Exploring Group Dynamics in Activity-Based Group Work with Young People Experiencing Homelessness

This article explores the development of group dynamics in an activity-based group comprising four young people experiencing homelessness and one group facilitator. Over the course of 12 sessions, the group produced a coconstructed audio documentary. Nine group sessions were recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed for patterns of group dynamics, including communication and interaction patterns, cohesion, social integration and influence, and culture. Findings suggest that the task-oriented nature of coproducing the audio documentary facilitated the development of interpersonal dynamics, provided young people with opportunities for personal growth, and provided them with opportunities to engage their strengths as well.     

Psychosocial care in nursing homes in the era of the MDS 3.0: perspectives of the experts

Meeting psychosocial needs of nursing home residents is increasingly regarded as a critical component of care, and the nationally-mandated nursing home care screening instrument- the Minimum Data Set (MDS) 3.0-was modified and implemented in 2010 to promote better assessment of psychosocial needs and health. Recognizing the importance of psychosocial well-being among nursing home residents, and the promise of MDS 3.0 for improving psychosocial care, this article reports recommendations derived from a conference of stakeholders representing diverse disciplines and organizations regarding next steps following MDS 3.0 screening. Results relate to seven areas of psychosocial care and address cross-cutting recommendations to improve psychosocial care.     

Managing Integrity: The Regulation of Post Public Employment in Britain and Hong Kong

In this article, we examine the regulatory mechanisms governing post public employment in Britain and Hong Kong in the context of changing views on how integrity should be managed in their civil services. In both places, new public management practices have increased the possibility of ‘soft’ conflicts of interest which in turn has resulted in debates over the necessary degree of regulation, the organizational form that this should take, and the extent to which ethical concerns should be more focused on the communication and inculcation of core values in civil servants. We argue that the difficulty of regulating ‘soft’ conflicts of interests is driving moves toward the greater centralisation of ethical regulation in both Britain and Hong Kong and that there appears to be a return to more traditional ways of managing integrity.

The Family Context of Cohabitation and Single Motherhood in Latin America

The dramatic shift from marriage to cohabitation during the last four decades in most Latin American countries, even among the upper social strata, begs the question as to the living arrangements of cohabiting couples and single mothers. The new “Family Interrelationships Variables” in the IPUMS samples of Latin American censuses facilitated the construction of an enlarged LIPRO typology. LIPRO classifies individuals with respect to the types of households in which they are living. The results indicate that cohabiting women and single mothers aged 25 to 29 are frequently found in their parental households or in other extended or composite households. However, there are large variations depending on country and education. For instance, cohabitation is mainly in nuclear households, as in Europe, in Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Brazil, and Argentina. It occurs mainly in the context of extended households in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and Cuba. Mexico and Chile occupy intermediate positions. In all instances co‐residence of cohabiting couples with other kin drops significantly upon the transition to parenthood, at which point there are no longer any differences between cohabiting and married couples. Single mothers, however, continue to co‐reside in extended or composite households to a larger extent, and this holds particularly for the better‐educated among them. This analysis illustrates that cohabitation of the traditional type and of the “Second Demographic Transition” type are found alongside each other, with one being more important than the other depending on country and on educational level or social class within each country.     

The Yule–Walker equations as a weighted least-squares problem and the association with tapering

ABSTRACT

A common method for estimating the time-domain parameters of an autoregressive process is to use the Yule–Walker equations. Tapering has been shown intuitively and proven theoretically to reduce the bias of the periodogram in the frequency domain, but the intuition for the similar bias reduction in the time-domain estimates has been lacking. We provide insightful reasoning for why tapering reduces the bias in the Yule–Walker estimates by showing them to be equivalent to a weighted least-squares problem. This leads to the derivation of an optimal taper which behaves similarly to commonly used tapers.     

INFORMATION GATHERING IN ORGANIZATIONS: EQUILIBRIUM,WELFARE, AND OPTIMAL NETWORK STRUCTURE

We model an organization as a game in which all agents share a common decision problem and some level of coordination is necessary between individual actions. Agents have individual private information concerning the task they have to perform, and they share this private information through pairwise channels of communication. We analyze how this communication pattern, modeled by means of a network structure, affects individual behavior and aggregate welfare. In the unique equilibrium of this Bayesian game, each agent's optimal action depends on a properly defined knowledge index that measures how the aggregation of information helps him to infer higher‐order beliefs about other's information after communication. Adding communication channels is not always beneficial for the organization because it can lead to mis‐coordination. We single out the geometry of interagent communication links that the manager could implement in order to improve the organization's performance.     

The Effects of Depressive Symptoms on Work Activities and Welfare Exit of Welfare Recipients in Korea1

The purpose of this research is to examine the link between depressive symptoms of welfare recipients and their work activity and welfare exit using a secondary dataset, entitled the Korean Welfare Panel Study. In 2000, the National Basic Livelihood Security System (NBLSS) was introduced to (i) ensure a basic standard of living for households in poverty, and (ii) promote work activity and welfare exit of the recipients. A considerable body of literature has reported that the policy outcome of the NBLSS is not a success. However, the reason for the low success rate is unclear. In contrast to studies in the USA, few studies in Korea investigated the effect of depression on welfare‐to‐work transitions. To bridge the gap in the literature, we examine the association between depression, work activity, and welfare exit using a logistic regression analytic method. The analytic results show that the level of depression (total score on the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale) was negatively associated with welfare recipients’ work activity and welfare exit, suggesting that depressive symptoms may be a significant barrier to promoting economic self‐sufficiency. Implications of the study findings are further discussed.     

Projecting Long-Term Care Expenditure in Four European Union Member States: The Influence of Demographic Scenarios

This study examines the sensitivity of future long-term care demand and expenditure estimates to official demographic projections in four selected European countries: Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom. It uses standardised methodology in the form of a macro-simulation exercise and finds evidence for significant differences in assumptions about demographic change and its effect on the demand for long-term care, and on relative and absolute long-term care expenditure. It concludes that mortality-rate assumptions can have a considerable influence on welfare policy planning. Relative dispersion between country-specific and Eurostat official estimates was found to be higher for the United Kingdom and Germany than for Italy and Spain, suggesting that demographic projections had a greater influence in those countries.