Client satisfaction with developmental disabilities services

Data from a representative sample of 312 developmentally disabled clients of Florida's Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services are analyzed to discover the characteristics of the clients and to determine the extent to which the clients are satisfied with various services, reasons for any dissatisfaction that exists, and the factors which are related to satisfaction with services. Clients are least likely to be satisfied with the caregiver support services and the vocational and rehabilitative services they receive. Across all categories, reasons most often given for dissatisfaction with services are inappropriateness and insufficient amount. The factors most strongly related to client satisfaction with services are age, living arrangements, and number of services received. Adolescents are less likely than persons at other ages to be satisfied with the services they receive, persons living in a family setting are less likely than persons in nonfamily settings to be satisfied with services, and the greater the number of services received the lower the likelihood of client satisfaction. Combined with information showing that most of the clients have multiple disabilities, these data suggest that the service delivery system does a better job of delivering some services than others. A slot oriented program such as that in Florida may pay insufficient attention to the existence of multiple needs among persons who are developmentally disabled and to providing services to the networks which form the client's economic and social support system.     

Job satisfaction and life satisfaction: A profile analysis

The form of the relationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction was examined through a profile analysis of subgroups of respondents. Survey respondents were classified as high on job satisfaction and life satisfaction, low on job satisfaction and life satisfaction or in two intermediate categories (low on one, high on the other). Results of discriminant analysis indicated that the four subgroups could be systematically characterized by different profiles. Prediction of the subgroup in which an individual would be classified, based on the profile, was not highly reliable, however.     

The nature of the connection between life course and satisfaction with community services

Research on satisfaction with community services has used both age and life cycle stage as predictors of satisfaction. As both age and life cycle stage are indicators of life course, their relative advantages in service satisfaction research need to be assessed. The authors correlated both age and life cycle stage with twenty service satisfaction items and with item non-response (a measure of the salience of a service). Results were: (1) associations with service satisfaction were linear, (2) some associations with salience were markedly curvilinear, and (3) as predictors of service satisfaction, age and life cycle performed similarly. The choice between age and life cycle as predictors of service satisfaction appears to involve conceptual as well as empirical issues.     

Assessment of consumer research for a valuation of a quality-of-life policy

This paper evaluates the allocation, coordination, priority assignments and new directions in the research efforts towards a consumer policy. The formulation of a consumer policy is an essential component of a quality-of-life policy. It is shown how interdisciplinary efforts could foster this endeavor. The consumer welfare should be central to the political economy system. Thus a detailed analysis of the primary elements that interrelate to produce possible levels of welfare are examined. In depth consideration of the following five points consitute the bulk of the paper: (i) consumer choice and freedom, (ii) controls available to consumers over their environment, (iii) the demographic characteristics of consumer populations over the life-cycle, (iv) the interaction between the individual and the group emerging from the hierarchies of influence at the individual, group and society levels, (v) structure of the markets, degree of concentration and business practices related to sales. As a result of this analysis it can be concluded that several policy measure can redress the balance of power between consumers, business and government, however there is an urgent need for action by the consumers themselves. The initiative for effective social action in consumerism rests in the last resort with the consumers themselves. They can and do form coalitions which can be effective in influencing the course of events.     

Fertility exposure analysis: A new method for assessing the contribution of proximate determinants to fertility differentials

Summary Several recent papers have dealt with the problem of assessing the impact of the proximate determinants on fertility. All these approaches rely on combining a series of separately estimated aggregate level indicators. This paper proposes an approach which uses individual-level data and thus permits regression analyses as well as analyses for sub-groups. In the course of development it became clear that there are several deficiencies and inconsistencies in the measurement and formation of indices proposed elsewhere, which are overcome. We illustrate our approach with data from the Dominican Republic. The approach used involves attributing exposure to one or more of several states, including pregnancy, lactational and non-lactational components of post-partum amenorrhoea, absence of sexual relations and contraception. Key elements are efficacies of contraception and components of post-partum infecundity and the treatment of overlaps through an explicit hierarchy. We treat both unconditional (or additive) and conditional analyses. Intriguing findings on the age-specific pattern of fertility control emerge. Major advantages of regression analysis, such as simultaneous treatment of several variables and estimation of sampling variation are stressed.     

Size of place in relation to community attachment and satisfaction with community services

A general problem in the area of urban studies has been the determination of factors significantly related to community attachment. Louis Wirth had argued that with increasing community size the level of community attachment diminishes. However, Kasarda and Janowitz employed British data and found that the length of residence in the community was a more important determinant of community attachment. Buttel et al. re-examined the question and found that the size of the community was the most important determiner of community attachment. This study analyzes the question employing national survey data collected in 1971 in the Quality of American Life study. Employing variables comparable to those of the Buttel et al. study, similar results are obtained, except that race, a variable not included in the previous study, is found to be quite significant for determining levels of community attachment. However, when urban density is introduced as a variable for the urban areas in the sample, it is found to be the most important determiner of community attachment.     

Situation analysis: assessing family planning and reproductive health services. Quality of care

This issue of Population Briefs contains articles on researches conducted by the Population Council concerning the delivery of quality of care, contraceptive development, safe abortion, family planning, demography, and medical anthropology. The cover story focuses on a systematic data collection tool called Situation Analysis that helps managers in program evaluation. This tool has a handbook entitled "The Situation Analysis Approach to Assessing Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services" that contains all the information needed to conduct a Situation Analysis study. The second article reports about a new contraceptive method, the two-rod levonorgestrel, which was developed at the Population Council and was recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. The third article reports on a medical abortion procedure that was proven to be safe, effective, and acceptable to women in developing countries. Moreover, the fourth article presents initial findings of the Community Health and Family Planning Project conducted in Northern Ghana. The fifth article discusses the paper written by the Population Council demographer, Mark Montgomery entitled "Learning and lags in mortality perceptions". Finally, the sixth article deals with another paper that reports on women's health perceptions and reproductive health in the Middle East.     

A method for assessing the global spread of HIV-1 infection based on air travel

"The paper presents a methodology aimed at quantifying the impact of regular air traffic on the global spread of AIDS. A compartmental approach is used to represent the fluxes of infective passengers between 52 major cities. The impact of these fluxes on the pandemic is assessed by using a methodology which has been applied in the past for studying the dynamic of an influenza pandemic. In its present version, under simplified assumptions, the model reproduces qualitatively the three world patterns of HIV-1 infection in 1988. The methodology developed in this paper does not provide a detailed past history of the virus, and does not take into account the possibility of multifoci sporadic cases in the past. However it provides evidence that the significant start of the pandemic...was by the end of the 60's in Central Africa." (SUMMARY IN FRE)     

Relationships between job satisfaction and life satisfaction: Test of a causal model

Review of theory and research on the relationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction suggests the prediction that causal effects flow in only one direction: that is, that job satisfaction causes life satisfaction but that life satisfaction does not cause job satisfaction. Cross-lag correlation analysis and path analysis of longitudinal survey data so not support this prediction. Indeed, job satisfaction does not predict life satisfaction when the effects of other variables are controlled, not does life satisfaction predict job satisfaction. In light of this finding, various models of work and non-work are discussed.     

Factors predicting satisfaction judgments: A comparative examination

A number of psychological processes (e.g. social comparison, aspirations) may explain why people differ in their satisfaction with various life domains. This study compared the impact of a number of such processes on satisfaction judgments in a sample of 149 college students. Social comparison and positive affect were strong predictors of satisfaction across most domains. Objective conditions and aspirations were predictive of satisfaction in few domains. The relevance of Multiple Discrepancies Theory (Michalos, 1983) for the present findings is discussed. Limitations of the present study are noted and suggestions for future research are offered. Researchers need to focus on the reasons underlying the predictability of different domains from different processes.     

A comparison using perceptual indicators: Job satisfaction

Results of an Austrian-German comparison pertaining to different aspects of job satisfaction are presented. It is argued that even at this early stage in their development, perceptual indicators can be used to reveal overall trends and to point up trouble spots where socio-economic action on the part of the authorities is called for.     

A life satisfaction measure: Additional validational data for the Congruity Life Satisfaction measure

Meadowet al. (1992) have developed a measure of life satisfaction based on judgment theory, referred to as Congruity Life Satisfaction (CLS). This paper reports the results of a major study involving six samples from different countries testing the construct validity of the CLS measure. The results of these studies provide additional validational support for the CLS measure.     

Allocation of resources for social services: Israel as a case study

The motives of the enormous growth of state expenditure for social services in advanced industrial societies, is one of the most puzzling questions in social policy analysis. The aim of this article is predicated upon the assumption that there are a few factors which jointly influence the allocation of societies to social services. Various factors which were found relevant to allocation in other studies are examined with regard to their ability to explain allocation for social services in Israel. Along with the traditional indicator of societal allocation, i.e. yearly fiscal expenditures for social services, another variable is suggested to test this societal allocation, namely the creating of new social programs. This new indicator will be explained and will be tested as to how the explanatory factors can predict the establishing of new programs.     

A new look at life and job satisfaction with sunbelt MBA's

Work and extra-work correlates of life and job satisfaction for a sample of MBA graduates (N=1495) are compared to those for a probability sample from the general public using the Rice, Near, Hunt model for analysis. For both groups, the unique relationship between life and job satisfaction is quite weak, however, predictability of job satisfaction is significantly different for MBA's.¹     

Predictors of satisfaction with housing and neighbourhood: A nationwide study in the Republic of Ireland

The present paper reports results from a nationwide study, based on a representative sample in the Republic of Ireland. It is part of a harmonised study of subjective social indicators which has been carried out in eight member countries of the European Community. The data, which were obtained by survey techniques, are largely subjective or perceptual in nature. However, objective data were also obtained, thus permitting direct comparisons, in many cases, between objective conditions and subjective measures related to housing and neighbourhood to determine which characteristics were most highly predictive of overall satisfaction with housing and overall satisfaction with neighbourhood. In addition, the relationships between housing and neighbourhood variables and more global attitudinal variables (i.e., life satisfaction and anomia) were explored.