Gaining Satisfaction? An Exploration of Foster-Carers' Attitudes to Payment

The payment of foster-carers has long been controversial, reflectingboth philosophical debates as to whether fostering should bea voluntaristic or professional activity and concerns aboutplacement provision and service delivery for children. Althoughmany research studies have touched upon the question of foster-carers’satisfaction with payments, this has not been explored in anydepth. Drawing on findings from a study involving 1,181 foster-carersin twenty-one agencies, this article attempts to provide suchan analysis with four main objectives. These comprised: examiningassociations between attitudes towards payment and demographic,socio-economic and fostering career variables; comparing responsesbetween carers based in local authorities (grouped accordingto levels of payment and performance criteria) and independentagencies (IFAs); gauging the influence of carers’ ‘orientations’towards foster-care as a ‘professional’ task; andanalysing payments in terms of their different components, suchas fees, maintenance and certain designated expenses. Amongmany detailed findings to emerge were the generally low levelof satisfaction among local authority carers, especially incomparison with their IFA counterparts and the growing supportamong carers for salaried status. There was mixed evidence onlinks between attitudes towards remuneration and the performanceof agencies.     

Social Class and Adolescents' Beliefs about Justice in Different Social Orders

We report on the justice beliefs of 4508 adolescents from 4 security societies in transition to market economies (i.e., Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Russia) and from 2 opportunity societies (Australia and the United States). Using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), justice beliefs were examined as a function of type of society, social class, and gender. In the security societies, working-class teens wanted the state and schools to provide a safety net, while middle-class teens preferred that schools promote student autonomy and competition but also reported the most negative school climates of any group. In the opportunity societies, working-class youth believed success was based on individual merit, while middle class youth expressed more doubt about this connection .     

Migration in Southern Europe and the Case of Greece

In recent decades, the southern European countries of Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece have all undergone transformation from senders to receivers of migrants. On the basis of this common feature, they have been grouped together in recent discussions of migration experiences and prospects. However, as revealed in comparisons made possible by the newly available data set from Greece's first regularization programme, the migration experience of Greece departs radically from that of other southern European countries. To an extent unparalleled in southern Europe, Greece has been subject to an immigration impact as the result of the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, some of which share borders with Greece. Characteristics of Greece's major source countries differ from those of other countries of southern Europe (1) in that they are former communist countries that appear to have a long and difficult road of economic transition ahead, (2) with respect to proximity, and (3) in terms of dominance of a single source country. These differences have important implications for future patterns of migration and of articulation of the labour markets of receiving countries with those of specific sending countries.     

Qualitative differences in men and women police officers' experience of occupational stress

Gender differences in exposure to sources of occupational stress and experience of adverse consequences are explored in a study of 358 male and 139 female police constables engaged in uniformed patrol or detective duties from one large provincial English police force. Stressors were divided into those arising tiom police operational duties and those deriving tioni organizational and management issues. Women uniformed constables are less likely to be exposed to police operational stresson involving the potential for violence, but ifexposed they report more severe adverse reactions than uniformed policemen. Women unifomied officers and women detectives are more likely to be involved with victims ofviolence or sexual offences and the former report higher levels ofassociated self-perceived stress than their male counterparts. There are relatively few differences in exposure to organizational stressors except that women detectives and uniformed officers report higher rates of sex discrimination and prejudice than policemen. Multivariate analyses show gender and occupational role differences in qualitative features that contribute to reported psychologal distress. Results are discussed in terms of possible explanations for gender differences.     

Work-related mild-moderate traumatic brain injury and the construction industry

Background: Consequences of traumatic brain injury underscore the need to study high-risk groups. Few studies have investigated work-related traumatic brain injuries (WrTBIs) in the construction industry. Objective: To examine WrTBIs in Ontario for the construction industry compared to other industries. Methods: A retrospective study of individuals who sustained a WrTBI and had a clinical assessment as an outpatient at a hospital-based referral centre. Data were collected for a number of factors including demographic, injury and occupation and were analyzed according to the Person-Environment-Occupation (PEO) model. Participants: 435 individuals who sustained a WrTBI. Results: There were 19.1% in the construction industry, 80.9% in other industries. Compared to other industries, individuals in the construction industry were more likely to be male, to not have attained post-secondary education, and experience multiple traumas. WrTBIs in the construction industry were commonly due to elevated work. The construction occupations involved included skilled workers and general labourers, and compared to other industries, WrTBIs occurred most often for those employed for a short duration in the construction industry.Conclusions: Construction industry workers experience serious WrTBIs that are amenable to prevention. Use of the PEO model increased our understanding of WrTBIs in the construction industry.     

Conventional and piecewise growth modeling techniques: applications and implications for investigating Head Start children's early literacy learning

This article reviews the mechanics of conventional and piecewise growth models to demonstrate the unique affordances of each technique for examining the nature and predictors of children's early literacy learning during the transition from preschool through first grade. Using the nationally representative Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) data set, 1997 cohort, the authors show how piecewise models revealed discrete contributions of child, family, and classroom experiences to children's literacy skills within particular years, whereas conventional models, which considered the whole 3-year trajectory of change as a single outcome, revealed fewer of these nuanced contributions.