An exploration of older Hong Kong residents’ willingness to make copayments toward vouchers for community care

Because of its rapidly aging population, Hong Kong faces great challenges in the provision and financing of long-term care (LTC) and needs to explore sustainable funding mechanisms. However, there is a paucity of research on older people’s willingness to pay (WTP) for LTC services in Hong Kong. This study utilizes data collected in Hong Kong in 2011 (N = 536) to investigate older people’s receptivity to this financing mode by assessing their co-payments for a community care service voucher scheme and then testing how potential factors affect respondents’ amount of co-payment. Results show that respondents’ WTP was positively associated with family financial support, financial condition, and positive attitudes toward this novel policy and negatively associated with family caregiving support. Direct and moderating effects of family financial support on WTP were found. The policy-related implications of LTC financing to improve older people’s acceptance of co-payment mechanisms, financial condition, and shared responsibility of care are discussed.     

Sharing good fortune: Effects of scarcity on small donation requests

Based on studies linking positive outcomes to subsequent helping, it was hypothesized that when individuals receive their choice of items when supply is constrained they will show heightened prosocial behavior. Participants either received a choice of candy when it was plentiful, a choice of candy under scarce conditions, or no option to choose between candies under scarce conditions. All were subsequently invited to keep previously acquired school supplies or to donate them back. As hypothesized, when participants received their choice of candy their donation rate was higher in the scarce, versus the non-scarce, condition. Those not receiving choice due to scarcity behaved similarly to those who received choice under the condition of plenty. Discussion focuses on applications to encourage helpfulness.     

Large sample properties and confidence bands for component-wise varying-coefficient regression with longitudinal dependent variable

Longitudinal studies with repeatedly measured dependent variable (out-come) and time-invariant covariates are common in biomedical and epidemi-ological studies. A useful statistical tool to evaluate the effects of covariates on the outcome variable over time is the varying-coefficient regression, which considers a linear relationship between the covariates and the outcome at a specific time point but assumes the linear coefficients to be smooth curves over time. In order to provide adequate smoothing for each coefficient curve, Wu and Chiang ( 1999 ) proposed a class of component-wise kernel estimators and determined the large sample convergence rates and some of the constant terms of the mean squared errors of their estimators. In this paper we calcu¬late the explicit large sample mean squared errors, including the convergence rates and ail the constant terms, and the asymptotic distributions of the kernel estimators of Wu and Chiang ( 1999 ). These asymptotic distributions are used to construct point-wise confidence intervals and Bonferroni-type confidence bands for the coefficient curves. Through a Monte Carlo simulation, wre show that our confidence regions have adequate coverage probabilities. Applying our procedures to a NIH fetal growth study, we show that our procedures are useful to determine the effects of maternal height, cigarette smoking and al¬cohol consumption on the growth of fetal abdominal circumference over time during pregnancy.     

The effects of maternal smoking on infant health

Maternal smoking has serious consequences for the developing fetus and infant, including a higher probability that the infant will be born prematurely and at low birth weight, will require admission to neonatal intensive care, and die during infancy. Data from Alabama birth certificates for births occurring between 1988 and 1991 were analyzed using log linear methods to calculate relative risks of adverse pregnancy outcomes and infant death. Smoking by mothers during pregnancy is associated with an elevated risk of infant death, low birth weight, and prematurity, controlling for mother's educational attainment, age, marital status, race, and trimester prenatal care was initiated. Smoking was also associated with a higher rate of admission to neonatal intensive care and to deaths from SIDS and respiratory causes. Reducing maternal smoking can contribute to a reduction of premature and low weight births and infant deaths. Because of the difficulty of stopping smoking, efforts need to be directed at preventing younger women from beginning to smoke.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Southern Demographic Association annual meeting in New Orleans in October 1993.     

Pavlov and the prisoner's dilemma

Our Pavlov learns by conditioned response, through rewards and punishments, to cooperate or defect. We analyze the behavior of an extended play Prisoner's Dilemma with Pavlov against various opponents and compute the time and cost to train Pavlov to cooperate. Among our results is that Pavlov and his clone would learn to cooperate more rapidly than if Pavlov played against the Tit for Tat strategy. This fact has implications for the evolution of cooperation.     

High School Family Centers: Transformative Spaces Linking Schools and Families in Support of Student Learning

ABSTRACT

This study explores school, family, and community partnership at the high school level, using eight family centers as the entry point for the investigation. The purpose of the study was to identify ways that parents and school staff could collaborate to support high school students' achievement. The study findings led to the development of a model that represents three inputs that are crucial to the creation of a successful family center: (1) a supportive infrastructure, (2) the existence of skilled center staff, and (3) the presence of responsive programming. These three inputs led to the creation of a thriving center that acts as a transformative space, a “zone of community,” that results in four outputs: (1) the creation of relational trust among adults, (2) shift in parents' role construction and efficacy, (3) the generation of student relational trust, and (4) the development of student efficacy. The data from this study suggest that the relational trust developed in these transformative spaces called family centers can have a positive effect on student efficacy. The study concludes with seven recommendations for schools and districts looking to establish family centers in high schools as a way to expand family engagement at the high school level.     

Personal reflections on cautions and considerations for navigating the path of grounded theory doctoral theses and dissertations: a long walk through a dark forest

Grounded theory (GT) has been a popularly used qualitative research methodology in the social sciences and has become increasingly popular for doctoral theses and dissertations. Yet, issues such as the changing nature of grounded theory, time constraints, theses advisors, doctoral committee procedures and Institutional Review Board regulations create challenges for doctoral candidates (researchers) who choose to use GT for their dissertations. In this paper, we present the general and specific challenges of using GT for doctoral theses and dissertations by sharing our personal experiences from our Ph.D. programmes in the USA. We conclude by providing practical suggestions for doctoral researchers who are considering using GT for their theses and dissertations.     

Annexation as a factor in the growth of U.S. cities, 1950–1960 and 1960–1970

The incidence of annexation, the growth in the original area and in the area annexed, and the proportion of growth due to annexation between 1950 and 1970 are analyzed for U.S. cities grouped by size, metropolitan status, and region of the country. Over this period, annexation was a principal means of population growth for incorporated places outside the Northeast. Though often associated with metropolitan growth, annexation was even more important in the growth of nonmetropolitan cities. Overall growth differences by size of place, metropolitan status, and decade (1950--1960 or 1960--1970) could not be explained by the incidence and nature of annexation.