Summarizing Risk Using Risk Measures and Risk Indices

Our society is fascinated with risk in many different areas and disciplines. One of the main ways to describe and communicate the level of risk is through risk indices, which summarize risk using numbers or categories such as words, letters, or colors. These indices are used to communicate risks to the public, understand how risk is changing over time, compare among different risks, and support decision making. Given the different methods to construct risk indices, including flawed methods such as risk matrices, this article develops specific steps that analysts can follow to create a risk index. This article emphasizes the importance of describing risk with a probability distribution, developing a numerical risk measure that summarizes the probability distribution, and finally translating the risk measure to an index. Measuring the risk is the most difficult part and requires the analyst to summarize a probability distribution into one or possibly a few numbers. The risk measure can then be transformed to a numerical or categorical index. I apply the method outlined in this article to construct a risk index that compares the risk of fatalities in aviation and highway transportation.     

Effects of sexually transmitted infection status, relationship status, and disclosure status on sexual self-concept

Research has indicated that having a sexually transmitted infection (STI) such as genital herpes and genital human papilloma virus (HPV) can have a negative impact on an individual's sexuality. The current study was designed to evaluate the effect of STI status, relationship status, and disclosure status on various dimensions of sexual self-concept. A questionnaire that evaluated the above variables was completed by 117 individuals with genital herpes, 82 individuals with HPV, and 75 individuals with no STI. The results demonstrated that having herpes or HPV had a significant negative impact on aspects of sexual self-concept. It does not appear that an individual's relationship status is a factor associated with the impact of having an STI on the sexual self-concept. Respondents who had disclosed their STI to their partners, however, had significantly more positive feelings about aspects of their sexual self-concept than those who had not disclosed their STI to their partners. The implications of these research findings for health practitioners are discussed.     

Companion animals in families of children with autism spectrum disorder: Lessons learned from caregivers.

Companion animals (i.e., pets) have been increasingly recognized for the roles they play in families, including those with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This cross-sectional study explored the unique functions of companion animals within families with a child with ASD. Phenomenology was used to analyze the responses of participants (N = 338) who responded to a survey offered through the Interactive Autism Network. The study initially focused on dogs; however, the analysis was forced to expand to other species due to the data provided by participants. Seven major themes emerged: bonding and benefits, learning opportunities, barriers, grief, fit (match of family characteristics with those of the companion animal), safety, and alternative animals. Successful fit between companion animals and families was often described as necessary for beneficial functions. Barriers included necessary cost and time, as well as required supervision of interactions to enhance safety of the children and animals.     

Responding to People Sleeping Rough: Dilemmas and Opportunities for Social Work

Abstract

Rough sleeping refers to the state of being literally without shelter or residing in shelter not fit for human habitation. People who sleep rough are thought to be a group who experience a range of complex problems in addition to their homelessness. Despite their small numbers relative to the broader homeless population, rough sleepers have been identified as a target group for policy and practice intervention. This article critically examines outreach responses directed toward people sleeping rough. Moving beyond traditional charity approaches or interventions that “move people on”, emerging models of “assertive outreach” have been implemented in Australia as part of broader strategies to reduce homelessness. Challenging the idea that assertive outreach is a shift from a social work approach, it is argued that interventions to actively end rough sleeping are consistent with social work principles. Indeed, this article takes it that social work must advocate for the provision of affordable housing as central to rough sleeping interventions. Housing not only enables people to achieve human dignity and worth, but the linking of housing with outreach responses to rough sleepers will facilitate a trusting and effective working relationship.     

Predictors of well-being among college students

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Identification of health-related risk behaviors associated with well-being in college students is essential to guide the development of health promotion strategies for this population. The purposes were to evaluate well-being among undergraduate students and to identify health-related risk behaviors that predict well-being in this population. Methods: A cross-sectional Web-based survey of undergraduate students was conducted at a metropolitan university in the Southeast United States. A total of 568 students responded (response rate 14.2%). Data were collected on health-related risk behaviors using the National College Health Assessment II. Results: Controlling demographic characteristics, the best predictive model included physical activity, current tobacco user, depression, ever received mental health services, and sleep quality, which was the strongest predictor (β = .45, p < .001). This model explained 35% of the variance in well-being. Conclusions: Interventions that promote sleep quality among college students may be most beneficial in improving well-being.     

Quality and Peer Review of Research: An Adjudicating Role for Editors

Peer review gives research a stamp of approval, but the reviews themselves can be flawed. This is potentially serious for the writer, the journal, and journal user. This study describes shortcomings of the peer review process and condenses them into an explanatory framework involving situational, personal, social, and ethical factors. Some proposals to improve matters are impractical and may make them worse. Some data is offered which illustrates the problem and suggests a potential solution. Informed editors who avoid mechanical approaches engage cautiously and critically with reviews and guard against bias, even in themselves, could make a significant difference.     

Fathers' experiences with child welfare services

The lack of engagement of fathers by child welfare services is well‐documented in the literature as a serious problem. Towards addressing this problem, this paper reports the findings of interviews with 18 fathers about their involvement with child welfare services in Ontario, Canada. Qualitative analysis of the interviews yielded themes about what men saw as the positive and negative aspects of their involvement with child welfare. Positive aspects of service involvement for fathers included understanding and supportive workers, useful assistance from workers, being connected to useful resources and being given a ‘wake‐up call’. Negative aspects of service involvement included uncaring, unhelpful and unprofessional workers; prejudice against fathers; and experiencing the child welfare system as unresponsive, uncaring and rigid. Implications for practice are discussed with a view to improving the engagement of men in, and their experiences with, child welfare services.     

The effect of intent and character information on children's evaluations of third-party transgressions

Research in adults suggests that their perception of moral transgressions is affected by the moral character of the agent performing the transgression, such that undesirable actions enacted by ‘good’ agents are seen as less serious than those performed by ‘bad’ agents. This may be partly driven our tendency to view undesirable acts as less intentional when the agent has a perceived good moral character. It is currently unclear whether or not children make similar judgements. Therefore, we investigated if children's use of moral character information is consistent with their judgements of transgressions when the intent behind the act was ambiguous or blatant. Children aged 6–8-years (N = 60) viewed a series of six moral transgressions in which the protagonist's intent was ambiguous or blatantly harmful, and their moral character was described as being good, mixed or bad. The children were then asked how much they felt the behaviour was intentional, how severe it was and the degree of punishment it deserved. Transgressions performed by ‘good’ characters were viewed as less intentional than those by ‘bad’ characters, but only when the intent behind it was ambiguous. Similarly, transgressions performed by good characters were viewed as less severe and deserving of less punishment than those performed by bad characters, although this effect was not moderated by intent information. These pattern of findings suggest that the view of transgressions performed by good individuals as less serious than the same act performed by bad individuals is established early in development.