Towards a European System of Social Indicators: Theoretical Framework and System Architecture

By developing a ``European System of Social Indicators'' the scientificcommunity as well as policy makers are being provided with a theoreticallywell-grounded as well as methodologically sound tool of social measurementto be used to continuously monitor and analyse the development of welfareas well as general trends of social change in European societies. Thearticle focuses on the development of a conceptual framework, to be usedto guide and justify the selection of measurement dimensions and indicators.Based on an extensive review of theoretical concepts of welfare and anexploration of political goals of societal development at the Europeanlevel, six major categories of goal dimensions, referring to the conceptsof quality of life, social cohesion and sustainability have been identifiedas the backbones of the conceptual framework. In addition, the articlepresents the main features of the architecture of the European System ofSocial Indicators and lays out its main structural elements and characteristics.     

试论中国孝文化与养老保障制度

中国养老保障制度的完善需要考虑中国传统孝文化的影响。而养老保障制度的建立也可以延续和弘扬孝文化。本文分析了二者相互的关系,提倡建立一种依托于“孝”为文化基础的符合中国国民性格的社会养老保障制度,在推动优秀孝文化的继承和发展的同时完善我国养老保障制度。     

Household commodity demand and demographics in the Netherlands: a microeconometric analysis

We investigate the effects of demographics, household expenditure and female employment on the allocation of household expenditure to consumer goods. For this purpose we estimate an Almost Ideal Demand System based on Dutch micro data. We find that interactions between household expenditure and demographics are of significant importance in explaining the allocation to consumer goods. As a consequence, consumer goods such as housing and clothing change with demographic characteristics from luxuries to necessities. Furthermore, this implies that budget and price-elasticities cannot be consistently estimated from aggregated data and that equivalence scales are not identified from budget survey data alone. We reject weak separability of consumer goods from female employment. A couple with an employed spouse has a smaller budget share for housing and personal care and a larger budget share for education, recreation and transport and clothing compared to a couple with a non-employed spouse. Received: 12 September 1997/Accepted: 27 February 1998     

“大村庄”成为中国农村发展趋势

与“大部制”改革同步，中国近期正在广大农村推动村庄合并，这是继十一届三中全会以及不久前中国对于乡镇实行合并之后的又一农村重大变革。“大村庄制”将与“大部制”一起，成为中国未来政改的新目标。     

The value systems of students in a teacher education program

An important aspect of counselling is the recognition of value systems. Although teachers are often prepared to provide classroom opportunities for Values Clarification, few students in teacher education programs are assisted in the recognition of their own value system. To achieve Values Clarification, 246 students in the professional year of Education at the University of Victoria completed Rokeach's Value Survey. Their Values System was characteristic of smokers. They had a common value system, shared with students at another Canadian public university, but differing from students at a Canadian Catholic college, an American university, and an Australian university.     

Work-to-Family Enrichment and Employees’ Well-Being: High Performance Work System and Job Characteristics

Research has demonstrated the importance of job characteristics to explain work-to-family enrichment (WFE) and the value of this enrichment to explain employees’ wellbeing. However, there is no comprehensive framework to explain the relationship between these variables. This study uses the Job Demands-Control-Support model as a guiding framework, and examines the relationship between these job characteristics and WFE and, more interestingly, the WFE as a mechanism for explaining the relationship between job characteristics and employees’ well-being. Furthermore, we analyzed the relationship of employees’ perceptions of High Performance Work System (HPWS) with job characteristics. With a sample of 1,390 employees from a Portuguese bank, job demands were found to be negatively related to WFE while autonomy and supervisor support displayed a positive relation. We also observed that WFE is an important mechanism to explain the relationship between these job characteristics and employees’ well being. As expected, HPWS was a relevant organizational characteristic to explain job characteristics, however, we observed that it was also directly related to WFE.     

Does it Take a Village? Migration among Rural South African Youth

In a rural African context, the saying, “it takes a village to raise a child,” suggests that community characteristics are substantially important in children’s lives as they transit to adulthood. Are these contextual factors also related to youth migration? Demographers are uncertain about how community characteristics improve our understanding of an individual’s propensity to migrate, beyond individual and household factors. In many low- and middle-income country settings, youth become migrants for the first time in their lives to provide access to resources that their families need. We employ discrete-time event history models from 2003 to 2011 Agincourt Health and socio-Demographic Surveillance System in rural South Africa to test whether markers of development in a village are associated with the likelihood of youth and young adults migrating, distinguishing between becoming temporary and permanent migrants during this critical life cycle phase. We find that village characteristics indeed differentially predict migration, but not nearly as substantially as might be expected.     

Self-reports of child maltreatment in the U.S.: a key social indicator

A key social indicator of the well being of a society is the health and welfare of their children. Child maltreatment is a major problem in the U.S. and the world and the reporting of maltreatment has been the subject of much research and debate. However, little is known about self-reports of child maltreatment. Children face many obstacles that may prevent them from reporting their own maltreatment to authorities. Despite these obstacles, a small percentage of all child maltreatment reports made to child protective services (CPS) in the US are made by the victim. The purpose of this paper is to describe an analysis of reports made to CPS by the child-victim of maltreatment over a three-year period. Results indicated significant differences related to child race, gender and substantiation rate among self-reports and reports made by others. The data utilized in this publication were made available by the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect, Cornell University, Ithaca NY; and have been used by permission. Data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System were supplied by state child protective service agencies to the Children's Bureau or the Administration of Children, Youth and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Funding for NCANDS was provided by the Children's Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System was implemented by Walter R. McDonald & Associates, Inc. Neither the participating state agencies; Walter R. McDonald & Associates, Inc.; the Children's Bureau, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Archive, Cornell University, or its agents or employees bear any responsibility for the analyses, opinions, or interpretations presented here.     

Excess deaths and Hurricane María

Population and Environment - We clarify the distinction between direct and indirect effects of disasters such as Hurricane María and use data from the Puerto Rico Vital Statistics System to...     

国际化视野下的江苏社会养老保障制度改革走势分析

全面建设和谐新江苏,如何解决经济快速增长与人口快速老龄化条件下的养老问题?发达国家推进责任主体多元化、运作市场化、服务社会化的经验可作比较借鉴。江苏坚持以深化社会养老保障制度改革为突破口着力保障机制创新,充分利用现有的人文、经济、生态和环境优势,坚持"物质保障"和"精神赡养"并举,促进居家养老与多种养老方式完美结合,率先在全国创出具有江苏特色的城乡老年社会保障体系。     

基于新兴古典经济学的农村移民经济发展分析

将新兴古典经济学的理论和模型应用于农村移民经济发展问题的研究,分析了通过分工专业化来提高移民人均真实收入的机理,其关键在于交易效率的提高。而要实现交易效率的提高,必须考虑现行户籍制度和土地产权制度对于交易效率的消极作用。最后得出了只有取消户籍制度、实现土地私有化的前提下。农村移民的交易效率才能提高。交易效率改进能够提高分工专业化水平,实现农村移民的收入水平的提高,最终破解农村移民经济发展的难题。     

Developing and testing a mobile application for breastfeeding support: The Milky Way application

BackgroundSupporting women to continue breastfeeding is a global challenge. The Milky Way Program is an effective face to face intervention to increase breastfeeding rates up to six months postpartum. The sustainability and access to the Milky Way Program could be enhanced by transforming it into a mobile application allowing women to access relevant information from their own place at a convenient time.AimTo explore the process of transforming the Milky Way Program into an acceptable and usable mobile health application.MethodStakeholders including multidisciplinary researchers and end-users designed the application based on the Milky Way Program by using Persuasive System Design principles. A mixed-method approach was used in the development and evaluation process. Seven women were recruited through convenience sampling to pilot test the application. The women’s feedback was collected through an online survey six weeks after birth and individual interviews at four months postpartum.FindingsWomen in the pilot study reported that the breastfeeding application was well designed, easy to use, interactive, reassuring and evidence-based with credible sources of information.ConclusionThe Persuasive System Design model combined with end-user engagement can feasibly inform the development of an acceptable and usable mobile health application for breastfeeding based on a proven clinical intervention. Further rigorous testing is required to evaluate the effectiveness of the application on breastfeeding initiation and duration.     

人口与计划生育目标管理责任制过程评价式考核体系初探

随着人口与计划生育工作综合改革的不断深入,现行人口与计划生育目标管理责任制考核模式的弊端逐渐显现出来,本文综合运用政府绩效管理、业务流程重组、激励与沟通等理论和实证分析方法,对广东省人口与计划生育目标管理责任制考核模式进行探索,从理念构建、流程构建和组织构建等三个层次,构建责任制过程评价式考核的新体系,并提出了具体政策建议.     

Asylum seekers in Europe: the warm glow of a hot potato

The Common European Asylum System calls for increased coordination of the European Union (EU) countries’ policies towards asylum seekers and refugees. In this paper, we provide a formal analysis of the effects of coordination, explicitly modelling the democratic process through which policy is determined. In a symmetric, two-country citizen-candidate setup, in which accepting asylum seekers in one country generates a cross-border externality in the other, we show that coordination is desirable. Internalizing the externality leads to a welfare improvement over the non-cooperative outcome. However, contrary to suggestions by many observers, we show that allowing for cross-country transfers in the cooperative outcome leads to a welfare inferior outcome because the possibility of compensation exacerbates strategic delegation effects.

Developing a Model for the Measurement of Social Inclusion and Social Capital in Regional Australia

This paper reviews the literature on social inclusion and social capital to develop a framework to guide the selection of items and measures for the forthcoming SA Department of Human Services Survey of Social Inclusion to be held in the region of Northern Adelaide in South Australia. Northern Adelaide is a region with areas of high socio-economic disadvantage, characterized by high unemployment and poverty. Survey respondents’ perceptions of social inclusion and social capital in Northern Adelaide will be examined by developing indices, which address the theoretical schema discussed in this paper. Epistemological differences between seminal theorists on social inclusion and social capital suggest the development of a broad suite of indices is required to enable the collection of data of interest to researchers from differing theoretical perspectives. Data collected in the survey will be mapped using Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies against locations within Northern Adelaide and in relation to existing Australian Bureau of Statistics, Commonwealth and State Government databases on age, gender, relative socio-economic disadvantage and other variables.     

循琢经济：区域发展的理想模式——以甘肃凉州为例的循环经济模式谈计

“循环经济”是生态经济内涵的集中表达。本文重点介绍了循环经济这一崭新的可持续发展有效模式的基本理论框架和国际上的一些成功案例及其在中国的初步探索和实验,强调了循环经济是生态环境保护和经济资源最有效循环利用并协调发展的最佳模式。结合作者的工作实践,以地处石羊河流域的甘肃凉州为分析对象,进行循环经济发展模式的案例设计,提出了石羊河流域的经济社会发展必须向生态化方向转型的一些思路。     

Mental health differences between men and women caregivers,BRFSS 2009

This study uses data from the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (BRFSS) to examine differences between male and female caregivers by demographics, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and the effect of social support on HRQOL. Roughly two-thirds of caregivers were women, and demographic characteristics differed among men and women caregivers. Women caregivers reported significantly more mentally and physically unhealthy days than men, but there were no differences between men and women in general health or life satisfaction. Men were significantly more likely to report that they rarely or never received social support. Despite this, the effect of social support on HRQOL was stronger in men than in women. Implications of these findings for caregiver support programs are discussed.     

社会保障制度转轨及其对第三产业发展的影响

我国旧的社会保障制度建立于实施重工业优先发展的“赶超战略”时期。当前 ,随着国有企业退休人口和在职人口比例的提高 ,以及国有企业经济效益日益下滑 ,旧的社会保障制度的弊端日益凸显。为在国有企业建立起现代企业制度 ,必须对旧的社保制度进行全方位的改革。社保制度改革从长期看 ,有利于产业结构升级 ,但在目前的转轨阶段却对第三产业发展起着促进和滞缓的双重作用     

A Demographic Profile of Obesity in the Adult and Veteran US Populations in 2008

Obesity is increasing in the US population and seems to be disproportionately burdening disadvantaged groups. Veterans using the Veterans Healthcare System (VHS) tend to be more disadvantaged socioeconomically than the general population and in poorer health. It is important to understand how the veteran population differs from or is similar to the general population and whether the VHS is able to mediate obesity risk among veterans. This research assesses the sociodemographic, behavioral, and health risk factors for obesity in the US adult and veteran populations in 2008. We use data from the 2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to empirically assess predictors of obesity risk. We find that women have lower odds of obesity than men once controls for sociodemographic, behavioral, and health conditions are included in our models. We also observe a veteran obesity disadvantage in the full adult sample when conducting bivariate tests, but no significant association with the odds of obesity in the logistic regression models among veterans and non-veterans. Gender specific models indicate that male veterans have increased odds of obesity compared to non-veterans, but no difference in obesity risks among veterans and non-veterans are noted for women, controlling for all variables. Further, we find no significant differences in the odds of obesity of veterans using VHS for all, some, or none of their health care needs; further no significant gender differences in obesity risk were observed among VHS usages and non-users. Based on the strong, positive association between the number of chronic health conditions and the odds of obesity, we suggest that health policy should focus efforts on weight management counseling for obese patients that have obesity related co-morbidities, and more targeted attention to male veterans would help to address the high level of obesity in this vulnerable population group.