The Role of Temporary Help Agency Employment on Temp-to-Perm Transitions

This paper evaluates the impact of agency work on temporary workers’ posterior likelihood of being hired on a permanent basis. We use administrative data on two groups of temporary workers for whom we have complete work histories since they are first observed in 1998 until the year 2004. One group consists of workers employed through a temporary help agency (THA) at some point during the 7 year period under examination (treated group). The other group is composed of individuals employed as direct-hire temps at some point between 1998 and the year 2004, but never via a THA (control group). Using propensity score matching methods, we find that agency workers endure a lower likelihood of being hired on a permanent basis following their temporary assignment than their direct-hire counterparts. However, there are relevant differences for some groups of workers.

Prevalence of DSM-IV major depression among Spanish university students

OBJECTIVE: The authors' purpose in this study was to estimate prevalence and correlates of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV), major depressive episodes (MDEs) among Spanish university students. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: In October and November 2004, interviewers administered a screening tool to a sample of 554 students aged 18-34 years (65.9% women). RESULTS: The prevalence of MDEs was 8.7% (95% confidence interval = 6.5%-11.3%). The most common symptoms were depressed mood (81.3%) and altered sleep (79.2%). MDEs were more prevalent among women than men (p < .05). The mean number of previous episodes of depression among currently depressed students with previous episodes was 2.2 (SD = 1.4). Of depressed students, 0.6% had considered suicide and 0.2% had attempted suicide. CONCLUSIONS: Depression was highly prevalent among university students. The results suggest the need to develop some type of program or service for university students with the aim of preventing depression and improving their adaptation to university life.     

A note on differential fertility in Sri Lanka

In this paper an attempt has been made to study differential fertility by urban-rural and regional classifications, using data obtained from complete tabulations of the 1963 Census of Population, the four rounds of the Socio-Economic Survey conducted from November 1969 to October 1970, and the Registrar General's Department. The analysis of current fertility indicates that the traditional pattern of lower urban fertility relative to rural held true in both 1963 and 1970 and also shows a narrowing of the differentials. The country was divided into four zones on an agro-climatic basis for regional analysis. A consistent ranking of the zones in relation to current fertility emerges in both 1963 and 1970. Changing patterns of age-specific fertility and age-specific marital fertility are discussed. Data on average size of family by urban-rural and regional classifications are also analyzed. An attempt has also been made to identify some of the possible causes for the differentials observed.     

Rural poverty and ecological problems: Results of a new type of baseline study

This baseline study used data from a informant survey of 76 rural communities in Central Tunisia to construct, first, measures of rural poverty and ecological deterioration and, second, indices of the major institutional complexes in the region. Using factor analysis, the study identified five institutional dimensions: services, religious institutions, mechanized agriculture, irrigated agriculture and sedentary herding. These dimensions were then used as independent variables in a regression analysis of the two social indicators with the results that sedentary herding and religious institutions (negative) predict ecological problems, and the same two dimensions, with the addition of services (negative) predict poor housing. Compared to household survey baselines, this one is less expensive, simpler to analyze and provides an analytic picture of the institutional structure, in relation to key indicators, of a region.     

Looking Behavior and Smiling in Down Syndrome Infants

We studied the relation between direction of gaze and smiling in 15 typically developing infants and 15 infants with Down syndrome. All of them were videotaped during face-to-face interaction with their mothers at home, and while having access to their familiar toys. Results showed that mothers in the two groups behaved in a similar way; that Down syndrome infants looked at their mother's face for longer than typically developing children; and that the relationship between looking and smiling was similar in the two cases and reflected as an increase in the time the infant looked at its mother's face and a decrease in the time the infant looked at toys. It was deduced that Down syndrome infants are capable of distinguishing the differential significance of faces and toys, so that, in the same way as typically developing infants, they direct their affective behavior fundamentally towards the social element, which leads us to consider the affiliative function implied by this expression.     

A sequential design for a clinical trial with a linear prognostic factor

We study a randomized adaptive design to assign one of the L$L$ treatments to patients who arrive sequentially by means of an urn model. At each stage n$n$, a reward is distributed between treatments. The treatment applied is rewarded according to its response, 0?_Yn?1$0?Y_n?1$, and 1-_Yn$1-Y_n$ is distributed among the other treatments according to their performance until stage n-1$n-1$. Patients can be classified in K+1$K+1$ levels and we assume that the effect of this level in the response to the treatments is linear. We study the asymptotic behavior of the design when the ordinary least square estimators are used as a measure of performance until stage n-1$n-1$.     

Regression models to dependence for exceedance

Extreme Value Theory (EVT) aims to study the tails of probability distributions in order to measure and quantify extreme events of maximum and minimum. In river flow data, an extreme level of a river may be related to the level of a neighboring river that flows into it. In this type of data, it is very common for flooding of a location to have been caused by a very large flow from an affluent river that is tens or hundreds of kilometers from this location. In this sense, an interesting approach is to consider a conditional model for the estimation of a multivariate model. Inspired by this idea, we propose a Bayesian model to describe the dependence of exceedance between rivers, where we considered a conditionally independent structure. In this model, the dependence between rivers is captured by modeling the excess marginally of one river as a consequence of linear functions of the other rivers. The results showed that there is a strong and positive connection between excesses in one river caused by the excesses of the other rivers.     

Puerto Rico’s population before and after Hurricane Maria

Population and Environment -     

Creating a Culturally Safe Space When Teaching Aboriginal Content in Social Work: A Scoping Review

Teaching Aboriginal content in social work education presents risks of retraumatisation for students. There are international calls for a trauma-informed teaching model that creates cultural safety in the classroom. This study aimed to develop a trauma-informed model for social work education by reviewing the literature on cultural safety for Aboriginal peoples. This model incorporates key aspects of ensuring Aboriginal cultural safety: de-colonise social work education; collaborative partnerships; build relationships; critical reflection; develop cultural courage; and yarning and story-telling. It provides a valuable framework for creating a more equitable teaching and learning environment that also ensures the essential academic content is covered.

IMPLICATIONS

• Trauma underlies the historical, contemporary and cultural narratives of Aboriginal peoples. Students engaging in Aboriginal content that is traumatic can mean connecting with trauma that has occurred in their own lives.

• Trauma-informed teaching and learning will ensure that educators create culturally safe spaces that enable students to engage well with content.

• The adoption of the framework proposed in this paper may lead to the creation of a culturally safe space for teaching and learning in social work education.