Stepchildren's Views About Former Step‐Relationships Following Stepfamily Dissolution

Remarriages end in divorce more often than first marriages, so many stepchildren experience multiple parental divorces and the potential loss of significant family ties. Although there is substantial research on parent–child relationships after divorce, little is known about stepparent–stepchild relationships after divorce. Therefore, the authors conducted a grounded theory study of 41 adults who had undergone a stepfamily dissolution to explore their experiences with former stepparents. Postdivorce relationships with former stepparents are a function of whether stepchildren thought of their former stepparents as kin. Postdivorce step‐relationships were based on whether the stepchild had claimed the stepparent as kin, had once claimed them as kin but disclaimed them after the divorce, or had never claimed them as family members (unclaimed stepparents). Emotional reactions to parental divorce, patterns of support or resource exchanges, and parental encouragement or discouragement for continuing step‐relationships were identified. Implications for families, practitioners, and researchers are discussed.     

Business Legitimacy among Business Students in the United States, Great Britain, and South Africa

This study compares attitudes toward business legitimacy in three countries. Positive attitudes toward business legitimacy exist when there is a congruence between organizational activities and societal expectations. Businesses are concerned about the extent to which negative attitudes toward business legitimacy will lead to increased government regulation. The results suggest that business students in all three countries are similar in their attitudes toward business legitimacy; however, blacks have more negative attitudes toward business legitimacy than do whites. This study resulted in the validation of a scale that can be used to measure attitudes toward business legitimacy on a cross-cultural basis. Business legitimacy is a major concern in South Africa as the predominately white business community seeks to give the emerging black majority a stake in the existing economic system. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Statistical Inference for Stochastic Dominance and for the Measurement of Poverty and Inequality

We derive the asymptotic sampling distribution of various estimators frequently used to order distributions in terms of poverty, welfare, and inequality. This includes estimators of most of the poverty indices currently in use, as well as estimators of the curves used to infer stochastic dominance of any order. These curves can be used to determine whether poverty, inequality, or social welfare is greater in one distribution than in another for general classes of indices and for ranges of possible poverty lines. We also derive the sampling distribution of the maximal poverty lines up to which we may confidently assert that poverty is greater in one distribution than in another. The sampling distribution of convenient dual estimators for the measurement of poverty is also established. The statistical results are established for deterministic or stochastic poverty lines as well as for paired or independent samples of incomes. Our results are briefly illustrated using data for four countries drawn from the Luxembourg Income Study data bases.     

Central State Steering of Local Collaboration: Assessing the Impact of Tools of Meta-governance in Homelessness Services in England

Much of the discussion of state steering of service delivery networks to encourage collaboration at the local level has been theoretical. This study builds on this analysis systematically to assess the relationship between meta-governance tools of central government steering and the extent of local collaboration, using the case of homelessness services in England. Contrary to the pessimist expectations of some contemporary theory, central government funding tools and facilitating the transfer of best practice encourages collaboration. However, simple information provision and authority based tools are only partially effective, risking tokenistic compliance. Authority tools are more effective when combined with other tools.

Factors Influencing Uptake and Use of a New Health Information App for Young People

Abstract

When young people need health information they are increasingly likely to use online sources and health apps (applications). Yet, these are not necessarily well-designed, reliable or appropriate, and research has primarily focused on adult use. Our study is the first to use qualitative mixed methods (focus groups and interviews) to apply the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to understand 26 young people’s uptake and use of a new, clinically-approved health app (application) for 16–25?year olds. We found that perceived usefulness, perceived ease-of-use, social influences and trust, all differently impacted children and young people health-app acceptance and effectiveness. Implications for future research and young-person health-app development are discussed.     

Child Sexual Abuse Attributions Among Undergraduate Psychology Students in Singapore

ABSTRACT

Experimental vignettes were used to investigate attributions relating to child sexual abuse with a focus on the degree of blame allocated to the family and to society, factors thought to be particularly relevant in a collectivist society. One hundred and sixty-two undergraduates in Singapore evaluated media reports describing a case of child sexual abuse. A 2 x 2 x 2 between-subjects design manipulated victim sex, perpetrator sex, and victim–perpetrator relationship. Participants rated the vignettes on degree of blame and prevention potential and rated the abusiveness of the case. Individualism and collectivism attitudes of the participants were also measured. While the highest blame ratings were attributed to perpetrators, significantly more blame was attributed to the family and to society than to the victim. The demonstration of the present attributions of blame to family and to society is a timely finding given recent recommendations to broaden approaches to child abuse prevention by moving away from a reliance on school based child protection programs, which leave the onus on the child to prevent and report abuse, toward a public health approach, which is particularly inclusive of parent and community education approaches . Allocation of some blame to victims, in spite of their status as children, while not a unique finding in victimology research, emphasizes the challenges still to be faced in encouraging the reporting of child sexual abuse.     

Child Abuse Prevention During Infancy: Intervention Implications for Caregivers' Attitudes Toward Emotion Regulation

Increasing numbers of states are in the process of passing laws requiring all new parents to receive educational materials to prevent shaken baby syndrome (SBS). These laws create powerful opportunities to reach large numbers of families with an important prevention effort. Results from the effort to raise SBS awareness described here indicate that not only is the content of SBS prevention (e.g., consequences of shaking; emotion regulation/coping skills; safety planning) an important consideration; so too is the approach any given prevention program utilizes. By incorporating social work theory on family-centered practice, social workers, home visitors, and other prevention professionals strengthen the likelihood of having a meaningful impact on caregivers' safe strategies for coping with the frustrations of caring for an infant.     

Breve comentario sobre el estudio de los conceptos de emoción

Resumen

Las tareas de grupo han sido una temática de amplio interés en décadas pasadas, proponiéndose diferentes modelos que han abordado sus posibles tipos así como sus dimensiones nucleares. En este artículo se propone un modelo de las tareas de grupo (el MITAG o modelo de incertidumbre de las tareas del grupo) que sintetiza e integra las principales dimensiones propuestas por modelos anteriores. Se presenta una escala que permite su evaluación así como una primera validación del modelo en una muestra de 164 personas pertenecientes a 34 grupos de 3 organizaciones. El análisis factorial revela una estructura de cuatro factores (con el 45% de la varianza explicada), con dos factores nucleares que explican el 36,9% de la varianza (claridad de objetivos y de procedimientos y requerimientos múltiples) y otros dos factores menores (elección entre múltiples formas/familiaridad y conflicto de demandas).     

FEMALE TACTICS AND STRATEGIES OF INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE: A STUDY OF INCIDENT REPORTS

Researchers have debated the extent to which females pursue violence against their male partners for purposes of enforcing or resisting control. In an effort to shed light on this important topic, we examined 43 incident reports of women who were court-referred to a batterer intervention program to explore how and why they engaged in intimate partner violence. Our analysis of the reports revealed that the most common tactic of physical violence was pushing and the most common tactic of psychological violence was intimidation. The motive to enforce was observed in the majority of the incident reports, while attempts to resist, retaliate, and punish occurred in about one third of the reports. We also found that female violence typically occurred in the contexts of anger and fear. The implications of our research for violence intervention programs are discussed.