sexual assault. The most accurate counts of rape and sexual assault cannot be achieved without measuring them separately from other victimizations, the report says. It recommends that BJS develop a separate survey for measuring rape and sexual assault. The new survey should more precisely define ambiguous words such as "rape," give more privacy to respondents, and take other steps that would improve the accuracy of responses. Estimating the Incidence of Rape and Sexual Assault takes a fresh look at the problem of measuring incidents of rape and sexual assault from the criminal justice perspective. This report examines issues such as the legal definitions in use by the states for these crimes, best methods for representing the definitions in survey instruments so that their meaning is clear to respondents, and best methods for obtaining as complete reporting as possible of these crimes in surveys, including methods whereby respondents may report anonymously.

Rape and sexual assault are among the most injurious crimes a person can inflict on another. The effects are devastating, extending beyond the initial victimization to consequences such as unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, sleep and eating disorders, and other emotional and physical problems. Understanding the frequency and context under which rape and sexual assault are committed is vital in directing resources for law enforcement and support for victims. These data can influence public health and mental health policies and help identify interventions that will reduce the risk of future attacks. Sadly, accurate information about the extent of sexual assault and rape is difficult to obtain because most of these crimes go unreported to police. Estimating the Incidence of Rape and Sexual Assault focuses on methodology and vehicles used to measure rape and sexual assaults, reviews potential sources of error within the NCVS survey, and assesses the training and monitoring of interviewers in an effort to improve reporting of these crimes.

Estimating the Incidence of Rape and Sexual Assault

Proposed Revisions to the Common Rule for the Protection of Human Subjects in the Behavioral and Social Sciences examines how to update human subjects protections regulations so that they effectively respond to current research contexts and methods. With a specific focus on social and behavioral sciences, this consensus report aims to address the dramatic alterations in the research landscapes that institutional review boards (IRBs) have come to inhabit during the past 40 years. The report aims to balance respect for the individual persons whose consent to participate makes research possible and respect for the social benefits that productive research communities make possible.

The ethics of human subjects research has captured scientific and regulatory attention for half a century. To keep abreast of the universe of changes that factor into the ethical conduct of research today, the Department of Health and Human Services published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) in July 2011. Recognizing that widespread technological and societal transformations have occurred in the contexts for and conduct of human research since the passage of the National Research Act of 1974, the ANPRM revisits the regulations mandated by the Act in a correspondingly comprehensive manner. Its proposals aim to modernize the Common Rule and to improve the efficiency of the work conducted under its auspices. Proposed Revisions to the Common Rule for the Protection of Human Subjects in the Behavioral and Social Sciences identifies issues raised in the ANPRM that are critical and feasible for the federal government to address for the protection of participants and for the advancement of the social and behavioral sciences. For each identified issue, this report provides guidance for IRBs on techniques to address it, with specific examples and best practice models to illustrate how the techniques would be applied to different behavioral and social sciences research procedures.

Proposed Revisions to the Common Rule for the Protection of Human Subjects in the Behavioral and Social Sciences

Each year, child protective services receive reports of child abuse and neglect involving six million children, and many more go unreported. The long-term human and fiscal consequences of child abuse and neglect are not relegated to the victims themselves—they also impact their families, future relationships, and society. In 1993, the National Research Council (NRC) issued the report, Under-standing Child Abuse and Neglect , which provided an overview of the research on child abuse and neglect. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research updates the 1993 report and provides new recommendations to respond to this public health challenge. According to this report, while there has been great progress in child abuse and neglect research, a coordinated, national research infrastructure with high-level federal support needs to be established and implemented immediately.

New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research recommends an actionable framework to guide and support future child abuse and neglect research. This report calls for a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to child abuse and neglect research that examines factors related to both children and adults across physical, mental, and behavioral health domains—including those in child welfare, economic support, criminal justice, education, and health care systems—and assesses the needs of a variety of subpopulations. It should also clarify the causal pathways related to child abuse and neglect and, more importantly, assess efforts to interrupt these pathways. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research identifies four areas to look to in developing a coordinated research enterprise: a national strategic plan, a national surveillance system, a new generation of researchers, and changes in the federal and state programmatic and policy response.

New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research

The aging of the population of the United States is occurring at a time of major economic and social changes. These economic changes include consideration of increases in the age of eligibility for Social Security and Medicare and possible changes in benefit levels. Furthermore, changes in the social context in which older individuals and families function may well affect the nature of key social relationships and institutions that define the environment for older persons. Sociology offers a knowledge base, a number of useful analytic approaches and tools, and unique theoretical perspectives that can facilitate understanding of these demographic, economic, and social changes and, to the extent possible, their causes, consequences and implications.

New Directions in the Sociology of Aging evaluates the recent contributions of social demography, social epidemiology and sociology to the study of aging and identifies promising new research directions in these sub-fields. Included in this study are nine papers prepared by experts in sociology, demography, social genomics, public health, and other fields, that highlight the broad array of tools and perspectives that can provide the basis for further advancing the understanding of aging processes in ways that can inform policy. This report discusses the role of sociology in what is a wide-ranging and diverse field of study; a proposed three-dimensional conceptual model for studying social processes in aging over the life cycle; a review of existing databases, data needs and opportunities, primarily in the area of measurement of interhousehold and intergenerational transmission of resources, biomarkers and biosocial interactions; and a summary of roadblocks and bridges to transdisciplinary research that will affect the future directions of the field of sociology of aging.

New Directions in the Sociology of Aging

Section 141 of The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 20101 provides funding for a research program on the causes and consequences of childhood hunger and food insecurity, and the characteristics of households with childhood hunger and food insecurity, with a particular focus on efforts to improve the knowledge base regarding contributing factors, geographic distribution, programmatic effectiveness, public health and medical costs, and consequences for child development, well-being, and educational attainment. The Economic Research Service and Food and Nutrition Service of the US Department of Agriculture conducted two outreach efforts to obtain input from the research community and other stakeholders to help focus on areas and methods with the greatest research potential. First, Food and Nutrition Service sought written comments to selected questions through publication of a Federal Register Notice. The second option was to convene a workshop under the auspices of the Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council and the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine.

Research Opportunities Concerning the Causes and Consequences of Child Food Insecurity and Hunger is the summary of that workshop, convened in Fall 2012 to examine research gaps and opportunities to advance understanding of the causes and consequences of child hunger in the United States. This report reviews the adequacy of current knowledge, identifies substantial research gaps, and considers data availability of economic, health, social, cultural, demographic, and other factors that contribute to childhood hunger or food insecurity. It also considers the geographic distribution of childhood hunger and food insecurity; the extent to which existing federal assistance programs reduce childhood hunger and food insecurity; childhood hunger and food insecurity persistence, and the extent to which it is due to gaps in program coverage; and the inability of potential participants to access programs, or the insufficiency of program benefits or services.

Research Opportunities Concerning the Causes and Consequences of Child Food Insecurity and Hunger will be a resource to inform discussions about the public health and medical costs of childhood hunger and food insecurity through its focus on determinants of child food insecurity and hunger, individual, community, and policy responses to hunger, impacts of child food insecurity and hunger, and measurement and surveillance issues.

Research Opportunities Concerning the Causes and Consequences of Child Food Insecurity and Hunger: Workshop Summary

Subjective well-being refers to how people experience and evaluate their lives and specific domains and activities in their lives. This information has already proven valuable to researchers, who have produced insights about the emotional states and experiences of people belonging to different groups, engaged in different activities, at different points in the life course, and involved in different family and community structures. Research has also revealed relationships between people's self-reported, subjectively assessed states and their behavior and decisions. Research on subjective well-being has been ongoing for decades, providing new information about the human condition. During the past decade, interest in the topic among policy makers, national statistical offices, academic researchers, the media, and the public has increased markedly because of its potential for shedding light on the economic, social, and health conditions of populations and for informing policy decisions across these domains.

Subjective Well-Being: Measuring Happiness, Suffering, and Other Dimensions of Experience explores the use of this measure in population surveys. This report reviews the current state of research and evaluates methods for the measurement. In this report, a range of potential experienced well-being data applications are cited, from cost-benefit studies of health care delivery to commuting and transportation planning, environmental valuation, and outdoor recreation resource monitoring, and even to assessment of end-of-life treatment options.

Subjective Well-Being finds that, whether used to assess the consequence of people's situations and policies that might affect them or to explore determinants of outcomes, contextual and covariate data are needed alongside the subjective well-being measures. This report offers guidance about adopting subjective well-being measures in official government surveys to inform social and economic policies and considers whether research has advanced to a point which warrants the federal government collecting data that allow aspects of the population's subjective well-being to be tracked and associated with changing conditions.

Subjective Well-Being: Measuring Happiness, Suffering, and Other Dimensions of Experience

Developing New National Data on Social Mobility summarizes a workshop convened in June 2013 to consider options for a design for a new national survey on social mobility. The workshop was sponsored by the National Science Foundation and convened by the Committee on Population and the Committee on National Statistics Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education of the National Research Council. Scientific experts from a variety of social and behavioral disciplines met to plan a new national survey on social mobility that will provide the first definitive evidence on recent and long-term trends in social mobility, with the objectives of coming to an understanding of the substantial advances in the methods and statistics for modeling mobility, in survey methodology and population-based survey experiments, in opportunities to merge administrative and survey data, and in the techniques of measuring race, class, education, and income. The workshop also focused on documenting the state of understanding of the mechanisms through which inequality is generated in the past four decades.

In the absence of a survey designed and dedicated to the collection of information to assess the status of social mobility, a wide variety of data sources designed for other purposes have been pressed into service in order to illuminate the state of social mobility and its trends. Developing New National Data on Social Mobility discusses the key decision points associated with launching a new national level survey of social mobility. This report considers various aspects of a major new national survey, including identifying relevant new theoretical perspectives and technical issues that have implications for modeling, measurement, and data collection.

Developing New National Data on Social Mobility: A Workshop Summary

Every day in the United States, children and adolescents are victims of commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. Despite the serious and long-term consequences for victims as well as their families, communities, and society, efforts to prevent, identify, and respond to these crimes are largely under supported, inefficient, uncoordinated, and unevaluated.

Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States examines commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents of the United States under age 18. According to this report, efforts to prevent, identify, and respond to these crimes require better collaborative approaches that build upon the capabilities of people and entities from a range of sectors. In addition, such efforts need to confront demand and the individuals who commit and benefit from these crimes. The report recommends increased awareness and understanding, strengthening of the law's response, strengthening of research to advance understanding and to support the development of prevention and intervention strategies, support for multi-sector and interagency collaboration, and creation of a digital information-sharing platform.

A nation that is unaware of these problems or disengaged from solutions unwittingly contributes to the ongoing abuse of minors. If acted upon in a coordinated and comprehensive manner, the recommendations of Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States can help advance and strengthen the nation's emerging efforts to prevent, identify, and respond to commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors in the United States.

Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States

In 2010, more than 105,000 people were injured or killed in the United States as the result of a firearm-related incident. Recent, highly publicized, tragic mass shootings in Newtown, CT; Aurora, CO; Oak Creek, WI; and Tucson, AZ, have sharpened the American public's interest in protecting our children and communities from the harmful effects of firearm violence. While many Americans legally use firearms for a variety of activities, fatal and nonfatal firearm violence poses a serious threat to public safety and welfare.

In January 2013, President Barack Obama issued 23 executive orders directing federal agencies to improve knowledge of the causes of firearm violence, what might help prevent it, and how to minimize its burden on public health. One of these orders directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to, along with other federal agencies, immediately begin identifying the most pressing problems in firearm violence research. The CDC and the CDC Foundation asked the IOM, in collaboration with the National Research Council, to convene a committee tasked with developing a potential research agenda that focuses on the causes of, possible interventions to, and strategies to minimize the burden of firearm-related violence. Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence focuses on the characteristics of firearm violence, risk and protective factors, interventions and strategies, the impact of gun safety technology, and the influence of video games and other media.

Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence

For many household surveys in the United States, responses rates have been steadily declining for at least the past two decades. A similar decline in survey response can be observed in all wealthy countries. Efforts to raise response rates have used such strategies as monetary incentives or repeated attempts to contact sample members and obtain completed interviews, but these strategies increase the costs of surveys. This review addresses the core issues regarding survey nonresponse. It considers why response rates are declining and what that means for the accuracy of survey results. These trends are of particular concern for the social science community, which is heavily invested in obtaining information from household surveys. The evidence to date makes it apparent that current trends in nonresponse, if not arrested, threaten to undermine the potential of household surveys to elicit information that assists in understanding social and economic issues. The trends also threaten to weaken the validity of inferences drawn from estimates based on those surveys. High nonresponse rates create the potential or risk for bias in estimates and affect survey design, data collection, estimation, and analysis.

The survey community is painfully aware of these trends and has responded aggressively to these threats. The interview modes employed by surveys in the public and private sectors have proliferated as new technologies and methods have emerged and matured. To the traditional trio of mail, telephone, and face-to-face surveys have been added interactive voice response (IVR), audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (ACASI), web surveys, and a number of hybrid methods. Similarly, a growing research agenda has emerged in the past decade or so focused on seeking solutions to various aspects of the problem of survey nonresponse; the potential solutions that have been considered range from better training and deployment of interviewers to more use of incentives, better use of the information collected in the data collection, and increased use of auxiliary information from other sources in survey design and data collection. Nonresponse in Social Science Surveys: A Research Agenda also documents the increased use of information collected in the survey process in nonresponse adjustment.

Nonresponse in Social Science Surveys: A Research Agenda

As an all-volunteer service accepting applications from nearly 400,000 potential recruits annually from across the U.S. population, the U.S. military must accurately and efficiently assess the individual capability of each recruit for the purposes of selection, job classification, and unit assignment. New Directions for Assessing Performance Potential of Individuals and Groups is the summary of a workshop held April 3-4, 2013 to examine the future of military entrance assessments. This workshop was a part of the first phase of a larger study that will investigate cutting-edge research into the measurement of both individual capabilities and group composition in order to identify future research directions that may lead to improved assessment and selection of enlisted personnel for the U.S. Army. The workshop brought together scientists from a variety of relevant areas to focus on cognitive and noncognitive attributes that can be used in the initial testing and assignment of enlisted personnel. This report discusses the evolving goals of candidate testing, emerging constructs and theory, and ethical implications of testing methods.

New Directions in Assessing Performance Potential of Individuals and Groups: Workshop Summary

The Children's Health Act mandated the National Children's Study (NCS) in 2000 with one of its purposes being to authorize the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to study the environmental influences (including physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial) on children's health and development. The NCS examines all aspects of the environment including air, water, diet, noise, family dynamics, and genetics, on the growth, development, and health of children across the United States, for a period of 21 years. The purpose of NCS is to improve the health and well-being of children and to contribute to understanding the role of these factors on health and disease.

The research plan for the NCS was developed from 2005 to 2007 in collaboration among the Interagency Coordinating Committee, the NCS Advisory Committee, the NCS Program Office, Westat, the Vanguard Center principal investigators, and federal scientists. The current design of the study, however, uses a separate pilot to assess quality of scientific output, logistics, and operations and a "Main Study" to examine exposure-outcome relationships. The NCS proposed the use of a multilayered cohort approach for the Main Study, which was one of the topics for discussion at the workshop that is the subject of this publication.

In the fall of 2012, NICHD requested that the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) of the NRC and the IOM convene a joint workshop, to be led by CNSTAT. The workshop was to focus on issues related to the overall design (including the framework for implementation) of the NCS. The committee was provided a background paper which it used to select the challenges that were discussed at the workshop. Design of the National Children's Study: A Workshop Summary presents an overview of the workshop held on January 11, 2013. The publication includes summaries of the four sessions of the workshop, a list of participants, and the agenda.

Design of the National Children's Study: A Workshop Summary

On July 26, 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) with the purpose of soliciting comments on how current regulations for protecting research participants could be modernized and revised. The rationale for revising the regulations was as follows: this ANPRM seeks comment on how to better protect human subjects who are involved in research, while facilitating valuable research and reducing burden, delay, and ambiguity for investigators. The current regulations governing human subjects research were developed years ago when research was predominantly conducted at universities, colleges, and medical institutions, and each study generally took place at only a single site. Although the regulations have been amended over the years, they have not kept pace with the evolving human research enterprise, the proliferation of multisite clinical trials and observational studies, the expansion of health services research, research in the social and behavioral sciences, and research involving databases, the Internet, and biological specimen repositories, and the use of advanced technologies, such as genomics.

Proposed Revisions to the Common Rule: Perspectives of Social and Behavioral Scientists: Workshop Summary focuses on six broad topic areas: 1. Evidence on the functioning of the Common Rule and of institutional review boards (IRBs), to provide context for the proposed revisions. 2. The types and levels of risks and harms encountered in social and behavioral sciences, and issues related to the severity and probability of harm, because the ANPRM asks for input on calibration of levels of review to levels of risk. 3. The consent process and special populations, because new rules have been proposed to improve informed consent (e.g., standard consent form, consent for future uses of biospecimens, and re-consenting for further use of existing research data). 4. Issues related to the protection of research participants in studies that involve use of existing data and data sharing, because the ANPRM proposed applying standards for protecting the privacy of healthcare data to research data. 5. Multidisciplinary and multisite studies, because the ANPRM proposed a revision to the regulations that would allow multisite studies to be covered by a single IRB. 6. The purview and roles of IRBs, because the ANPRM included possible revisions to categories of research that could entail changes in IRB oversight.

Proposed Revisions to the Common Rule: Perspectives of Social and Behavioral Scientists: Workshop Summary

National Patterns of R&D Resources is an annual report issued by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) of the National Science Foundation, which provides a national view of current 'patterns' in funding of R&D activities in government, industry, academia, federally funded research and development centers, and non-profits. Total R&D funds are broken out at the national level by type of provider, type of recipient, and whether the R&D is basic, applied, or developmental. These patterns are compared both longitudinally versus historical R&D amounts, and internationally.

This report series, which is based on input from several censuses and surveys, is used to formulate policies that, e.g., might increase incentives to support different types, sources, or recipients of R&D than is currently the case. To communicate these R&D patterns, each report is composed of a set of tabulations of national R&D disaggregated by type of donor, type of recipient, and type of R&D. While this satisfies many key user groups, the question was whether some modifications of the report could attract a wider user community and at the same time provide more useful information for current users.

National Patterns of R&D Resources: Future Directions for Content and Methods addresses the following questions: (1) what additional topics and tabulations could be presented without modifying the current portfolio of R&D censuses and surveys, (2) what additional topics and tabulations might be presented by expanding these current data collections, (3) what could be done to enhance international comparability of the tabulations, (4) since much of the information on non-profit R&D providers and recipients is estimated from 15 year-old data, what impact might this be having on the quality of the associated National Patterns tabulations, (5) what statistical models could be used to support the issuance R&D estimates at state-level and geographic regions below the national level, (6) what use could be made from the recent development of administrative sources of R&D information, and finally, (7) what graphical tools could be added to the current tabulations to enhance the communication of R&D patterns to the users of this series of publications.

National Patterns of R&D Resources: Future Directions for Content and Methods: Summary of a Workshop

Over the past four decades, the rate of incarceration in the United States has skyrocketed to unprecedented heights, both historically and in comparison to that of other developed nations. At far higher rates than the general population, those in or entering U.S. jails and prisons are prone to many health problems. This is a problem not just for them, but also for the communities from which they come and to which, in nearly all cases, they will return.

Health and Incarceration is the summary of a workshop jointly sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences(NAS) Committee on Law and Justice and the Institute of Medicine(IOM) Board on Health and Select Populations in December 2012. Academics, practitioners, state officials, and nongovernmental organization representatives from the fields of healthcare, prisoner advocacy, and corrections reviewed what is known about these health issues and what appear to be the best opportunities to improve healthcare for those who are now or will be incarcerated. The workshop was designed as a roundtable with brief presentations from 16 experts and time for group discussion. Health and Incarceration reviews what is known about the health of incarcerated individuals, the healthcare they receive, and effects of incarceration on public health. This report identifies opportunities to improve healthcare for these populations and provides a platform for visions of how the world of incarceration health can be a better place.

Health and Incarceration: A Workshop Summary

Coal mine disasters in the United States are relatively rare events; many of the roughly 50,000 miners underground will never have to evacuate a mine in an emergency during their careers. However, for those that do, the consequences have the potential to be devastating. U.S. mine safety practices have received increased attention in recent years because of the highly publicized coal mine disasters in 2006 and 2010. Investigations have centered on understanding both how to prevent or mitigate emergencies and what capabilities are needed by miners to self-escape to a place of safety successfully. This report focuses on the latter - the preparations for self-escape.

In the wake of 2006 disasters, the U.S. Congress passed the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006 (MINER Act), which was designed to strengthen existing mine safety regulations and set forth new measures aimed at improving accident preparedness and emergency response in underground coal mines. Since that time, the efforts of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) have contributed to safety improvements in the mining industry. However, the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in 2010 served as a reminder to remain ever vigilant on improving the prevention of mine disasters and preparations to help miners survive in the event of emergencies.

This study was set in the context of human-systems integration (HSI), a systems approach that examines the interaction of people, tasks, and equipment and technology in the pursuit of a goal. It recognizes this interaction occurs within, and is influenced by, the broader environmental context. A key premise of human-systems integration is that much important information is lost when the various tasks within a system are considered individually or in isolation rather than in interaction with the whole system. Improving Self-Escape from Underground Coal Mines , the task of self-escape is part of the mine safety system.

Improving Self-Escape from Underground Coal Mines

Adolescence is a distinct, yet transient, period of development between childhood and adulthood characterized by increased experimentation and risk-taking, a tendency to discount long-term consequences, and heightened sensitivity to peers and other social influences. A key function of adolescence is developing an integrated sense of self, including individualization, separation from parents, and personal identity. Experimentation and novelty-seeking behavior, such as alcohol and drug use, unsafe sex, and reckless driving, are thought to serve a number of adaptive functions despite their risks.

Research indicates that for most youth, the period of risky experimentation does not extend beyond adolescence, ceasing as identity becomes settled with maturity. Much adolescent involvement in criminal activity is part of the normal developmental process of identity formation and most adolescents will mature out of these tendencies. Evidence of significant changes in brain structure and function during adolescence strongly suggests that these cognitive tendencies characteristic of adolescents are associated with biological immaturity of the brain and with an imbalance among developing brain systems. This imbalance model implies dual systems: one involved in cognitive and behavioral control and one involved in socio-emotional processes. Accordingly adolescents lack mature capacity for self-regulations because the brain system that influences pleasure-seeking and emotional reactivity develops more rapidly than the brain system that supports self-control. This knowledge of adolescent development has underscored important differences between adults and adolescents with direct bearing on the design and operation of the justice system, raising doubts about the core assumptions driving the criminalization of juvenile justice policy in the late decades of the 20th century.

It was in this context that the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) asked the National Research Council to convene a committee to conduct a study of juvenile justice reform. The goal of Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach was to review recent advances in behavioral and neuroscience research and draw out the implications of this knowledge for juvenile justice reform, to assess the new generation of reform activities occurring in the United States, and to assess the performance of OJJDP in carrying out its statutory mission as well as its potential role in supporting scientifically based reform efforts.

Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach

Four principles are fundamental for a federal statistical agency: relevance to policy issues, credibility among data users, trust among data providers, and independence from political and other undue external influence. Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency: Fifth Edition explains these four principles in detail.

Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency: Fifth Edition

Who Are These People?: A Guide for Child Care Professionals

As mandated by the Global Change Research Act (GCRA), the U.S. Global Change Research Program is currently producing a "National Climate Assessment" (NCA). The NCA is a report to inform the President, the Congress, and the American people about the current state of scientific knowledge regarding climate change effects on U.S. regions and key sectors, now and in the coming decades. This document contains an evaluation of the draft NCA report, presented through consensus responses to the Panel's Task Statement questions, and through a large collection of individual Panel member comments and suggestions for specific chapters, statements, figures, etc. While focusing primarily on practical suggestions for immediately improving the current draft, the Panel also raises some broader considerations about fundamental approaches used in certain parts of the NCA report, and about the scope of USGCRP research that underlies the NCA findings. Some suggestions can be viewed as longer-term advice for future versions of NCA work.

This NCA has been a significantly more ambitious effort than previous assessments, in terms of the scope of topics addressed and the breadth of public engagement processes involved. Some of the important new areas include the use of "traceable accounts," the articulation of needs for future research and a vision for an ongoing assessment process, the outreach efforts to help various stakeholders define their climate-related information needs, and the initial (though incomplete) effort to assess the current state of climate change response activities around the nation. Given the current state of the science and the scope of resources available, we believe the NCA did a reasonable job of fulfilling its charge overall. Although more needs to be done to fully meet the nation's needs for information and guidance, such needs cannot be met without an expanded research effort on the part of the USGCRP and future assessments.

The Panel suggests that the NCA report would be improved by addressing the numerous specific problems and concerns and the more cross-cutting issues raised in the consensus answers to the Task Statement questions—which include, for instance, the need to:

1. provide a clear overarching framework for the report that helps readers understand climate change as part of a complex system with interacting physical, biological, and human social/economic dimensions, and offers practical guidance on using iterative risk management strategies to make decisions in the face of large uncertainties; 2. clearly acknowledge how climate change affects and is affected by other types of major global environmental changes and other societal developments; 3. offer an explicit discussion about the uncertainties associated with the regional model projections presented in the NCA draft; 4. take full advantage of the e-book format planned for this document through strategic use of hyperlinks among different parts of the report and other innovative approaches that help guide the experience of the NCA's diverse audiences.

As the nation continues to engage with the threats, opportunities, and surprises of climate change in its many manifestations, the 2013 NCA should prove to be a valuable resource, as a summary of the state of knowledge about climate change and its implications for the American people.

A Review of the Draft 2013 National Climate Assessment

Following a 2011 report by the National Research Council (NRC) on successful K-12 education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), Congress asked the National Science Foundation to identify methods for tracking progress toward the report's recommendations. In response, the NRC convened the Committee on an Evaluation Framework for Successful K-12 STEM Education to take on this assignment. The committee developed 14 indicators linked to the 2011 report's recommendations. By providing a focused set of key indicators related to students' access to quality learning, educator's capacity, and policy and funding initiatives in STEM, the committee addresses the need for research and data that can be used to monitor progress in K-12 STEM education and make informed decisions about improving it.

The recommended indicators provide a framework for Congress and relevant deferral agencies to create and implement a national-level monitoring and reporting system that: assesses progress toward key improvements recommended by a previous National Research Council (2011) committee; measures student knowledge, interest, and participation in the STEM disciplines and STEM-related activities; tracks financial, human capital, and material investments in K-12 STEM education at the federal, state, and local levels; provides information about the capabilities of the STEM education workforce, including teachers and principals; and facilitates strategic planning for federal investments in STEM education and workforce development when used with labor force projections. All 14 indicators explained in this report are intended to form the core of this system. Monitoring Progress Toward Successful K-12 STEM Education: A Nation Advancing? summarizes the 14 indicators and tracks progress towards the initial report's recommendations.

Monitoring Progress Toward Successful K-12 STEM Education: A Nation Advancing?

The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, "peer" countries.

In light of the new and growing evidence about the U.S. health disadvantage, the National Institutes of Health asked the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a panel of experts to study the issue. The Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries examined whether the U.S. health disadvantage exists across the life span, considered potential explanations, and assessed the larger implications of the findings.

U.S. Health in International Perspective presents detailed evidence on the issue, explores the possible explanations for the shorter and less healthy lives of Americans than those of people in comparable countries, and recommends actions by both government and nongovernment agencies and organizations to address the U.S. health disadvantage.

U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health

U.S. agencies with responsibilities for enforcing equal employment opportunity laws have long relied on detailed information that is obtained from employers on employment in job groups by gender and race/ethnicity for identifying the possibility of discriminatory practices. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Office of Federal Contract Compliance programs of the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice have developed processes that use these employment data as well as other sources of information to target employers for further investigation and to perform statistical analysis that is used in enforcing the anti-discrimination laws. The limited data from employers do not include (with a few exceptions) the ongoing measurement of possible discrimination in compensation.

The proposed Paycheck Fairness Act of 2009 would have required EEOC to issue regulations mandating that employers provide the EEOC with information on pay by the race, gender, and national origin of employees. The legislation was not enacted. If the legislation had become law, the EEOC would have been required to confront issues regarding currently available and potential data sources, methodological requirements, and appropriate statistical techniques for the measurement and collection of employer pay data.

The panel concludes that the collection of earnings data would be a significant undertaking for the EEOC and that there might be an increased reporting burden on some employers. Currently, there is no clearly articulated vision of how the data on wages could be used in the conduct of the enforcement responsibilities of the relevant agencies. Collecting Compensation Data from Employers gives recommendations for targeting employers for investigation regarding their compliance with antidiscrimination laws.

Collecting Compensation Data from Employers

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is responsible for securing and managing the nation's borders. Over the past decade, DHS has dramatically stepped up its enforcement efforts at the U.S.-Mexico border, increasing the number of U.S. Border patrol (USBP) agents, expanding the deployment of technological assets, and implementing a variety of "consequence programs" intended to deter illegal immigration. During this same period, there has also been a sharp decline in the number of unauthorized migrants apprehended at the border.

Trends in total apprehensions do not, however, by themselves speak to the effectiveness of DHS's investments in immigration enforcement. In particular, to evaluate whether heightened enforcement efforts have contributed to reducing the flow of undocumented migrants, it is critical to estimate the number of border-crossing attempts during the same period for which apprehensions data are available. With these issues in mind, DHS charged the National Research Council (NRC) with providing guidance on the use of surveys and other methodologies to estimate the number of unauthorized crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border, preferably by geographic region and on a quarterly basis. Options for Estimating Illegal Entries at the U.S.-Mexico Border focuses on Mexican migrants since Mexican nationals account for the vast majority (around 90 percent) of attempted unauthorized border crossings across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Options for Estimating Illegal Entries at the U.S.-Mexico Border

In June 2012, the Committee on National Statistics (sponsored by the U.S. Census Bureau) convened a Workshop on the Benefits (and Burdens) of the American Community Survey (ACS)—the detailed demographic and economic survey that began full-scale data collection in 2005 and that replaced the traditional "long form" in the 2010 census. ACS data are used by numerous federal agencies to administer programs, yet the ACS only moved from abstraction to reality for most users in 2010, when the first ACS estimates for small areas (based on 5 years of collected data) were made available. Hence, the workshop marked the opportunity to develop a picture of the breadth of the nonfederal user base of the ACS—among them, the media, policy research and evaluation groups (that distill ACS results for the media and broader public), state and local agencies, businesses and economic development organizations, and local and regional planning authorities—and to gather information on users' experiences with the first full releases of ACS products.

In addition to covering innovative uses of the information now available on a continuous basis in the ACS, the workshop gave expression to the challenges and burdens associated with the survey: the time burden places on respondents, the challenges of explaining and interpreting estimates with increased levels of variability, and the privacy and confidentiality implications of some of the ACS content. Benefits, Burdens, and Prospects of the American Community Survey: Summary of a Workshop provides a factual summary of the workshop proceedings and hints at the contours of the ACS user constituency, providing important input to the ongoing review and refinement of the ACS program.

Benefits, Burdens, and Prospects of the American Community Survey: Summary of a Workshop

The Consumer Expenditure (CE) surveys are the only source of information on the complete range of consumers' expenditures and incomes in the United States, as well as the characteristics of those consumers. The CE consists of two separate surveys: (1) a national sample of households interviewed five times at three-month intervals; and (2) a separate national sample of households that complete two consecutive one-week expenditure diaries. For more than 40 years, these surveys, the responsibility of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), have been the principal source of knowledge about changing patterns of consumer spending in the U.S. population.

In February 2009, BLS initiated the Gemini Project, the aim of which is to redesign the CE surveys to improve data quality through a verifiable reduction in measurement error with a particular focus on underreporting. The Gemini Project initiated a series of information-gathering meetings, conference sessions, forums, and workshops to identify appropriate strategies for improving CE data quality. As part of this effort, BLS requested the National Research Council's Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) to convene an expert panel to build on the Gemini Project by conducting further investigations and proposing redesign options for the CE surveys.

The charge to the Panel on Redesigning the BLS Consumer Expenditure Surveys includes reviewing the output of a Gemini-convened data user needs forum and methods workshop and convening its own household survey producers workshop to obtain further input. In addition, the panel was tasked to commission options from contractors for consideration in recommending possible redesigns. The panel was further asked by BLS to create potential redesigns that would put a greater emphasis on proactive data collection to improve the measurement of consumer expenditures. Measuring What We Spend summarizes the deliberations and activities of the panel, discusses the conclusions about the uses of the CE surveys and why a redesign is needed, as well as recommendations for the future.

Measuring What We Spend: Toward a New Consumer Expenditure Survey

Climate change can reasonably be expected to increase the frequency and intensity of a variety of potentially disruptive environmental events—slowly at first, but then more quickly. It is prudent to expect to be surprised by the way in which these events may cascade, or have far-reaching effects. During the coming decade, certain climate-related events will produce consequences that exceed the capacity of the affected societies or global systems to manage; these may have global security implications. Although focused on events outside the United States, Climate and Social Stress: Implications for Security Analysis recommends a range of research and policy actions to create a whole-of-government approach to increasing understanding of complex and contingent connections between climate and security, and to inform choices about adapting to and reducing vulnerability to climate change.

Climate and Social Stress: Implications for Security Analysis

The United States has seen major advances in medical care during the past decades, but access to care at an affordable cost is not universal. Many Americans lack health care insurance of any kind, and many others with insurance are nonetheless exposed to financial risk because of high premiums, deductibles, co-pays, limits on insurance payments, and uncovered services. One might expect that the U.S. poverty measure would capture these financial effects and trends in them over time. Yet the current official poverty measure developed in the early 1960s does not take into account significant increases and variations in medical care costs, insurance coverage, out-of-pocket spending, and the financial burden imposed on families and individuals. Although medical costs consume a growing share of family and national income and studies regularly document high rates of medical financial stress and debt, the current poverty measure does not capture the consequences for families' economic security or their income available for other basic needs.

In 1995, a panel of the National Research Council (NRC) recommended a new poverty measure, which compares families' disposable income to poverty thresholds based on current spending for food, clothing, shelter, utilities, and a little more. The panel's recommendations stimulated extensive collaborative research involving several government agencies on experimental poverty measures that led to a new research Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), which the U.S. Census Bureau first published in November 2011 and will update annually. Analyses of the effects of including and excluding certain factors from the new SPM showed that, were it not for the cost that families incurred for premiums and other medical expenses not covered by health insurance, 10 million fewer people would have been poor according to the SPM.

The implementation of the patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides a strong impetus to think rigorously about ways to measure medical care economic burden and risk, which is the basis for Medical Care Economic Risk . As new policies - whether part of the ACA or other policies - are implemented that seek to expand and improve health insurance coverage and to protect against the high costs of medical care relative to income, such measures will be important to assess the effects of policy changes in both the short and long term on the extent of financial burden and risk for the population, which are explained in this report.

Medical Care Economic Risk: Measuring Financial Vulnerability from Spending on Medical Care

The United States is in the midst of a major demographic shift. In the coming decades, people aged 65 and over will make up an increasingly large percentage of the population: The ratio of people aged 65+ to people aged 20-64 will rise by 80%. This shift is happening for two reasons: people are living longer, and many couples are choosing to have fewer children and to have those children somewhat later in life. The resulting demographic shift will present the nation with economic challenges, both to absorb the costs and to leverage the benefits of an aging population.

Aging and the Macroeconomy: Long-Term Implications of an Older Population presents the fundamental factors driving the aging of the U.S. population, as well as its societal implications and likely long-term macroeconomic effects in a global context. The report finds that, while population aging does not pose an insurmountable challenge to the nation, it is imperative that sensible policies are implemented soon to allow companies and households to respond. It offers four practical approaches for preparing resources to support the future consumption of households and for adapting to the new economic landscape.

Aging and the Macroeconomy: Long-Term Implications of an Older Population

The development of technologies to modify natural human physical and cognitive performance is one of increasing interest and concern, especially among military services that may be called on to defeat foreign powers with enhanced warfighter capabilities. Human performance modification (HPM) is a general term that can encompass actions ranging from the use of "natural" materials, such as caffeine or khat as a stimulant, to the application of nanotechnology as a drug delivery mechanism or in an invasive brain implant. Although the literature on HPM typically addresses methods that enhance performance, another possible focus is methods that degrade performance or negatively affect a military force's ability to fight.

Advances in medicine, biology, electronics, and computation have enabled an increasingly sophisticated ability to modify the human body, and such innovations will undoubtedly be adopted by military forces, with potential consequences for both sides of the battle lines. Although some innovations may be developed for purely military applications, they are increasingly unlikely to remain exclusively in that sphere because of the globalization and internationalization of the commercial research base.

Based on its review of the literature, the presentations it received and on its own expertise, the Committee on Assessing Foreign Technology Development in Human Performance Modification chose to focus on three general areas of HPM: human cognitive modification as a computational problem, human performance modification as a biological problem, and human performance modification as a function of the brain-computer interface. Human Performance Modification: Review of Worldwide Research with a View to the Future summarizes these findings.

Human Performance Modification: Review of Worldwide Research with a View to the Future

Using Science as Evidence in Public Policy encourages scientists to think differently about the use of scientific evidence in policy making. This report investigates why scientific evidence is important to policy making and argues that an extensive body of research on knowledge utilization has not led to any widely accepted explanation of what it means to use science in public policy. Using Science as Evidence in Public Policy identifies the gaps in our understanding and develops a framework for a new field of research to fill those gaps. For social scientists in a number of specialized fields, whether established scholars or Ph.D. students, Using Science as Evidence in Public Policy shows how to bring their expertise to bear on the study of using science to inform public policy. More generally, this report will be of special interest to scientists who want to see their research used in policy making, offering guidance on what is required beyond producing quality research, beyond translating results into more understandable terms, and beyond brokering the results through intermediaries, such as think tanks, lobbyists, and advocacy groups. For administrators and faculty in public policy programs and schools, Using Science as Evidence in Public Policy identifies critical elements of instruction that will better equip graduates to promote the use of science in policy making.

Using Science as Evidence in Public Policy

The National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, administered by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), are key components of the nation's food security safety net, providing free or low-cost meals to millions of schoolchildren each day. To qualify their children each year for free or reduced-price meals, many families must submit applications that school officials distribute and review. To reduce this burden on families and schools and to encourage more children to partake of nutritious meals, USDA regulations allow school districts to operate their meals programs under special provisions that eliminate the application process and other administrative procedures in exchange for providing free meals to all students enrolled in one or more school in a district.

FNS asked the National Academies' Committee on National Statistics and Food and Nutrition Board to convene a panel of experts to investigate the technical and operational feasibility of using data from the continuous American Community Survey (ACS) to estimate students eligible for free and reduced-price meals for schools and school districts. The ACS eligibility estimates would be used to develop "claiming percentages" that, if sufficiently accurate, would determine the USDA reimbursements to districts for schools that provided free meals to all students under a new special provision that eliminated the ongoing base-year requirements of current provisions.

Using American Community Survey Data to Expand Access to the School Meals Program was conducted in two phases. It first issued an interim report (National Research Council, 2010), describing its planned approach for assessing the utility of ACS-based estimates for a special provision to expand access to free school meals. This report is the final phase which presents the panel's findings and recommendations.

Using American Community Survey Data to Expand Access to the School Meals Programs

The American Time Use Survey (ATUS), conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, included a subjective well-being (SWB) module in 2010 and 2012. The module, funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), is being considered for inclusion in the ATUS for 2013. The National Research Council was asked to evaluate measures of self-reported well-being and offer guidance about their adoption in official government surveys. The charge for the study included an interim report to consider the usefulness of the ATUS SWB module, specifically the value of continuing it for at least one more wave. Among the key points raised in this report are the value, methodological benefits, and cost and effects on the ATUS and new opportunities.

Research on subjective or self-reported well-being has been ongoing for several decades, with the past few years seeing an increased interest by some countries in using SWB measures to evaluate government policies and provide a broader assessment of the health of a society than is provided by such standard economic measures as gross domestic product. NIA asked the panel to prepare an interim report on the usefulness of the SWB module of the ATUS, with a view as to the utility of continuing the module in 2013.

The Subjective Well-Being Module of the American Time Use Survey is intended to fulfill only one narrow aspect of the panel's broader task. It provides an overview of the ATUS and the SWB module, a brief discussion of research applications to date, and a preliminary assessment of the value of SWB module data. The panel's final report will address issues of whether research has advanced to the point that SWB measures-and which kinds of measures-should be regularly included in major surveys of official statistical agencies to help inform government economic and social policies.

The Subjective Well-Being Module of the American Time Use Survey: Assessment for Its Continuation

The scientific work of women is often viewed through a national or regional lens, but given the growing worldwide connectivity of most, if not all, scientific disciplines, there needs to be recognition of how different social, political, and economic mechanisms impact women's participation in the global scientific enterprise. Although these complex sociocultural factors often operate in different ways in various countries and regions, studies within and across nations consistently show inverse correlations between levels in the scientific and technical career hierarchy and the number of women in science: the higher the positions, the fewer the number of women. Understanding these complex patterns requires interdisciplinary and international approaches. In April 2011, a committee overseen by the National Academies' standing Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine (CWSEM) convened a workshop entitled, "Blueprint for the Future: Framing the Issues of Women in Science in a Global Context" in Washington, D.C.

CWSEM's goals are to coordinate, monitor, and advocate action to increase the participation of women in science, engineering, and medicine. The scope of the workshop was limited to women's participation in three scientific disciplines: chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and statistics. The workshop presentations came from a group of scholars and professionals who have been working for several years on documenting, analyzing, and interpreting the status of women in selected technical fields around the world. Examination of the three disciplines-chemistry, computer science, and mathematics and statistics-can be considered a first foray into collecting and analyzing information that can be replicated in other fields.

The complexity of studying science internationally cannot be underestimated, and the presentations demonstrate some of the evidentiary and epistemological challenges that scholars and professionals face in collecting and analyzing data from many different countries and regions. Blueprint for the Future: Framing the Issues of Women in Science in a Global Context summarizes the workshop presentations, which provided an opportunity for dialogue about the issues that the authors have been pursuing in their work to date.

Blueprint for the Future: Framing the Issues of Women in Science in a Global Context: Summary of a Workshop

Among the poorest and least developed regions in the world, sub-Saharan Africa has long faced a heavy burden of disease, with malaria, tuberculosis, and, more recently, HIV being among the most prominent contributors to that burden. Yet in most parts of Africa-and especially in those areas with the greatest health care needs-the data available to health planners to better understand and address these problems are extremely limited. The vast majority of Africans are born and will die without being recorded in any document or spearing in official statistics. With few exceptions, African countries have no civil registration systems in place and hence are unable to continuously generate vital statistics or to provide systematic information on patterns of cause of death, relying instead on periodic household-level surveys or intense and continuous monitoring of small demographic surveillance sites to provide a partial epidemiological and demographic profile of the population.

In 1991 the Committee on Population of the National Academy of Sciences organized a workshop on the epidemiological transition in developing countries. The workshop brought together medical experts, epidemiologists, demographers, and other social scientists involved in research on the epidemiological transition in developing countries to discuss the nature of the ongoing transition, identify the most important contributors to the overall burden of disease, and discuss how such information could be used to assist policy makers in those countries to establish priorities with respect to the prevention and management of the main causes of ill health.

This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from a workshop convened in October 2011 that featured invited speakers on the topic of epidemiological transition in sub-Saharan Africa. The workshop was organized by a National Research Council panel of experts in various aspects of the study of epidemiological transition and of sub-Saharan data sources. The Continuing Epidemiological Transition in Sub-Saharan Africa serves as a factual summary of what occurred at the workshop in October 2011.

The Continuing Epidemiological Transition in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Workshop Summary

From Neurons to Neighborhoods: An Update: Workshop Summary is based on the original study From Neurons to Neighborhoods: Early Childhood Development , which released in October of 2000. From the time of the original publication's release, much has occurred to cause a fundamental reexamination of the nation's response to the needs of young children and families, drawing upon a wealth of scientific knowledge that has emerged in recent decades. The study shaped policy agendas and intervention efforts at national, state, and local levels. It captured a gratifying level of attention in the United States and around the world and has helped to foster a highly dynamic and increasingly visible science of early childhood development. It contributed to a growing public understanding of the foundational importance of the early childhood years and has stimulated a global conversation about the unmet needs of millions of young children.

Ten years later, the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the National Research Council (NRC) held a 2-day workshop in Washington, D.C., to review and commemorate a decade of advances related to the mission of the report. The workshop began with a series of highly interactive breakout sessions in which experts in early childhood development examined the four organizing themes of the original report and identified both measurable progress and remaining challenges. The second day of the workshop, speakers chosen for their diverse perspectives on early childhood research and policy issues discussed how to build on the accomplishments of the past decade and to launch the next era in early childhood science, policy, and practice.

From Neurons to Neighborhoods: An Update: Workshop Summar y emphasizes that there is a single, integrated science of early childhood development despite the extent to which it is carved up and divided among a diversity of professional disciplines, policy sectors, and service delivery systems. While much work still remains to be done to reach this goal, the 2010 workshop demonstrated both the promise of this integrated science and the rich diversity of contributions to that science.

From Neurons to Neighborhoods: An Update: Workshop Summary

The education system in the United States is continually challenged to adapt and improve, in part because its mission has become far more ambitious than it once was. At the turn of the 20th century, less than one-tenth of students enrolled were expected to graduate from high school. Today, most people expect schools to prepare all students to succeed in postsecondary education and to prosper in a complex, fast-changing global economy. Goals have broadened to include not only rigorous benchmarks in core academic subjects, but also technological literacy and the subtler capacities known as 21st-century skills.

To identify the most important measures for education and other issues and provide quality data on them to the American people, Congress authorized the creation of a Key National Indicators System (KNIS). This system will be a single Web-based information source designed to help policy makers and the public better assess the position and progress of the nation across a wide range of areas. Identifying the right set of indicators for each area is not a small challenge. To serve their purpose of providing objective information that can encourage improvement and innovation, the indicators need to be valid and reliable but they also need to capture the report committee's aspirations for education.

This report describes a workshop, planned under the aegis of the Board on Testing and Assessment and the Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council. Key National Education Indicators is a summary of the meeting of a group with extensive experience in research, public policy, and practice. The goal of the workshop was not to make a final selection of indicators, but to take an important first step by clearly identifying the parameters of the challenge.

Key National Education Indicators: Workshop Summary

The population of the United States is growing inexorably older. With birth rates historically low and life expectancy continuing to rise, the age distribution of the population in the United States is growing steadily older. This demographic shift is occurring at a time of major economic and social changes, which have important implications for the growing elderly population. Other changes, such as the move away from defined-benefit toward defined-contribution retirement plans, changes in some corporate and municipal pension plans as a result of market pressures, and the 2008 financial crisis precipitated by the crash of the housing market, all have economic implications for older people. They are also likely to make it more difficult for certain groups of future retirees to find their retirements at the level that they had planned and would like.

To deal effectively with the challenges created by population aging, it is vital to first understand these demographic, economic, and social changes and, to the extent possible, their causes, consequences, and implications. Sociology offers a knowledge base, a number of useful analytic approaches and tools, and unique theoretical perspectives that can be important aids to this task.

The Panel on New Directions in Social Demography, Social Epidemiology, and the Sociology of Aging was established in August 2010 under the auspices of the Committee on Population of the National Research Council to prepare a report that evaluates the recent contributions of social demography, social epidemiology, and sociology to the study of aging and seeks to identify promising new research in these fields. Perspectives on the Future of the Sociology of Aging provides candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making the final published volume as sound as possible and to ensure that the volume meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge.

Perspectives on the Future of the Sociology of Aging

The population of Asia is growing both larger and older. Demographically the most important continent on the world, Asia's population, currently estimated to be 4.2 billion, is expected to increase to about 5.9 billion by 2050. Rapid declines in fertility, together with rising life expectancy, are altering the age structure of the population so that in 2050, for the first time in history, there will be roughly as many people in Asia over the age of 65 as under the age of 15.

It is against this backdrop that the Division of Behavioral and Social Research at the U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA) asked the National Research Council (NRC), through the Committee on Population, to undertake a project on advancing behavioral and social research on aging in Asia.

Aging in Asia: Findings from New and Emerging Data Initiatives is a peer-reviewed collection of papers from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand that were presented at two conferences organized in conjunction with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, Indonesian Academy of Sciences, and Science Council of Japan; the first conference was hosted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, and the second conference was hosted by the Indian National Science Academy in New Delhi. The papers in the volume highlight the contributions from new and emerging data initiatives in the region and cover subject areas such as economic growth, labor markets, and consumption; family roles and responsibilities; and labor markets and consumption.

Aging in Asia: Findings from New and Emerging Data Initiatives

For the past decade, the U.S. Marine Corps and its sister services have been engaged in what has been termed "hybrid warfare," which ranges from active combat to civilian support. Hybrid warfare typically occurs in environments where all modes of war are employed, such as conventional weapons, irregular tactics, terrorism, disruptive technologies, and criminality to destabilize an existing order.

In August 2010, the National Research Council established the Committee on Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders to produce Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders. This report examines the operational environment, existing abilities, and gap to include data, technology, skill sets, training, and measures of effectiveness for small unit leaders in conducting enhanced company operations (ECOs) in hybrid engagement, complex environments. Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders also determines how to understand the decision making calculus and indicators of adversaries.

Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders recommends operational and technical approaches for improving the decision making abilities of small unit leaders, including any acquisition and experimentation efforts that can be undertaken by the Marine Corps and/or by other stakeholders aimed specifically at improving the decision making of small unit leaders. This report recommends ways to ease the burden on small unit leaders and to better prepare the small unit leader for success. Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders also indentifies a responsible organization to ensure that training and education programs are properly developed, staffed, operated, evaluated, and expanded.

Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders

In 1993 the National Research Council released its landmark report Understanding Child Abuse and Neglect (NRC, 1993). That report identified child maltreatment as a devastating social problem in American society. Nearly 20 years later, on January 30-31, 2012, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and NRC's Board on Children, Youth and Families help a workshop, Child Maltreatment Research, Policy, and Practice for the Next Generation , to review the accomplishments of the past two decades of research related to child maltreatment and the remaining gaps. "There have been many exciting research discoveries since the '93 report, but we also want people to be thinking about what is missing," said Anne Petersen, research professor at the Center for Human Growth and Development at the University of Michigan and chair of the panel that produced the report.

Child Maltreatment Research, Policy, and Practice for the Next Decade: Workshop Summary covers the workshop that brought together many leading U.S. child maltreatment researchers for a day and a half of presentations and discussions. Presenters reviewed research accomplishments, identified gaps that remain in knowledge, and consider potential research priorities. Child Maltreatment Research, Policy, and Practice for the Next Decade: Workshop Summary also covers participant suggestions for future research priorities, policy actions, and practices that would enhance understanding of child maltreatment and efforts to reduce and respond to it. A background paper highlighting major research advances since the publication of the 1993 NRC report was prepared by an independent consultant to inform the workshop discussions.

This summary is an essential resource for any workshop attendees, policy makers, researchers, educators, healthcare providers, parents, and advocacy groups.

Child Maltreatment Research, Policy, and Practice for the Next Decade: Workshop Summary

In the early 1990s, the Census Bureau proposed a program of continuous measurement as a possible alternative to the gathering of detailed social, economic, and housing data from a sample of the U.S. population as part of the decennial census. The American Community Survey (ACS) became a reality in 2005, and has included group quarters (GQ)-such places as correctional facilities for adults, student housing, nursing facilities, inpatient hospice facilities, and military barracks-since 2006, primarily to more closely replicate the design and data products of the census long-form sample.

The decision to include group quarters in the ACS enables the Census Bureau to provide a comprehensive benchmark of the total U.S. population (not just those living in households). However, the fact that the ACS must rely on a sample of what is a small and very diverse population, combined with limited funding available for survey operations, makes the ACS GQ sampling, data collection, weighting, and estimation procedures more complex and the estimates more susceptible to problems stemming from these limitations. The concerns are magnified in small areas, particularly in terms of detrimental effects on the total population estimates produced for small areas.

Small Populations, Large Effects provides an in-depth review of the statistical methodology for measuring the GQ population in the ACS. This report addresses difficulties associated with measuring the GQ population and the rationale for including GQs in the ACS. Considering user needs for ACS data and of operational feasibility and compatibility with the treatment of the household population in the ACS, the report recommends alternatives to the survey design and other methodological features that can make the ACS more useful for users of small-area data.

Small Populations, Large Effects: Improving the Measurement of the Group Quarters Population in the American Community Survey

Many studies during the past few decades have sought to determine whether the death penalty has any deterrent effect on homicide rates. Researchers have reached widely varying, even contradictory, conclusions. Some studies have concluded that the threat of capital punishment deters murders, saving large numbers of lives; other studies have concluded that executions actually increase homicides; still others, that executions have no effect on murder rates. Commentary among researchers, advocates, and policymakers on the scientific validity of the findings has sometimes been acrimonious.

Against this backdrop, the National Research Council report Deterrence and the Death Penalty assesses whether the available evidence provides a scientific basis for answering questions of if and how the death penalty affects homicide rates. This new report from the Committee on Law and Justice concludes that research to date on the effect of capital punishment on homicide rates is not useful in determining whether the death penalty increases, decreases, or has no effect on these rates. The key question is whether capital punishment is less or more effective as a deterrent than alternative punishments, such as a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Yet none of the research that has been done accounted for the possible effect of noncapital punishments on homicide rates. The report recommends new avenues of research that may provide broader insight into any deterrent effects from both capital and noncapital punishments.

Deterrence and the Death Penalty

The United States is responsible for nearly one-fifth of the world's energy consumption. Population growth, and the associated growth in housing, commercial floor space, transportation, goods, and services is expected to cause a 0.7 percent annual increase in energy demand for the foreseeable future. The energy used by the commercial and residential sectors represents approximately 40 percent of the nation's total energy consumption, and the share of these two sectors is expected to increase in the future. The Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) and Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) are two major surveys conducted by the Energy Information Administration. The surveys are the most relevant sources of data available to researchers and policy makers on energy consumption in the commercial and residential sectors. Many of the design decisions and operational procedures for the CBECS and RECS were developed in the 1970s and 1980s, and resource limitations during much of the time since then have prevented EIA from making significant changes to the data collections. Effective Tracking of Building Energy Use makes recommendations for redesigning the surveys based on a review of evolving data user needs and an assessment of new developments in relevant survey methods.

Effective Tracking of Building Energy Use: Improving the Commercial Buildings and Residential Energy Consumption Surveys

The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) is the principal federal agency supporting applied research, training, and development to improve the lives of individuals with disabilities. NIDRR's mission is to generate new knowledge and promote its effective use in improving the ability of persons with disabilities to perform activities of their choice in the community, as well as to expand society's capacity to provide full opportunities and accommodations for its citizens with disabilities.

NIDRR prides itself on being proactive in establishing program performance measures and developing accountability data systems to track the progress of its grantees. An electronic annual reporting system is used to collect data from grantees on many aspects of grant operation and outputs. Various formative and summative evaluation approaches have been used to assess the quality of the performance and results of the agency's research portfolio and its grantees. Prompted by the need to provide more data on its program results, in 2009 NIDRR requested that the National Research Council (NRC) conduct an external evaluation of some of the agency's key processes and assess the quality of outputs produced by NIDRR grantees (National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, 2009a). Review of Disability and Rehabilitation Research presents the results of that evaluation.

Review of Disability and Rehabilitation Research: NIDRR Grantmaking Processes and Products

The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), at the U.S. National Foundation, is 1 of 14 major statistical agencies in the federal government, of which at least 5 collect relevant information on science, technology, and innovation activities in the United States and abroad. The America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 expanded and codified NCSES's role as a U.S. federal statistical agency. Important aspects of the agency's mandate include collection, acquisition, analysis, and reporting and dissemination of data on research and development trends, on U.S. competitiveness in science, technology, and research and development, and on the condition and progress of U.S. science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Improving Measures of Science, Technology and Innovation: Interim Report examines the status of the NCSES's science, technology, and innovation (STI) indicators. This report assesses and provides recommendations regarding the need for revised, refocused, and newly developed indicators designed to better reflect fundamental and rapid changes that are reshaping global science, technology and innovation systems. The book also determines the international scope of STI indicators and the need for developing new indicators that measure developments in innovative activities in the United States and abroad, and Offers foresight on the types of data, metrics and indicators that will be particularly influential in evidentiary policy decision-making for years to come. In carrying out its charge, the authoring panel undertook a broad and comprehensive review of STI indicators from different countries, including Japan, China, India and several countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Improving Measures of Science, Technology, and Innovation makes recommendations for near-term action by NCSES along two dimensions: (1) development of new policy-relevant indicators that are based on NCSES survey data or on data collections at other statistical agencies; and (2) exploration of new data extraction and management tools for generating statistics, using automated methods of harvesting unstructured or scientometric data and data derived from administrative records.

Improving Measures of Science, Technology, and Innovation: Interim Report

Early childhood care and education (ECCE) settings offer an opportunity to provide children with a solid beginning in all areas of their development. The quality and efficacy of these settings depend largely on the individuals within the ECCE workforce. Policy makers need a complete picture of ECCE teachers and caregivers in order to tackle the persistent challenges facing this workforce. The IOM and the National Research Council hosted a workshop to describe the ECCE workforce and outline its parameters. Speakers explored issues in defining and describing the workforce, the marketplace of ECCE, the effects of the workforce on children, the contextual factors that shape the workforce, and opportunities for strengthening ECCE as a profession.

The Early Childhood Care and Education Workforce: Challenges and Opportunities: A Workshop Report

Immigration enforcement is carried out by a complex legal and administrative system, operating under frequently changing legislative mandates and policy guidance, with authority and funding spread across several agencies in two executive departments and the courts. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is responsible for conducting immigration enforcement both at the border and in the United States; the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is responsible for conducting immigration removal procedures and criminal trials and for prosecuting people charged with immigration-related crimes. DOJ confronts at least five technical challenges to modeling its resource needs for immigration enforcement that are specific to the immigration enforcement system. Despite the inherent limitations, budgeting for immigration enforcement can be improved by changing the method for budgeting.

Budgeting for Immigration Enforcement addresses how to improve budgeting for the federal immigration enforcement system, specifically focusing on the parts of that system that are operated and funded by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The report recommends that DOJ establish policy-level procedures to plan and coordinate policy planning and implementation to improve performance of the immigration enforcement system. The report also recommends that DOJ and DHS accelerate their design of an integrated capacity to track cases and project immigration enforcement activity. Policy makers and others who are interested in how the nation's immigration enforcement system is organized and operates also will find it useful.

Budgeting for Immigration Enforcement: A Path to Better Performance

The National Research Council (NRC) was asked by the National Defense Intelligence College (NDIC) to convene a committee to review the curriculum and syllabi for their proposed master of science degree in science and technology intelligence. The NRC was asked to review the material provided by the NDIC and offer advice and recommendations regarding the program's structure and goals of the Master of Science and Technology Intelligence (MS&TI) program.

The Committee for the Review of the Master's Degree Program for Science and Technology Professionals convened in May 2011, received extensive briefings and material from the NDIC faculty and administrators, and commenced a detailed review of the material. This letter report contains the findings and recommendations of the committee.

Review of the National Defense Intelligence College's Master's Degree in Science and Technology Intelligence centers on two general areas. First, the committee found that the biological sciences and systems engineering were underrepresented in the existing program structure. Secondly, the committee recommends that the NDIC faculty restructure the program and course learning objectives to focus more specifically on science and technology, with particular emphasis on the empirical measurement of student achievement. Given the dynamic and ever-changing nature of science and technology, the syllabi should continue to evolve as change occurs.

Review of the National Defense Intelligence College's Master's Degree in Science and Technology Intelligence

Nearly everyone experiences fatigue, but some professions—such as aviation, medicine and the military—demand alert, precise, rapid, and well-informed decision making and communication with little margin for error. The potential for fatigue to negatively affect human performance is well established. Concern about this potential in the aviation context extends back decades, with both airlines and pilots agreeing that fatigue is a safety concern. A more recent consideration is whether and how pilot commuting, conducted in a pilot's off-duty time, may affect fatigue during flight duty. In summer 2010 the U.S. Congress directed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to update the federal regulations that govern pilot flight and duty time, taking into account recent research related to sleep and fatigue. As part of their directive, Congress also instructed FAA to have the National Academy of Sciences conduct a study on the effects of commuting on pilot fatigue. The Effects of Commuting on Pilot Fatigue reviews research and other information related to the prevalence and characteristics of commuting; to the science of sleep, fatigue, and circadian rhythms; to airline and regulatory oversight policies; and to pilot and airline practices.

The Effects of Commuting on Pilot Fatigue discusses the policy, economic, and regulatory issues that affect pilot commuting, and outlines potential next steps, including recommendations for regulatory or administrative actions, or further research by the FAA.

The Effects of Commuting on Pilot Fatigue

The Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Third Edition , assists judges in managing cases involving complex scientific and technical evidence by describing the basic tenets of key scientific fields from which legal evidence is typically derived and by providing examples of cases in which that evidence has been used.

First published in 1994 by the Federal Judicial Center, the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence has been relied upon in the legal and academic communities and is often cited by various courts and others. Judges faced with disputes over the admissibility of scientific and technical evidence refer to the manual to help them better understand and evaluate the relevance, reliability and usefulness of the evidence being proffered. The manual is not intended to tell judges what is good science and what is not. Instead, it serves to help judges identify issues on which experts are likely to differ and to guide the inquiry of the court in seeking an informed resolution of the conflict.

The core of the manual consists of a series of chapters (reference guides) on various scientific topics, each authored by an expert in that field. The topics have been chosen by an oversight committee because of their complexity and frequency in litigation. Each chapter is intended to provide a general overview of the topic in lay terms, identifying issues that will be useful to judges and others in the legal profession. They are written for a non-technical audience and are not intended as exhaustive presentations of the topic. Rather, the chapters seek to provide judges with the basic information in an area of science, to allow them to have an informed conversation with the experts and attorneys.

Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence: Third Edition

Federal household surveys today face several significant challenges including: increasing costs of data collection, declining response rates, perceptions of increasing response burden, inadequate timeliness of estimates, discrepant estimates of key indicators, inefficient and considerable duplication of some survey content, and instances of gaps in needed research and analysis. The Workshop on the Future of Federal Household Surveys, held at the request of the U.S. Census Bureau, was designed to address the increasing concern among many members of the federal statistical system that federal household data collections in their current form are unsustainable. The workshop brought together leaders in the statistical community to discuss opportunities for enhancing the relevance, quality, and cost-effectiveness of household surveys sponsored by the federal statistical system.

The Future of Federal Household Surveys is a factual summary of the presentations and related discussions that transpired during the workshop. This summary includes a number of solutions that range from methodological approaches, such as the use of administrative data, to emphasis on interagency cooperative efforts.

The Future of Federal Household Surveys: Summary of a Workshop

TRB Special Report 304: How We Travel: A Sustainable National Program for Travel Data assesses the current state of travel data at the federal, state, and local levels and defines an achievable and sustainable travel data system that could support public and private transportation decision making. The committee that developed the report recommends the organization of a National Travel Data Program built on a core of essential passenger and freight travel data sponsored at the federal level and well integrated with travel data collected by states, metropolitan planning organizations, transit and other local agencies, and the private sector.

How We Travel: A Sustainable National Program for Travel Data

Every day, in households across the country, people engage in behavior to improve their current health, recover from disease and injury, or cope with chronic, debilitating conditions. Innovative computer and information systems may help these people manage health concerns, monitor important indicators of their health, and communicate with their formal and informal caregivers. Human factors is an engineering science dedicated to understanding and improving the way people use technology and other things in the environment.

Consumer Health Information Technology in the Home introduces designers and developers to the practical realities and complexities of managing health at home. It provides guidance and human factors design considerations that will help designers and developers create consumer health IT applications that are useful resources to achieve better health.

Consumer Health Information Technology in the Home: A Guide for Human Factors Design Considerations

The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research funds applied research and development to improve the lives and functioning of persons with disabilities. At the request of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) within the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of Education, the Board on Human-Systems Integration of the National Research Council (NRC) convened a committee to conduct an evaluation of aspects of NIDRR's program. Specifically, the committee was charged to assess the NIDRR priority-setting, peer review, and grant management processes, and to develop an overall framework and evaluation design for the review of grantee outputs for a sample of 30 grantees. External Evaluation of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research and Its Grantees Letter Report discusses the procedures the committee used in its output evaluation, its assessment of those procedures, and recommendations for future evaluations. This report works to improve future evaluation practices and ensure that evaluation results optimally inform NIDRR's efforts to maximize the impact of its research grants. Additionally, it offers conclusions, recommendations, and suggestions on defining evaluation objectives, strengthening the output assessment, and using NIDRR's Annual Performance Reports system to capture data for future evaluations.

External Evaluation of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research and Its Grantees: Letter Report

On May 8, 2009, the symposium, The Federal Statistical System: Recognizing Its Contributions, Moving It Forward was held in Washington, DC. One of the topics considered at that symposium was the health of innovation in the federal statistical system. A consequence of the symposium was an agreement by the Committee on National Statistics to hold a workshop on the future of innovation in the federal statistical system. This workshop was held on June 29, 2010.

The original statement of task for the workshop focused on three challenges to the statistical system: (1) the obstacles to innovative, focused research and development initiatives that could make statistical programs more cost effective; (2) a gap between emerging data visualization and communications technologies and the ability of statistical agencies to understand and capitalize on these developments for their data dissemination programs; and (3) the maturation of the information technology (IT) discipline and the difficulties confronting individual agencies in keeping current with best practice in IT regarding data confidentiality.

This report, Facilitating Innovation in the Federal Statistical System, is a descriptive summary of what transpired at the workshop. It is therefore limited to the views and opinions of the workshop participants. However, it does not strictly follow the agenda of the workshop, which had four sessions. Instead, it is organized around the themes of the discussions, which migrated across the four sessions.

Facilitating Innovation in the Federal Statistical System: Summary of a Workshop

During the last 25 years, life expectancy at age 50 in the United States has been rising, but at a slower pace than in many other high-income countries, such as Japan and Australia. This difference is particularly notable given that the United States spends more on health care than any other nation. Concerned about this divergence, the National Institute on Aging asked the National Research Council to examine evidence on its possible causes. According to Explaining Divergent Levels of Longevity in High-Income Countries , the nation's history of heavy smoking is a major reason why lifespans in the United States fall short of those in many other high-income nations. Evidence suggests that current obesity levels play a substantial part as well. The book reports that lack of universal access to health care in the U.S. also has increased mortality and reduced life expectancy, though this is a less significant factor for those over age 65 because of Medicare access. For the main causes of death at older ages -- cancer and cardiovascular disease -- available indicators do not suggest that the U.S. health care system is failing to prevent deaths that would be averted elsewhere. In fact, cancer detection and survival appear to be better in the U.S. than in most other high-income nations, and survival rates following a heart attack also are favorable. Explaining Divergent Levels of Longevity in High-Income Countries identifies many gaps in research. For instance, while lung cancer deaths are a reliable marker of the damage from smoking, no clear-cut marker exists for obesity, physical inactivity, social integration, or other risks considered in this book. Moreover, evaluation of these risk factors is based on observational studies, which -- unlike randomized controlled trials -- are subject to many biases.

Explaining Divergent Levels of Longevity in High-Income Countries

In the United States, health care devices, technologies, and practices are rapidly moving into the home. The factors driving this migration include the costs of health care, the growing numbers of older adults, the increasing prevalence of chronic conditions and diseases and improved survival rates for people with those conditions and diseases, and a wide range of technological innovations. The health care that results varies considerably in its safety, effectiveness, and efficiency, as well as in its quality and cost.

Health Care Comes Home reviews the state of current knowledge and practice about many aspects of health care in residential settings and explores the short- and long-term effects of emerging trends and technologies. By evaluating existing systems, the book identifies design problems and imbalances between technological system demands and the capabilities of users. Health Care Comes Home recommends critical steps to improve health care in the home. The book's recommendations cover the regulation of health care technologies, proper training and preparation for people who provide in-home care, and how existing housing can be modified and new accessible housing can be better designed for residential health care. The book also identifies knowledge gaps in the field and how these can be addressed through research and development initiatives.

Health Care Comes Home lays the foundation for the integration of human health factors with the design and implementation of home health care devices, technologies, and practices. The book describes ways in which the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and federal housing agencies can collaborate to improve the quality of health care at home. It is also a valuable resource for residential health care providers and caregivers.

Health Care Comes Home: The Human Factors

As the United States continues to be a nation of immigrants and their children, the nation's school systems face increased enrollments of students whose primary language is not English. With the 2001 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the allocation of federal funds for programs to assist these students to be proficient in English became formula-based: 80 percent on the basis of the population of children with limited English proficiency1 and 20 percent on the basis of the population of recently immigrated children and youth. Title III of NCLB directs the U.S. Department of Education to allocate funds on the basis of the more accurate of two allowable data sources: the number of students reported to the federal government by each state education agency or data from the American Community Survey (ACS). The department determined that the ACS estimates are more accurate, and since 2005, those data have been basis for the federal distribution of Title III funds. Subsequently, analyses of the two data sources have raised concerns about that decision, especially because the two allowable data sources would allocate quite different amounts to the states. In addition, while shortcomings were noted in the data provided by the states, the ACS estimates were shown to fluctuate between years, causing concern among the states about the unpredictability and unevenness of program funding. In this context, the U.S. Department of Education commissioned the National Research Council to address the accuracy of the estimates from the two data sources and the factors that influence the estimates. The resulting book also considers means of increasing the accuracy of the data sources or alternative data sources that could be used for allocation purposes.

Allocating Federal Funds for State Programs for English Language Learners

Sponsored by the Census Bureau and charged to evaluate the 2010 U.S. census with an eye toward suggesting research and development for the 2020 census, the Panel to Review the 2010 Census uses this first interim report to suggest general priorities for 2020 research. Although the Census Bureau has taken some useful organizational and administrative steps to prepare for 2020, the panel offers three core recommendations, and suggests the Census Bureau take and assertive, aggressive approach to 2020 planning rather than casting possibilities purely as hypothetical.

The first recommendation on research and development suggests four broad topic areas for research early in the decade. Second, the report suggest that the Bureau take an aggressive, assertive posture toward research in these priority areas. Third, it identifies the setting of bold goals as essential to underscoring the need for serious reengineering and building commitment to change.

Change and the 2020 Census: Not Whether But How

The economic crisis that began in 2008 has had a significant impact on the well-being of certain segments of the population and its disruptive effects can be expected to last well into the future. The National Institute on Aging (NIA), which is concerned with this issue as it affects the older population in the United States, asked the National Research Council to review existing and ongoing research and to delineate the nature and dimensions of potential scientific inquiry in this area.

The Committee on Population thus established the Steering Committee on the Challenges of Assessing the Impact of Severe Economic Recession the Elderly to convene a meeting of experts to discuss these issues. The primary purpose of the workshop was to help NIA gain insight into the kinds of questions that it should be asking, the research that it should be supporting, and the data that it should be collecting. Attendees included invited experts in the fields of economics, sociology, and epidemiology; staff from NIA and the Social Security Administration (SSA); and staff from the National Academies.

This report highlights the major issues that were raised in the workshop presentations and discussion.

Assessing the Impact of Severe Economic Recession on the Elderly: Summary of a Workshop

Today's world of rapid social, technological, and behavioral change provides new opportunities for communications with few limitations of time and space. Through these communications, people leave behind an ever-growing collection of traces of their daily activities, including digital footprints provided by text, voice, and other modes of communication. Meanwhile, new techniques for aggregating and evaluating diverse and multimodal information sources are available to security services that must reliably identify communications indicating a high likelihood of future violence.

In the context of this changed and changing world of communications and behavior, the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences of the National Research Council presents this volume of three papers as one portion of the vast subject of threatening communications and behavior. The papers review the behavioral and social sciences research on the likelihood that someone who engages in abnormal and/or threatening communications will actually then try to do harm. The focus is on how the scientific knowledge can inform and advance future research on threat assessments, in part by considering the approaches and techniques used to analyze communications and behavior in the dynamic context of today's world.

The papers in the collection were written within the context of protecting high-profile public figures from potential attach or harm. The research, however, is broadly applicable to U.S. national security including potential applications for analysis of communications from leaders of hostile nations and public threats from terrorist groups. This work highlights the complex psychology of threatening communications and behavior, and it offers knowledge and perspectives from multiple domains that contribute to a deeper understanding of the value of communications in predicting and preventing violent behaviors.

Threatening Communications and Behavior: Perspectives on the Pursuit of Public Figures

Demographic changes, immigration, economic upheavals, and changing societal mores are creating new and altered structures, processes, and relationships in American families today. As families undergo rapid change, family science is at the brink of a new and exciting integration across methods, disciplines, and epistemological perspectives. The purpose of The Science of Research on Families: A Workshop, held in Washington, DC, on July 13-14, 2010, was to examine the broad array of methodologies used to understand the impact of families on children's health and development. It sought to explore individual disciplinary contributions and the ways in which different methodologies and disciplinary perspectives could be combined in the study of families. Toward an Integrated Science of Research on Families documents the information presented in the workshop presentations and discussions. The report explores the idea of family research as being both basic and applied, offering opportunities for learning as well as intervention. It discusses research as being most useful when organized around particular problems, such as obesity or injury prevention. Toward an Integrated Science of Research on Families offers a problem-oriented approach that can guide a broad-based research program that extends across funders, institutions, and scientific disciplines.

Toward an Integrated Science of Research on Families: Workshop Report

In February 2010, the National Research Council convened a workshop to investigate the feasibility of developing well-grounded common metrics to advance behavioral and social science research, both in terms of advancing the development of theory and increasing the utility of research for policy and practice.

The Workshop on Advancing Social Science Theory: The Importance of Common Metrics had three goals:

• To examine the benefits and costs involved in moving from metric diversity to greater standardization, both in terms of advancing the development of theory and increasing the utility of research for policy and practice.
• To consider whether a set of criteria can be developed for understanding when the measurement of a particular construct is ready to be standardized.
• To explore how the research community can foster a move toward standardization when it appears warranted.

This book is a summary of the two days of presentations and discussions that took place during the workshop.

The Importance of Common Metrics for Advancing Social Science Theory and Research: A Workshop Summary

This report from the Panel on Communicating National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Engineering Information to Data Users recommends action by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (SRS) on four key issues: data content and presentation; meeting changing storage and retrieval standards; understanding data users and their emerging needs; and data accessibility.

This report also includes a summary of the workshop that focused on the several aspects of the NCSES's current approaches to communicating and disseminating statistical information -- including NCSES's information products, website, and database systems. It included presentations from NCSES staff and representatives of key use groups -- including the academic research, private nonprofit research, and federal government policy making communities.

Communicating National Science Foundation Science and Engineering Information to Data Users: Letter Report

The intelligence community (IC) plays an essential role in the national security of the United States. Decision makers rely on IC analyses and predictions to reduce uncertainty and to provide warnings about everything from international diplomatic relations to overseas conflicts. In today's complex and rapidly changing world, it is more important than ever that analytic products be accurate and timely. Recognizing that need, the IC has been actively seeking ways to improve its performance and expand its capabilities. In 2008, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) asked the National Research Council (NRC) to establish a committee to synthesize and assess evidence from the behavioral and social sciences relevant to analytic methods and their potential application for the U.S. intelligence community. In Intelligence Analysis for Tomorrow: Advances from the Behavioral and Social Sciences , the NRC offers the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) recommendations to address many of the IC's challenges. Intelligence Analysis for Tomorrow asserts that one of the most important things that the IC can learn from the behavioral and social sciences is how to characterize and evaluate its analytic assumptions, methods, technologies, and management practices. Behavioral and social scientific knowledge can help the IC to understand and improve all phases of the analytic cycle: how to recruit, select, train, and motivate analysts; how to master and deploy the most suitable analytic methods; how to organize the day-to-day work of analysts, as individuals and teams; and how to communicate with its customers. The report makes five broad recommendations which offer practical ways to apply the behavioral and social sciences, which will bring the IC substantial immediate and longer-term benefits with modest costs and minimal disruption.

Intelligence Analysis for Tomorrow: Advances from the Behavioral and Social Sciences

The U.S. intelligence community (IC) is a complex human enterprise whose success depends on how well the people in it perform their work. Although often aided by sophisticated technologies, these people ultimately rely on their own intellect to identify, synthesize, and communicate the information on which the nation's security depends. The IC's success depends on having trained, motivated, and thoughtful people working within organizations able to understand, value, and coordinate their capabilities. Intelligence Analysis provides up-to-date scientific guidance for the intelligence community (IC) so that it might improve individual and group judgments, communication between analysts, and analytic processes. The papers in this volume provide the detailed evidentiary base for the National Research Council's report, Intelligence Analysis for Tomorrow: Advances from the Behavioral and Social Sciences . The opening chapter focuses on the structure, missions, operations, and characteristics of the IC while the following 12 papers provide in-depth reviews of key topics in three areas: analytic methods, analysts, and organizations. Informed by the IC's unique missions and constraints, each paper documents the latest advancements of the relevant science and is a stand-alone resource for the IC's leadership and workforce. The collection allows readers to focus on one area of interest (analytic methods, analysts, or organizations) or even one particular aspect of a category. As a collection, the volume provides a broad perspective of the issues involved in making difficult decisions, which is at the heart of intelligence analysis.

Intelligence Analysis: Behavioral and Social Scientific Foundations

Sociocultural Data to Accomplish Department of Defense Missions: Toward a Unified Social Framework summarizes presentations and discussions that took place on August 16-17, 2010, at a National Research Council public workshop sponsored by the Office of Naval Research. The workshop addressed the variables and complex interaction of social and cultural factors that influence human behavior, focusing on potential applications to the full spectrum of military operations.

The workshop's keynote address by Major General Michael T. Flynn, U.S. Army, provided critical context about the cultural situation and needs of the military operating in Afghanistan. Additional presentations were divided into four panels to address the diverse missions encountered by the U.S. military worldwide. The workshop concluded with a final panel to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of different methods of acquiring and using relevant data and knowledge to accomplish these missions. The panel topics and presenters are listed below:

• Conflict Is Local: Mapping the Sociocultural Terrain David Kennedy, Hsinchun Chen, and Kerry Patton
• Bridging Sociocultural Gaps in Cooperative Relationships Robert Rubinstein, Alan Fiske, and Donal Carbaugh
• Building Partner Capacity with Sociocultural Awareness Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks and Shinobu Kitayama
• The Art of Sociocultural Persuasion Jeanne Brett, James Dillard, and Brant R. Burleson
• Tools, Methods, Frameworks, and Models Mark Bevir, Laura A. McNamara, Robert G. Sargent, and Jessica Glicken Turnley

Sociocultural Data to Accomplish Department of Defense Missions: Toward a Unified Social Framework: Workshop Summary

The potential for fatigue to negatively affect human performance is well established. Concern about this potential in the aviation context extends back decades, with both airlines and pilots agreeing that fatigue is a safety concern. A more recent consideration is whether and how pilot commuting, conducted in a pilot's off-duty time, may affect fatigue. The National Academy of Sciences was asked to review available information related to the prevalence and characteristics of pilot commuting; sleep, fatigue, and circadian rhythms; airline and regulatory oversight policies; and pilot and airline practices. This interim report summarizes the committee's review to date of the available information. The final report will present a final review, along with the committee's conclusions and recommendations based on the information available during its deliberations.

Issues in Commuting and Pilot Fatigue: Interim Report

In 1950 men and women in the United States had a combined life expectancy of 68.9 years, the 12th highest life expectancy at birth in the world. Today, life expectancy is up to 79.2 years, yet the country is now 28th on the list, behind the United Kingdom, Korea, Canada, and France, among others. The United States does have higher rates of infant mortality and violent deaths than in other developed countries, but these factors do not fully account for the country's relatively poor ranking in life expectancy.

International Differences in Mortality at Older Ages: Dimensions and Sources examines patterns in international differences in life expectancy above age 50 and assesses the evidence and arguments that have been advanced to explain the poor position of the United States relative to other countries. The papers in this deeply researched volume identify gaps in measurement, data, theory, and research design and pinpoint areas for future high-priority research in this area.

In addition to examining the differences in mortality around the world, the papers in International Differences in Mortality at Older Ages look at health factors and life-style choices commonly believed to contribute to the observed international differences in life expectancy. They also identify strategic opportunities for health-related interventions. This book offers a wide variety of disciplinary and scholarly perspectives to the study of mortality, and it offers in-depth analyses that can serve health professionals, policy makers, statisticians, and researchers.

International Differences in Mortality at Older Ages: Dimensions and Sources

Adolescence is a time when youth make decisions, both good and bad, that have consequences for the rest of their lives. Some of these decisions put them at risk of lifelong health problems, injury, or death. The Institute of Medicine held three public workshops between 2008 and 2009 to provide a venue for researchers, health care providers, and community leaders to discuss strategies to improve adolescent health.

The Science of Adolescent Risk-Taking: Workshop Report

It has become trite to observe that increases in health care costs have become unsustainable. How best for policy to address these increases, however, depends in part on the degree to which they represent increases in the real quantity of medical services as opposed to increased unit prices of existing services. And an even more fundamental question is the degree to which the increased spending actually has purchased improved health. Accounting for Health and Health Care addresses both these issues. The government agencies responsible for measuring unit prices for medical services have taken steps in recent years that have greatly improved the accuracy of those measures. Nonetheless, this book has several recommendations aimed at further improving the price indices.

Accounting for Health and Health Care: Approaches to Measuring the Sources and Costs of Their Improvement

Following several years of testing and evaluation, the American Community Survey (ACS) was launched in 2005 as a replacement for the census "long form," used to collect detailed social, economic, and housing data from a sample of the U.S. population as part of the decennial census. During the first year of the ACS implementation, the Census Bureau collected data only from households. In 2006 a sample of group quarters (GQs) -- such as correctional facilities, nursing homes, and college dorms -- was added to more closely mirror the design of the census long-form sample. The design of the ACS relies on monthly samples that are cumulated to produce multiyear estimates based on 1, 3, and 5 years of data. The data published by the Census Bureau for a geographic area depend on the area's size. The multiyear averaging approach enables the Census Bureau to produce estimates that are intended to be robust enough to release for small areas, such as the smallest governmental units and census block groups. However, the sparseness of the GQ representation in the monthly samples affects the quality of the estimates in many small areas that have large GQ populations relative to the total population. The Census Bureau asked the National Research Council to review and evaluate the statistical methods used for measuring the GQ population. This book presents recommendations addressing improvements in the sample design, sample allocation, weighting, and estimation procedures to assist the Census Bureau's work in the very near term, while further research is conducted to address the underlying question of the relative importance and costs of the GQ data collection in the context of the overall ACS design.

Measuring the Group Quarters Population in the American Community Survey: Interim Report

Randomized clinical trials are the primary tool for evaluating new medical interventions. Randomization provides for a fair comparison between treatment and control groups, balancing out, on average, distributions of known and unknown factors among the participants. Unfortunately, these studies often lack a substantial percentage of data. This missing data reduces the benefit provided by the randomization and introduces potential biases in the comparison of the treatment groups. Missing data can arise for a variety of reasons, including the inability or unwillingness of participants to meet appointments for evaluation. And in some studies, some or all of data collection ceases when participants discontinue study treatment. Existing guidelines for the design and conduct of clinical trials, and the analysis of the resulting data, provide only limited advice on how to handle missing data. Thus, approaches to the analysis of data with an appreciable amount of missing values tend to be ad hoc and variable. The Prevention and Treatment of Missing Data in Clinical Trials concludes that a more principled approach to design and analysis in the presence of missing data is both needed and possible. Such an approach needs to focus on two critical elements: (1) careful design and conduct to limit the amount and impact of missing data and (2) analysis that makes full use of information on all randomized participants and is based on careful attention to the assumptions about the nature of the missing data underlying estimates of treatment effects. In addition to the highest priority recommendations, the book offers more detailed recommendations on the conduct of clinical trials and techniques for analysis of trial data.

The Prevention and Treatment of Missing Data in Clinical Trials

This report summarizes the proceedings of a workshop convened in June 2010 to critically examine the various databases that could provide national and state-level estimates of low-income uninsured children and could be effectively used as criteria for monitoring children's health insurance coverage.

Databases for Estimating Health Insurance Coverage for Children: A Workshop Summary

Preparing for the Challenges of Population Aging in Asia discusses the challenges posed by a rapidly aging population and identifies needed research to help policymakers better respond to them. While the percentage of elderly people in nearly every nation is growing, this aging trend is particularly stark in parts of Asia. Projections indicate that the portion of the population age 65 and older will more than triple in China, India, and Indonesia and more than double in Japan between 2000 and 2050, based on data from the United Nations. Moreover, this demographic shift is coinciding with dramatic economic and social changes in Asia, including changing family structures and large-scale migrations from rural to urban areas. These trends raise critical questions about how nations can develop policies that best support health and economic well-being in large and growing populations at older ages. Governments in Asia still have time to determine the best ways to respond to the unfolding demographic transformation, but taking advantage of this window of opportunity will require new research to shed light on the status and needs of the aging population. Currently the research base on aging in this region is relatively underdeveloped. This book identifies several key topics for research to inform public policy, including changing roles in the family; labor force participation, income, and savings; and health and well-being of the public.

Preparing for the Challenges of Population Aging in Asia: Strengthening the Scientific Basis of Policy Development

Developing credible short-term and long-term projections of Medicare health care costs is critical for public- and private-sector policy planning, but faces challenges and uncertainties. There is uncertainty not only in the underlying economic and demographic assumptions used in projection models, but also in what a policy modeler assumes about future changes in the health status of the population and the factors affecting health status , the extent and pace of scientific and technological breakthroughs in medical care, the preferences of the population for particular kinds of care, the likelihood that policy makers will alter current law and regulations, and how each of these factors relates to health care costs for the elderly population. Given the substantial growth in the Medicare population and the continued increases in Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurance spending, the availability of well-specified models and analyses that can provide useful information on the likely cost implications of health care policy alternatives is essential. It is therefore timely to review the capabilities and limitations of extant health care cost models and to identify areas for research that offer the most promise to improve modeling, not only of current U.S. health care programs, but also of policy alternatives that may be considered in the coming years. The National Research Council conducted a public workshop focusing on areas of research needed to improve health care cost projections for the Medicare population, and on the strengths and weaknesses of competing frameworks for projecting health care expenditures for the elderly. The workshop considered major classes of projection and simulation models that are currently used and the underlying data sources and research inputs for these models. It also explored areas in which additional research and data are needed to inform model development and health care policy analysis more broadly. The workshop, summarized in this volume, drew people from a wide variety of disciplines and perspectives, including federal agencies, academia, and nongovernmental organizations.

Improving Health Care Cost Projections for the Medicare Population: Summary of a Workshop

The rapid growth of home health care has raised many unsolved issues and will have consequences that are far too broad for any one group to analyze in their entirety. Yet a major influence on the safety, quality, and effectiveness of home health care will be the set of issues encompassed by the field of human factors research—the discipline of applying what is known about human capabilities and limitations to the design of products, processes, systems, and work environments.

To address these challenges, the National Research Council began a multidisciplinary study to examine a diverse range of behavioral and human factors issues resulting from the increasing migration of medical devices, technologies, and care practices into the home. Its goal is to lay the groundwork for a thorough integration of human factors research with the design and implementation of home health care devices, technologies, and practices.

On October 1 and 2, 2009, a group of human factors and other experts met to consider a diverse range of behavioral and human factors issues associated with the increasing migration of medical devices, technologies, and care practices into the home. This book is a summary of that workshop, representing the culmination of the first phase of the study.

The Role of Human Factors in Home Health Care: Workshop Summary

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is the nation's primary resource for advancing scientific research, development, and evaluation on crime and crime control and the administration of justice in the United States. Headed by a presidentially appointed director, it is one of the major units in the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) of the U.S. Department of Justice. Under its authorizing legislation, NIJ awards grants and contracts to a variety of public and private organizations and individuals. At the request of NIJ, Strengthening the National Institute of Justice assesses the operations and quality of the full range of its programs. These include social science research, science and technology research and development, capacity building, and technology assistance. The book concludes that a federal research institute such as NIJ is vital to the nation's continuing efforts to control crime and administer justice. No other federal, state, local, or private organization can do what NIJ was created to do. Forty years ago, Congress envisioned a science agency dedicated to building knowledge to support crime prevention and control by developing a wide range of techniques for dealing with individual offenders, identifying injustices and biases in the administration of justice, and supporting more basic and operational research on crime and the criminal justice system and the involvement of the community in crime control efforts. As the embodiment of that vision, NIJ has accomplished a great deal. It has succeeded in developing a body of knowledge on such important topics as hot spots policing, violence against women, the role of firearms and drugs in crime, drug courts, and forensic DNA analysis. It has helped build the crime and justice research infrastructure. It has also widely disseminated the results of its research programs to help guide practice and policy. But its efforts have been severely hampered by a lack of independence, authority, and discretionary resources to carry out its mission.

Strengthening the National Institute of Justice

Despite efforts to reduce drug consumption in the United States over the past 35 years, drugs are just as cheap and available as they have ever been. Cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines continue to cause great harm in the country, particularly in minority communities in the major cities. Marijuana use remains a part of adolescent development for about half of the country's young people, although there is controversy about the extent of its harm. Given the persistence of drug demand in the face of lengthy and expensive efforts to control the markets, the National Institute of Justice asked the National Research Council to undertake a study of current research on the demand for drugs in order to help better focus national efforts to reduce that demand. This study complements the 2003 book, Informing America's Policy on Illegal Drugs by giving more attention to the sources of demand and assessing the potential of demand-side interventions to make a substantial difference to the nation's drug problems. Understanding the Demand for Illegal Drugs therefore focuses tightly on demand models in the field of economics and evaluates the data needs for advancing this relatively undeveloped area of investigation.

Understanding the Demand for Illegal Drugs

The National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program, administered by the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), are key components of the nation's food security safety net, providing free or low-cost meals to millions of school-age children each day. Under the most commonly adopted provisions, USDA reimburses districts for meals served on the basis of data collected in a "base year," during which applications are taken. After 3 or 4 years, applications must be taken again to establish new base-year data, unless the district provides evidence that local conditions have not changed. A special provision that does not require applications to be taken every few years would reduce burden, be more attractive to school districts, and potentially increase student participation by expanding access to free meals. To support the development of such a provision, the Food and Nutrition Service asked the National Academies to study the technical and operational issues that arise in using data from the American Community Survey (ACS)--a new continuous survey replacing the long-form survey of the decennial census--to obtain estimates of students who are eligible for free and reduced-price meals for schools and school districts. Such estimates would be used to develop "claiming percentages" that, if sufficiently accurate, would determine federal reimbursements to districts for the schools that provide free meals to all students under a new special provision that eliminates the base-year requirements of current provisions.

Developing and Evaluating Methods for Using American Community Survey Data to Support the School Meals Programs: Interim Report

Recent years have seen a growing tendency for social scientists to collect biological specimens such as blood, urine, and saliva as part of large-scale household surveys. By combining biological and social data, scientists are opening up new fields of inquiry and are able for the first time to address many new questions and connections. But including biospecimens in social surveys also adds a great deal of complexity and cost to the investigator's task. Along with the usual concerns about informed consent, privacy issues, and the best ways to collect, store, and share data, researchers now face a variety of issues that are much less familiar or that appear in a new light. In particular, collecting and storing human biological materials for use in social science research raises additional legal, ethical, and social issues, as well as practical issues related to the storage, retrieval, and sharing of data. For example, acquiring biological data and linking them to social science databases requires a more complex informed consent process, the development of a biorepository, the establishment of data sharing policies, and the creation of a process for deciding how the data are going to be shared and used for secondary analysis--all of which add cost to a survey and require additional time and attention from the investigators. These issues also are likely to be unfamiliar to social scientists who have not worked with biological specimens in the past. Adding to the attraction of collecting biospecimens but also to the complexity of sharing and protecting the data is the fact that this is an era of incredibly rapid gains in our understanding of complex biological and physiological phenomena. Thus the tradeoffs between the risks and opportunities of expanding access to research data are constantly changing. Conducting Biosocial Surveys offers findings and recommendations concerning the best approaches to the collection, storage, use, and sharing of biospecimens gathered in social science surveys and the digital representations of biological data derived therefrom. It is aimed at researchers interested in carrying out such surveys, their institutions, and their funding agencies.

Conducting Biosocial Surveys: Collecting, Storing, Accessing, and Protecting Biospecimens and Biodata

Planning for the 2020 census is already beginning. This book from the National Research Council examines several aspects of census planning, including questionnaire design, address updating, non-response follow-up, coverage follow-up, de-duplication of housing units and residents, editing and imputation procedures, and several other census operations. This book recommends that the Census Bureau overhaul its approach to research and development. The report urges the Bureau to set cost and quality goals for the 2020 and future censuses, improving efficiency by taking advantage of new technologies.

Envisioning the 2020 Census

Gender Differences at Critical Transitions in the Careers of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Faculty presents new and surprising findings about career differences between female and male full-time, tenure-track, and tenured faculty in science, engineering, and mathematics at the nation's top research universities. Much of this congressionally mandated book is based on two unique surveys of faculty and departments at major U.S. research universities in six fields: biology, chemistry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, mathematics, and physics. A departmental survey collected information on departmental policies, recent tenure and promotion cases, and recent hires in almost 500 departments. A faculty survey gathered information from a stratified, random sample of about 1,800 faculty on demographic characteristics, employment experiences, the allocation of institutional resources such as laboratory space, professional activities, and scholarly productivity.

This book paints a timely picture of the status of female faculty at top universities, clarifies whether male and female faculty have similar opportunities to advance and succeed in academia, challenges some commonly held views, and poses several questions still in need of answers. This book will be of special interest to university administrators and faculty, graduate students, policy makers, professional and academic societies, federal funding agencies, and others concerned with the vitality of the U.S. research base and economy.

Gender Differences at Critical Transitions in the Careers of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Faculty

The Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) is a survey of commercial buildings in the United States, mandated by Congress to provide comprehensive information about energy use in commercial buildings. In addition to energy consumption and expenditure data, the survey collects information about building characteristics, such as energy source, physical structure, equipment used, and activities performed, which provides researchers with detailed information about commercial sector energy use and how it relates to building characteristics. The CBECS is the only national source of these data, and is used for energy forecasting, program development, and policy development. At the request of the Energy Information Administration, the National Research Council is conducting a comprehensive 30-month study of the CBECS and the corresponding study of Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS). Because plans for the upcoming 2011 round of CBECS must be finalized in the near future, the panel was charged to comment as soon as possible on design and data collection options that would enable the upcoming round of this survey to better support U.S. Department of Energy program information needs, reduce respondent burden, and increase the quality and timeliness of the data. This letter responds to that request, and is limited in scope to discussing issues that the panel believes are realistic to consider in the timeframe leading up to the 2011 data collection. At the conclusion of the study, the panel will deliver its comprehensive report on the overall design and conduct of both CBECS and RECS.

Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey Letter Report

Information about the characteristics of jobs and the individuals who fill them is valuable for career guidance, reemployment counseling, workforce development, human resource management, and other purposes. To meet these needs, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) in 1998 launched the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), which consists of a content model--a framework for organizing occupational data--and an electronic database. The O*NET content model includes hundreds of descriptors of work and workers organized into domains, such as skills, knowledge, and work activities. Data are collected using a classification system that organizes job titles into 1,102 occupations. The National Center for O*NET Development (the O*NET Center) continually collects data related to these occupations. In 2008, DOL requested the National Academies to review O*NET and consider its future directions. In response, the present volume inventories and evaluates the uses of O*NET; explores the linkage of O*NET with the Standard Occupational Classification System and other data sets; and identifies ways to improve O*NET, particularly in the areas of cost-effectiveness, efficiency, and currency.

A Database for a Changing Economy: Review of the Occupational Information Network (O*NET)

Many low-income families struggle with stable housing and frequently have to move due to foreclosures, rent increases, or other financial setbacks. Children in these families can experience lasting negative effects, especially those who are young and still developing basic learning and social skills. A joint NRC-IOM committee held a workshop in June 2009 to examine these issues, highlight patterns in current research, and discuss how to develop a support system for at-risk children.

Student Mobility: Exploring the Impacts of Frequent Moves on Achievement: Summary of a Workshop

On September 22-23, 2009, the National Research Council held a workshop on the field evaluation of behavioral and cognitive sciences—based methods and tools for use in the areas of intelligence and counterintelligence. Broadly speaking, the purpose of the workshop was to discuss the best ways to take methods and tools from behavioral science and apply them to work in intelligence operations. More specifically, the workshop focused on the issue of field evaluation—the testing of these methods and tools in the context in which they will be used in order to determine if they are effective in real-world settings. This book is a summary and synthesis of the two days of presentations and discussions that took place during the workshop. The workshop participants included invited speakers and experts from a number of areas related to the behavioral sciences and the intelligence community. The discussions covered such ground as the obstacles to field evaluation of behavioral science tools and methods, the importance of field evaluation, and various lessons learned from experience with field evaluation in other areas.

Field Evaluation in the Intelligence and Counterintelligence Context: Workshop Summary

Aging populations are generating both challenges and opportunities for societies around the globe. Increases in longevity and improvements in health raise many questions. What steps can be taken to optimize physical and cognitive health and productivity across the life span? How will older people finance their retirement and health care? What will be the macroeconomic implications of an aging population? How will communities be shaped by the shift in age structure? What global interconnections will affect how each society handles the aging of its population? To address these questions, the National Academies organized a symposium, summarized in the present volume, to determine how best to contribute to an evidence-based dialogue on population aging that will shape policies and programs. Presentations in the fields of biology, public health, medicine, informatics, macroeconomics, finance, urban planning, and engineering approached the challenges of aging from many different angles. The presenters reviewed the current state of knowledge in their respective fields, identifying areas of consensus and controversy and delineating the priority questions for further research and policy development.

Grand Challenges of Our Aging Society: Workshop Summary

Two surveys of the National Science Foundation's Division of Science Resources Statistics (SRS) provide some of the most significant data available to understand research and development spending and policy in the United States. These are the Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development and the Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions. These surveys help reach conclusions about fundamental policy questions, such as whether a given field of research is adequately funded, whether funding is balanced among fields, and whether deficiencies in funding may be contributing to a loss of U.S. scientific or economic competitiveness. However, the survey data are of insufficient quality and timeliness to support many of the demands put on them. In addition the surveys are increasingly difficult to conduct in times of constrained resources, and their technological, procedural, and conceptual infrastructure has not been modernized for procedure or content. Data on Federal Research and Development Investments reviews the uses and collection of data on federal funds and federal support for science and technology and recommends future directions for the program based on an assessment of these uses and the adequacy of the surveys. The book also considers the classification structure, or taxonomy, for the fields of science and engineering.

Data on Federal Research and Development Investments: A Pathway to Modernization

Improving State Voter Registration Databases outlines several actions that are needed to help make voter registration databases capable of sharing information within state agencies and across state lines. These include short-term changes to improve education, dissemination of information, and administrative processes, and long-term changes to make improvements in data collection and entry, matching procedures, and ensure privacy and security.

Improving State Voter Registration Databases: Final Report

The Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) collects data on the number and characteristics of individuals receiving research doctoral degrees from all accredited U.S. institutions. The results of this annual survey are used to assess characteristics and trends in doctorate education and degrees. This information is vital for education and labor force planners and researchers in the federal government and in academia. To protect the confidentiality of data, new and more stringent procedures were implemented for the 2006 SED data released in 2007. These procedures suppressed many previously published data elements. The organizations and institutions that had previously relied on these data to assess progress in measure of achievement and equality suddenly found themselves without a yardstick with which to measure progress. Several initiatives were taken to address these concerns, including the workshop summarized in this volume. The goal of the workshop was to address the appropriateness of the decisions that SRS made and to help the agency and data users consider future actions that might permit release of useful data while protecting the confidentiality of the survey responses.

Protecting and Accessing Data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates: A Workshop Summary

A mismatch between the federal government's revenues and spending, now and in the foreseeable future, requires heavy borrowing, leading to a large and increasing federal debt. That increasing debt raises a serious challenge to all of the goals that various people expect their government to pursue. It also raises questions about the nation's future wealth and whether too much debt could lead to higher interest rates and even to loss of confidence in the nation's long-term ability and commitment to honor its obligations. Many analysts have concluded that the trajectory of the federal budget set by current policies cannot be sustained. In light of these projections, Choosing the Nation's Fiscal Future assesses the options and possibilities for a sustainable federal budget. This comprehensive book considers a range of policy changes that could help put the budget on a sustainable path: reforms to reduce the rate of growth in spending for Medicare and Medicaid; options to reduce the growth rate of Social Security benefits or raise payroll taxes; and changes in many other government spending programs and tax policies. The book also examines how the federal budget process could be revised to be more far sighted and to hold leaders accountable for responsible stewardship of the nation's fiscal future. Choosing the Nation's Fiscal Future will provide readers with a practical framework to assess budget proposals for their consistency with long-term fiscal stability. It will help them assess what policy changes they want, consistent with their own values and their views of the proper role of the government and within the constraints of a responsible national budget. It will show how the perhaps difficult but possible policy changes could be combined to produce a wide range of budget scenarios to bring revenues and spending into alignment for the long term. This book will be uniquely valuable to everyone concerned about the current and projected fiscal health of the nation.

Choosing the Nation's Fiscal Future

Intangible assets--which include computer software, research and development (R&D), intellectual property, workforce training, and spending to raise the efficiency and brand identification of firms--comprise a subset of services, which, in turn, accounts for three-quarters of all economic activity. Increasingly, intangibles are a principal driver of the competitiveness of U.S.-based firms, economic growth, and opportunities for U.S. workers. Yet, despite these developments, many intangible assets are not reported by companies, and, in the national economic accounts, they are treated as expenses rather than investments. On June 23, 2008, a workshop was held to examine measurement of intangibles and their role in the U.S. and global economies. The workshop, summarized in the present volume, included discussions of a range of policy-relevant topics, including: what intangibles are and how they work; the variety and scale of emerging markets in intangibles; and what the government's role should be in supporting markets and promoting investment in intangibles.

Intangible Assets: Measuring and Enhancing Their Contribution to Corporate Value and Economic Growth

Experimentation and Testing Plans for the 2010 Census: Letter Report

The deficiencies that many children experience from birth to school age--in health care, nutrition, emotional support, and intellectual stimulation, for example--play a major role in academic achievement gaps that persist for years, as well as in behavior and other problems. There are many intervention programs designed to strengthen families, provide disadvantaged children with the critical elements of healthy development, and prevent adverse experiences that can have lasting negative effects. In a climate of economic uncertainty and tight budgets, hard evidence not only that such interventions provide lasting benefits for children, their families, and society, but also that the benefits translate into savings that outweigh the costs is an extremely important asset in policy discussions. Convincing analysis of benefits and costs would provide a guide to the best ways to spend scarce resources for early childhood programs. Benefit-Cost Analysis for Early Childhood Interventions summarizes a workshop that was held to explore ways to strengthen benefit-cost analysis so it can be used to support effective policy decisions. This book describes the information and analysis that were presented at the workshop and the discussions that ensued.

Strengthening Benefit-Cost Analysis for Early Childhood Interventions: Workshop Summary

Improving the Measurement of Late-Life Disability in Population Surveys summarizes a workshop organized to draw upon recent advances to improve the measurement of physical and cognitive disability in population surveys of the elderly population. The book questions whether or not the measures of activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living used in many population surveys are sufficient as the primary survey-based indicators of late-life disability. If not, should they be refined or should they be supplemented by other measures of disability in surveys? If yes, in what ways should disability measures be changed or modified to produce population estimates of late-life disability and to monitor trends? The book also discusses what further research is needed to advance this effort.

Improving the Measurement of Late-Life Disability in Population Surveys: Beyond ADLs and IADLs: Summary of a Workshop

Beginning in 2006, the Census Bureau embarked on a program to reengineer the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to reduce its costs and improve data quality and timeliness. The Bureau also requested the National Academies to consider the advantages and disadvantages of strategies for linking administrative records and survey data, taking account of the accessibility of relevant administrative records, the operational feasibility of linking, the quality and usefulness of the linked data, and the ability to provide access to the linked data while protecting the confidentiality of individual respondents. In response, this volume first examines the history of SIPP and reviews the survey's purpose, value, strengths, and weaknesses. The book examines alternative uses of administrative records in a reengineered SIPP and, finally, considers innovations in SIPP design and data collection, including the proposed use of annual interviews with an event history calendar.

Reengineering the Survey of Income and Program Participation

Vital statistics, the records of birth and death, are a critical national information resource for understanding public health. Over the past few decades, the specific program that gathers the data has evolved into a complex cooperative program between the federal and state governments for social measurement. The Vital Statistics Cooperative Program (VSCP) is currently maintained by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The U.S. vital statistics system relies on the original information reported by myriad individuals, channeled through varying state and local information systems, and coordinated and processed by a federal statistical agency that has experienced relatively flat funding for many years. The challenges facing the vital statistics system and the continuing importance of the resulting data make it an important topic for examination. A workshop, held by the National Academies and summarized in this volume, considered the importance of adequate vital statistics. In particular, the workshop assessed both current and emerging uses of the data, considered the methodological and organizational features of compiling vital data, and identified possible visions for the vital statistics program.

Vital Statistics: Summary of a Workshop

Depression is a widespread condition affecting approximately 7.5 million parents in the U.S. each year and may be putting at least 15 million children at risk for adverse health outcomes. Based on evidentiary studies, major depression in either parent can interfere with parenting quality and increase the risk of children developing mental, behavioral and social problems. Depression in Parents, Parenting, and Children highlights disparities in the prevalence, identification, treatment, and prevention of parental depression among different sociodemographic populations. It also outlines strategies for effective intervention and identifies the need for a more interdisciplinary approach that takes biological, psychological, behavioral, interpersonal, and social contexts into consideration.

A major challenge to the effective management of parental depression is developing a treatment and prevention strategy that can be introduced within a two-generation framework, conducive for parents and their children. Thus far, both the federal and state response to the problem has been fragmented, poorly funded, and lacking proper oversight. This study examines options for widespread implementation of best practices as well as strategies that can be effective in diverse service settings for diverse populations of children and their families.

The delivery of adequate screening and successful detection and treatment of a depressive illness and prevention of its effects on parenting and the health of children is a formidable challenge to modern health care systems. This study offers seven solid recommendations designed to increase awareness about and remove barriers to care for both the depressed adult and prevention of effects in the child. The report will be of particular interest to federal health officers, mental and behavioral health providers in diverse parts of health care delivery systems, health policy staff, state legislators, and the general public.

Depression in Parents, Parenting, and Children: Opportunities to Improve Identification, Treatment, and Prevention

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) of the U.S. Department of Justice is one of the smallest of the U.S. principal statistical agencies but shoulders one of the most expansive and detailed legal mandates among those agencies. Ensuring the Quality, Credibility, and Relevance of U.S. Justice Statistics examines the full range of BJS programs and suggests priorities for data collection. BJS's data collection portfolio is a solid body of work, well justified by public information needs or legal requirements and a commendable effort to meet its broad mandate given less-than-commensurate fiscal resources. The book identifies some major gaps in the substantive coverage of BJS data, but notes that filling those gaps would require increased and sustained support in terms of staff and fiscal resources. In suggesting strategic goals for BJS, the book argues that the bureau's foremost goal should be to establish and maintain a strong position of independence. To avoid structural or political interference in BJS work, the report suggests changing the administrative placement of BJS within the Justice Department and making the BJS directorship a fixed-term appointment. In its thirtieth year, BJS can look back on a solid body of accomplishment; this book suggests further directions for improvement to give the nation the justice statistics--and the BJS--that it deserves.

Ensuring the Quality, Credibility, and Relevance of U.S. Justice Statistics

Mental health and substance use disorders among children, youth, and young adults are major threats to the health and well-being of younger populations which often carryover into adulthood. The costs of treatment for mental health and addictive disorders, which create an enormous burden on the affected individuals, their families, and society, have stimulated increasing interest in prevention practices that can impede the onset or reduce the severity of the disorders.

Prevention practices have emerged in a variety of settings, including programs for selected at-risk populations (such as children and youth in the child welfare system), school-based interventions, interventions in primary care settings, and community services designed to address a broad array of mental health needs and populations.

Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People updates a 1994 Institute of Medicine book, Reducing Risks for Mental Disorders , focusing special attention on the research base and program experience with younger populations that have emerged since that time.

Researchers, such as those involved in prevention science, mental health, education, substance abuse, juvenile justice, health, child and youth development, as well as policy makers involved in state and local mental health, substance abuse, welfare, education, and justice will depend on this updated information on the status of research and suggested directions for the field of mental health and prevention of disorders.

Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People: Progress and Possibilities

Socioeconomic conditions are known to be major determinants of health at all stages of life, from pregnancy through childhood and adulthood. "Life-course epidemiology" has added a further dimension to the understanding of the social determinants of health by showing an association between early-life socioeconomic conditions and adult health-related behaviors, morbidity, and mortality. Sensitive and critical periods of development, such as the prenatal period and early childhood, present significant opportunities to influence lifelong health. Yet simply intervening in the health system is insufficient to influence health early in the life course. Community-level approaches to affect key determinants of health are also critical. Many of these issues were raised in the 1995 National Academies book, Children's Health, the Nation's Wealth. The present volume builds upon this earlier book with presentations and examples from the field. Focusing on Children's Health describes the evidence linking early childhood life conditions and adult health; discusses the contribution of the early life course to observed racial and ethnic disparities in health; and highlights successful models that engage both community factors and health care to affect life course development.

Focusing on Children's Health: Community Approaches to Addressing Health Disparities: Workshop Summary

Scores of talented and dedicated people serve the forensic science community, performing vitally important work. However, they are often constrained by lack of adequate resources, sound policies, and national support. It is clear that change and advancements, both systematic and scientific, are needed in a number of forensic science disciplines to ensure the reliability of work, establish enforceable standards, and promote best practices with consistent application. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward provides a detailed plan for addressing these needs and suggests the creation of a new government entity, the National Institute of Forensic Science, to establish and enforce standards within the forensic science community.

The benefits of improving and regulating the forensic science disciplines are clear: assisting law enforcement officials, enhancing homeland security, and reducing the risk of wrongful conviction and exoneration. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States gives a full account of what is needed to advance the forensic science disciplines, including upgrading of systems and organizational structures, better training, widespread adoption of uniform and enforceable best practices, and mandatory certification and accreditation programs.

While this book provides an essential call-to-action for congress and policy makers, it also serves as a vital tool for law enforcement agencies, criminal prosecutors and attorneys, and forensic science educators.

Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward

Social Network Analysis (SNA) is the identification of the relationships and attributes of members, key actors, and groups that social networks comprise. The National Research Council, at the request of the Department of Homeland Security, held a two-day workshop on the use of SNA for the purpose of building community disaster resilience. The workshop, summarized in this volume, was designed to provide guidance to the DHS on a potential research agenda that would increase the effectiveness of SNA for improving community disaster resilience. The workshop explored the state of the art in SNA and its applications in the identification, construction, and strengthening of networks within U.S. communities. Workshop participants discussed current work in SNA focused on characterizing networks; the theories, principles and research applicable to the design or strengthening of networks; the gaps in knowledge that prevent the application of SNA to the construction of networks; and research areas that could fill those gaps. Elements of a research agenda to support the design, development, and implementation of social networks for the specific purpose of strengthening community resilience against natural and human-made disasters were discussed.

Applications of Social Network Analysis for Building Community Disaster Resilience: Workshop Summary

Advances and major investments in the field of neuroscience can enhance traditional behavioral science approaches to training, learning, and other applications of value to the Army. Neural-behavioral indicators offer new ways to evaluate how well an individual trainee has assimilated mission critical knowledge and skills, and can also be used to provide feedback on the readiness of soldiers for combat. Current methods for matching individual capabilities with the requirements for performing high-value Army assignments do not include neuropsychological, psychophysiological, neurochemical or neurogenetic components; simple neuropsychological testing could greatly improve training success rates for these assignments. Opportunities in Neuroscience for Future Army Applications makes 17 recommendations that focus on utilizing current scientific research and development initiatives to improve performance and efficiency, collaborating with pharmaceutical companies to employ neuropharmaceuticals for general sustainment or enhancement of soldier performance, and improving cognitive and behavioral performance using interdisciplinary approaches and technological investments. An essential guide for the Army, this book will also be of interest to other branches of military, national security and intelligence agencies, academic and commercial researchers, pharmaceutical companies, and others interested in applying the rapid advances in neuroscience to the performance of individual and group tasks.

Opportunities in Neuroscience for Future Army Applications

The scientific research enterprise is built on a foundation of trust. Scientists trust that the results reported by others are valid. Society trusts that the results of research reflect an honest attempt by scientists to describe the world accurately and without bias. But this trust will endure only if the scientific community devotes itself to exemplifying and transmitting the values associated with ethical scientific conduct. On Being a Scientist was designed to supplement the informal lessons in ethics provided by research supervisors and mentors. The book describes the ethical foundations of scientific practices and some of the personal and professional issues that researchers encounter in their work. It applies to all forms of research—whether in academic, industrial, or governmental settings-and to all scientific disciplines. This third edition of On Being a Scientist reflects developments since the publication of the original edition in 1989 and a second edition in 1995. A continuing feature of this edition is the inclusion of a number of hypothetical scenarios offering guidance in thinking about and discussing these scenarios. On Being a Scientist is aimed primarily at graduate students and beginning researchers, but its lessons apply to all scientists at all stages of their scientific careers.

On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research: Third Edition

Since 1992, the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) has produced a book on principles and practices for a federal statistical agency, updating the document every 4 years to provide a current edition to newly appointed cabinet secretaries at the beginning of each presidential administration. This fourth edition presents and comments on four basic principles that statistical agencies must embody in order to carry out their mission fully: (1) They must produce objective data that are relevant to policy issues, (2) they must achieve and maintain credibility among data users, (3) they must achieve and maintain trust among data providers, and (4) they must achieve and maintain a strong position of independence from the appearance and reality of political control. The book also discusses 11 important practices that are means for statistical agencies to live up to the four principles. These practices include a commitment to quality and professional practice and an active program of methodological and substantive research. This fourth edition adds the principle that statistical agencies must operate from a strong position of independence and the practice that agencies must have ongoing internal and external evaluations of their programs.

Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency: Fourth Edition

Health and Safety Needs of Older Workers

Evaluation of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence: Letter Report

The census coverage measurement programs have historically addressed three primary objectives: (1) to inform users about the quality of the census counts; (2) to help identify sources of error to improve census taking, and (3) to provide alternative counts based on information from the coverage measurement program. In planning the 1990 and 2000 censuses, the main objective was to produce alternative counts based on the measurement of net coverage error. For the 2010 census coverage measurement program, the Census Bureau will deemphasize that goal, and is instead planning to focus on the second goal of improving census processes.

This book, which details the findings of the National Research Council's Panel on Coverage Evaluation and Correlation Bias, strongly supports the Census Bureau's change in goal. However, the panel finds that the current plans for data collection, data analysis, and data products are still too oriented towards measurement of net coverage error to fully exploit this new focus. Although the Census Bureau has taken several important steps to revise data collection and analysis procedures and data products, this book recommends further steps to enhance the value of coverage measurement for the improvement of future census processes.

Coverage Measurement in the 2010 Census

Disaster Risk Management in an Age of Climate Change: A Summary of the April 3, 2008 Workshop of the Disasters Roundtable

Changes over time in the levels and patterns of crime have significant consequences that affect not only the criminal justice system but also other critical policy sectors. Yet compared with such areas as health status, housing, and employment, the nation lacks timely information and comprehensive research on crime trends. Descriptive information and explanatory research on crime trends across the nation that are not only accurate, but also timely, are pressing needs in the nation's crime-control efforts. In April 2007, the National Research Council held a two-day workshop to address key substantive and methodological issues underlying the study of crime trends and to lay the groundwork for a proposed multiyear NRC panel study of these issues. Six papers were commissioned from leading researchers and discussed at the workshop by experts in sociology, criminology, law, economics, and statistics. The authors revised their papers based on the discussants' comments, and the papers were then reviewed again externally. The six final workshop papers are the basis of this volume, which represents some of the most serious thinking and research on crime trends currently available.

Understanding Crime Trends: Workshop Report

Designed to protect the privacy of individual student test scores, grades, and other education records, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 places limits the access of educational researches, and slows research not only in education but also in related fields, such as child welfare and health. Recent trends have converged to greatly increase the supply of data on student performance in public schools. Education policies now emphasize education standards and testing to measure progress toward those standards, as well as rigorous education research. At the same time, private firms and public agencies, including schools, have replaced most paper records with electronic data systems. Although these databases represent a rich source of longitudinal data, researchers' access to the individually identifiable data they contain is limited by the privacy protections of FERPA. To explore possibilities for data access and confidentiality in compliance with FERPA and with the Common Rule for the Protection of Human Subjects, the National Academies and the American Educational Research Association convened the Workshop on Protecting Student Records and Facilitating Education Research in April 2008.

Protecting Student Records and Facilitating Education Research: A Workshop Summary

In March 2008, the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies held a workshop to assist the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) with next steps as it develops plans to produce a satellite health care account. This account, designed to improve its measurement of economic activity in the medical care sector, will benefit health care policy.

The purpose of the workshop, summarized in this volume, was to elicit expert guidance on strategies to implement the objectives of the BEA program. The ultimate objectives of the program are to:

• compile medical care spending information by type of disease-a system more directly useful for measuring health care inputs, outputs, and productivity than current estimates of spending by type of provider;
• produce a comprehensive set of accounts for health care-sector income, expenditure, and product;
• develop medical care price and real output measures that will help analysts to break out changes in the delivery of health care from changes in the prices of that care;
• and coordinate BEA and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) health expenditure statistics.

Strategies for a BEA Satellite Health Care Account: Summary of a Workshop

Well-planned and effective assessment can inform teaching and program improvement, and contribute to better outcomes for children. This book affirms that assessments can make crucial contributions to the improvement of children's well-being, but only if they are well designed, implemented effectively, developed in the context of systematic planning, and are interpreted and used appropriately. Otherwise, assessment of children and programs can have negative consequences for both. The value of assessments therefore requires fundamental attention to their purpose and the design of the larger systems in which they are used.

Early Childhood Assessment addresses these issues by identifying the important outcomes for children from birth to age 5 and the quality and purposes of different techniques and instruments for developmental assessments.

Early Childhood Assessment: Why, What, and How

Emerging Cognitive Neuroscience and Related Technologies , from the National Research Council, identifies and explores several specific research areas that have implications for U.S. national security, and should therefore be monitored consistently by the intelligence community. These areas include:

• neurophysiological advances in detecting and measuring indicators of psychological states and intentions of individuals
• the development of drugs or technologies that can alter human physical or cognitive abilities
• advances in real-time brain imaging
• breakthroughs in high-performance computing and neuronal modeling that could allow researchers to develop systems which mimic functions of the human brain, particularly the ability to organize disparate forms of data.

As these fields continue to grow, it will be imperative that the intelligence community be able to identify scientific advances relevant to national security when they occur. To do so will require adequate funding, intelligence analysts with advanced training in science and technology, and increased collaboration with the scientific community, particularly academia.

A key tool for the intelligence community, this book will also be a useful resource for the health industry, the military, and others with a vested interest in technologies such as brain imaging and cognitive or physical enhancers.

Emerging Cognitive Neuroscience and Related Technologies

All U.S. agencies with counterterrorism programs that collect or "mine" personal data -- such as phone records or Web sites visited -- should be required to evaluate the programs' effectiveness, lawfulness, and impacts on privacy. A framework is offered that agencies can use to evaluate such information-based programs, both classified and unclassified. The book urges Congress to re-examine existing privacy law to assess how privacy can be protected in current and future programs and recommends that any individuals harmed by violations of privacy be given a meaningful form of redress.

Two specific technologies are examined: data mining and behavioral surveillance. Regarding data mining, the book concludes that although these methods have been useful in the private sector for spotting consumer fraud, they are less helpful for counterterrorism because so little is known about what patterns indicate terrorist activity. Regarding behavioral surveillance in a counterterrorist context, the book concludes that although research and development on certain aspects of this topic are warranted, there is no scientific consensus on whether these techniques are ready for operational use at all in counterterrorism.

Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists: A Framework for Program Assessment

Ballistic Imaging

Using the American Community Survey for the National Science Foundation's Science and Engineering Workforce Statistics Programs

This book evaluates the research plan for the NCS, by assessing the scientific rigor of the study and the extent to which it is being carried out with methods, measures, and collection of data and specimens to maximize the scientific yield of the study.

The National Children's Study Research Plan: A Review

Science and Technology and the Future Development of Societies includes the presentations made at the workshop and summarizes the discussions that followed the presentations. Topics of the workshop included science and society issues, the role of science and engineering in development; obstacles and opportunities in the application of science and technology to development; scientific thinking of decision makers; management and utilization of scientific knowledge; and science, society, and education. This book also provides useful background for the further development of interactions of Western scientists and educators with Iranian specialists.

Science and Technology and the Future Development of Societies: International Workshop Proceedings

Behavioral Modeling and Simulation: From Individuals to Societies

It is easy to underestimate how little was known about crimes and victims before the findings of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) became common wisdom. In the late 1960s, knowledge of crimes and their victims came largely from reports filed by local police agencies as part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system, as well as from studies of the files held by individual police departments. Criminologists understood that there existed a "dark figure" of crime consisting of events not reported to the police. However, over the course of the last decade, the effectiveness of the NCVS has been undermined by the demands of conducting an increasingly expensive survey in an effectively flat-line budgetary environment. Surveying Victims: Options for Conducting the National Crime Victimization Survey , reviews the programs of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS.) Specifically, it explores alternative options for conducting the NCVS, which is the largest BJS program. This book describes various design possibilities and their implications relative to three basic goals; flexibility, in terms of both content and analysis; utility for gathering information on crimes that are not well reported to police; and small-domain estimation, including providing information on states or localities. This book finds that, as currently configured and funded, the NCVS is not achieving and cannot achieve BJS's mandated goal to "collect and analyze data that will serve as a continuous indication of the incidence and attributes of crime." Accordingly, Surveying Victims recommends that BJS be afforded the budgetary resources necessary to generate accurate measure of victimization.

Surveying Victims: Options for Conducting the National Crime Victimization Survey

State Voter Registration Databases: Immediate Actions and Future Improvements: Interim Report

Over the past five years, business and education groups have issued a series of reports indicating that the skill demands of work are rising, due to rapid technological change and increasing global competition. Researchers have begun to study changing workplace skill demands. Some economists have found that technological change is "skill-biased," increasing demand for highly skilled workers and contributing to the growing gap in wages between college-educated workers and those with less education. However, other studies of workplace skill demands have reached different conclusions. These differences result partly from differences in disciplinary perspective, research methods, and datasets. The findings of all of these strands of research on changing skill demands are limited by available methods and data sources. Because case study research focuses on individual work sites or occupations, its results may not be representative of larger industry or national trends. At a more basic level, there is some disagreement in the literature about how to define "skill". In part because of such disagreements, researchers have used a variety of measures of skill, making it difficult to compare findings from different studies or to accumulate knowledge of skill trends over time. In the context of this increasing discussion, the National Research Council held a workshop to explore the available research evidence related to two important guiding questions: What are the strengths and weaknesses of different research methods and data sources for providing insights about current and future changes in skill demands? What support does the available evidence (given the strengths and weaknesses of the methods and data sources) provide for the proposition that the skills required for the 21st century workplace will be meaningfully different from earlier eras and will require corresponding changes in educational preparation?

Research on Future Skill Demands: A Workshop Summary

For the past 50 years, the Census Bureau has conducted experiments and evaluations with every decennial census involving field data collection during which alternatives to current census processes are assessed for a subset of the population. An "evaluation" is usually a post hoc analysis of data collected as part of the decennial census processing to determine whether individual steps in the census operated as expected. The 2010 Program for Evaluations and Experiments, known as CPEX, has enormous potential to reduce costs and increase effectiveness of the 2020 census by reducing the initial list of potential research topics from 52 to 6. The panel identified three priority experiments for inclusion in the 2010 census to assist 2020 census planning: (1) an experiment on the use of the Internet for data collection; (2) an experiment on the use of administrative records for various census purposes; and (3) an experiment (or set of experiments) on features of the census questionnaire. They also came up with 11 recommendations to improve efficiency and quality of data collection including allowing use of the Internet for data submission and including one or more alternate questionnaire experiments to examine things such as the representation of race and ethnicity.

Experimentation and Evaluation Plans for the 2010 Census: Interim Report

The current state of science in violence prevention reveals progress, promise, and a number of remaining challenges. In order to fully examine the issue of global violence prevention, the Institute of Medicine in collaboration with Global Violence Prevention Advocacy, convened a workshop and released the workshop summary entitled, Violence Prevention in Low-and Middle-Income Countries .

The workshop brought together participants with a wide array of expertise in fields related to health, criminal justice, public policy, and economic development, to study and articulate specific opportunities for the U.S. government and other leaders with resources to more effectively support programming for prevention of the many types of violence. Participants highlighted the need for the timely development of an integrated, science-based approach and agenda to support research, clinical practice, program development, policy analysis, and advocacy for violence prevention.

Violence Prevention in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Finding a Place on the Global Agenda: Workshop Summary

Human behavior forms the nucleus of military effectiveness. Humans operating in the complex military system must possess the knowledge, skills, abilities, aptitudes, and temperament to perform their roles effectively in a reliable and predictable manner, and effective military management requires understanding of how these qualities can be best provided and assessed. Scientific research in this area is critical to understanding leadership, training and other personnel issues, social interactions and organizational structures within the military.

The U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI) asked the National Research Council to provide an agenda for basic behavioral and social research focused on applications in both the short and long-term. The committee responded by recommending six areas of research on the basis of their relevance, potential impact, and timeliness for military needs: intercultural competence; teams in complex environments; technology-based training; nonverbal behavior; emotion; and behavioral neurophysiology. The committee suggests doubling the current budget for basic research for the behavioral and social sciences across U.S. military research agencies. The additional funds can support approximately 40 new projects per year across the committee's recommended research areas.

Human Behavior in Military Contexts includes committee reports and papers that demonstrate areas of stimulating, ongoing research in the behavioral and social sciences that can enrich the military's ability to recruit, train, and enhance the performance of its personnel, both organizationally and in its many roles in other cultures.

Human Behavior in Military Contexts

International Collaborations in Behavioral and Social Sciences: Report of a Workshop

Biosocial Surveys

Every day, about 1,600 people are released from prisons in the United States. Of these 600,000 new releasees every year, about 480,000 are subject to parole or some other kind of postrelease supervision. Prison releasees represent a challenge, both to themselves and to the communities to which they return. Will the releasees see parole as an opportunity to be reintegrated into society, with jobs and homes and supportive families and friends? Or will they commit new crimes or violate the terms of their parole contracts? If so, will they be returned to prison or placed under more stringent community supervision? Will the communities to which they return see them as people to be reintegrated or people to be avoided? And, the institution of parole itself is challenged with three different functions: to facilitate reintegration for parolees who are ready for rehabilitation; to deter crime; and to apprehend those parolees who commit new crimes and return them to prison.

Parole, Desistance from Crime, and Community Integration

The Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) is the federal government's primary source of information on the financial condition, production practices, and resource use on farms, as well as the economic well-being of America's farm households. ARMS data are important to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and to congressional, administration, and industry decision makers when they must weigh alternative policies and programs that touch the farm sector or affect farm families.

Understanding American Agriculture: Challenges for the Agricultural Resource Management Survey

State and Local Government Statistics at a Crossroads

More than 7 million recipients of Social Security benefits have a representative payee—a person or an organization—to receive or manage their benefits. These payees manage Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance funds for retirees, surviving spouses, children, and the disabled, and they manage Supplemental Security Income payments to disabled, blind, or elderly people with limited income and resources. More than half of the beneficiaries with a representative payee are minor children; the rest are adults, often elderly, whose mental or physical incapacity prevents them from acting on their own behalf, and people who have been deemed incapable under state guardianship laws. The funds are managed through the Representative Payee Program of the Social Security Administration (SSA). The funds total almost $4 billion a month, and there are more than 5.3 million representative payees. In 2004 Congress required the commissioner of the SSA to conduct a one-time survey to determine how payments to individual and organizational representative payees are being managed and used on behalf of the beneficiaries.1 To carry out this work, the SSA requested a study by the National Academies, which appointed the Committee on Social Security Representative Payees. This report is the result of that study.

Improving the Social Security Representative Payee Program: Serving Beneficiaries and Minimizing Misuse (1) assesses the extent to which representative payees are not performing their duties in accordance with SSA standards for representative payee conduct, (2) explains whether the representative payment policies are practical and appropriate, (3) identifies the types of representative payees that have the highest risk of misuse of benefits, and (4) finds ways to reduce the risk of misuse of benefits and ways to better protect beneficiaries.

Improving the Social Security Representative Payee Program: Serving Beneficiaries and Minimizing Misuse

Using the American Community Survey: Benefits and Challenges

Engaging Privacy and Information Technology in a Digital Age

Human-System Integration in the System Development Process: A New Look

Tools and Methods for Estimating Populations at Risk from Natural Disasters and Complex Humanitarian Crises

The Social Security Administration (SSA) provides Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits to disabled persons of less than full retirement age and to their dependents. SSA also provides Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments to disabled persons who are under age 65. For both programs, disability is defined as a "medically determinable physical or mental impairment" that prevents an individual from engaging in any substantial gainful activity and is expected to last at least 12 months or result in death. Assuming that an applicant meets the nonmedical requirements for eligibility (e.g., quarters of covered employment for SSDI; income and asset limits for SSI), the file is sent to the Disability Determination Services (DDS) agency operated by the state in which he or she lives for a determination of medical eligibility. SSA reimburses the states for the full costs of the DDSs. The DDSs apply a sequential decision process specified by SSA to make an initial decision whether a claim should be allowed or denied. If the claim is denied, the decision can be appealed through several levels of administrative and judicial review. On average, the DDSs allow 37 percent of the claims they adjudicate through the five-step process. A third of those denied decide to appeal, and three-quarters of the appeals result in allowances. Nearly 30 percent of the allowances made each year are made during the appeals process after an initial denial. In 2003, the Commissioner of Social Security announced her intent to develop a "new approach" to disability determination. In late 2004, SSA asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to help in two areas related to its initiatives to improve the disability decision process: 1) Improvements in the criteria for determining the severity of impairments, and 2) Improvements in the use of medical expertise in the disability decision process. This interim report provides preliminary recommendations addressing the three tasks that relate to medical expertise issues, with a special focus on the appropriate qualifications of medical and psychological experts involved in disability decision making. After further information gathering and analyses of the effectiveness of the disability decision process in identifying those who qualify for benefits and those who do not, the committee may refine its recommendations concerning medical and psychological expertise in the final report. The final report will address a number of issues with potential implications for the qualifications of the medical experts involved in the disability decision process.

Improving the Social Security Disability Decision Process

Research and Plans for Coverage Measurement in the 2010 Census: Interim Assessment

Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering

Understanding Business Dynamics: An Integrated Data System for America's Future

A Strategy for Assessing Science: Behavioral and Social Research on Aging

From a public health perspective, motor vehicle crashes are among the most serious problems facing teenagers. Even after more than six months of being licensed to drive alone, teens are two to three times more likely to be in a fatal crash than are the more experienced drivers. Crash rates are significantly higher for male drivers, and young people in the United States are at greater risk of dying or being injured in an automobile than their peers around the world. In fact, in 2003 motor vehicle crashes was the leading cause of death for youth ages 16-20 in the United States.

Understanding how and why teen motor vehicle crashes happen is key to developing countermeasures to reduce their number. Applying this understanding to the development of prevention strategies holds significant promise for improving safety but many of these efforts are thwarted by a lack of evidence as to which prevention strategies are most effective. Preventing Teen Motor Crashes presents data from a multidisciplinary group that shared information on emerging technology for studying, monitoring, and controlling driving behavior. The book provides an overview of the factual information that was presented, as well as the insights that emerged about the role researchers can play in reducing and preventing teen motor crashes.

Preventing Teen Motor Crashes: Contributions from the Behavioral and Social Sciences: Workshop Report

Land remote sensing: the use of space-based satellite technologies to obtain information on environmental variables such as land-use and land-covering combination with other types of data can provide information on changes in the Earth's surface and atmosphere that are critical for forecasting and responding to human welfare issues, such as disease outbreaks, food shortages, and floods.

This book summarizes a workshop on the potential contributions of remotely sensed data to land-use and land-cover change and ways to use physical, biological, temporal, and social characteristics of particular locations to support decisions about human welfare. The discussions focused on human health and food security, two aspects of human welfare in which remotely-sensed environmental conditions play a key role. Examples illustrating the possibilities for applying remote sensing for societal benefit are included throughout the report. As a result of the workshop, three themes were identified that, if fostered, could help realize the potential for the application of land remote sensing to decisions about human welfare: (1) integration of spatial data on environmental conditions derived from remote sensing with socioeconomic data; (2) communication between remote sensing scientists and decision makers to determine effective use of land remote sensing data for human welfare issues; and (3) acquisition and access to long-term environmental data and development of capacity to interpret these data.

Contributions of Land Remote Sensing for Decisions About Food Security and Human Health: Workshop Report

Once, Only Once, and in the Right Place: Residence Rules in the Decennial Census

In sub-Saharan Africa, older people make up a relatively small fraction of the total population and are supported primarily by family and other kinship networks. They have traditionally been viewed as repositories of information and wisdom, and are critical pillars of the community but as the HIV/AIDS pandemic destroys family systems, the elderly increasingly have to deal with the loss of their own support while absorbing the additional responsibilities of caring for their orphaned grandchildren.

Aging in Sub-Saharan Africa explores ways to promote U.S. research interests and to augment the sub-Saharan governments' capacity to address the many challenges posed by population aging. Five major themes are explored in the book such as the need for a basic definition of "older person," the need for national governments to invest more in basic research and the coordination of data collection across countries, and the need for improved dialogue between local researchers and policy makers.

This book makes three major recommendations: 1) the development of a research agenda 2) enhancing research opportunity and implementation and 3) the translation of research findings.

Aging in Sub-Saharan Africa: Recommendations for Furthering Research

Biological, Social, and Organizational Components of Success for Women in Academic Science and Engineering: Report of a Workshop

Genes, Behavior, and the Social Environment: Moving Beyond the Nature/Nurture Debate

Community Disaster Resilience: A Summary of the March 20, 2006 Workshop of the Disasters Roundtable

This report is the proceedings of the seventh biennial meeting of the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies. (The international Network, created in 1993, consists of 70 national academies and scholarly societies around the world that work to address serious science and human rights issues of mutual concern. The Committee on Human Rights of the U.S. National Academies serves as the Network's secretariat.) The meeting was held on May 18 and 20, 2005, at the Royal Society in London. The main events of the meeting were a semipublic symposium, entitled Scientists, Human Rights, and Prospects for the Future, and a workshop on a variety of topics related to science, engineering, and health in the human rights context.

International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies: Proceedings - Symposium and Seventh Biennial Meeting, London, May 18-20, 2005

U.S. business data are used broadly, providing the building blocks for key national—as well as regional and local—statistics measuring aggregate income and output, employment, investment, prices, and productivity. Beyond aggregate statistics, individual- and firm-level data are used for a wide range of microanalyses by academic researchers and by policy makers. In the United States, data collection and production efforts are conducted by a decentralized system of statistical agencies. This apparatus yields an extensive array of data that, particularly when made available in the form of microdata, provides an unparalleled resource for policy analysis and research on social issues and for the production of economic statistics. However, the decentralized nature of the statistical system also creates challenges to efficient data collection, to containment of respondent burden, and to maintaining consistency of terms and units of measurement. It is these challenges that raise to paramount importance the practice of effective data sharing among the statistical agencies. With this as the backdrop, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) asked the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies to convene a workshop to discuss interagency business data sharing. The workshop was held October 21, 2005. This report is a summary of the discussions of that workshop. The workshop focused on the benefits of data sharing to two groups of stakeholders: the statistical agencies themselves and downstream data users. Presenters were asked to highlight untapped opportunities for productive data sharing that cannot yet be exploited because of regulatory or legislative constraints. The most prominently discussed example was that of tax data needed to reconcile the two primary business lists use by the statistical agencies.

Improving Business Statistics Through Interagency Data Sharing: Summary of a Workshop

Social science research conducted since the late 1970's has contributed greatly to society's ability to mitigate and adapt to natural, technological, and willful disasters. However, as evidenced by Hurricane Katrina, the Indian Ocean tsunami, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, and other recent events, hazards and disaster research and its application could be improved greatly. In particular, more studies should be pursued that compare how the characteristics of different types of events—including predictability, forewarning, magnitude, and duration of impact—affect societal vulnerability and response. This book includes more than thirty recommendations for the hazards and disaster community.

Facing Hazards and Disasters: Understanding Human Dimensions

Snooze... or Lose!: 10 "No-War" Ways to Improve Your Teen's Sleep Habits

The presence and intensity of media influences television, radio, music, computers, films, videos, and the Internet are increasingly recognized as an important part of the social ecology of children and youth, and these influences have become more visible and volatile in recent decades. Research that explores the level and effects of media influences calls for measurements of the quantity and character of exposure to a variety of potentially overlapping media sources, an analysis of the content of the media output, and examination of the social context and relationships that are associated with the media experience. Recognizing the importance of this research, the Board on Children, Youth, and Families, under the auspices of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine, and with the sponsorship of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, held a workshop in March 2006. Its purpose was twofold: to examine the quality of the measures used in studies of the effects of media on children's health and development and to identify gaps in both research and practice. The goal was for a variety of experts to consider steps and strategies that could move this research forward and improve its utility for helping parents, practitioners, and policy makers guide young people in navigating a media-rich environment. Studying Media Effects on Children and Youth provides a summary of that discussion, supplemented with information from two papers prepared for the workshop. It begins with an examination of the potential impact of media exposure, followed by a description of the basic research questions and the methods currently used to study them. Methodological questions and challenges and theoretical approaches are described; they are discussed from the perspective of other kinds of epidemiological research. This report closes with a discussion of future directions for the field.

Studying Media Effects on Children and Youth: Improving Methods and Measures: Workshop Summary

Discussion of the Committee on Daubert Standards: Summary of Meetings

Although more women than men participate in higher education in the United States, the same is not true when it comes to pursuing careers in science and engineering. To Recruit and Advance: Women Students and Faculty in Science and Engineering identifies and discusses better practices for recruitment, retention, and promotion for women scientists and engineers in academia. Seeking to move beyond yet another catalog of challenges facing the advancement of women in academic science and engineering, this book describes actions actually taken by universities to improve the situation for women. Serving as a guide, it examines the following:

• Recruitment of female undergraduates and graduate students.
• Ways of reducing attrition in science and engineering degree programs in the early undergraduate years.
• Improving retention rates of women at critical transition points—from undergraduate to graduate student, from graduate student to postdoc, from postdoc to first faculty position.
• Recruitment of women for tenure-track positions.
• Increasing the tenure rate for women faculty.
• Increasing the number of women in administrative positions.

This guide offers numerous solutions that may be of use to other universities and colleges and will be an essential resource for anyone interested in improving the position of women students, faculty, deans, provosts, and presidents in science and engineering.

To Recruit and Advance: Women Students and Faculty in Science and Engineering

The United States is viewed by the world as a country with plenty of food, yet not all households in America are food secure, meaning access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. A proportion of the population experiences food insecurity at some time in a given year because of food deprivation and lack of access to food due to economic resource constraints. Still, food insecurity in the United States is not of the same intensity as in some developing countries. Since 1995 the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has annually published statistics on the extent of food insecurity and food insecurity with hunger in U.S. households. These estimates are based on a survey measure developed by the U.S. Food Security Measurement Project, an ongoing collaboration among federal agencies, academic researchers, and private organizations. USDA requested the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies to convene a panel of experts to undertake a two-year study in two phases to review at this 10-year mark the concepts and methodology for measuring food insecurity and hunger and the uses of the measure. In Phase 2 of the study the panel was to consider in more depth the issues raised in Phase 1 relating to the concepts and methods used to measure food security and make recommendations as appropriate. The Committee on National Statistics appointed a panel of 10 experts to examine the above issues. In order to provide timely guidance to USDA, the panel issued an interim Phase 1 report, Measuring Food Insecurity and Hunger: Phase 1 Report. That report presented the panel's preliminary assessments of the food security concepts and definitions; the appropriateness of identifying hunger as a severe range of food insecurity in such a survey-based measurement method; questions for measuring these concepts; and the appropriateness of a household survey for regularly monitoring food security in the U.S. population. It provided interim guidance for the continued production of the food security estimates. This final report primarily focuses on the Phase 2 charge. The major findings and conclusions based on the panel's review and deliberations are summarized.

Food Insecurity and Hunger in the United States: An Assessment of the Measure

Valuing Health for Regulatory Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

Scholars--and adults in general--have pondered for centuries the mysterious processes that influence the ways in which children gradually become adults. The development of professional organizations and journals devoted to adolescence, as well as increasing appreciation in academia and the world of policy for the importance of this phase of life, have helped this field catch up with the pace of research on other stages of human development particularly infancy and early childhood. The development of a comprehensive review of research on adolescence depends in large part on the perceived need for such a synthesis and the extent to which different research fields as well as policy and practice would benefit from such an effort. To address these issues, the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine, through the Board on Children, Youth, and Families, held a two-day workshop in September 2005. The workshop was designed as an opportunity for an interdisciplinary group to explore the different strands of research that contribute to understanding adolescence. In the brief time available, the group was not asked to address the entire range of issues related to adolescent health and development, but rather to provide an initial explanation of issues that a longer term study might address. A Study of Interactions summarizes the major themes discussed at the workshop. It begins with an overview of what adolescence is and current views of the processes that shape development in the second decade of life. It explores the transdisciplinary research issues already presented in this field, as well as issues raised in discussions of goals for the field's future. A closing section describes the presenters' thoughts on the feasibility of launching an in depth contextual study that could more firmly establish connections among the many fields of study concerned with adolescence.

A Study of Interactions: Emerging Issues in the Science of Adolescence: Workshop Summary

Many election officials look to electronic voting systems as a means for improving their ability to more effectively conduct and administer elections. At the same time, many information technologists and activists have raised important concerns regarding the security of such systems. Policy makers are caught in the midst of a controversy with both political and technological overtones. The public debate about electronic voting is characterized by a great deal of emotion and rhetoric.

Asking the Right Questions About Electronic Voting describes the important questions and issues that election officials, policy makers, and informed citizens should ask about the use of computers and information technology in the electoral process—focusing the debate on technical and policy issues that need resolving. The report finds that while electronic voting systems have improved, federal and state governments have not made the commitment necessary for e-voting to be widely used in future elections. More funding, research, and public education are required if e-voting is to become viable.

Asking the Right Questions About Electronic Voting

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) faces short-term and long-term challenges in selecting and recruiting an enlisted force to meet personnel requirements associated with diverse and changing missions. The DoD has established standards for aptitudes/abilities, medical conditions, and physical fitness to be used in selecting recruits who are most likely to succeed in their jobs and complete the first term of service (generally 36 months). In 1999, the Committee on the Youth Population and Military Recruitment was established by the National Research Council (NRC) in response to a request from the DoD. One focus of the committee's work was to examine trends in the youth population relative to the needs of the military and the standards used to screen applicants to meet these needs. When the committee began its work in 1999, the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force had recently experienced recruiting shortfalls. By the early 2000s, all the Services were meeting their goals; however, in the first half of calendar year 2005, both the Army and the Marine Corps experienced recruiting difficulties and, in some months, shortfalls. When recruiting goals are not being met, scientific guidance is needed to inform policy decisions regarding the advisability of lowering standards and the impact of any change on training time and cost, job performance, attrition, and the health of the force. Assessing Fitness for Military Enlistment examines the current physical, medical, and mental health standards for military enlistment in light of (1) trends in the physical condition of the youth population; (2) medical advances for treating certain conditions, as well as knowledge of the typical course of chronic conditions as young people reach adulthood; (3) the role of basic training in physical conditioning; (4) the physical demands and working conditions of various jobs in today's military services; and (5) the measures that are used by the Services to characterize an individual's physical condition. The focus is on the enlistment of 18- to 24-year-olds and their first term of service.

Assessing Fitness for Military Enlistment: Physical, Medical, and Mental Health Standards

Multiple Origins, Uncertain Destinies: Hispanics and the American Future

Hispanics and the Future of America

By 2030 there will be about 70 million people in the United States who are older than 64. Approximately 26 percent of these will be racial and ethnic minorities. Overall, the older population will be more diverse and better educated than their earlier cohorts. The range of late-life outcomes is very dramatic with old age being a significantly different experience for financially secure and well-educated people than for poor and uneducated people. The early mission of behavioral science research focused on identifying problems of older adults, such as isolation, caregiving, and dementia. Today, the field of gerontology is more interdisciplinary.

When I'm 64 examines how individual and social behavior play a role in understanding diverse outcomes in old age. It also explores the implications of an aging workforce on the economy. The book recommends that the National Institute on Aging focus its research support in social, personality, and life-span psychology in four areas: motivation and behavioral change; socioemotional influences on decision-making; the influence of social engagement on cognition; and the effects of stereotypes on self and others. When I'm 64 is a useful resource for policymakers, researchers and medical professionals.

When I'm 64

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Improving the Disability Decision Process has been working since it first met in January 2005 to develop recommendations to the Social Security Administration (SSA) on how to improve the medical aspects of its disability determination process. By law, Social Security can only pay benefits to those unable to engage in substantial gainful activity because of a "medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months (emphasis added)." Medical and psychological expertise is critical both in developing the criteria for measuring the severity and functional impact of an impairment or impairments on an applicant's ability to work and in applying the criteria to individual cases where the medical evidence does not clearly meet the criteria in the eyes of a nonmedical disability examiner.

Improving the Social Security Disability Decision Process: Interim Report

The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries: Selected Studies

Expanding Access to Research Data: Reconciling Risks and Opportunities

Ethical Considerations for Research on Housing-Related Health Hazards Involving Children

Several changes in the United States over the past two decades have implications for diet, nutrition, and food safety, including patterns of food consumption that have produced an increase in overweight and obese Americans and threats to food safety from pathogens and bioterrorism. The changes raise a number of critical policy and research questions: How do differences in food prices and availability or in households' time resources for shopping and food preparation affect what people consume and where they eat? How do factors outside of the household, such as the availability of stores and restaurants, food preparation technology, and food marketing and labeling policies, affect what people are consuming? What effects have food assistance programs had on the nutritional quality of diets and the health of those served by the programs? Where do people buy and consume food and how does food preparation affect food safety? To address these and related questions, the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) asked the Committee on National Statistics to convene a panel of experts to provide advice for improving the data infrastructure on food consumption and nutrition. The panel was charged to review data needs to support research and decision making for food and nutrition policies and programs in USDA and to assess the adequacy of the current data infrastructure and recommend enhancements to improve it. The primary basis for the panel's deliberations, given limited resources, was a workshop on Enhancing the Data Infrastructure in Support of Food and Nutrition Programs, Research, and Decision Making, which the panel convened on May 27-28, 2004. This report is based on the discussions at the workshop and the deliberations of the panel. The report outlines key data that are needed to better address questions related to food consumption, diet, and health; discusses the available data and some limitations of those data; and offers recommendations for improvements in those data. The panel was charged to consider USDA data needs for policy making and the focus of the report is on those needs.

Improving Data to Analyze Food and Nutrition Policies

Population, Land Use, and Environment: Research Directions

Assessment of the Representative Payee Program of the Social Security Administration: Letter Report

Improving Evaluation of Anticrime Programs

Cities Transformed: Demographic Change and Its Implications in the Developing World

An informative mix of data and discussion, this book presents conclusions and recommendations for policies that can respond to the new conditions shaping America's working families. Among the family and work trends reviewed:

• Growing population of mothers with young children in the workforce.
• Increasing reliance of nonparental child care.
• Growing challenges of families on welfare.
• Increased understanding of child and adolescent development.

Included in this comprehensive review of the research and data on family leave, child care, and income support issues are: the effects of early child care and school age child care on child development, the impacts of family work policies on child and adolescent well-being and family functioning, the impacts of family work policies on child and adolescent well-being and family functioning the changes to federal and state welfare policy, the emergence of a 24/7 economy, the utilization of paid family leave, and an examination of the ways parental employment affects children as they make their way through childhood and adolescence.

The book also evaluates the support systems available to working families, including family and medical leave, child care options, and tax policies. The committee's conclusions and recommendations will be of interest to anyone concerned with issues affecting the working American family, especially policy makers, program administrators, social scientists, journalist, private and public sector leaders, and family advocates.

Working Families and Growing Kids: Caring for Children and Adolescents

Fertility and reproductive health issues more broadly have tended to be of low priority in humanitarian crises. Public attention is drawn by information concerning the magnitude of refugee flows, of death tolls, and of numbers of injuries. Reproductive health has been regarded as a longer term issue that could safely be put on the back burner during the crisis phase of an emergency, when issues of providing adequate food, clean water, and shelter, plus treating acute infectious diseases of crowding, take priority. This report reviews what evidence there is concerning the effects of humanitarian crisis on fertility, with a view to identifying common patterns that may exist across settings and be of value in guiding responses to future crises.

War, Humanitarian Crises, Population Displacement, and Fertility: A Review of Evidence

The panel convened the Workshop on Improving Racial and Ethnic Data in Health to review information about current private-sector and state data collection practices in light of existing federal, state, and local regulations, laws, and requirements. The workshop presentations featured the perspectives of data users, health care providers, insurance plan representatives, state and local public health officials, and regulatory officials. Participants assessed policies, practices, barriers, and opportunities for collecting racial and ethnic data in their settings, and explored ways that private and state systems can be improved to address data needs. In preparation for the workshop, the panel commissioned four background papers to fill gaps in knowledge of private-sector and state government policies and practices and to address the importance of racial and ethnic data collection. The panel is also examining the role of socioeconomic status regarding health and health care disparities. However, the workshop intended to focus only on racial and ethnic data collection. The panel's final report will contain a full consideration of the collection of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic status data.

Improving Racial and Ethnic Data on Health: Report of a Workshop

In Africa many of the refugee flows in recent years have had a strong ethnic dimension; interethnic conflict or conflict between politically powerful groups with minority populations is often an important aspect of who is forced to flee. In most cases the origins of conflict occur in a multiethnic environment, and repatriation (if it happens) occurs in that multiethnic context, with implications for subsequent relationships between the groups in terms of political, economic, and numeric power. As the primary source of recruitment to a population, fertility is an essential component of postconflict restructuring. The disruption of fertility during the disorder of forced migration can itself be seen as part of the disintegration of society and identity; the impact of conflict and flight on reproduction may be an important indicator of the degree of crisis faced by the population. Postcrisis fertility and changes from the reproductive regime prior to the forced migration indicate not only how the population has responded to the multiplicity of changes and traumas, but also its ability to adapt and manipulate its new sociopolitical position. This report focuses on the specific experience of a single persecuted population whose sociopolitical history, along with their underlying marital and fertility regimes, will inevitably condition responses to conflict.

Fertility of Malian Tamasheq Repatriated Refugees: The Impact of Forced Migration

Designing Nonmarket Accounts for the United States: Interim Report

Owner-Authorized Handguns: A Workshop Summary

The US Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of The National Academies to conduct a workshop that would examine the interface of the medicolegal death investigation system and the criminal justice system. NIJ was particularly interested in a workshop in which speakers would highlight not only the status and needs of the medicolegal death investigation system as currently administered by medical examiners and coroners but also its potential to meet emerging issues facing contemporary society in America. Additionally, the workshop was to highlight priority areas for a potential IOM study on this topic.

To achieve those goals, IOM constituted the Committee for the Workshop on the Medicolegal Death Investigation System, which developed a workshop that focused on the role of the medical examiner and coroner death investigation system and its promise for improving both the criminal justice system and the public health and health care systems, and their ability to respond to terrorist threats and events. Six panels were formed to highlight different aspects of the medicolegal death investigation system, including ways to improve it and expand it beyond its traditional response and meet growing demands and challenges. This report summarizes the Workshop presentations and discussions that followed them.

Medicolegal Death Investigation System: Workshop Summary

Redesigning the U.S. Naturalization Tests: Interim Report

International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies: Proceedings - Symposium and Fifth Biennial Meeting, Paris, May 10-11, 2001

Frameworks for Higher Education in Homeland Security

The challenges for young people making the transition to adulthood are greater today than ever before. Globalization, with its power to reach across national boundaries and into the smallest communities, carries with it the transformative power of new markets and new technology. At the same time, globalization brings with it new ideas and lifestyles that can conflict with traditional norms and values. And while the economic benefits are potentially enormous, the actual course of globalization has not been without its critics who charge that, to date, the gains have been very unevenly distributed, generating a new set of problems associated with rising inequality and social polarization. Regardless of how the globalization debate is resolved, it is clear that as broad global forces transform the world in which the next generation will live and work, the choices that today's young people make or others make on their behalf will facilitate or constrain their success as adults. Traditional expectations regarding future employment prospects and life experiences are no longer valid.

Growing Up Global examines how the transition to adulthood is changing in developing countries, and what the implications of these changes might be for those responsible for designing youth policies and programs, in particular, those affecting adolescent reproductive health. The report sets forth a framework that identifies criteria for successful transitions in the context of contemporary global changes for five key adult roles: adult worker, citizen and community participant, spouse, parent, and household manager.

Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries

It has been clear for at least 50 years the disadvantages that small businesses face in competing for U.S. government contracts. The Small Business Act of 1953 created the Small Business Administration (SBA), an independent agency in the executive branch that counsels and assists specific types of small businesses including firms owned by minorities and other socially and economically disadvantaged individuals and firms owned by women. Women-owned small businesses, however, are underrepresented or substantially underrepresented in some industries.

In 2002, the SBA Office of Federal Contract Assistance for Women Business Owners (CAWBO) organized a draft study containing a preliminary set of approximations of the representation of women-owned small businesses in federal prime contracts over $25,000 by industry. Because of the past legal challenges to race- and gender-conscious contracting programs at the federal and local levels, the SBA asked the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies to conduct an independent review of relevant data and estimation methods prior to finalizing the CAWBO study.

The Steering Committee on Women-Owned Small Businesses in Federal Contracting was created and charged with holding a workshop to discuss topics including the accuracy of data and methods to estimate the use of women-owned small businesses in federal contracting and the definition of "underrepresentation" and "substantial underrepresentation" in designating industries for which preferential contracting programs might be warranted. Analyzing Information on Women-Owned Small Businesses in Federal Contracting presents the committee's report as well as the recommendations that committees have made.

Analyzing Information on Women-Owned Small Businesses in Federal Contracting

Measuring Food Insecurity and Hunger: Phase 1 Report

In the early years of robotics and automated vehicles, the fight was against nature and not against a manifestly intelligent opponent. In military environments, however, where prediction and anticipation are complicated by the existence of an intelligent adversary, it is essential to retain human operators in the control loop. Future combat systems will require operators to control and monitor aerial and ground robotic systems and to act as part of larger teams coordinating diverse robotic systems over multiple echelons. The National Research Council organized a workshop to identify the most important human-related research and design issues from both the engineering and human factors perspectives, and develop a list of fruitful research directions. Interfaces for Ground and Air Military Robots summarizes the presentations and discussions from this workshop.

Interfaces for Ground and Air Military Robots: Workshop Summary

Since 1992, the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) has produced a book on principles and practices for a federal statistical agency, updating the document every 4 years to provide a current edition to newly appointed cabinet secretaries at the beginning of each presidential administration.

This third edition presents and comments on three basic principles that statistical agencies must embody in order to carry out their mission fully:

(1) They must produce objective data that are relevant to policy issues,

(2) they must achieve and maintain credibility among data users, and

(3) they must achieve and maintain trust among data providers.

The book also discusses 11 important practices that are means for statistical agencies to live up to the four principles. These practices include a commitment to quality and professional practice and an active program of methodological and substantive research.

Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency: Third Edition

Beyond the Market: Designing Nonmarket Accounts for the United States

The Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) of the National Research Council (NRC) convened a workshop on June 15-16, 2004, to review federal research on alternative methods for measuring poverty. The workshop had been requested by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget to evaluate progress in moving toward a new measure of poverty, as recommended by the 1995 report, Measuring Poverty: A New Approach. Experimental Poverty Measures is the summary of that workshop. This report discusses which components of alternative measures are methodologically sound and which might need further refinement,toward the goal of narrowing the number of alternative measures that should be considered.

Experimental Poverty Measures: Summary of a Workshop

Expectations for early learning are very different than they were even as recently as a decade ago. With increased recognition of the intellectual capacities of young children, as well as a growing understanding of how these capacities develop and can be fostered, has come a growing recognition that early childhood education, in both formal and informal settings, may not be helping all children maximize their cognitive capacities. Mathematical and Scientific Development in Early Childhood explores the research in cognition and developmental psychology that sheds light on children's capacity to learn mathematical and scientific ideas. This summary report of the discussions and presentations at the workshop is designed to frame the issues relevant to advancing research useful to the development of research-based curricula for mathematics and science for young children.

Mathematical and Scientific Development in Early Childhood: A Workshop Summary

International trade plays a substantial role in the economy of the United States. More than 1.6 billion tons of international merchandise was conveyed using the U.S. transportation system in 2001. The need to transport this merchandise raises concerns about the quality of the transportation system and its ability to support this component of freight movement. Measuring International Trade on U.S. Highways evaluates the accuracy and reliability of measuring the ton-miles and value-miles of international trade traffic carried by highway for each state. This report also assesses the accuracy and reliability of the use of diesel fuel data as a measure of international trade traffic by state and identifies needed improvements in long-term data collection programs.

Measuring International Trade on U.S. Highways

For years proposals for gun control and the ownership of firearms have been among the most contentious issues in American politics. For public authorities to make reasonable decisions on these matters, they must take into account facts about the relationship between guns and violence as well as conflicting constitutional claims and divided public opinion. In performing these tasks, legislators need adequate data and research to judge both the effects of firearms on violence and the effects of different violence control policies.

Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review

Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits

Measuring Research and Development Expenditures in the U.S. Economy

Children's Health, the Nation's Wealth: Assessing and Improving Child Health

Critical Perspectives on Racial and Ethnic Differences in Health in Late Life

As the population of older Americans grows, it is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. Differences in health by racial and ethnic status could be increasingly consequential for health policy and programs. Such differences are not simply a matter of education or ability to pay for health care. For instance, Asian Americans and Hispanics appear to be in better health, on a number of indicators, than White Americans, despite, on average, lower socioeconomic status. The reasons are complex, including possible roles for such factors as selective migration, risk behaviors, exposure to various stressors, patient attitudes, and geographic variation in health care.

This volume, produced by a multidisciplinary panel, considers such possible explanations for racial and ethnic health differentials within an integrated framework. It provides a concise summary of available research and lays out a research agenda to address the many uncertainties in current knowledge. It recommends, for instance, looking at health differentials across the life course and deciphering the links between factors presumably producing differentials and biopsychosocial mechanisms that lead to impaired health.

Understanding Racial and Ethnic Differences in Health in Late Life: A Research Agenda

Eliminating Health Disparities: Measurement and Data Needs

Monitoring Metabolic Status: Predicting Decrements in Physiological and Cognitive Performance

Measuring Racial Discrimination

Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing: The Evidence

Achieving XXcellence in Science: Role of Professional Societies in Advancing Women in Science: Proceedings of a Workshop

The 2000 Census: Counting Under Adversity

Forensic Analysis: Weighing Bullet Lead Evidence

Reengineering the 2010 Census: Risks and Challenges

Technology for Adaptive Aging

Evaluating Military Advertising and Recruiting: Theory and Methodology

Advancing the Federal Research Agenda on Violence Against Women

Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility

Conflict and Reconstruction in Multiethnic Societies: Proceedings of a Russian-American Workshop

The U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC) is responsible for the operational testing and evaluation of Army systems in development. ATEC

requested that the National Research Council form the Panel on Operational Test Design and Evaluation of the Interim Armored Vehicle (Stryker). The charge to this panel was to explore three issues concerning the IOT plans for the Stryker/SBCT. First, the panel was asked to examine the measures selected to assess the performance and effectiveness of the Stryker/SBCT in comparison both to requirements and to the baseline system. Second, the panel was asked to review the test design for the Stryker/SBCT initial operational test to see whether it is consistent with best practices. Third, the panel was asked to identify the advantages and disadvantages of techniques for combining operational test data with data from other sources and types of use. In a previous report (appended to the current report) the panel presented findings, conclusions, and recommendations pertaining to the first two issues: measures of performance and effectiveness, and test design. In the current report, the panel discusses techniques for combining information.

Improved Operational Testing and Evaluation and Methods of Combining Test Information for the Stryker Family of Vehicles and Related Army Systems: Phase II Report

Recent rough estimates are that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) spends at least $38 billion a year on the research, development, testing, and evaluation of new defense systems; approximately 40 percent of that cost-at least $16 billion-is spent on software development and testing. There is widespread understanding within DoD that the effectiveness of software-intensive defense systems is often hampered by low-quality software as well as increased costs and late delivery of software components. Given the costs involved, even relatively incremental improvements to the software development process for defense systems could represent a large savings in funds. And given the importance of producing defense software that will carry out its intended function, relatively small improvements to the quality of defense software systems would be extremely important to identify. DoD software engineers and test and evaluation officials may not be fully aware of a range of available techniques, because of both the recent development of these techniques and their origination from an orientation somewhat removed from software engineering, i.e., from a statistical perspective. The panel's charge therefore was to convene a workshop to identify statistical software engineering techniques that could have applicability to DoD systems in development.

Innovations in Software Engineering for Defense Systems

Estimating Eligibility and Participation for the WIC Program: Final Report

Preparing for the Psychological Consequences of Terrorism: A Public Health Strategy

The Panel on Research on Future Census Methods has a broad charge to review the early planning process for the 2010 census. Its work includes observing the operation of the 2000 census, deriving lessons for 2010, and advising on effective evaluations and tests. This is the panel's third report; they have previously issued an interim report offering suggestions on the Census Bureau's evaluation plan for 2000 and a letter report commenting on the bureau's proposed general structure for the 2010 census.

Planning the 2010 Census: Second Interim Report

Dynamic Social Network Modeling and Analysis: Workshop Summary and Papers

Institutional review boards (IRBs) are the linchpins of the protection systems that govern human participation in research. In recent years, high-profile cases have focused attention on the weaknesses of the procedures for protecting participants in medical research. The issues surrounding participants protection in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences may be less visible to the public eye, but they are no less important in ensuring ethical and responsible research.

This report examines three key issues related to human participation in social, behavioral, and economic sciences research: (1) obtaining informed, voluntary consent from prospective participants: (2) guaranteeing the confidentiality of information collected from participants, which is a particularly challenging problem in social sciences research; and (3) using appropriate review procedures for “minimal-risk” research.

Protecting Participants and Facilitating Social and Behavioral Sciences Research will be important to policy makers, research administrators, research sponsors, IRB members, and investigators. More generally, it contains important information for all who want to ensure the best protection—for participants and researchers alike—in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences.

Protecting Participants and Facilitating Social and Behavioral Sciences Research

Survey Automation: Report and Workshop Proceedings

The U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC) is responsible for the operational testing and evaluation of Army systems in development. ATEC requested that the National Research Council form the Panel on Operational Test Design and Evaluation of the Interim Armored Vehicle (Stryker) to explore three issues concerning the initial operation test plans for the Stryker/Interim Brigade Combat Team (IBCT). First, the panel was asked to examine the measures selected to assess the performance and effectiveness of the Stryker/IBCT in comparison both to requirements and to the baseline system. Second, the panel was asked to review the test design for the Stryker/IBCT initial operational test to see whether it is consistent with best practices. Third, the panel was asked to identify the advantages and disadvantages of techniques for combining operational test data with data from other sources and types of use. In this report the panel presents findings, conclusions, and recommendations pertaining to the first two issues: measures of performance and effectiveness, and test design. The panel intends to prepare a second report that discusses techniques for combining information.

Improved Operational Testing and Evaluation: Better Measurement and Test Design for the Interim Brigade Combat Team with Stryker Vehicles: Phase I Report

Guatemala: Human Rights and the Myrna Mack Case

Measuring Access to Learning Opportunities

In May 2002 Timor Leste (East Timor) emerged as a new nation after centuries of foreign rule and decades of struggle for independence. Its birth was a painful one; a United Nations-brokered Popular Consultation in August 1999, in which an overwhelming majority of the people opted for independence, was followed by several weeks of vengeful violence, looting, and destruction by pro-Indonesia militias. It left the territory and all of its essential services devastated. In this context, the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), with the country's leaders and people and many other partners, set about restoring order and services, building a government structure, and preparing for independence. This paper summarizes the rehabilitation and development of the health sector from early 2000 to the end of 2001.

Initial Steps in Rebuilding the Health Sector in East Timor

Offspring: Human Fertility Behavior in Biodemographic Perspective

The past decade has demonstrated the utility of SESTAT, but the SESTAT design shows some deficiencies with respect to response rates, coverage of populations of interest, and its ability to support some useful analyses. To tackle those deficiencies, NSF has proposed three possible design options for improving the database and asked the National Research Council's Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) to form the Committee to Review the 2000 Decade Design of the SESTAT.

This is the report of that committee. It presents our understanding of the purposes and characteristics of the SESTAT, applies the criteria we believe are important for assessing design options for the database, provides our recommendation for the best approach to adopt in the 2000 decade, and offers our encouragement to NSF to pursue opportunities to improve the understanding of the numbers and characteristics of scientists and engineers in the United States.

Improving the Design of the Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT)

Statistical Issues in Allocating Funds by Formula

The polygraph, often portrayed as a magic mind-reading machine, is still controversial among experts, who continue heated debates about its validity as a lie-detecting device. As the nation takes a fresh look at ways to enhance its security, can the polygraph be considered a useful tool?

The Polygraph and Lie Detection puts the polygraph itself to the test, reviewing and analyzing data about its use in criminal investigation, employment screening, and counter-intelligence.

The book looks at:

• The theory of how the polygraph works and evidence about how deceptiveness—and other psychological conditions—affect the physiological responses that the polygraph measures.
• Empirical evidence on the performance of the polygraph and the success of subjects' countermeasures.
• The actual use of the polygraph in the arena of national security, including its role in deterring threats to security.

The book addresses the difficulties of measuring polygraph accuracy, the usefulness of the technique for aiding interrogation and for deterrence, and includes potential alternatives—such as voice-stress analysis and brain measurement techniques.

The Polygraph and Lie Detection

Elder Mistreatment: Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation in an Aging America

We're Friends, Right? : Inside Kids' Culture

Attitudes, Aptitudes, and Aspirations of American Youth: Implications for Military Recruitment

Measurement Problems in Criminal Justice Research: Workshop Summary

The final report of the National Research Council's (NRC) Panel on Statistical Methods for Testing and Evaluating Defense Systems (National Research Council, 1998) was intended to provide broad advice to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) on current statistical methods and principles that could be applied to the developmental and operational testing and evaluation of defense systems. To that end, the report contained chapters on the use of testing as a tool of system development; current methods of experimental design; evaluation methods; methods for testing and assessing reliability, availability, and maintainability; software development and testing; and validation of modeling and simulation for use in operational test and evaluation. While the examination of such a wide variety of topics was useful in helping DoD understand the breadth of problems for which statistical methods could be applied and providing direction as to how the methods currently used could be improved, there was, quite naturally, a lack of detail in each area.

To address the need for further detail, two DoD agencies-the Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics-asked the NRC's Committee on National Statistics to initiate a series of workshops on statistical issues relevant to defense acquisition. The aim of each workshop is to inform DoD about the methods that represent the statistical state of the art and, through interactions of the statistical and defense communities, explore their relevance for DoD application.

Reliability Issues for DOD Systems: Report of a Workshop

The events and aftermath of September 11, 2001, profoundly changed the course of history of the nation. They also brought the phenomenon known as terrorism to the forefront of the nation's consciousness. As it became thus focused, the limits of scientific understanding of terrorism and the capacity to develop policies to deal with it became even more evident. The objective of this report is to bring behavioral and social science perspectives to bear on the nature, determinants, and domestic responses to contemporary terrorism as a way of making theoretical and practical knowledge more adequate to the task. It also identifies areas of research priorities for the behavioral and social sciences.

Terrorism: Perspectives from the Behavioral and Social Sciences

The shooting at Columbine High School riveted national attention on violence in the nation's schools. This dramatic example signaled an implicit and growing fear that these events would continue to occur—and even escalate in scale and severity.

How do we make sense of the tragedy of a school shooting or even draw objective conclusions from these incidents? Deadly Lessons is the outcome of the National Research Council's unique effort to glean lessons from six case studies of lethal student violence. These are powerful stories of parents and teachers and troubled youths, presenting the tragic complexity of the young shooter's social and personal circumstances in rich detail.

The cases point to possible causes of violence and suggest where interventions may be most effective. Readers will come away with a better understanding of the potential threat, how violence might be prevented, and how healing might be promoted in affected communities.

For each case study, Deadly Lessons relates events leading up to the violence, provides quotes from personal interviews about the incident, and explores the impact on the community. The case studies center on:

• Two separate incidents in East New York in which three students were killed and a teacher was seriously wounded.
• A shooting on the south side of Chicago in which one youth was killed and two wounded.
• A shooting into a prayer group at a Kentucky high school in which three students were killed.
• The killing of four students and a teacher and the wounding of 10 others at an Arkansas middle school.
• The shooting of a popular science teacher by a teenager in Edinboro, Pennsylvania.
• A suspected copycat of Columbine in which six students were wounded in Georgia.

For everyone who puzzles over these terrible incidents, Deadly Lessons offers a fresh perspective on the most fundamental of questions: Why?

Deadly Lessons: Understanding Lethal School Violence

Discouraging Terrorism: Some Implications of 9/11

Hispanics are defined as people of Spanish-speaking origin from Latin America, the Caribbean, or Europe. Hispanics vary in terms of socioeconomic status, race, religion and/or more. A common occurrence among the Hispanics, however, are the emerging issues concerning their health.It is estimated that by 2050 Hispanics will make up more than 25% of the United States' population. It is thus important that they have the resources to contribute maximally to American society. This can come about by first understanding and dealing with issues surrounding their health.

In hopes of examining these issues and as a part of its continuing commitment to promote a national dialogue on race and diversity in the United States, the National Academies organized an expert meeting on Emerging Issues in Hispanic Health on April 10, 2002.

Emerging Issues in Hispanic Health: Summary of a Workshop includes a review of key demographic data, such as population statistics, that characterize the Hispanic population in the United States; research on the socioeconomic, sociocultural, and behavioral determinants of health; effects of selective migration; the apparent epidemiological paradox : the relatively positive health outcomes observed in some Hispanic populations despite their relatively poor socioeconomic status or other types of disadvantage such as discrimination; and more.

Emerging Issues in Hispanic Health: Summary of a Workshop

Minority Students in Special and Gifted Education

The Society Security disability program faces urgent challenges: more people receiving benefits than ever before, the prospect of even more claimants as baby boomers age, changing attitudes culminating in the Americans With Disabilities Act. Disability is now understood as a dynamic process, and Social Security must comprehend that process to plan adequately for the times ahead. The Dynamics of Disability provides expert analysis and recommendations in key areas:

• Understanding the current social, economic, and physical environmental factors in determining eligibility for disability benefits.
• Developing and implementing a monitoring system to measure and track trends in work disability.
• Improving the process for making decisions on disability claims.
• Building Social Security's capacity for conducting needed research.

This book provides a wealth of detail on the workings of the Social Security disability program, recent and emerging disability trends, issues and previous experience in researching disability, and more. It will be of primary interest to federal policy makers, the Congress, and researchers—and it will be useful to state disability officials, medical and rehabilitation professionals, and the disability community.

The Dynamics of Disability: Measuring and Monitoring Disability for Social Security Programs

Situations involving conflict and forced migration have become increasingly commonplace in today's world. The need to understand the causes, consequences, and characteristics of these situations is creating a burgeoning field of research. But given the nature of complex emergency settings, traditional research guidelines may be inappropriate. The research and policy community has recognized this problem and has begun to address issues surrounding the ethics of doing research in emergency settings and among conflict-affected and displaced populations. The Roundtable on the Demography of Forced Migration, under the aegis of the Committee on Population of the National Research Council, held a workshop to examine some of these issues. This report to the roundtable summarizes the workshop presentations and discussion.

Research Ethics in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies: Summary of a Workshop

The Roundtable on the Demography of Forced Migration was established by the Committee on Population of the National Research Council in 1999. The roundtable is composed of experts from academia, government, philanthropy, and international organizations. The roundtable's purpose is to serve as an interdisciplinary, nonpartisan focal point for taking stock of what is known about demographic patterns in refugee situations, to apply this knowledge base to assist both policy makers and relief workers, and to stimulate new directions for innovation and scientific inquiry in this growing field of study.

Demographic Assessment Techniques in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies: Summary of a Workshop

Youth, Pornography, and the Internet

Visual Impairments: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits

Mental Retardation: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits

"Quality of life"..."livability"..."sense of place." Communities across America are striving to define these terms and to bring them to life, as they make decisions about transportation systems and other aspects of planning and development.

Community and Quality of Life discusses important concepts that undergird community life and offers recommendations for collaborative planning across space and time. The book explores:

• Livability as an ensemble concept, embracing notions such as quality of place and sustainability. It discusses how to measure the "three legs" of livability (social, economic, ecological) while accounting for politics and personal values. And the book examines how to translate broad ideas about livability into guidelines for policymaking
• Place as more than location, including the natural, human-built, and social environments. The book discusses the impact of population changes over time, the links between regional and local identity, and other issues
• Tools for decision making in transportation and community planning. It reviews a variety of decision models and tools such as geographic information systems (GIS)—as well as public and private sources of relevant data.

Including several case examples, this book will be important to planners, planning decision makers, planning educators and students, social scientists, community activists, and interested individuals.

Community and Quality of Life: Data Needs for Informed Decision Making

The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was established by Congress to provide health insurance to uninsured children whose family income was too high for Medicaid coverage but too low to allow the family to obtain private health insurance coverage. The enabling legislation for SCHIP, included in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, made available to states (and the District of Columbia) almost $40 billion over a 10-year period for this program. Like Medicaid, SCHIP is a joint federal-state program, with funding from both sources, but it is implemented by the states. Thus, there are SCHIP programs in all of the states and the District of Columbia.

The National Research Council, through the Committee on National Statistics, was asked to explore some of the ways in which data analysis could be used to promote achievement of the SCHIP goal of expanding health insurance coverage for uninsured children from low-income families. To inform its work, the panel for this project held a workshop to bring together state SCHIP officials and researchers to share findings and methods that would inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of SCHIP at the state and national levels. In keeping with this charge, this report is limited to discussions at the workshop. It does not attempt to provide a summary of all the state programs nor a comprehensive review of the literature.

Data Needs for the State Children's Health Insurance Program concludes that data are insufficient in the individual states to provide a clear picture of the impact of SCHIP on the number of children who are eligible for the program, the rate at which eligible children are enrolled in the program, and the rate at which they are retained in the program once enrolled. This situation is due, in part, to the fact that sample sizes in national surveys are too small to provide detailed data for individual states. In addition, the great amount of movement of children among health insurance categories—Medicaid, SCHIP, private insurance, or no insurance at all—makes it difficult for states to count the number of children in specific categories at a particular point in time.

The panel specifies a number of practices that could be implemented to improve the overall functioning of SCHIP and the ability of policy makers to evaluate the program. Foremost among these are: (1) developing more uniform ways of estimating eligibility and health insurance coverage among the states; (2) sharing among the states effective methods for outreach; (3) taking qualitative information into account, in addition to quantitative information, in assessing variation among states in enrollment and disenrollment; and (4) implementing longitudinal studies to track the movement of children among the various insurance statuses.

Data Needs for the State Children's Health Insurance Program

The National Research Council (NRC) recently conducted several projects concerning urban poverty, racial disparities, and opportunities to change metropolitan areas in ways that have positive effects on residents' well-being. In reports such as Governance and Opportunity in Metropolitan America (1999), place, space, and neighborhood have become important lenses through which to understand the factors affecting opportunity and well-being. After the publication of Governance and Opportunity, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services became interested in what insights research focused on place might offer in terms of improving the conditions of vulnerable families-a population about whom ASPE is particularly concerned. Because of its interest in the topic, ASPE provided generous support to the NRC to hold a workshop on the importance of place and to produce a report based on the findings of the workshop. This report, Equality of Opportunity and the Importance of Place, is the culmination of the NRC's work on behalf of ASPE.

Equality of Opportunity and the Importance of Place: Summary of a Workshop

A transportation indicator is a measure of change over time in the transportation system or in its social, economic, environmental, or other effects. Two National Research Council (NRC) studies recommended, as a matter of high priority, that the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) in the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) develop a consistent, easily understood, and useful set of key indicators of the transportation system. The NRC's Committee on National Statistics and its Transportation Research Board, which conducted these studies, convened a workshop on June 13, 2000. The purpose of the Workshop on Transportation Indicators was to discuss issues relating to transportation indicators and provide the Bureau of Transportation Statistics with new ideas for issues to address.

Key Transportation Indicators: Summary of a Workshop

Longitudinal data collection and analysis are critical to social, demographic, and health research, policy, and practice. They are regularly used to address questions of demographic and health trends, policy and program evaluation, and causality. Panel studies, cohort studies, and longitudinal community studies have proved particularly important in developing countries that lack vital registration systems and comprehensive sources of information on the demographic and health situation of their populations. Research using data from such studies has led to scientific advances and improvements in the well-being of individuals in developing countries. Yet questions remain about the usefulness of these studies relative to their expense (and relative to cross-sectional surveys) and about the appropriate choice of alternative longitudinal strategies in different contexts.

For these reasons, the Committee on Population convened a workshop to examine the comparative strengths and weaknesses of various longitudinal approaches in addressing demographic and health questions in developing countries and to consider ways to strengthen longitudinal data collection and analysis. This report summarizes the discussion and opinions voiced at that workshop.

Leveraging Longitudinal Data in Developing Countries: Report of a Workshop

Achieving High Educational Standards for All: Conference Summary

Confronting Chronic Neglect: The Education and Training of Health Professionals on Family Violence

In response to a mandate from Congress in conjunction with the Protection of Children from Sexual Predators Act of 1998, the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) and the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine established the Committee to Study Tools and Strategies for Protecting Kids from Pornography and Their Applicability to Other Inappropriate Internet Content.

To collect input and to disseminate useful information to the nation on this question, the committee held two public workshops. On December 13, 2000, in Washington, D.C., the committee convened a workshop to focus on nontechnical strategies that could be effective in a broad range of settings (e.g., home, school, libraries) in which young people might be online. This workshop brought together researchers, educators, policy makers, and other key stakeholders to consider and discuss these approaches and to identify some of the benefits and limitations of various nontechnical strategies. The December workshop is summarized in Nontechnical Strategies to Reduce Children's Exposure to Inappropriate Material on the Internet: Summary of a Workshop. The second workshop was held on March 7, 2001, in Redwood City, California. This second workshop focused on some of the technical, business, and legal factors that affect how one might choose to protect kids from pornography on the Internet. The present report provides, in the form of edited transcripts, the presentations at that workshop.

Technical, Business, and Legal Dimensions of Protecting Children from Pornography on the Internet: Proceedings of a Workshop

Federal law prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of seven protected classes including race. Despite 30 years of legal prohibition under the Fair Housing Act, however, there is evidence of continuing discrimination in American housing, as documented by several recent reports. In 1998, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funded a $7.5 million independently conducted Housing Discrimination Survey (HDS) of racial and ethnic discrimination in housing rental, sales, and lending markets (Public Law 105-276). This survey is the third such effort sponsored by HUD. Its intent is to provide a detailed understanding of the patterns of discrimination in housing nationwide.

In 1999, the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) of the National Research Council (NRC) was asked to review the research design and analysis plan for the 2000 HDS and to offer suggestions about appropriate sampling and analysis procedures. The review took the form of a workshop that addressed HUD's concerns about the adequacy of the sample design and analysis plan, as well as questions related to the measurement of various aspects of discrimination and issues that might bias the results obtained. The discussion also explored alternative methodologies and research needs. In addition to addressing methodological and substantive issues related specifically to the HDS, the workshop examined broader questions related to the measurement of discrimination.

Measuring Housing Discrimination in a National Study: Report of a Workshop

The Drama of the Commons

The Age of Expert Testimony: Science in the Courtroom: Report of a Workshop

Community Programs to Promote Youth Development

This volume contains the full text of two reports: one is an interim review of major census operations, which also assesses the U.S. Census bureau's recommendation in March 2001 regarding statistical adjustment of census data for redistricting. It does not address the decision on adjustment for non-redistricting purposes. The second report consists of a letter sent to William Barron, acting director of the Census Bureau. It reviews the new set of evaluations prepared by the Census Bureau in support of its October decision. The two reports are packaged together to provide a unified discussion of statistical adjustment and other aspects of the 2000 census that the authoring panel has considered to date.

The 2000 Census: Interim Assessment

Studies of Welfare Populations: Data Collection and Research Issues

This volume is part of an effort to review what is known about the determinants of fertility transition in developing countries and to identify lessons that might lead to policies aimed at lowering fertility. It addresses the roles of diffusion processes, ideational change, social networks, and mass communications in changing behavior and values, especially as related to childbearing. A new body of empirical research is currently emerging from studies of social networks in Asia (Thailand, Taiwan, Korea), Latin America (Costa Rica), and Sub-Saharan Africa (Kenya, Malawi, Ghana). Given the potential significance of social interactions to the design of effective family planning programs in high-fertility settings, efforts to synthesize this emerging body of literature are clearly important.

Diffusion Processes and Fertility Transition: Selected Perspectives

From Scarcity to Visibility: Gender Differences in the Careers of Doctoral Scientists and Engineers

Adolescents obviously do not always act in ways that serve their own best interests, even as defined by them. Sometimes their perception of their own risks, even of survival to adulthood, is larger than the reality; in other cases, they underestimate the risks of particular actions or behaviors. It is possible, indeed likely, that some adolescents engage in risky behaviors because of a perception of invulnerability—the current conventional wisdom of adults' views of adolescent behavior. Others, however, take risks because they feel vulnerable to a point approaching hopelessness. In either case, these perceptions can prompt adolescents to make poor decisions that can put them at risk and leave them vulnerable to physical or psychological harm that may have a negative impact on their long-term health and viability.

A small planning group was formed to develop a workshop on reconceptualizing adolescent risk and vulnerability. With funding from Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Workshop on Adolescent Risk and Vulnerability: Setting Priorities took place on March 13, 2001, in Washington, DC. The workshop's goal was to put into perspective the total burden of vulnerability that adolescents face, taking advantage of the growing societal concern for adolescents, the need to set priorities for meeting adolescents' needs, and the opportunity to apply decision-making perspectives to this critical area. This report summarizes the workshop.

Adolescent Risk and Vulnerability: Concepts and Measurement

Informing America's Policy on Illegal Drugs: What We Don't Know Keeps Hurting Us

Evaluating Welfare Reform in an Era of Transition

This report is a summary of the first meeting of the Science, Technology, and Law Panel. The Policy Division of the National Research Council established the panel to bring the science and engineering community and the legal community together on a regular basis to explore pressing issues, to improve communication, and to help resolve such issues between these communities.

A Convergence of Science and Law: A Summary Report of the First Meeting of the Science, Technology, and Law Panel

In response to a mandate from Congress in conjunction with the Protection of Children from Sexual Predators Act of 1998, the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board and the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine established a committee of experts to explore options to protect children from pornography and other inappropriate Internet content. In June 2000, the Committee to Study Tools and Strategies for Protecting Kids from Pornography on the Internet and Their Applicability to Other Inappropriate Internet Content was established. Support for the committee's work came from the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Justice, Microsoft Corporation, IBM, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the National Research Council. The committee has been charged with exploring the pros and cons of different technology options and operational policies as well as nontechnical strategies that can help to provide young people with positive and safe online experiences.

On December 13, 2000, the committee convened a workshop to provide public input to its work and focus on nontechnical strategies that could be effective in a broad range of settings (e.g., home, school, libraries) in which young people might be online. The overarching goal of this activity was to provide a forum for discussing the implications of this research with regard to policy and practice and identifying research needed to advance and inform policy and practice.

Nontechnical Strategies to Reduce Children's Exposure to Inappropriate Material on the Internet: Summary of a Workshop

As a result of the heightened public and political attention and the movement toward standards and accountability, performance measurement has emerged as an important concern in the early childhood care and education field. At the request of the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families, the Board on Children, Youth, and Families convened two workshops to learn from existing efforts to develop performance measures for early childhood care and education, to consider what would be involved in developing and implementing an effective performance measurement system for this field, and to delineate some critical next steps for moving such an effort forward.

Getting to Positive Outcomes for Children in Child Care: A Summary of Two Workshops

Preparing for an Aging World: The Case for Cross-National Research

Growing Populations, Changing Landscapes: Studies from India, China, and the United States

Even though youth crime rates have fallen since the mid-1990s, public fear and political rhetoric over the issue have heightened. The Columbine shootings and other sensational incidents add to the furor. Often overlooked are the underlying problems of child poverty, social disadvantage, and the pitfalls inherent to adolescent decisionmaking that contribute to youth crime. From a policy standpoint, adolescent offenders are caught in the crossfire between nurturance of youth and punishment of criminals, between rehabilitation and "get tough" pronouncements. In the midst of this emotional debate, the National Research Council's Panel on Juvenile Crime steps forward with an authoritative review of the best available data and analysis. Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice presents recommendations for addressing the many aspects of America's youth crime problem.

This timely release discusses patterns and trends in crimes by children and adolescents—trends revealed by arrest data, victim reports, and other sources; youth crime within general crime; and race and sex disparities. The book explores desistance—the probability that delinquency or criminal activities decrease with age—and evaluates different approaches to predicting future crime rates.

Why do young people turn to delinquency? Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice presents what we know and what we urgently need to find out about contributing factors, ranging from prenatal care, differences in temperament, and family influences to the role of peer relationships, the impact of the school policies toward delinquency, and the broader influences of the neighborhood and community. Equally important, this book examines a range of solutions:

• Prevention and intervention efforts directed to individuals, peer groups, and families, as well as day care-, school- and community-based initiatives.
• Intervention within the juvenile justice system.
• Role of the police.
• Processing and detention of youth offenders.
• Transferring youths to the adult judicial system.
• Residential placement of juveniles.

The book includes background on the American juvenile court system, useful comparisons with the juvenile justice systems of other nations, and other important information for assessing this problem.

Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice

Musculoskeletal Disorders and the Workplace: Low Back and Upper Extremities

This workshop arose out of the efforts of the Committee on Law and Justice to assist the National Institute of Justice in identifying gaps in the overall research portfolio on crime and justice. It was designed to develop ideas about the kinds of knowledge needed to gain a better understanding of the prosecution function and to discuss the past and future role of social science in advancing our understanding of modern prosecution practice. The Committee on Law and Justice was able to bring together senior scholars who have been working on this subject as well as current or former chief prosecutors, judges, and senior officials from the U.S. Department of Justice to share their perspectives. Workshop participants mapped out basic data needs, discussed the need to know more about recent innovations such as community prosecution, and discussed areas where one would expect to see changes that have not occurred. The resulting report summarizes these discussions and makes useful suggestions for learning more about prosecution.

What's Changing in Prosecution?: Report of a Workshop

Issues for Science and Engineering Researchers in the Digital Age

In recent years the number of complex humanitarian emergencies around the world has been steadily increasing. War and political, ethnic, racial, and religious strife continually force people to migrate against their will. These forced migrants create a stream of new challenges for relief workers and policy makers. A better understanding of the characteristics of refugee populations and of the population dynamics of these situations is vital. Improved research and insights can enhance disaster management, refugee camp administration, and repatriation or resettlement programs. Forced Migration and Mortality examines mortality patterns in complex human- itarian emergencies, reviewing the state of knowledge, as well as how patterns may change in the new century. It contains four case studies of mortality in recent emergencies: Rwanda, North Korea, Kosovo, and Cambodia. Because refugees and internally displaced persons are likely to continue to be a significant humanitarian concern for many years, research in this field is critical. This is the first book to comprehensively explore forced migration and mortality and it provides useful material for researchers, policy makers, and relief workers.

Forced Migration and Mortality

A look at any newspaper's employment section suggests that competition for qualified workers in information technology (IT) is intense. Yet even experts disagree on not only the actual supply versus demand for IT workers but also on whether the nation should take any action on this economically important issue.

Building a Workforce for the Information Economy offers an in-depth look at IT. workers—where they work and what they do—and the policy issues they inspire. It also illuminates numerous areas that have been questioned in political debates:

• Where do people in IT jobs come from, and what kind of education and training matter most for them?
• Are employers' and workers' experiences similar or different in various parts of the country?
• How do citizens of other countries factor into the U.S. IT workforce?
• What do we know about IT career paths, and what does that imply for IT workers as they age? And can we measure what matters?

The committee identifies characteristics that differentiate IT work from other categories of high-tech work, including an informative contrast with biotechnology. The book also looks at the capacity of the U.S. educational system and of employer training programs to produce qualified workers.

Building a Workforce for the Information Economy

New Horizons in Health: An Integrative Approach

Although violent crime in the United States has declined over the past five years, certain groups appear to remain at disproportionately high risk for violent victimization. In the United States, people with developmental disabilities—such as mental retardation, autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and severe learning disabilities may be included in this group. While the scientific evidence is scanty, a handful of studies from the United States, Canada, Australia, and Great Britain consistently find high rates of violence and abuse affecting people with these kinds of disabilities.

Crime Victims with Developmental Disabilities: Report of a Workshop

The American Community Survey (ACS), to be run by the Census Bureau, will be a large (250,000 housing units a month), predominantly mailout/mailback survey that will collect information similar to that on the decennial census long form. The development of this new survey raises interesting questions about methods used for combining information from surveys and from administrative records, weighting to treat nonresponse and undercoverage, estimation for small areas, sample design, and calibration of the output from this survey with that from the long form. To assist the Census Bureau in developing a research agenda to address these and other methodological issues, the Committee on National Statistics held a workshop on September 13, 1998. This report summarizes that workshop.

The American Community Survey: Summary of a Workshop

The 20th Century has been marked by enormous change in terms of how we define race. In large part, we have thrown out the antiquated notions of the 1800s, giving way to a more realistic, sociocultural view of the world. The United States is, perhaps more than any other industrialized country, distinguished by the size and diversity of its racial and ethnic minority populations. Current trends promise that these features will endure. Fifty years from now, there will most likely be no single majority group in the United States. How will we fare as a nation when race-based issues such as immigration, job opportunities, and affirmative action are already so contentious today?

In America Becoming , leading scholars and commentators explore past and current trends among African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and Native Americans in the context of a white majority. This volume presents the most up-to-date findings and analysis on racial and social dynamics, with recommendations for ongoing research. It examines compelling issues in the field of race relations, including:

• Race and ethnicity in criminal justice.
• Demographic and social trends for Hispanics, Asian Americans, and Native Americans.
• Trends in minority-owned businesses.
• Wealth, welfare, and racial stratification.
• Residential segregation and the meaning of "neighborhood."
• Disparities in educational test scores among races and ethnicities.
• Health and development for minority children, adolescents, and adults.
• Race and ethnicity in the labor market, including the role of minorities in America's military.
• Immigration and the dynamics of race and ethnicity.
• The changing meaning of race.
• Changing racial attitudes.

This collection of papers, compiled and edited by distinguished leaders in the behavioral and social sciences, represents the most current literature in the field. Volume 1 covers demographic trends, immigration, racial attitudes, and the geography of opportunity. Volume 2 deals with the criminal justice system, the labor market, welfare, and health trends, Both books will be of great interest to educators, scholars, researchers, students, social scientists, and policymakers.

America Becoming: Racial Trends and Their Consequences: Volume II

This collection of papers, compiled and edited by distinguished leaders in the behavioral and social sciences, represents the most current literature in the field. Volume 1 covers demographic trends, immigration, racial attitudes, and the geography of opportunity. Volume 2 deals with the criminal justice system, the labor market, welfare, and health trends. Both books will be of great interest to educators, scholars, researchers, students, social scientists, and policymakers.

America Becoming: Racial Trends and Their Consequences: Volume I

Digital information and networks challenge the core practices of libraries, archives, and all organizations with intensive information management needs in many respects—not only in terms of accommodating digital information and technology, but also through the need to develop new economic and organizational models for managing information. LC21: A Digital Strategy for the Library of Congress discusses these challenges and provides recommendations for moving forward at the Library of Congress, the world's largest library. Topics covered in LC21 include digital collections, digital preservation, digital cataloging (metadata), strategic planning, human resources, and general management and budgetary issues. The book identifies and elaborates upon a clear theme for the Library of Congress that is applicable more generally: the digital age calls for much more collaboration and cooperation than in the past. LC21 demonstrates that information-intensive organizations will have to change in fundamental ways to survive and prosper in the digital age.

LC21: A Digital Strategy for the Library of Congress

Cells and Surveys: Should Biological Measures Be Included in Social Science Research?

The Panel on Estimates of Poverty for Small Geographic Areas was established by the Committee on National Statistics at the National Research Council in response to the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994. That act charged the U.S. Census Bureau to produce updated estimates of poor school-age children every two years for the nation's more than 3,000 counties and 14,000 school districts. The act also charged the panel with determining the appropriateness and reliability of the Bureau's estimates for use in the allocation of more than $7 billion of Title I funds each year for educationally disadvantaged children.

The panel's charge was both a major one and one with immovable deadlines. The panel had to evaluate the Census Bureau's work on a very tight schedule in order to meet legal requirements for allocation of Title I funds. As it turned out, the panel produced three interim reports: the first one evaluated county-level estimates of poor school-age children in 1993, the second one assessed a revised set of 1993 county estimates; and the third one covered both county- and school district-level estimates of poor school-age children in 1995. This volume combines and updates these three reports into a single reference volume.

Small-Area Estimates of School-Age Children in Poverty: Evaluation of Current Methodology

Report on the Case of Dr. Saad Eddin Mohamed Ibrahim, Imprisoned Sociologist, Cairo, Egypt

Female Engineering Faculty at U.S. Institutions: A Data Profile

Proceedings, First Workshop: Panel to Review the 2000 Census

Proceedings, Second Workshop: Panel to Review the 2000 Census

Proceedings, Third Workshop: Panel to Review the 2000 Census

Who Will Do the Science of the Future? is the summary of a symposium on careers of women in science. The symposium incorporated three panels of presenters: one focusing on the next generation, Science for All Students; a second that looks in depth at the issues reflected in one particular field of science, computer science, reflecting an in-depth view of academic and industrial computer scientists; and a third that focuses on strategies and policies to recruit, retain, and promote career advancement for women scientists. Lastly, there was a plenary address on how to ensure women continue to advance into positions of leadership in science.

Who Will Do the Science of the Future?: A Symposium on Careers of Women in Science

Panel on the 2000 Census: A Letter Report

How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development—in the womb and in the first months and years—have reached the popular media.

How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues.

The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more.

Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate—family, child care, community—within which the child grows.

From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development

The end of the Cold War has changed the shape of organized violence in the world and the ways in which governments and others try to set its limits. Even the concept of international conflict is broadening to include ethnic conflicts and other kinds of violence within national borders that may affect international peace and security. What is not yet clear is whether or how these changes alter the way actors on the world scene should deal with conflict:

• Do the old methods still work?
• Are there new tools that could work better?
• How do old and new methods relate to each other?

International Conflict Resolution After the Cold War critically examines evidence on the effectiveness of a dozen approaches to managing or resolving conflict in the world to develop insights for conflict resolution practitioners. It considers recent applications of familiar conflict management strategies, such as the use of threats of force, economic sanctions, and negotiation. It presents the first systematic assessments of the usefulness of some less familiar approaches to conflict resolution, including truth commissions, "engineered" electoral systems, autonomy arrangements, and regional organizations. It also opens up analysis of emerging issues, such as the dilemmas facing humanitarian organizations in complex emergencies. This book offers numerous practical insights and raises key questions for research on conflict resolution in a transforming world system.

International Conflict Resolution After the Cold War

The Panel on Juvenile Crime: Prevention, Treatment, and Control convened a workshop on October 2, 1998, to explore issues related to educational performance, school climate, school practices, learning, student motivation and commitment to school, and their relationship to delinquency. The workshop was designed to bring together researchers and practitioners with a broad range of perspectives on the relationship between such specific issues as school safety and academic achievement and the development of delinquent behavior.

Education and Delinquency reviews recent research findings, identifies gaps in knowledge and promising areas of future research, and discusses the need for program evaluation and the integration of empirical research findings into program design.

Education and Delinquency: Summary of a Workshop

This report summarizes the presentations and discussion at a workshop entitled Opportunities to Promote Child and Adolescent Development During the After-School Hours, convened on October 21, 1999. The workshop was organized by the Board on Children, Youth, and Families and its Forum on Adolescence of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine, with funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

This workshop brought together policy makers, researchers, and practitioners to examine research on the developmental needs of children and adolescents—ages 5 to 14 years—and the types of after-school programs designed to promote the health and development of these young people. Intended to provide a forum for discussion among the various stakeholders, the workshop did not generate conclusions about the types of programs that are most effective, nor did it generate specific recommendations about after-school programs or promote a particular approach.

The workshop coincided with release of the Packard Foundation's fall 1999 issue of The Future of Children, entitled "When School Is Out." Focusing on after-school programs, the journal provided some context for the workshop, providing a backdrop for discussing the importance of after-school programs, the types of programs that exist across the country, and the policy climate that surrounds after-school programs. This report summarizes the workshop.

After-School Programs to Promote Child and Adolescent Development: Summary of a Workshop

Is rapid world population growth actually coming to an end? As population growth and its consequences have become front-page issues, projections of slowing growth from such institutions as the United Nations and the World Bank have been called into question.

Beyond Six Billion asks what such projections really say, why they say it, whether they can be trusted, and whether they can be improved. The book includes analysis of how well past U.N. and World Bank projections have panned out, what errors have occurred, and why they have happened.

Focusing on fertility as one key to accurate projections, the committee examines the transition from high, constant fertility to low fertility levels and discusses whether developing countries will eventually attain the very low levels of births now observed in the industrialized world. Other keys to accurate projections, predictions of lengthening life span and of the impact of international migration on specific countries, are also explored in detail.

How good are our methods of population forecasting? How can we cope with the inevitable uncertainty? What population trends can we anticipate? Beyond Six Billion illuminates not only the forces that shape population growth but also the accuracy of the methods we use to quantify these forces and the uncertainty surrounding projections.

The Committee on Population was established by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 1983 to bring the knowledge and methods of the population sciences to bear on major issues of science and public policy. The committee's work includes both basic studies of fertility, health and mortality, and migration; and applied studies aimed at improving programs for the public health and welfare in the United States and in developing countries. The committee also fosters communication among researchers in different disciplines and countries and policy makers in government, international agencies, and private organizations. The work of the committee is made possible by funding from several government agencies and private foundations.

Beyond Six Billion: Forecasting the World's Population

Recent trends in federal policies for social and economic programs have increased the demand for timely, accurate estimates of income and poverty for states, counties, and even smaller areas. Every year more than $130 billion in federal funds is allocated to states and localities through formulas that use such estimates. These funds support a wide range of programs that include child care, community development, education, job training, nutrition, and public health.

A new program of the U.S. Census Bureau is now providing more timely estimates for these programs than those from the decennial census, which have been used for many years. These new estimates are being used to allocate more than $7 billion annually to school districts, through the Title I program that supports educationally disadvantaged children.

But are these estimates as accurate as possible given the available data? How can the statistical models and data that are used to develop the estimates be improved? What should policy makers consider in selecting particular estimates? This new book from the National Research Council provides guidance for improving the Census Bureau's program and for policy makers who use such estimates for allocating funds.

Small-Area Income and Poverty Estimates: Priorities for 2000 and Beyond

Improving Access to and Confidentiality of Research Data summarizes a workshop convened by the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) to promote discussion about methods for advancing the often conflicting goals of exploiting the research potential of microdata and maintaining acceptable levels of confidentiality. This report outlines essential themes of the access versus confidentiality debate that emerged during the workshop. Among these themes are the tradeoffs and tensions between the needs of researchers and other data users on the one hand and confidentiality requirements on the other; the relative advantages and costs of data perturbation techniques (applied to facilitate public release) versus restricted access as tools for improving security; and the need to quantify disclosure risks—both absolute and relative—created by researchers and research data, as well as by other data users and other types of data.

Improving Access to and Confidentiality of Research Data: Report of a Workshop

Part of an in-depth study of how information technology research and development could more effectively support advances in the use of information technology (IT) in government, Summary of a Workshop on Information Technology Research for Federal Statistics explores IT research opportunities of relevance to the collection, analysis, and dissemination of federal statistics. On February 9 and 10, 1999, participants from a number of communities—IT research, IT research management, federal statistics, and academic statistics—met to identify ways to foster interaction among computing and communications researchers, federal managers, and professionals in specific domains that could lead to collaborative research efforts. By establishing research links between these communities and creating collaborative mechanisms aimed at meeting relevant requirements, this workshop promoted thinking in the computing and communications research community and throughout government about possibilities for advances in technology that will support a variety of digital initiatives by the government.

Summary of a Workshop on Information Technology Research for Federal Statistics

One of the most substantial policy changes in the past decade was the elimination of the main social welfare program for poor families, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, ending the entitlement to cash benefits and replacing it with a policy emphasizing work. A question relevant for understanding the consequences of this policy change is how the time allocation among work and family care activities of poor families has changed.

President Clinton's proposed budget for fiscal 2001 includes funds for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to develop a survey to measure how Americans spend their time (U.S. Department of Labor, 2000). BLS has already explored the feasibility of such a survey. In 1997, a pilot study that collected time-use data for a sample of Americans was conducted, and the results of that study were presented at a 1997 conference sponsored by BLS and the MacArthur Network on the Family and the Economy. Using knowledge gained from the pilot study and the conference, BLS published a report on the feasibility of a national time-use survey and developed a proposal to conduct the survey.

Time-Use Measurement and Research is a summary of a workshop convened to consider data and methodological issues in measuring time use. This report discusses why time-use data are needed, highlighting many of policy and behavioral applications of time-use data. It also summarizes conceptual issues covered during the workshop, discusses a framework for how individuals and households allocate their time, and comments on some conceptual issues in measuring time use.

Time-Use Measurement and Research: Report of a Workshop

On June 24-25, 1999, the Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine convened a workshop for researchers and practitioners to examine the underlying knowledge base that informs current best practices in early childhood services, from the prenatal period to school entry.

Early Childhood Intervention discusses the diversity of working assumptions, theories of change, and views about child development and early intervention that currently shape a wide variety of social policies and service delivery systems for young children and their families.

Early Childhood Intervention: Views from the Field: Report of a Workshop

Possible new breakthroughs in understanding the aging mind that can be used to benefit older people are now emerging from research. This volume identifies the key scientific advances and the opportunities they bring. For example, science has learned that among older adults who do not suffer from Alzheimer's disease or other dementias, cognitive decline may depend less on loss of brain cells than on changes in the health of neurons and neural networks. Research on the processes that maintain neural health shows promise of revealing new ways to promote cognitive functioning in older people. Research is also showing how cognitive functioning depends on the conjunction of biology and culture. The ways older people adapt to changes in their nervous systems, and perhaps the changes themselves, are shaped by past life experiences, present living situations, changing motives, cultural expectations, and emerging technology, as well as by their physical health status and sensory-motor capabilities. Improved understanding of how physical and contextual factors interact can help explain why some cognitive functions are impaired in aging while others are spared and why cognitive capability is impaired in some older adults and spared in others. On the basis of these exciting findings, the report makes specific recommends that the U.S. government support three major new initiatives as the next steps for research.

The Aging Mind: Opportunities in Cognitive Research

The Panel on Research on Future Census Methods was formed to examine alternative designs for the 2010 census and to assist the Census Bureau in planning tests and analyses to help assess and compare the advantages and disadvantages of them. Designing the 2010 Census: First Interim Report , examines whether the auxiliary information that is planned to be collected (and retained) during the 2000 census could be augmented to help guide the Census Bureau in its assessment of alternative designs for the 2010 census.

Designing the 2010 Census: First Interim Report

Imagine sending a magazine article to 10 friends-making photocopies, putting them in envelopes, adding postage, and mailing them. Now consider how much easier it is to send that article to those 10 friends as an attachment to e-mail. Or to post the article on your own site on the World Wide Web.

The ease of modifying or copying digitized material and the proliferation of computer networking have raised fundamental questions about copyright and patent—intellectual property protections rooted in the U.S. Constitution. Hailed for quick and convenient access to a world of material, the Internet also poses serious economic issues for those who create and market that material. If people can so easily send music on the Internet for free, for example, who will pay for music?

This book presents the multiple facets of digitized intellectual property, defining terms, identifying key issues, and exploring alternatives. It follows the complex threads of law, business, incentives to creators, the American tradition of access to information, the international context, and the nature of human behavior. Technology is explored for its ability to transfer content and its potential to protect intellectual property rights. The book proposes research and policy recommendations as well as principles for policymaking.

The Digital Dilemma: Intellectual Property in the Information Age

For a period of history no women worked outside the home. Bust as years have gone by and society has changed, Women are working varying jobs every day. They are, however, underrepresented in some sectors of jobs. This includes women in the engineering and science fields. To matters worse, women do not ascend the career ladder as fast as or as far as men do.

The impact of this and related problems for science, the academic enterprise, the U.S. economy, and global economic competitiveness have been recently examined. The Chemical Sciences Roundtable evaluate that the demographics of the workforce and the implications for science and society vary, depending on the field of science or engineering. The roundtable has organized a workshop, "Women in the Chemical Workforce," to address issues pertinent to the chemical and chemical engineering workforce as a whole, with an emphasis on the advancement of women.

Women in the Chemical Workforce: A Workshop Report to the Chemical Sciences Roundtable includes reports regarding the workshop's three sessions—Context and Overview, Opportunities for Change, and Conditions for Success—as well as presentations by invited speakers, discussions within breakout groups, oral reports from each group.

Women in the Chemical Workforce: A Workshop Report to the Chemical Sciences Roundtable

On November 9-10, 1998, the Forum on Adolescence of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families, a cross-cutting initiative of the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, convened a workshop entitled Research to Improve Intergroup Relations Among Youth. Held at the request of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, this workshop considered selected findings of 16 research projects that have focused on intergroup relations among children and adolescents; all 16 received funding from Carnegie Corporation of New York for their work on this issue. The funding of these projects was part of a larger research initiative supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York that sought to update and expand the knowledge, sources, and dynamics of racial and ethnic prejudice among youth, identifying approaches to foster intergroup understanding.

Improving Intergroup Relations Among Youth is the summary of the workshop, which provided an opportunity to learn about the work and preliminary findings of the 16 projects. This report reviews the knowledge base regarding the effectiveness of interventions designed to promote peaceful, respectful relations among youth of different ethnic groups.

Improving Intergroup Relations Among Youth: Summary of a Research Workshop

This report constitutes one of the first activities of the Forum on Adolescence, a cross-cutting activity of the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council of the National Academies. Established under the auspices of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families, the forum's overaching mission is to synthesize, analyze, and evaluate scientific research on critical national issues that relate to youth and their families, as well as to disseminate research and its policy and programmatic implications. The goals of the forum are to: (1) review and establish the science base on adolescent health and development and make efforts to foster this development; (2) identify new directions and support for research in this area, approaching research as a resource to be developed cumulatively over time; (3) showcase new research, programs, and policies that have demonstrated promise in improving the health and well-being of adolescents; (4) convene and foster collaborations among individuals who represent diverse viewpoints and backgrounds, with a view to enhancing the quality of leadership in this area; and (5) disseminate research on adolescence and its policy implications to a wide array of audiences, from the scientific community to the lay public.

Risks and Opportunities: Synthesis of Studies on Adolescence

World human population is expected to reach upwards of 9 billion by 2050 and then level off over the next half-century. How can the transition to a stabilizing population also be a transition to sustainability? How can science and technology help to ensure that human needs are met while the planet's environment is nurtured and restored?

Our Common Journey examines these momentous questions to draw strategic connections between scientific research, technological development, and societies' efforts to achieve environmentally sustainable improvements in human well being. The book argues that societies should approach sustainable development not as a destination but as an ongoing, adaptive learning process. Speaking to the next two generations, it proposes a strategy for using scientific and technical knowledge to better inform future action in the areas of fertility reduction, urban systems, agricultural production, energy and materials use, ecosystem restoration and biodiversity conservation, and suggests an approach for building a new research agenda for sustainability science.

Our Common Journey documents large-scale historical currents of social and environmental change and reviews methods for "what if" analysis of possible future development pathways and their implications for sustainability. The book also identifies the greatest threats to sustainability—in areas such as human settlements, agriculture, industry, and energy—and explores the most promising opportunities for circumventing or mitigating these threats. It goes on to discuss what indicators of change, from children's birth-weights to atmosphere chemistry, will be most useful in monitoring a transition to sustainability.

Our Common Journey: A Transition Toward Sustainability

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 fundamentally changed the nation's social welfare system, replacing a federal entitlement program for low-income families, called Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), with state-administered block grants, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. PRWORA furthered a trend started earlier in the decade under so called "waiver" programs-state experiments with different types of AFDC rules-toward devolution of design and control of social welfare programs from the federal government to the states. The legislation imposed several new, major requirements on state use of federal welfare funds but otherwise freed states to reconfigure their programs as they want. The underlying goal of the legislation is to decrease dependence on welfare and increase the self-sufficiency of poor families in the United States.

In summer 1998, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) asked the Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council to convene a Panel on Data and Methods for Measuring the Effects of Changes in Social Welfare Programs. The panel's overall charge is to study and make recommendations on the best strategies for evaluating the effects of PRWORA and other welfare reforms and to make recommendations on data needs for conducting useful evaluations. This interim report presents the panel's initial conclusions and recommendations. Given the short length of time the panel has been in existence, this report necessarily treats many issues in much less depth than they will be treated in the final report. The report has an immediate short-run goal of providing DHHS-ASPE with recommendations regarding some of its current projects, particularly those recently funded to study "welfare leavers"-former welfare recipients who have left the welfare rolls as part of the recent decline in welfare caseloads.

Evaluating Welfare Reform: A Framework and Review of Current Work, Interim Report

Revisiting Home Visiting: Summary of a Workshop

Data and Methodological Issues for Tracking Former Welfare Recipients: A Workshop Summary

Immigrant children and youth are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, and so their prospects bear heavily on the well-being of the country. Children of Immigrants represents some of the very best and most extensive research efforts to date on the circumstances, health, and development of children in immigrant families and the delivery of health and social services to these children and their families.

This book presents new, detailed analyses of more than a dozen existing datasets that constitute a large share of the national system for monitoring the health and well-being of the U.S. population. Prior to these new analyses, few of these datasets had been used to assess the circumstances of children in immigrant families. The analyses enormously expand the available knowledge about the physical and mental health status and risk behaviors, educational experiences and outcomes, and socioeconomic and demographic circumstances of first- and second-generation immigrant children, compared with children with U.S.-born parents.

Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance

America's cities have symbolized the nation's prosperity, dynamism, and innovation. Even with the trend toward suburbanization, many central cities attract substantial new investment and employment. Within this profile of health, however, many urban areas are beset by problems of economic disparity, physical deterioration, and social distress.

This volume addresses the condition of the city from the perspective of the larger metropolitan region. It offers important, thought-provoking perspectives on the structure of metropolitan-level decisionmaking, the disadvantages faced by cities and city residents, and expanding economic opportunity to all residents in a metropolitan area. The book provides data, real-world examples, and analyses in key areas:

• Distribution of metropolitan populations and what this means for city dwellers, suburbanites, whites, and minorities.
• How quality of life depends on the spatial structure of a community and how problems are based on inequalities in spatial opportunity—with a focus on the relationship between taxes and services.
• The role of the central city today, the rationale for revitalizing central cities, and city-suburban interdependence.

The book includes papers that provide in-depth examinations of zoning policy in relation to patterns of suburban development; regionalism in transportation and air quality; the geography of economic and social opportunity; social stratification in metropolitan areas; and fiscal and service disparities within metropolitan areas.

Governance and Opportunity in Metropolitan America

This publication is extracted from a much larger report, Global Environmental Change: Research Pathways for the Next Decade , which addresses the full range of the scientific issues concerning global environmental change and offers guidance to the scientific effort on these issues in the United States. This volume consists of Chapter 7 of that report, "Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change," which was written for the report by the Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change of the National Research Council (NRC). It provides findings and conclusions on the key scientific questions in human dimensions research, the lessons that have been learned over the past decade, and the research imperatives for global change research funded from the United States.

Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change: Research Pathways for the Next Decade

Adolescence is one of the most fascinating and complex transitions in the human life span. Its breathtaking pace of growth and change is second only to that of infancy. Over the last two decades, the research base in the field of adolescence has had its own growth spurt. New studies have provided fresh insights while theoretical assumptions have changed and matured. This summary of an important 1998 workshop reviews key findings and addresses the most pressing research challenges.

Adolescent Development and the Biology of Puberty: Summary of a Workshop on New Research

Crime statistics assail us from the front pages of newspapers around the country—and around the globe. As the world's economic systems become integrated, as barriers to trade, travel, and migration come down, criminal opportunities have rapidly expanded across national borders. Transnational crime has become a problem of considerable political urgency that requires long-term attention. The United States and other countries are devoting significant resources to its investigation and control. The National Academies Committee on Law and Justice convened a workshop to elicit ideas about this phenomenon and to discuss the research and information needs of policy officials. This report lays out the full range of research issues and makes useful suggestions for learning more about transnational crime.

Transnational Organized Crime: Summary of a Workshop

Every day economic decisions are made in the public and private sectors, based on limited information and analysis. The analysis and information needed for successful public policy has changed rapidly with the growth of the global economy, and so have the means for acquiring them. In the public sector, decision makers rely on information gathered within government agencies, as well as the work of academics and private firms.

Sowing the Seeds provides a case study of the need for analysis and information in support of public policy. It combines lessons learned from one of the first government agencies devoted primarily to this function with modern economic theory of organizations. The panel provides analysis and insight on:

• How and why public economic policy evolves with technological advances.
• The nature of information and analysis in support of economic policy produced in a government agency.
• The characteristics of successful information and analysis programs.
• Evaluating the work of a government agency providing information and analysis.
• Effective administration and organization of research and information programs in a government agency.

Findings and recommendations in this volume will be of interest to managers and executives of research and consulting organizations in the public and private sectors, as well as to economists and policy makers.

Sowing Seeds of Change: Informing Public Policy in the Economic Research Service of USDA

Interest in the role that decision making plays in adolescents' involvement in high-risk behaviors led the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to request the Board on Children, Youth, and Families to convene a workshop on adolescent decision making. The Board on Children, Youth, and Families is a joint activity of the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine. A workshop was held on January 6-7, 1998, to examine what is known about adolescents' decision-making skills and the implications of that knowledge for programs to further their healthy development.

Adolescent Decision Making: Implications for Prevention Programs: Summary of a Workshop

This study is an important first step in the development of a national policy on illegal drugs. It assesses two recent cost-effectiveness studies on cocaine control policy: one by RAND, Controlling Cocaine: Supply Versus Demand Programs , and the other by the Institute of Defense Analyses, An Empirical Examination of Counterdrug Interdiction Program Effectiveness .

Assessment of Two Cost-Effectiveness Studies on Cocaine Control Policy

We in the United States have almost come to accept natural disasters as part of our nation's social fabric. News of property damage, economic and social disruption, and injuries follow earthquakes, fires, floods and hurricanes. Surprisingly, however, the total losses that follow these natural disasters are not consistently calculated. We have no formal system in either the public or private sector for compiling this information. The National Academies recommends what types of data should be assembled and tracked.

The Impacts of Natural Disasters: A Framework for Loss Estimation

This final report of the Panel on Alternative Census Methodologies provides an assessment of the Census Bureau's plans for the 2000 census as of the time of the 1998 census dress rehearsal. It examines changes in census plans following, and to a modest extent in reaction to, the panel's second interim report, regarding the use of sampling for nonresponse follow-up, construction of the master address file, use of multiple response modes and respondent-friendly questionnaires, and the use of administrative records. It also describes evaluation plans for the census dress rehearsal and plans for data collection and experimentation during the 2000 census. Most of the results from the dress rehearsal were not yet available to the panel, so this report does not offer any suggested changes to 2000 census plans in response to the dress rehearsal.

Measuring a Changing Nation: Modern Methods for the 2000 Census

This report summarizes presentations and discussions at the Workshop on the Social Processes Underlying Fertility Change in Developing Countries, organized by the Committee on Population of the National Research Council (NRC) in Washington, D.C., January 29-30, 1998. Fourteen papers were presented at the workshop; they represented both theoretical and empirical perspectives and shed new light on the role that diffusion processes may play in fertility transition. These papers served as the basis for the discussion that is summarized in this report.

The Role of Diffusion Processes in Fertility Change in Developing Countries

Estimated costs associated with lost days and compensation claims related to musculoskeletal disorders—including back pains and repetitive motion injuries—range from $13 billion to $20 billion annually. This is a serious national problem that has spurred considerable debate about the causal links between such disorders and risk factors in the workplace.

This book presents a preliminary assessment of what is known about the relationship between musculoskeletal disorders and what may cause them. It includes papers and a workshop summary of findings from orthopedic surgery, public health, occupational medicine, epidemiology, risk analysis, ergonomics, and human factors. Topics covered include the biological responses of tissues to stress, the biomechanics of work stressors, the epidemiology of physical work factors, and the contributions of individual, recreational, and social factors to such disorders. The book also considers the relative success of various workplace interventions for prevention and rehabilitation.

Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders: Report, Workshop Summary, and Workshop Papers

The U.S. Department of Education uses estimates of school-age children in poverty to allocate federal funds under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for education programs to aid disadvantaged children. Historically, the allocations have been made by a two-stage process: the department's role has been to allocate Title I funds to counties; the states have then distributed these funds to school districts. Until recently, the department has based the county allocations on the numbers and proportions of poor school-age children in each county from the most recent decennial census. States have used several different data sources, such as the decennial census and the National School Lunch Program, to distribute the department's county allocations to districts. In 1994 Congress authorized the Bureau of the Census to provide updated estimates of poor school-age children every 2 years, to begin in 1996 with estimates for counties and in 1998 with estimates for school districts. The Department of Education is to use the school district estimates to allocate Title I basic and concentration grants directly to districts for the 1999-2000 and later school years, unless the Secretaries of Education and Commerce determine that they are "inappropriate or unreliable" on the basis of a study by the National Research Council. That study is being carried out by the Committee on National Statistics' Panel on Estimates of Poverty for Small Geographic Areas.

Small-Area Estimates of School-Age Children in Poverty: Interim Report 3

This volume assesses the evidence, and possible mechanisms, for the associations between women's education, fertility preferences, and fertility in developing countries, and how these associations vary across regions. It discusses the implications of these associations for policies in the population, health, and education sectors, including implications for research.

Critical Perspectives on Schooling and Fertility in the Developing World

In Massachusetts, a 12-year-old girl delivering newspapers is killed when a car strikes her bicycle. In Los Angeles, a 14-year-old boy repeatedly falls asleep in class, exhausted from his evening job. Although children and adolescents may benefit from working, there may also be negative social effects and sometimes danger in their jobs.

Protecting Youth at Work looks at what is known about work done by children and adolescents and the effects of that work on their physical and emotional health and social functioning. The committee recommends specific initiatives for legislators, regulators, researchers, and employers.

This book provides historical perspective on working children and adolescents in America and explores the framework of child labor laws that govern that work. The committee presents a wide range of data and analysis on the scope of youth employment, factors that put children and adolescents at risk in the workplace, and the positive and negative effects of employment, including data on educational attainment and lifestyle choices.

Protecting Youth at Work also includes discussions of special issues for minority and disadvantaged youth, young workers in agriculture, and children who work in family-owned businesses.

Protecting Youth at Work: Health, Safety, and Development of Working Children and Adolescents in the United States

In May 1998 the National Institutes of Health asked the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council to assemble a group of experts to examine the scientific literature relevant to work-related musculoskeletal disorders of the lower back, neck, and upper extremities. A steering committee was convened to design a workshop, to identify leading researchers on the topic to participate, and to prepare a report based on the workshop discussions and their own expertise. In addition, the steering committee was asked to address, to the extent possible, a set of seven questions posed by Congressman Robert Livingston on the topic of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. The steering committee includes experts in orthopedic surgery, occupational medicine, epidemiology, ergonomics, human factors, statistics, and risk analysis.

This document is based on the evidence presented and discussed at the two-day Workshop on Work-Related Musculoskeletal Injuries: Examining the Research Base, which was held on August 21 and 22, 1998, and on follow-up deliberations of the steering committee, reflecting its own expertise.

Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders: A Review of the Evidence

The Committee and the Board on Children, Youth, and Families convened in September a workshop to discuss ways to foster greater collaboration and sharing of information among principal investigators of several longitudinal surveys of children. Among many topics discussed were issues of coverage and balance of content, sampling design and weighting, measurement and analysis, field operations, legitimation and retention of cases, data disclosure and dissemination, and resources available for longitudinal studies. The workshop was sponsored by the National Institute on Justice.

Longitudinal Surveys of Children

Immigrant children and youth are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population, and so their prospects bear heavily on the well-being of the country. However, relevant public policy is shaped less by informed discussion than by politicized contention over welfare reform and immigration limits.

From Generation to Generation explores what we know about the development of white, black, Hispanic, and Asian children and youth from numerous countries of origin. Describing the status of immigrant children and youth as "severely understudied," the committee both draws on and supplements existing research to characterize the current status and outlook of immigrant children.

The book discusses the many factors—family size, fluency in English, parent employment, acculturation, delivery of health and social services, and public policies—that shape the outlook for the lives of these children and youth. The committee makes recommendations for improved research and data collection designed to advance knowledge about these children and, as a result, their visibility in current policy debates.

From Generation to Generation: The Health and Well-Being of Children in Immigrant Families

Investing in Research Infrastructure in the Behavioral and Social Sciences

Simulations are widely used in the military for training personnel, analyzing proposed equipment, and rehearsing missions, and these simulations need realistic models of human behavior. This book draws together a wide variety of theoretical and applied research in human behavior modeling that can be considered for use in those simulations. It covers behavior at the individual, unit, and command level. At the individual soldier level, the topics covered include attention, learning, memory, decisionmaking, perception, situation awareness, and planning. At the unit level, the focus is on command and control. The book provides short-, medium-, and long-term goals for research and development of more realistic models of human behavior.

Modeling Human and Organizational Behavior: Application to Military Simulations

Because forced migration situations are often physically dangerous and politically complicated, estimates of these populations are often difficult to make. Estimates of forced migration vary, but it is probable that there are about 23 million refugees and more than 30 million internally displaced people.In order to assist specific groups of forced migrants and also to better understand the general plight of forced migrants, good demographic data are needed. However, collecting data on forced migration presents tremendous challenges for normal data collection processes and standards.To explore a range of issues about internally displaced persons and refugees, the Committee on Population of the National Research Council organized a Workshop on the Demography of Forced Migration in Washington, D.C., in November 1997. The purpose of the workshop was to investigate the ways in which population and other social scientists can produce more useful demographic information about forced migrant populations and how they differ. This report summarizes the background papers prepared for the meeting, the presentations, and the general discussion.

The Demography of Forced Migration: Summary of a Workshop

The design of welfare programs in an era of reform and devolution to the states must take into account the likely effects of programs on demographic behavior. Most research on welfare in the past has examined labor market issues, although there have also been some important evaluations of the effects of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children Program on out-of-wedlock childbearing. Much less information is available on other issues equally central to the debate, including effects on abortion decisions, marriage and divorce, intrafamily relations, household formation, and living arrangements. This volume of papers contains reviews and syntheses of existing evidence bearing on the demographic impacts of welfare and ideas for how to evaluate new state-level reforms.

Welfare, the Family, and Reproductive Behavior: Research Perspectives

New Findings on Poverty and Child Health and Nutrition: Summary of a Research Briefing

Small-Area Estimates of School-Age Children in Poverty: Interim Report 2, Evaluation of Revised 1993 County Estimates for Title I Allocations

Summarizing Population Health: Directions for the Development and Application of Population Metrics

The New Americans (NRC 1997) presents an analysis of the economic gains and losses from immigration—for the nation, states, and local areas—providing a scientific foundation for public discussion and policymaking. This companion book of systematic research presents nine original and synthesis papers with detailed data and analysis that support and extend the work in the first book and point the way for future work. The Immigration Debate includes case studies of the fiscal effects of immigration in New Jersey and California, studies of the impact of immigration on population redistribution and on crime in the United States, and much more.

The Immigration Debate: Studies on the Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration

The Myrna Mack Case: An Update

Providing National Statistics on Health and Social Welfare Programs in an Era of Change: Summary of a Workshop

As the first real contraceptive innovation in over 20 years, and as a long-acting method requiring clinical intervention for application and removal, the implantable contraceptive Norplant has raised a wide range of issues that could offer valuable lessons about the problems to be addressed if other new contraceptive technologies are to enter the marketplace. In April 1997 an Institute of Medicine workshop on implant contraceptives reviewed newly available data on Norplant's efficacy, safety, and use; identified lessons to be learned about the method's development, introduction, use, and market experience; and explored approaches to developing and introducing new contraceptives based on those lessons. This resulting book contains an examination of Norplant's efficacy and safety, its user populations, training for insertion and removal, consumer perspectives (quality of care, informed decisionmaking, and consumer involvement), and new approaches to contraceptive development and introduction. An appendix contains summaries of 17 workshop presentations.

Contraceptive Research, Introduction, and Use: Lessons From Norplant

Reports of mistreated children, domestic violence, and abuse of elderly persons continue to strain the capacity of police, courts, social services agencies, and medical centers. At the same time, myriad treatment and prevention programs are providing services to victims and offenders. Although limited research knowledge exists regarding the effectiveness of these programs, such information is often scattered, inaccessible, and difficult to obtain.

Violence in Families takes the first hard look at the successes and failures of family violence interventions. It offers recommendations to guide services, programs, policy, and research on victim support and assistance, treatments and penalties for offenders, and law enforcement. Included is an analysis of more than 100 evaluation studies on the outcomes of different kinds of programs and services.

Violence in Families provides the most comprehensive review on the topic to date. It explores the scope and complexity of family violence, including identification of the multiple types of victims and offenders, who require different approaches to intervention. The book outlines new strategies that offer promising approaches for service providers and researchers and for improving the evaluation of prevention and treatment services. Violence in Families discusses issues that underlie all types of family violence, such as the tension between family support and the protection of children, risk factors that contribute to violent behavior in families, and the balance between family privacy and community interventions.

The core of the book is a research-based review of interventions used in three institutional sectors—social services, health, and law enforcement settings—and how to measure their effectiveness in combating maltreatment of children, domestic violence, and abuse of the elderly. Among the questions explored by the committee: Does the child protective services system work? Does the threat of arrest deter batterers? The volume discusses the strength of the evidence and highlights emerging links among interventions in different institutional settings.

Thorough, readable, and well organized, Violence in Families synthesizes what is known and outlines what needs to be discovered. This volume will be of great interest to policymakers, social services providers, health care professionals, police and court officials, victim advocates, researchers, and concerned individuals.

Violence in Families: Assessing Prevention and Treatment Programs

This ground-breaking new volume focuses on the interaction between political, social, and economic change in Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States. It includes a wide selection of analytic papers, thought-provoking essays by leading scholars in diverse fields, and an agenda for future research. It integrates work on the micro and macro levels of the economy and provides a broad overview of the transition process.

This volume broadens the current intellectual and policy debate concerning the historic transition now taking place from a narrow concern with purely economic factors to the dynamics of political and social change. It questions the assumption that the post-communist economies are all following the same path and that they will inevitably develop into replicas of economies in the advanced industrial West. It challenges accepted thinking and promotes the utilization of new methods and perspectives.

Transforming Post-Communist Political Economies

Automation in air traffic control may increase efficiency, but it also raises questions about adequate human control over automated systems. Following on the panel's first volume on air traffic control automation, Flight to the Future (NRC, 1997), this book focuses on the interaction of pilots and air traffic controllers, with a growing network of automated functions in the airspace system.

The panel offers recommendations for development of human-centered automation, addressing key areas such as providing levels of automation that are appropriate to levels of risk, examining procedures for recovery from emergencies, free flight versus ground-based authority, and more.

The book explores ways in which technology can build on human strengths and compensate for human vulnerabilities, minimizing both mistrust of automation and complacency about its abilities. The panel presents an overview of emerging technologies and trends toward automation within the national airspace system—in areas such as global positioning and other aspects of surveillance, flight information provided to pilots an controllers, collision avoidance, strategic long-term planning, and systems for training and maintenance.

The book examines how to achieve better integration of research and development, including the importance of user involvement in air traffic control. It also discusses how to harmonize the wide range of functions in the national airspace system, with a detailed review of the free flight initiative.

The Future of Air Traffic Control: Human Operators and Automation

This book assesses the scientific value and merit of research on human genetic differences—including a collection of DNA samples that represents the whole of human genetic diversity—and the ethical, organizational, and policy issues surrounding such research. Evaluating Human Genetic Diversity discusses the potential uses of such collection, such as providing insight into human evolution and origins and serving as a springboard for important medical research. It also addresses issues of confidentiality and individual privacy for participants in genetic diversity research studies.

Evaluating Human Genetic Diversity

In 1996, the National Science Foundation (NSF) released a report about ways to improve undergraduate science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SME&T) education. One recommendation called for establishing a digital library, similar to those that are being constructed for many research communities, that would make available electronically a wide variety of materials for improving teaching and learning of SME&T.

The NSF asked the National Research Council to examine the feasibility of and issues associated with establishing such a digital national library. In response, an NRC steering committee commissioned a series of papers and convened a workshop to consider these issues. This resulting book delineates the issues that should be considered and provides recommendations to resolve them prior to committing funds.

Developing a Digital National Library for Undergraduate Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology Education: Report of a Workshop

The design of welfare programs in an era of reform and devolution to the states must take into account the likely effects of programs on demographic behavior. In the past, most research on welfare has examined labor market issues, although there have also been some important evaluations of the effects of Aid to Families with Dependent Children on out-of-wedlock childbearing. Much less information is available on other issues equally central to the debate, including effects on abortion decisions, marriage and divorce, intrafamily relations, household formation, and living arrangements. This book of papers contains reviews and syntheses of existing evidence bearing on the demographic impacts of welfare and ideas for how to evaluate new state-level reforms.

Welfare, the Family, and Reproductive Behavior: Report of a Meeting

The last 35 years or so have witnessed a dramatic shift in the demography of many developing countries. Before 1960, there were substantial improvements in life expectancy, but fertility declines were very rare. Few people used modern contraceptives, and couples had large families. Since 1960, however, fertility rates have fallen in virtually every major geographic region of the world, for almost all political, social, and economic groups. What factors are responsible for the sharp decline in fertility? What role do child survival programs or family programs play in fertility declines? Casual observation suggests that a decline in infant and child mortality is the most important cause, but there is surprisingly little hard evidence for this conclusion. The papers in this volume explore the theoretical, methodological, and empirical dimensions of the fertility-mortality relationship. It includes several detailed case studies based on contemporary data from developing countries and on historical data from Europe and the United States.

From Death to Birth: Mortality Decline and Reproductive Change

Demographers and public health specialists have been surprised by the rapid increases in life expectancy, especially at the oldest ages, that have occurred since the early 1960s. Some scientists are calling into question the idea of a fixed upper limit for the human life span. There is new evidence about the genetic bases for both humans and other species. There are also new theories and models of the role of mutations accumulating over the life span and the possible evolutionary advantages of survival after the reproductive years.

This volume deals with such diverse topics as the role of the elderly in other species and among human societies past and present, the contribution of evolutionary theory to our understanding of human longevity and intergenerational transfers, mathematical models for survival, and the potential for collecting genetic material in household surveys. It will be particularly valuable for promoting communication between the social and life sciences.

Between Zeus and the Salmon: The Biodemography of Longevity

This book sheds light on one of the most controversial issues of the decade. It identifies the economic gains and losses from immigration—for the nation, states, and local areas—and provides a foundation for public discussion and policymaking. Three key questions are explored:

• What is the influence of immigration on the overall economy, especially national and regional labor markets?
• What are the overall effects of immigration on federal, state, and local government budgets?
• What effects will immigration have on the future size and makeup of the nation's population over the next 50 years?

The New Americans examines what immigrants gain by coming to the United States and what they contribute to the country, the skills of immigrants and those of native-born Americans, the experiences of immigrant women and other groups, and much more. It offers examples of how to measure the impact of immigration on government revenues and expenditures—estimating one year's fiscal impact in California, New Jersey, and the United States and projecting the long-run fiscal effects on government revenues and expenditures. Also included is background information on immigration policies and practices and data on where immigrants come from, what they do in America, and how they will change the nation's social fabric in the decades to come.

The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration

Improving Theory and Research on Quality Enhancement in Organizations: Report of a Workshop

Older Americans, even the oldest, can now expect to live years longer than those who reached the same ages even a few decades ago. Although survival has improved for all racial and ethnic groups, strong differences persist, both in life expectancy and in the causes of disability and death at older ages. This book examines trends in mortality rates and selected causes of disability (cardiovascular disease, dementia) for older people of different racial and ethnic groups.

The determinants of these trends and differences are also investigated, including differences in access to health care and experiences in early life, diet, health behaviors, genetic background, social class, wealth and income. Groups often neglected in analyses of national data, such as the elderly Hispanic and Asian Americans of different origin and immigrant generations, are compared. The volume provides understanding of research bearing on the health status and survival of the fastest-growing segment of the American population.

Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Health of Older Americans

The Case For Human Factors in Industry and Government: Report of a Workshop

Small-Area Estimates of School-Age Children in Poverty: Interim Report 1, Evaluation of 1993 County Estimates for Title I Allocations

In the movement toward standards-based education, an important question stands out: How will this reform affect the 10% of school-aged children who have disabilities and thus qualify for special education?

In Educating One and All , an expert committee addresses how to reconcile common learning for all students with individualized education for "one"—the unique student. The book makes recommendations to states and communities that have adopted standards-based reform and that seek policies and practices to make reform consistent with the requirements of special education.

The committee explores the ideas, implementation issues, and legislative initiatives behind the tradition of special education for people with disabilities. It investigates the policy and practice implications of the current reform movement toward high educational standards for all students.

Educating One and All examines the curricula and expected outcomes of standards-based education and the educational experience of students with disabilities—and identifies points of alignment between the two areas. The volume documents the diverse population of students with disabilities and their school experiences. Because approaches to assessment and accountability are key to standards-based reforms, the committee analyzes how assessment systems currently address students with disabilities, including testing accommodations. The book addresses legal and resource implications, as well as parental participation in children's education.

Educating One and All: Students with Disabilities and Standards-Based Reform

Preparing For the 2000 Census: Interim Report II

There has been much polemic about affluence, consumption, and the global environment. For some observers, "consumption" is at the root of global environmental threats: wealthy individuals and societies use far too much of the earth's resource base and should scale back their appetites to preserve the environment for future generations and allow a decent life for the rest of the world. Other observers see affluence as the way to escape environmental threats: economic development increases public pressure for environmental protection and makes capital available for environmentally benign technologies. The arguments are fed by conflicting beliefs, values, hopes, and fears—but surprisingly little scientific analysis.

This book demonstrates that the relationship of consumption to the environment needs careful analysis by environmental and social scientists and conveys some of the excitement of treating the issue scientifically. It poses the key empirical questions: Which kinds of consumption are environmentally significant? Which actors are responsible for that consumption? What forces cause or explain environmentally significant consumption? How can it be changed? The book presents studies that open up important issues for empirical study: Are there any signs of saturation in the demand for travel in wealthy countries? What is the relationship between environmental consumption and human well-being? To what extent do people in developing countries emulate American consumption styles? The book also suggests broad strategies that scientists and research sponsors can use to better inform future debates about the environment, development, and consumption.

Environmentally Significant Consumption: Research Directions

In recent years there have been alarming reports of rapid decreases in life expectancy in the New Independent States (former members of the Soviet Union). To help assess priorities for health policy, the Committee on Population organized two workshops—the first on adult mortality and disability, the second on adult health priorities and policies. Participants included demographers, epidemiologists, public health specialists, economists, and policymakers from the NIS countries, the United States, and Western Europe. This volume consists of selected papers presented at the workshops. They assess the reliability of data on mortality, morbidity, and disability; analyze regional patterns and trends in mortality rates and causes of death; review evidence about major determinants of adult mortality; and discuss implications for health policy.

Premature Death in the New Independent States

Representing Human Behavior in Military Simulations: Interim Report

Total quality management (TQM), reengineering, the workplace of the twenty-first century—the 1990s have brought a sense of urgency to organizations to change or face stagnation and decline, according to Enhancing Organizational Performance . Organizations are adopting popular management techniques, some scientific, some faddish, often without introducing them properly or adequately measuring the outcome.

Enhancing Organizational Performance reviews the most popular current approaches to organizational change—total quality management, reengineering, and downsizing—in terms of how they affect organizations and people, how performance improvements can be measured, and what questions remain to be answered by researchers.

The committee explores how theory, doctrine, accepted wisdom, and personal experience have all served as sources for organization design. Alternative organization structures such as teams, specialist networks, associations, and virtual organizations are examined.

Enhancing Organizational Performance looks at the influence of the organization's norms, values, and beliefs—its culture—on people and their performance, identifying cultural "levers" available to organization leaders. And what is leadership? The committee sorts through a wealth of research to identify behaviors and skills related to leadership effectiveness. The volume examines techniques for developing these skills and suggests new competencies that will become required with globalization and other trends.

Mergers, networks, alliances, coalitions—organizations are increasingly turning to new intra- and inter-organizational structures. Enhancing Organizational Performance discusses how organizations cooperate to maximize outcomes.

The committee explores the changing missions of the U.S. Army as a case study that has relevance to any organization. Noting that a musical greeting card contains more computing power than existed in the entire world before 1950, the committee addresses the impact of new technologies on performance.

With examples, insights, and practical criteria, Enhancing Organizational Performance clarifies the nature of organizations and the prospects for performance improvement.

This book will be important to corporate leaders, executives, and managers; faculty and students in organizational performance and the social sciences; business journalists; researchers; and interested individuals.

Enhancing Organizational Performance

The retirement income security of older Americans and the cost of providing that security are increasingly the subject of major debate. This volume assesses what we know and recommends what we need to know to estimate the short- and long-term effects of policy alternatives. It details gaps in data and research and evaluates possible models to estimate the impact of policy changes that could affect retirement income from Social Security, pensions, personal savings, and other sources.

Assessing Policies for Retirement Income: Needs for Data, Research, and Models

Despite the strong safety record of the national airspace system, serious disruptions occasionally occur, often as a result of outdated or failed equipment. Under these circumstances, safety relies on the skills of the controllers and pilots and on reducing the number of aircraft in the air. The current and growing pressures to increase the capacity to handle a greater number of flights has led to a call for faster and more powerful equipment and for equipment that can take over some of the tasks now being performed by humans. Increasing the role of automation in air traffic control may provide a more efficient system, but will human controllers be able to effectively take over when problems occur? This comprehensive volume provides a baseline of knowledge about the capabilities and limitations of humans relative to the variety of functions performed in air traffic control. It focuses on balancing safety with the expeditious flow of air traffic, identifying lessons from past air accidents. The book discusses:

• The function of the national airspace system and the procedures for hiring, training, and evaluating controllers.
• Decisionmaking, memory, alertness, vigilance, sleep patterns during shift work, communication, and other factors in controllers' performance.
• Research on automation and human factors in air traffic control and incorporation of findings into the system.
• The Federal Aviation Administration's management of the air traffic control system and its dual mandate to promote safety and the development of air commerce.

This book also offers recommendations for evaluation the human role in automated air traffic control systems and for managing the introduction of automation into current facilities and operations. It will be of interest to anyone concerned about air safety—policymakers, regulators, air traffic managers and controllers, airline officials, and passenger advocates.

Flight to the Future: Human Factors in Air Traffic Control

This book examines the human factors issues associated with the development, testing, and implementation of helmet-mounted display technology in the 21st Century Land Warrior System.

Because the framework of analysis is soldier performance with the system in the full range of environments and missions, the book discusses both the military context and the characteristics of the infantry soldiers who will use the system. The major issues covered include the positive and negative effects of such a display on the local and global situation awareness of the individual soldier, an analysis of the visual and psychomotor factors associated with each design feature, design considerations for auditory displays, and physical sources of stress and the implications of the display for affecting the soldier's workload. The book proposes an innovative approach to research and testing based on a three-stage strategy that begins in the laboratory, moves to controlled field studies, and culminates in operational testing.

Tactical Display for Soldiers: Human Factors Considerations

New Findings on Welfare and Children's Development: Summary of a Research Briefing

In 1992 the National Research Council issued DNA Technology in Forensic Science , a book that documented the state of the art in this emerging field. Recently, this volume was brought to worldwide attention in the murder trial of celebrity O. J. Simpson. The Evaluation of Forensic DNA Evidence reports on developments in population genetics and statistics since the original volume was published. The committee comments on statements in the original book that proved controversial or that have been misapplied in the courts. This volume offers recommendations for handling DNA samples, performing calculations, and other aspects of using DNA as a forensic tool—modifying some recommendations presented in the 1992 volume. The update addresses two major areas:

• Determination of DNA profiles. The committee considers how laboratory errors (particularly false matches) can arise, how errors might be reduced, and how to take into account the fact that the error rate can never be reduced to zero.
• Interpretation of a finding that the DNA profile of a suspect or victim matches the evidence DNA. The committee addresses controversies in population genetics, exploring the problems that arise from the mixture of groups and subgroups in the American population and how this substructure can be accounted for in calculating frequencies.

This volume examines statistical issues in interpreting frequencies as probabilities, including adjustments when a suspect is found through a database search. The committee includes a detailed discussion of what its recommendations would mean in the courtroom, with numerous case citations. By resolving several remaining issues in the evaluation of this increasingly important area of forensic evidence, this technical update will be important to forensic scientists and population geneticists—and helpful to attorneys, judges, and others who need to understand DNA and the law. Anyone working in laboratories and in the courts or anyone studying this issue should own this book.

The Evaluation of Forensic DNA Evidence

On January 25, 1996, the Committee on Youth Development of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families convened a workshop to examine the implications of research on social settings for the design and evaluation of programs that serve youth. The January workshop provided an opportunity for the committee to examine the strengths and limitations of existing research on interactions between social settings and adolescent development. This research has drawn attention to the importance of understanding how, when, and where adolescents interact with their families, peers, and unrelated adults in settings such as home, school, places of work, and recreational sites. This workshop builds on previous work of the National Research Council and reiterates its support for integrating studies of social settings into more traditional research on individual characteristics, family functioning, and peer relationships in seeking to describe and explain adolescent behavior and youth outcomes.

Not only does this report examine the strengths and limitations of research on social settings and adolescence and identify important research questions that deserve further study in developing this field, but it also explores alternative methods by which the findings of research on social settings could be better integrated into the development of youth programs and services. Specific themes include the impact of social settings on differences in developmental pathways, role expectations, and youth identity and decision-making skills, as well as factors that contribute to variations in community context.

Youth Development and Neighborhood Influences: Challenges and Opportunities

The Committee on National Statistics and the Committee on Population, at the request of the NIA, convened a workshop in March 1996 to discuss data on the aging population that address the emerging and important social, economic, and health conditions of the older population. The purposes of the workshop were to identify how the population at older ages in the next few decades will differ from the older population today, to understand the underlying causes of those changes, to anticipate future problems and policy issues, and to suggest future needs for data for research in these areas. The scope of the workshop was broader than that of the 1988 CNSTAT report, including not only data on health and long-term care, but also actuarial, economic, demographic, housing, and epidemiological data needs for informing public policy.

Improving Data on America's Aging Population: Summary of a Workshop

The "contraceptive revolution" of the 1960s and 1970s introduced totally new contraceptive options and launched an era of research and product development. Yet by the late 1980s, conditions had changed and improvements in contraceptive products, while very important in relation to improved oral contraceptives, IUDs, implants, and injectables, had become primarily incremental. Is it time for a second contraceptive revolution and how might it happen?

Contraceptive Research and Development explores the frontiers of science where the contraceptives of the future are likely to be found and lays out criteria for deciding where to make the next R&D investments.

The book comprehensively examines today's contraceptive needs, identifies "niches" in those needs that seem most readily translatable into market terms, and scrutinizes issues that shape the market: method side effects and contraceptive failure, the challenge of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and the implications of the "women's agenda."

Contraceptive Research and Development analyzes the response of the pharmaceutical industry to current dynamics in regulation, liability, public opinion, and the economics of the health sector and offers an integrated set of recommendations for public- and private-sector action to meet a whole new generation of demand.

Contraceptive Research and Development: Looking to the Future

The recent level of illegal immigration to the United States has increased debates about the effect of these immigrants on the cost of public services, and states have begun to enact policies that limit the public services available to illegal immigrants. The central issues are how many illegal immigrants reside in particular local areas and states and their effect on public expenditures and revenues and the economy in general. The Local Fiscal Effects of Illegal Immigration workshop selected six studies for analysis. The six case studies focused on one specific aspect of the complex question of the demographic, economic, and social effects of immigration: the net public services costs of illegal immigrants to selected geographical regions.

Local Fiscal Effects of Illegal Immigration: Report of a Workshop

Data Priorities for Population and Health in Developing Countries: Summary of a Workshop

The reported population of American Indians and Alaska Natives has grown rapidly over the past 20 years. These changes raise questions for the Indian Health Service and other agencies responsible for serving the American Indian population. How big is the population? What are its health care and insurance needs?

This volume presents an up-to-date summary of what is known about the demography of American Indian and Alaska Native population—their age and geographic distributions, household structure, employment, and disability and disease patterns. This information is critical for health care planners who must determine the eligible population for Indian health services and the costs of providing them. The volume will also be of interest to researchers and policymakers concerned about the future characteristics and needs of the American Indian population.

Changing Numbers, Changing Needs: American Indian Demography and Public Health

This book brings together in one volume what researchers have learned about workers, employers, and retirees that is important for formulating retirement income policies. As the U.S. population ages, there is increasing uncertainty about the solvency of the Social Security and Medicare systems and the adequacy of private pensions to provide for people's retirement needs. The volume covers such critical behaviors as workers' decisions to retire, people's choices of saving over consumption, and employers' decisions about hiring older workers and providing pension and health care benefits. Also covered are trends in mortality, health status, and health care costs that are key to projecting the likely costs and effects of alternative retirement income security policies and a strategy for combining data and research knowledge into a policy modeling framework.

Assessing Knowledge of Retirement Behavior

The growing importance of immigration in the United States today prompted this examination of the adequacy of U.S. immigration data. This volume summarizes data needs in four areas: immigration trends, assimilation and impacts, labor force issues, and family and social networks. It includes recommendations on additional sources for the data needed for program and research purposes, and new questions and refinements of questions within existing data sources to improve the understanding of immigration and immigrant trends.

Statistics on U.S. Immigration: An Assessment of Data Needs for Future Research

Violence against women is one factor in the growing wave of alarm about violence in American society. High-profile cases such as the O.J. Simpson trial call attention to the thousands of lesser-known but no less tragic situations in which women's lives are shattered by beatings or sexual assault.

The search for solutions has highlighted not only what we know about violence against women but also what we do not know. How can we achieve the best understanding of this problem and its complex ramifications? What research efforts will yield the greatest benefit? What are the questions that must be answered?

Understanding Violence Against Women presents a comprehensive overview of current knowledge and identifies four areas with the greatest potential return from a research investment by increasing the understanding of and responding to domestic violence and rape:

• What interventions are designed to do, whom they are reaching, and how to reach the many victims who do not seek help.
• Factors that put people at risk of violence and that precipitate violence, including characteristics of offenders.
• The scope of domestic violence and sexual assault in America and its conequences to individuals, families, and society, including costs.
• How to structure the study of violence against women to yield more useful knowledge.

Despite the news coverage and talk shows, the real fundamental nature of violence against women remains unexplored and often misunderstood. Understanding Violence Against Women provides direction for increasing knowledge that can help ameliorate this national problem.

Understanding Violence Against Women

On its 30th anniversary, public acceptance of Head Start is high, yet understanding of its goals is low, and evaluation research is limited in quality and scope. In this book, a roundtable of representatives from government, universities, medicine, and family support agencies identifies a set of research possibilities to generate a broader understanding of the effects of Head Start on families and children. Among the important issues discussed are the ethnic and linguistic diversity of Head Start families, the social conditions of the community context, and the implications of the changing economic landscape for both families and Head Start itself.

Beyond the Blueprint: Directions for Research on Head Start's Families

The relative lack of information on determinants of disease, disability, and death at major stages of a woman's lifespan and the excess morbidity and premature mortality that this engenders has important adverse social and economic ramifications, not only for Sub-Saharan Africa, but also for other regions of the world as well. Women bear much of the weight of world production in both traditional and modern industries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, women contribute approximately 60 to 80 percent of agricultural labor. Worldwide, it is estimated that women are the sole supporters in 18 to 30 percent of all families, and that their financial contribution in the remainder of families is substantial and often crucial.

This book provides a solid documentary base that can be used to develop an agenda to guide research and health policy formulation on female health—both for Sub-Saharan Africa and for other regions of the developing world. This book could also help facilitate ongoing, collaboration between African researchers on women's health and their U.S. colleagues. Chapters cover such topics as demographics, nutritional status, obstetric morbidity and mortality, mental health problems, and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.

In Her Lifetime: Female Morbidity and Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa

Cities in developing countries are experiencing unprecedented population growth, which is exacerbating their already substantial problems in providing shelter and basic services. This volume draws on the significant advances in technologies and management strategies made in recent decades to suggest ways to improve urban life and services, especially for the poor. Four challenges to developing countries' megacities are addressed: labor markets, housing, water and sanitation, and transportation, along with a synthesis of general thinking on how to meet megacity challenges and be competitive in the twenty-first century.

Meeting the Challenges of Megacities in the Developing World: A Collection of Working Papers

Child Care for Low-Income Families: Directions for Research: Summary of A Workshop

Spotlight on Heterogeneity: The Federal Standards for Racial and Ethnic Classification

Sampling in the 2000 Census: Interim Report I

Safe, Comfortable, Attractive, and Easy to Use: Improving the Usability of Home Medical Devices

Those who make and implement policies for children and families are seriously hampered by several features of the federal statistical system: categorical fragmentation, sampling strategies that follow adults and families rather than children, and lack of longitudinal data on children. This volume examines the adequacy of federal statistics on children and families. It includes papers on the relevant aspects of health care reform, family and community resources, interpersonal violence, the transition to school, and educational attainment and the transition to work.

Integrating Federal Statistics on Children: Report of a Workshop

This book identifies areas that represent new needs and opportunities for human factors research in the coming decades. It is forward-looking, problem oriented, and selectively focused on national or global problems, including productivity in organizations, education and training, employment and disabilities, health care, and environmental change; technology issues, including communications technology and telenetworking, information access and usability, emerging technologies, automation, and flexible manufacturing, and advanced transportation systems; and human performance, including cognitive performance under stress and aiding intellectual work.

Emerging Needs and Opportunities for Human Factors Research

Experts estimate that nearly 60 percent of all U.S. pregnancies—and 81 percent of pregnancies among adolescents—are unintended. Yet the topic of preventing these unintended pregnancies has long been treated gingerly because of personal sensitivities and public controversies, especially the angry debate over abortion. Additionally, child welfare advocates long have overlooked the connection between pregnancy planning and the improved well-being of families and communities that results when children are wanted.

Now, current issues—health care and welfare reform, and the new international focus on population—are drawing attention to the consequences of unintended pregnancy. In this climate The Best Intentions offers a timely exploration of family planning issues from a distinguished panel of experts.

This committee sheds much-needed light on the questions and controversies surrounding unintended pregnancy. The book offers specific recommendations to put the United States on par with other developed nations in terms of contraceptive attitudes and policies, and it considers the effectiveness of over 20 pregnancy prevention programs.

The Best Intentions explores problematic definitions—"unintended" versus "unwanted" versus "mistimed"—and presents data on pregnancy rates and trends. The book also summarizes the health and social consequences of unintended pregnancies, for both men and women, and for the children they bear.

Why does unintended pregnancy occur? In discussions of "reasons behind the rates," the book examines Americans' ambivalence about sexuality and the many other social, cultural, religious, and economic factors that affect our approach to contraception. The committee explores the complicated web of peer pressure, life aspirations, and notions of romance that shape an individual's decisions about sex, contraception, and pregnancy. And the book looks at such practical issues as the attitudes of doctors toward birth control and the place of contraception in both health insurance and "managed care."

The Best Intentions offers frank discussion, synthesis of data, and policy recommendations on one of today's most sensitive social topics. This book will be important to policymakers, health and social service personnel, foundation executives, opinion leaders, researchers, and concerned individuals.

The Best Intentions: Unintended Pregnancy and the Well-Being of Children and Families

Each year's poverty figures are anxiously awaited by policymakers, analysts, and the media. Yet questions are increasing about the 30-year-old measure as social and economic conditions change.

In Measuring Poverty a distinguished panel provides policymakers with an up-to-date evaluation of:

• Concepts and procedures for deriving the poverty threshold, including adjustments for different family circumstances.
• Definitions of family resources.
• Procedures for annual updates of poverty measures.

The volume explores specific issues underlying the poverty measure, analyzes the likely effects of any changes on poverty rates, and discusses the impact on eligibility for public benefits. In supporting its recommendations the panel provides insightful recognition of the political and social dimensions of this key economic indicator.

Measuring Poverty will be important to government officials, policy analysts, statisticians, economists, researchers, and others involved in virtually all poverty and social welfare issues.

Measuring Poverty: A New Approach

Since the first edition of On Being a Scientist was published in 1989, more than 200,000 copies have been distributed to graduate and undergraduate science students. Now this well-received booklet has been updated to incorporate the important developments in science ethics of the past 6 years and includes updated examples and material from the landmark volume Responsible Science (National Academy Press, 1992).

The revision reflects feedback from readers of the original version. In response to graduate students' requests, it offers several case studies in science ethics that pose provocative and realistic scenarios of ethical dilemmas and issues.

On Being a Scientist presents penetrating discussions of the social and historical context of science, the allocation of credit for discovery, the scientist's role in society, the issues revolving around publication, and many other aspects of scientific work. The booklet explores the inevitable conflicts that arise when the black and white areas of science meet the gray areas of human values and biases.

Written in a conversational style, this booklet will be of great interest to students entering scientific research, their instructors and mentors, and anyone interested in the role of scientific discovery in society.

On Being a Scientist: Responsible Conduct in Research, Second Edition

New Findings on Children, Families, and Economic Self-Sufficiency: Summary of a Research Briefing

Resource Allocation for Family Planning in Developing Countries: Report of a Meeting

Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions

This volume, the last in the series Population Dynamics of Sub-Saharan Africa, examines key demographic changes in Senegal over the past several decades. It analyzes the changes in fertility and their causes, with comparisons to other sub-Saharan countries. It also analyzes the causes and patterns of declines in mortality, focusing particularly on rural and urban differences.

Population Dynamics of Senegal

Child Care for Low-Income Families: Summary of Two Workshops

Toward Improved Modeling of Retirement Income Policies: Interim Report

Real People Real Problems: An Evaluation of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Programs of the Older Americans Act

Service Provider Perspectives on Family Violence Interventions: Proceedings of a Workshop

Worldwide Education Statistics: Enhancing UNESCO's Role

Minority Science Paths: National Science Foundation Minority Graduate Fellows of 1979-1981

At least 7 million young Americans—fully one-quarter of adolescents 10 to 17 years old—may be at risk of failing to achieve productive adult lives. They use drugs, engage in unprotected sex, drop out of school, and sometimes commit crimes, effectively closing the door to their own futures. And the costs to society are enormous: school and social services are overwhelmed, and our nation faces the future with a diminished citizenry.

This penetrating book argues that the problems of troubled youth cannot be separated from the settings in which those youths live—settings that have deteriorated significantly in the past two decades. A distinguished panel examines what works and what does not in the effort to support and nurture adolescents and offers models for successful programs.

This volume presents an eye-opening look at what millions of the nation's youths confront every day of their lives, addressing:

• How the decline in economic security for young working parents affects their children's life chances.
• How dramatic changes in household structure and the possibilities of family and community violence threaten adolescents' development.
• How the decline of neighborhoods robs children of a safe environment.
• How adolescents' health needs go unmet in the current system.

Losing Generations turns the spotlight on those institutions youths need—the health care system, schools, the criminal justice, and the child welfare and foster home systems—and how they are functioning.

Difficult issues are addressed with study results and insightful analyses: access of poor youths to health insurance coverage, inequities in school funding, how child welfare agencies provide for adolescents in their care, and the high percentage of young black men in the criminal justice system.

Losing Generations: Adolescents in High-Risk Settings

Human Factors in the Design of Tactical Display Systems for the Individual Soldier

This book analyzes the consequences of violence and strategies for controlling them. Included are reviews of public perceptions and reactions to violence; estimates of the costs; the commonalities and complementarities of criminal justice and public health responses; efforts to reduce violence through the prediction and classification of violent offenders; and the relationships between trends in violence and prison population during a period of greatly increased use of incarceration.

Understanding and Preventing Violence, Volume 4: Consequences and Control

How do you count a nation of more than 250 million people—many of whom are on the move and some of whom may not want to be counted? How can you obtain accurate population information for apportioning the House of Representatives, allocating government resources, and characterizing who we are and how we live?

This book attempts to answer these questions by reviewing the recent census operations and ongoing research and by offering detailed proposals for ways to improve the census.

Counting People in the Information Age

Information Systems and Measurement for Assessing Program Effects: Implications for Family Planning Programs in Developing Countries

As the United States and the rest of the world face the unprecedented challenge of aging populations, this volume draws together for the first time state-of-the-art work from the emerging field of the demography of aging. The nine chapters, written by experts from a variety of disciplines, highlight data sources and research approaches, results, and proposed strategies on a topic with major policy implications for labor forces, economic well-being, health care, and the need for social and family supports.

Demography of Aging

The U.S. census, conducted every 10 years since 1790, faces dramatic new challenges as the country begins its third century. Critics of the 1990 census cited problems of increasingly high costs, continued racial differences in counting the population, and declining public confidence.

This volume provides a major review of the traditional U.S. census. Starting from the most basic questions of how data are used and whether they are needed, the volume examines the data that future censuses should provide. It evaluates several radical proposals that have been made for changing the census, as well as other proposals for redesigning the year 2000 census. The book also considers in detail the much-criticized long form, the role of race and ethnic data, and the need for and ways to obtain small-area data between censuses.

Modernizing the U.S. Census

Population Summit of the World's Scientific Academies

By one analysis, a 12 percent annual increase in data processing budgets for U.S. corporations has yielded annual productivity gains of less than 2 percent. Why? This timely book provides some insights by exploring the linkages among individual, group, and organizational productivity.

The authors examine how to translate workers' productivity increases into gains for the entire organization, and discuss why huge investments in automation and other innovations have failed to boost productivity.

Leading experts explore how processes such as problem solving prompt changes in productivity and how inertia and other characteristics of organizations stall productivity. The book examines problems in productivity measurement and presents solutions.

Also examined in this useful book are linkage issues in the fields of software engineering and computer-aided design and why organizational downsizing has not resulted in commensurate productivity gains.

Important theoretical and practical implications contribute to this volume's usefulness to business and technology managers, human resources specialists, policymakers, and researchers.

Organizational Linkages: Understanding the Productivity Paradox

Violence and the American Family: Report of a Workshop

This book, based on a conference, examines both quantitative and qualitative evidence regarding the low employment of women scientists and engineers in the industrial work force of the United States, as well as corporate responses to this underparticipation. It addresses the statistics underlying the question "Why so few?" and assesses issues related to the working environment and attrition of women professionals.

Women Scientists and Engineers Employed in Industry: Why So Few?

America's Fathers and Public Policy: Report of a Workshop

The underrepresentation of minorities in health and other professions has long cast a shadow over our nation's efforts to develop a more representative and productive society. Many programs have been developed to enlarge the presence of minorities in health careers, but these efforts have been unable to develop the infrastructure and momentum needed to produce and sustain an adequate number of minority professionals among the ranks of clinicians, researchers, and teachers.

This book looks at the historical significance of this underrepresentation, presents data that define the problem, and identifies underlying factors that contribute to the failure to achieve fairness in opportunity.

The volume examines programs that have made successful efforts to decrease underrepresentation and sets forth an action and research agenda for further enhancing the numbers of minorities in the health professions.

Balancing the Scales of Opportunity: Ensuring Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Health Professions

Child Health and Human Rights

This volume examines social influences on violent events and violent behavior, particularly concentrating on how the risks of violent criminal offending and victimization are influenced by communities, social situations, and individuals; the role of spouses and intimates; the differences in violence levels between males and females; and the roles of psychoactive substances in violent events.

Understanding and Preventing Violence, Volume 3: Social Influences

Science Priorities for the Human Dimensions of Global Change

1993 Data Forum: A Review of an Implementation Plan for U.S. Global Change Date and Information Systems

Cultural Diversity and Early Education: Report of a Workshop

Can such techniques as sleep learning and hypnosis improve performance? Do we sometimes confuse familiarity with mastery? Can we learn without making mistakes? These questions apply in the classroom, in the military, and on the assembly line.

Learning, Remembering, Believing addresses these and other key issues in learning and performance. The volume presents leading-edge theories and findings from a wide range of research settings: from pilots learning to fly to children learning about physics by throwing beanbags. Common folklore is explored, and promising research directions are identified. The authors also continue themes from their first two volumes: Enhancing Human Performance (1988) and In the Mind's Eye (1991).

The result is a thorough and readable review of:

• Learning and remembering. The volume evaluates the effects of subjective experience on learning—why we often overestimate what we know, why we may not need a close match between training settings and real-world tasks, and why we experience such phenomena as illusory remembering and unconscious plagiarism.
• Learning and performing in teams. The authors discuss cooperative learning in different age groups and contexts. Current views on team performance are presented, including how team-learning processes can be improved and whether team-building interventions are effective.
• Mental and emotional states. This is a critical review of the evidence that learning is affected by state of mind. Topics include hypnosis, meditation, sleep learning, restricted environmental stimulation, and self-confidence and the self-efficacy theory of learning.
• New directions. The volume looks at two new ideas for improving performance: emotions induced by another person—socially induced affect—and strategies for controlling one's thoughts. The committee also considers factors inherent in organizations—workplaces, educational facilities, and the military—that affect whether and how they implement training programs.

Learning, Remembering, Believing offers an understanding of human learning that will be useful to training specialists, psychologists, educators, managers, and individuals interested in all dimensions of human performance.

Learning, Remembering, Believing: Enhancing Human Performance

In this summary of a unique conference on urban violence, mayors, police chiefs, local, state, and federal agency experts, and researchers provide a wealth of practical ideas to combat violence in urban America. This book will be a valuable guide to concerned community residents as well as local officials in designing new approaches to the violence that afflicts America's cities.

single copy, $12.95; 2-9 copies, $9.95 each; 10 or more copies, $6.95 each (no other discounts apply)

Violence in Urban America: Mobilizing a Response

Balancing and Sharing Political Power in Multiethnic Societies: Summary of a Workshop

This volume examines the Census Bureau's program of research and development of the 2000 census, focusing particularly on the design of the 1995 census tests. The tests in 1995 should serve as a prime source of information about the effectiveness and cost of alternative census design components. The authors concentrate on those aspects of census methodology that have the greatest impact on two chief objectives of census redesign: reducing differential undercount and controlling costs. Primary attention is given to processes for data collection, the quality of population coverage and public response, and the use of sampling and statistical estimation.

A Census that Mirrors America: Interim Report

Forecasting Survival, Health, and Disability: Workshop Summary

Workload transition is a potentially crucial problem in work situations wherein operators are faced with abrupt changes in task demands. People involved include military combat personnel, air-traffic controllers, medical personnel in emergency rooms, and long-distance drivers. They must be able to respond efficiently to sudden increases in workload imposed by a failure, crisis, or other, often unexpected, event.

This book provides a systematic evaluation of workload transition. It focuses on a broad spectrum of activities ranging from team cooperation to the maintenance of this problem on a theoretical level and offers several practical solutions.

Workload Transition: Implications for Individual and Team Performance

Family and Development: Summary of an Expert Meeting

By conservative estimates, more than 16,000 violent crimes are committed or attempted every day in the United States. Violence involves many factors and spurs many viewpoints, and this diversity impedes our efforts to make the nation safer.

Now a landmark volume from the National Research Council presents the first comprehensive, readable synthesis of America's experience of violence—offering a fresh, interdisciplinary approach to understanding and preventing interpersonal violence and its consequences. Understanding and Preventing Violence provides the most complete, up-to-date responses available to these fundamental questions:

• How much violence occurs in America?
• How do different processes—biological, psychosocial, situational, and social—interact to determine violence levels?
• What preventive strategies are suggested by our current knowledge of violence?
• What are the most critical research needs?

Understanding and Preventing Violence explores the complexity of violent behavior in our society and puts forth a new framework for analyzing risk factors for violent events. From this framework the authors identify a number of "triggering" events, situational elements, and predisposing factors to violence—as well as many promising approaches to intervention.

Leading authorities explore such diverse but related topics as crime statistics; biological influences on violent behavior; the prison population explosion; developmental and public health perspectives on violence; violence in families; and the relationship between violence and race, ethnicity, poverty, guns, alcohol, and drugs.

Using four case studies, the volume reports on the role of evaluation in violence prevention policy. It also assesses current federal support for violence research and offers specific science policy recommendations.

This breakthrough book will be a key resource for policymakers in criminal and juvenile justice, law enforcement authorities, criminologists, psychologists, sociologists, public health professionals, researchers, faculty, students, and anyone interested in understanding and preventing violence.

Understanding and Preventing Violence: Volume 1

Civil-Military Relations and Democratization: Summary of a Workshop

International Child Welfare Systems: Report of a Workshop

Democratization in the Middle East: Trends and Prospects: Summary of a Workshop

In 1976 the Committee on Human Rights (CHR) was create with members from the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The CHR works on behalf of scientists, engineers, and health professionals who are detained, imprisoned, or exiled or who have disappeared for the nonviolent exercise of their fundamental rights. Thus, the CHR has taken on the case of 287 scientists, engineers, and health professionals who have been incarcerated for political reasons.

Syria has held the record for the country with the highest number of scientists, engineers, and health professionals detained for political reasons. It is estimated that the Syrian government has freed more than 3,500 political detainees but no list of their names have been published. Due to this, the CHR cannot confirm how many of the 287 persons whose cases it has undertaken have been freed. The CHR currently knows that at least 49 of the 287 have been freed.

Shedding light upon this issue, Scientists and Human Rights in Syria presents the current state of the situation, an eyewitness account from a former prisoner, the controls present in Syria over the professional associations and prospects for liberalization and the CHR's conclusions. The report also includes a list of scientists, engineers, and health professionals who have been detained.

Scientists and Human Rights in Syria

This overview includes chapters on child mortality, adult mortality, fertility, proximate determinants, marriage, internal migration, international migration, and the demographic impact of AIDS.

Demographic Change in Sub-Saharan Africa

This book discusses current trends in contraceptive use, socioeconomic and program variables that affect the demand for and supply of children, and the relationship of increased contraceptive use to recent fertility declines.

Factors Affecting Contraceptive Use in Sub-Saharan Africa

This detailed examination of recent trends in fertility and mortality considers the links between those trends and the socioeconomic changes occuring during the same period.

Population Dynamics of Kenya

Economic Reforms and Democratic Transitions: Summary of a Workshop

This valuable book summarizes recent research by experts from both the natural and social sciences on the effects of population growth on land use. It is a useful introduction to a field in which little quantitative research has been conducted and in which there is a great deal of public controversy. The book includes case studies of African, Asian, and Latin American countries that demonstrate the varied effects of population growth on land use. Several general chapters address the following timely questions: What is meant by land use change? Why are ecological research and population studies so different? What are the implications for sustainable growth in agricultural production?

Although much work remains to be done in quantifying the causal connections between demographic and land use changes, this book provides important insights into those connections, and it should stimulate more work in this area.

Population and Land Use in Developing Countries: Report of a Workshop

This examination of changes in adolescent fertility emphasizes the changing social context within which adolescent childbearing takes place.

Social Dynamics of Adolescent Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa

The tragedy of child abuse and neglect is in the forefront of public attention. Yet, without a conceptual framework, research in this area has been highly fragmented. Understanding the broad dimensions of this crisis has suffered as a result.

This new volume provides a comprehensive, integrated, child-oriented research agenda for the nation. The committee presents an overview of three major areas:

• Definitions and scope —exploring standardized classifications, analysis of incidence and prevalence trends, and more.
• Etiology, consequences, treatment, and prevention —analyzing relationships between cause and effect, reviewing prevention research with a unique systems approach, looking at short- and long-term consequences of abuse, and evaluating interventions.
• Infrastructure and ethics —including a review of current research efforts, ways to strengthen human resources and research tools, and guidance on sensitive ethical and legal issues.

This volume will be useful to organizations involved in research, social service agencies, child advocacy groups, and researchers.

Understanding Child Abuse and Neglect

This book examines issues concerning how developing countries will have to prepare for demographic and epidemiologic change. Much of the current literature focuses on the prevalence of specific diseases and their economic consequences, but a need exists to consider the consequences of the epidemiological transition: the change in mortality patterns from infectious and parasitic diseases to chronic and degenerative ones. Among the topics covered are the association between the health of children and adults, the strong orientation of many international health organizations toward infant and child health, and how the public and private sectors will need to address and confront the large-scale shifts in disease and demographic characteristics of populations in developing countries.

The Epidemiological Transition: Policy and Planning Implications for Developing Countries

This book examines the effects of economic downturns in recent decades on first marriages, first and second births, and child mortality in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, and Uganda.

Demographic Effects of Economic Reversals in Sub-Saharan Africa

Assessing Progress Toward Democracy and Good Governance: Summary of a Workshop

Improving Research on Former Soviet and Other Historically Planned Economies: Summary of a Planning Meeting

Improving Social Science in the Former Soviet Union: The U.S. Role

Does the education given by the nation's human factors graduate training programs meet the skill and knowledge needs of today's employers? Can the supply of trained human factors specialists be expected to keep pace with the demand? What are the characteristics, employment settings, gender distribution, and salaries of human factors specialists?

These and other questions were posed by the committee as it designed mail-in and computer-aided telephone surveys used to query human factors specialists. The committee evaluates its findings and makes recommendations aimed at strengthening the profession of human factors.

This book will be useful to educators as an aid in evaluating their graduate training curricula, employers in working with graduate programs and enhancing staff opportunities for continuing education, and professionals in assessing their status in relation to their colleagues.

Human Factors Specialists'Education and Utilization: Results of a Survey

The global movement toward democracy, spurred in part by the ending of the cold war, has created opportunities for democratization not only in Europe and the former Soviet Union, but also in Africa.

This book is based on workshops held in Benin, Ethiopia, and Namibia to better understand the dynamics of contemporary democratic movements in Africa. Key issues in the democratization process range from its institutional and political requirements to specific problems such as ethnic conflict, corruption, and role of donors in promoting democracy.

By focusing on the opinion and views of African intellectuals, academics, writers, and political activists and observers, the book provides a unique perspective regarding the dynamics and problems of democratization in Africa.

Democratization in Africa: African Views, African Voices

Democratization and Ethnic Conflict: Summary of Two Meetings

After the Transition: Problems of Newly Democratizing Countries

In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

National Academy of Sciences: Constitution and Bylaws, April 28, 1992

Roughly 40 thousand people have been killed or made to "disappear" for political reasons in Guatemala during the last 30 years. Despite vows and some genuine efforts by the current government, human rights abuses and political killings continue.

Scientists and Human Rights in Guatemala presents a history of the violence and the research findings and conclusions of a 1992 delegation to Guatemala. The focus of the book is on the human rights concerns and the responses of the government and military authorities to those concerns. Background and status of an investigation into the political murder of an eminent Guatemalan anthropologist is presented along with an overview of the impact of the repression on universities, research institutions, and service and human rights organizations.

Scientists and Human Rights in Guatemala: Report of a Delegation

Quick introduction of new technology is essential to America's competitiveness. But the success of new systems depends on their acceptance by the people who will use them. This new volume presents practical information for managers trying to meld the best in human and technological resources.

The volume identifies factors that are critical to successful technology introduction and examines why America lags behind many other countries in this effort. Case studies document successful transitions to new systems and procedures in manufacturing, medical technology, and office automation—ranging from the Boeing Company's program to involve employees in decision making and process design, to the introduction of alternative work schedules for Mayo Clinic nurses.

This volume will be a practical resource for managers, researchers, faculty, and students in the fields of industry, engineering design, human resources, labor relations, sociology, and organizational behavior.

People and Technology in the Workplace

ONR Research Opportunities in Behavioral Sciences

This volume, second in the series, provides essential background material for policy analysts, researchers, statisticians, and others interested in the application of microsimulation techniques to develop estimates of the costs and population impacts of proposed changes in government policies ranging from welfare to retirement income to health care to taxes.

The material spans data inputs to models, design and computer implementation of models, validation of model outputs, and model documentation.

Improving Information for Social Policy Decisions -- The Uses of Microsimulation Modeling: Volume II, Technical Papers

One of the most exciting and hopeful trends of the past 15 years has been the worldwide movement away from authoritarian governments. The collapse of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe is only the latest and most dramatic element in a process that began in the mid-1970s and still seems to be gaining momentum in such areas as subsaharan Africa. This book summarizes the presentations and discussions at a workshop for the U.S. Agency for International Development that explored what is known about transitions to democracy in various parts of the world and what the United States can do to support the democratization process.

The Transition to Democracy: Proceedings of a Workshop

The United States has seen a dramatic increase in the number of dual-earner and single-adult families. This volume reviews accompanying changes in work and family structures and their effects on worker productivity and employer practices. It presents a wide range of approaches to easing the conflicts between work and family, exploring appropriate roles for business, labor, and government.

Work and Family offers up-to-date information, looking at how the family and the workplace arrived at their current relationship and evaluating the quality and the cost of care for dependents in this nation.

The volume describes the advantages and disadvantages of being part of a working family and takes a critical look at the range of benefits provided, including existing and proposed employer programs for families. It also presents a comparative review of family-related benefits in other countries.

Work and Family: Policies for a Changing Work Force

Do child care centers and family day care homes provide quality care for the children they serve? Do parents know how to identify quality when selecting a center or family home for their children?

This easy-to-read, accessible booklet provides an overview of what constitutes quality in out-of-home care. Based on the National Research Council's detailed examination of child development and child care, Who Cares for America's Children ,this booklet provides practical guidance for parents, child care providers, and policymakers. It highlights what to look for in a center or family day care home, presents what researchers and experts know about the best settings for children, and suggests what characteristics of quality care are amenable to standards or regulations.

Single copy, $6.50; 2-9 copies, $5.50 each; 10 or more copies, $3.75 each (no other discounts apply).

Caring for America's Children

Elements of Systems Modernization for the Social Security Administration: A Report

This nation has an enormous stake in reversing the alarming deterioration of the circumstances in which poor and otherwise disadvantaged children grow up. Many past efforts to reverse unfavorable trends in damaging outcomes (school failure, teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, and violent crime) have been relatively ineffective.

Effective Services for Young Children describes the available options and steps that could be taken to improve the situation through more effective services to children and families. Many of the nation's leaders in current efforts to improve services, and many who are at the forefront of attempts to understand these efforts in current contexts contributed to the workshop and are represented in the volume.

Policymakers, administrators, and practitioners will benefit from their perspectives on the possibilities for major improvements in education, social services, health care, and family support services.

Effective Services for Young Children: Report of a Workshop

Americans are living longer than ever before. For many, though, these extra years have become a bitter gift, marred by dementia, disability, and loss of independence.

Extending Life, Enhancing Life sets the course toward practical solutions to these problems by specifying 15 research priorities in five key areas of investigation:

• Basic biomedicine—To understand the fundamental processes of aging.
• Clinical—To intervene against common disabilities and maladies of older persons.
• Behavioral and social—To build on past successes with behavioral and social interventions.
• Health services delivery—To seek answers to the troubling issues of insufficient delivery of health care in the face of increasing health care costs.
• Biomedical ethics—To clarify underlying ethical guidelines about life and death decisions.

Most important, the volume firmly establishes the connection between research and its beneficial results for the quality of life for older persons.

Extending Life, Enhancing Life: A National Research Agenda on Aging

The proportion of older faculty is increasing nationwide. This book offers guidance not only for dealing with the elimination of mandatory retirement in higher education but also for current retirement-related issues facing all colleges and universities.

Ending Mandatory Retirement addresses such questions as: Do the special circumstances of higher education warrant the continuation of mandatory retirement? How would an increase in the number of older faculty affect individual colleges and universities and their faculty members? Where there are undesirable effects, what could be done to minimize them?

The book contains analyses of early retirement programs, faculty performance evaluation practices, pension and benefit policies, tenure policies, and faculty ages and retirement patterns.

Ending Mandatory Retirement for Tenured Faculty: The Consequences for Higher Education

Constitution and Bylaws: April 30, 1991

This book reviews the uses and abuses of microsimulation models—large, complex models that produce estimates of the effects on program costs and who would gain and who would lose from proposed changes in government policies ranging from health care to welfare to taxes.

Volume 1 is designed to guide future investment in modeling and analysis capability on the part of government agencies that produce policy estimates. It will inform congressional and executive decision makers about the strengths and weaknesses of models and estimates and will interest social scientists in the potential of microsimulation techniques for basic and applied research as well as policy uses.

The book concludes that a "second revolution" is needed to improve the quality of microsimulation and other policy analysis models and the estimates they produce, with a special emphasis on systematic validation of models and communication of validation results to decision makers.

Improving Information for Social Policy Decisions -- The Uses of Microsimulation Modeling: Volume I, Review and Recommendations

Systems Modernization and the Strategic Plans of the Social Security Administration

"[A] collection of scholars [has] released a monumental study called A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society. It offers detailed evidence of the progress our nation has made in the past 50 years in living up to American ideals. But the study makes clear that our work is far from over." —President Bush, Remarks by the president to the National Urban League Conference

The product of a four-year, intensive study by distinguished experts, A Common Destiny presents a clear, readable "big picture" of blacks' position in America. Drawing on historical perspectives and a vast amount of data, the book examines the past 50 years of change and continuity in the status of black Americans. By studying and comparing black and white age cohorts, this volume charts the status of blacks in areas such as education, housing, employment, political participation and family life.

A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society

Soviet-American Dialogue in the Social Sciences: Research Workshops on Interdependence Among Nations

Recognition of the economic, social, and political problems facing the Soviet Union has awakened the Soviet leadership to the need for social scientific analysis to help formulate new policies. Glasnost and perestroika have also created the opportunity to reform and restructure disciplines and to build capabilities for basic research. Significant reorganization within the Soviet Academy of Sciences (ASUSSR) and other parts of the academic establishment is under way. All of these changes have made the Soviets unusually open to contacts with Western social and behavioral scientists. Dozens of new joint programs in all fields have begun or are under discussion. The opportunities are too great for any single American organization or institution to handle. Although significant roles are available for many participants, there is also the risk of duplicating effort and straining limited resources.

The Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (CBASSE) of the National Research Council believed there was a genuine need to bring together scholars and representatives of funding organizations and professional associations to exchange information and to think strategically about how the American social science community can best respond to the opportunities. With support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the commission sponsored a meeting on August 24-25, 1989 for these purposes. Soviet Social Science: The Challenge for the American Academic Community is the summary of that meeting. This report offers interested individuals and organizations a sense of the thinking of a diverse group of informed people about the possible roles of American social and behavioral science vis-a-vis the ongoing changes in Soviet social science, as of the meeting date.

Soviet Social Science: The Challenge for the American Academic Community: Summary of a Meeting

Few issues have aroused more heated public debate than that of day care for children of working parents. Who should be responsible for providing child care—government, employers, schools, communities? What types of care are best?

This volume explores the critical need for a more coherent policy on child care and offers recommendations for the actions needed to develop such a policy.

Who Cares for America's Children? looks at the barriers to developing a national child care policy, evaluates the factors in child care that are most important to children's development, and examines ways of protecting children's physical well-being and fostering their development in child care settings. It also describes the "patchwork quilt" of child care services currently in use in America and the diversity of support programs available, such as referral services.

Child care providers (whether government, employers, commercial for-profit, or not-for-profit), child care specialists, policymakers, researchers, and concerned parents will find this comprehensive volume an invaluable resource on child care in America.

Who Cares for America's Children?

This book describes the demographic, sociological, and ecological background of the aging society, identifies human factors problems associated with aging, summarizes currently relevant information, and recommends directions for research. It suggests a program of research and technology development for the purpose of ameliorating the effects of functional changes that accompany the aging process and provides a basis for additional research and application of human factors engineering data to the design of environments in which aging people must function.

Human Factors Research Needs for an Aging Population

This book describes and evaluates existing models of human performance and their use in the design and evaluation of new human-technology systems. Its primary focus is on the modeling of system operators who perform supervisory and manual control tasks. After an introduction on human performance modeling, the book describes information processing, control theory, task network, and knowledge-based models.

It explains models of human performance in aircraft operations, nuclear power plant control, maintenance, and the supervisory control of process control systems, such as oil refineries. The book concludes with a discussion of model parameterization and validation and recommends a number of lines of research needed to strengthen model development and application.

Quantitative Modeling of Human Performance in Complex, Dynamic Systems

Decision making in today's organizations is often distributed widely and usually supported by such technologies as satellite communications, electronic messaging, teleconferencing, and shared data bases. Distributed Decision Making outlines the process and problems involved in dispersed decision making, draws on current academic and case history information, and highlights the need for better theories, improved research methods and more interdisciplinary studies on the individual and organizational issues associated with distributed decision making. An appendix provides additional background reading on this socially and economically important problem area.

Distributed Decision Making: Report of a Workshop

Brain and Cognition: Some New Technologies

Are women paid less than men when they hold comparable jobs? Is there gender bias in the way wages are set? Or can wage differences between men and women be explained by legitimate market forces? Pay Equity: Empirical Inquiries answers these questions in 10 original research papers.

The papers explore race- and gender-based differences in wages, at the level both of individuals and of occupations. They also assess the effects of the implementation of comparable worth plans for private firms, states, and—on an international level—for Australia, Great Britain, and the United States.

Pay Equity: Empirical Inquiries

Improving Risk Communication: Working Papers

Does exposure to environmental toxicants inhibit our ability to have healthy children who develop normally? Biologic markers—indicators that can tell us when environmental factors have caused a change at the cellular or biochemical level that might affect reproductive ability—are a promising tool for research aimed at answering that important question. Biologic Markers in Reproductive Toxicology examines the potential of these markers in environmental health studies; clarifies definitions, underlying concepts, and possible applications; and shows the benefits to be gained from their use in reproductive and neurodevelopmental research.

Biologic Markers in Reproductive Toxicology

Social Policy for Children and Families: Creating an Agenda: A Review of Selected Reports

On Being a Scientist

Transportation in an Aging Society: Improving Mobility and Safety for Older Persons - Volume 1 and Volume 2 -- Special Report 218

Enhancing Human Performance: Background Papers, Social Processes

Scientists and Human Rights in Somalia: Report of a Delegation

Cities and Their Vital Systems asks basic questions about the longevity, utility, and nature of urban infrastructures; analyzes how they grow, interact, and change; and asks how, when, and at what cost they should be replaced. Among the topics discussed are problems arising from increasing air travel and airport congestion; the adequacy of water supplies and waste treatment; the impact of new technologies on construction; urban real estate values; and the field of "telematics," the combination of computers and telecommunications that makes money machines and national newspapers possible.

Cities and Their Vital Systems: Infrastructure Past, Present, and Future

Human Factors Research and Nuclear Safety

Third in the series, this book addresses the social implications of architectural and interpersonal environments for older people. It suggests how society and its structures can enhance the productivity of, and preserve the quality of life for, older residents in a community. The study investigates new approaches to the problem, including new housing alternatives and new strategies for reflecting the needs of the elderly in housing construction.

The Social and Built Environment in an Older Society

Ergonomic Models of Anthropometry, Human Biomechanics and Operator-Equipment Interfaces: Proceedings of a Workshop

The Future of Technology and Work: Research and Policy Issues: Proceedings of a Conference

Why does the National Academy of Sciences have a Committee on Human Rights? How does the committee define human rights and which rights are fundamental? Does a focus on human rights undermine efforts toward international scientific cooperation , development, political stability, or nuclear disarmament? Why does the committee work only in behalf of scientists and how do scientists become victims of human rights violations? How and why do some health professionals collude with torturers? These questions are typical of those asked frequently of the members and staff of the academy's Committee on Human Rights. They are important questions that this document helps to answer.

Science and Human Rights is the summary of the presentation and discussion of a Symposium convened by the National Academy of Sciences to discuss these issues. Also included in this report are three major papers written by former prisoners from Chile, South Africa, and the Soviet Union.

Science and Human Rights

Enhancing Human Performance: Issues, Theories, and Techniques, Background Papers (Complete Set)

From Quality Control to Quality Improvement in AFDC and Medicaid: Summary and Recommendations

Enhancing Human Performance: Background Papers, Issues of Theory and Methodology

In its evaluation, Enhancing Human Performance reviews the relevant materials, describes each technique, makes recommendations in some cases for further scientific research and investigation, and notes applications in military and industrial settings. The techniques address a wide range of goals, from enhancing classroom learning to improving creativity and motor skills.

Enhancing Human Performance: Issues, Theories, and Techniques

Is it possible for people to register and retain what is said in their presence while they sleep? If it is possible, is the learning that takes place during sleep efficient enough to be of practical as well as theoretical significance? These are the questions of chief concern in this paper. To address these issues, the second section of the paper summarizes research dealing with a number of variables that may have an important influence on sleep learning. In the third section, some tentative conclusions concerning the possibility and practicality of learning during sleep are outlined.

Enhancing Human Performance: Background Papers, Learning During Sleep

Enhancing Human Performance: Background Papers, Improving Motor Performance

Enhancing Human Performance: Background Papers, Stress Management

Will the adoption of new technologies by U.S. industry lead to widespread unemployment? Or will the resulting use of new processes and techniques, as well as the introduction of new products, open new opportunities for American workers? This volume studies the relationship of technology to employment and the effects of technological change on the workplace. The authors discuss the role of new technologies in strengthening U.S. international competitiveness, recommend initiatives for assisting displaced workers, and make recommendations to aid industry in developing and adopting the new technology it needs to compete successfully in the world economy.

Technology and Employment: Innovation and Growth in the U.S. Economy

More than 1 million teenage girls in the United States become pregnant each year; nearly half give birth. Why do these young people, who are hardly more than children themselves, become parents? The statistical appendices for the report Risking the Future: Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing provide additional insight into the trends in teenage sexual behavior.

Risking the Future: Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing, Volume II Statistical Appendices only

More than 1 million teenage girls in the United States become pregnant each year; nearly half give birth. Why do these young people, who are hardly more than children themselves, become parents? The working papers for the report Risking the Future: Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing provide additional insight into the trends in and consequences of teenage sexual behavior.

Risking the Future: Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing, Volume II Working Papers only

Risking the Future: Volume II: Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing

More than 1 million teenage girls in the United States become pregnant each year; nearly half give birth. Why do these young people, who are hardly more than children themselves, become parents? The statistical appendices and working papers for the report Risking the Future: Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing provide additional insight into the trends in and consequences of teenage sexual behavior.

Risking the Future: Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing, Volume II: Working Papers and Statistical Appendices

Management of Technology: The Hidden Competitive Advantage

More than 1 million teenage girls in the United States become pregnant each year; nearly half give birth. Why do these young people, who are hardly more than children themselves, become parents? This volume reviews in detail the trends in and consequences of teenage sexual behavior and offers thoughtful insights on the issues of sexual initiation, contraception, pregnancy, abortion, adoption, and the well-being of adolescent families. It provides a systematic assessment of the impact of various programmatic approaches, both preventive and ameliorative, in light of the growing scientific understanding of the topic.

Risking the Future: Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing

Rethinking Quality Control: A New System for the Food Stamp Program

Mental Models in Human-Computer Interaction: Research Issues About What the User of Software Knows

Work, Aging, and Vision: Report of a Conference

Human Factors in Automated and Robotic Space Systems: Proceedings of a Symposium

Demographic Change and the Well-Being of Children and the Elderly: Proceedings of a Workshop

This companion to Volume I presents individually authored papers covering the history, economics, and sociology of women's work and the computer revolution. Topics include the implications for equal employment opportunity in light of new technologies; a case study of the insurance industry and of women in computer-related occupations; a study of temporary, part-time, and at-home employment; and education and retraining opportunities.

Computer Chips and Paper Clips: Technology and Women's Employment, Volume II: Case Studies and Policy Perspectives

In 1933, President Herbert Hoover commissioned the "Ogburn Report," a comprehensive study of social trends in the United States. Fifty years later, a symposium of noted social and behavioral scientists marked the report's anniversary with a book of their own from the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. The 10 chapters presented here relate the developments detailed in the "Ogburn Report" to modern social trends. This book discusses recent major strides in the social and behavioral sciences, including sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics, and linguistics.

Behavioral and Social Science: 50 Years of Discovery

This book addresses nine relevant questions: Will population growth reduce the growth rate of per capita income because it reduces the per capita availability of exhaustible resources? How about for renewable resources? Will population growth aggravate degradation of the natural environment? Does more rapid growth reduce worker output and consumption? Do rapid growth and greater density lead to productivity gains through scale economies and thereby raise per capita income? Will rapid population growth reduce per capita levels of education and health? Will it increase inequality of income distribution? Is it an important source of labor problems and city population absorption? And, finally, do the economic effects of population growth justify government programs to reduce fertility that go beyond the provision of family planning services?

Population Growth and Economic Development: Policy Questions

Productive Roles in an Older Society

Criminal Careers and "Career Criminals,": Volume I

Even though women have made substantial progress in a number of formerly male occupations, sex segregation in the workplace remains a fact of life. This volume probes pertinent questions: Why has the overall degree of sex segregation remained stable in this century? What informal barriers keep it in place? How do socialization and educational practices affect career choices and hiring patterns? How do family responsibilities affect women's work attitudes? And how effective is legislation in lessening the gap between the sexes? Amply supplemented with tables, figures, and insightful examination of trends and research, this volume is a definitive source for what is known today about sex segregation on the job.

Women's Work, Men's Work: Sex Segregation on the Job

Creating a Center for Education Statistics: A Time for Action

Volume II takes an in-depth look at the various aspects of criminal careers, including the relationship of alcohol and drug abuse to criminal careers, co-offending influences on criminal careers, issues in the measurement of criminal careers, accuracy of prediction models, and ethical issues in the use of criminal career information in making decisions about offenders.

Criminal Careers and "Career Criminals,": Volume II

Drawing on the historical changes in five areas—the jobs of telephone operators, workers in the printing and publishing industries, information and data processors, retail clerks, and nurses—this volume offers a comprehensive examination of how microelectronics and telecommunications have affected women's work and their working environments and looks ahead to what can be expected for women workers in the next decade. It also offers perspectives on how workers can more easily adapt to the changing workplace and addresses the controversial topic of job insecurity as a result of an influx of advanced electronic systems.

Computer Chips and Paper Clips: Technology and Women's Employment, Volume I

Fertility and Mortality in Bolivia and Guatemala: 1950-1976

This book examines the needs for and availability of statistics concerning immigrants and immigration. It concentrates on the needs for statistics on immigrants, refugees, and illegal aliens for policy and program purposes, on the adequacy of the statistics that are produced and of the statistical systems that generate them, and on recommendations for improving these systems. Also, the history of immigration legislation and the estimates of the size of the illegal alien population are briefly reviewed.

Immigration Statistics: A Story of Neglect

Youth Employment and Training Programs: The YEDPA Years

Comparable worth—equal pay for jobs of equal value—has been called the civil rights issue of the 1980s. This volume consists of a committee report that sets forth an agenda of much-needed research on this issue, supported by six papers contributed by eminent social scientists. The research agenda presented is structured around two general themes: (1) occupational wage differentials and discrimination and (2) wage adjustment strategies and their impact. The papers deal with a wide range of topics, including job evaluation, social judgment biases in comparable worth analysis, the economics of comparable worth, and prospects for pay equity.

Comparable Worth: New Directions for Research

Scientists and Human Rights in Chile: Report of a Delegation

Methods for Designing Software to Fit Human Needs and Capabilities: Proceedings of the Workshop on Software Human Factors

Sociology and Anthropology in the People's Republic of China: Report of a Delegation Visit, February-March 1984

Reducing Bureaucratic Accretion in Government and University Procedures for Sponsored Research: New Approaches in Process and Additional Areas for Attention: Summary

In this provocative volume, distinguished authorities on urban policy expose the myths surrounding today's "infrastructure crisis" in urban public works. Five in-depth papers examine the evolution of the public works system, the limitations of urban needs studies, the financing of public works projects, the impact of politics, and how technology is affecting the types of infrastructures needed for tomorrow's cities.

Perspectives on Urban Infrastructure

Microelectronics and Working Women: A Literature Summary

For the first time, a report focuses specifically on middle childhood—a discrete, pivotal period of development. In this review of research, experts examine the physical health and cognitive development of 6- to 12-year-old children as well as their surroundings: school and home environment, ecocultural setting, and family and peer relationships.

Development During Middle Childhood: The Years From Six to Twelve

Cognitive Aspects of Survey Methodology: Building a Bridge Between Disciplines

Statistics for Transportation, Communication, and Finance and Insurance: Data Availability and Needs

Automatic Speech Recognition in Severe Environments

Research and Modeling of Supervisory Control Behavior: Report of a Workshop

How pervasive is sex segregation in the workplace? Does the concentration of women into a few professions reflect their personal preferences, the "tastes" of employers, or sex-role socialization? Will greater enforcement of federal antidiscrimination laws reduce segregation? What are the prospects for the decade ahead? These are among the important policy and research questions raised in this comprehensive volume, of interest to policymakers, researchers, personnel directors, union leaders—anyone concerned about the economic parity of women.

Sex Segregation in the Workplace: Trends, Explanations, Remedies

The remarkable changes in fertility, nuptiality, and mortality that have occurred in the People's Republic of China from the early 1950s to 1982 are summarized in this report. Data are based largely on the single-year age distributions tabulated in the 1953, 1964, and 1982 censuses of China and a major 1982 fertility survey.

Rapid Population Change in China, 1952-1982

Rethinking Urban Policy: Urban Development in an Advanced Economy

Research Needs for Human Factors

The Determinants of Brazil's Recent Rapid Decline in Fertility

Research on Sentencing: The Search for Reform

Fertility Decline in Indonesia: Analysis and Interpretation

The Long-Term Impact of Technology on Employment and Unemployment

Statistics in Fertility Research: Value and Limitations

Proceedings: Panel Discussions on Science and Technology Planning and Forecasting for Indonesia: Special Emphasis on Manpower Development: Jakarta, Indonesia, November 8-10, 1982

Research on Sentencing: The Search for Reform, Volume I

Research on Sentencing: The Search for Reform, Volume II

Infants at Risk for Developmental Dysfunction: Health and Behavior: A Research Agenda: Interim Report No. 4

Critical Issues for National Urban Policy: A Reconnaissance and Agenda for Further Study: First Annual Report

Families That Work: Children in a Changing World

At the time of the assassination of President Kennedy, the Dallas police recorded sounds from an open microphone; these sounds have been previously analyzed by two research groups at the request of the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Both groups concluded with 95% probability that the recordings contained acoustic impulses which provide evidence for the existence of a shot from the grassy knoll area of Dealey Plaza. On the basis of these results and since shots definitely were fired from the Texas School Book Depository, the House Committee concluded that "scientific acoustical evidence establishes a high probability that two gunmen fired at President John F. Kennedy."

Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics studied these reports and the Dallas Police recordings on which they are based. This book reviews the methodology employed in the evaluations of the recorded acoustic data and of the conclusions about the existence of a shot from the grassy knoll. According to this report, the acoustic analyses do not demonstrate that there was a grassy knoll shot, and in particular there is no acoustic basis for the claim of 95% probability of such a shot. The acoustic impulses attributed to gunshots were recorded about one minute after the President had been shot and the motorcade had been instructed to go to the hospital. Therefore, reliable acoustic data do not support a conclusion that there was a second gunman.

Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics

Socioeconomic Determinants of Fertility Behavior in Developing Nations: Theory and Initial Results

Behavioral and Social Science Research: A National Resource specifies appropriate criteria for assessing the value, significance, and social utility of basic research in the social sciences. This report identifies illustrative areas of basic research in the social sciences that have developed analytic frameworks of high social utility and describes the development of these frameworks and their utilization. It also identifies illustrative areas of basic research in the social sciences that are likely to be of high value, significance, and/or social utility in the near future, reviews the current state of knowledge in these areas, and indicates research efforts needed to bring these areas to their full potential.

Behavioral and Social Science Research: A National Resource, Part I

Making Policies for Children: A Study of the Federal Process

Trends in Fertility and Mortality in Turkey, 1935-1975

Fertility in Thailand: Trends, Differentials, and Proximate Determinants

Levels and Recent Trends in Fertility and Mortality in Colombia

Determinants of Fertility in the Republic of Korea

Overviews of Emerging Research Techniques in Hearing, Bioacoustics, and Biomechanics: Proceedings of the 1981 Meeting

Determinants of Fertility in Developing Countries: An Overview and a Research Agenda

Age Misreporting and Age-Selective Underenumeration: Sources, Patterns, and Consequences for Demographic Analysis

Services for Children: An Agenda for Research

Career Outcomes in a Matched Sample of Men and Women Ph.D.s: An Analytical Report

New Directions in the Rehabilitation of Criminal Offenders

Employment of Minority PhDs: Changes Over Time

Alcohol and Public Policy: Beyond the Shadow of Prohibition

Women, Work, and Wages: Equal Pay for Jobs of Equal Value

CETA: Assessment of Public Service Employment Programs

Estimation of Recent Trends in Fertility and Mortality in the Republic of Korea

Fertility and Mortality Changes in Thailand, 1950-1975

New CETA: Effect on Public Service Employment Programs: Final Report

Forecasting the Impact of Legislation on Courts

Impact of Overseas Troop Reductions on the U.S.-Flag Merchant Marine

Estimating Population and Income of Small Areas

The Rehabilitation of Criminal Offenders: Problems and Prospects

The Effects of Nonresponse Bias on the Results of the 1975 Survey of Doctoral Scientists and Engineers

Pharmaceuticals for Developing Countries: Conference Proceedings

Privacy and Confidentiality as Factors in Survey Response

Deterrence and Incapacitation: Estimating the Effects of Criminal Sanctions on Crime Rates

CETA: Assessment and Recommendations

Employment and Training Programs: The Local View

National Academy of Sciences Committee on Human Rights: Results of a Visit to Argentina and Uruguay

This report of the Committee on Research on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice is the product of an intensive 18-month effort by a committee of individuals with a variety of scholarly, research, administrative, and technical skills and experience broadly associated with law enforcement research. The effort was undertaken at the request of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) of the Department of Justice.

One of the reasons for undertaking the task was the assumption that such an assessment was a value to the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice and to the country's effort to deal in an effective way with the general problem of crime. Understanding Crime includes a systematic examination of the Institute's projects, products, and processes.

This report has three sections: the first describes historical factors that have influenced the Institute's development and the LEAA structure within which it operates; the second reports the committee's evaluation of the federal role in crime research and of the program developed and funded by the Institute; the third details the committee's conclusions and recommendations. Understanding Crime presents the committee's findings, conclusions, and recommendations in terms of the program, role, and goals of the Institute.

Understanding Crime: An Evaluation of the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice

The 1978 Budgets: Ford, Carter, Congress, Health

Toward a National Policy for Children and Families

Surveying Crime

The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act: Impact on People, Places, Programs: An Interim Report

Population and Food: Crucial Issues

Assessing Biomedical Technologies: An Inquiry Into the Nature of the Process

World Hunger: Approaches to Engineering Actions: Report of a Seminar is the summary of a seminar of the Committee on Public Engineering Policy (COPEP) of the Assembly of Engineering convened in July, 1974. Participants presented and discussed ways in which engineering resources and techniques could be applied to improve food production, processing, storage, and distribution to achieve food security in the poorest of nations.

A combination of unfortunate circumstances—bad weather, poor harvest, sharply rising prices for energy and fertilizer—precipitated a world food crisis in the years 1972-1974. Hardest hit were the people in the poorest and some of the most populous developing countries. Because of large grain purchases by the Soviet Union and an earlier U.S. policy to reduce its agricultural surpluses to manageable levels, food supplies in the world market became insufficient and too costly for the needy countries.

This report promotes the vital interconnection between farm production and social organization, between resource requirements and trade balances, between the rational use of the ecosystem and the wellbeing of all people. World Hunger: Approaches to Engineering Actions presents a coordinated strategy of actions for achieving worldwide food security. Topics covered include raising crop yields through better agricultural and irrigation practices, improving food technology, and building more efficient transport and management systems for the delivery of inputs to farmers and food to market. This book makes the case that engineers have a contribution to make and that opportunities for engineering innovation and talent to develop technological options to help solve this problem are manifold.

World Hunger: Approaches to Engineering Actions : Report of a Seminar

Minority Groups Among United States Doctorate-Level Scientists, Engineers, and Scholars, 1973

Final Report of the Panel on Manpower Training Evaluation: The Use of Social Security Earnings Data for Assessing the Impact of Manpower Training Programs

Segregation in Residential Areas: Papers on Racial and Socioeconomic Factors in Choice of Housing

Improving Computer-Science Education in Brazil

America's Uncounted People

Urban Growth and Land Development: The Land Conversion Process

Freedom of Choice in Housing: Opportunities and Constraints

Atlas of Nutritional Data on United States and Canadian Feeds

Proceedings of the Scientific Program

Science and Brazilian Development: Report of the Third Workshop on Contribution of Science and Technology to Development

Telecommunications for Enhanced Metropolitan Function and Form: Report to the Director of Telecommunications Management

The Growth of World Population: Analysis of the Problems and Recommendations for Research and Training

Rapid Radiochemical Separations

The Role of the Department of Commerce in Science and Technology

The Effects of a Threatening Rumor on a Disaster-Stricken Community

Rural Settlement Patterns in the United States: As illustrated on 100 topographic quadrangle maps

Committee on Problems of Alcohol: A Report of Its Activities From 1949 to 1955, the Research Work It Has Supported and the Place of This Work in the Field of Alcoholism

The Bacteriostatic Activity of 3500 Organic Compounds for Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Var. Hominis

The Selection of Military Manpower: A Symposium

Review of Wartime Studies of Dark Adaptation, Night Vision Tests, and Related Topics

Psychology for the Armed Services

Data on the Growth of Public School Children: From the Materials of the Harvard Growth Study

Research Recommendations of the Second Conference on Problems of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing: Reprint and Circular Series of the National Research Council

Final Report of the Committee on Scientific Problems of Human Migration: Report and Circular Series of the National Research Council

Other topics.

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This InfoGuide assists students starting their research proposal and literature review.

• Introduction
• Research Process
• Types of Research Methodology
• Data Collection Methods
• Anatomy of a Scholarly Article
• Identifying a Research Problem
• Problem Statement
• Research Question
• Research Design
• Search Strategies
• Psychology Database Limiters
• Literature Review Search
• Annotated Bibliography
• Writing a Literature Review
• Writing a Research Proposal

Finding a Topic

Choosing your  topic  is the first step in ensuring your research goes as smoothly as possible. When choosing a topic, it’s important to consider the following:

• Your institution and department’s requirements
• Your areas of knowledge and interest
• The scientific, social, or practical relevance
• The availability of data and resources
• The timeframe of your paper
• The relevance of your topic

Start by thinking about your areas of interest within the subject you’re studying. Examples of broad ideas include:

• College Students
• Social Media
• Health Issue

To get a more specific sense of the current state of research on your potential topic, skim through a few recent issues of the top journals in your field and encyclopedias. Be sure to check out their most-cited articles in particular. You can also search Google Scholar, subject-specific databases, and your university library’s resources.

As you read, note down any specific ideas that interest you and make a shortlist of possible topics. If you’ve written other papers, such as a 3rd-year paper or a conference paper, consider how those topics can be broadened into a research proposal.

After some initial reading, it’s time to start narrowing down options for your potential topic. This can be a gradual process and should get more and more specific as you go. For example, from the ideas above, you might narrow it down like this:

• College Students-Deaf College Students--Deaf College Students Perceptions of Online Courses
• Social Media-Generation Z and Social Media---Generation Z, Self-Image, and Social Media
• Health issue--Reproductive health----Deaf population---Deaf Women and Unintended Pregnancies (you may be thinking:  deaf women tend to have unintended pregnancies more often… because deaf young women don’t have access to sex education because of language barriers).

These topics are still broad enough to find many books and articles about them. Try to find a specific niche where you can make your mark, such as something not many people have researched yet, a question that’s still being debated, or a very current practical issue. If there’s already a lot of research and a strong consensus on your topic, it will be more difficult to justify the relevance of your work. However, you should also ensure enough literature to provide a strong basis for your research.

Your topic must be interesting to you, but you’ll also have to make sure it’s academically, socially, or practically relevant to your field.

• Academic relevance  means that the research can fill a knowledge gap or contribute to a scholarly debate in your field.
• Social relevance  means that the research can advance our understanding of society and inform social change.
• Practical relevance  means that the research can be applied to solve concrete problems or improve real-life processes.

The easiest way to make sure your research is relevant is to choose a topic that is connected to current issues or debates, either in society at large or in your academic discipline. The relevance must be clearly stated when you define your research problem.

Encyclopedias and Books

• The Concise Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science
• Gale Social Science Books

Check journals in the discipline you are interested in for some topic ideas. For example, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. 

Check Google Scholar for ideas. Adjust your settings so your results link to our database articles if we have them. 

• Google Scholar Settings - Library links

Databases for Ideas

• CREDO Reference This link opens in a new window Ebook collection of reference works including encyclopedias, dictionaries, biographies and quotations.
• CQ Researcher Online This link opens in a new window Reporting & analysis of political & social issues, with topics in health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology & the U.S. economy.
• Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window Full text viewpoint essays and articles on current social and political issues. The NOVELNY program and its online resources (currently from Gale and Britannica) will cease on June 30, 2024.
• Proquest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window Identifies Ph.D. dissertations from U.S. & Canadian universities since 1861. Abstracts from 1980. Master's theses from 1988. Many with full-text.
• Social Sciences Databases more... less... View more Social Sciences databases.

Need More Databases? Try These

• APA PsycArticles This link opens in a new window Full text articles in psychology, many published by the American Psychological Association.
• APA PsycINFO This link opens in a new window Identifies articles, books and dissertations in psychology and related subjects, many with links to full text.
• PubMed This link opens in a new window A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s.
• MEDLINE (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window Identifies articles in medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences.
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• A Research Guide
• Research Paper Topics
• 35 Human Behavior Research Topics & Questions

35 Human Behavior Research Topics & Questions

Useful information: Does a research paper need a thesis ?

• When human behaviour became human?
• What traits we consider typically human we can meet in animals?
• Nature versus nurture. To what extentthe natural behaviour can be corrected?
• The phenomenon of “Mowgli kids” and their behavior
• The stages of human development and their impact on behaviour patterns
• The impact of the family or parental substitutes on behaviour
• Mating rituals or chivalrous romance? How do people court their love interests?
• Habits and their development
• How advertising uses our typical behaviour patterns?
• The importance of happiness
• Games and behaviour. Why do we like to play so much?
• Cults and sects. How do people get involved?
• The psychology of the crowd. What happens to person inside the crowd?
• Does natural morality exist or is it a social construct?
• Sex, gender and behaviour
• Is it good or bad?
• The typical responses to danger: run, fight, hide. Are they hardwired into us?
• Nonverbal communication: is it international?
• Depression and its impact on human behaviour
• Do LGBTQ+ people have typical behavioural patterns?
• The impact of social media and Internet on behaviour
• Porn and sexual attractions
• What is bipolar disorder in terms of behaviour?
• Social hierarchy and behaviour
• Are behavioural patterns connected to self-esteem?
• Elderly people and changes in their behaviour
• Drugs that change behaviour
• IQ and EQ and their impact on behaviour
• Religion and behavioural norms
• Culture clash and behaviour of people of mixed origins
• Correcting dysfunctional behaviour
• Propaganda and behaviour
• Artificially created social groups and their behaviour
• Trauma, PTSD and behaviour
• Defensive behaviour

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National Research Council; Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; Committee on Basic Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences; Gerstein DR, Luce RD, Smelser NJ, et al., editors. The Behavioral and Social Sciences: Achievements and Opportunities. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.

The Behavioral and Social Sciences: Achievements and Opportunities.

• Hardcopy Version at National Academies Press

1 Behavior, Mind, and Brain

From the beginnings of scientific inquiry, researchers have tried to understand the workings of the mind and its relationship to behavior. In modern terms, scientists seek to answer such questions as:

How does an individual manage to see coherent objects in changing patches of multicolored light or to hear speech and music in bursts of sound varying in loudness and pitch?

How do people remember, even imperfectly, the vast storehouse of factual and functional information that each of us carries about?

How do infants—and other nonverbal creatures—think, and what are their thoughts like?

How does an individual learn new ideas, create concepts, organize his or her knowledge, and act upon what he or she knows?

Until about 100 years ago, these and similar questions led mainly to speculation, to sophisticated but untestable guesses about the nature of the mind and its function in behavior. Many scientists thought that this confinement to speculation would always be the case, on the presumption that mental life, unlike the world of objects, is not directly observable and so is not amenable to systematic, scientific study. But during the second half of the nineteenth century, experimental and close observational approaches to such questions began to appear. Some of the first work involved the study of sensory processes that underlie organic sensitivity to different physical stimuli, rigorous observations about how behavior is shaped by experience, and the relation of observable behaviors to certain brain regions and neural events.

Both theory and method have since advanced at an accelerating pace, with extensive revisions of earlier questions to make them more tractable and to take advantage of the growing linkages between knowledge about behavior, the mind, and the brain. Instead of asking only how best to measure the intelligence of people, researchers now ask about the nature of intelligent action, whether exhibited by humans, animals, computers, or robots. In addition to seeking laws that directly relate external stimuli to behavioral responses, researchers now attempt to unravel the basic processing that the brain must carry out in order to generate behavior and to simulate that processing on computers to formalize and test theories. These are the new questions—with their extensions into the details of visual and auditory processing, memory formation and retrieval, language, cognition, and action—that drive the research investigations highlighted in this chapter.

• Seeing and Hearing

As you look around, you see a variety of objects at various distances, some still and others moving, some transparent and some densely colored, some partially obscured and some not. All is perfectly ordinary and seen without effort if the light is adequate. Your cat or dog sees these things, too, although somewhat differently from the way you do. And so does the fly that evades your swat. And when you listen to a musical recording, you have little trouble hearing the separate instruments. If someone speaks while you are listening to the music, you have no difficulty in understanding the words, unless the music is very loud or you suffer from a certain form of hearing loss that is common in older males.

It is all so commonplace—but no one yet knows exactly how the brain does any of these things. No one yet knows enough to program a computer to pick out a wide range of objects from a scene, to isolate a violin in an orchestral passage, or to separate speech from noise and to partition it into words. Enabling machines to do these things would surely affect the way people live as much as the telephone, the thermostat, or the radar have done. And it is clear these tasks can be done because the human brain does them, continuously and apparently effortlessly. One approach to studying how these tasks are carried out is to work with computers and sensing devices, without much regard for how the tasks are done in the brain. Another approach is to focus directly on unraveling nature’s way of doing them.

These tasks may be very complex. Or they may be simple but involve principles that scientists do not yet understand. For example, between one-quarter and two-fifths of the total cortex of the human brain is devoted to vision, suggesting that it is one of the most complex brain functions. However, abilities somewhat similar to human vision are exhibited by animal brains far more modest. For example, pigeons trained to identify the occurrence of trees (in contrast to bushes or other plants) in color slides—whether alone or in a forest, in whole or in part, leafy or bare—are then able to identify trees as accurately as people can, in slides they have not previously seen. Pigeons can also be trained to recognize a particular person in slides of individuals or crowds. Yet, with similar training, pigeons cannot identify simple line drawings, such as cartoon characters. The difficult is easy and the easy difficult for that tiny brain, or so it seems.

Hearing similarly involves complexity and simplicity. The only physical event on which hearing is based is the variation of air pressure at the ears. A plot of the sound pressure generated by a person saying “science” in a quiet room is completely different from the plot of that same word said by the same person against a background of white noise, such as cocktail party chatter. A person has no difficulty hearing the message in the noise, although the physical sound patterns are quite different. The ability of the human ear and brain to recognize the word in the noise is vastly superior to that of any machine.

Understanding such abilities is the current focus of research on perception. This research includes innovative theoretical work and sophisticated experiments with animals, and it is increasingly able to use computers to develop theoretical models and simulate experimental tests. The research involves psychologists, biologists, physiologists, physicians, graphic artists, physicists, engineers, and computer scientists. The work is highly interactive: for example, behavioral analyses of sensory and perceptual processes provide evidence for functional distinctions that can then be sought in the workings of the brain. Another example comes from theoretical advances in the development of recursive computer models that capture the simultaneous use of multiple sources of information. These are often called activation models because each piece of information that plays a part in a particular mental process is viewed as an active influence on the direction of the process. These activation models are being applied to previously intractable problems in research on human and animal vision.

HEARING How do the senses, such as hearing, work? How does a person’s auditory system identify a single voice in a buzz of conversation and pick words out of a vocal stream?

The figures on the facing page show the sound pressure generated by a human male voice saying the word “science.” They are digitized plots of the amplitude of a sound wave over time; the total time is 0.85 seconds; the amplitude is sampled at a rate of 10,000 observations per second.

In the top figure, the person spoke in the stillness of a soundproof chamber. In the bottom figure, he spoke while his voice was masked by noise that simulated a roomful of people talking, such as would occur at a cocktail party.

Neither the human eye nor any known form of sound filter or computer analysis can detect the wave form of the top figure in the bottom figure. That is, they cannot extract the vocal wave form from the noise. But a normal listener has no trouble hearing and understanding the word through the noise. How the human ear and brain perform the analysis needed to recognize the word in the noise is a fascinating and complicated scientific problem.

Visual Analyzers

The retina of the eye—really a bit of exposed brain—is a regular mosaic of five different layers of nerve cells whose spatial arrangement affects the nature of vision. Aided by recent technical advances in electronics, researchers have shown that in one early stage of visual processing, millions of small groups of neurons in the eye and the rest of the brain work as parallel microprocessors or analyzers. Each analyzer responds preferentially to stimulus components within a narrow range of size and orientation; they decompose the scene into a vast number of overlapping components. Precise quantitative models based on such analyzers can be explored by complex computer simulations and can now explain how the human eye and brain detect and identify low-contrast visual patterns, such as nighttime shadows. Some current work suggests that the brain may be able to rapidly select and regroup the analyzers, depending on what is being perceived.

One application of such models is to evaluate, at the design stage, the relative clarity and efficiency of a variety of visual displays: flight simulators, video terminals, warning lights, and information signs. Another application is image augmentation. The inherent inadequacies of electrical and optical imaging systems—such as blurring due to the atmosphere—can be compensated for by computers. Information that is particularly useful to human perception can be improved at the expense of less useful information. These applications are aimed at speeding up such tasks as reading x-ray plates and satellite reconnaissance displays, tracing circuit diagrams, and following blueprints and maps, which are done slowly and are error-prone without augmentation. Another application in the future will be the possibility of more efficient transmission of visual images over telephone lines.

Researchers have discovered that some visual tasks are so complex that humans, some primates, and possibly many other animal species use special-purpose brain areas to solve them efficiently. For example, the human ability to recognize and discriminate readily among a seemingly endless variety of faces is now known to make use of certain neural circuits in the right-posterior cerebral hemisphere. Facial recognition may be different from the recognition of most other kinds of objects in the world, but it may be that other forms of expertise in pattern recognition hinge at least in part on engaging those neural circuits. Researchers are beginning to explore in detail the extent and nature of such special-purpose systems in the human and animal brain and their relation to perception.

Color Constancy

An outstanding example of a very important special feature of visual perception is color constancy: color relations between objects in a scene seem relatively invariant to the eye, independent of the light playing on the scene. A blue shirt looks blue whether seen in sunlight or in a dimly lit restaurant. Yet this invariance cannot be replicated by color photographic media.

Recently, some investigators have proposed a theory about how the eye and brain may separate the inherent color relations among objects from the light impinging on them. Certain newly defined mathematical algorithms, if carried out simultaneously over the entire visual field, presumably by millions of visual analyzers, have been shown in theory to be able to separate the inherent colors of objects from incident lighting. This theoretical model assumes certain mathematical conditions that correspond to qualities of colors, of light, and of the high-level “programming” of the brain. Large-scale computations are now being carried out to test and refine the model and to find ways to simulate it in real time with new computer architectures.

If, as the theory suggests, this decomposition works efficiently and if, as is anticipated, the electro-optical technology for recording a visual scene digitally can be made sufficiently compact, a new form of photography could result. Instead of the various “speeds” of film suited to different lighting conditions, one would need only one type of photosensitive medium that could be used under any circumstances. The “developing” process would then decompose what is inherent in the scene from the lighting that happened to exist at the time of the photograph. With such a process, one could display or print the picture with whatever lighting conditions one wanted. The developing and printing processes, carried out on a computer, would be analogous to what the brain does all the time. The ability to adjust lighting as if from the mind’s eye would mean unprecedented expansion of the capabilities for the scientific study of vision and for applications in graphic arts, industrial design, and computer vision.

Depth and Motion

That the world is spatially three-dimensional while the retina is spatially two-dimensional creates inherent visual ambiguities. The eye cannot directly capture motion perpendicular to it; the eye and the rest of the brain must infer depth and motion from ambiguous clues. Resolving these ambiguities, which is usually essential for accurate vision, is possible because of certain constraints that occur in natural scenes concerning shading, motion, texture, and so on. Recent results of behavioral experiments with humans and animals, which have inspired corroborating neurophysiological experiments, reveal that higher-level neural analyzers of motion in visual images are sensitive to the global direction of a pattern’s motion, even when parts of the pattern are moving in other directions. These analyzers give rise to moving optical illusions, such as rigid objects that are perceived as flexible and vice versa. Another example is the illusion that very large objects are moving more slowly than they actually are. Landing or taking off, a jumbo jetliner appears to be flying more slowly, by a sizable factor, than a small, executive jet, when in fact their speeds are very similar. This kind of size-speed illusion is believed to be the underlying cause of many railroad-crossing accidents when motorists drastically underestimate the speed of an approaching train. These illusions, which are difficult and in some cases virtually impossible to study experimentally except with modern computer-graphic technology, imply that immense distortion in visual displays may be tolerated or even go unnoticed by both humans and animals.

Perceiving Objects

The process by which visual analysis fills in a big picture from a collection of details means that mere fragments of objects suffice in normally cluttered scenes to permit observers to produce coherent, conceptually appropriate perceptions. Adults make use of several experimentally confirmed theoretical principles to do this, such as assuming that objects in a scene do not share boundaries. People also tend to see correlated movement of disconnected parts in natural scenes as a single moving object partially masked by another object. This latter principle is apparently a deep-seated tendency and has even been demonstrated in very young infants. Increasing knowledge about visual perception can be expected to improve the design of factory robots that must make complex identifications of objects in order to carry out their function without selecting the wrong object or inadvertently hurting someone.

Temporal Auditory Patterns

Hearing problems having to do with space (for example, distance and localization) are very important in the design of sound equipment and auditoriums and have long been studied. Much of the current focus of research on auditory perception, however, concerns complex patterns of sound stimuli varying in time, such as speech and music. Auditory signals can now be designed and stimulated quite precisely by a computer driving a digital-to-analog signal coverter, and these artificial sound patterns are used to study specific aspects of the hearing process.

One type of study measures a listener’s ability to discriminate changes in the intensity of one of several tones that are played simultaneously. Initially, the ability to sense a change in intensity within a complex of other tones is far less than when a single tone is played by itself. But with practice in listening to complex tones repeated with little variation, the ability to recognize the variations when they do occur becomes very good. Studies are now under way to see whether practice in listening to complex sound patterns is characteristic of how an infant learns to identify the particular phonemic differences that characterize its prospective language.

An important area of application of research on the perception of auditory patterns (including speech recognition, described more fully below) is in the design of hearing aids. They have been greatly improved in the past decade by coupling what was known about the nature of hearing loss with modern electronics. Whenever the auditory deterioration is peripheral rather than central, certain aspects of the loss, such as reduced loudness at certain frequencies, can be mitigated by appropriately altering the sound waves at the eardrum. Whether it will also prove possible to compensate for the inability to separate speech signals from background noise may depend similarly on the nature of the loss, which further research is likely to reveal.

Music is the focus of much scientific research. Musical keys and scales are highly structured, and musicians, mathematicians, and philosophers have long speculated about the underlying nature of that structure. More recently, the rules of counterpoint and orchestration are being explained, not as arbitrary requirements of particular musical styles, but as selective adaptations to basic tendencies of the human auditory system to group sounds in certain ways as a step in auditory pattern recognition. Researchers some time ago postulated that a set of ratios corresponding to a helical geometric structure underlies tonal perception. Recently, far more systematic studies, using trained musicians as respondents and multidimensional scaling methods (discussed in Chapter 5 ) to analyze the results, have led to a modified understanding of the geometric relations implicit in tonal perception; they appear to be conical rather than helical configurations. Stimulated by the success of linguists in analyzing language as a rule-governed system, behavioral researchers working with musicians have also successfully begun to define the deeply embedded rules that become internalized in the course of growing up in a musical culture, and they have demonstrated how such deep rule structures strongly affect listeners’ perception and memory of what is heard.

Most people can readily find their way around a once frequented neighborhood, improve a sporting skill with practice, or recall an old story. These deeds are possible because the capacity for memory storage is vast; indeed, virtually everything discussed in this chapter depends critically on humans having very large, readily accessible banks of organized information in the brain. Not only is the capacity large, but also much of its use is automatic: learning and memory often occur incidentally, with little special effort. Yet for some people memory failure can become an acute problem. In certain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, the ability to learn and remember is drastically impaired, and life becomes a series of unconnected moments.

Some questions about memory are of long standing: How are memories organized? How does the brain code, store, and retrieve them? What are the computations and processes involved? What happens when the capacity for memory becomes impaired? How can memories be improved? For both these questions and newer ones, a whole new approach to the study of memory derives from the development of computers. However, although much has been learned from the way information is stored in computational systems, the analogy between computer memory and human memory is imperfect in many significant ways.

In the past 20 years, an interdisciplinary revolution has occurred in understanding the organization of learning and memory and their biological foundations. Behavioral studies in animals and humans are characterizing the categories and properties of learning and memory; research on human memory and the brain is identifying the neuronal systems that serve different categories of memory; memory trace circuits in the mammalian brain are being defined and localized in animal models;, researchers are beginning to understand the neuronal, neurochemical, molecular, and biophysical substrates of memory in both invertebrates and vertebrates; and theoretical mathematical analysis of basic associative learning and of neuronal networks is proceeding rapidly. Better mathematical and computational modeling of elaborate memory processes, carried out to simulate aspects of specific brain architecture, has become feasible because of the “computer revolution.” The newest phase of that revolution—the availability of massive, parallel computer architectures, in which many specialized unit devices process pieces of information simultaneously, seemingly analogous to the way in which neural memories operate—will almost certainly facilitate future work on memory.

Types of Memory

Of the many questions about memory, one of the most fundamental concerns the types or varieties of memory. In recent years, both psychological and neurobiological work have suggested that memory is dissociated into processes or systems that are fundamentally different. For example, amnesic patients with brain injury or disease exhibit severe inabilities to recall and recognize recent events and have difficulty learning new facts or other kinds of information. But, these patients possess some relatively intact learning and memory abilities: for example, on tasks such as manual-dexterity learning trials, they perform as well as healthy and uninjured people, even though they may have no conscious memory of having performed the task before. This evidence—that some kinds of learning can proceed normally even when the brain structures that mediate conscious remembering are damaged—supports the general proposition that there are distinct, dissociated types of memory.

Analysis of recall performance shows that memory is an active process of seeking and reconstructing information, not a passive recording and reproducing of events. Thus, expectations of what things should look like or the way events should happen influence what people notice and remember. For example, after listening to a story presented in jumbled order, people still tend to remember it as being told in proper sequence, following certain widely accepted schemas for what constitutes a story. People also tend to pay little attention to the details of routine situations; consequently, people often remember that the most probable things happened even when they did not. This phenomenon has been demonstrated clearly in the context of eyewitness court testimony. And because people tend to remember events and places in terms of expectations and general knowledge of the world, experiments have shown that memory of an event can be modified or distorted by the manner in which questions about the event are posed. Such experimental findings have important theoretical implications for understanding the formal structure of memory, and they have practical implications for legal proceedings (see “Small Groups and Behavior” in Chapter 2 ).

Behavioral studies in animals have also revealed certain persistent constraints on learning and memory. Many species, ranging from invertebrates to primates, can learn very quickly to associate or connect distinctive tastes with subsequent nausea, but they are much slower to associate those tastes with prompt threats of pain. In contrast, certain visual and auditory signals are readily associated with pain episodes, but are not so quickly associated with subsequent nausea. These findings also support the general proposition of different types of memory.

Animal studies have illuminated other important aspects of natural learning. In foraging, for example, animals search efficiently among many possible food sources, using past experience to reckon the best trade-offs between relative distances (and associated caloric costs), probability of finding food, and relative nutritional quality (especially caloric content) available at alternative sites (see “Patterns of Food Consumption” in Chapter 2 ).

Imprinting provides an example of biological adaptive mechanisms for natural learning. Song learning in birds that have a species-typical song is perhaps the most striking example of biological preparedness to learn. Young birds apparently have a “song template” encoded in the brain so that they best learn the species-typical song during a critical period early in life. Some birds, like the canary, learn a new song each year. This capacity for annual song learning has recently been found to depend on an extraordinary biological mechanism. Neurons in the “song circuits” of the brain grow during a period of song learning, extending their connections to other cells and increasing the opportunity for interaction among neurons, and then shrink at the end of the period. These findings may be relevant to examples of human learning that appear to operate under strong biological constraints and occur best during early years—like language learning.

Brain Structure and Neurotransmitters

Memory is under intense investigation at the neurobiological level as well as at the behavioral level. Recently developed techniques for inducing amnesia in nonhuman primates offer great promise for understanding the neural circuits underlying particular aspects of memory. Surgical brain lesions in monkeys, involving the hippocampus and related structures, produce the same selective impairment in memory as that which occurs in human patients who have experienced comparable cerebral damage due to head injury or stroke. Performance is poor in memory tests that require stimuli to be recognized as familiar or after a long delay, but skill learning is intact. This research will lead to identification of the precise set of brain structures and connections that, when damaged, causes human amnesia. At the same time, parallel work on other mammals, especially rats, will be useful in identifying the neural systems involved in acquiring and storing different kinds of memory. This work should make it possible to specify clearly what these systems’ functions are and to investigate how these systems work at the cellular/neurophysiological level.

Neural accounts of learning depend heavily on and benefit importantly from the highly developed study of learning at a behavioral level. Once memory circuits are defined in invertebrate and vertebrate nervous systems, their performance capabilities have to be measured. How neural circuits are organized is a mathematical problem of enormous complexity that can only be solved by mathematical and computational modeling. One such complex network model, an approximation to visual cortex, was shown a few years ago to be computationally in agreement with a large number of experimental results.

Recent, unexpectedly rapid progress has been made in identifying essential memory trace circuits that code, store, and retrieve associative memory in the brains of birds and mammals. The kinds of memory under study include the learning of discrete, adaptive behavioral responses and the conditioning of involuntary responses. For one well-studied type of associative learning, classical conditioning of the eye-blink response, the essential neural circuitry required for the reflex has been partly identified. Moreover, locations have been found within that circuitry where memory traces are likely to be stored when conditioning of the reflex occurs. In this case, there is growing evidence that at least one site where memory traces are stored is the cerebellum, and neurophysiological research is being carried out on the interpositus nucleus where changes related to learning can be studied within a volume of one cubic millimeter. Most of this work involves pigeons, rabbits, and baboons.

Other active research is clarifying the role that the brain’s neurotransmitters and neuropeptides play in modulating memory. Studies with drugs and experimental animals show that memory can be amplified or diminished by specific pharmacological treatments. Full identification of the core-memory circuits for basic associative learning in mammals is very likely in the next few years. As these circuits are identified and the storage sites located, scientists can make substantial progress in analyzing the detailed storage mechanisms, particularly those underlying long-term and permanent memory. These basic cellular and molecular mechanisms are now the focus of great interest and excitement. For example, in a well-studied invertebrate, the sea hare, simple, biologically universal forms of learning like habituation and sensitization are being related to changes in the readiness of particular neurons to release a transmitter. From work in both invertebrate and mammalian preparations, the general picture emerging is that learning involves the reduction of one or more kinds of potassium conductance through the membranes of nerve cells. Such a reduction in ion conductance may constitute an essential step in how nerve cells change in response to input, thereby profoundly altering the way those cells receive and transmit information. This process is thought to be brought about by phosphorylation of specific substrate proteins, mediated by “second messengers,” which can give rise to long-lasting neuronal changes. Second messengers are attractive molecules because they themselves can serve as the agent for short-term memory, while their intracellular effects can include the genomic regulation involved in the cellular changes that occur in the foundation of long-term memory.

The cellular and molecular mechanisms emerging as important in animal-model systems appear to be recurrent in the evolution of species, offering the promise that these models may be of general significance to the question of how human memory is formed and retrieved, contributing ultimately to greater understanding about the functioning of the human mind and brain. Work is proceeding at all levels from abstract mathematics to exploration of molecular and biophysical substrates. Continuing advances in such work may lead to significant applications in the treatment of memory disorders, such as those associated with amnesia, seizures, stroke, and Alzheimer’s disease.

• Cognition and Action

New questions about the mind have emerged in this century: How do people acquire knowledge, use it in reasoning, and turn it into practical action? How do human beings and other animals construct mental categories in a world of particular objects and episodes? How do people manipulate images in their minds, train their fingers to perform delicate handiwork, or judge probabilities and decide which risks to take?

Recent discoveries regarding these mysteries have resulted from new scientific methods for observing, describing, replicating, and analyzing cognitive structures and processes. To study human infant abilities, for example, researchers exploit the finding that infants look preferentially at novel objects and events, work at sucking or turn their heads to hear a sound or bring a picture into focus, and give characteristic responses to changes in the environment. For studies of adult attention, researchers take advantage of small but consistent differences in the time-course of mental events. To map the rules that guide behavior, researchers rely on the human ability to detect errors in rule application.

Neuroscience data suggest that complex behavior and mental activity emerge from simultaneous and parallel contributions of many specialized component parts. One possibility is that the basic processing units are neurological “columns” or “modules,” each containing 1,000 or fewer nerve cells; if this is true, then there are more than 10 million such functional units in the human brain. A major challenge for future study is to identify more fully the functional units of organization in the cortex, the most highly evolved and complex part of the primate brain. This effort, which is already under way, involves neuroanatomy and physiology together with the analysis of cognition and perception.

Studies of complex intellectual task management take advantage of a wide variety of methods, such as computer simulations. With the increasing availability of powerful computers oriented toward symbolic processing, theories can be tested in the form of programs that simulate the hypothetical mental activities involved in understanding and reasoning tasks. Similarly, mathematical, logical, and other formal models serve to make hypotheses about mental structures explicit and precise. Empirical methods for testing such hypotheses use detailed observations, including protocols that have individuals think aloud while they work, complex tracking systems that record and analyze eye fixations while a person is examining visual information, and repeated runs of computer models to see how well they perform in processing a variety of materials, such as texts to be analyzed or symptoms to be diagnosed.

Early Cognitive Development and Learning

Studies of early human development give some of the strongest examples of how new observational methods have led to new knowledge. The once-common belief that the experiential world of an infant is mostly sensory chaos has been displaced as evidence has accumulated showing that infants are especially sensitive to those subtle distinctions among oral sounds that are important in learning to speak, to cues of visual depth and distance, and to other precursors of complex perception.

The techniques used to show these facts make use of an infant’s innate curiosity and tendency to prefer novel sights and sounds over very familiar ones. Experiments built around these techniques are now able to investigate infants’ ability to form abstract concepts. For example, infants as young as 6 months are able to match the number of items they see in a display with the number of drumbeats they hear. In a series of studies, infants were sat either on their mother’s lap or in an infant seat and shown pairs of slides, one displaying three objects, the other two objects. The pictures of familiar objects used included a comb, apple, scissors, crayon, and book. The objects in the slides varied from trial to trial, and on each trial the infants heard either two or three drumbeats emanating from a hidden, centrally placed speaker. In one set of experiments, infants consistently tended to look at the visual display in which the number of items matched the number of drumbeats played. In experiments similar in design but with significant changes in conditions such as exposure time, infants consistently preferred to look at the display that differed in number from the number of sounds they heard on a trial. Thus, infants can respond to numerical information, in terms of whether pairs of stimuli are equal or different in number. How they do this and whether they use adult like numerical processes is the subject of much current research.

This line of study at first evolved an elegant theory that young children progress through relatively well-defined stages of understanding in which fundamental structures not present at one stage come into being virtually discontinuously at a later age. Over time, the theory has changed as new evidence has led to new hypotheses and more sensitive methods to testing them have been developed. Evidence now exists that even 3-year-old children can use general principles to understand the structure of stories, organize learning about cause and effect, represent numbers and space, analyze and reason about event sequences, and rapidly acquire the meanings of words. These findings have provided a basis for fundamental reconceptualizations of early childhood learning, which now appears to be enabled and constrained by available mental structures and fostered by a pronounced tendency of the young to seek out particular environments that challenge and nourish cognitive development. Instead of leaps across cognitive gaps, development involves the gradual accumulation of insights and adjustments that cumulatively constitute profound increases in cognitive capability. Current efforts to spell out the mechanisms of such learning benefit from detailed descriptions of development within particular domains of knowledge as well as formal innovations (for example, theories describing the conditions that make a language learnable), computer simulations of change, and the investigation of social-environmental conditions that foster or interfere with self-motivated learning, knowledge transfer, and problem solving. (The case of language learning is discussed later in this chapter.)

Categorical Knowledge and Representation

One aspect of development is the creation of categorical knowledge—concepts and relations among them—which is the preeminent form of mental framework for interpreting and understanding experience. How are categorical ideas represented in human knowledge? A traditional view holds that categories are defined by a list of necessary and sufficient properties that an object must have in order to be a member. Scientific categories (for example, mammal) often have this characteristic. However, categories in natural language generally do not. This is true of relatively concrete ideas such as dogs, trees, and chairs; more so for somewhat more abstract categories such as animals, fruit, and furniture; and completely for thoroughly abstract concepts such as freedom, happiness, and justice.

CATEGORIZATION How are categories defined in the mind? How do people recognize instances of categories? These questions are fundamental to understanding human thought, since reasoning about things is based on knowledge about them, and knowledge about things is largely knowledge about categories of things.

Sharp boundaries between categories, based on strictly defined sets of properties that an object must have to belong to the category, occur in many scientific concepts but rarely in the world of experience that is expressed in natural language. For example, what makes something a “cup”? The evidence of numerous experiments in several languages is that it helps for the object to have a handle, to have sides that bow inward, to contain a beverage, to be made of ceramic, and to look slightly wider than deep. A tall glass cylinder with no handles and a flower in it is clearly not a cup, but something can still be a cup if it has straight sides, or if it lacks a handle, or if it has a flower in it—as long as it has most of the other properties associated with cups. As particular properties change, an object tends to be recategorized into distinctly different categories such as glass, bowl, or vase, sometimes passing through transitional or subordinate concepts such as mug. This figure shows such categories and characteristics.

From a wealth of such findings arose the idea that, in natural language, category membership is a graded function of the typicality of the properties of an object relative to other members of the category; a category is thus represented in the mind by an abstract prototype and specifically remembered examples, and a new object is compared to both.

Not all human knowledge consists of propositions, concepts, and principles that can be expressed verbally. Crucial components of knowledge are based on visual and auditory imagery and on patterns of motor activity. Research during the past 15 years has made major advances in understanding the properties of spatial cognition and action and ways in which brain structures and processes are involved in cognitive functioning in different domains.

Major advances in the study of visual imagery have included identification of specific mental operations for manipulating spatial information. A landmark demonstration based on a typical performance IQ test item established that the decision as to whether two simple figures are the same or different is based on an imaginary mental rotation of the image, much as one would physically rotate an object with one’s hands. The time required for such judgments has been shown to depend approximately linearly on the angle through which a figure has to be rotated in the mind’s eye. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that such mental operations are analogous to spatial ones. Other tests about the nature of spatial reasoning draw on quite different spatial operations, such as expanding or compressing the size of an image or inferring the appearance of a scene from different perspectives. These tests are also consistent with the hypothesis of some sort of analog representation, although in each case one can also devise explanations in terms of descriptive statements about the object.

Not all physical properties of objects need be encompassed by the cognitive mechanisms of imagery. Researchers are now working on such questions as: Which properties of physical transformations are preserved in mental images? What are the differences in imagery skills among individuals? How do these differences arise? It is now established that imagery is not a unitary, undifferentiated phenomenon but consists of distinct spatial abilities. Individuals can be good or bad at a given component of imagery ability independent of the other components. Research on imagery is leading toward an increased understanding of the cognitive deficits that can result from brain damage, as well as useful characterizations of intellectual differences that may be relevant to observed male-female differences in intellectual style, science and mathematics education, and other scientific and practical questions.

As the imagery example illustrates, one legacy of research on intelligence testing is the idea that there are different kinds of intelligence. Some theorists are exploring the related hypothesis that there are specialized modules of thoughts, each with separate sets of principles, not only in language but in other forms of symbolic processing, such as in the way all living creatures learn to find their way in space. It is striking but taken for granted that people can recognize places while apparently lacking detailed information about them. For example, many people can retrace a route along city streets, knowing when to turn at a particular corner, without knowing street names or being able to recall in detail what is at that or any nearby corners. What does this mean and how does it relate to imagery? To what extent could things be scrambled or replaced and a location still be recognized as the same place? How can robots be programmed to recognize readily where they are? The problem of recognition is clearly important and most likely complicated, even though many animals seem to possess the skill. Work on this topic is pursued fruitfully by researchers at many levels of analysis, from neurophysiologists mapping the locations of these functions in the brain to psychologists, linguists, anthropologists, city planners, and ethologists describing and modeling the behaviors involved in moving efficiently and communicating efficiently about location.

Individual Decision Making

Decision making—choosing among options—is a central topic of research on modern life. Studies of the decision making of individuals have followed two broad, intertwining pathways—normative and descriptive. Research in a normative vein seeks to define the conditions, practices, and procedures under which decision makers can achieve some prescribed goal, such as maximizing expected utility or satisfaction, achieving economic efficiency, or securing democratic representativeness. A central line in normative research is to illuminate rational selection among alternative actions that have complex patterns of possible outcomes depending in part on chance and uncertainty in the environment. Research in a descriptive vein seeks to understand the mechanisms and procedures actually followed by individuals in reaching decisions, particularly when normative approach is difficult to specify or calculate. Each mode of research stimulates the other, and many assumptions, hypotheses, and findings are common to both.

Normative research has traditionally been guided by a theory based, in part, on the principles of mathematical probability and, in part, on calculation of trade-offs between the values of outcomes and the probabilities of their actual occurrences. The modern development of normative decision theory began in the 1940s with the introduction of an elegant mathematical theory of games and economic behavior that laid out a rational basis for making choices among actions whose outcomes are partially determined by chance events with known probabilities of occurring. This theory reduces in practice to a rather simple numerical model for computing which alternative move in a situation has the largest average utility and should therefore be the one selected. Despite its logically compelling character, however, the theory does not seem to be followed by most people when they make individual decisions. As a result, a noteworthy line of experimental study is trying to formulate and systematically understand in what ways people depart from the normative theory.

A considerable body of economic and statistical work has been built on normative decision theory, and it has proved powerful when applied to behavior in various financial and insurance markets. But objections have been raised against applying the theory in other areas, both by decision theorists on formal grounds and by experimentalists carrying out carefully designed studies of the choices people make under well-controlled conditions. In the past 10 years, the empirical results consistently showed departures from rationality postulates, and these findings have created a new challenge for theory development. Because the empirical findings are complicated, it is as yet unclear exactly which one (or more) of the basic postulates of rationality is the principal culprit and needs to be modified. Further experimental studies and development of more satisfactory theoretical fundamentals are proceeding.

A study by physicians and behavioral scientists of how people use statistical information in decision making highlighted the importance of how the possible outcomes are perceived. More than 1,000 people—graduate students in business school, physicians, and medical patients—were asked to imagine that they were suffering from lung cancer (none was known to have this disease) and could elect one of two treatments: surgery or radiation. The subjects were presented with the statistical prognosis for each treatment: for one group, the outcome was stated in terms of the probability of surviving for various lengths of time (for example, a two-thirds chance of living at least 1 year following treatment); for the other group, the outcome was stated in terms of the complementary probabilities of dying within those lengths of time (for example, a one-third chance of dying during the first post-treatment year).

When presented with the two therapeutic options framed in terms of survival chances, the students chose radiation over surgery only 17 percent of the time, while the students presented with the identical prognoses framed in terms of the chances of dying chose radiation 43 percent of the time. When radiologists were the subjects, the contrast was just as pronounced: 16 percent chose radiation when presented the survival prognosis and 50 percent chose it when presented the mortality prognosis. Among patients with chronic medical conditions, a considerably older group, the results were 20 percent and 40 percent in preference for radiation. Since the situations described to the subjects were simple and logically identical, these data clearly contradict a postulate of traditional decision theory that identical situations be treated the same. The framing of the problem clearly matters. Various studies are now in progress to expand and test several alternative theories of these framing effects, and research in the next several years is likely to bring major developments in this fundamental area of inquiry.

A major line of work is focused on the fact that individuals often appear to rely on conventional biases, simplified concepts, and common rules of thumb in making decisions, rather than developing close probabilistic calculations or estimates. Although such heuristics typically reduce informational and cognitive demands for reaching decisions, they lead to demonstrably and systematically incorrect results in certain very common situations. For example, the heuristic of representativeness leads people to think that a more “typical” event is also a more probable one, even when this is logically impossible. In one experiment, respondents were asked to report on the relative likelihood of various possible events, an example being the performance of championship tennis player Björn Borg in a hypothetical Wimbledon match. A substantial fraction of subjects thought it more likely that ( a ) Borg would lose the opening set but still win the match than that ( b ) he would lose the opening set, whatever the final outcome. Yet possibility b has a likelihood equal to or greater than a , since b includes every instance of a as well as the additional possibilities of losing both the first set and the match. This kind of “cognitive illusion,” at tributed to people using the heuristic of representativeness, has been confirmed in many experiments.

Two other common heuristics are availability and anchoring. Availability refers to the fact that estimates of the likelihood of an outcome are unduly influenced by the ease with which examples of particular outcomes are brought to mind. For example, most people will conclude that there are more words with r as the first letter than the third because it is easier to build a list of the former, but the latter are in fact more numerous. In anchoring, an individual’s final estimate or judgment of a situation is overly influenced by the first of multiple examples or reference points that are observed; for example, extra weight is attached to the first of a series of numbers whose average (mean) is to be estimated. Knowledge about these and other heuristics and framing effects is laying the foundation for a more general theory of how information is used by individuals, and consequently, for a more thorough and precise understanding of individual decision-making behavior in general.

Framing effects are recognized and manipulated on an intuitive level by publicists, advertising specialists, and politicians, among others. However, new formal models incorporating framing effects and decision-making heuristics are likely to have important new policy applications. For example, studies of framing effects may affect how ingredient or warning labels are written, how truth-in-lending laws are formulated, how unit prices are displayed in supermarkets, and how election ballots are designed.

Progress in understanding decision making has relied heavily on theoretical analysis and questionnaire-based experiments; there have been only limited observations of behavior in real decision situations. Now, however, researchers are beginning to use more complicated and realistic methods of dynamic study, including interactive computer-run experiments, improved field observation methods, and refined techniques of statistical inference to study actual behavior. A unified understanding of framing, biases, and heuristics, including the conditions that generate them, their robustness and their consequences, will become more possible as researchers are able to characterize choice behavior as a multistage process that involves information, evaluation, expression, and feedback. A promising parallel development is the fuller inclusion of these characteristics of choice behavior in systems models, working out their implications for market efficiency and other aspects of organizational performance.

Reasoning, Expertise, and Scientific Education

How can general science education provide more students with durable scientific concepts and principles? It is widely recognized that such instruction often fails to communicate the fundamental meaning of scientific concepts. Indeed, recent research has dramatically shown that many people interpret physical phenomena in ways that are contrary to principles that they have apparently learned well, at least to the extent of being able correctly to solve typical textbook problems. For example, many students who know how to calculate the Newtonian formulas fail to invoke the Newtonian principle of inertia when asked to sketch roughly the path followed by an object dropped from an airplane in flight. Researchers ask: Do people base their incorrect judgments on fragments of knowledge that come from experience, such as the way in which objects ordinarily fall when they are dropped? Or, do people have relatively coherent, but incorrect, naive theories about motion, gravitational force, and the like? Since people cannot report how their judgments in these matters are formed, current researchers are attempting to find out through indirect approaches. The answers have important implications for science education because one uses quite a different set of instructional methods to teach students when to apply conceptual schemes than one uses to bring about major reconstructions of the students’ naive theories.

The handling of concepts, reasoning, and skills by “experts” is of great interest to information technologists and educators. Initially, two complementary ideas about experts were prevalent: that they have exceptional mental capacities, such as an innate or trained ability to retrieve more facts or consider more possibilities at a time than do nonexperts; and that they have accumulated more knowledge about their subject than nonexperts, often because they have many years of experience. These ideas were incorporated into the design of early programs in artificial intelligence, in particular those for chess, for which the main goal was believed to be an ability to selectively consider many moves in advance. These ideas also underlie the design of contemporary computational “expert systems,” most of which incorporate large collections of knowledge. These same ideas are also reflected in many features of the educational system, where achievement in teaching and learning is often assessed exclusively with tests of factual knowledge or computational accuracy.

However, researchers have shown that the underlying structure of knowledge is at least as important as the amount of information. Although experts do remember a great deal of specific information, their capacity to do this mainly depends on their having acquired elaborate, highly organized structures of knowledge. For example, chess experts are hardly better than nonplayers at remembering a randomly jumbled set of pieces on a chess board—but they are far better at remembering a coherent board. Furthermore, experts, like novices, are typically not fully aware of the principles by which their knowledge is organized and used, so these tacit forms of knowledge are not reported by them. Thus, most expert systems now in use neglect some of the most important aspects of expert knowledge.

One such well-known system was designed to assist in the diagnosis of infectious diseases and prescription of antibiotics. Initially, the knowledge simulated in the system was a set of relatively simple rules of inference and a program that evaluated hypotheses simply by accumulating the positive and negative evidence it received. It matched reasonably well the judgments of successful physicians about the specific knowledge they used in their diagnostic work. But when the system was extended to aid in the training of physicians, it did not work well; it became evident that the organization of its knowledge and its methods of reasoning were seriously deficient. The program was reorganized based on more thorough analyses of the knowledge and real-time reasoning sequences of physicians in their diagnostic and training activities. These analyses showed that diagnostic strategies, including the use of hypotheses in selecting questions in interviews and the comparison of symptom patterns with the physician’s mental representation of disease conditions, play a crucial role in diagnostic performance. These usually tacit components of knowledge have to be explicitly considered in physicians’ training; the latest version of the expert system attempts to bring such tacit knowledge into play.

The importance of general concepts and principles in expert knowledge is also demonstrated in recent research on problem solving in physics, in which expert and novice performance has been contrasted. An expert’s understanding of problems includes the general qualitative concepts and principles that the problem illustrates, such as conservation of energy and laws of force, and these principles are used to organize the expert’s reasoning in the problem-solving process, leading to calculations as a final step. In contrast, a novice’s understanding of problems mainly involves more superficial features, such as the kinds of objects in the problem. The novice typically seeks solutions by translating the available information directly into formulas that allow the quick calculation of an answer—correct or not. Indeed, as noted above, students’ knowledge of formulas is often quite disconnected from their understanding of general principles.

People tend, as they become expert, to reorganize their knowledge of a given domain, and this tendency is not restricted to adults. For example, young children have much implicit knowledge of the difference between animate and inanimate objects. They know that animals move by themselves, that trees cannot have feelings, that dolls lack brains. But they do not assume that all animals breathe, reproduce, and so forth. Neither do they classify plants and animals together. They come to do these mental tasks, around ages 8 to 10, when they reorganize their knowledge about objects in the world, independent of explicit formal instruction, in accord with an intuitive theory of biology. The growing realization that children regularly reorganize their knowledge is of considerable import. These naturally occurring mental processes help uncover the laws of theory construction and concept reorganization that underlie the acquisition of expertise.

Research has begun to clarify some of the ways that understanding of general principles contributes to expert problem solving and reasoning, and it has also begun to show how children develop intuitive understanding of important general concepts and principles. Researchers are just beginning to be able to characterize that understanding in explicit, testable ways. The crucial issue now is constructing a rigorous theory of the cognitive processes that are usually categorized as “intuition,” involving qualitative reasoning about quantitative and other abstract concepts. A promising start has been made in formulating such theories, which will enable experimenters to test hypotheses about the properties of this form of expert reasoning that previously eluded systematic study and theoretical analysis.

Complex Action

The miracle of action is the ability of the mind to produce organized acts related to plans of action, perceptions of the world, and motives. People are not born with this ability. Newborn behavior appears to be comprised primarily of random movements and rhythmic stereotypes; over the first year of life they are gradually transformed into voluntarily guided, intentional, purposive actions. The study of such motor skills from infancy to advanced performance is exploding after a long, relatively dormant period. The basic research interest in this area is complemented and invigorated by advances in robotics, by searches for a better fit between people and machines, by problems that occur in the manufacture and use of motor prosthetics, and by medical concern with motor disorders ranging from stuttering to Parkinson’s disease. Exciting and promising results have been facilitated by new optical, magnetic, ultrasonic, and x-ray technologies for transducing motion, for storing the massive amounts of data collected, and for analyzing these large data bases, sometimes using artificial intelligence methods.

Researchers are addressing a wide variety of questions, such as: What aspects of movement does the nervous system control? In accomplishing an action, how does the system constrain the many motions that are biomechanically available? What determines the accuracy of reaching? How are limbs coordinated? How is serial order represented and realized in planned movement sequences? How do errors in speech and typing come about?

Consider a person reaching his or her hand toward an object, a motion controlled by an interplay of elbow and shoulder rotations. Biomechanically, the hand can approach the object along any of a vast number of paths; one might expect the actual path and the velocity profile along that path to reflect this complexity of control and to vary with the conditions of movement. Yet in the horizontal plane, the path is essentially a straight line, exhibiting a single-peaked, bell-shaped velocity curve. More generally, it is the overall movement itself, and not the pattern of activity in individual muscles, that is invariant during compound arm movements. Such simplicity suggests planning at the hand level rather than the joint level, with the system generating complex, coordinated joint-angle changes to achieve simple hand trajectories.

Also in the domain of single actions, there is a new understanding of the remarkably general logarithmic trade-off between the speed and spatial accuracy of limb movements. The prevailing theory had been that precision slows a movement because of an increase in the number of visually guided corrective submovements, with each submovement independent of precision. However, current experiments, growing out of a new mathematical theory, show that the trade-off occurs without visual feedback and that submovement speed varies with precision.

How are single actions combined into ordered sequences? Studies of speech and typing during the past few years have revealed advance planning of entire sequences and the hierarchial organization of actions in multiaction units. For example, in rapid utterances in languages such as English, the unit is not the syllable, or the word, but the stress group, a sequence of syllables containing a primary stress, which usually corresponds to a grammatical phrase or clause structure. This supports the traditional hierarchical model of speech production, but it has also led some researchers to posit a network model, in which activation spreads both “up” from the sensors and “down” from the control nodes of the network. Only a hierarchical model can thus far explain facts of slips of the tongue, and new methods of inducing speech errors under laboratory conditions have facilitated research of this topic. In a similar vein, a model of typewriting, based on parallel distributed processing that converts a sequence of discrete symbols into continuous and temporally overlapping movements of fingers and hands, explains many features of timing and errors in the performance of skilled typists, including how a stroke by one finger can be accompanied by movements of other, then irrelevant, fingers to position them more favorably for action two or three strokes later.

This is an active and exciting period in the study of complex human action. New findings are expected to improve person-machine interfaces (for example, instrument panels and keyboards), skill training, implementation of artificial movement systems (prosthetics, manipulators, robots), the diagnosis and treatment of movement disorders, and understanding of other complex skills like talking and walking.

To be fluent in a language is to be able to produce and understand an indefinite number of sentences never spoken or heard before. As one component of this ability, every spoken word can be identified by hearers in less than one-third of a second, drawing on the more than 100,000 forms stored in the mental dictionary of a typical monolingual adult (bilingual or multilingual people store hundreds of thousands of word forms). In little more time than it takes to process the sounds themselves, the words are then assembled into meaningful sentences that more or less correctly represent the message intended by the speaker.

This casual miracle of communication is possible in part because the human brain is uniquely suited to acquire and use language. Chimpanzees and gorillas are now widely viewed as having greater nonlinguistic cognitive abilities than previously thought, but they are unable, even with the most intensive human training (in sign language), to learn 1 percent of the vocabulary that is acquired by virtually any 3-year-old human child. Nor can these primates learn even the simplest of the complex grammatical rules known to nearly any 2- or 3-year-old human child.

Since nearly all humans are fluent in at least one language and, except when learning a new one, seldom consider what makes this possible, the complexity of the knowledge underlying the ability to speak and understand, and to read and write (abilities derived from spoken or signed language), is often not fully appreciated. Though the question of language acquisition and use has puzzled philosophers, educators, and scientists throughout modern history, answers to the puzzle have proven elusive until recent advances that rest, in part, on a sophisticated modular conception of language and its relationship to other cognitive faculties.

While it was once commonplace to view the grammatical properties of language as essentially derivative—a by-product of the general cognitive, physiological, and other nonspecific systems underlying human intelligence—new evidence has convinced a growing number of scientists that linguistic capacity (and possibly, the mastery of grammar itself) is best viewed as an autonomous cognitive system, serving other systems but governed by its own set of distinct principles. For example, discourse patterns have been discovered that suggest that speakers can accommodate only one item of new information in a grammatical clause. Moreover, it appears that speakers restrict the appearance of this new item to certain specific grammatical roles within the clause. This and related results have led to proposals of specific models of cognitive resources that both enable communicative processes and limit their scope.

Principles of language performance and processing by no means exhaust the realm of possible knowledge about language, which is perhaps our richest cultural heritage, produced collectively over thousands of years and used for a great variety of social purposes. But this approach has led to entirely new methods of investigation that underlie some of the most important recent discoveries.

Acquisition

The remarkable human facility to acquire language depends on a rich genetic endowment. People are well equipped for fluency in language (speech and gestures), just as birds are especially equipped to acquire and perform the songs of their species. Newborn infants, for example, respond to acoustic distinctions that are systematically used in some human languages—even though not necessarily in the child’s own linguistic environment—in a way that is different from their responses to distinctions that are not linguistically significant in any known language. In a study of speech perception in 4-month-old infants, the child sucks rapidly to hear “pa” or “ba”. As infants become habituated, the sucking rate drops. When a new stimulus is substituted (“ba” for “pa” or “pa” for “ba”), the infant dishabituates and sucks quickly once again. Similar results have been obtained for 1-month-old infants.

These American infants thus show a sharp boundary in discriminating between the sounds/ba/and/pa/, a phonemic boundary in the English language. But these same American infants have an analogous sharp discrimination boundary in a prevoicing region that is not a phonemic contrast in English but is in certain other languages, such as Thai. Adults have considerable difficulty making such discriminations when they are not phonemically contrastive (functionally important) in their language. This indicates that certain aspects of phonological sensibility may be “prewired.”

Linguistic abilities can also be dissociated developmentally from other cognitive abilities. There are numerous cases of children who have few cognitive skills and virtually no ability to use language in sustained, meaningful communication and yet have extensive mastery of linguistic structure. For example, one severely retarded young woman with a nonverbal IQ of 41 to 44—who lacked almost all number concepts including basic counting principles, drew at a preschool level, and possessed an auditory memory span of three units (for example, syllables such as “two, three, one”)—could nonetheless produce syntactically complex sentences like “Last year at school when I first went there three tickets were gave out by a police.” In a sentence imitation task she both detected and corrected surface syntactic and morphological errors. But she did not know how many “three tickets” were and was not sure whether “last year” occurred before or after “last week” or “an hour ago.”

Conversely, there are cases of children with little grammar but with other verbal abilities. One girl who was physically and socially isolated from the world from approximately age 1 to 14—with no language input during that period—rapidly acquired a large vocabulary following her liberation, but her utterances remained nongrammatical, devoid of morphological endings (for example, past tense or plural markers) or syntactic operations (for example, converting statements into questions). This contrast between word lists and grammatical rules is indicative of different and distinct abilities.

Clinical studies of aphasia have given dramatic confirmation to these new fundamental theories. For example, local damage to certain regions of the left brain do not lead to across-the-board reduction in language ability, but to selective, deep deficits, consistent with the idea of independent grammatical components or modules. Some patients with left-brain damage make many semantic substitutions in reading words: saying “pixie” when asked to read “gnome,” “sick” for “ill,” “prison” for “jail”. Some can read a word like “tortoise” perfectly but cannot say what it means; some speak fluently but with nonsensical content; others speak in telegraphic style, leaving out all the short function words. Clinicians are able to use linguistic phenomena such as these, together with analysis of the known brain damage and previously observed patterns of correction between such symptoms and brain damage discoveries in autopsies, to improve the diagnosis and treatment of aphasia.

The dramatic new technologies of neuroimaging, such as computerized tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (NMR or MRI), and emission tomography using positrons (PET) or single photons (SPET), now make possible the exact delineation of brain structures involved in various language functions. A major stimulus to further progress in this field may take place when imaging technology becomes more widely available for research with a variety of populations. For example, since aphasias occur among speakers of all languages, research on aphasia can help isolate the basic, universal capacities and neural substrates underlying human language. Because languages like English rely heavily on word order to convey information that languages like Russian signal through inflections (suffixes, prefixes), an important question is whether patients with neurologically similar brain lesions (discoverable through imaging) but who speak very different languages will exhibit manifestations of the lesion that seem very different yet correspond to the same underlying abstract functions.

The organization of language mechanisms is also being studied using electrophysiological techniques, such as scalp recordings of event-related brain potentials (ERPs), which measure the electrical fields that arise from coordinated groups of neurons engaged in processing sensory, cognitive, and linguistic information. By studying how ERPs vary in time, it has been possible to differentiate among certain linguistic operations. The various components of ERPs exhibit asymmetries over the left and right sides of the brain and are sensitive to such factors as handedness and mode of language acquisition (spoken versus signed).

Another important new line of research links language acquisition studies with theoretical work in cognitive science and artificial intelligence. One emerging area is the theory of machine inductive inference, which investigates how intelligent systems develop logical models or schemas based on evidence from their environment: for example, the inferring of the grammatical structure of a language based on utterances heard and overheard. This theory provides a framework for systematic comparison of various learning algorithms in terms of their relative strengths, resource requirements, and behavior in various environments. When combined with empirical studies of language acquisition, the theory of machine inductive inference provides constraints on the character of learning strategies implemented by children and reflects on the character of the class of languages that can be acquired. Such studies are important to system builders in artificial intelligence.

Sign Language

Linguistic research on the sign languages of the deaf, particularly American Sign Language (ASL), is only 25-years-old, and it has opened a very important avenue toward a deeper understanding of all language. In spite of its name, ASL is not a signed version of American English, but rather a complete language in itself. It is more closely related to French sign language than to spoken English or British sign language, which is logical because it was first brought to the United States by teachers of the deaf from France. ASL has all the crucial properties common to spoken languages, including highly abstract underlying grammatical and “phonological” principles. The relationship between the form of a sign and its meaning is as arbitrary as that between the sound of a spoken word and its meaning. Sentence formation in ASL is just as rule governed as it is in spoken languages. ASL uses facial and other simultaneous body gestures (for example, lifting of eyebrows) to convey linguistic information similar to the morphological inflections that occur in spoken language. Variations in tone and emphasis convey additional layers of meaning in both spoken and sign languages—in the latter, through the pacing and shaping of the gestures.

Like hearing children with speaking parents, deaf children with signing parents acquire their native language without formal instruction and in similar stages. Brain studies of normal signers and deaf aphasics (patients suffering language loss following left-side brain damage) show that the left cerebral hemisphere is just as dominant for sign language as for spoken language. This finding has been a definitive result in proving that the left-hemisphere specialization in the brain in language acquisition is not due to its capacity for fine auditory analysis, but for language analysis as such.

Grammatical Universals

Work on formal theories of grammar in the past 25 years has considerably sharpened understanding of linguistic universals—principles that are common to all languages. For example, despite the fact that the rules to form passives (“The ball was thrown by John”), questions (“Who threw the ball?” or “The ball was thrown by whom?”), and imperatives (“Throw the ball!”) differ markedly from language to language, modern theory and data argue that such constructions are manifestations of simple but highly abstract underlying principles of grammar that differ only slightly across tongues. Work on languages related to English—such as Dutch, French, Spanish, and Italian—and nonrelated languages—such as Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Hausa (of West Africa), and Warlpiri (of Australia)—support this view. Data on a wide variety of languages, as well as observations about how languages are acquired, are expected to contribute in a major way to the development of a viable formal language learning theory. In particular, these data will permit the testing of various proposed theories of the learning process, including computer simulations of language acquisition, models evaluating the chances of learning a grammar from observing a modest sample of the language, efficient forms of artificial intelligence, and explicit behavioral models of language performance and proficiency. Grammatical and word acquisition studies in children should help to resolve controversies regarding the species-specificity of language, language-specific innate constraints, and the relative contribution of the child and the environment to the learning process. The improvement of communication between people and computers by developing programming modes closer to “natural language” will also benefit from this work.

A major research task in the next decade is to explore more completely the hypothesis of grammatical universality, through intensive investigation of languages that are just now being fully described and are historically unrelated to the commonly studied ones. This work will involve considerable coordination and a stronger international basis between theoretical linguists and those descriptive linguists whose research is directed toward these frontier languages. It is also vitally important to this work to add to the relatively sparse instances of longitudinal studies that cover the same people over a period of many years and across a variety of linguistic learning environments.

Machines That Talk and Listen

Shortly after World War II, attempts were initiated to devise computer schemes to translate from one language to another, to recognize spoken and handwritten language, and to convert text into natural-sounding speech. Abortive and highly expensive early approaches to automatic machine translation and speech recognition were made in electrical engineering projects, but they did not address the complexities of human language; participants in these efforts came ruefully to appraise their results as “language in—garbage out.” After engaging linguistic and phonological expertise to diversify the lines of research undertaken, team efforts ultimately did make good progress, leading to the scientific and practical successes seen to date.

At present, interdisciplinary research aims to explain the intricate relations that hold between language, the world, and intelligent systems (whether natural or artificial). In one line of research, formal linguistic models are being developed that make explicit provision for the varying computational requirements of language understanding. Relating linguists’ grammars to existing computer systems enables computer scientists to provide a new generation of interpreter programs that run much more efficiently than their predecessors. A new theory of the semantics of programming languages promises to unite two formerly separate analyses: the denotational meanings of terms in natural language and the functional meanings of instructions in a computer program. Other developments in this work include knowledge about the recursive (looping-back) nature of computational processes, symbolic systems, and the importance of shared knowledge and beliefs in conversational face-to-face interactions.

In recent decades, collaboration between linguists, communication engineers, and computer scientists has led to dramatic increases in knowledge and new methods for analyzing and synthesizing acoustic speech signals. The computer revolution has made it possible to acquire and analyze in hours or days, rather than months or years, the large phonetic data bases needed to study the sound structures of language. As a result of the investigation of intonational and other phonetic properties of speech, undertaken with the goal of constructing machines that talk and listen, there is a better understanding of how the units of a linguistic system relate to acoustic signals, leading to more natural-sounding, machine “voices” and more capable machine “ears.” However, the present ability to synthesize speech far exceeds the ability to automate speech recognition and understanding, because the normal acoustic flow of speech cannot be readily divided into neat, uniform segments corresponding to discrete sounds, syllables, words, or even phrases, as is readily apparent by listening to unfamiliar languages. At any instant of speech production, several articulators (larynx, tongue, velum, lips, jaw) are executing a complex, interwoven, rhythmical pattern of movements, blurring the boundaries between words as well as between the phonemic segments that compose words. The problem is further complicated because each perceived unit—sound, syllable, word, or phrase—varies widely with phonetic context, stress or emphasis, and the rate of speech, style, dialect, and gender of individual speakers. (The additional problem of discriminating a speech signal from background noise, including other speech, was noted above.)

What is invariant that enables people to recognize and understand speech? The discoveries of the last several decades have contributed to speech-recognition schemes, but they are still far from satisfactory; since they can deal at most with 5,000 words, compared with the 14,000 known by a 6-year-old or the 100,000 to 150,000 used by monolingual adults. The current solutions are still not very subtle. It is expected that dramatic improvements will accompany increased understanding of how the brain carries out the segmentation and analysis provided by the linguistic system.

Reading incorporates a complex hierarchy of skills, each raising a long list of questions in its own right. What are the fundamental perceptual processes involved in registration of visual print? How does word recognition occur? In the absence of aural and gestural cues, how do readers accomplish phrase interpretation? How are processes of inferential reasoning, critical thinking, and behavioral response catalyzed by the text? How predictable are these responses?

There have been fairly dramatic advances recently in understanding each of these interactive processes linking reader and text, especially as a result of developments in the cognitive sciences. These advances have yielded new insights into what the eyes and brain do that enable a reader to comprehend written language. These insights have progressed to the point that computer simulations can pinpoint exactly where and why a given reader (with known skills) encounters difficulty in a text and disclose what might be done to avoid or ameliorate those difficulties.

Knowledge from this research has led to educational strategies that result in improved reading skills in children. For example, in some projects, children who are poor readers have been taught particular cognitive strategies discovered in the skilled adult reader, such as how to identify and retain the most central information in a text. Children given this training show large and general improvements in comprehension. Other studies are implementing new programs to teach word recognition, taking advantage in some instances of computer-based technology for practice, drill, and individual tailoring of the curriculum. The research has practical importance for scientific and technical documentation, display technologies, and instructional methods, and it also provides a major opportunity to expand the frontiers of knowledge about interactive multilevel learning.

Decoding and Dyslexias

The process of decoding letters and words is critical in learning to read and has received a great deal of attention over the years, constituting the bulk of the research relating to reading. One central issue in research and pedagogical practice is whether a reader must use the printed words to retrieve a sound and then use the sound to retrieve the meaning of the word. Most of the evidence shows that a mature reader needs an intervening phonological code only if a word is unfamiliar or if the material is particularly difficult. But phonological decoding is critical when first learning to read. For example, awareness of the phonological structure of language is one predictor of the rapidity of early reading progress; 5-year-old prereaders who can segment a spoken word into its constituent phonemes (who can, for example, follow an instruction to say “table” without the t ) tend to be better at word recognition at the end of second grade. Such results reinforce the importance of a phonics approach at the earliest stages of reading instruction, when fluency of word recognition is the key factor to rapid progress.

By third or fourth grade, children have generally mastered recognition skills sufficiently so that individual differences in reading skills no longer closely reflect differential word-decoding abilities. At these stages, knowledge of particular kinds of text structure, such as narrative, becomes increasingly important to comprehension, and these matters are now receiving greatly increased attention. Even very young children are aware of narrative conventions and use this knowledge in understanding stories that are read or told to them. Recent analyses of grade-school materials suggest that many selections violate conventional story structures, making it difficult for a learning reader to establish the coherence of the story. Research on reading comprehension will lead to better selection of useful texts for teaching.

Some grammatical structures are known to be used much less in speaking than in writing. For example, cleft constructions like “It was John who won the trophy” are rarely spoken in English; rather, vocal stress on the name—“ John won the trophy”—is sufficient to convey that the identity of the winner is the key information in the sentence. These differences between reading and speaking seem small, but for some dialects they may result in serious interference between the spoken language and comprehension of the written language. Such difficulties have been noted in some speakers of black English and some deaf children, for whom written English primers are virtually samples of a foreign dialect. While learning to read a second language without first knowing how to speak it is not uncommon for adults who are already literate in their native speech, it is a very unusual and difficult hurdle for children who are first learning how to read.

Explaining the wide variation among early and middle readers in the rates at which basic skills become automated and more advanced ones develop and finding the causes behind reading disabilities (dyslexias) are major challenges. Research on reading disability has proven to be especially difficult. There is still no general consensus about the nature or definition of dyslexia, and indeed there are probably several distinct kinds of dyslexia, some of which are corollaries or causes and some of which are effects of reading dysfunctions. The field has discarded numerous theories that have not stood up to close testing, such as the hypothesis that the disorder is visual, involving reversals between letters such as b and d or words such as “saw” and “was”; that the disorder involves particular difficulty in associating visual and verbal elements; or that poor readers have difficulty in maintaining information about sequences. Other theories that have some support, but not full assent, include the idea that there is a deficiency in the specifically auditory-linguistic background and that the problem results from contracted vocabulary, low verbal fluency, inappropriate grammar or syntax, or difficulty or slowness in word retrieval. The most promising approaches to these tangles of cause and effect appear to be continued fundamental research on normal acquisition of reading skills, more detailed examination of disabled individuals by interdisciplinary terms—psychologists, cognitive scientists, medical researchers, and educators—and more longitudinal research, starting with prereading children.

Interpretation and Comprehension

READING How do a reader’s eyes move across the written page? What does the mind do as the eye moves? How are marks on paper interpreted as words that convey ideas?

Researchers have developed methods to mechanically track a person’s eye movements while reading a text and to meticulously analyze the patterns of gaze and subsequent accuracy of comprehension of the material. Such experiments are used to test and develop theoretical models of how people process what they see on paper. The different gaze patterns in this figure, represented by the pause durations (in milliseconds) and retracking lines, are typical of different kinds of readers. (There is no significance to the different texts shown; they are standard passages used in experiments.) Though texts differ in complexity, a given reader processes them the same way and at relatively small variation in overall speed.

Most people sample a written text densely, fixing their gaze (for more than 50 milliseconds) on about two-thirds of the words and rarely skimming past more than one word at a time; in most cases, the skimmed words are articles, prepositions, and conjunctions, “function words.” Nearly all readers interpret each word immediately, inferring its meaning even when important clues to that meaning come later in the text. The duration of gaze on each word depends on the word’s length, familiarity, and grammatical or contextual clarity. There is also a tendency to pause longer on the word at the end of a printed line—rather than at the end of a sentence—to “wrap up” any loose ends in interpretation. Normally, readers retrace their gaze only when a grammatical or semantic ambiguity leads them to rethink how to interpret a phrase.

Readers trained to “speed read” fixate on fewer words and spend less time on each fixation. Like normal readers, they retain very little information from words they do not fixate. The major skill that speed readers learn is to infer the meaning of a line of text based on a smaller sample of the words in it than before and not to tarry or retrack in order to resolve local ambiguities in meaning. The cost of these rapid inference procedures is less accurate comprehension, especially for nonrecurrent details.

Dyslexic readers seem to have trouble mainly in decoding written words, that is, segmenting the letters into syllables and retrieving their sounds correctly. These readers spend extra time on each word and frequently re-track in order to reinterpret inaccurately perceived words. And even at their slower reading rates, dyslexic readers generally develop a much less accurate understanding of a written text than other readers—a problem they do not necessarily have in interpreting spoken words.

Since a reader is constructing a mental representation of a text while processing only a single phrase or sentence at a time, short-term memory limitations may play an important role in reading comprehension. This is not a new hypothesis. But the original theoretical claims that short-term memory may be an important bottleneck for comprehension processes were contradicted by the fact that standard short-term memory tests (for example, digit span) did not correlate with reading comprehension skills. The more recent experimental work does not evaluate short-term memory capacity in static contexts or at nonreading tasks; rather, it evaluates how much excess capacity different readers have available during the actual reading process: the resulting measures are highly predictive of comprehension levels.

Detailed temporal analyses of this sort have also made it possible to write a computer program that reads newly encountered though very carefully edited and prepared texts about as well and as rapidly as human readers. The program “pauses”—taking longer to process a passage—when there is difficulty in comprehension and speeds up when comprehension is easy. It can produce a summary or answer certain kinds of questions about the content of texts about as well as humans can.

Efficient readers adapt their expenditure of effort and ingenuity to their goal in reading, such as “light” reading for relaxation, reading to learn, or reading to react to an action document, such as a request for funds. Mature readers possess a complex repertoire of reading and study strategies for enhancing understanding and for detecting and overcoming comprehension difficulties. Considerable advances have been made in understanding of how these learning activities develop and how they can be enhanced by instruction. All of these advances can now be described and measured in terms of scientific theory rather than just intuitively, as was once the case.

No artificial intelligence reading program comes close to the seemingly effortless way in which humans seem able to call up just the right information needed to interpret a text and ignore the mass of irrelevant data. But recent work has begun to create substantially better insight into how people do this, and one interesting fact is that readers do not simply ignore irrelevant information. Consider the sentence: “Thieves broke into the vault of a bank and stole a million dollars.” Do you even consider interpreting “bank” in the sense of “river bank?” No? Sophisticated methods show otherwise. If a person is flashed the word “bank” and then, immediately, “money,” the response to “money” is about 40 milliseconds faster than when an unrelated word (say, “bark”) comes first. This is called a priming effect. In a context like the sentence above, if “bank” is followed quickly by “river,” instead of “money,” the priming effect on recognition is present for this word as well, showing that both possible meanings had been activated. After a 300 millisecond interval, however, priming would occur only for the contextually appropriate meaning (“money”). The results of such laboratory experiments suggest that a rich knowledge of relationships among words may facilitate decoding and perhaps other levels of processing, even though there is no conscious awareness by a reader of how such knowledge is being processed in the course of reading.

A recent goal of language research is to develop a scientific basis for writing comprehensible texts. Previously, the classical view was that texts are less readable when they contain long sentences and use uncommon words. But research shows that revising a difficult text by shortening its sentences and simplifying the vocabulary does not make it substantially (or sometimes even at all) more comprehensible. One idea being studied is that some texts may be hard to read because the reader must repeatedly search in long-term memory for specific information needed to interpret phrases or sentences. Other research focuses on how well the syntactic devices and cues in a text focus the reader’s attention on its major themes or most important information. Related research has shown that successful didactic writing highlights information that the reader needs in order to act or that sets forth specific examples that the reader will most likely have encountered or expect to encounter.

Continued work along these lines should lead to improved and simplified models of how to make written documents more comprehensible, but this is only a proximate goal. Making a text comprehensible for a given reader will certainly contribute to understanding, but it will not necessarily lead to learning. People can comprehend, remember, and summarize a text and still be unable to use the information acquired; learning requires the integration of textual information with previous knowledge. There is much work to be done to discover how people learn, how they use the information acquired from a text in new situations.

• Opportunities and Needs

The results of research on basic processes linking the mind, the brain, and behavior have grown impressively in the recent past and show even more promise in the immediate future. Some of those results have led or soon will lead to valuable applications, such as new types of photography; economical telephone-line transmission of video pictures; better hearing aids; ways to improve normal and impaired memory; enhanced computer abilities to synthesize, decode, and translate natural speech; vastly improved expert systems to aid in such matters as medical diagnosis and car repair; and innovations in teaching students across all areas and levels of learning. But the major contribution of this research is that of sheer knowledge about human beings and other intelligent beings—a wealth of insights into the nature, possibilities, and limits of intelligent individual action. In this section we propose increased expenditures of approximately $61 million annually for this research: for equipment, investigator-initiated grants, new data collection, research centers, pre-doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships, postdoctoral training institutes, and multidisciplinary collaborative activities.

Research in these areas depends heavily on instrumentation for simulating, modeling, and controlling experiments, generating stimuli, recording and analyzing data, and developing new theoretical models, which require substantial amounts of computational power. Some of this equipment is currently only available, if at all, in such special settings as clinics, national laboratories, or expensive commercial centers. Increasingly, there is a call for greater access to powerful workstations and supercomputers. There is also a lively expectation that massively parallel computer architectures will be especially well suited to many behavioral and cognitive research problems. To some extent the computational need is filled by machines available at major research universities, but during the recent period of serious funding cutbacks and stringencies imposed on the behavioral and social sciences and the increased regulatory demands on research involving animals and humans, the overall level of instrumentation in laboratories has fallen seriously short of the research needs. Many formerly up-to-date university laboratories are no longer adequately equipped to do the research that is now possible.

In light of the increasingly advanced and specialized technology required to carry out experiments on behavior, mind, and brain, an estimated $25 million in new funds annually are needed to acquire or provide access to new equipment. We estimate that about one-half of this amount ($12 million) should be allocated to new and upgraded laboratory equipment and service facilities, about one-fourth ($7 million) to new computer hardware and software development, about $4 million to the improvement of animal care for research animals, and about $2 million for access to major neuroimaging devices.

The principal mode of studies on behavior, mind, and brain is carried out by small groups of investigators: one or two principal investigators working on a separately funded project (though each investigator may have more than one project) with one or a few assistants, who may range in level of training, skills, and independence from technicians to postdoctoral scientists. This approach has worked well, and we do not recommend major changes.

Such research by small groups is largely supported by investigator-initiated grants. The aggregated funding level of these grants has been somewhat buffered from roller-coaster trends in behavioral and social sciences spending at the federal level, due partly to the linkages and overlaps with life science and computer science research, which have been on more monotonic funding paths. Cognitive and behavioral sciences support nevertheless has not kept up with the growth in scientific opportunities, such as the rapid shifts in technological capabilities that have resulted from the microprocessor revolution. A rapid increase in funds for investigator-initiated grants—by about $20 million annually—is a high priority. These funds should be used to increase research productivity in three ways. First, they should be used to reverse the lack of change or actual reduction in the size of grants that has occurred at a time when real costs are increasing. Those real cost increases have resulted from improvements in animal care, the need for auxiliary staff in experiments involving infants and children, and the routine costs of supplies and services, among other matters. Second, they should be used to increase the duration of a typical grant to an experienced investigator from 3 to 5 years. Such an increase will sharply reduce the burden of time imposed both on investigators preparing renewal grant proposals and on the individuals asked to read and evaluate each proposal (generally 6, but sometimes as many as 15), which is a nonnegligible cost in research time. Third, they should be used to increase somewhat the total number of grants available because many promising proposals are now being turned down due to lack of funds.

A great deal of the pioneering research lies at the interface of disciplines and often requires a great deal of highly specialized technical expertise in fields ranging from biochemistry and physics to neuroscience, physiology, psychology, linguistics, economics, statistics, mathematics, and computer science. This inherent feature of much current work on behavior, the mind, and the brain calls for a number of developments to foster and facilitate more collaboration among people from very different backgrounds. This facilitation may take different forms, such as short-term visits, new centers of research, interdisciplinary training in the predoctoral curricula of universities, or the growth of postdoctoral programs that broaden rather than intensify the focus of new scientists’ thesis work. We especially note the need for advanced training institutes for younger postdoctoral-level researchers working on newly emerging methods in highly technical specialities and recommend an additional $1 million be spent annually for such institutes. Given the geographical dispersion of investigators, collaboration can often be sustained only if there are opportunities to come together periodically in joint working sessions. Short-term workshops, seminars, and conferences focused on exchanges of current ideas and methods are the ideal medium to encourage this, and we recommend that $1 million be added to current levels of funding for such activities.

The picture of recruitment into graduate schools in the behavioral, cognitive, and brain science disciplines continues to reflect a growth trend. But much of this growth leads toward clinical and other nonresearch employment, and there is growing concern about the number of highly motivated and talented young people who are entering research careers. In particular, there is a relative lack of opportunity for individuals to gain intense experience at the predoctoral or postdoctoral levels in a variety of research methods and theoretical disciplines. This is only in small part a problem of curriculum: it is in large part a problem of funding, which is available more for teaching and clinical or applied work than for research apprenticeships. We therefore recommend that an additional $5 million annually be invested in research fellowships at the predoctoral and postdoctoral levels, with the majority share ($3 million) directed to the postdoctoral level.

There is in certain areas a critical need to inaugurate new data bases that can be accessed by large numbers of investigators; in particular, longitudinal data bases concerning cognitive and educational development. The cost of these new data collection effort would be about $5 million annually.

Finally, there is at present momentum in certain fields toward major new interdisciplinary research enterprises. In the recent climate of restrained budget growth, it has not been possible to organize the sort of stimuli—either in the form of planning grants or competitive announcements for new center programs—that would lead to competitive, full-fledged center proposals. We recommend that there be an initial commitment of $4 million to create two to three new interdisciplinary centers, with a view toward increasing this by as much as threefold if the experience of productivity warrants. We should note that some increment in support staffing in research agencies is a necessary element to generate, evaluate, and monitor good center grants.

• Cite this Page National Research Council; Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; Committee on Basic Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences; Gerstein DR, Luce RD, Smelser NJ, et al., editors. The Behavioral and Social Sciences: Achievements and Opportunities. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988. 1, Behavior, Mind, and Brain.
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50+ Research Topics for Psychology Papers

How to Find Psychology Research Topics for Your Student Paper

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.

• Specific Branches of Psychology
• Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy
• Human Cognition
• Human Development
• Critique of Publications
• Famous Experiments
• Historical Figures
• Specific Careers
• Case Studies
• Literature Reviews
• Your Own Study/Experiment

Are you searching for a great topic for your psychology paper ? Sometimes it seems like coming up with topics of psychology research is more challenging than the actual research and writing. Fortunately, there are plenty of great places to find inspiration and the following list contains just a few ideas to help get you started.

Finding a solid topic is one of the most important steps when writing any type of paper. It can be particularly important when you are writing a psychology research paper or essay. Psychology is such a broad topic, so you want to find a topic that allows you to adequately cover the subject without becoming overwhelmed with information.

I can always tell when a student really cares about the topic they chose; it comes through in the writing. My advice is to choose a topic that genuinely interests you, so you’ll be more motivated to do thorough research.

In some cases, such as in a general psychology class, you might have the option to select any topic from within psychology's broad reach. Other instances, such as in an  abnormal psychology  course, might require you to write your paper on a specific subject such as a psychological disorder.

As you begin your search for a topic for your psychology paper, it is first important to consider the guidelines established by your instructor.

Research Topics Within Specific Branches of Psychology

The key to selecting a good topic for your psychology paper is to select something that is narrow enough to allow you to really focus on the subject, but not so narrow that it is difficult to find sources or information to write about.

One approach is to narrow your focus down to a subject within a specific branch of psychology. For example, you might start by deciding that you want to write a paper on some sort of social psychology topic. Next, you might narrow your focus down to how persuasion can be used to influence behavior .

Other social psychology topics you might consider include:

• Prejudice and discrimination (i.e., homophobia, sexism, racism)
• Social cognition
• Person perception
• Social control and cults
• Persuasion, propaganda, and marketing
• Attraction, romance, and love
• Nonverbal communication
• Prosocial behavior

Psychology Research Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy

Exploring a psychological disorder or a specific treatment modality can also be a good topic for a psychology paper. Some potential abnormal psychology topics include specific psychological disorders or particular treatment modalities, including:

• Eating disorders
• Borderline personality disorder
• Seasonal affective disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Antisocial personality disorder
• Profile a  type of therapy  (i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy, group therapy, psychoanalytic therapy)

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Cognition

Some of the possible topics you might explore in this area include thinking, language, intelligence, and decision-making. Other ideas might include:

• False memories
• Speech disorders
• Problem-solving

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Development

In this area, you might opt to focus on issues pertinent to  early childhood  such as language development, social learning, or childhood attachment or you might instead opt to concentrate on issues that affect older adults such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

Some other topics you might consider include:

• Language acquisition
• Media violence and children
• Learning disabilities
• Gender roles
• Child abuse
• Prenatal development
• Parenting styles
• Aspects of the aging process