Running hard to stand still: Communication and information technology within social work training

Recent years have seen rapid technological changes and these have impacted on social work and social work education. Social work educators struggle to keep pace with these changes. Drawing on the author's own experience, this article outlines some key resources that are available to social work educators and students, reflects on the role of 'Communication and Information Technology' within the social work curriculum, and looks towards future developments in relation to online learning.     

Robust bootstrap forecast densities for GARCH returns and volatilities

Bootstrap procedures are useful to obtain forecast densities for both returns and volatilities in the context of generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity models. In this paper, we analyse the effect of additive outliers on the finite sample properties of these bootstrap densities and show that, when obtained using maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters and standard filters for the volatilities, they are badly affected with dramatic consequences on the estimation of Value-at-Risk. We propose constructing bootstrap densities for returns and volatilities using a robust parameter estimator based on variance targeting implemented together with an adequate modification of the volatility filter. We show that the performance of the proposed procedure is adequate when compared with available robust alternatives. The results are illustrated with both simulated and real data.     

Community work and community care: Links in practice and in education

This article emphasises the individualising nature of much current community care provision and then discusses opportunities which may have been presented by the emphasis on user-empowerment within the community care changes. Drawing on personal experience and written from a perspective that we need a community care provision infused with the practices and values of community work, the article considers how community work needs to change and how community care workers need to change. The implications for social work educators are brought out throughout the article.     

To File Or Not To File? Systemic Incentives, Corporate Control, and the Bankruptcy Decision

This research investigates the distinctions between bankrupt firms and equally leveraged firms that avoid bankruptcy. Building upon the systemic incentives of bankruptcy law, and specifically those applicable to Chapter 11 reorganizations, the study argues that the firm’s governance and capital structure characteristics moderate the relationship between the firm’s financial condition and the filing decision. The results of this study indicate that, contrary to agency theoretical predictions, firms with high levels of inside equity ownership and secured indebtedness file in poorer financial condition than peer firms with low levels of these variables. By contrast, firms with high levels of outside equity ownership and short-term indebtedness file when in relatively better financial condition.     

The Development of Parenting Efficacy Among New Mothers and Fathers

Predictors of prenatal and postnatal parenting efficacy were examined in a sample of 115 primiparous mothers and 73 fathers in an effort to examine the association between preexisting parental characteristics and prenatal efficacy and the association between prenatal characteristics and postnatal efficacy when aspects of the current parenting context are taken into account. The most robust predictors of maternal postnatal efficacy included both prenatal efficacy, which significantly predicted postnatal efficacy independent of all other predictors including the current parenting context, and perceived infant temperamental reactivity as both a main effect and as buffered by social support. This was not the case for fathers, whose postnatal efficacy was primarily a function of their amount of involvement in parenting tasks and social support. The differential predictors of mother and father efficacy as well as their implications for future research are discussed.