Online programs as tools to improve parenting: A meta-analytic review

Background

A number of parenting programs, aimed at improving parenting competencies, have recently been adapted or designed with the use of online technologies. Although web-based services have been claimed to hold promise for parent support, a meta-analytic review of online parenting interventions is lacking.

Method

A systematic review was undertaken of studies (n = 19), published between 2000 and 2010, that describe parenting programs of which the primary components were delivered online. Seven programs were adaptations of traditional, mostly evidence-based, parenting interventions, using the unique opportunities of internet technology. Twelve studies (with in total 54 outcomes, N_tot parents = 1615 and N_tot children = 740) were included in a meta-analysis.

Results

The meta-analysis showed a statistically significant medium effect across parents outcomes (ES = 0.67; se = 0.25) and child outcomes (ES = 0.42; se = 0.15).

Conclusions

The results of this review show that web-based parenting programs with new technologies offer opportunities for sharing social support, consulting professionals and training parental competencies. The meta-analytic results show that guided and self-guided online interventions can make a significant positive contribution for parents and children. The relation with other meta-analyses in the domains of parent education and web-based interventions is discussed.     

A life course approach to understanding homelessness of shelter residents

ABSTRACT

Using in-depth interviews of 40 residents from a homeless shelter in El Paso, Texas in the United States, this study examines the etiology, processes, and patterns of homelessness by assessing those confronting homeless spells at different time points and for varying reasons. Our study is guided by the research questions: How did residents of homeless shelters experience transitions and turning points of homelessness? What were the coping resources that homeless people drew on to overcome life adversities? Overall, we found that risk accumulation as a result of different traumatic events, such as death of a family member, marital or relationship breakdown, victimization, unemployment, substance addiction, poor mental health, or discrimination confronted in varied contexts, could serve as precursors or consequences that exacerbated the housing crisis over the course of a life. We recommend that efforts geared toward remediating, alleviating, or preventing homelessness be life course driven. It is only through compassion and empathy rather than criminalizing and stigmatizing that we can help stop the triggers and spread of the downward spiral of homelessness.     

Making combination vaccines more accessible to low-income countries: The antigen bundle pricing problem

Combination vaccines have become the preferred choice for immunizing children in high- and middle-income countries. However, these new vaccines are prohibitively expensive for low-income countries, causing them to rely on older, less-expensive vaccines. This product divergence decreases economies of scale for the purchase of vaccines and eliminates the financial incentive for manufacturers to maintain production of less-expensive vaccines or even to develop new vaccines for diseases affecting developing countries. This paper treats combination vaccines as bundles of antigens that can be priced as a single item. Such bundles are used to formulate an optimization problem that determines the combination vaccine allocation between vaccine producers and different countries under a price discrimination agreement. The objective of the optimization problem is to satisfy countries' antigen demand at the lowest possible price, while providing a reasonable profit for the vaccine producers. The optimization problem results in a mixed-integer non-linear programming model that maximizes the sum of manufacturing profits and the customer surplus, and hence, it maximizes the total social surplus. Moreover, a constructive heuristic is proposed to determine an approximation to the best allocation of combination vaccines and their range of feasible prices. Computational results show that vaccine prices in all market segments become more affordable as the supply of the most complex combination vaccines becomes more available to low-income countries.     

Impact of Storage Assignment Decisions on a Bucket Brigade Order Picking Line

Bucket brigade order picking is a method for retrieving orders from a storage rack where workers follow a fixed sequence and dynamically adjust to variability in work content along the rack. The method is simple and has been shown to provide superior performance in many applications. In this article, we analyze how the location in which products are stored in the rack affects throughput. We identify conditions where storage decisions have a large impact on throughput (e.g., a 20% increase in productivity) and conditions where the impact is minimal. Conditions associated with high impact are high variation in worker skill, high variation in SKU volume, and a moderate level of walking‐to‐picking work content per pick list.     

Preparedness of representatives for people with dementia in a self-directed program

ABSTRACT

Representatives enact their role as decision-making partners across the intersection of participant direction (PD) and dementia care. Self-rated preparedness for key dimensions of the role endorsed by a panel of experts in PD and dementia was assessed by telephone survey of 30 representatives of persons with dementia in a PD program. The sample (daughters 60%; Black 50%; rural 70%) was diverse in length of time in the role and additional responsibilities. They represented participants with moderate to advanced dementia and ≥ two additional chronic illnesses. Overall preparedness scores were in the pretty well to very well prepared range, with variation across dimensions and between individuals. Preparedness varied according to what has to be done day-to-day in dynamic or unpredictable situations, gauging decisional capacity, anticipating changing needs, ensuring safety, supporting a dementia-capable care team and negotiation. Stress was related to having a safety net of capable back-up supports and dementia care literacy. Areas of strength, individual variation and particular challenges along the trajectory of representing can guide development of support counselor interventions to provide representatives with tailored training and resources as they enable the benefits of PD for persons with dementia.     

On the evaluation of steck's determinant for rectangle probabilities of uniform order statistics

An expeditious method is developed for systematically evaluating Steck’s determinant for rectangle probabilities of uniform order statistics as polynomials generated by a binary tree.     

Asymptotic behavior of iterative m-estimators for the linear model

In this paper, we study the M-estimators for the linear model when they are computed by a class of numerical iterative procedures. This class includes the usual method of Newton-Raphson, iteratively reweighted least squares and iterative winsorization. We show that under mild conditions, the numerical iterative procedures converge and the resulting estimators are consistent and asymptotically normal.     

Workplace friendships among social work,counseling, and human service educators: Exploring the impact of sexual orientation and friendships in workplace empowerment

Workplace friendships are deliberate bonds between people in the workplace in which various degrees of confidence, care, emotional support, solidarity, honesty, and trust are shared. For lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) academics in higher education, such friendships may be particularly important as sources of social and institutional support. In this study, the authors examine the relationship between workplace friendships and workplace empowerment among a sample (N?=?204) of LGB and non-LGB educators in social work, counseling, and human services. The findings, taken from this sample of university educators, indicate that sexual orientation and workplace friendship opportunities can predict workplace empowerment. Implications of the study are that workplace behavioral health practice and research that supports LGB and non-LGB workers in developing meaningful relationships at work can positively impact the higher education workplace.     

PARTISAN CONTROL,MEDIA BIAS,AND VIEWER RESPONSES: EVIDENCE FROM BERLUSCONI'S ITALY

This paper examines whether and how viewers respond to changes in partisan bias in media news. We use data from Italy, where the main private television network is owned by Silvio Berlusconi, the leader of the center‐right coalition, and the public television corporation is largely controlled by the ruling coalition. We first document that after the 2001 national elections, when the control of the government moved from the center‐left to the center‐right, news content on public television shifted to the right. Using individual survey data, we find robust evidence that viewers responded to these changes by modifying their choice of favorite news programs. On the one hand, right‐leaning viewers increased their propensity to watch public channels which, even after the change, remained to the left of private channels. On the other hand, left‐wing viewers reacted by switching from the main public channel to another public channel that was controlled by the left during both periods. We show that this behavioral response, which tended to shift ideological exposure to the left, significantly, though only partially, offset the movement of public news content to the right.