Erratum to: Does National Income Inequality Affect Individuals’ Quality of Life in Europe? Inequality,Happiness, Finances,and Health

Social Indicators Research -     

Making a target work: Messages from a pilot of the 6‐month time limit on care proceedings in England

Since 2014, it has been a legal requirement in England and Wales for child care proceedings to be concluded, apart from “exceptional cases,” within 26 weeks. When this was first proposed, there were concerns that it might lead to poorer decision‐making or to delay being squeezed to either side of the court proceedings, before or afterwards. This paper reports on the messages from a pilot programme to hit the 26‐week target that took place in London in 2012–2013. The study compared the progress of the cases from the pilot year with those the year before, 180 cases in total, involving 256 children. The local authorities involved were able to achieve considerable improvements in timeliness, not just in the proceedings, but for the pre‐ and post‐court processes too; and the quality and fairness of decisions did not seem to be impaired, in terms of the plans for the children and subsequent outcomes over a period of 2 years. “Targets” do not generally find a warm welcome in the social work literature, but this paper shows that when collaboratively implemented, with a measure of flexibility and adequate resources, they can be an effective way of helping to achieve positive change.     

Adaptation and validation of the Gambling Motives Questionnaire-Financial (GMQ-F) in a sample of French-speaking gamblers

Previous research has identified specific gambling motives and linked them with both healthy and disordered gambling. The Gambling Motives Questionnaire (GMQ) is currently the most widely used measure for these motives. The present study aimed to offer a French validation of the latest version of this scale, the GMQ-Financial (GMQ-F), which measures four distinct motives (enhancement, social, coping, financial). The French GMQ-F was completed by 278 gamblers from the community and 22 treatment-seeking pathological gamblers, along with scales assessing gambling cognitions, impulsivity, disordered gambling symptoms and psychopathological symptoms. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the expected four-factor model. The GMQ-F subscales have good internal reliability. Validity of the GMQ-F is supported by specific correlations with the other constructs measured. Pathological gamblers differed from gamblers from the community on all but one (social) of the GMQ-F subscales. The French GMQ-F presents good psychometric properties and constitutes a reliable instrument for measuring gambling motives in research and clinical practice.     

DEPRESSION IN MATURE MARRIAGES: IMPACT AND IMPLICATIONS FOR MARITAL THERAPY

Recent reviews of MFT literature have shown a failure to address mental health issues of the aging. Chief among these issues is depression, one of the most common psychological disorders found in older people. Although the relationship between depression and aging is a well-researched topic, few studies approach this common problem from a systemic perspective. Using data from a national survey of preretirement- and retirement-aged couples, this paper discusses the association between depression and marital quality in mature marriages as well the possibility of mediating variables such as the personality construct hardiness. Implications for marital therapy with older couples experiencing depression and future research are discussed.     

‘Race’-education policy as social control?

This paper focuses on the instrumentalist Marxist model which has been used to explain the policies of the British state in the field of ‘race’-education. After discussing the model's core assumptions and its application in this field the paper explores the model's explanatory adequacy through a case study of the role of the quasi-state agencies of the ‘race’-relations industry in developing ‘race’-education policy in initial teacher education. It ends by considering whether a new conceptual framework is needed to understand ‘race’-education policy.     

HOW ‘NATIVES’ THINK

Marshall Sahlins. How 'natives' think: about Captain Cook, for example (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1995. x, 318pp., maps, table, plates, figures, bibliography, index. $40.95. ISBN 0 226 73368 8.