The Influence of Parental Financial Socialization on Youth’s Financial Behavior: Evidence from Ghana

How youth manage their money may influence their transitions to adulthood. This may be particularly true for youth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where many youth and young adults lack access to economic opportunities. Parental financial socialization is associated with youth financial knowledge, attitudes, and behavior in research studies conducted mostly in the US, yet little is known about the financial lives of youth living in SSA. Propensity score analysis and robust standard errors with multiple regression were used to examine the relationship between parental financial socialization and youth financial behaviors among a sample of 3,623 youth ages 12–19 and a parent or other adult guardian living in eight out of 10 regions of Ghana. Findings indicated that both parent- and youth-perceived parental financial socialization was a strong and consistent predictor of youth financial behaviors, as was receipt of earned income. Practitioners interested in empowering youth through financial education and inclusion programs might consider how to involve parents and other family members in programs and capitalize on opportunities for youth to have some earned income while they learn how to manage money.     

The White Management of ‘Volunteering’: Ethnographic Evidence from an Israeli NGO

The article examines the recent emergence of ‘volunteering’ as a publicly significant notion and practice. Based on an extensive fieldwork in a prominent intermediary NGO in Israel, the article follows the efforts to promote and expand ‘volunteering’ pursued by the organization’s board and staff members. Affiliated with the privileged social strata of Ashkenazi (European) Jews, whose hegemonic position has been eroded during the neoliberal transformations in Israel, the NGO staff seek to retain their privileged status through a managerial activity in the field of ‘volunteering’. They promote a particular, liberally inspired construction of ‘volunteering’, while universalizing it as a professional, a-political and consensual realm. Inspired by critical studies of ‘whiteness’, the article describes how the privileged character of this managerial activity is being successfully obscured through the representation of ‘volunteering’ as an all-inclusive aspiration.     

Family Structure and Children’s Education Outcome: Evidence from Uruguay

As the developed world has experienced a shift away from the traditional two-biological parent family, scholars have sought to understand how children are faring in non-traditional homes. Debate has arisen over assertions that children from non-traditional families do less well in school. Concerns about selection issues as well as a paucity of cross-cultural evidence, have led some scholars to question the influence of family structure on educational attainment. Using data from the 2006 Uruguayan household survey, we evaluated the relationship of family structure with children’s education using two different methods to deal with selection problems, an instrumental variables approach and propensity score matching. Both approaches yield evidence that growing up in non-traditional family structures seems to be negative related with the schooling of Uruguayan boys, with more muted results for girls. Interestingly, Uruguay is a developing country with two peculiarities, that is, a culture that experienced fairly rapid modernization in terms of institutions—including family transition—especially compared with other South American nations, and meanwhile an intriguingly high level of school drop-out, unusually high for Uruguay’s overall level of development.     

Effects of a Foster Parent Training Program on Young Children’s Attachment Behaviors: Preliminary Evidence from a Randomized Clinical Trial

Young children who enter foster care experience disruptions in care and maltreatment at a point when maintaining attachment relationships is a key, biologically based task. In previous research, we have found that young children experience challenges as they form attachments with new caregivers. They tend to push their new caregivers away, even though such children are especially in need of nurturing care. Further, many caregivers do not respond in nurturing ways when their children are distressed, which we have found is problematic for young children in foster care. We developed an intervention that is designed to help caregivers provide nurturance even when children do not elicit it, and even when it does not come naturally to them. This paper presents preliminary findings of the effectiveness of this intervention on children’s attachment behaviors. Forty-six children were randomly assigned to either the experimental intervention or to an educational intervention. For three consecutive days, attachment behaviors were reported across three distress-eliciting situations. Children whose parents had received the experimental intervention showed significantly less avoidance than children whose parents had received the educational intervention. These preliminary results suggest that the intervention is successful in helping children develop trusting relationships with new caregivers.     

Gamblers’ Habits: Empirical Evidence on the Behavior of Regulars, Newcomers and Dropouts

Electronic gambling offers the opportunity to analyze huge and unbiased data sets of automatically recorded actual gambling behavior. This study refers to data on 2,127,887 poker playing identities from the Online Poker Database of the University of Hamburg (OPD-UHH) to analyze three subgroups of gamblers: regulars, newcomers, and dropouts. Their gambling habits over 6 months are analyzed in total, as well as over time. Regulars show a much higher involvement than non-regulars and increase their playing volume slightly over the observation period. Newcomers have a lower involvement than non-newcomers and most of them decrease their playing volume over time. Still, there is a small group of newcomers which increases their playing volume sharply and is, hence, very interesting for the industry as well as for the early prevention of pathological gambling. Dropouts have a higher gambling involvement than newcomers but play less than players who have not stopped stop gambling. Most dropouts also show a decreasing playing volume before dropping out. An analysis of the correlations between different variables of gambling habits shows that most of them reinforce each other, for example: gamblers with a higher total playing time tend to play at more tables simultaneously. Only playing frequency is a moderating variable of gambling involvement.     

Elementary Preservice Teachers’ and Teacher Educators’ Perceptions of Financial Literacy Education

The authors conducted an online survey of elementary teacher education programs within a large midwestern state to assess preservice teachers’ and teacher educators’ beliefs about and preparedness to teach financial literacy. Very few preservice teachers had meaningful experiences with personal finance in high school, college, or personal decision making. No teacher educators reported ever teaching financial literacy in their higher education roles. Only 13% of teacher educators and 25% of preservice teachers thought that it was very important to teach financial literacy in elementary education. Most teacher education faculty and preservice teachers reported that they were not well qualified to use state economics standards or the JumpStart standards for financial literacy. Preservice teachers were more confident in meeting financial literacy standards than teacher educators. Both preservice teachers and teacher educators expressed openness to collaborating with other faculty members, members of the financial service industry, and parents to teach financial literacy. Follow-up phone interviews affirmed that elementary preservice teachers and teacher educators value social studies education (and financial literacy) less than reading and mathematics education. Qualitative results also suggest that elementary preservice teachers and teacher educators would like more easily accessible resources for teaching financial literacy.     

Financial Leverage and Shareholder’s Required Returns: Evidence from South Africa Corporate Sector

Recent financial crisis which saw an increase in risk premium and shareholder’s required return around the world has been in part attributed to firms excessive debt leverage. This paper tests the impact of debt leverage on shareholder’s required return in South Africa. The paper specifies dynamic panel models and uses difference generalized method of moment (GMM) estimation technique. The results show that long term debt is positively related to shareholder’s required return. Similarly, total debt is positively related to shareholder’s required return. The results are robust to alternative model specification namely system GMM. Based on the findings, the study suggests that debt leverage is an important risk factor to be priced in equity valuation. The findings also suggest that the dynamic nature of firms’ capital structure decision should not be neglected. The paper contributes to capital structure research by testing Modigliani and Miller proposition two on listed firms in South Africa. Besides, it uses better estimation technique that controls for unobservable firm-specific effects and endogenous problem. In addition, two measures of leverage are used as independent variable compared to a single measure commonly found in the literature.     

‘Us’ and ‘them’: the limits and possibilities of a ‘politics of neurodiversity’ in neoliberal times

The neurodiversity movement claims that there are neurological differences in the human population, and that autism is a natural variation among humans – not a disease or a disorder, just ‘a difference’. A ‘politics of neurodiversity’ is based on the claim that the ‘neurodiverse’ population constitutes a political grouping comparable with those of class, gender, sexuality or race. This paper considers the limits and possibilities of neurodiverse political activism, and concludes by calling for a politics of identity that does not depend on a politics of ‘us’ and ‘them’.     

The Relationship Between Wife’s Education and Husband’s Earnings: Evidence from 1960 to 2000

Previous research finds a positive relationship between a wife’s education and her husband’s earnings using data from the 1960s. Earlier theories suggest that benefits accrue from informational sharing between partners in a marriage. This paper tests the hypothesis that a wife’s education is positively associated with her husband’s earnings, using data from the 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000 Censuses. Between 1960 and 2000, the educational attainment and labor-force participation of married women has increased dramatically. As women have embarked upon their own careers, has their education continued to be positively associated with their husbands’ earnings? Yes. The coefficient of the wife’s education remains positive and significant for all the years under study. The size of the coefficient decreases, however, from 1960 to 2000.     

Imaginaries of postponed arrival: on seeing ‘society’ and its ‘immigrants’

This paper discusses a logic of seeing in official assessments of the ‘integration of immigrants’ in West European societies and interprets these as arrival narratives. In postcolonial and diasporic literature, the arrival narrative is not concerned with the actual date of arrival but with the question ‘how much has someone really arrived?’ (Quayson, A. 2013. Postcolonialism and the diasporic imaginary. Lecture series: New directions in literary postcolonial studies. Utrecht University, 7 Oct.). The official, state-initiated monitoring of immigrant integration is based upon measurements of the degree to which the population classified as ‘immigrant’ is ‘integrated’ in a ‘host society’. In literary terms, this can be interpreted as a narrative in which a personage – classified in highly specific, contingent ways, as ‘immigrant’ – is portrayed as being in a mode of arriving but without having arrived and without ever really arriving. The way in which this narrative of postponed arrival is shaped involves a specific way of seeing in the routinized work of quantitatively assessing immigrant integration. With the narratological concept of focalization we analyse a logic of seeing present in the reports and images of immigrant integration monitoring practices in the Netherlands. Moreover, we discuss the workings of a societal gaze, instituted on the basis of particular societal norms reproduced at the ‘place of arrival’, that is, the place imagined as ‘society’. This societal gaze operates as a performative practice distributing a way of seeing, thereby enacting the reproduction of existing power asymmetries between ‘members of society’ and ‘immigrants’. As such, we conclude, the hope for ‘arrival’ constitutes a form of ‘cruel optimism’ (Berlant, L., 2011. Cruel optimism. Durham: Duke University Press).     

Improving Social Work Education in Vietnam Through International Cooperation: The ‘Social Work Education Enhancement Program’

This paper describes an initiative to improve social work education in Vietnam through a three-year international collaborative, including US Aid for International Development, San José State University, eight universities in Vietnam, Vietnam's government ministries, and Cisco Systems, Inc. The social work profession was officially recognized by the Vietnamese government in 2010. Despite the rapid expansion of social work education programs, there are significant limitations in the universities' ability to provide social work education. The goal of the Social Work Education Enhancement Program (SWEEP) is to strengthen the capacity of Vietnam's undergraduate social work programs to deliver quality education and prepare trained, job-ready social workers. The SWEEP project aims to improve the administration of social work education, the professional capacity of faculty, social work curriculum, and networking technology to enable centers for excellence in learning and scholarship. To ensure that the SWEEP team targeted training and technical assistance activities that were culturally congruent, a comprehensive needs assessment and frequent mid-course evaluations were conducted, showing many shared and unique contextual issues facing universities. The collaborative process of developing social work education which fits the local context can be replicated in other countries that are in the early stages of social work development.     

Better Listening: Paraphrasing and Perception Checking–A Study of the Effectiveness of a Multimedia Skills Training Program

SUMMARY

The authors describe a multimedia communications skills training CD-ROM for human service students and practitioners and evaluate its effectiveness with undergraduate social work students in Canada.     

‘Heteroglossic’ Discourses on Globalization: A View from the ‘East’

Abstract

In view of the broad scope of literature on globalization, this paper provides a synoptic reading of some of the globalization literatures, organized as ‘discourses’. The analysis of the discourses on globalization is confined to three overlapping discourses, namely, regional, ideological and economic discourses. Specific references and examples of local uptake of globalization will be drawn from Singapore and the wider Asia pacific region, as Beck (2002) has reminded us that we cannot even think about globalization or discuss it effectively without the reference to specific locations and places. Hence the subtitle of this paper, ‘A View from the East’, is deliberate to signal the often forgotten fact that Singapore, as well as the wider Asia Pacific region, is ‘part of the “global” sphere that the West has dispersed itself into’.     

The Impact of Legal Status on Immigrants’ Earnings and Human Capital: Evidence from the IRCA 1986

The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), the largest amnesty in U.S. history, took effect in 1986 and legalized all immigrants who arrived before 1982. The IRCA creates a discontinuity, according to the year of entry, in the probability of having legal status. Therefore, I use the regression discontinuity approach to study the impact of legality on immigrants’ labor market outcomes and human capital. Using Californian Latino immigrants from Census 1990, I find that the 1975–81 arrivals, on average, outperform the 1982–86 arrivals in male wages, female employment probability, and male English-speaking ability. These findings are not due to a general trend in U.S. labor market conditions because the same analysis, using refugees, Puerto Rican migrants and U.S.-born Latinos—three comparison groups without legality issues—indicates no difference in outcomes between the 1975–81 and 1982–86 cohorts. However, the advantage of Latino immigrants of the earlier cohort over the later cohort diminishes in Census 2000.     

Costs of promoting cancer screening: Evidence from CDC’s Colorectal Cancer Control Program (CRCCP)

The Colorectal Cancer Control Program (CRCCP) provided funding to 29 grantees to increase colorectal cancer screening. We describe the screening promotion costs of CRCCP grantees to evaluate the extent to which the program model resulted in the use of funding to support interventions recommended by the Guide to Community Preventive Services (Community Guide). We analyzed expenditures for screening promotion for the first three years of the CRCCP to assess cost per promotion strategy, and estimated the cost per person screened at the state level based on various projected increases in screening rates. All grantees engaged in small media activities and more than 90% used either client reminders, provider assessment and feedback, or patient navigation. Based on all expenditures, projected cost per eligible person screened for a 1%, 5%, and 10% increase in state-level screening proportions are $172, $34, and $17, respectively. CRCCP grantees expended the majority of their funding on Community Guide recommended screening promotion strategies but about a third was spent on other interventions. Based on this finding, future CRC programs should be provided with targeted education and information on evidence-based strategies, rather than broad based recommendations, to ensure that program funds are expended mainly on evidence-based interventions.     

‘How Am I Doing?’: Advancing Management Skills Through the Use of a Multi-source Feedback Tool to Enhance Work-based Learning on a Post-qualifying Post-graduate Leadership and Management Programme

The acquisition of advanced skills and knowledge in leadership and management is cited as key to delivering a vision for quality care services. Managers need concrete tools for promoting their own learning within organisational cultures for self-managed learning to thrive. We report on the application of a tailor-made multi-source feedback tool to promote the advancement of management skills on a post-qualifying award for social work managers. This particular tool was based on English national leadership and management standards and its 10 ‘key principles’. Managers were required to analyse and reflect on their current level of skill using line-management, peer, supervisee, staff and service user appraisal. They then developed a work-based learning and development plan, supported by mentoring and supervision. How we actually measure skill and associated knowledge and values is an under-researched area. Determining the ideal structure for defining and measuring outcomes of skill development highlights the complexities involved. Data from the managers' own evaluations are used to debate the value of using skill definitions flexible enough to enable individual use and interpretation but not so general as to be meaningless. The discussion suggests that use of a multi-source assessment tool and the process were found to be useful on a number of dimensions.     

The Role of Learning Context in High School Students’ Financial Knowledge and Behavior Acquisition

Using social construction theory, associations between student and classroom characteristics and high school students’ financial knowledge and behavior acquisition after studying a financial planning curriculum were examined. Prior to curriculum study, Whites, those growing up in a farm family business, and those who were working had higher financial knowledge; male and female knowledge differed by content. After curriculum study, females, those not growing up in a farm family business, and those who were not working gained most from curriculum study. While Whites, those who were working, and males exhibited more positive behaviors prior to curriculum study, after curriculum study, students living in states having financial mandates and those who did not grow up in a farm family business increased their positive behaviors most.     

‘Providing a Link with the Real World’: Learning from the Student Experience of Service User and Carer Involvement in Social Work Education

Social work has long placed an emphasis on involving users and carers in the education of practitioners, an emphasis driven by service users and carers themselves, the value base of social work, and by policy and legislation from successive governments and regulatory bodies. Recent changes in regulation and professional standards in social work suggest a continuing commitment to service user and carer involvement. This paper argues that in order to ensure a sustainable commitment, there needs to be greater evidence of the value and purpose of such involvement. Whilst there is a considerable body of literature on this issue in social work education, little focus is on any impact on current and future practice of social work students. The paper discusses a research project addressing this issue from the perspective of social work students. Findings suggest that the involvement of service users and carers in their training was perceived by students as overwhelmingly positive, should be enhanced and that they believed that these experiences were taken forward in their practice. The paper also identifies key points that could inform best educational practice.     

Education in times of conflict and the invisibility of disability: a focus on Iraq?

Education has come to be a key focus of the humanitarian response of international agencies in countries affected by conflict, but disabled children tend to be excluded from these education initiatives. Yet the reconstruction process can provide governments with a unique opportunity to reassess the way they educate disabled children, and consider moving towards more inclusive educational approaches. Indeed, crises can be seen as opportunities to ‘build back better’. A review of the limited literature is followed by an account of a disability study in Iraq, and reflections on the way forward for collaborative research on educational reconstruction in post-conflict societies.     

Associations Between Financial Transfer from Grandparents and Family Expenditures for Children’s Precollege Education in Japan

Given higher family spending for education and the relative poverty rate in Japan, the recent (2013–2021) tax incentive for grandparents’ support for educational expenditures for children might widen opportunities offered to the younger generation. Using nationally representative data from the 2017 Keio Household Panel Survey (n?=?502) and a double-hurdle model, this paper examined the associations between grandparents’ financial contributions and family expenditures for school age children’s education, controlling for family characteristics associated with such expenditures. Although examining just the period when the tax incentive is in effect limited the ability of this study to suggest the findings were related to the incentive, overall, variations in financial support from grandparents were not associated with family expenditures for children’s educations in the multivariate model. Although there was no evidence of an educational advantage from intergenerational transfers during the observation period, financial transfers from grandparents may have served as a substitute for the overall family expenditures for children’s education, thus potentially widening the opportunity gap among children.