The household composition coefficient: A method for measuring inequality in the distribution of childrearing demands among households

A method for measuring distributional inequality was applied to household composition data to document and analyze the trend in the distribution of children and adult among households. Lorenz Curve methodology was used to depict the departure of child-adult living arrangements from absolute equality. Households and children were ranked by a child-adult ratio to capture the trend toward smaller families, single-parent families, and childless households. A Gini Coefficient was calculated to mathematically represent the relative degree of inequality in the distribution of childrearing demands from 1940 to 1980. The results evidence a trend of growing inequality, particularly since 1960, in the distribution of childrearing demands. The measure has application as a social indicator to document the extent to which responsibilities for daily care of children are distributed through the population.     

Report on the cost-benefit/effectiveness of treatment at the Johns Hopkins Center for Pathological Gambling

It is mandatory that programs, particularly social programs, generate evidence of efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of the treatment of illness. Thus a study was conducted to determine the cost-effectiveness of treatment of pathological gamblers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Pathological Gambling. This Center provides two types of treatment programs: an intensive residential program, and an out-patient program. Although abstinence is but one measure of the success of these programs, they have demonstrated an 80 percent and 90 percent abstention rate respectively, measured at an average of six months after completion of treatment for the residential programs and after six months while in treatment in the out-patient program. Similar high success rates were obtained for the stabilization, maintenance, and/or restoration of families, initiation and maintenance of restitution, indictments saved by restitution or other plans, and return to employment. Data from the Johns Hopkins Center for Pathological Gambling, indicates the benefit to cost ratio of treatment in excess of 20:1. Pathological gambling not only ranks amongst the most expensive illnesses afflicting society, but also is the least expensive to treat and the most cureable when treated. Without public education, and awareness, and without dollars for treatment and research, untreated pathological gambling will far surpass the costs of other catastrophic illnesses as the latter remain the focus of our health care expenditures while the former is ignored.     

Depression and caregiver burden among rural elder caregivers

Family caregivers of older adults frequently experience feelings of burden and depression though they may not come to the attention to health and service providers until they are at a point of crisis. Through a simple screening tool, the Maine Primary Partners in Caring (MPPC) project identified individuals providing care to older adults through rural primary care practices, in order to provide upstream interventions before caregivers were in crisis. This paper describes a sample (n=62) of rural family caregivers identified through their physicians' offices. High levels of caregiver burden and depression were reported. Family support and knowledge of caregiver tasks predicted decreased caregiver burden and depression, while isolation predicted increased caregiver burden. Implications of these results for gerontological social workers are outlined.     

Parenting schemas and the process of change

Parents' childrearing behaviors are guided by schemas of the caregiving role, their functioning in that role, what children need in general, and what their own children are like in particular. Sometimes, however, parenting schemas can be maladaptive because they are too rigid or simple, involve inappropriate content, or are dominated by negative affect. In this article, we describe parenting schemas and provide an overview of empirical work documenting the characteristics of maladaptive parenting schemas. We review how intervention practices common to multiple therapeutic approaches (cognitive-behavior therapy, family therapy, parent training, attachment-based interventions, and psychoanalytic parent-infant psychotherapy) attempt to modify schemas to promote more optimal functioning among parents. We highlight how research in cognitive science may explain, in part, treatment effectiveness.     

Engaging Professionals in Sustainable Workplace Innovation: Medical Doctors and Institutional Work

This paper investigates the role of medical professionals in the success and longevity of the implementation of workplace innovation and organizational change in the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Departments of two large public hospitals, in Australia and Canada, during the introduction of process improvement using Lean Management (LM) methodologies. We ask why and how doctors resist, influence or enable LM initiatives in healthcare. Using a qualitative methodology, we contribute to institutional work theory by unpacking the complex forms of boundary and practice work undertaken by key actors who effectively use their professional status and power to enable practice changes to be embedded. Our findings lend support to the importance of the involvement and ownership of senior doctors in the design, introduction and implementation of successful workplace innovation and organizational change. Senior doctors use their professional expertise, positional and political power at the industry, organization and workplace levels to influence strategically the use of resources designated for workplace innovation to improve efficiencies, quality of patient care and maintain their dominance. The significant organizational change achieved reflected the ownership and leadership of the workplace innovation by senior doctors in ‘hybrid roles’ who captured the rhetoric and minimized adversarialism among key stakeholders.     

The role of Lean at the interface with between operations management and applied services within a large aerospace organisation: a boundary spanning perspective

Increased complexity in large design and manufacturing organisations requires improvements at the operations management (OM)–applied service (AS) interface areas to improve project effectiveness. The aim of this paper is explore the role of Lean in improving the longitudinal efficiency of the OM–AS interface within a large aerospace organisation using Lean principles and boundary spanning theory. The methodology was an exploratory longitudinal case approach including exploratory interviews (n = 21), focus groups (n = 2), facilitated action-research workshops (n = 2) and two trials or experiments using longitudinal data involving both OM and AS personnel working at the interface. The findings draw upon Lean principles and boundary spanning theory to guide and interpret the findings. It was found that misinterpretation, and forced implementation, of OM-based Lean terminology and practice in the OM–AS interface space led to delays and misplaced resources. Rather both OM and AS staff were challenged to develop a cross boundary understanding of Lean-based boundary (knowledge) objects in interpreting OM requests. The longitudinal findings from the experiments showed that the development of Lean Performance measurements and lean Value Stream constructs was more successful when these Lean constructs were treated as boundary (knowledge) objects requiring transformation over time to orchestrate improved effectiveness and in leading to consistent terminology and understanding between the OM–AS boundary spanning team.     

Solution-focused wellness coaching: a mixed methods,longitudinal study with college students

ABSTRACT

Research indicates that college students are experiencing mental health challenges of greater severity and frequency. College students present with a variety of wellness-related challenges, resulting in increased demand on campus health resources and service limitations including extended wait lists and increased off-campus referrals. This research study examined the effectiveness of a short-term solution-focused intervention on perceptions of wellness and stress among the college student population. This study utilized a longitudinal, mixed-methods design to assess the impact of a brief (seven-week) intervention on perceived stress and wellness among 52 college students at a large Midwestern University, using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Five-Factor Wellness Evaluation of Lifestyle (5 F-WEL). Repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) results indicated significant differences across time for perceived stress and wellness (p <.01). To augment quantitative data, a brief, semi-structured interview was completed with 24 study participants post-intervention, and an Applied Thematic Analysis (ATA) was conducted as a means of identifying themes. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of a solution-focused wellness (SFW) approach in changing perceptions of stress and wellness. Findings provide support for a prevention model in which college students are encouraged to proactively engage in lifestyle activities that enhance their wellness.     

The Challenge of Agricultural Sustainability for Asia and Europe

It is expected that climate change (CC), growing population, increasing urbanization and improving living standards are amongst the major drivers influencing future agricultural development needs. Under conventional agricultural systems, the main sources of growth in crop production are well known. Beyond suffering its consequences, agriculture has been shown to act as a driver of CC, primarily through the production and release of about 15% of the atmospheric greenhouse gases but also by altering the resilience of the agro-ecosystems. The main criterion for the production systems called conservation agriculture (CA) is the provision of an optimum environment in the root-zone to maximum possible depth. Under CA the water-holding capacity of the soil increases, and water losses are reduced. CA combined with other complementary techniques can also help reduce the emissions for methane and nitrous oxides and at the same time it can improve rural and socio-economic development.     

The effect of the original introduction of Medicaid on welfare participation and female labor supply

This paper uses the fact that states introduced Medicaid programs at different times between 1966 and 1972 to estimate Medicaid??s effect on Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) participation. Using state-level data, we find that the introduction of Medicaid accounted for approximately 10% of growth in AFDC caseloads from 1964 to 1974, a time period during which there was thought to be significant unexplained growth in caseloads. Analysis of individual-level data indicates that Medicaid??s effect on AFDC participation occurred through its effect in increasing the number of eligibles who participated in the program, and not because of increases in eligibility or reductions in workforce participation.     

F-tests with a rare pathology

ANOVA is routinely used to compare pathologies. Nevertheless, in many situations, the sample dimensions may not be known when planning the study. This is specially relevant when one of the pathologies is rare. Thus, the sample size for that pathology or for all pathologies must be considered as random. Sample selection for the non-rare pathologies may be carried out to increase the balance of the model. This leads to F-tests with random non-centrality parameters and random degrees of freedom for the errors. The distribution of such tests statistics is obtained.