Evaluation of a school-based sexual abuse prevention curriculum in Malaysia

This article examines a personal safety curriculum (Keeping Me Safe) offered to Standard Three students (mostly nine-year-olds) in five primary schools in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Staff of the Malaysian NGO, Protect and Save the Children, Association of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur (P.S. The Children), facilitated six weekly one-hour sessions featuring games and role play to teach children about potentially unsafe situations and touches, and to develop appropriate safety strategies and skills to ask for help. The students (n = 261) and a control group (n = 184) completed a 25 item questionnaire before and after the program, and for the experimental group only, again two months later. The assessment was supplemented by observations of each session, student interviews, and parent and teacher focus groups. The experimental group students showed substantial gains on about two-thirds of the questionnaire items. However, a minority of the students failed to absorb key messages of the curriculum. Challenges to implementing prevention programs in Malaysia are discussed.     

The Efron dice voting system

About 50?years ago, Efron noted some counterintuitive properties of the long-term behavior of contests involving dice. For instance, consider the 6-sided dice whose sides are labeled (4,4,4,4,0,0), (3,3,3,3,3,3), (6,6,2,2,2,2), and (5,5,5,1,1,1). Each die has a 2/3 probability of rolling a higher number than the next one in the list and the last has the same 2/3 probability of rolling a higher number than the first. The non-transitivity of games involving non-identical dice was popularized by Gardner (Sci Am, 223:110–114, 1970). Although Gardner and other authors have observed that non-transitive dice serve to illustrate the complexities of the theory of voting, it does not seem that much attention has been paid to the corresponding voting system. Our purpose in this article is to present this voting system and compare its properties with those of other voting systems. One of the most interesting properties is the fact that cancellation with respect to the Efron dice voting system can replace cancellation with respect to pairwise preferences in Young’s characterization of the social choice function associated with the Borda Count.     

Predicting engagement in a transition to parenthood program for couples

Fostering participant engagement is a challenging but essential component of effective prevention programs. To better understand which factors influence engagement, this study examines several predictors of couple engagement in Family Foundations (FF), a preventive intervention for first-time parents shown to enhance parent mental health, couple relations, parenting quality, and child adjustment through age 3 years. FF consists of a series of classes delivered through childbirth education departments at local hospitals. Baseline data on socio-demographics, parent mental health, and couple relationship quality were examined as predictors of participants’ level of engagement in FF (n = 89 couples, 178 individuals). Sociodemographic variables such as parent gender, socioeconomic status, and age predicted program engagement to a limited extent. However, findings indicated that marital status was the best predictor of engagement. Discussion focuses on how findings can inform the development of practices that promote engagement, such as the use of targeted outreach efforts for individuals most at risk of disengagement.     

Relationship education research: current status and future directions

The overarching aim of this article is to review the research on relationship education programs and approaches that has been published or accepted for publication since the last review article in 2003. This article provides a critical overview of the relationship education field and sets an agenda for research and practice for the next decade. A theme weaved throughout the article is the ways in which relationship education is similar and different from couples therapy, and we conclude that there can be a synergistic, healthy marriage between the two. We then provide recommendations for future directions for research in the relationship education field. Finally, the coauthors comment on our experiences in both the relationship education field and the couples therapy field as both researchers and interventionists.     

"It's your badge of inclusion": The Red Hat Society as a gendered subculture of aging

Although studies document the health-enhancing effects of social engagement, they reveal little about the underlying mechanisms operating within specific organizational contexts. Limited attention is given to the role of inequality - particularly age and gender - in shaping either the organizations to which we belong or their consequences for our well-being. We address this issue by examining the Red Hat Society, a social organization for middle-aged and older women. Interviews with members (n=52) illustrate how age and gender inequality interact to shape the organization, which can be viewed as a gendered subculture of aging. Drawing on this framework, we discuss four processes through which participation generates benefits for older women involved in age- and gender-segregated organizations: enhancing social networks, countering invisibility, creating positive frames for aging experiences, and promoting youthful identities.     

Boom and bust: housing equity withdrawal and consumption decisions and their impacts on household wealth

The authors examine whether the surge in housing refinance and equity withdrawal generated by the housing boom disproportionately affected older households in terms of decisions on whether to refinance, whether to withdraw equity, and how much to withdraw, and how in turn these decisions affected their household wealth. Using the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, the authors found the highest rates of refinancing and cashing out equity among older (although not necessarily the oldest) households. The authors also found that appreciation in house value, being a baby boomer, and having higher household income were the factors that most increased the probability of refinancing and withdrawing equity. Amounts cashed out were higher among older than among younger households. Ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates showed that amounts withdrawn were increased by price appreciation, financial assets, and income, along with being a "pre-boomer" or "early boomer." Older cohorts displayed larger wealth effects than younger ones, but their withdrawn equity was a smaller percentage of total net worth. A relatively small percentage of respondents' dollars was used for consumption, and most dollars were used for home improvement, other investment, or debt repayment. However, massive equity withdrawal and the subsequent collapse of housing prices have caused housing leverage to soar, putting some homeowners "underwater" and jeopardizing others' retirement preparedness. The ensuing housing finance crisis raises numerous policy issues, from reform of mortgage underwriting, securitization, servicing, and foreclosure procedures, to potential limitations on borrowing against unrealized housing equity gains, to enhanced government transfers for distressed older homeowners, to local and state revenue policy changes.