Population education for young adults: making the small family desirable

The approach to population control has been almost totally clinical in India so far. A new program of population education which is broader than the clinical appeal is needed. The major target population in India would be illiterates and those with a small amount of education. Within this target population different groups would have to be treated differently. Division would be between illiterates and literates, between urban and rural populations, and between male and female groups. Family planning must be related to other aspects of life, e.g., the health and well-being of the mother and other children in the family. Sex and social education must be presented together. Basic values cannot be changed. Smaller families will eventually change the values. By concentrating on the basic value of survival of the family, the best method to effect this can be shown to be better care of fewer c hildren rather than proliferation of many children. Education should concentrate on the individual and on economic reasons for limiting family size. Once the idea of limiting family size is accepted, it remains to be shown that methods for doing this are available, safe, and religiously and socially acceptable. The message needs constant repetition. Group education would be least expensive. Population education could be presented by incorporating it into other socioeconomic contexts such as reading classes for the illiterates and mathematics classes for the basic literates.     

The four-parameter Burr XII distribution: Properties,regression model,and applications

This paper introduces a new four-parameter lifetime model called the Weibull Burr XII distribution. The new model has the advantage of being capable of modeling various shapes of aging and failure criteria. We derive some of its structural properties including ordinary and incomplete moments, quantile and generating functions, probability weighted moments, and order statistics. The new density function can be expressed as a linear mixture of Burr XII densities. We propose a log-linear regression model using a new distribution so-called the log-Weibull Burr XII distribution. The maximum likelihood method is used to estimate the model parameters. Simulation results to assess the performance of the maximum likelihood estimation are discussed. We prove empirically the importance and flexibility of the new model in modeling various types of data.     

How soon is too soon? Addiction recovery and family reunification

This article describes the addiction recovery process and its impact on parenting behaviors-information needed by child welfare workers involved in decisionmaking regarding family reunification. Two models of recovery-from alcoholism and from cocaine addiction-are reviewed, along with issues encountered in recovery, particularly for women. Case examples and discussion demonstrate how child welfare workers can apply these models in determining the appropriateness of reunification.     

The ABCE Model of Volunteer Motivation

To meet the growing social service needs of our societies, the social services and other Volunteer organizations need to understand the needs and motives of their volunteers to keep them retained. Although volunteer motivation scales are available and tested, different organizations have to amend and add volunteering motives to best fit their organization and environment. Furthermore, not much guidance is available to volunteer organizations to understand or measure motivation of their volunteers raising a need for a unified model that can be a guideline for managers. This study discusses different approaches to volunteering motivation and links them into four areas of affiliation using an ABCE model: affiliation (A), beliefs, (B) career development, (C) and (E) egoistic. Participants were 496 volunteers from a variety of NGOs including 239 (48.2%) from an international Faith Based Organization (FBO). Findings show that although differences exist in volunteering motivation the actual best fit was an ABCE model. Future research is needed on testing the scale with different cultures and different organizations. A deeper knowledge of volunteer motivations will enable organizations to prosper and utilize the continuous experience of the volunteers and their engagement, thereby ensuring enhanced quality social service delivery.