Indentification and prioritization of needs of families by multiple groups: Residents,key informants,and agency directors

Needs assessment, an essential tool for planning human services, has not been widely used by service agencies. This paper reports an example of needs assessment, which indentified and prioritized serious problems and desired services of families residing in a large housing project. Data were based on random samples of three discrete but interrelated groups: residents, key informants, and agency directors, all of whom have a stake in the delivery of human services. The study attempted to integrate the perspectives of these diverse groups. Using both frequency of need expressed and importance given to the need by the three groups of assessors, important areas of common concern were assessed.The author appreciates the support provided by Ardon O. Schmidt and Charles R. Gibbs, chaplains of the U.S. Army.     

Slope-rotatable designs with equal maximum directional variance for second order response surface models

The concept of sloperotaiability with equal maximum directional vari ance for second order response surface models is introduced as a new design property. This requires that the maximum variance of the estimated slope over all possible directions be only a function of p, which is the distance from the design originif is shown that a rotatable design satisfies this property Also, minimization of tiie maximum variance of the estimated slope over all possible directions is proposed as a new design optirnality criterion, and op¬timal designs are called slope-directional minirnax designs. For the class of cquiradial designs, the slope-directional minirnax designs are compared with D— optimal designs.     

Active Ageing Index in Korea – Comparison with China and EU countries

The evidence‐based policymaking relies on the use and robustness of the available data. Many conceptual and operational difficulties restrict this process, not least in making use of evidence to identify policy priorities. The Active Ageing Index (AAI), developed originally for the 28 European Union countries, offers a strong motivation in this respect. This paper reports on the development of the AAI for Korea, a country where speed and level of population aging is among the highest in the world. Drawing on the comparative analysis of the AAI results for Korea, China, and European countries, we find that Korea's AAI (35.3) is higher than the average of the AAI for all EU countries (33.9) but lower than China (37.3). Fitting Korea into the overall ranking with the EU countries and China (ranked 7), Korea is ranked 11, just behind Germany (10). The AAI results in Korea show that the employment domain performs extremely well compared with the EU countries, but other domains, especially “Social participation” and “Independent, healthy and secure living,” are achieving less favorable outcomes. High employment among the current cohorts of older workers in Korea can be attributed largely to the constraints of low pension income status.     

Let's Call it Quits: Break‐Even Effects in the Decision to Stop Taking Risks

“Chasing” behavior, whereby individuals, driven by a desire to break even, continue a risky activity (RA) despite incurring large losses, is a commonly observed phenomenon. We examine whether the desire to break even plays a wider role in decisions to stop engaging in financially motivated RA in a naturalistic setting. We test hypotheses, motivated by this research question, using a large data set: 707,152 transactions of 5,379 individual financial market spread traders between September 2004 and April 2013. The results indicate strong effects of changes in wealth around the break‐even point on the decision to cease an RA. An important mediating factor was the individual's historical long‐term performance. Those with a more profitable trading history were less affected by a fall in cash balance below the break‐even point compared to those who had been less profitable. We observe that break‐even points play an important role in the decision of nonpathological risk takers to stop RAs. It is possible, therefore, that these nonpathological cognitive processes, when occurring in extrema, may result in pathological gambling behavior such as “chasing.” Our data set focuses on RAs in financial markets and, consequently, we discuss the implications for institutions and regulators in the effective management of risk taking in markets. We also suggest that there may be a need to consider carefully the nature and role of “break‐even points” associated with a broader range of nonfinancially‐focused risk‐taking activities, such as smoking and substance abuse.     

Outsourcing Decisions and Managerial Incentives*

An agency model is presented in which outsourcing strictly dominates in-house production. We argue that firms outsource in order to improve managerial incentives. Conditions are established under which the firm is strictly better off with outsourcing. The benefit of outsourcing, however, is constrained by the trade-off between the incremental coordination costs of outsourcing and the improved incentive structure. The optimal contract is also shown to be a function of whether or not the firm is publicly held. For a publicly held firm, the contract is constant. For a privately held supplier, the contract is likely to be of a cost-sharing type. These findings offer preliminary incentive explanations for commonly observed outsourcing practices.     

On the strong convergence for weighted sums of random variables

A strong convergence result is obtained for weighted sums of identically distributed negatively associated random variables which have a suitable moment condition. This result improves the result of Cai (Metrika 68:323–331, 2008).     

The Attitudes of Social Work Students Toward End-of-Life Care Planning

This study examined the attitudes of social work students toward end-of-life care planning, as well as their degree of willingness to engage in this area of social work practice. Factors associated with their attitudes were measured through structured surveys completed by 102 social work students (N = 102) at a school of social work in the southeast. Results indicated that these social work students tended to have positive attitudes toward end-of-life care planning in general. Moreover, these attitudes were positively associated with preference for pain relief treatment, higher levels of comfort when discussing death, more emphasis on self-determination, and apprehension of conflicts of self-determination. The results of this study underscored the increased societal need for recognition of personal preferences in end-of-life care, higher levels of comfort when discussing death, and an increased commitment of social workers' to maintaining the ethical principle of the client's right to self-determination in end-of-life planning. While this is not surprising, it points to a continuing need to re-assess where the field stands in its preparation of social work professionals who will work closely with people who are dying and their families.     

Korean Social Work Students’ Attitudes Toward Homosexuals

For this article, the Hudson and Ricketts Index of Attitudes toward Homosexuality (IAH) was used to measure levels of homophobia in a convenience sample of 124 students enrolled in social work programs in two major universities in the Republic of South Korea. The results indicated that BSW and MSW Korean students had high levels of homophobia, particularly in comparison to U.S. samples. In-class discussion of homosexuality was found to be significantly associated with lower levels of homophobia. The authors review these and other research findings and discuss implications for social work education in South Korea and the United States.     

Types of stressors and bullying perpetration among female adolescents in Korea

ABSTRACT

Research concerning bullying among female adolescents in Korea remains extremely limited. This study examined the impact of three different types of stressors (family stress, friendship stress, and school stress) on bullying perpetration among Korean female adolescents. Five middle schools were randomly selected from 11 schools in Pyeongtaek, Korea. Participants in the study were 374 female students in 7–9th grade. A linear regression analysis based on the different types of stressors was conducted. Findings indicate that family and school related stressors were significantly associated with bullying perpetration. Results supported Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory. Interventions to decrease family stress and school stress are supported for Korean female adolescents engaged in bullying perpetration.