Do You Speak English? Language Barriers in Child Protection Social Work with Minority Ethnic Families

This paper critically evaluates research and literature on childprotection social work practice with minority ethnic familieswho speak little or no English. Though the focus is on childprotection, many of the themes raised should be transferableacross to other areas and disciplines. Specifically, the paperfocuses on the limitations and difficulties of using professionalinterpreters in child protection work and covers themes likethe availability of interpreters, the role of interpreters,suitability of interpreters, the interpretation of particularwords and phrases, and manipulating the interpreting process.The paper then moves on to address the important but often neglectedarea of using children as interpreters, and ends by consideringthe broader issue of how language barriers can exacerbate discriminationagainst minority ethnic families.     

A class of distribution-free tests for two-way layout

In this article a class of distribution-free tests for the hypothesis of no row (treatment) effect in a two-way layout design, with several observations per cell, is proposed. The tests are based on U-statistics, constructed by considering minima of all possible subsamples of same size from each cell.The proposed class of tests is compared with the parametric test, Mack and Skillings test and Yate's test for two-way layout, in terms of Pitman ARE sense. It is seen that for the case of equal number of observations per cell, the proposed tests have better efficiency for exponential and uniform error distributions.     

A generalized improvement procedure for variance bounds for minimum variance unbiased estimator in inverse sampling

New bounds are obtained for the variance of the minimum variance unbiased estimator of p i n inverse sampling. A generalized procedure for further improving the bounds is also discussed.     

A test for gamma DFR alternative

In this article, a test for exponentiality against gamma DFR alternative based on a quadratic form of the logarithmic observations is proposed. The percentage points and the power of the test are computed through Monte-Carlo simulation. The test is seen to perform well as compared to a chi-square test proposed by Bain and Engelhardt(1975).     

Bayes Prediction for a Heteroscedastic Regression Superpopulation Model Using Balanced Loss Function

We consider Prais–Houthakker heteroscedastic normal regression model having variance of the dependent variable same as square of its expectation. Bayes predictors for the regression coefficient and the mean of a finite population are derived using Zellner's balanced loss function. Bayes predictive expected losses are obtained and compared with those of classical predictors and Bayes predictors under squared error loss function to examine their loss robustness.     

Measuring precautionary wealth using cross-sectional data: the case of farm households

This study models and investigates the presence of precautionary wealth among farm households, something few studies have attempted. Using pooled farm-level data, we find that self-employed farm households accumulate more wealth. Precautionary savings is about 8% of total household wealth. In addition, we find that age, education, occupation, and operation size are important factors influencing wealth accumulation by US farm households.     

Cultural Continuity and Change in Kakar's Works: Some Reflections

This article reviews the works of the well-known psychoanalyst, Sudhir Kakar, centering on the themes of cultural continuities and demographic change. Kakar's works span about three decades and represent sensitive psychoanalytical forays into Indian society and the interpretation of its various cultural processes. In this endeavor, Kakar's concern has been to understand the connection between the subjective imagination accessed mostly in psychoanalytical, clinical work and the cultural processes as manifested in myths and folklore, in popular arts and cinema, in the life histories of historical figures on the Indian firmament, and in the traditions of various systems of Hindu religious philosophy. He has been concerned about the modification of the very tool—the psychoanalytic sensibility (and the theory around it)—that he has so adeptly used, while acknowledging its limitations in creating links with phenomena such as mysticism and communal violence. I have tried to understand the processes of cultural continuity and change by focusing on various images of women and men represented in Kakar's work. Selection of these images is guided by the various expressions of desire, playfulness, the search for a political idiom with which to initiate and sustain cultural changes, etc., as represented by the characters in Kakar's analyses. Analyzing their implications for the issues at hand, a special emphasis is placed on the criticism of Kakar's work by Kurtz. The article concludes with a section on the traditional notion of individuality as it has evolved in selected works by Kakar and other Indian psychoanalytically-oriented authors.