A Recast Framework for Welfare Deservingness Perceptions

Social Indicators Research - Many important societal debates revolve around questions of deservingness, especially when it comes to debates related to inequality and social protection. It is...     

Observed Interactions Indicate Protective Effects of Relationships With Parents for Referred Adolescents

This study examined whether the quality of parent–adolescent interactions moderate the association between stressful life events and internalizing and externalizing problems in referred adolescents (N=101, M age 13.41 years, SD=1.81). Adolescents and their parents reported on psychological problems at the time of referral and 4 years later. At follow‐up parents reported on stressful life events and an interaction task was conducted to observe autonomy and relatedness promoting behaviors. For adolescents exposed to stressful events, levels of internalizing and externalizing problems went up except if observed parent–adolescent interactions were characterized by high autonomy and relatedness. The results implied that autonomy and relatedness protect adolescents against the deleterious effects of stressful life events. These findings build on previous research showing for psychologically vulnerable adolescents that parenting that promotes autonomy while maintaining relatedness is associated with resilience in times of stress.     

A Test of the Economic Strain Model on Adolescents' Prosocial Behaviors

The present study was designed to examine the links between economic strain, parental depression, parent–child connectedness, and adolescents' prosocial behaviors. The sample consisted of 478 participants (M age at Time 1=11.29 years, 51% male) recruited from the community who were mostly of European American descent (69%) and from mostly middle to upper SES families. At Time 1 parents completed measures of their own income and economic stress, depression, and connectedness with their child. At Time 1 adolescents reported on connectedness with both their mother and father. At Time 2 (1 year later) adolescents reported on their own prosocial behavior toward strangers, friends, and family. Structural equation model tests showed that economic strain was related positively to parental depressive symptoms, which in turn predicted lower levels of parent–child connectedness, which in turn positively predicted adolescents' prosocial behaviors. Discussion focuses on the family context of adolescents' positive behavioral outcomes.     

The Efficiency of the Italian Judicial System: A Two Stage Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

Social Indicators Research - During the last two decades there was great attention for improved performance in the public sector. We know how important a good judicial system is: it...     

An optimization approach applied to the optimal stratification problem

A new optimization algorithm is presented to solve the stratification problem. Assuming the number L of strata and the total sample size n are fixed, we obtain strata boundaries by using an objective function associated with the variance. In this problem, strata boundaries must be determined so that the elements in each stratum are more homogeneous among themselves. To produce more homogeneous strata, this paper proposes a new algorithm that uses the Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP) methodology. Computational results are presented for a set of problems, with the application of the new algorithm and some algorithms from literature.     

The Multidimensionality of Prosocial Behaviors and Evidence of Measurement Equivalence in Mexican American and European American Early Adolescents

There is growing recognition of the need to examine distinct forms of prosocial behaviors and to conduct research on prosocial behaviors among ethnic minorities. Middle school students (mean age=12.67 years; 54% girls; European American, n=290; Mexican American, n=152) completed a multidimensional measure of prosocial behavior and measures of parental monitoring, externalizing behaviors, and religiosity. Results yield supportive evidence that anonymous, dire, emotional, compliant, public, and altruism are different forms of prosocial behaviors. Moreover, the measure of prosocial behaviors shows measurement equivalence properties across ethnicity and gender. The discussion focuses on the multidimensional nature of prosocial behaviors and implications for future research on prosocial behaviors.     

Small-area estimation in the presence of area-level correlated responses

The Fay-Herriot area-level model for correlated response data is augmented with a between-groups-of-domains effect. Correlated-response parameters of small-area estimates no longer need the assumption of spatial contiguity. A simulation shows that area-level correlated-response observations increase the efficiency of the estimates, but do not reduce the biases.     

Effectiveness of potent antiretroviral therapy on progression of human immunodeficiency virus: Bayesian modelling and model checking via counterfactual replicates

Summary.  We analyse data from a seroincident cohort of 457 homosexual men who were infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, followed within the multicentre Italian Seroconversion Study. These data include onset times to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), longitudinal measurements of CD4⁺ T-cell counts taken on each subject during the AIDS-free period of observation and the period of administration of a highly active antiretro- viral therapy (HAART), for the subset of individuals who received it. The aim of the study is to assess the effect of HAART on the course of the disease. We analyse the data by a Bayesian model in which the sequence of longitudinal CD4⁺ cell count observations and the associated time to AIDS are jointly modelled at an individual subject's level as depending on the treatment. We discuss the inferences obtained about the efficacy of HAART, as well as modelling and computation difficulties that were encountered in the analysis. These latter motivate a model criticism stage of the analysis, in which the model specification of CD4⁺ cell count progression and of the effect of treatment are checked. Our approach to model criticism is based on the notion of a counterfactual replicate data set Z ^c . This is a data set with the same shape and size as the observed data, which we might have observed by rerunning the study in exactly the same conditions as the actual study if the treated patients had not been treated at all. We draw samples of Z ^c from a null model M ₀, which assumes absence of treatment effect, conditioning on data collected in each subject before initiation of treatment. Model checking is performed by comparing the observed data with a set of samples of Z ^c drawn from M ₀.     

Adolescent Perceptions of Appropriate Parental Reactions in Moral and Conventional Social Domains

Research suggests that adolescents' ratings of the appropriateness of parental reactions are influenced by several constructs, including adolescents' perceptions of the type of parental reaction, the emotions felt by the adolescent and parental intentions. However, little is known regarding how these constructs are differentially predictive of appropriateness in different socialization contexts. One hundred and twenty‐two adolescents (mean age = 16.87 years) answered questions regarding past situations in antisocial and prosocial contexts, and in moral and conventional domains. Different parental reactions were reported across moral and conventional domains. In addition, the appropriateness of parental responses varied across domain. Namely, in antisocial contexts, parental responses of yelling and punishing were seen as more appropriate in moral than conventional domains. In prosocial contexts, no action from the parent was seen as less appropriate in conventional than moral domains. In addition, adolescents' perceptions were more strongly associated with adolescents' ratings of appropriateness in conventional than moral social domains. These findings highlight the importance of considering both moral context and social domain when examining adolescents' perceptions of appropriate parental reactions and internalization of values.     

The Family and the Internet: The Israeli Case*

Objective. The goal of this study was to explore the relationship between Internet connection and frequency of adolescents' daily use and family time and the perceived quality of relations between adolescents and their parents. Methods. Data from the 2000 National Youth Survey conducted in Israel by the Minerva Center for Youth Studies were used. Results. The findings show that frequency of Internet use is negatively related to adolescents' perception of the quality of family relationships. This negative relationship is not explained by a reduction of the time that parents and adolescents' share. Conclusions. It is possible that high frequency of Internet use by adolescents, particularly when it is not being used for learning purposes, creates intergenerational conflicts. This possibility should be explored in future studies.