Evidence for the use of an algorithm in resolving inconsistent and missing Indigenous status in administrative data collections

Measures of the gap in living standards, life expectancy, education, health and employment between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians are primarily derived from administrative data sources. However, Indigenous identification in these data sources is affected by administrative practices, missing data, inconsistency, and error. As these factors have changed over time, assessing whether the gap between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians has changed over time, based on data unadjusted for these sources of error can potentially lead to misguided conclusions. Combining administrative data on the same individuals collected from different sources provides a method by which a more consistent derived Indigenous status can be applied across all records for an individual within a linked data environment. We used the Western Australian Data Linkage system to produce derived Indigenous statuses for individuals using a range of algorithms. We found that these algorithms reduced the amount of missing data and improved within‐individual consistency. Based on these findings, we recommend our Multi‐Stage Median algorithm be used as the standard indicator of Indigenous status for any reporting based on administrative datasets when multiple datasets are available for linkage, and that algorithmic approaches also be considered for improving the quality of other demographic variables from administrative data sources.     

Missing Data: A Comparison of Online and Classroom Data Collection Methods With Social Work Students

ABSTRACT

Missing data (item nonresponse) is prevalent in survey research and likely regardless of the researcher's efforts. Problems associated with missing data include but are not limited to low statistical power, biased results, and limited external validity. The present study compared online (n = 125) and classroom (n = 74) data collection methods to determine the extent of missing data between the two cohorts. The total sample consisted of 199 master's of social work and bachelor's of social work students, each of whom were asked to respond to 91 survey items (the majority of which pertained to research in social work practice). A logistic regression model demonstrated a significant relationship between the total number of completed survey items and the data collection methods. The study shows an empirical association between the classroom data collection method and the lower levels of missing data. Study limitations are discussed, and recommendations for future research are made.     

Estimating Missing Values from the General Social Survey: An Application of Multiple Imputation*

Objectives. Most researchers who use survey data must grapple with the problem of how best to handle missing information. This article illustrates multiple imputation, a technique for estimating missing values in a multivariate setting. Methods. I use multiple imputation to estimate missing income data and update a recent study that examines the influence of parents' standard of living on subjective well‐being. Using data from the 1998 General Social Survey, two ordered probit models are estimated: one using complete cases only, and the other replacing missing income data with multiple imputation estimates. Results. The analysis produces two major findings: (1) parents' standard of living is more important than suggested by the complete cases model, and (2) using multiple imputation can help reduce standard errors. Conclusions. Multiple imputation allows a researcher to use more of the available data, thereby reducing biases that may occur when observations with missing data are simply deleted.     

Working with managers to improve services: changes in the role of research in social care

The setting of specific objectives for children's services and the identification of key outcome indicators, together with the development of a core information specification for children's services with its practical application in the implementation of the Integrated Children's System, all mean that substantially more data are now available to child welfare agencies. Not so long ago in the UK it was the role of research teams to collect and analyse such data. Now that so much of it is already available to agencies, are researchers who work in this area of applied social policy research becoming redundant? Using data from the cohorts of looked after children being studied at the Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University, the paper demonstrates how researchers can work in consultation with the managers of child welfare agencies to make better sense of the data at their disposal. It considers three issues: what additional variables need to be explored to help agencies better understand their performance; how groups of children could be identified who follow predictable pathways through social care; and how qualitative information is necessary to gain a true picture of what is happening. All of these examples demonstrate a fundamental role for researchers in working with social services personnel to identify how services can be improved.     

Sociologies of India's missing children

The sociologies of India's missing children merit spatial and contextual examination. The sociological space into which a child goes missing is highly under‐researched in India. Building on overarching narratives emerging from secondary sources and existing literature on Indian children's vulnerability and precarity, the article aims to evaluate the landscape of missing children. The analyses suggest that a number of interconnected sociologies contribute to the phenomenon of missing children – these children are mainly from the poorer backgrounds, who are kidnapped, trafficked, or lured largely for social, commercial, and sexual exploitation. This research was conducted to gain a deeper understanding into the problem of missing children in order to address the gaps that require intervention.     

Modeling Contextual Effects in Developmental Research: Linking Theory and Method in the Study of Social Development

This special section was inspired by the recent increased interest and methodological advances in the assessment of context‐specificity in child and adolescent social development. While the effects of groups, situations, and social relationships on cognitive, affective and behavioral development have long been acknowledged in theoretical discussions of social development, empirical research has largely relied on the assessment of individual differences rather than contextual differences in these processes—perhaps due to the fact that advanced data analytic techniques are required to access contextual dependencies in such data. While still developing, best practice data analytic techniques enable us to access the ‘social’ of social development in more precision today than ever before. In this special section we examine three of these techniques through the work of our invited authors.     

图形的逻辑力量：因果图的概念及其应用

本文旨在系统性地引介因果图方法,一种社会科学领域新近发展起来的探究因果推断的非参数估计工具。首先对因果图的基本概念和构型进行介绍,讨论变量之间不同“通路”对应的开启和阻断规则及因果推断中的三种偏差来源,即混淆偏差、过度控制偏差、内生性选择偏差。在此基础上,本文将因果图框架与现有定量社会科学研究中基于回归模型的因果推断方法思路进行融合,结合实际案例使用因果图阐释包括遗漏变量、样本选择、自选择及联立性在内的四种内生性问题,并对多元回归与匹配、代理变量、实验、工具变量、面板模型等因果推断方法的运行机制进行了图形化。最后,本文使用因果图厘清一些关于因果推断的不准确理解。     

Minimizing Social Desirability Bias in Measuring Sensitive Topics: The Use of Forgiving Language in Item Development

Abstract

Social science research has long been concerned with attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that are potentially objectionable, immoral, or illegal. These types of topics include, for example, racism, ableism, cheating, and stealing, among others. Referred to as “sensitive topics,” their investigation usually involves questions that require respondents to admit to attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that violate social norms, making their assessment susceptible to error due to social desirability bias. This article describes an empirical investigation of an approach to minimize this bias, the use of “forgiving language” in survey item development and the effect on item variability. Using secondary data initially collected as part of a measurement development study of mental health providers’ stigmatization of service users, 15 pairs of similar, thematically targeted items, varying with respect to wording approach were tested using a purposive sample of mental health providers (N?=?220). Findings indicate that items crafted in a forgiving manner were not significantly influenced by social desirability bias, in contrast to items developed in more traditional language. Additionally, forgiving language-items produced higher levels of agreement, on average, when compared to those written in more traditional language. More research is indicated, including systematic variation of wording approaches, but these results seem promising.     

A Guaranteed Minimum Income Scheme for Australia? Some Problems1

The integration of the income taxation and social security systems is implicit in a guaranteed minimum income scheme. Some of the issues involved in this integration are highlighted. The two systems have developed independently in Australia, mainly because of the fundamentally different roles that the two serve. It is argued that although the two systems should work in harmony, their complete integration will present many great conceptual and practical difficulties which would reduce the effectiveness of both. Thus the poverty problem can be more fruitfully attacked by reform within the existing social security system in Australia than by the introduction of an integrated system.     

Patterns of social assistance receipt in Sweden

This article analyses the situation of Swedish-born people who became first-time receivers of social assistance in 1987 and 1992. The macroeconomic situation at the time of entry was rather different for the two cohorts and the number of new entrances increased by almost 50%. Much of the increase consisted of young adults and experience of social assistance has been shown to be fairly widespread among persons under the age of 25. Bridging the period when individuals are supported by their parents to their becoming established as wage earners has become an important function of social assistance in Sweden. The pattern of social assistance receipt is rather heterogeneous across new recipients. The complex pattern of receipt means that the duration of social assistance can appear to vary depending on one's choice of perspective. On the one hand, the median duration of social assistance receipt is as low as two years when an eleven-year follow-up period is applied. On the other hand, among people who receive social assistance during a given year, as many as half had entered receipt more than four years earlier.     

Effect of impact factor and discipline on journal data sharing policies

Data sharing is crucial to the advancement of science because it facilitates collaboration, transparency, reproducibility, criticism, and re-analysis. Publishers are well-positioned to promote sharing of research data by implementing data sharing policies. While there is an increasing trend toward requiring data sharing, not all journals mandate that data be shared at the time of publication. In this study, we extended previous work to analyze the data sharing policies of 447 journals across several scientific disciplines, including biology, clinical sciences, mathematics, physics, and social sciences. Our results showed that only a small percentage of journals require data sharing as a condition of publication, and that this varies across disciplines and Impact Factors. Both Impact Factors and discipline are associated with the presence of a data sharing policy. Our results suggest that journals with higher Impact Factors are more likely to have data sharing policies; use shared data in peer review; require deposit of specific data types into publicly available data banks; and refer to reproducibility as a rationale for sharing data. Biological science journals are more likely than social science and mathematics journals to require data sharing.     

方言能力与流动儿童的学业表现——来自中国教育追踪调查的证据

本文以就读于八年级的流动儿童作为研究对象，考察了方言能力对其学业表现的影响及作用机制。通过对中国教育追踪调查2014—2015学年数据的分析，本研究发现，掌握流入地方言可以显著改善流动儿童的学业表现，但其影响主要体现在语文和英语两个科目上。同时，来自教师和同学的支持是方言能力影响流动儿童学业表现的作用机制。本研究从语言环境的角度揭示了流动儿童人力资本积累的逻辑，为相关部门完善与流动儿童相关的教育政策提供了经验证据。     

The parameters of prejudice: knowledge of ethics and age bias

This study examined two matters pertinent to social work practice: professional ethics and age bias among practicing social workers. Because social work ethics demand competent practice within one's area of proficiency, and because bias toward any segment of social work clientele impedes competent practice, prejudicial attitudes toward older people are problematic. This study found that age bias exists among practicing social workers (N = 367), with no discernible association between knowledge of professional ethical standards and age bias. The findings suggest a subtle and pervasive bias associated with work with older people. Positive bias was more prevalent than negative bias.     

Missing siblings: seeking more adequate social responses

Little is known about the experience of family and friends when a young adult goes missing, less is known about how siblings make sense of the experience. Police assistance to locate the missing person may be sought but there is little recognition of going missing or missingness as a social issue, and there is little or no adequate social response to the needs of those left behind. This paper links knowledge of siblings, loss and grief to an understanding of this phenomenon. It presents the methodology and findings of an exploratory, qualitative study into the experiences of nine adult siblings of long-term missing people in Australia and presents the themes drawn from their accounts. The themes are briefly elaborated using direct quotations from participants in the study and represented in a diagram. The paper seeks to develop greater understanding of the inter-relationship between missingness and other social issues, to give voice to the views of participants and to encourage practitioners to engage more purposefully in work with family and friends affected by this issue. Some implications for social work practice are presented.     

'Ingenious & learned gentlemen' social perceptions and self-fashioning among parish elites in Essex, 1680-1740

Alan Everitt's well-known characterization of parish elites as the 'pseudo'-gentry has precluded further study of their social aspirations and identity. Recent research has emphasized the varied nature of literary definitions of gentility, but has not examined their relationship to social practice. This study focuses ona network of parish rulers and vestrymen in rural Essex, and their social and intellectual self-fashioning through the pursuit of natural science and history. Following Shapin's isolation of social gentility as a key component in constructing scientific credibility, the study shows the efforts of parish elites to conform to ideals of 'gentelmanly' objectivity, learning and erudition. In doing so, they moulded this acquired status to their circumstances, to break out of circumscribed, contingent social hierarchies in the parish. Gentility was employed as a new currency, to supersede existing, local tokens of status, to be reputed 'a better man and more excellent' than mere inhabitants of 'the town'. Yet the study also illustrates the social limits of this acquired status, and the fears of stepping outside the faniliar local 'sphere'. The study emphasizes that for these parish elites the attainment of gentility was a mixed blessing - a move from the small, secure pond of parish status to the deeper, hostile waters of a more universal status criterion.     

从工具到范式：假设检验争议的知识社会学反思

统计工具的建构与运用不能脱离知识生产的情境脉络,其中渗透着建构者和运用者的个人主张与其所在学科的整体价值追求。原假设显著性检验是社会科学实证研究中最为常用的假设检验方法,其流行并非因为方法论本身的精确无误,而在于它虽存有争议并因此招致严厉批评,但仍简洁有效地满足了研究者追求知识的客观性与确定性、以期将自身所在的学科塑造为一门科学分支的主观期待。因此,这一方法就从一个普通的统计工具上升为一种学科范式,起到了收敛学科的精神指向、提供模式化的解题方法、从而实现学科内部知识较快发展的功能。     

浅析高校贫困大学生的心理问题及解决措施——从社会视野角度分析

由于我国高校的贫困生几乎来自农村,且相当一部分学生家庭非常贫困,这部分贫困大学生受家庭背景等因素的影响,心理存在一定的缺失;加之很多高等院校普遍存在人文氛围不够浓厚等因素,这样就导致了在校贫困学生的心理相对缺失,并得不到有效的修复,从而产生一系列社会问题。因此,对高校贫困大学生的心理特点进行分析并研究其对策很有必要。     

Racial Representation and U.S. Senate Apportionment*

Objectives. This research note explores whether the system of assigning each state equal representation in the U.S. Senate adversely affects racial minorities, groups that often have common political interests. We also project changes in minority representation over the next 20 years using Census data. Methods. We develop a new method of assessing racial bias due to apportionment, which calculates the number of seats lost by groups due to equal representation, a more substantively meaningful statistic than correlational measures. Results. We find that both African Americans and Hispanics are substantially underrepresented due to their greater presence in high‐population states as compared to in low‐population states. Whereas bias against African Americans appears to be falling, the demographic patterns of Hispanics will make them even more underrepresented in coming years. Conclusions. These findings are especially consequential considering that malapportionment has important public policy implications, including greater per‐capita distributive benefits for smaller states. Further, given that the Senate serves as a major veto point in U.S. politics, racial bias due to equal apportionment may have a significant impact on current and future political debates relevant to minority groups.     

必要与如何：基于历史资料的量化数据库构建与分析——以大学生学籍卡片资料为中心的讨论

随着“大数据”时代的到来,依靠大规模系统历史资料构建量化数据库并进行定量分析成为一种新的、行之有效的研究方法。如何将这类历史资料进行合理有效的编码和数据库化,并通过实证分析更好地帮助我们了解社会经济发展的历史经验和对当下的启示,成为学界需要加强探索和讨论的关键技术课题。本文试图借助笔者多年来整理、分析近现代中国高校大学生学籍卡资料的经验,说明这种新方法论视角用于定量分析历史资料的重要价值与必要性,以及可能存在的诸多挑战和可供参考的应对办法。希望藉此引起社会科学与人文学科学者对这种研究方法的关注、讨论、尝试与合作。     

级差地域视野中的人地关系变迁初论——以清代中晚期的西北地区为例

清代中晚期,政府为了社会经济发展的需要,大量进行移民和大规模的开垦土地,这种掠夺性经营西北的方式,使得很多不适宜进行农业生产的土地被开发出来,西北的环境在清中晚期持续恶化,成为当时全国自然生态环境最为恶劣的地区。呈现级差地域特点的自然环境直接制约着该地区社会经济的发展,植被破坏、土地贫瘠化的加剧,影响到该地区的农业生产,破坏了的自然环境给清时期西北地区社会经济的发展提供了一个残破的环境背景。