Preventing child abuse and neglect: a national evaluation of Parents Anonymous groups

This evaluation assessed whether participation in Parents Anonymous mutual support groups was associated with child maltreatment prevention. Parents new to groups across the United States were interviewed at baseline, one month, and six months. Using standardized scales, all parents showed improvements in some child maltreatment outcomes, risk factors, and protective factors. Parents starting out with particularly serious needs showed statistically significant improvement on every scale. Results indicated that Parents Anonymous participation contributes to child maltreatment reduction.     

On exact and optimal single-sampling plans by variables

We deal with sampling by variables with two-way protection in the case of a $N\>(\mu ,\sigma ^2)$ distributed characteristic with unknown $\sigma $ . The LR sampling plan proposed by Lieberman and Resnikoff (JASA 50: 457 ${-}$ 516, 1955) and the BSK sampling plan proposed by Bruhn-Suhr and Krumbholz (Stat. Papers 31: 195–207, 1990) are based on the UMVU and the plug-in estimator, respectively. For given $p_1$ (AQL), $p_2$ (RQL) and $\alpha ,\beta $ (type I and II errors) we present an algorithm allowing to determine the optimal LR and BSK plans having minimal sample size among all plans satisfying the corresponding two-point condition on the OC. An R (R: A language and environment for statistical computing, R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3-900051-07-0, URL http://www.R-project.org/ 2012) package, ExLiebeRes‘ (Krumbholz and Steuer ExLiebeRes: calculating exact LR- and BSK-plans, R-package version 0.9.9. http://exlieberes.r-forge.r-project.org 2012) implementing that algorithm is provided to the public.     

Subjective Welfare, Well-Being, and Self-Reported Food Hypersensitivity in Four European Countries: Implications for European Policy

This study estimates the effects of food hypersensitivity on individuals?? perceived welfare and well-being compared to non-food hypersensitive individuals. Study respondents were recruited in the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and UK. The difference in welfare between food hypersensitive respondents and those asymptomatic to foods was estimated using a subjective welfare approach, including income evaluation. Well-being was measured using the Cantril Ladder-of-Life Scale, and health status using the Self-Perceived Health Scale. The difference in well-being, welfare and health status between participant groups was explained further using a number of background variables. No significant within-country differences in welfare between food hypersensitive respondents and respondents asymptomatic to foods were found. In terms of well-being, adult food hypersensitive respondents and their spouses reported significantly less happiness than respondents and their spouses asymptomatic to foods in the Netherlands and Poland. In Spain, the spouses of the food hypersensitive respondents were significantly less happy than respondents aymptomatic to foods. The well-being of children did not significantly differ between groups. The degree of severity of food hypersensitivity was negatively related to overall health status. In Poland, food hypersensitive respondents reported worse health status compared to asymptomatic respondents. In Spain, the converse was true. Food hypersensitive respondents were generally less happy with their life as a whole than respondents asymptomatic to foods, presumably because they experienced more negative effects, which were not related to perceived health status.     

Kernel adjusted nonparametric regression

In this paper we propose and study a new kernel regression estimator in which the kernel is taken from a properly adapted location-scale family of the design distribution. We show that, while the original smoothing may be performed with sub-optimal bandwidths, adaptation of proper scale parameters yields overall optimal estimators. Unlike traditional smoothing methodology, our approach does not aim at estimating pivotal higher order derivatives.     

News and Comment

Using personal narratives and research on teacher “communities of practice,” the authors outline a proactive response to high-stakes testing policies that places teacher learning at its center. Although research on the effects of these policies is mixed, the authors are troubled by the ways in which the policies have been used to strip teachers of their autonomy and the erosion of the value placed on their professional knowledge. The authors—who have both taught in urban schools where students had to pass high-stakes social studies tests to graduate—argue that teachers must work together to reclaim their role as leaders in response to the policies. They provide key questions that social studies teachers can use to guide an inquiry into the tests themselves and suggest ways to use the knowledge gained to better serve their students’ learning and raise test scores.     

Applying Complexity and Emergence in Social Work Education

Complexity theory provides social work educators, researchers, and evaluators with a promising approach for examining the concepts of interconnectedness, non‐linearity and emergence. This paper introduces complexity theory, provides an example in which a large international non‐governmental organization developed the capacity to address the issue of human trafficking, and discusses implications for applying this approach to social work education coursework. Social work applications of complexity range from understanding emerging social movements, to encouraging human rights and resiliency in target populations, to understanding the interdependencies of communities.     

The spiritual nature of service-learning

Service-learning, by its very nature, fosters young people's spiritual development, especially in experiencing a sense of interconnectedness with others and the rest of the world; opening one's heart; and expanding self-inquiry and self-knowledge.     

Managing relationships on Facebook: A long-term analysis of leading companies in Germany

The purpose of this study is to investigate how companies manage relationships with publics on social media. Based on the concepts of functional and contingency interactivity, the study examines the long-term implementation of three interactive strategies derived from research on organization-public relationships: dialogic communication, transparent communication, and informal communication. The study sheds further light on relational outputs and outcomes. The results of content analyses of leading German companies’ Facebook pages in 2012, 2015, and 2018 indicate the growing importance of dialogic communication and informal communication. There is a constant relation between dialogic communication and the extent of user interaction, with the analysis suggesting that dialogic communication is used to manage critical user comments. Hence, the long-term study contributes to a deeper understanding of professionalization in corporate social media communication. It provides evidence for PR scholars and professionals that there are effective features on Facebook for managing sustainable relationships.     

Shrinking Kin Networks in Italy Due to Sustained Low Fertility

Among the closely watched demographic trends of thelate 20th Century is a pronounced drop in fertilityrates throughout much of the world. Italy presents aparticularly interesting case for study: in 1960,Italy's TFR was 2.41, whereas by 1995 it had fallen to1.17. According to United Nations projections, by 2050Italy will be the second oldest country in the world,with 3.4 persons aged 60 or older per person under 15years of age. Besides overall population ageing,another implication of sustained low fertility issmaller families and kin groups. We investigate theconsequences of projected changes in Italy's birth anddeath rates on the composition of kin groups usingmicrosimulation techniques. Using a startingpopulation taken from the 1994 ``Indagine Multiscoposulle Famiglie' survey, and projected rates ofmortality and fertility by age and parity produced bythe Italian Institute of Statistics, we simulate thepath of kin-group patterns in Italy during the period1994–2050. While we reproduce the aggregate populationpatterns found in official projections, we conduct ourestimates at the ``micro' level, keeping track of therelationships between individuals that underlie kingroup patterns. We show the effects of the demographictrends on the existence of daughters and sons forolder mothers, on the number of sisters and brotherswith whom an adult woman could share theresponsibilities of caring an elderly mother, and theeffect of the joint action of the increase inlongevity and the mean age at fertility on theproportion of adult women with a living mother.