Attitudes of social work students towards older people

Demographic ageing is a challenge for many countries. Even though Turkey has a relatively younger demographic composition, the proportion of the older people (65+) within the population is rapidly increasing. Within this framework, older people are becoming more important clients for both social work students and social workers in Turkey. This study aims to reveal the attitudes of social work students towards older people and determine the various factors that affect their views on older persons. In the scope of the project, Kogan's Attitude Towards Old People Scale was applied to 419 social work undergraduate students at a university located in Central Anatolia. The findings showed that social work students scored a mean of 130.96 and they generally had positive attitudes towards older people. The correlation between year of study, gender and age was not statistically significant. However, having lived mostly in urban areas was positively correlated with the mean Kogan scores and this finding was found to be statistically significant. Exposure to personal contact with older people at both the personal and professional levels was influential in shaping attitudes about the older people.     

A reduced form of the Workplace Bullying Scale – the EAPA-T-R: A useful instrument for daily diary and experience sampling studies

The need for more longitudinal studies (i.e. daily diary and experience sampling studies) focused on counterproductive work behaviours such as bullying requires shorter scales that at the same time do not compromise their content validity. Our main objective is to develop and validate a reduced version of the Workplace Bullying Scale (Escala de Abuso Psicológico Aplicado en el Lugar de Trabajo): the EAPA-T-R. Two studies (Study 1: 1506 and Study 2: 932 employees, respectively) were conducted to evaluate its psychometric properties and to ensure the external validity of the EAPA-T-R. Correlation and regression analyses were performed to reduce the current 12-item scale to a more parsimonious 4-item scale. Moreover, the psychometric properties of potential models were compared. Subsequently, the new scale was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis. Likewise, statistically significant relationships were found between the EAPA-T-R and other dimensions evaluated, such as job characteristics, transformational leadership, engagement, job satisfaction, and subjective performance. Moreover, bullying mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and burnout. To sum up, the EAPA-T-R showed good reliability and validity across studies, supporting its use in future research. The benefits of this short scale for daily diary and experience sampling studies and when using large surveys are discussed.     

Can Likert Scales be Treated as Interval Scales?—A Simulation Study

The Likert scale is widely used in social work research, and is commonly constructed with four to seven points. It is usually treated as an interval scale, but strictly speaking it is an ordinal scale, where arithmetic operations cannot be conducted. There are pros and cons in using the Likert scale as an interval scale, but the controversy can be handled by increasing the number of points. Several researchers have suggested bringing the number up to eleven, on the basis of empirical data. In this article the authors explore this rational and share the same view, but simulate artificial data from both symmetrical normal and skewed distributions where the underlying metric is known in advance. Results show that more Likert scale points will result in a closer approach to the underlying distribution, and hence normality and interval scales. To increase generalizability social work practitioners are encouraged to use 11-point Likert scales from 0 to 10, a natural and easily comprehensible range.     

Stochastic comparisons between extreme order statistics from scale models

Stochastic ordering relations between extreme order statistics from exponential, Weibull and gamma distributions have been studied extensively by many researchers in recent years. In this work, we obtain various ordering results for the comparisons of two extreme order statistics from scale models when one set of scale parameters majorizes the other. The new results obtained here are applied when the baseline distributions are exponentiated Weibull or generalized gamma distributions. In this way, we generalize and extend some results established recently in the literature.     

论反倾销会计应诉的“度”

在反倾销诉讼中,掌握度的规则,抓住关节点,对提升会计应诉水平具有重要意义。从会计应诉的实践要求来看,着重从两个方面把握住度的要求:一是把握会计应诉决策的度,使会计应诉决策建立在科学的基础上;二是把握会计应诉各环节的度,提升会计应诉的针对性和有效性。     

Support for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights: Development and Examination of a New Scale

This research outlines the development of a psychometrically sound, uni-dimensional scale to assess support for gay and lesbian civil rights. Initial scale development involved examining item-pool responses from 224 undergraduate students. The resulting Support for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights (SGLCR) scale consisted of 20 items. In a series of studies, the SGLCR demonstrated a stable factor structure, strong internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct validity. The relationships between SGLCR scores and participants' sex, religiosity, political ideology, gender role beliefs, and attitudes toward lesbians and gays were significant and in the predicted directions.     

高等教育规模扩张何以实现——以“资源稀释模型”为视角

＂资源稀释模型＂认为,在家庭经济资源一定的情况下,家庭里的孩子数量越多,每个孩子分到的经济资源就会相应减少;而且家庭的经济资源对孩子是否有机会接受高等教育的影响非常重要。笔者从＂资源稀释模型（Resource Dilution Model）＂这一视角来分析和探讨,上世纪末我国＂高等教育规模扩张＂政策何以得以顺利实施。     

On Pitman's measure of closeness of k-records

Pitman closeness of both the upper and lower k-record statistics to the population quantiles of a location–scale family of distributions is studied. For the population median, the Pitman-closest k-record is also determined. In the case of symmetric distributions, the Pitman closeness probabilities of k-record statistics are shown to be distribution-free, and explicit expressions are also derived for these probabilities. Exact expressions are derived for the required probabilities for uniform and exponential distributions. Numerical results are given for these families and also the Pitman-closest k-record is determined.     

Objective Bayesian inference for the ratio of the scale parameters of two Weibull distributions

The Weibull distribution is widely used due to its versatility and relative simplicity. In our paper, the non informative priors for the ratio of the scale parameters of two Weibull models are provided. The asymptotic matching of coverage probabilities of Bayesian credible intervals is considered, with the corresponding frequentist coverage probabilities. We developed the various priors for the ratio of two scale parameters using the following matching criteria: quantile matching, matching of distribution function, highest posterior density matching, and inversion of test statistics. One particular prior, which meets all the matching criteria, is found. Next, we derive the reference priors for groups of ordering. We see that all the reference priors satisfy a first-order matching criterion and that the one-at-a-time reference prior is a second-order matching prior. A simulation study is performed and an example given.     

Using clinical signs of neglect to identify elder neglect cases

Elder neglect is the one of the most pervasive forms of mistreatment, and often the only place outside of the individual’s residence to identify and assist neglected individuals is in a medical setting. However, elder neglect cases treated in hospitals do not present with a single diagnosis or clinical sign, but rather involve a complex constellation of clinical signs. Currently, there is a lack of comprehensive guidelines on which clinical signs to use in screening tools for neglect among patients treated in hospitals. Using the DELPHI method, a group of experts developed and tested a scale to be used as a pre-screener that conceptually could be integrated into electronic health record systems so that it could identify potential neglect cases in an automated manner. By applying the scale as a pre-screener for neglect, the tool would reduce the pool of at-risk patients who would benefit from in-depth screening for elder neglect by 95%.