Helping Young Children Cope with Community Violence: A Proposal for the Reduction of Social Distress in the Inner Cities

The authors discuss the crisis of violence in our society and its impact on young children. Research on early violence prevention is reviewed, and a rationale for building parent–teacher coalitions to attempt solutions to the problem of violence is presented. A curriculum for co-training of parents and early childhood professionals in violence prevention is outlined. The need for longitudinal research on the implementation and impact of early violence prevention programs is noted.     

The Role of Debt Contracts in UK Corporate Governance

The model of managerial incentives used in Positive Accounting Theory sees debt contracts as important in accounting choices in firms. The paper argues that agency theory and costly contracting theory imply a much wider role for debt contracts as corporate governance mechanisms for controlling relationships between lenders and firms. We analyse the creditor's problem in providing debt to the firm in terms of anticipated agency costs. This analysis leads to a consideration of contracting solutions involving the choice of debt contract terms providing credit protections which are efficient in agency cost and contracting cost terms.The model of debt contracts accepted in the literature is based upon US research, both theoretical and empirical, and thus reflects US institutional experience. This model involves detailed bonding and monitoring terms focusing upon financial and other covenants and implies customisation of such terms to meet creditors' contracting requirements. The paper reviews evidence on the applicability of this model in practice and concludes that, despite broad similarities, institutional biases are present if the model is applied to countries other than the US. We examine evidence on UK debt contracting practices, in particular contract form and content, types of covenant, lenders' perceptions of the role of covenants as control mechanisms, and the issue of standardisation versus customisation. The paper identifies important differences in debt contracting in the UK, for example in types of covenants and the role perceived for them by creditors and identifies standardisation in contract terms as being more common than often implied by other research.     

Mental health and substance use disorders among foster youth transitioning to adulthood: Past research and future directions

At a time when there is increasing attention being given to systematically integrating the well-being of children with the goals of safety and permanence in child welfare, little is known about the psychosocial functioning of foster youth transitioning to adulthood from substitute care. This article systematically reviews 16 peer-reviewed articles and/or research reports to identify lifetime and past year prevalence rates of mental health disorders and service utilization. At ages 17 or 18, foster youth are 2 to 4 times more likely to suffer from lifetime and/or past year mental health disorders compared to transition aged youth in the general population. Findings show that mental health service use declines at ages when the prevalence rate of mental health disorders is peaking. The findings of this review suggest the need to focus future efforts in three main areas: 1) setting a common research agenda for the study of mental health and service use; 2) routine screening and empirically supported treatments; and 3) integration and planning between child and adult mental health service systems.     

Smokers' behavioural responses before and after the 2012 tobacco excise increase

The New Zealand tobacco tax has been increased annually since 2010, and this paper determines the short-term impacts of the 2012 tax increase. We analysed two separate sets of telephone surveys of current smokers and recent quitters conducted over a six-month period (three months before and three months after the tax increase), and compared the level of behaviour change before and after the tax increase. We found that the 14.5% increase in tobacco excise had an impact on smokers. From both surveys, we saw an increase in smoking-related behavioural change (quit/tried to quit/cut down). However, the rate of change was different by ethnicity and past three-month quit attempt status. Specifically, non-Māori and those who have made a recent quit attempt had increased likelihood of reporting a smoking-related change. Despite being a major priority target group in tobacco control, Māori smokers were not benefited by the 2012 increase in tax excise.     

Implementing a Gero-Infused Curriculum in Advanced-Level MSW Courses in Health,Mental Health and Substance Abuse: An Evaluation

This article presents evaluation results from a curricular innovation aimed at increasing the capacity of social work graduates to serve older adults in health, mental health, and substance abuse settings. Working as a team, faculty developed, incorporated, and evaluated gerontology-infused syllabi and teaching modules in multiple sections of the 3 courses, with 2 sections serving as a comparison group. Results indicated that students exposed to the gero-infused curriculum increased their age-related knowledge and self-competence from pre- to posttest, and achieved a greater increase in knowledge than did the comparison group. Implications of the findings to social work education are discussed.     

Children's participation in family law decision-making: Theoretical approaches to understanding children's views

The aim of this paper is to explore children's views about their involvement in the post-separation arrangements that were made in their families and via the court process in the light of three theoretical models. It distinguishes between various aspects of children's participation, a term that carries a number of meanings and is used in various ways. In particular, it examines children's reasons for wanting to be involved or not, and the association between the amount of say children thought they had had, how much say they wanted, and the perceived fairness of the arrangements and their happiness with them.