Self‐reported proficiency in Māori language among those of Māori descent in New Zealand

Abstract

In a national survey in New Zealand (N = 12 992), participants of Māori descent (N = 2936) reported their proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing Māori and in understanding spoken Māori. Only 6–10% reported that they could cope “very well” in these areas while 36–52% reported their proficiency as “no more than a few words or phrases”. There was no evidence of subgroups of Māori with divergent proficiency across oral language or literacy. Six latent classes were fitted but these appeared to lie along a continuum, and analysis employing item response theory (IRT) and factor analysis confirmed this. A simple sum of scores across the four areas correlated very highly with the IRT factor score (r = 0.97). High proficiency was more common among older Māori and females, in the Midland region (lowest in the South), and for those with sole‐Māori ethnicity, followed by multi‐ethnic Māori (seldom seen in those of Māori descent but not ethnicity).     

The Gap Concept as a Quality of Life Measure: Validation Study of the Child Quality of Life Systemic Inventory

The objective was to determine the interest and psychometric properties of a new QOL self-assessment questionnaire suitable for children 8–12 years old measuring alpha, beta and gamma changes: the “Inventaire Systémique de Qualité de vie pour Enfants” (ISQV-E^©). This was a cross-sectional validation study. 288 children have completed the ISQV-E. Other tools were used: The “Autoquestionnaire de Qualité de Vie Enfants Imagé” (AUQUEI), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC), the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI). The internal consistency of the four scores of the ISQV-E (state, goal, rank and gap) is satisfactory. All scores have their own specificity. The data show the convergent validity, sensitivity and applicability of the ISQV-E. On the other hand, no satisfactory factorial structure was found although a multidimensional theoretical perspective was applied. The feasibility of the ISQV-E seems clearly demonstrated and the value of this new tool seems evident in contexts of physical, psychological or social problems. The validation study was promising but certain points such as test–retest reliability remain to be studied.     

Technology and Family Violence in the Context of Post‐Separated Parenting

Whilst the advent of new and increasingly accessible communication technologies undoubtedly provides new, positive, and effective ways for individuals to communicate and connect with their communities, it simultaneously provides additional means and forums for perpetrators to abuse and harass their victims. Furthermore, such technologies enable perpetrators of family violence to overcome geographical boundaries and continue their abuse post‐separation, particularly where there are children of the relationship. This paper reviews and classifies the existing literature on technology‐facilitated abuse, identifying predominant themes in relation to context and focus, as well as the gaps. New forms of criminality as well as new ways to perpetrate existing forms of criminality are described.     

Variables Affecting Readiness to Benefit From Career Interventions

This article identifies and briefly describes the broad range of variables that may influence clients’ readiness to benefit from career interventions. The article also discusses consequences of low readiness for effective use of career interventions and addresses implications for practice as well as for future research. Variables contributing to low readiness for effective use of career interventions include personal characteristics and circumstances; knowledge of self, options, and decision making; and prior experience with career interventions. Consequences of low readiness for using career interventions include premature disengagement, negative perception of skills and interests, selective acquisition of incomplete information, premature choice foreclosure, protracted exploration, dependent decision‐making style, and poor evaluation of options.     

Why is not design of experiments widely used by engineers in Europe?

An extensive literature review was carried out to detect why design of experiments (DoE) is not widely used among engineers in Europe. Once 16 main barriers were identified, a survey was carried out to obtain first-hand information about the significance of each. We obtained 101 responses from academics, consultants and practitioners interested in DoE. A statistical analysis of the survey is introduced, including: (a) a ranking of the barriers, (b) grouping of barriers using factorial analysis, (c) differences between characteristics of respondents. This exploratory analysis showed that the main barriers that hinder the widespread use of DoE are low managerial commitment and engineers’ general weakness in statistics. Once the barriers were classified, the most important resultant group was that related to business barriers.     

Food Safety Objectives Should Integrate the Variability of the Concentration of Pathogen

The World Trade Organization introduced the concept of appropriate level of protection (ALOP) as a public health target. For this public health objective to be interpretable by the actors in the food chain, the concept of food safety objective (FSO) was proposed by the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods and adopted later by the Codex Alimentarius Food Hygiene Committee. The way to translate an ALOP into a FSO is still in debate. The purpose of this article is to develop a methodological tool to derive a FSO from an ALOP being expressed as a maximal annual marginal risk. We explore the different models relating the annual marginal risk to the parameters of the FSO depending on whether the variability in the survival probability and in the concentration of the pathogen are considered or not. If they are not, determination of the FSO is straightforward. If they are, we propose to use stochastic Monte Carlo simulation models and logistic discriminant analysis in order to determine which sets of parameters are compatible with the ALOP. The logistic discriminant function was chosen such that the kappa coefficient is maximized. We illustrate this method by the example of the risks of listeriosis and salmonellosis in one type of soft cheese. We conclude that the definition of the FSO should integrate three dimensions: the prevalence of contamination, the average concentration per contaminated typical serving, and the dispersion of the concentration among those servings.     

An equilibrium analysis of the gender wage gap

Within a two‐sector general equilibrium model, women's productivity in the marketplace decreases with the amount of household work they perform at home. Assuming that men's and women's household labour inputs are complementary here we prove the existence of multiple equilibria. In some, men and women allocate their labour equally and earn identical wages. In others, they allocate labour differently and earn different wages. In this context, beliefs about the inferiority of women's productivity are shown to be self‐fulfilling. By use of numerical examples, we show that welfare is highest when spouses allocate labour equally and suggest policy recommendations.