Mandated benefits and entry-level employees and employment

Entry-level employees, particularly those with little education and skill, are often not provided fringe benefits that are included in the compensation packages of their more skilled and experienced counterparts. Under the rubric of improving the well-being of entry-level employees, Congress is considering proposals requiring employers provide speccific benefits to employees. Unfortunately, by substituting political directives for market decision making, mandated benefits impose economic inefficiencies, and most of the resulting costs are borne by the entry-level employees purportedly most helped by mandated benefits. The author thanks Ronald Warren for helpful comments. The customary caveat applies.     

Assaultive behavior: know the risks.

1. Violence in our society is an increasing national concern, and violence in health-care settings reflects this trend. Assaultive episodes continue to increase in health-care settings due to various cultural, sociological, and political factors. 2. Present administrative and educational solutions to the problems of assault have failed to decrease the incidence and, in fact, may contribute to the increasing number of assaultive episodes. 3. Psychiatric staff can reduce incidence of assault by recognizing the risk factors and designing styles and interventions with these factors in mind. 4. Risks most often associated with assault are history of assault, diagnosis of dementia or organic brain disorder, intoxication from drugs or alcohol, and from the characteristics of the milieu and treatment itself.     

Analysis of overdispersed paired count data

This article is about the statistical analysis of overdispersed paired count data for comparing two treatments. The data consist of the number of events obtained in a stratum during the fixed observation period. Three types of model are discussed: the Poisson, a mixed, and a semiparametric model. Overdispersion is represented in the last two models but not in the Poisson model. Of particular interests are to examine whether there is any loss of efficiency in using the estimate of the treatment effect obtained under other two models if the mixed model is true, and also whether overdispersion leads to a larger variance of the estimate than that expected from the Poisson model. It is shown that all three models provide the same estimate of the treatment effect (i.e., there is no loss of efficiency) and that the variance of the estimate of the treatment effect obtained under the Poisson model is the same as that based on the mixed model. However, the semiparametric model provides the variance of the estimate larger than those obtained under the other two models.     

The effects of governing board configuration on profound organizational change in hospitals

This study extends the literature on governing boards and organizational change by examining how governing board configurations have influenced profound organizational change in U.S. hospitals, and the conditions under which such change occurs. Hospitals governed by boards that more closely resembled a corporate governance model were more likely to experience positive changes such as diversification and merger and less likely to undergo negative changes such as closure. Organizational performance influenced change, but largely independent of governance configurations. Only in the case of closure did we find that governance configuration operated jointly with organizational performance.     

Telecare for women with postpartum depression

Data were collected to pilot test the feasibility and effects of telecare as an intervention for depression in a small group of mothers with postpartum depression. Treatment involved a 10-week telecare therapy consisting of three related aspects: cognitive-behavioral therapy, relaxation techniques, and problem-solving strategies. Beck Depression Inventory II scores were significantly lower after telecare treatment. Women identified psycho-education as the greatest help to them.     

Severe self-neglect: an epidemiological and historical perspective

Older adults with severe self-neglect have multiple deficits in various social, functional and physical domains, and often live insqualor. These individuals often present with poor personal hygiene, domestic squalor and hoarding which results in a threat to their own health as well as personal and public safety. Severe self-neglect occurs along a continuum with older adults often having cognitive and affective disorders compared with younger individuals presenting with psychiatric illnesses. In cases of severe self-neglect with hoarding, evidence has shown this behavior occurs in diverse social strata and not among the wealthy and professionals alone as believed earlier. Due to the multiple conditions associated with severe self-neglect, this population will require an interdisciplinary, multidimensional approach to reduce morbidity and mortality rates including nursing home placement. Research on this group has been limited and is rarely described in the medical and nursing literature. Future research is needed to provide practitioners with effective screening instruments and interventions on cases of severe self-neglect.     

Raising the Status of the Cashier: Latina–White Interactions in an Ethnic Market

Using a Latino-owned and -operated ethnic market in southern California as an ethnographic research site, we analyze and compare the interactions between foreign-born, Latina cashiers and their Latino and White customers. We ask two main questions: what is the nature of cashier–customer interactions, and what do they tell us about the social hierarchy in which they are embedded? While most studies of service interactions find that intraracial encounters are friendlier than interracial ones, the results of this study prove otherwise. We find that the Latina cashiers are routinely friendlier, more deferential, and extend the length of the interaction with their White customers. We conclude that Latina cashiers deliberately provide better service to their White customers because they feel that the patronage of White, middle-class shoppers raises their occupational status as well as the status of their workplace.

Household Debt and Marital Instability: Evidence from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study

Korean society has recently experienced rapid increases in household debt and divorce rates. This study investigates whether household debt and debt ratios lower marital stability and increase the probability of divorce among Korean families. Six-year panels from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) household surveys were used for analysis. The effect of household debt upon the probability of divorce was estimated through pooled and population-averaged Logit models. The results suggest that household financial strain measured by the amount of household debt and the debt-to-income ratios does not significantly affect the probability of divorce. This finding contradicts the widespread notion that households’ excessive borrowing has been partially responsible for the recent increase in divorce rates in Korea.

Beyond pain and protection: politics of identity and iban girls in Korea

This study analyzes the complexities in the exploration of iban girls' identities and the various ways how girls appropriate varied sources such as popular culture to examine the heterogeneousness of identity explorations and rethink the politics of identities. Against the tendency in current discourse on homosexual youth in Korea, protection discourse and pain discourse, the notion of identity itself will be critically examined and the girls' agency in destabilizing heteronormativity will be discussed. This study also deals with the appropriation of popular culture by the girls, suggesting that cultural critiques should reveal complex dynamics in concrete experiences. doi:10.1300/J155v10n03_04.