Evaluation of the implementation of a socio-educational program with immigrant families: a case study

There exist an increasing number of studies that demonstrate the necessity to evaluate the processes which characterize a program and guarantee its implementation and evaluation. This paper deals with the implementation of a program designed to improve the acculturation of immigrant families in Spain (EU). Implementation followed a process that has proved successful in other settings, but is being applied here for the first time. Qualitative and quantitative measures are employed to assess each stage of implementation, with a particular emphasis on fidelity to program design. The intent was to guide effective revision of the program, and to establish it in a form that can be implemented on a larger scale.     

The potential role of physical activity on driving performance and safety among older adults

The elderly represent the fastest growing driving population. Older drivers have a high crash rate per distance traveled, a high risk of injury or death in traffic accidents, and are commonly found to be ‘at fault’ in crashes. This reality has focused more interest on issues associated with the fitness to drive and the safety of older drivers. Many older adults depend greatly on their personal vehicle for transportation and suffer a marked loss of quality of life when, as a consequence of no longer being able or permitted to drive, their mobility becomes significantly restricted. The reasons for the deterioration of driving performance that occur during the aging process are multi-factorial and a great deal of research has focused on the identification of those factors. Nevertheless, some studies incorporating training programs have tried, with some success, to improve the driving-related abilities of older drivers. It has been demonstrated that physical activity can promote several skills that are associated with driving performance in older drivers. Few studies, though, have conducted exercise interventions among older drivers intended to enhance their driving-related abilities and promote road safety. In this context, the purpose of this work consists of examining the perceptual, cognitive, health, and physical factors related to fitness to drive in older adults and identifying possible strategies that can enhance their driving-related abilities. Moreover, potential mechanisms underlying the relationship among physical activity, driving ability, and road safety are discussed.     

Sustainability Ranking for Cuban Tourist Destinations Based on Composite Indexes

This investigation approaches the levels and the predictors of loneliness among migrant youths from returned migrant families from France to Portugal. Three research questions guided the study: (1) Does loneliness of migrant youths differ from those who have never migrated? (2) Are migrant youths’ re-acculturation factors related to their loneliness? (3) Is the adaptation of migrant youths linked to their loneliness? The answer to these questions is important to improve migrant youths’ re-acculturation experiences and their adaptation. The sample included 222 youths from returned migrant families from France. Participants completed the brief Portuguese version of the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (ULS-6), in addition to measures of re-acculturation and adaptation. A control group comprised of 211 Portuguese adolescents who have never migrated was also involved in the investigation. Youths from returned migrant families showed lower levels of loneliness than their native Portuguese counterparts who have never migrated. Demographic, re-acculturation, and adaptation factors were significantly related to adolescents’ loneliness. Major predictors of loneliness were age at return, contacts with peers without migratory experience, perceived discrimination, stressful adaptation experience, and satisfaction with life.     

Linking Social Support to Psychological Distress in the Unemployed: The Moderating Role of Core Self-Evaluations

In this study, an integrative analysis involving social support and core self-evaluations (CSE) as concurrent predictors of psychological distress among unemployed adults was conducted. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between perceptions of social support and CSE with psychological distress among unemployed adults, as well as whether levels of CSE moderated the relations between social support and psychological distress. Results indicated that, along with the expected direct and additional influence, a significant social support × CSE interaction was found in explaining several dimensions of psychological distress beyond the independent effect of socio-demographic variables, social support and CSE independently. Specifically, we found significant interaction for social support × CSE in explaining stress and anxiety symptoms. Our data provide empirical support for theoretical and conceptual work connecting social support, CSE and psychological distress associated with unemployment suggesting that alone, but also in combination, these contextual and personal resources may be particularly relevant for leading to reduced psychological distress during unemployment. Finally, theoretical implications of the joint study of these constructs and their relation with psychological distress in unemployed people are discussed.     

Sources of error in reported childlessness in a continuous British household survey

A recent investigation of the British General Household Survey (GHS) found substantial over-reporting of childlessness in recent years, particularly at older ages. We examine the phenomenon in further detail and find that the principal cause was change in survey procedures. To some extent the bias can be corrected for by using information on own children in the household. Revised fertility histories give period estimates of total fertility that are in close agreement with national vital registration statistics, unlike those based on original fertility histories of recent years. Misreporting in fertility histories dates primarily from administrative changes in the GHS in the years 1998-2000, and particularly from 2003, when the option of laptop self-completion (CASI) was introduced for reporting demographic histories.     

Employing the Components of the Human Development Index to Drive Resources to Educational Policies

A new form of composition of the indicators employed to generate the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) is presented here. This form of composition is based on the assumption that random errors affect the measurement of each indicator. This assumption allows for replacing the vector of evaluations according to each indicator by vectors of probabilities of being the best or the worst according to such attribute. The probabilistic composition of such probabilities of preference according to each indicator into probabilities of being the best or the worst according to all of them generates indices that may unveil, on one hand, performances to be followed and, on the other hand, extreme conditions that an additive composition would hide. Differences between the results of application of the diverse forms of composition are examined in the case of the HDI and in the case of the districts version of the HDI employed to compare Brazilian municipalities. It is verified that the smallest correlation between the education enrolment rate and the other indicators in the Brazilian case enlarges such differences.     

The effect of variability and carryover on average bioequivalence assessment: a simulation study

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of residual variability and carryover on average bioequivalence (ABE) studies performed under a 22 crossover design. ABE is usually assessed by means of the confidence interval inclusion principle. Here, the interval under consideration was the standard 'shortest' interval, which is the mainstream approach in practice. The evaluation was performed by means of a simulation study under different combinations of carryover and residual variability besides of formulation effect and sample size. The evaluation was made in terms of percentage of ABE declaration, coverage and interval precision. As is well known, high levels of variability distort the ABE procedures, particularly its type II error control (i.e. high variabilities make difficult to declare bioequivalence when it holds). The effect of carryover is modulated by variability and is especially disturbing for the type I error control. In the presence of carryover, the risk of erroneously declaring bioequivalence may become high, especially for low variabilities and large sample sizes. We end up with some hints concerning the controversy about pretesting for carryover before performing ABE analysis.     

On Terrel's characterization of uniform distribution

Terrel (1983) (The Annals of Probability, Vol. 11, No. 3, 823–826) showed that the coefficient of correlation between the smaller and larger of a sample of size two is at most one-half, and this upper bound is attained only for continuous uniform distributions. His proof is of computational nature and is based on the properties of Legendre polynomials. We give an easier proof of Terrel's characterization and we show how our method can be used for obtaining sharper bounds within the class of discrete distributions onN points and also a characterization of the equidistant uniform distribution.     

Dynamics of HDI Index: Temporal Dependence Based on D-vine Copulas Model for Three-Way Data

The HDI (Human Development Index) is a widely used index based on the average of measures of health, education, and income. It assesses the progress of countries worldwide. The publicly available data set associated with the HDI can be seen as a table with 3 dimensions (three-way table): countries, indexes regarding progress, and years (from 2010 to 2018). Thus, modeling the serial dependence structure of this type of intricate three-way tables is a challenge. D-vine copulas are a special class of multivariate copulas that are particularly suited for modeling serial dependence. This work aims to assess the evolution of the dependence relationship between the indexes of the HDI data set over time through D-vine copulas, which has not been fully used before in the area, as far as we are concerned. We tested our approach to European and African countries and compare their results.

     

Measuring labour market segmentation for a comparative analysis among countries

This article raises one main question in a comparative analytical exercise between two countries in different continents, Spain and Argentina. To what extent does labour market segmentation generate similar dynamics of structuring of labour inequalities in two countries with different socio-economic contexts and social models, and which aspects are specific to each country? The article is the first an analytical work aimed at comparing European and Latin American countries from the theoretical perspective of labour market segmentation. We set two main objectives. The first was to construct an analysis model to study inequalities in the labour market in comparative terms between Europe and Latin America, taking as a reference Spain and Argentina. To this end, demand and supply variables were combined from an employment perspective. We sought to corroborate the general hypothesis that there is no single labour market that adjusts supply and demand, but that several segments can be expected to structure hierarchical positions in the labour market in line with specific labour supply profiles. We expected to obtain a high correspondence between the employment segments of the two countries, despite the contextual and socio-historical differences. The second objective was to propose a methodology to obtain two synthetic measures of labour market segmentation: first, a categorical measurement through a typology constructed from hierarchical positions and profiles using multivariate techniques (combining multiple correspondence factor analysis [MCA] and cluster analysis [CLA]); and second, a continuous measurement based on the results of factor analysis, resulting in a composite indicator of labour inequality.