Psychological Thriving Among Latinas With Chronic Illness

This study utilizes a 3-year longitudinal design to explore factors that promote thriving among Latinas facing multiple adversity: poverty and chronic illness (specifically, arthritis). From a thriving paradigm, focus is placed on understanding the positive growth and thriving experiences reported by respondents, as well as the social, cultural, and personal resources that promote thriving. In the baseline interview, we employed a qualitative methodology to understand women's experiences of thriving. Women reported a variety of such experiences, the most frequent being enhanced appreciation of life. In the follow-up study, we created a thriving scale based on responses generated at the initial interview and prior research, then examined which of a number of social/cultural and personal factors predicted thriving 3 years after the initial assessment. Only measures of competence (self-esteem and self-efficacy) and psychological well-being were related to thriving. Path analyses testing the causal sequence of these variables revealed that negative affect contributed to decreased self-efficacy and self-esteem, but it did not have a direct or indirect effect on thriving. Greater self-esteem positively predicted thriving. In contrast, positive affect did not contribute to either measure of competence, but had a direct effect on thriving. Results suggest that psychological well-being (not ill-being) promotes thriving.     

Qualitative Approaches to the Study of Thriving: What Can Be Learned?

Using the data from two ongoing studies of resilience and thriving, one of gay men growing up in heterosexist environments, the other of women living with AIDS, we review how qualitative approaches have enabled researchers to grapple with conceptual, methodological, and ethical dilemmas related to the study of resilience and thriving. We discuss the implications our values as researchers have on determining who is thriving; the powerful social, cultural, and political contexts that must be considered when investigating the effects of and resistance to adversity; and the implications of conceptualizing thriving as a process. Finally, we consider the opportunities opened up by qualitative analysis and suggest some avenues for future research.     

A Race, Class, and Gender Analysis of Thriving

Thriving research has been dominated by a psychological perspective. Individuals are typically the unit of analysis and thriving is generally operationalized using psychological measures. This article discusses a race, class, and gender perspective that derives from feminist sociology, as well as its implications for thriving research. This perspective, which focuses on the role of race, class, and gender inequality in organizing social relations, draws attention to the need to recognize that both the likelihood that someone will face a challenge and their ability to thrive in the face of that challenge are determined largely by their location in the social hierarchy. It also demonstrates that distinctions must be made between thriving in the face of the routine challenges of daily life and thriving in the face of challenges that are an extraordinary part of life. Finally, the race, class, and gender perspective has implications for the development of interventions to promote thriving. Each of these issues is elaborated further with illustrations drawn from life history and focus group interviews with and field work conducted among drug-addicted women.     

Resilience and Thriving: Issues, Models, and Linkages

This article addresses distinctions underlying concepts of resilience and thriving and issues in conceptualizing thriving. Thriving (physical or psychological) may reflect decreased reactivity to subsequent stressors, faster recovery from subsequent stressors, or a consistently higher level of functioning. Psychological thriving may reflect gains in skill, knowledge, confidence, or a sense of security in personal relationships. Psychological thriving resembles other instances of growth. It probably does not depend on the occurrence of a discrete traumatic event or longer term trauma, though such events may elicit it. An important question is why some people thrive, whereas others are impaired, given the same event. A potential answer rests on the idea that differences in confidence and mastery are self-perpetuating and self-intensifying. This idea suggests a number of variables whose role in thriving is worth closer study, including personality variables such as optimism, contextual variables such as social support, and situational variables such as the coping reactions elicited by the adverse event.     

Paradigm Shift: Why a Focus on Health Is Important

Traditionally, medicine and the social and behavioral sciences have studied health by focusing on pathology. The purpose of this issue of the Journal is to go beyond such a vulnerability model and focus on thriving. We suggest that thriving represents something more than a return to equilibrium following a challenge. This issue describes a "value-added" model, whereby an individual or community may go beyond survival and recovery from a stressor or illness to thrive. We suggest that this change of focus from illness to health represents a paradigm shift. This article gives an overview of the various ideas featured in this issue, which elaborate empirical and theoretical work on the concept of thriving. Ultimately, we believe that the scientific study of thriving can enhance our understanding of health and provide important opportunities for prevention and intervention.     

The 1996 Research Assessment Exercise and the Response of Social Work Academics

Summary In 1996 the Higher Education Funding Council undertook the fourthResearch Assessment Exercise (RAE) in universities in England,Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Performance in researchis a crucial measure in university departments because it hasdirect implications for funding, but some doubt that the criteriaused are appropriate measures of quality of research. Many factorshave an impact on the way that research by social work academicsis presented in the RAE. After the 1996 RAE, the Joint UniversityCouncil Social Work Education Committee undertook a survey ofdepartments which teach social work to try and elicit responsesto the assessment exercise which might inform preparations forthe next RAE.     

Nursing Home Social Services Directors Who Report Thriving at Work

Nationally representative data from a sample (n?=?928) of full-time nursing home social services directors were used to investigate whether knowing characteristics of the social environment at work can help to explain which directors report job thriving. Two-thirds of directors reported they were thriving in their jobs. Multiple regression results show that thriving is increased by job autonomy, being treated like an important part of the team, having enough time to identify and meet resident psychosocial needs, not having to do things that others could do, and being clear what the social services role is. Findings suggest that addressing these aspects of the social environment and social services role will likely contribute to increasing a sense of thriving at work among social services staff members.     

Evaluating the psychometrics of the SSIS SEL in a socio-economically diverse sample

The increasing interest in implementing social-emotional learning (SEL) interventions within schools calls for more reliable and valid assessment tools to measure the effectiveness of SEL programs. We investigated the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Social Skills Improvement System – Social-Emotional Learning Edition (SSIS SEL) with a group of ethnically and socio-economically diverse grade 3 students in Ontario, Canada (n = 427). The SSIS SEL is an age-normed measure used for the evaluation of interventions and prevention initiatives. Data collected included both teacher-report and student self-report measures. The factor structure proposed by the scale developers was not replicated using this smaller single grade sample. However, the study demonstrates evidence of good construct and convergent validity supporting the novel factor structure. Results from this study suggest that more research on the SSIS SEL's application in real-world intervention research programs is needed.     

Children in Poverty: Do State Policies Matter?

Objective . Variations in childhood poverty are primarily responsive to changes in family structure and economic conditions. Some research also suggests that federal and state programs may help alleviate poverty among children. This research incorporates measures of family characteristics, economic conditions, and policy variables in estimating changes in childhood poverty among the U.S. states. Methods . The research design is a pooled time series for all 50 states for the years 1987–1996. Results . Economic and family circumstances indeed are the major forces affecting children in poverty among the states. The unemployment rate for females, the percentage births to unmarried mothers, and the percentage of single-parent families are especially useful estimators. Public policies are important as well: the state or federal minimum wage, Aid to Families with Dependent Children/food stamp payments, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and two measures of state child support effort. Conclusions . Although at times controversial, actions by the states and federal government can help reduce childhood poverty among U.S. states.     

A Comparison of Psychometric Properties and Normality in 4-, 5-, 6-, and 11-Point Likert Scales

ABSTRACT

The Likert scale is very popular, but the question as to the number of scale points is still controversial. This article studies the differences among 4-, 5-, 6-, and 11-point Likert scales with a sample of 1,217 students in Macau, using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale as the measuring instrument. There is no major difference in internal structure in terms of means, standard deviations, item–item correlations, item–total correlations, Cronbach's alpha, or factor loadings. Findings indicate that having more scale points seems to reduce skewness, and the 11-point scale, ranging from 0 to 10, has the smallest kurtosis and is closest to normal. Only the 6- and 11-point scales follow normal distributions from Kolmogorov–Smirnov and Shapiro–Wilk statistics. Results on predictive validity are inconclusive. This article discusses future applications and suggests the use of an 11-point scale as it increases sensitivity and is closer to interval level of scaling and normality. Recommendations for social workers and teachers are made to better assist when using self-reported measurement scales.     

Embodying Psychological Thriving: Physical Thriving in Response to Stress

In addition to the context of psychological health, thriving can be measured in the context of physical health. Moreover, thriving may be operationalized at a macro level (e.g., improved functional health status following acute illness or injury) or at a micro level (e.g., hormonal balance). The goal of this article is to examine physical thriving at the micro level, by investigating hormonal responses to stressful situations. In addition, we examine the role that psychological factors play in this relationship. Although stress-induced arousal has traditionally been viewed as negative, certain endocrine responses to stress can be health enhancing. Specifically, we propose that physical thriving results when there is a greater amount of growth promoting or anabolic hormones (e.g., growth hormone) than catabolic hormones (e.g., cortisol). Characteristics of the stressor (duration, frequency, and controllability) as well as psychological moderators such as one's cognitive appraisal of the stressor (threat versus challenge) play a role in determining the profile of response to stress. When an individual appraises intermittent stressors as controllable, she or he may display a resilient profile of stress hormone responding—rapid cortisol responses with quick recovery, and more importantly, cortisol adaptation when faced with similar stressors over time. This stress response is in turn related to better health. To substantiate some of these issues, we present data from a study examining women's cortisol reactivity in response to a repeated laboratory stressor and their self-reported growth from facing trauma. The results suggest that women who have grown psychologically from trauma may show quicker cortisol habituation to other stressors. Cortisol adaptation to stress may serve as one potential marker of resilient psychological and physical functioning.     

Web-based assessment of social and emotional competence in the late elementary grades

This paper presents evidence of the score reliability, factor structure, criterion-related validity, and measurement equivalence of a web-based assessment of several important social and emotional competencies for children in fourth through sixth grades. The assessment, SELweb LE (Late Elementary), is designed to measure children's understanding of other's thoughts and feelings, their ability to solve social problems, and their ability to engage in self-control. SELweb LE satisfies a need for a direct assessment that measures theoretically relevant social and emotional competencies specifically for youth in the late elementary grades. The competencies measured are associated with youth outcomes, are reflected in state education standards, and are the targets of instruction in widely used social and emotional learning (SEL) curricula. Analyses support SELweb LE's factor structure, score reliability, measurement equivalence, and convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity. More broadly, evidence supports the use of SELweb LE to characterize student competencies.     

中国创业板市场现存风险及对策分析

创业板市场是中国证券市场的一个重要组成部分。尽管取得了一定成功,但在上市公司方面仍存在着成长性风险以及经营性风险;在市场准入、退出和监管制度方面存在着上市风险以及缺乏退市制度的风险;在投资者方面存在着理念和行为风险。为此,政府和监管部门应采取进一步完善创业板上市定价机制;完善上市公司的治理结构与信息披露制度;加强对保荐机构和保荐代表人的监管;提高机构投资者比例,进一步保护中小投资者利益;进一步促进创业投资的发展等政策措施,使中国的创业板市场更加健康地发展。     

Economic globalization and violent civil conflict: Is openness a pathway to peace?

There has been little systematic assessment of the impact of globalization on armed conflict within states. Drawing from bargaining theories of conflict, we posit that the global marketplace functions as an “audience” that rewards or punishes the policy choices of states. Globalization, which connotes an increased exposure to this marketplace, increases the relevance of the “costs” that this “audience” may impose. These prospective costs thus encourage peace and stability, as states that are integrated into the global economy have more to lose by instigating and sustaining violent conflict within their borders. Employing a two-stage Heckman Model, we assess the impact of various facets of globalization, including access to information, trade, foreign investment and aid flows, on intrastate conflict within the developing countries for 1990–1996.     

Measuring State Welfare Policy Changes: Why Don't They Explain Caseload and Employment Outcomes?*

Objectives. Since the implementation of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, many analysts have attempted to measure the effects of new state welfare policies, particularly work requirements, sanctions, and time limits, on the Act's key goals—reducing cash assistance caseloads and increasing employment among single mothers. De Jong et al. present new measures of state policy variations, but they do not attempt to evaluate the relationships between these measures and welfare reform outcomes. For their analysis to be meaningful, it should contribute to a better understanding of cross‐state variations in caseload declines and increased employment among single mothers. Methods. We first raise conceptual questions about the extent to which their measures are meaningful in a policy sense. We then present analyses of Current Population Survey data. Results. We find that differences in the De Jong et al. stringency measures (factor scores) are not significantly correlated with differences in welfare reform outcomes by state.     

The Foreign Policy Beliefs of Political Campaign Contributors: A Post-Cold War Analysis

Objective. In this article we address two questions raised by the literature on the structure of foreign policy beliefs. First, has the end of the Cold War brought about any major changes in these belief systems? Second, how do ideology and economic interests shape these beliefs? Methods. We analyze data from a 1996 survey of U.S. presidential campaign contributors conducted by the Ray Bliss Center to determine the foreign policy belief systems of contributors. We then compare those results to the belief systems found in a 1988 survey of contributors. Results. We find that Cold War belief systems are quite durable. There was surprisingly little change in the structure or content of contributors' foreign policy beliefs between 1988 and 1996. We also find that both ideology and economic interests help shape these beliefs and examine the circumstances under which each of these two considerations appears to have the most important effects. Conclusions. Policymakers face new challenges since the end of the Cold War, but domestic political elites still approach foreign policy with a Cold War perspective. Also, although ideology is very important in determining how individuals think about foreign policy, material interests also make a difference for campaign contributors.     

Moral emotions in early childhood: Validation of the Chinese moral emotion questionnaire

Moral emotions such as pride, guilt and shame play an important role in the social-emotional development of preschool children. However, there are not many instruments available for measuring moral emotions in the preschool age. Moreover, relatively few research had examined cross-cultural validity of measures for moral emotions. The present study tested the Chinese version of the Moral emotion questionnaire (MEQ) upon a group of (N = 182) Chinese preschool children aged from 2 to 6 years. The Chinese MEQ is a parent-report translated from Dutch, assessing behavioural responses of pride, guilt and shame in preschool children. Confirmatory factor analysis showed satisfactory goodness-of-fit indexes for a three-factor structure (Pride, Guilt, Shame) with 15 loading items. For concurrent relations, the results suggested an adaptive role of pride and guilt and a maladaptive role of shame in the social-emotional development of preschool children. We could conclude that the 15-item Chinese MEQ is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring pride, guilt, and shame in 2–6-year-old children in the Chinese context.     

Who Uses Alternative Financial Services? A Latent Class Analysis of Consumer Financial Knowledge and Behavior

ABSTRACT

We examine the heterogeneity of alternative financial services (AFS) use by constructing an empirically rigorous typology of financial knowledge and behaviors. Using the 2012 National Financial Capability Study, we conducted latent class analysis of financial knowledge and behaviors to identify latent classes of AFS users (N = 25,509). The proportion of the distal outcome of AFS was investigated among latent classes. The latent classes in the best fitting model were regressed on demographic variables and selected covariates using multinomial logistic regression. Results indicate that five meaningful subgroups were found. Over half of the U.S. population struggles to establish and maintain savings and position themselves for future financial security and mobility (i.e., financially precarious (25.9%), financially striving (20.5%), and financially at-risk (18.4%) classes). The financially thriving class (27.7%) has the healthiest financial behaviors and the least probability of using AFS. The financially stable (7.4%) and financially at-risk (18.4%) classes have the highest probability of using AFS. Widespread use of AFS suggests a general consumer demand for the products and services. Future research is needed to inform policy and practice efforts to shape the formal financial system to meet the long-term financial needs of the majority of consumers.