Using data from 13 surveys of the public, this article compares the public's response to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Ontario (specifically, Toronto), the other Canadian provinces, and the United States, which had substantial differences in the number of SARS cases. Findings suggest that, even at a relatively low level of spread among the population, the SARS outbreak had a significant psychological and economic impact. They also suggest that the success of efforts to educate the public about the risk of SARS and appropriate precautions was mixed. Some of the community-wide problems with SARS might have been avoided with better communication by public health officials and clinicians.

Objective. Educational aspirations are an important predictor of eventual attainment. We examine if immigrant parents have higher aspirations for their children compared to native-born parents and whether they are more likely to maintain high aspirations over time. Methods. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), we document differences in the formation and maintenance of white, black, Hispanic, and Asian parents' college aspirations for their children between kindergarten, third, and fifth grades. We also examine the role of acculturation in the stability of immigrant parents' aspirations. Results. We find that immigrant parents are more optimistic about their children's educational trajectories than are native-born parents and that over time they are more likely to maintain consistently high aspirations for their children. Conclusion. Immigrant parents do not see their children's future as downwardly mobile, and instead remain optimistic, consistently reinforcing messages about college plans throughout childhood.Children of immigrants are the fastest growing group of school children and almost one in four school-aged children has at least one immigrant parent (O'Hare, 2004). The concentration of children of immigrants is even higher among Hispanics and Asians, with almost 60 percent of Hispanic youth and 90 percent of Asian youth from families with one immigrant parent (Zhou, 1997a). Since the arrival of post-1965 immigrants, researchers have grappled with how to best characterize the assimilation experiences of these immigrants and their children. One group argues that the assimilation experiences of post-1965 immigrants will be similar to early generations of immigrants and over time they will assimilate into the mainstream culture (Alba and Nee, 2003). In contrast, others contend that assimilation will be segmented and that minority immigrants face the risk of n Direct correspondence to Elizabeth Raleigh, Department of Sociology, McNeil Bldg., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104 heraleigh@sas.upenn.edui. This study is based on data publicly available through the National Center for Education Statistics. We agree to share all coding information with those who wish to replicate the study. We thank Rory Kramer and three anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful suggestions and helpful feedback.

This study contributes to the literature on child adoption by providing an analysis of how conceptions of kinship and constructions of race shape how families are sorted and matched in an adoption marketplace. Drawn from a national sample of adoptive households (n = 63,681), the author analyzes whether there is significant variation in the likelihood of white married, single, divorced, and same-sex couples choosing transracial adoption. Results indicate that “nontraditional” same-sex and single adoptive parents are the most likely to adopt non-white children, even when controlling for additional market variables. Although white adoptive parents, in general, are more likely to transracially adopt Hispanic and Asian children, white single and same-sex adoptive parents are significantly more likely to adopt black children. The author's findings underscore the importance of considering how market forces shape even the most intimate aspects of family building decisions.

This paper reports on a 2003 comparative survey of hospital executives in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Reflecting higher spending levels, U.S. hospitals as a group stand out for generally more positive ratings of facilities and finances and short or no waiting times. Yet U.S. hospital executives are also the most negative about their country's health care system. Hospital executives in all five countries expressed concerns about staffing shortages and emergency department waiting times and quality. Asked about future strategies to improve quality, executives in all five countries expressed support for making information technology an investment priority.A cc o u n t i n g f o r an av e r age of 40 percent of industrialized countries' health spending, hospitals stand at the center of efforts to improve quality and safety and to control costs.1 Yet countries vary widely in the level of resources devoted to hospitals, how hospitals are organized and financed, and the extent to which public policies or markets influence the direction of change. As countries confront the challenge of how to improve hospital performance, opportunities exist to learn from cross-national exchange.To facilitate this learning process, the 2003 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey interviewed executives in larger hospitals in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. As the sixth in a series of surveys in these five English-speaking countries, the survey sought administrators' views on current resources, quality of care, waiting times, staffing shortages, medical error, public disclosure of performance data, and efforts to improve quality.2 The findings reveal areas of shared concern but also differences across countries that coincide with countries' resource levels and recent trends.

Objective. The purpose of this article is to examine whether and how the residential racial diversity of transracially adopted children (i.e., nonwhite children adopted by white parents) varies from those of biological children in white monoracial families and biological children in mixed-race families. Method. Using the restricted access 2009 American Community Survey, we take advantage of the large number of adoptive families not only to investigate differences among these families, but also to explore whether racial socialization within transracial adoptive families varies by the race and nativity of the child. Results. We show that the context of racial socialization for transracially adopted children is more similar to that of white children in monoracial families than that of children in mixed race families. Conclusion. This article adds a quantitative, nationally representative picture of the context of racial socialization for specific groups of transracially adopted children, complementing existing research published in this area.