Closing the Gap? Gender and the Global Compacts for Migration and Refugees

Migrant women's organizations, UN Women, and civil society advocacy networks have mobilized to call for greater gender‐responsiveness in migration governance. The development of the Global Compacts on Migration and Refugees presented an important opportunity to continue enhancing the international framework for protecting the rights of women and men on the move. This article asks: How has gender been understood/invoked during proceedings leading up to their adoption? In what ways is it incorporated in the resulting compacts and their operationalization? What are the gains and missed opportunities for gender‐responsiveness? Drawing on data gathered through participant observation in the global compact on migration preparatory meetings and member state negotiations in Geneva and New York, and policy analysis of the drafts of both compacts, this paper aims to determine the extent to which the compacts, and the plans to operationalize them, serve to widen or close the gender gap.     

Quality of Life and Perceptions of Crime in Saskatoon, Canada

This article investigates the relationship between crime and quality of life in Saskatoon, Canada. The city has one of the highest crime rates in the country and has been referred to as the ‘Crime Capital of Canada’, a label that comes as a surprise to many residents and causes considerable concern among others. The aim of this research is to penetrate beyond sensational news headlines and bald crime statistics. The paper evaluates how perceptions of crime and safety affect the quality of life of residents living in neighbourhoods of different socio-economic status and geographic location. Both quantitative and qualitative time series data is analyzed in a sample of neighbourhoods over the period 2001–2004–2007. The findings of the data analysis are interpreted with respect to issues relating to the fear of crime, avoidance behaviour, risk minimization, social cohesion and community building.     

Effects of Exogenous and Endogenous Distracters on Immediate and Long‐Term Recall in Toddlers

We explored the role that exogenous and endogenous competitors for attention play in infants’ abilities to encode and retain information over a 6‐month period. Sixty‐six children visited the laboratory at 15 months, and 32 returned for a second visit at 21 months. Children observed models of conventional‐ relation and enabling‐relation action sequences. Half the children were distracted by a “Mister Monkey” mechanical toy during the conventional‐relation sequence, while the other half was distracted during the enabling‐relation sequence. The Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire indexed endogenous factors at both ages. Immediate postmodel production of target actions indexed encoding efficiency, and 6‐month production of target actions indexed long‐term recall. The exogenous distracter impacted encoding efficiency (i.e., immediate recall), but not long‐term recall. Endogenous factors (i.e., temperament) were primarily associated with long‐term recall. Of special interest was our finding that endogenous factors, especially surgency, moderated the effect of the exogenous distracter. It appears that when learning conventional‐relation sequences in the presence of exogenous distracters, surgency mobilizes attentional resources toward the learning objective; however, when learning enabling‐relation sequences under the same conditions, surgency either boosts the saliency of the distracters or boosts children’s susceptibility to them.     

Social Support Networks of Single Young Mothers

This study explored the nature of social support networks of young, unmarried mothers. Interviews were conducted with 18 young, female African American residents at an agency for homeless, unmarried mothers in a Midwest city. Quantitative results indicated the mean number of people in the participants’ networks was 19; analysis found a moderately strong correlation between the size of the support network and perceived level of support. Themes that emerged from coding the transcribed, qualitative interviews included the tension between needing support and wanting independence, the motivation generated for young mothers through relationship with their own children, the mixed nature of support from the young mothers’ families, the affect of presence or absence of support from the child’s father, the role of the young mother’s own mother in her support system, the lack of supportive relationships among young mothers in the program, and impressions the young mothers had of formal agency services. The authors discuss implications for case management and agencies working with teen mothers.     

Teacher–child relationships in the context of poverty: the role of frequent school mobility

Children's relationships with their teachers are critical for classroom-based learning, but children growing up in poverty may be at risk for lower-quality relationships with teachers. Little is known about how changing schools, one poverty-related risk, affects teacher–child relationships. Using growth curve models that control for a host of other poverty-related risks, this study explores the association between children changing schools frequently (defined as three or more school moves) between preschool and third grade and the quality of their relationships with their teachers over these five years in a low-income, ethnic-minority sample. Children who frequently moved schools were reported to be less close to their teachers in third grade and experienced steeper declines in closeness than children who did not change schools frequently. Moreover, the effects of frequent school mobility at third grade were robust to other poverty-related risks, including residential mobility, parental education risk, family income, and single-parent households. Changing schools was unrelated to children's conflict with teachers. We discuss these findings in the context of policies that support students’ transitions when changing schools.     

Stakeholder perspectives on integrated services for people who experience chronic homelessness

This article concerns a SAMHSA-funded service intervention, Pathways to Independence, that combined the use of SAMHSA’s SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery approach to facilitating disability entitlement claims with financial management classes, mental health assessment and referral, and access to employment and housing for people experiencing chronic homelessness. The purpose of this study was to explore perceptions of this form of service delivery and the benefits and challenges of the program model from the perspective of those who experienced it. Focus groups were conducted with a total of 17 program stakeholders, including program participants, program staff, collaborating case management staff of the parent agency, and a landlord and an employer, with questions to each regarding the program and its impact. Focus groups were analyzed through independent coding followed by discussion to reach consensus on key themes. Five themes were identified across the groups: (a) the importance of relationships, (b) staff specialization and provision of individualized services, (c) an orientation to outcomes, (d) comprehensiveness of services and facilitation of connections to community resources, and (e) systems challenges. The Pathways to Independence program provides a working model for integrated employment, entitlement assessment and application, housing, and behavioral health treatment for persons experiencing chronic homelessness.     

Communication and Parental Infidelity: A Qualitative Analysis of How Adult Children Cope in a Topic-Avoidant Environment

This study investigated adult children’s retrospective accounts of coping with a parent’s infidelity. To understand these experiences, 38 adult children whose parents had engaged in infidelity were interviewed. Results suggested that children placed communicative sanctions on their parent, acted out, and set ground rules for interaction. Last, a segment of participants discussed how communal coping stalled their ability to cope with these events. Combined, these findings highlight the complex nature of the communication surrounding parental infidelity and offer suggestions as to how these findings extend theorizing on topic avoidance.