Financial Capability,Asset Ownership,and Later-Age Immigration: Evidence From a Sample of Low-Income Older Asian Immigrants

We examined financial capability and asset ownership among low-income older Asian immigrants with special attention given to later-age immigrants who came to the United States when they were 55 years old or older. Survey data collected from supported employment program participants (N = 150) were used. The analyses demonstrated a low level of financial knowledge and asset ownership in the sample. The findings also indicated that later-age immigrants’ financial-management skills, knowledge of social programs, and asset ownership were significantly lower than those of young-age immigrants. These findings call for active interventions to enhance economic security among low-income older Asian immigrants.     

Living Arrangements,Depression, and Health Status Among Elderly Russian-Speaking Immigrants

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between living arrangements, depression, and health status in a community-based sample of 300 elderly Russian-speaking immigrants. Data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire survey method. The questionnaire was designed to investigate various aspects of health, mental health, health services utilization, and health behaviors. A team of bilingual professionals was involved in the construction and translation of the survey instrument. The sample consists of 150 females and 150 males. The respondents' average age was 73.2 years. The regression analysis reveals that elderly Russian-speaking immigrants who live alone are more likely to experience a higher level of depression than those living with others. This relationship remains statistically significant after controlling for age, education, income, ability to speak English, years residing in the United States, gender, and health status. Since health status appears to influence depression, we performed further regression analyses and found that living arrangements had no statistically significant relationship with health status. Health status serves as an intermediate variable between the block of demographic variables and depression. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Perception of Parental Reciprocity Scale (POPRS): Development and Validation with Adolescents and Young Adults

The present paper describes the development of a new scale, the Perception of Parental Reciprocity Scale (POPRS), and research findings obtained with this instrument. Based on Youniss' (1980) theory, this scale assesses the extent of perceived mutual reciprocity in adolescents'/young adults' relations with their parents. An initial pool of 51 items was administered to 141 unmarried undergraduates along with measures of self-esteem, locus of control, and consultant choice to indicate construct validity. Item analyses and reliability procedures produced a 43-item scale. A second study of 1602 students between the ages of 13 and 25 examined further issues: cross-replication, cross-validation, reliability with young adolescents, reliability over time, criterion and construct validity, and age-related differences in scores. In addition to POPRS and the scales used in Study 1, measures included three global statements, attachment to parents, attitude to private personal authority, and scores on an open-ended interview. Results from both studies demonstrated high reliability, and construct and criterion validity. Furthermore, a significant age effect supports Youniss' theory of a developmental transformation in parent-child relations beginning in late adolescence and continuing in early adulthood.     

Evaluation of the psychometric properties of two scales of work–family conflict among Ghanaian employees

This study examines the psychometric properties of Carlson, Kacmar, and Williams’ (2000) multidimensional scale of work–family conflict and Matthews, Kath, and Barnes-Farrell’s (2010) abbreviated version of the instrument in Ghana. Five hundred and forty-one (541) employees selected from different organizations responded to structured questionnaires administered in English. Results from confirmatory factor analysis supported the six-dimensional factor structure of Carlson et al.’s (2000) measure. The instrument was found to have good internal consistency, adequate convergent validity and discriminant validity, as well as invariance of factor structure across gender. The results also supported the two-dimensional factor structure of Matthews et al.’s (2010) abbreviated version of the work–family conflict scale. The dimensions of work–family conflict on the abbreviated measure correlated strongly with respective dimensions of the original multidimensional version. Latent mean comparisons suggested that men reported more work–family conflict than women on both measures. The study demonstrates the applicability of both the six-dimensional work–family conflict scale and the abbreviated work–family conflict measure for research in Ghana.     

Development and Psychometric Properties of the Classroom Peer Context Questionnaire

Children's view on the peer context in their classroom may differ from that of other informants, but no measure systematically examines children's own view. Therefore, we developed the Classroom Peer Context Questionnaire (CPCQ) and evaluated its reliability, validity, and stability in two studies. In Study 1, 464 children (M_age = 10.8 years, 53.2% girls) from 18 Grade 5 classrooms participated in 2 waves of data collection. In Study 2, 1538 children (M_age = 10.6 years, 47.2% girls) from 59 Grade 5 classrooms participated in 3 waves of data collection. Exploratory factor analyses in Study 1 revealed 5 dimensions labeled comfort, cooperation, conflict, cohesion, and isolation. Confirmatory factor analyses in Study 2 supported these 5 dimensions. Study 2 also demonstrated good reliability, validity, and stability for each dimension. Researchers and professionals in schools may use the CPCQ to obtain reliable and quick information on how children perceive the peer context in their classroom.     

Anglo‐Australian and non‐Anglophone middle classes: ‘foreign accent’ and social inclusion

Building on the concept of ‘multicultural middle class’, this paper explores social inclusion of professionally educated and employed non‐Anglophone immigrants in Australia. We focus specifically on the perceptions and implications of ‘foreign accent’ in the interaction between two groups of middle‐class Australians: non‐Anglophone immigrants and Anglo‐Australians. ‘Non‐Anglophone immigrants’ are defined as those who arrived in Australia as adults, grew up speaking a language other than English, and therefore usually speak English with a ‘foreign accent’. ‘Anglo‐Australians’ are defined as people born in Australia who grew up in families/households where only English was spoken, therefore speaking with a ‘native Australian’ accent. Through a survey of a targeted sample of respondents, the two groups were asked about their intergroup communication, wider interaction (e.g., intermarriage, friendships and working together) and mutual perceptions. Our findings indicate high levels of agreement between the two groups that Anglophone/non‐Anglophone communication is minimally hindered by comprehension problems due to foreign‐accented speech and cultural differences. Although the positive picture that emerges may reflect specific experiences and attitudes of middle‐class professionals and may not be generalisable, increased contact of the 'multicultural middle class' with its Anglo‐Australian counterpart is likely to be a factor in dissociating foreign accent and negative stereotyping.     

Interpersonal skills scale: Development and validation in urbanized sample of adolescents

Interpersonal skills play a vital role in the growth and development of adolescents. The current study explored the experience and manifestation of interpersonal skills in Pakistani adolescents. In phase I, using open‐ended phenomenological approach, key components of interpersonal skills were elicited from 32 adolescents (boys = 16; girls = 16) aged 11–19 years (M = 14.48; SD = 1.06). In phase II, Content Validity Index for items (I‐CVIs) and scale (S‐CVI) was established. In phase III, pilot testing was carried out on 21 adolescents (boys = 11; girls = 10). In Phase IV, a sample of 674 adolescents (boys = 47%; girls = 53%) aged 11–19 years (M = 14.88; SD = 1.33) were tested for psychometric properties of Interpersonal Skills Scale along with Social Intelligence Scale for Adolescents and Self‐Esteem Scale for Children. Exploratory Factor Analysis (n = 221) generated three factors of the Interpersonal Skills Scale social engagement, sociability, and social etiquettes. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (n = 453) also supported the three‐factor structure of the Interpersonal Skills Scale. Furthermore, the scale found to have high internal consistency, construct validity, discriminant validity, split‐half reliability, and test–retest reliability. The results are discussed in the light of factorial structure in the Pakistani cultural context.     

The Wellness Index:

The Wellness Index is a 79-item, self-administered scale used to measure well-being. The Wellness lndex contains six independent dimensions of well-being which include physical health, morale, economic resources, ADL-IADL, religiosity, and social resources. Data for 463 older adults revealed each subscale and the Index had acceptable reliability and validity. An R factor, principle component analysis, suggested all subscales except economic resources could be combined to form a composite measure of overall level of functioning. Conceptual and methodological issues are discussed as well as implications for the future.     

Welfare reform and elderly immigrants' health insurance coverage: the roles of federal and state medicaid eligibility rules

Immigrants' access to federally-funded Medicaid became limited after welfare reform imposed restrictive noncitizen eligibility rules. This study used a representative sample from the Current Population Survey (N?=?105,873) and state-level data to examine the effects of these policy changes on elderly immigrants. Triple difference-in-differences analyses show that federal restriction of eligibility had a significantly negative association with elderly immigrants' Medicaid coverage, and generous state eligibility had significantly positive relationships with Medicaid and any health insurance coverage. Findings indicate the important role of eligibility on elderly immigrants' health insurance coverage. Results call for social workers' actions to expand elderly immigrants' Medicaid eligibility.     

Race and Place: Exploring the Intersection of Inequity and Volunteerism Among Older Black and White Adults

Although the historical impact of racial segregation and ongoing health and economic inequities between older Black and White adults is well documented, little is known about the relationships among race, individual- and neighborhood-resources, and formal volunteering in later life. This study explores this intersection. Individual-level data from 268 respondents aged 55+ were collected in the St. Louis metropolitan area through paper-based mail surveys. Objective neighborhood data were obtained at the zip code level from secondary sources and matched with respondents. Using exploratory factor analysis, we constructed a 14-item environmental scale with 3 neighborhood dimensions (economic, social, and built environment). Older Black adults had lower levels of education; had fewer financial assets; lived in neighborhoods with less economic resources and lower built environment scores; and fewer formally volunteered when compared to older White adults. Individual resources (financial assets, health) and neighborhood resources (social and built environment) were positively associated with formal volunteering among older Black adults. Only individual resources (age, marital status, financial assets, health) were associated with formal volunteering among older White adults. A coherent set of policies that bolsters individual and environmental capacities may increase the rate of volunteerism among older black adults.     

Welfare Reform and Elderly Immigrants' Health Insurance Coverage: The Roles of Federal and State Medicaid Eligibility Rules

Immigrants' access to federally-funded Medicaid became limited after welfare reform imposed restrictive noncitizen eligibility rules. This study used a representative sample from the Current Population Survey (N?=?105,873) and state-level data to examine the effects of these policy changes on elderly immigrants. Triple difference-in-differences analyses show that federal restriction of eligibility had a significantly negative association with elderly immigrants' Medicaid coverage, and generous state eligibility had significantly positive relationships with Medicaid and any health insurance coverage. Findings indicate the important role of eligibility on elderly immigrants' health insurance coverage. Results call for social workers' actions to expand elderly immigrants' Medicaid eligibility.     

Turkish adaptation of the mindful parenting inventories for parents and children

Mindful parenting is a burgeoning global research interest. This study adapted the existing 18-item parallel mindful parenting inventories for parents and children (MPIP/MPIC) into Turkish, examining their psychometric properties and validation in 154 mothers living in Türkiye (M_age = 42.74 years, SD_age = 5.06 years) and their typically developing children (n = 154, M_age = 13.19 years, SD_age = 1.64 years). Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were performed to validate the existing factor structure of the MPIP/MPIC for the Turkish version. Multiple-group CFA was used to test the measurement invariance between mothers and children. Pearson correlations and regression analyses were used to assess the validity of the MPIP/MPIC against established measures of mindfulness and positive parenting (testing convergent validity) and child behaviours (testing concurrent and predictive validity). CFA supported that the Turkish MPIP/MPIC structure was similar to that in the UK, consisting of four dimensions: Self-Regulation in Parenting, Acceptance and Compassion towards Child, Being in the Moment with Child, and Awareness of Child, each with satisfactory internal consistency. Partial measurement invariance was found between parents and children, with mothers reporting somewhat higher scores for the Being in the Moment with Child and Awareness of Child than children. Overall, the convergent and concurrent validity of the Turkish MPIP/MPIC was supported. In addition, MPIP predicted mother-reported child behaviours, and MPIC predicted child-reported child behaviours over and above mothers’ dispositional mindfulness and positive parenting (predictive validity). The Turkish parallel MPIP/MPIC show promise for use with mothers in Türkiye and children to assess mindful parenting.     

Measuring Self-Appraised Changes following Participation in an Intervention for Caregivers of Individuals with Dementia

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Self-Appraisal of Change Scale, a measure designed to capture domains that are subjectively relevant to caregivers, associated with overall well-being, and amenable to change upon engaging in an intervention. Data from 107 caregivers of veterans with dementia enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of a telephone-delivered caregiver psychoeducation and support group program (the Telehealth Education Program (TEP)) were analyzed. The TEP, which was delivered by master’s prepared social workers and a nurse dementia care manager, targeted caregivers’ dementia-related knowledge, attitudes, and self-management skills. Analyses were conducted to determine the factor structure, reliability, validity, and measurement invariance of the scale. Factor analyses yielded a single-factor solution for the scale’s nine items. The reliability and construct validity of the scale were also supported by the analyses. Multi-group analyses suggested that meaningful comparisons of scale items and total raw scores can be made across usual care (UC) and intervention groups. The findings offer preliminary support that the scale may represent a valid and reliable instrument that captures perceived changes in key domains (e.g. caregiving knowledge, attitudes, and skill) following participation in a psychoeducational and support intervention trial.     

Susceptibility to Emotional Contagion

Abstract

This article reports a psychometric evaluation of a measure of susceptibility to emotional contagion, designed to measure the degree to which a person is vulnerable to “catching” and sharing the emotion experienced by another. The scale was examined to test its application to depression, burnout, and impairment among practicing social workers. Data from a probability sample of 751 practicing social workers were collected in an anonymous survey about social workers' health and work issues. The sample was split to conduct exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The factor analyses resulted in a revised scale that demonstrated acceptable internal consistency reliability, good content validity, excellent factorial validity, and preliminary construct validity. Susceptibility to emotional contagion was related to burnout, depression, and professional impairment. Future recommendations are made and this instrument may be a useful tool for the identification, prevention, intervention, and education of social workers at risk for depression, burnout, and professional impairment.     

Psychometric properties of an adapted version of the parental sense of competence (PSOC) scale for Portuguese at‐risk parents

Parental sense of competence is one of the central dimensions targeted on psychosocial interventions aimed at supporting at‐risk families. Researchers and practitioners need reliable instruments to assess the parental role adapted for these families. Although the parental sense of competence (PSOC) scale has been frequently used to assess this construct, there is still no adapted version for Portuguese parents. In this study, the reliability, validity and factor structure of the PSOC scale is examined with a clinical sample of 146 mothers from at‐risk families receiving psychosocial interventions for family preservation from Child Protective Services. Results show that the Portuguese version of the PSOC measures three distinct constructs with acceptable psychometric properties: efficacy, dissatisfaction and controllability. As expected, the obtained factors were significantly and positively related to parenting alliance and family cohesion, and negatively associated with parenting stress. In sum, the proposed Portuguese version shows reliability and validity evidences to measure three relevant dimensions of parental self‐evaluation, and it constitutes a cost‐ and time‐effective instrument suited for at‐risk mothers.     

Development and Validation of an Organizational Competency Scale (OCS) for Elder Civic Engagement Programs: A Pilot Study

Abstract

This pilot study developed and validated an organizational competency scale (OCS) for elder civic engagement programs. The OCS was used to comprehensively measure the organizational competencies at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels. Thirty-two formal organizations in the State of Texas participated in this study. Based on the factor analyses of data collected from these organizations, the original 31-item OCS was reduced to a 28-item, seven-factor scale. The derived factors were client discovery with support, client-centered planning and management, client assessment and training, integration of diverse groups, promotion of adaptation between groups, integration of resources to address the structural constraints, and promotion of social recognition and social justice. Findings from the reliability tests and hierarchical regression analysis supported the reliability and criterion-related validity of the OCS. As a reliable and valid tool, the OCS can be used by formal organizations to evaluate the current competencies, identify areas for improvement, and find future directions for organizational development. It can also serve as practice guidelines to help organizational practitioners integrate available resources within the multi-level systems to better engage older participants. To further test the stability of the OCS and evaluate the overall fit of the structural model, additional research is needed.     

Preschool and School Readiness of Children of Immigrants*

Objective. In this article, we use data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey—Kindergarten Cohort to analyze the links between preschool attendance and the school readiness of children of immigrants. Methods. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey—Kindergarten Cohort, we estimate multivariate regression models for the effects of preschool on school readiness for children of immigrants and children of natives. Results. We find that children whose mothers were born outside the United States are less likely to be enrolled in school or center‐based preschool programs than other children. We find that preschool attendance raises reading and math scores as much for children of immigrants as it does for other children. Attending preschool also raises the English‐language proficiency of children of immigrants. Although not the main focus of our study, we examined the effects of Head Start, and found that this program improves children's English proficiency, with especially large effects for children of immigrants whose mothers have less than a high school education; in this latter group, Head Start also improved math scores. Conclusions. Given that preschool benefits children of immigrants as much as it does children of natives and given that children of immigrants are less likely to be enrolled, our findings strongly suggest that enrolling more children of immigrants in preschool would help reduce inequality in skills at school entry.     

Developmental differences in baserate estimates of social behaviors and attitudes

This study examined the development of baserate estimation skills for everyday social events and attitudes. Subjects in grades one, three, and six responded to questions concerning their own rates of behavior and attitudes, and their estimates of baserates of behaviors and attitudes for their classmates. The findings indicate a general increase in accuracy for the estimation of baserates throughout the elementary school years. In addition, younger subjects were less likely to make similar estimates for themselves and their classmates than were older respondents. Developmental changes in estimation accuracy are discussed in relation to task content, use of the response scale, correspondence between self-reports and estimates, and sample variability.     

SKILLS RECOGNITION AND REFUGEES: MIGRANTS WITHOUT OPTIONS

In the post-war years, Australia has accepted more refugees on a per capita basis than any other country. Refugees are unlike other migrants in that they are forced to move. They have no option. They arrive unprepared for settlement. They have more difficulty finding employment, especially at an appropriate level, than other immigrants. They often come without format documents, with limited English language ability and with few supports. All of these factors make skills recognition even more difficult than for other non-English speaking background immigrants. Different training models, continued chauvinism about Australian training versus overseas training, inadequate attention to existing skills and the protectionist policies of some employers, professional bodies, etc all militate against refugees slotting into the labour market at a level commensurate with their pre-flight level. Australia needs to do more than select people and then leave them to their own devices. Carefully planned and ongoing programs are needed to help refugees integrate satisfactorily into the labour market. There is still a perception among refugees that Australia only wants them as labourers.     

Loneliness in senior housing communities

There are many studies on loneliness among community-dwelling older adults; however, there is limited research examining the extent and correlates of loneliness among older adults who reside in senior housing communities. This study examines the extent and correlates of loneliness in three public senior housing communities in the St. Louis area. Data for this project was collected with survey questionnaires with a total sample size of 148 respondents. Loneliness was measured using the Hughes 3-item loneliness scale. Additionally, the questionnaire contained measures on socio-demographics, health/mental health, social engagement, and social support. Missing data for the hierarchical multivariate regression models were imputed using multiple imputation methods. Results showed approximately 30.8% of the sample was not lonely, 42.7% was moderately lonely, and 26.6% was severely lonely. In the multivariate analyses, loneliness was primarily associated with depressive symptoms. Contrary to popular opinion, our study found the prevalence of loneliness was high in senior housing communities. Nevertheless, senior housing communities could be ideal locations for reducing loneliness among older adults. Interventions should focus on concomitantly addressing both an individual’s loneliness and mental health.