Transitions in Caregiving: Evaluating a Person-Centered Approach to Supporting Family Caregivers in the Community

Caregivers of older adults provide a wide range of informal supports and services that enable older adults to continue living in the community. This study describes the use of a multicomponent intervention combined with a person-centered approach to assist caregivers of older adults in the community. Four hundred and eighteen caregiver and care recipient dyads participated in this study and their outcomes related to burden, depression, well-being, and care recipient functional status were evaluated. The findings suggest that adult child and spousal caregivers experience burden differently. Programs designed to support caregivers must tailor services to the unique needs of adult child and spousal caregivers.     

Quasi maximum likelihood estimation of dynamic panel data models

This article establishes the almost sure convergence and asymptotic normality of levels and differenced quasi maximum likelihood (QML) estimators of dynamic panel data models. The QML estimators are robust with respect to initial conditions, conditional and time-series heteroskedasticity, and misspecification of the log-likelihood. The article also provides an ECME algorithm for calculating levels QML estimates. Finally, it compares the finite-sample performance of levels and differenced QML estimators, the differenced generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator, and the system GMM estimator. The QML estimators usually have smaller— typically substantially smaller—bias and root mean squared errors than the panel data GMM estimators.     

Participation of youth in decision‐making procedures during residential care: A narrative review

Participation in decision‐making procedures of young people in care is considered a key element that affects their current or future living circumstances and might improve the quality of decision‐making on and delivery of provided services. This narrative literature review, covering the period 2000–2016, focuses on the opportunities of young people to participate, the challenges and facilitators to participation, and the outcomes of care related to participation. Sixteen studies met our search criteria. Several studies show that young people seem to have limited possibilities to “meaningful” participation in decision‐making. Various challenges and facilitators in the participation process emerge with regard to the level of the young person, the professional, and the (sociocultural) context. None of the studies provides evidence for a connection between the “amount” of youth participation in decision‐making and/or treatment during the care process and the outcomes of residential care. Implications for research and practice are reflected upon.     

Disparities in the Quality of Pediatric Dental Care: New Research and Needed Changes

In the United States, there are significant disparities in the oral health of children from families with high and low socioeconomic status and between majority and minority children. Extant research on these health differences has focused predominately on caregiver knowledge, beliefs, and practices as well as structural barriers such as Medicaid coverage, dentist availability, and transportation issues. Little attention has been paid to the quality of care families experience when taking their child to the dentist or the ways in which dental schools train their students to work with young children. This policy report describes some of the experiences of low-income and ethnically diverse young children and their parents in dental clinics and highlights some of the weaknesses of dental training. We contend that increasing the standards for dental training and practice are necessary for improving young children's oral health and reducing these disparities.     

Associations between Sadness and Anger Regulation Coping, Emotional Expression, and Physical and Relational Aggression among Urban Adolescents

This study examined associations between self-reports of sadness and anger regulation coping, reluctance to express emotion, and physical and relational aggression between two cohorts of predominantly African-American fifth (N  =  191; 93 boys and 98 girls) and eighth (N  =  167; 73 boys and 94 girls) graders. Multiple regression analyses indicated unique associations between relational aggression and expressive reluctance and sadness regulation coping. In contrast, physical aggression, but not relational aggression, was associated with anger regulation coping. These relations did not differ across gender, but the strength of the association between anger regulation coping and physical aggression varied by grade. Sadness regulation coping moderated the association between expressive reluctance and relational aggression. Conversely, anger regulation coping moderated the relation between expressive reluctance and physical aggression; however, the strength of this relation differed by gender. These findings have important implications for intervention efforts.     

Risky investment decisions: How are individuals influenced by their groups?

We investigate the effect of group versus individual decision-making in the context of risky investment decisions in which all subjects are fully informed of the probabilities and payoffs. Although there is full information, the lottery choices pose cognitive challenges so that people may not be sure of their expected utility-maximizing choice. Making such decisions in a group context provides real-time information in which group members can observe others’ choices and revise their own decisions. Our experimental results show that simply observing what others in the group do has a significant impact on behavior. Coupling real-time information with group decisions based on the median value, i.e., majority rule, makes the median investment choice focal, leading people with low values to increase investments and those with high values to decrease investments. Group decisions based on the minimum investment amount produce more asymmetric effects.     

Teacher–Child Relationship Quality and Children's Peer Victimization and Aggressive Behavior in Late Childhood

This investigation examines the extent to which characteristics of the teacher–child relationship (closeness, dependency, and conflict) are predictive of changes in children's peer victimization and aggressive behavior over the course of a school year. Relational and physical forms of victimization and aggression were studied, and changes in peer acceptance and number of friendships were tested as possible mediators. Longitudinal data from 410 fourth‐ and fifth‐grade students (193 boys; 217 girls) and their teachers (N = 25) were analyzed. Whereas dependency on the teacher predicted heightened victimization from peers, a close relationship with the teacher forecasted less physical aggression toward peers. Moreover, decreases in number of friendships partially mediated the link between dependency on the teacher and heightened relational victimization for boys. These findings have implications for understanding the continuing influence of teacher–child relationships on children's social development in late childhood and for identifying interpersonal risk factors associated with involvement in peer harassment.     

Period effects on race- and parity-specific birth probabilities of American women, 1917–1976: A new measure of fertility

A new measure of fertility—period coefficients in a prediction of the probability of birth by parity and race—for American women during the period 1917–1976 is explained and displayed. The measure estimates the probability that a next birth will be due to annual conditions, net of age, and is specific to race and parity. We controlled effects of age including a parameter based on an explicit theoretical conception about how age and period influences combine. This refined measure promises greater explained variance, more parsimoniously and more realistically, than has been true of earlier analyses of U.S. fertility trends.