Research Review: Risk and protection in the context of services for children in need

The paper summarizes the evidence and provides definitions of risk, protective factors, resilience, coping strategies and need in the context of children in need. Definitions are offered for children in need and children's services. The way in which individual interpretation can alter objective assessment of risk is explored. A method for recording evidence relevant to clinical practice on behalf of children in need is offered. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

Socioeconomic Risk in Development of Energy Systems

A soft mathematical model, taking stock of the stochastic and cooperative features of the economy of thinking in the decision making, is aggregated to unveil hidden connections between energy policy and the energy technology choices of an establishment. Starting from several assumptions on the nature of the collective decisional behavior, one obtains a probabilistic interpretation of the mechanism of penetration of energy technologies. The probability that the establishment bets on a certain technological profile is given as a solution to a Fokker-Planck equation accounting for the decision game. It provides a topological variety that accomodates possible states of the system and their trajectories, and indicates ways in which different attractors drive the technology choice in the space of the energy policy.
In this framework, a series of concepts (i.e., logistic evolution, resilience, stability, risks of disruption or crisis, energy security) can find in a natural way strikingly intuitive interpretations. Strategic games are possible on this ground, confirming facts of life and also showing predictive power. The complex and difficult to manage interdependence between energy policy and technology appears as a challenge to the long-term planning of alternative energy systems. To meet the challenge, preparedness for changes through a large freedom of choice on the technological options appears as a necessary complement to the faithful observance of the market drives, which stresses the importance of having available perceptive, coherent, reliable, and responsible mechanisms of decision making.     

师范生心理弹性与就业压力的相关研究

为了了解师范生心理弹性和就业压力的关系,随机抽取300名应届毕业师范生作为调查对象,使用心理弹性量表和就业压力量表对其进行调查与分析。结果发现:师范生心理弹性处于中等水平,并存在显著的性别差异;师范生总体就业压力相对较小,但在性别、生源地及是否独生子女等方面不存在差异;师范生的心理弹性和就业压力表现出负相关的趋势。根据这些结果,提出了增强师范生心理弹性及应对就业压力的有效建议。     

幼儿园教师社会支持与情绪劳动的关系：心理弹性的中介作用

以安徽省839 名幼儿园教师为研究对象,通过问卷法调查幼儿园教师社会支持、心理弹性和情绪劳动之间的关系。结果 表明：幼儿教师社会支持与心理弹性、深层扮演、自然表达之间呈显著正相关关系;社会支持与表层扮演之间呈显著负相关关 系;心理弹性在社会支持与深层扮演、自然表达之间存在部分中介作用,在社会支持与表层扮演之间存在完全中介。主要建 议：提高支持性发展条件,关注男教师专业发展;加强教师队伍建设,激发公办幼儿园教师活力;加强教师心理建构,以生命关 怀挖掘精神价值。     

特殊儿童父母社会支持与心理弹性的关系：自我效能感的中介作用

为探讨特殊儿童父母心理弹性、社会支持和自我效能感之间的关系,采用心理弹性量表、社会支持量表、自我效能感量表 对221名特殊儿童父母进行调查。结果发现：1）特殊儿童父母的心理弹性、自我效能感和社会支持两两之间均呈显著正相 关;2）社会支持可直接影响心理弹性水平,也可通过自我效能感间接作用于心理弹性。研究结果表明,良好的社会支持与高自 我效能感对提升我国特殊儿童父母的心理弹性水平有重要意义。     

幼儿园教师心理弹性的特点与提升策略

：幼儿教师心理弹性对其工作发展,幼儿的健康成长都具有重要意义。本研究使用《心理弹性量表CD-RISC》对440名幼 儿园教师进行调查。结果显示：幼儿园教师心理弹性总体水平较高,但各维度的发展水平不均衡,在教龄、学历、年均月收入、 编制和园所级别上存在显著差异。具体表现为：在坚韧性方面,自我控制能力良好,偏保守型思维和行为;在力量性方面,工作 态度良好,但工作进取心不足;在乐观性方面,解决问题的自信心较强,但缺少文化乐观。基于分析结果,提出建议：幼儿园教 师要注意提高自身的情绪管理能力;幼儿园要提升园所培训效果,加强文化建设;营造社会整体支持氛围。     

Empathic Action and Family Resilience: A Narrative Examination of the Benefits of Helping Others

ABSTRACT

Empathy is identified as a protective factor that has been helpful for children considered at high risk for poor mental health and social functioning due to experiencing stressful circumstances such as family violence, substance abuse of a parent, or poverty. Yet, little is known about its relevance to a family's ability to overcome adversity. This study examined the narratives of 20 resilient families who maintained family functioning despite experiencing a multitude of risk factors including poverty, death of a child, significant health problems, or substance abuse problems. Narrative analysis was used to identify the ways families situated empathic actions within their stories of resilience. Findings suggest families developed increased compassion for others as a result of their own experiences with loss, trauma, or stress and discussed how helping others increased their ability to cope with the challenges they faced. Future research and practice implications are outlined and support the usefulness of strengths-based concepts and interventions.     

Recidivism,Risk, and Resiliency Among North American Indian Parolees and Former Prisoners

Abstract

Using official data, this paper examines recidivism, defined as rearrest over a 3-year follow up period, among a North American Indian First Nation-the Lumbee of North Carolina. Recidivism of the Lumbee, who reside in a tri-county non-reservation area, is compared with that of non-natives residing in the same counties. The working hypothesis was that being a member of the Lumbee First Nation and residing in a “Lumbee county” provides resiliency against the risk of recidivism. The hypothesis was confirmed with respect to violent and drug-related arrests, but not for property and other miscellaneous types of offenses.     

Assessment of Resilience to Drought of Rural Communities in Iran

In recent years, drought has inflicted significant damage on agriculture and rural communities in Iran. Resilience is the capability of communities to handle and tolerate exterior pressures such as drought. The purpose of this study was to identify the indicators affecting social resilience against drought, determining the cause of reduction or increase of resilience in different regions. It also focuses on strategies for increasing resilience of rural communities through the provision of social services in Iran. The required information was collected using a questionnaire from five villages, including 237 villagers who were selected through snowball method. Shannon’s entropy and COPRAS methods were employed to determine and classify the drought resilience. The results show that some indicators like modified irrigation methods and new methods of coping with drought have devoted the highest weight. Also, there is a significant relationship between resilience rating of villages with average age of the households and number of households in nonfarm job. Finally, absolute drought resilience of rural communities remained in moderate situation. Doing study in wider areas to coordinate the effective indicators in the matter and studying how empowerment of local communities by providing a variety of social services can be considered as a further research in the future.     

Sequential Hazards Resilience of Interdependent Infrastructure System: A Case Study of Greater Toronto Area Energy Infrastructure System

Coupled infrastructure systems and complicated multihazards result in a high level of complexity and make it difficult to assess and improve the infrastructure system resilience. With a case study of the Greater Toronto Area energy system (including electric, gas, and oil transmission networks), an approach to analysis of multihazard resilience of an interdependent infrastructure system is presented in the article. Integrating network theory, spatial and numerical analysis methods, the new approach deals with the complicated multihazard relations and complex infrastructure interdependencies as spatiotemporal impacts on infrastructure systems in order to assess the dynamic system resilience. The results confirm that the effects of sequential hazards on resilience of infrastructure (network) are more complicated than the sum of single hazards. The resilience depends on the magnitude of the hazards, their spatiotemporal relationship and dynamic combined impacts, and infrastructure interdependencies. The article presents a comparison between physical and functional resilience of an electric transmission network, and finds functional resilience is always higher than physical resilience. The multiple hazards resilience evaluation approach is applicable to any type of infrastructure and hazard and it can contribute to the improvement of infrastructure planning, design, and maintenance decision making.