How distance to a non-resident parent relates to child outcomes

Family courts now encourage both parents to maintain contact with their children following separation/divorce, believing this is in the child’s best interest. We use geographical distance between non-resident parents and their children to test how such distance is related to educational and behavioral outcomes within a population sample of children from nonnuclear families in Denmark. As this distance is a choice, non-resident parents may choose where to live in part based on expected child outcomes; results that fail to take endogeneity into account will be biased. We use instrumental variable techniques to control for this potential endogeneity. The results indicate educational outcomes are somewhat better for all and behavioral outcomes are at least no worse for girls who live at a greater distance from their non-resident parent. Failing to control for endogeneity seems to bias the results for behavioral outcomes in favor of more proximate parents. Thus, policy efforts to keep separated parents geographically closer for the sake of their children may in fact not be advantageous.     

Policy Coherence for Sustainable Agricultural Development: Uncovering Prospects and Pretence within the Swedish Policy for Global Development

Within the European Union, promotion of ‘policy coherence’ is intended to improve co‐ordination across sectors and groups of professionals, who make competing claims for agricultural development in low‐income countries. This article examines the prospects for stakeholders in Sweden to implement such a policy, drawing on experiences from the launch of a national multi‐stakeholder platform with the participation of 99 organisations. Its findings demonstrate institutional fragmentation and struggles for legitimacy, with the internationally heralded Swedish Policy for Global Development operated largely as a tokenistic instrument, legitimised by the pretence of stakeholder engagement. It argues for improved institutional support to facilitate cross‐sectoral dialogues to deconstruct social boundaries which are no longer relevant.     

The relevance of contemporary psychodynamic theories to teaching social work

Teaching and learning social work occurs within the context of relationships whereby instructors and students mutually learn with and from one another. This paper explores the relevance of contemporary psychoanalytic theories, specifically self psychology, intersubjectivity theory and relational theory, to teaching social work. The application of these theories reveals the need for instructors to attend to context, mutual and reciprocal interactions, multiple perspectives on reality, and disjunctions in the learning process.     

Between Endless Needs and Limited Resources: The Gendered Construction of a Greedy Organization

One of the strategies of the modernization of public services is the decentralization of responsibilities and organizing work in autonomous co‐ operative teams with varied tasks. The empowerment of the public service workers in the front line is therefore a strategy in local government in Norway today. Under the assumption that women have ‘natural’ skills in caring, workers on the lowest levels are given responsibility for care and nursing. A study of the decentralization of public care for the elderly in their homes showed that being given interesting tasks and increased responsibility mobilized the efforts of the care workers. However, since the power of resources has been centralized, this has led to an intensification of work. In gendering the relevant discourses by explaining women's experiences of an over‐heavy workload as a result of their ‘mothering’ and their inability to set limits, women care workers were constructed by their managers as unprofessional and not to be taken seriously. This has made the public care organization a greedy organization for the women care workers.     

Bidirectional Associations Between Self‐Regulation and Parenting Styles in Early Adolescence

The goal of this study was to explore bidirectional associations between teens' self‐regulation and maternal and paternal parenting styles (i.e., authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive‐indulgent) over one year. As part of an ongoing longitudinal study, 489 teens ages 11–16 (51% female, 70% European American, 69% in two‐parent households) and their parents completed questionnaires on two occasions. Analyses revealed high temporal stability of parenting and self‐regulation over time. No cross‐lagged effects emerged in either authoritative parenting model. Bidirectional effects were observed in the maternal authoritarian parenting model only. Child effects on parenting were revealed in both permissive‐indulgent parenting models. The interpretation of these findings and their implications for future research are delineated in the discussion.     

Teamwork and associated psychological factors: A review

Research results that have been reported indicate that the specific outcomes of teamwork vary and are in part context-dependant, while less is known about the interaction between teamwork and psychological factors. This paper reviews research results published in scientific journals in the period 2000-2005, and assesses current knowledge of teams and associated psychological factors. Furthermore, the review process identified the importance of team constituent factors (interdependence and team autonomy), team type and team size, and contextual factors for the results that were reported, and assessed the design and research-methodological foundations of those results. The main inclusion criteria for papers were that they had been based on field studies of formally established teams and were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Furthermore they must have been based on the use of questionnaires, and the occupational sector must have been identified. Fifty-five papers were identified for inclusion in the review. An almost consistent pattern of positive associations between psychological variables and teamwork was found to be reported across team types, team sizes, and contextual factors. Furthermore, the reported psychological factors appear to be positively linked to team autonomy and team interdependence. This paper discusses the strength of the interactions between teamwork and various psychological variables, and suggests directions for future research.     

An International Study of Research Misconduct Policies

Research misconduct is an international concern. Misconduct policies can play a crucial role in preventing and policing research misconduct, and many institutions have developed their own policies. While institutional policies play a key role in preventing and policing misconduct, national policies are also important to ensure consistent promulgation and enforcement of ethical standards. The purpose of this study was to obtain more information about research misconduct policies across the globe. We found that twenty-two of the top forty research and development funding countries (55%) had a national misconduct policy. Four countries (18.2%) are in the process of developing a policy, and four (18.2%) have a national research ethics code but no misconduct policy. All twenty-two countries (100%) with national policies included fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism in the definition of misconduct, but beyond that there was considerable diversity. Unethical authorship was mentioned in 54.6% of the misconduct definitions, followed by unethical publication practices (36.4%), conflict of interest mismanagement (36.4%), unethical peer review (31.8%), misconduct related to misconduct investigations (27.3%), poor record keeping (27.3%), other deception (27.3%), serious deviations (22.7%), violating confidentiality (22.7%), and human or animal research violations (22.7%). Having a national policy was positively associated with research and development funding ranking and intensiveness. To promote integrity in international research collaborations, countries should seek to harmonize and clarify misconduct definitions and develop procedures for adjudicating conflicts when harmonization does not occur.     

Role Conflict among Family Childcare Providers in the Bronx

Family childcare (FCC) providers provide childcare for many low‐income families in the United States, and the literature suggests they take on several other support roles as well. The current study consisted of focus groups and interviews in which FCC providers (N = 22) shared successes and challenges in their profession. Using grounded theory we identified four primary FCC roles: teacher, caregiver, social worker and business owner. Conflict within and between roles was related to considerable stress. Because roles varied across a spectrum from entangled to rigid professional relationship boundaries, many FCC providers struggled with the limits of their daily work. Suggestions are made to limit role conflict, re‐establish boundaries and promote FCC providers’ well‐being.     

The indirect effect of perceived burdensomeness on the relationship between indices of social support and suicide ideation in college students

Objective: Research has demonstrated that a lack of social support is related to suicide risk. This study examines perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness, of the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide, as mechanisms of the social support–suicide relationship in college students. Method: The study consisted of 207 students from a Midwestern university. Data were collected from 2007 to 2008. Two multiple mediation analyses were conducted to examine whether perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness mediated the relationship between indices of social support and suicide ideation. Results: Perceived burdensomeness mediated the relationships between perceived social support and suicide ideation (95% confidence interval [CI] ?.02 to ?.00, effect size = ?.01) and social connectedness and suicide ideation (95% CI ?.03 to ?.00, effect size = ?.03). Thwarted belongingness did not mediate either relationship. Conclusions: Results suggest that a lack of social support could lead to perceptions of being a burden on others, which could lead to suicide ideation.