Mapping the Elder Mistreatment Iceberg: U.S. Hospitalizations With Elder Abuse and Neglect Diagnoses

Purpose: This study describes U.S. hospitalizations with diagnostic codes indicating elder mistreatment (EM). Method: Using the 2003 Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) of the Healthcare Costs and Utilization Project (HCUP), inpatient stays coded with diagnoses of adult abuse and/or neglect are compared with stays of other hospitalized adults age 60 and older. Results: Few hospitalizations (< 0.02%) were coded with EM diagnoses in 2003. Compared to other hospitalizations of older adults, patients with EM codes were twice as likely to be women (OR = 2.12, 95% CI = 1.63–2.75), significantly more likely to be emergency department admissions (78.0% vs. 56.8%, p < .0001), and, on average, more likely to have longer stays (7.0 vs. 5.6 days, p = 0.01). Patients with EM codes were also three to four times more likely to be discharged to a facility such as a nursing home rather than “routinely” discharged (i.e., to home or self-care) (OR = 3.66, 95% CI = 2.92–4.59). Elder mistreatment–coded hospitalizations compared to all other hospitalizations had on average lower total charges ($21,479 vs. $25,127, p < .001), with neglect cases having the highest charges in 2003 ($29,389). Implications: Knowledge about EM is often likened to the “tip of the iceberg.” Our study contributes to “mapping the EM iceberg”; however, findings based on diagnostic codes are limited and should not be used to minimize the problem of EM. With the so-called graying of America, training is needed in recognizing EM along with research to improve our nation's response to the mistreatment of our elderly population.     

Quality of College Life (QCL) of Students: Further Validation of a Measure of Well-being

This paper reports a study designed to further validate a measure of quality of college life (QCL) of university students (Sirgy, Grzeskowiak, Rahtz, Soc Indic Res 80(2), 343–360, 2007). Two studies were conducted: a replication study and an extension study. The replication study involved surveys of 10 different college campuses in different countries. The results of the replication study provided additional nomological (predictive) validation support of the measure based on a theoretical model mapping out the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction with college life. With respect to the extension study, the focus was to further test the nomological validity of the QCL measure by arguing and empirically demonstrating that the consequence of QCL is life satisfaction. The extension study involved a survey of three college campuses in different countries. The results were also supportive of the nomological validity of the QCL measure.     

Investigating the impact of Hurricane Maria on an ongoing birth cohort in Puerto Rico

Population and Environment - Prior to Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico already had 200+ hazardous waste sites, significant contamination of water resources, and among the highest rates of preterm birth...     

The Interaction of Country of Origin,Acculturation, and Gender Role Ideology on Wife Abuse*

Objective. Using data from the Mexican American Prevalence and Services Survey ( Vega et al., 1998 ), this research tests whether the impact of acculturation and gender role ideology on wife abuse depends on country of origin. Methods. Two separate logistic regressions, one for U.S.‐born Latinas and one for Mexican‐born Latinas, are compared to test the impact of the interaction of place of origin with the other variables. Results. Our findings support earlier research indicating that power dynamics within a relationship impact the likelihood of a wife reporting she has experienced abuse. Significant differences in the influence of independent variables are found when comparing U.S.‐ and Mexican‐born respondents. In particular, variables related to family power dynamics operate differently. Gender role beliefs, however, have an independent influence for both groups after controlling for sociodemographic factors and power dynamics. Women with more traditional orientations are less likely to report abuse. Conclusions. Because the impact of gender role ideology is significant and in the same direction for both those born in the United States and those born in Mexico, it is unlikely that the traditional familism and gender role orientations reported among the Mexican born afford them greater protection against abuse.     

Characterizing how to aggregate the individuals�� deprivations in a multidimensional framework

Most of the existing multidimensional poverty indices are constructed in two steps. First, the deprivation felt by each individual with respect to each attribute is computed. Then, these deprivations are aggregated to form a summary index of the overall deprivation. This paper explores properties for the aggregation stage and analyzes their implications. The axioms we propose are necessary and sufficient to characterize a procedure to aggregate the different individuals’ deprivations in order to measure the extent of deprivation in society.     

Multidimensional Poverty in Paraguay: Trends from 2000 to 2015

The paper discusses Kenneth C. Land and Alex C. Michalos’ review and assessment of the evolution of research on social indicators, quality of life and well-being over the past fifty years. The contribution deals with the impacts of three major societal changes on the future research agenda of social indicators research: firstly, impacts of the changing class structure of post-industrial society, secondly, globalization impacts, including its economic, political, cultural and institutional dimensions, and thirdly, the impacts of an increasingly networked digitalization of production and consumption.     

Peer Effects and Peer Avoidance: The Diffusion of Behavior in Coevolving Networks

We study the long‐run emergence of behavioral patterns in dynamic complex networks. Individuals can display two kinds of behavior: G (“good”) or B (“bad”). We assume that the exposure of a G agent to bad behavior on the part of peers/neighbors triggers her own switch to B behavior, but only temporarily. We model the implications of such peer effects as an epidemic process in the standard SIS (Susceptible‐Infected‐Susceptible) framework. The key novelty of our model is that, unlike in the received literature, the network is taken to change over time within the same time scale as behavior. Specifically, we posit that links connecting two G agents last longer, reflecting the idea that B agents tend to be avoided. The main concern of the paper is to understand the extent to which such biased network turnover may play a significant role in supporting G behavior in a social system. And indeed we find that network coevolution has nontrivial and interesting effects on long‐run behavior. This yields fresh insights on the role of (endogenous) peer pressure on the diffusion of social behavior and also has some bearing on the traditional study of disease epidemics. (JEL: C71, D83, D85)     

SYSTEMIC AND IDIOSYNCRATIC SOVEREIGN DEBT CRISES

The theoretical literature on sovereign defaults has focused on adverse shocks to debtors' economies, suggesting that defaults are of an idiosyncratic nature. Still, sovereign debt crises are also of a systemic nature, clustered around panics in the financial center, such as the European Sovereign Debt Crisis in the aftermath of the US Subprime Crisis in 2008. Crises in the financial centers are rare disasters and, thus, their effects on the periphery can only be captured by examining long episodes. In this paper, we examine sovereign defaults from 1820 to the Great Depression, with a focus on Latin America. We find that 63% of the crises are of a systemic nature. These crises are different. Both the international collapse of liquidity and the growth slowdown in the financial centers are at their core. These global shocks trigger longer default spells and larger losses for investors.