An uncertainty principle in demography and the unisex issue

"The purpose of this article is to show that if many characteristics affect the mortality of individuals, there are intrinsic limits to the ability of demographers to answer two elementary questions:" whether the force of mortality in the last year was more or less severe in one country relative to that in a second, and whether an individual's chance of survival would have been greater in one or the other of the two countries. The author notes that the conclusions are applicable to all demographic crude rates. "The possibility of encountering Simpson's paradox suggests that since sex is only one of many possible stratifying variables that appear to affect mortality, the use of mortality tables distinguished by sex and by no other variables is, in the absence of information about the importance of other variables, demographically arbitrary."     

Building a Sustainable Collection Review Process: Managing Qualitative and Quantitative E-Resource Data over Time

Abstract

Comprehensive e-resource reviews often happen in response to financial crises. Data are collected, and faculty are consulted about reductions. After the review, the data are forgotten or lost until the next crisis. Librarians at one public institution were initially motivated by a financial crisis to review their e-resources. But, they also wanted to use this crisis as a means to develop persistent review criteria and a longitudinal review process. This article will summarize how they identified the principal stakeholders, review criteria, essential data, workflows, and management application to support a process that would transcend a single crisis.     

Careers Open to Talent: Educational Credentials,Cultural Talent,and Skilled Employment1

In the status attainment and social mobility literatures, “talent” is often conceptualized as educational attainment or mental ability. We adapt Bourdieu’s notion of embodied cultural capital and Goffman’s notion of “staging a character” into another dimension of talent, what we call “cultural talent,” and hypothesize that an ability to wield cultural talent in hiring or promotion scenarios facilitates attainment of skilled, complex jobs. Bivariate analyses and multiple regression modeling performed on data from an original survey show that educational credentials and cultural talent both predict occupational skill and complexity.     

Exploring the squeezed middle: Aucklanders talk about being ‘squeezed’

ABSTRACT

This research explores how middle-class Aucklanders, participants in ‘the middle’, see themselves in terms of being squeezed. It is intended to augment existing statistical based work on class stratification and life chances and facilitate aspects of qualitative research around giving voice. The research confirms the notion of a squeezed middle for the participants based in Auckland, and a striking feature of that confirmation is the centrality of age in demarcating both resourcing (in particular, homeownership versus renting) and narratives. Insofar as the research captures the zeitgeist of the middle, this confirms a neoliberal governmentality wherein a class analysis is interpolated with personal responsibility – and the latter remains paramount. Further, the research demonstrates that empathy is associated with social proximity. The semi-structured interviews also illuminated a widespread sense of resentment. This had two dimensions: directed against neoliberalism as an historic transformation that is seen as the cause of an increasingly squeezed middle, and; against baby boomers. Participants in their 40s demonstrated the highest levels of resentment, and this confirms other research which identifies them as a problematic age cohort because of changing socio-economic conditions.     

Group work is … powerful! This stuff changes … lives: training on group processes for facilitators of curriculum-based groups

ABSTRACT

This article describes a four-year group work training project conducted with facilitators of curriculum-based parenting groups who had not been trained in group work or group processes. A total 14 group facilitators and 144 group members from 34 groups were involved in the training and the mixed method evaluation. Participants described how the training modified their group facilitation, helping them understand that the groups themselves as well as the curricula were informative and transformative, and that group members as well as group facilitators had roles. Further, facilitators indicated that the training resulted in fundamental change in their self-perceptions from being simply purveyors of a parenting curriculum to empathic agents of change as well.     

Social network analysis and the evaluation of leadership networks

Leadership development practitioners are increasingly interested in social networks as a way to strengthen relationships among leaders in fields, communities, and organizations. This paper offers a framework for conceptualizing different types of leadership networks and uses case examples to identify outcomes typically associated with each type of network. Evaluating leadership networks is a challenge for the field of leadership development. Social network analysis (SNA) is an evaluation approach that uses mathematics and visualization to represent the structure of relationships between people, organizations, goals, interests, and other entities within a larger system. In this article we describe core social network concepts and the application of them to illuminate the value of SNA as an evaluation tool.     

Costs of Treating Depression With Individual Versus Family Therapy

Depression is one of the most common concerns that bring clients to treatment. Although marriage and family therapy has been shown to be an effective treatment, little research exists regarding the cost‐effectiveness of related services. In this study, we examined claims data for 164,667 individuals diagnosed with depression to determine (a) differences in the cost of treating depression according to type of therapy and license type, (b) differences in recidivism rates by age, gender, type of therapy, and type of mental health professional, and (c) differences in cost‐effectiveness by therapy modality and type of professional. The results showed that services provided by marriage and family therapists resulted in the lowest recidivism rate, and family therapy services were the least expensive.     

Moving from Drugs to Sex: New Directions for Youth-Oriented Peer Counseling

Abstract

During the decade of the sixties, peer services proliferated as a response to the counterculture and the drug ethic, particularly among youth. In the seventies, drug crises have become less frequent and a consequence has been erosion of the service base of these organizations. However, problems associated with sexuality and the “Sexual Revolution” have become a strong new focus for youth-oriented peer services. Such services are now increasing in numbers and provide information, counseling, and referral for those concerned about or experiencing sex-related difficulties.