Legislation and the population program

This article examines the existing laws and pending bills that pertain to the Philippine Population Program. The Presidential Decree No. 79 of 1972 authorized the nationwide promotion of all acceptable contraceptive methods and the use of clinics, pharmacies, and commercial distribution channels for the purpose. Up to the 1960s, importation of materials intended to prevent human conception was prohibited under the Philippine Tariff and Customs Code. Abortion is still classified as a crime under the Revised Penal Code; the Tariff and Customs Code prohibits the importation of articles to be used for unlawful abortion. There is a move at the Batasan to raise the minimum age for marriage. Divorce is not allowed in the Philippines, except among Muslims. Legal separation is allowed, where each spouse may live separately from the other but may not remarry while the other is still alive. The population program, in curbing population growth, hopes to somehow alleviate the poverty situation and the many problems it breeds, including child exploitation. Laws on public welfare and social security complement population efforts in the same way that child welfare laws do. Overall, it is hoped that many more moves will be taken to strengthen the family, protect and enrich the child, and give everyone a chance to develop and earn a decent living.     

The Barangay service point officers: their performance and potentials

The Strengthening BSPO (barangay service point officer) Operations project aims to strengthen the outreach structure at the BSPO level by hastening its attainment of self-sufficiency and making it more responsive to community needs and demands. It has 2 specific objectives: to provide policymakers and managers of the outreach project with a research-based assessment of current organizational procedures, practices, and factors taht hindet the effectiveness od organizations and operations at the BSPO level; and to provide Popcom's decision makers with alternative means for evolving regional and national action plans to improve BSPO operations. This discussion presents the highlights of a 3rd major project report on the "Qualitative Survey Research on BSPOs and BSPO Operations." The report covers the outcome of focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted in 3 selected regions, with resondents consisting of BSPOs, fulltime outreach workers (FTOWs), married couples of reproductive age (MCRA), and barangay captains. 6 priority issues were taken up in the FGDs conducted: selection and recruitment of BSPOs; taining; incentives and awards; perception of roles and functions; functional relationships of BSPOs and other workers; and BSPO associations. The FTOWs considered the following qualities when choosing BSPOs: influence in the community; accessibility to neighbors; approachability and friendliness; respectability in the community; belief in family planning; satisfaction with family planning use; and ability to motivate people. Before starting volunteer work, BSPOs are trained formally for 3 days. While BSPOs recognize the importance of their role in community development, they are hesitant to accept too many tasks. They perceive the replenishment of contraceptive supply to be their primary function. Record keeping, home visits, information dissemination, and motivation are considered secondary. Popcom regional offices have incentive programs meant to cover all BSPOs. There also are incentives for outstanding BSPO performances. The available incentives are not always enough. Some BSPOs experience strained working relationshiops with workers of other agencies. Coordination among the various groups is limited. Experience has shown that the performance of BSPOs in general has not come up to the program's expectations because of improper recruitment practices, inaccurate communication of roles and functions, poor trining, inadequate incentives, and lack of coordination.     

Transition to Parenthood: The Role of Social Interaction and Endogenous Networks

Empirical studies indicate that the transition to parenthood is influenced by an individual’s peer group. To study the mechanisms creating interdependencies across individuals’ transition to parenthood and its timing, we apply an agent-based simulation model. We build a one-sex model and provide agents with three different characteristics: age, intended education, and parity. Agents endogenously form their network based on social closeness. Network members may then influence the agents’ transition to higher parity levels. Our numerical simulations indicate that accounting for social interactions can explain the shift of first-birth probabilities in Austria during the period 1984 to 2004. Moreover, we apply our model to forecast age-specific fertility rates up to 2016.     

Coping With Sexual Orientation–Related Minority Stress

Little is known about how adolescents cope with minority stressors related to sexual orientation. This study examined 245 lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) young adult’s (ages 21–25) retrospective reports of coping in response to LGB minority stress during adolescence (ages 13–19) to test the reliability and validity of a measure of minority stress coping. Further, the study examined associations between LGB minority stress coping and young adult psychosocial adjustment and high school attainment. Validation and reliability was found for three minority stress coping strategies: LGB-specific strategies (e.g., involvement with LGBT organizations), alternative-seeking strategies (e.g., finding new friends), and cognitive strategies (e.g., imagining a better future). LGB-specific strategies were associated with better psychosocial adjustment and greater likelihood of high school attainment in young adulthood, whereas alternative-seeking and cognitive-based strategies were associated with poorer adjustment and less likelihood of high school attainment.     

Investigating Health Selection Within Mexico and Across the US Border

Despite acquiring lower levels of attainment and earnings, Mexican immigrants exhibit favorable health outcomes relative to their native-born counterparts. And while scholars attempt to reconcile this so-called paradoxical relationship with a variety of theoretical and empirical approaches, patterns of selective migration continue to receive considerable attention. The present study contributes to the literature on health selection by extending the healthy migrant hypothesis in a number of ways. First, we rely on a unique combination of datasets to assess whether the healthy are disproportionately more likely to migrate. We use the latest wave of the Mexican Family Life Survey and the 2013 Migrante Study, a survey that is representative of Mexican-born persons who are actively migrating through Tijuana. Pooling these data also allow us to differentiate between internal and US-bound migrants to shed light on their respective health profiles. Results provide modest support for the healthy migrant hypothesis. Although those who report better overall health are more likely to migrate, we find that the presence of certain chronic conditions increases migration risk. Our findings also suggest that internal migrants are healthier than those traveling to the US, though this is largely because those moving within Mexico reflect a younger and more educated population. This study takes an important step in uncovering variation across migrant flows and highlights the importance of the timing at which health is measured in the migration process.     

Barriers children face complaining about social work practice: A study in one English local authority

Despite the introduction of guidelines and procedures aimed at encouraging and supporting children and young people to complain about the services they receive, children in care still face barriers to doing so in practice. This paper explores what happens when children in care are dissatisfied with the services they receive. Specifically, this study examines the complaints procedure for children in care. The findings are based on semistructured interviews with children in care, social workers, senior managers, and independent reviewing officers from one English local authority. Thematic analysis of these data identified five emergent themes: (a) complaints by children in care are managed at the lowest possible level, (b) senior managers have an overly optimistic view about children in care being informed of complaint procedures and being encouraged to do so, (c) children in care are worried about complaining, which is recognized by professionals, (d) children's voices are often not heard, and (e) when issues are clearly defined, independent reviewing officers have some degree of success in resolving complaints from children in care.     

Adolescent fertility programs: taking the first few steps

Adolescent fertility programs in Asia and the Pacific have a long way to go to check the problems associated with adolescent fertility, but a start has been made. Delegates from 8 countries met in 1982 to share their problems and experiences in their own countries. The conference participants drew up plans to deal with a high rate of adolescent fertility, sexually active adolescents, out-of-wedlock births, unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, prostitution, rape, abortion, and drug addiction. The delegates felt that for adolescent fertility programs to be effective the program workers must first be equipped with the needed skills through proper training. Inadequate knowledge of the subject matter, inability to communicate with adolescents, personal bias, and lack of counseling skills were among the worker-related problems that conference participants identified. A few months after the conference, participant countries conducted a training program on the effective delivery of adolescent fertility-related information and counseling services. The training program, held in Manila from January 23 to February 2, 1984, was conducted by the Population Center Foundation and sponsored by the Family Planning International Assistance. Training program objectives included: in crease the participants' knowledge of sexuality-related matters; help them to communicate better with adolescents on matters related to sexuality and fertility; make them aware of other ways of responding to fertility-related information needs of adolescents; and improve their skills in counseling adolescents. Lectures, structured learning activities, discussions, role playing, and other methods were used to maximize learning. The training program was divided into 6 modules: group dynamics; human sexuality; information dissemination; counseling techniques; management; and action planning. The plans of Fiji, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the Philippines are reviewed. Organizers of the training program are confident that the action plans of the individual countries will take shape soon and clear the path toward more effective adolescent fertility programs.     

Methods of evaluating child welfare in Indian country: an illustration

The poor quality and quantity of data collected in tribal communities today reflects a lack of true community participation and commitment. This is especially problematic for evaluation studies, in which the needs and desires of the community should be the central focus. This challenge can be met by emphasizing indigenous methods and voice. The authors provide an illustration of how to do this.