Two-person sequential bargaining behavior with exogenous breakdown

We examine bargaining behavior in a noncooperative game in which players alternate in making and responding to proposals over the division of a given surplus. Although the number of bargaining periods is unlimited and time is not discounted, the bargaining is subject to exogenous breakdown at each period with a fixed probability which is common knowledge. We manipulate three probabilities of break-down in a between-subjects design that allows comparison with previous studies of two-person bargaining with time discounting. Assuming that subjects maximize expected utility, and this utility is measured by monetary payoffs, our results reject both the subgame perfect equilibrium and equal split solutions. Data analyses reveal that a substantial percentage of subjects behave adaptively in that they systematically search for the highest acceptable demands.     

Care Leavers in Israel: What Contributes to Better Adjustment to Life After Care?

ABSTRACT

The present study examines the adjustment of youth leaving residential treatment in Israel in three core areas: military service, accommodation, and financial status. A sample of 277 adolescents (aged 17–18 years old) in educational and welfare residential placements were interviewed a few months before leaving care, and 236 of them were interviewed 1 year after. It was hypothesized that optimism, higher perceived sense of readiness to leave care, and higher social support of family, friends, and staff are associated with better outcomes in adjustment to military service, accommodations, and economic status. Findings show that 70% of care leavers were drafted to the (compulsory) military service, a sign of good adjustment in Israel. Yet, they have significant difficulties in the areas of accommodations and financial status. Optimism and perceived readiness for independent living while still in care were positively correlated with adjustment to the military service. Mother's support was positively correlated with care leavers’ economic status and stability in accommodations. These findings highlight the importance of designing programs that include specific attention to needs and challenges while youth are in care and immediately after they leave. Follow-up and longitudinal studies are suggested.     

Readiness for independent living of adolescents in youth villages in Israel

Most Israeli children who spend their youth away from their birth parents live in youth villages. The majority of these children come from either the geographical or social periphery of Israel. Since the 1990s the youth villages have specialized in absorbing immigrants mainly from the former Soviet Union (FSU) and Ethiopia. The paper reports on a survey conducted among the professional staff in the youth villages. This study explores their perceptions of the readiness for independent living of adolescents on the verge of leaving youth villages and examines how readiness is associated with individual and familial characteristics. A structured questionnaire was mailed to youth villages asking professionals to anonymously complete the survey. The total sample include reports on 1256 adolescents who spent in the current setting on average 3.3 (SD = 1.8) years. For many of them this was the first out-of-home placement. Generally, workers have a favorable assessment of the youths' readiness for independent living. Still, they report that many of the youths do not have any of the necessary skills for independent living. Additionally, there are sub-groups that are more disadvantaged and at greater risk because they lack skills for a successful transition from care. The findings indicate that youth of Ethiopian origin are more disadvantaged with regard to skills related to school, the job market, finances, interpersonal relationships and normative behaviors, whereas youths from FSU present fewer skills pertaining to military service. The findings emphasize the important role Israeli youth villages have in supporting underprivileged adolescents in acquiring basic skills for adult life and suggest guidelines as to which sub-groups and in which area programs should be developed.     

Public attitudes toward child maltreatment in Israel: Implications for policy

Objective

The public view of the severity of social problems and their perceptions of how effectively they are being addressed have a major impact on public policies and resource allocation. The present study focuses on public attitudes toward child maltreatment. It examines perceptions of child maltreatment as a social problem, and attitudes toward prevention and treatment strategies in cases of child abuse and neglect.

Methods

A survey was conducted among a representative sample of 812 Israeli adults: 688 Jews, and 124 Arabs. Fifty additional Ultra-Orthodox Jews were added for comparisons among Jewish participants.

Results

The participants tend to view violence and alcohol consumption among youth as a more serious problem than parental maltreatment of children. Low-income participants tend to view child maltreatment as a more serious problem than did high-income participants. Jewish participants (except for ultra-Orthodox Jews) view child maltreatment as a significantly more serious problem than did Arabs and Ultra-Orthodox Jews. Most of the participants believe that parents who maltreat their children should be punished, but they should be taught how to refrain from maltreatment, and learn to change their behavior. Many participants believe that the courts do not sufficiently punish parents who maltreat their children. In their assessments of the quality of professional work, the highest evaluations are given to services provided by physicians and social workers, whereas the lowest evaluations are given to judges and police. Most of the participants (70%) believed that social workers play an important role in protecting children.

Conclusions

The survey findings have implications for enhancing public awareness of child maltreatment as well for policy making in the area of child abuse and neglect. The differences in the perceptions of participants based on their religious, cultural and economic background toward child maltreatment should be further studied and addressed in policy and interventions in this area.     

Children in Educational Residential Care: A Cohort Study of Israeli Youth

Abstract

This article reports preliminary findings from a national cohort study in Israel on the educational outcomes of 82,342 Jewish citizens born in 1981. We compare the educational outcomes of 2002 alumni of youth villages and their peers in the general population with respect to differences among cultural subgroups. The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics generated the database by combining different official data files based on a personal identification number that each Israeli citizen receives. This database covers the entire cohort and includes information on their background and educational status. The findings indicate that the educational status of alumni of youth villages at the age of 27 is less positive compared to that of their peers in the general population. Cultural differences are discussed with respect to the role of youth villages as a means for upward mobility of disadvantaged youth, and implications for policy and future research are suggested.     

Betweenness computation in the single graph representation of hypergraphs

Many real-world social networks are hypergraphs because they either explicitly support membership in groups or implicitly include communities. We present the HyperBC algorithm that exactly computes betweenness centrality (or BC) in hypergraphs. The forward phase of HyperBC and the backpropagation phase are specifically tailored for BC computation on hypergraphs. In addition, we present an efficient method for pruning networks through the notion of “non-bridging” vertices. We experimentally evaluate our algorithm on a variety of real and artificial networks and show that it significantly speeds up the computation of BC on both real and artificial hypergraphs, while at the same time, being very memory efficient.     

Children at risk: rationales for risk assessments and interventions

In this study, we examine and compare the rationales that social workers and laypersons give for their judgments, assessments and decisions in cases of alleged child abuse and neglect. We have used Toulmin's framework to explore the structure of the arguments/rationales of social workers and laypersons. We analyzed separately basic and complementary level arguments. We used Rosen's work to analyze the content of the backing provided by respondents for their claims.We presented two groups of respondents—52 social workers and 50 laypersons—with a case vignette that was a referral of a child and family made by a family physician. Respondents were asked to read the case, provide their assessment of risk to the child, recommend an intervention, and give written and detailed rationales for their assessment and recommended intervention.The findings indicate that social workers and laypersons differ in the structure and in the content of their rationales. Social workers formulated significantly more complete arguments, both basic and complementary levels of arguments, than laypersons. The content of the backing for the judgments was also significantly different: Social workers used more theory, experience and policy than the laypersons who used more general knowledge and values.In the discussion, we address the training implications of the fact that social workers pay very little attention to rebuttal of arguments, and do not refer to research evidence as a basis for the arguments they make. We recommend that more research focus on arguments and rationales given by professionals in this area.     

Monitoring Indicators of Children’s Victimization in School: Linking National-, Regional-, and Site-Level Indicators

The paper presents a conceptual framework and methodology developed by the authors to create systematic empirical basis to monitor important social indicators. The focus here is on ways to employ indicators of victimization in school in order to inform a range of constituencies interested in the well being of school children. The paper outlines the importance of developing a wide range of indicators based on a theoretical model of social context of schools, as perceived from multiple perspectives (students, staff, parents, the general public). The importance of linking national-, regional-, and site-level indicators is emphasized and demonstrated. The paper presents examples of analyses and reports that can inform practice, policy making and evaluation in the area of school safety. Finally, monitoring indicators of victimization on all levels is described as a democratic youth empowering process.