Financial Literacy: Building Economic Empowerment with Survivors of Violence

The purpose of this paper is to outline key constructs including financial literacy, economic self-efficacy, economic self-sufficiency, and economic empowerment, and then present findings from an exploratory study that sought to understand the relationship among these variables in a sample of abused women. The results revealed positive and significant relationships between financial literacy with economic empowerment, economic self-efficacy and economic-self sufficiency. Results also indicated that financial literacy, race, and economic self-sufficiency were significant predictors of economic empowerment. By focusing this research on abused women, it is our intention to raise awareness about the importance of financial literacy curricula with advocates, policy-makers and researchers, so more focus can be given to economically empowering IPV survivors.     

Design Imperatives to Enhance Evidence-Based Interventions with Persuasive Technology: A Case Scenario in Preventing Child Maltreatment

ABSTRACT

This article examines how current thinking in persuasive technologies may be applied to evidence-based therapeutic interventions through a planned and multidisciplinary design process. Design steps identified in the human services and the design sciences are merged to generate six design imperatives. The need for human service knowledge to inform design is discussed in each design imperative. A case scenario using Healthy Families America (HFA), a broadly implemented child abuse and neglect prevention program, is presented as illustrative. The final design imperative argues for continuous attention to ethics across all disciplines. The design imperatives provide an initial framework for optimizing the development of persuasive technology applications in the human services.     

Novel Ideas for Community-Centered Clinical Practice: Facilitating Graduate Students' Understanding of Sense of Community and Place

Community-centered clinical practice requires understanding of relational aspects of community and place and how these unfold in the lives of clients. However, many students lack such conceptual understanding and consequently struggle to define how they might be integrated into clinical practice. This article illustrates the use of three novels to facilitate such understanding in a graduate clinical practice course. The novels examine the experiences of a middle-aged White widower, a Black woman, and a young Aboriginal man as they alternatively avoid, reject, find, and ultimately cherish their place in community and their community in place.     

Using Multidimensional Career Decision Instruments to Assess Career Decidedness and Implementation

Multidimensional measures of career indecision have been constructed to aid in the differential diagnosis of career problems. This study examined the relative efficacy of individual scale scores on the Career Factors Inventory (CFI) and two calculations of the Career Deciion Scale (CDS-A and CDS-B) in predicting career decidedness and career implementation. Results from separate simultaneous regression analyses indicated that different scales of the CFI and the CDS-B made unique contributions to the prediction of career decidedness and implementation. On the other hand, only one predominant scale emerged in the CDS-A regression analyses. Results supported the use of individual subscales to identify antecedents of career indecision.     

Factors associated with undertreatment of medical student depression

The authors measured factors associated with under-treatment of medical students' depression. They administered a cross-sectional Beck Depression Inventory and sociodemographic questionnaire to students at 1 medical school, defining their outcome measure as the use of counseling services or antidepressant medication. Of an estimated 450 available student participants in the study, 322 (71.6%) completed the questionnaire. Forty-nine students (15.2%) were classified as depressed and 10 (20.4%) reported experiencing suicidal ideation during medical school, but only 13 (26.5%) of the depressed students reported treatment. The researchers observed no difference in treatment by year in school, completion of psychiatric requirement, race, or depression severity. Treatment for depression was significantly associated with older age and personal and family histories of depression. Despite the availability of effective medications and confidential mental health services, medical students with depression are undertreated. The authors' findings support the need for targeted messages to help medical students recognize their depression and refer themselves for appropriate treatment.     

Weighing Health Benefit and Health Risk Information when Consuming Sport-Caught Fish

Fish consumers may incur benefits and risks from eating fish. Health advisories issued by states, tribes, and other entities typically include advice about how to limit fish consumption or change other behaviors (e.g., fish cleaning or cooking) to reduce health risks from exposure to contaminants. Eating fish, however, may provide health benefits. Risk communicators and fish consumers have suggested the importance of including risk comparison information, as well as health risk-benefit comparisons in health advisory communications. To improve understanding about how anglers fishing in waters affected by health advisories may respond to such risk-risk or risk-benefit information, we surveyed Lake Ontario (NY, USA) anglers. We interviewed by telephone 4,750 anglers, 2,593 of which had fished Lake Ontario in the past 12 months and were sent a detailed mail questionnaire (1,245 responded). We posed questions varying the magnitude of health risks and health benefits to be gained by fish consumption, and varied the population affected by these risks and benefits (anglers, children, women of childbearing age, and unborn children). Respondents were influenced by health benefit and health risk information. When risks were high, most respondents would eat less fish regardless of the benefit level. When risks were low, the magnitude of change in fish consumption was related to level of benefit. Responses differed depending on the question wording order, that is, whether "risks" were posed before "benefits." For a given risk-benefit level, respondents would give different advice to women of childbearing age versus children, with more conservative advice (eat less fish) provided to women of childbearing age. Respondents appeared to be influenced more strongly by risk-risk comparisons (e.g., risks from other foods vs. risks from fish) than by risk-benefit comparisons (e.g., risks from fish vs. benefits from fish). Risk analysts and risk communicators should improve efforts to include risk-risk and risk-benefit comparisons in communication efforts, and to clarify to whom the health risks and benefits from fish consumption may accrue.     

Institutional Change and Debt-based Corporate Governance: A Comparative Analysis of Four Transition Economies

Countries in transition now represent a significant sector of the international political economy. One of the challenges that they face in moving towards market-based systems and institutions is that of transforming the structure of business enterprises into forms more compatible with capitalist economies. Corporate governance is an important part of this. We argue that, certainly during an interim stage whilst equity markets are weak or non-existent, debt finance has a useful role to play. However for this to be possible there are some important institutional changes that are necessary in order to provide the infrastructure within which debt finance can operate effectively and efficiently. We then present an overview and evaluation of the progress of change in four selected transition countries. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Participation and accountability in corporate community involvement programmes: a research agenda

Corporate community involvement (CCI) is catching up among businessesoperating in developing countries under the wave of corporatesocial responsibility (CSR). Significantly, CCI discourse theworld over is shifting from ‘involvement’ to ‘investment’,the latter advancing the business case. This shifting paradigmdepicts a calculative approach to CCI based on costs and benefits,revealing reciprocal yet unequal corporate–community relationships.This approach when implemented in already disadvantaged communitiesraises fears of exploitation rather than community empowerment.This article critiques the predominant approaches applied inCCI and their implications towards poverty reduction and sustainablecommunity development efforts in developing countries.