Displacement,caregiving, and the ecological system of youth in foster care: a theoretical perspective

Children involved in the child welfare (i.e., foster care) system are at a greater risk for numerous negative outcomes in adolescence and adulthood (e.g., lower educational attainment, higher risk for a criminal record). For children in foster care who experience placement disruption (i.e., removed from a foster home and placed in another nonpermanent placement), the risks significantly increase. Informed by the ecological systems model, the authors propose a theoretical perspective to explain the unique aspects of a foster child’s development and discuss how this framework informs child welfare practice and intervention for foster children at risk for placement disruption. This perspective has the potential to provide a framework that has implications for foster caregivers and child welfare professionals and to inform future policies.     

Migration and Pacific Mortality: Estimating Migration Effects on Pacific Mortality Rates Using Bayesian Models

Pacific people living in New Zealand have higher mortality rates than New Zealand residents of European/Other ethnicity. The aim of this paper is to see whether Pacific mortality rates vary by natality and duration of residence. We used linked census-mortality information for 25- to 74-year-olds in the 2001 census followed for up to three years. Hierarchical Bayesian modeling provided a means of handling sparse data. Posterior mortality rates were directly age-standardized. We found little evidence of mortality differences between the overseas-born and the New Zealand–born for all-cause, cancer, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. However, we found evidence for lower all-cause (and possibly cancer and CVD) mortality rates for Pacific migrants resident in New Zealand for less than 25 years relative to those resident for more than 25 years. This result may arise from a combination of processes operating over time, including health selection effects from variations in New Zealand’s immigration policy, the location of Pacific migrants within the social, political, and cultural environment of the host community, and health impacts of the host culture. We could not determine the relative importance of these processes, but identifying the (modifiable) drivers of the inferred long-term decline in health of the overseas-born Pacific population relative to more-recent Pacific migrants is important to Pacific communities and from a national health and policy perspective.     

A Multilevel Perspective on Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Poverty Status and Depression Among Older Adults in the United States

Despite a large body of literature on depression, previous studies have focused on either intra- or interpersonal factors but not multilevel influences, which potentially could buffer depression in late life. The intent of this study was to identify whether the impact of poverty might be moderated by multilevel factors such as sense of control, social support, and neighborhood environment. The results showed that the elderly poor, especially older women, were more likely to be depressed. Support from friends significantly moderated the association between depression and poverty among older women. Implications for critical feminist gerontology and for practice are discussed.     

The Research Potential of Mental-Health Social Workers: A Qualitative Study of the Views of Senior Mental-Health Service Managers

Social workers have undoubtedly played a significant role inmental-health care in Britain. Yet their contribution to themental-health knowledge base is decidedly meagre compared tothe prolific research activity of psychiatry and allied healthprofessions. A qualitative study was conducted on the researchpotential of mental-health social work, based on the views ofsenior service managers in London boroughs. Social-work researchwas found to suffer from a combination of structural, economicand academic constraints. The impact of social work on mental-healthpolicy and practice developments, particularly in the lightof a growing emphasis on evidence-based practice, is likelyto remain weak until this issue is addressed.     

An Interagency Comparison of Screening-Level Risk Assessment Approaches

Approaches to risk assessment have been shown to vary among regulatory agencies and across jurisdictional boundaries according to the different assumptions and justifications used. Approaches to screening-level risk assessment from six international agencies were applied to an urban case study focusing on benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) exposure and compared in order to provide insight into the differences between agency methods, assumptions, and justifications. Exposure estimates ranged four-fold, with most of the dose stemming from exposure to animal products (8-73%) and plant products (24-88%). Total cancer risk across agencies varied by two orders of magnitude, with exposure to air and plant and animal products contributing most to total cancer risk, while the air contribution showed the greatest variability (1-99%). Variability in cancer risk of 100-fold was attributed to choices of toxicological reference values (TRVs), either based on a combination of epidemiological and animal data, or on animal data. The contribution and importance of the urban exposure pathway for cancer risk varied according to the TRV and, ultimately, according to differences in risk assessment assumptions and guidance. While all agency risk assessment methods are predicated on science, the study results suggest that the largest impact on the differential assessment of risk by international agencies comes from policy and judgment, rather than science.