Father's Blessing: Ethnographic Drama,Poetry, and Prose

This article consists of ethnographic drama, poetry, and prose. Following interpretivist traditions focusing on how individuals make sense of and make meaning from their lived experience, the author, a heterosexual woman, travels with a gay male friend/participant to visit his estranged father, a retired Air Force pilot and elder in the Mormon Church. The work attempts to show the dialogic construction, negotiation, and transformation of identities and relationships.     

Intervening with At-risk Mothers: Supporting Infant Language Development

At-risk young mothers and their infants (4–7 months of age) participated in an evaluation of a parenting intervention that focused largely on language stimulation. Participants assigned to the intervention group were matched with a volunteer mentor and were encouraged to attend eleven parenting sessions (five to seven participants per group) across approximately 8 months. Participants in the control group received referrals as needed and were followed across time. Results indicated that babies of the participants in the intervention group experienced more improvement in expressive language from pretest to posttest than did babies of the mothers in the control group.     

Effects of Employment-Based Programs on Families by Prior Levels of Disadvantage

This study examines how welfare and employment policies affect subpopulations of low-income families that have different levels of initial disadvantage. Education, prior earnings, and welfare receipt are used to measure disadvantage. The analysis of data from experiments suggests that employment-based programs have no effects on economic well-being among the least-disadvantaged low-income, single-parent families, but they have positive effects on employment and income for the most-disadvantaged and moderately disadvantaged families. These programs increase school achievement and enrollment in center-based child care of children only in moderately disadvantaged families. The most-disadvantaged families are found to increase use of child care that is not center based. Parents in these families experience depressive symptoms and aggravation. The findings raise questions about how to support families at the lowest end of the economic spectrum.     

Social Capital Put to the Test

This article offers a critical review and mapping of theoretical elaborations of the social capital concept and of some of the key empirical projects which in their various ways have attempted to capture and measure social capital. In so doing, it maps the rise and rise of social capital within the social sciences and beyond. It then considers a range of hypotheses which have attempted to explain the ever increasing prominence and reach of the concept. To understand this reach, the article suggests that we must look beyond the theoretical, methodological and empirical technicalities of the social capital debates and cast our eyes to a fundamental rewriting and reworking of the social field.     

Multiple Social Identities and Adjustment in Young Adults From Ethnically Diverse Backgrounds

A person‐centered approach was used to determine how identification across multiple social domains (ethnic, American, family, religious) was associated with distinct identity clusters. Utilizing data from 222 young adults from European, Filipino, Latin, and Asian American backgrounds, four clusters were found (Many Social Identities, Blended/Low Religious, Blended/Low Ethnic and American, Few Social Identities). Clusters were differentially associated with adjustment, both directly and via moderation of perceived ethnic discrimination. Those with low levels of identity across all four domains reported lower positive affect, higher negative affect, lower self‐esteem, and perceived fewer American opportunities compared with individuals in other clusters. However, the Blended/Low Ethnic and American cluster exhibited more liabilities associated with discrimination. Discussion emphasizes the importance of multiple identities in development.     

The Relationship Between Parent and Child Reports of Parental Supportiveness and Psychopathology of Sexually Abused Children

This study examined the relationship between parent and child reports of supportiveness of intrafamilially sexually abused children and levels of child psychopathology. Fifty-four intrafamilially sexually abused children completed a revised version of the Family Subscale of the Survey of Children's Social Support and the Child Assessment Schedule. Fifty-four parents completed a version of the Family Subscale of the Survey of Children's Social Support, modified for use in parental reporting of their own supportive behaviors. Satisfactory reliability levels were obtained for the revised measures. This study of 54 sexually abused children and their non-offending parents found that although most non-offending parents were supportive of their children, the children reported considerable distress. Although there was no significant difference in mean levels of support reported by parents and children, the two measures were not significantly correlated. This suggests that parents and children perceive supportive behavior differently, although both constructs are of importance. Multiple regression analysis found that both child and parent reports of parental support were predictive of levels of child psychopathology, but that child estimates were a stronger predictor.     

RAISING THE STAKES IN THE ULTIMATUM GAME: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIA

The ultimatum game has generated considerable interest because experimental evidence strongly rejects the standard game-theoretic predictions. A limitation to this general result is the possibility that experimental results are an artifact of small stakes. Implementing the ultimatum game in Indonesia makes it possible to raise the stakes to three times the monthly expenditure of the average participant. Even with these sizable incentives, results do not uniformly approach the sub-game perfect, selfish outcomes. More specifically, responders become more willing to accept a given percentage offer at higher stakes, but proposer behavior is largely invariant to stake changes. ( JEL C91, C78)     

Recruitment and Retention in a Parenting Intervention: A Case Study with Parents Aging Out of the Child Welfare System

ABSTRACT

Parenting interventions are efficacious in reducing child maltreatment and negative child behaviors, yet the recruitment and retention of parents, especially vulnerable parents, in such interventions can be challenging. Prior research identifies several ways to improve recruitment and retention including laying the foundation for the intervention, fostering relationships with parents, ensuring fit of the intervention with the intended population, and identifying barriers to parents’ participation. This case study presents a process of recruiting and retaining a vulnerable group of parents, specifically parenting youth aging out of the child welfare system. In addition to outlining the strategies used, lessons learned are highlighted. Parents expressed interest in the parenting intervention, experienced significant needs, negotiated great instability in their lives, and valued the social connections facilitated by the group intervention. Despite the research team following best practices and investing significant time and resources, recruitment and retention remained challenging. Implications for future work in this area are presented.     

A Staged Service Innovation Model*

Drawing from the new product development (NPD) literature, service quality literature (SERVQUAL), and empirically grounded research with 53 service innovation decision makers, we develop a staged service innovation model (SIM) for decision makers. We tested the model using empirical data from 329 firms across five industries. The empirical results show that integrating prelaunch service quality training into new service development process leads to successful service innovation. The model developed in this article can be used as a decision support tool and diagnostic model for assessing service innovation ideas, evaluating performance of ongoing service innovations, allocating resources, and improving success rate of service innovations. Decision makers can use the measures developed in this study as a checklist to identify their strengths in delivering service quality to their own customers as well as areas of improvement. This article extends service innovation research by combining NPD and service quality development into a single study and opens the door to further work that could help improve the success rate of service innovations. The model can serve as a base model for future research extensions in service innovation research. A major takeaway for the academic reader is that the SIM demonstrates the value of using the SERVQUAL literature to understand how best to provide excellent quality that results in more fully satisfied customers and, ultimately, improved service performance.