Alcohol control and foster care

Parental alcohol consumption is often associated with an increased likelihood of child abuse. As consumption is related to price, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the propensity for increases in the full price of alcohol to influence entry rates and the length of time spent in foster care. Using alcoholic beverage prices and a measure of availability in combination with data on foster care cases, we find that higher alcohol prices are not effective in reducing foster care entry rates; however, once in foster care, the duration of stay may be shortened by higher prices and reduced availability.     

Family Communication Patterns and Communicative Responses to Jealousy: The Mediating Role of Alexithymia

Using family communication patterns theory, the current study proposed a mediating structural model between family communication patterns, alexithymia, and communicative responses to jealousy. Using a college student sample, the results largely supported the predicted model in terms of both direct and indirect effects. Specifically, both family communication patterns were significantly related to alexithymia, while alexithymia was significantly related to the latent constructs of destructive, avoidant, and rival focused responses to jealousy. Indirect effects were also found between both family communication patterns and all four latent constructs of communicative responses to jealousy. Finally, the family communication patterns also interacted to predict alexithymia. Several conclusions and directions for future research are discussed.     

Supervisees’ Perceptions of Effective Supervision: A Comparison of Fully Synchronous Cybersupervision to Traditional Methods

Despite a great increase in the popularity of cybersupervision, little research is provided regarding supervisees’ perceptions of its effectiveness. This study examined the differences in Master’s level counseling student supervisees’ perceptions of participating in cybersupervision as compared to traditional face-to-face clinical supervision. Results indicated no significant difference in the perceived effectiveness between the two conditions. Implications and suggestions for future research and practice are provided.     

Gender Differences in Formal and Informal Volunteering in Germany

In this study, we examine the gender differences in formal and informal volunteering using data from a Time Use Survey in Germany. Our study finds strong evidence that women are more likely to volunteer formally if they also volunteer informally, suggesting that the decisions are complementary. However, for men the decisions to volunteer formally and informally are not significantly related. Moreover, we find that gender differences in labour force participation cannot explain our results.     

Preparing,Working, Recovering: Gendered Experiences of Night Work among Women and their Families

The negative physiological consequences of night work are well evidenced, but there has been limited research on the gendered consequences of night work for partnered women with children. This paper examines women's experiences of night work by drawing on qualitative interview and audio sleep diary data with 20 UK female nurses working non‐regular rotating shifts, together with interview and diary data from their male partners and children. The analysis shows how the lived experience of women's night work is characterized by three phases, which we discuss within a timescape perspective. Alongside changes to paid work and sleep during the period of night shifts, the ‘preparation’ and ‘recovery’ phases of women's night work involve intense periods of considerable additional unpaid and unrecognized work and anxiety. Gendered expectations for household management and family wellbeing mean that women night workers undertake considerable responsibility for complex planning before night shifts begin, and re‐enter established domestic routines within hours after night shifts end. Women maintain continuity for their families by actively managing the impacts of night work. This enables the fulfilment and ‘display’ of successful and normative gendered patterns of domestic responsibility, which appears to be central to women's own coping with night shifts.     

Asymptotic properties of a stochastic EM algorithm for mixtures with censored data

Weak consistency and asymptotic normality is shown for a stochastic EM algorithm for censored data from a mixture of distributions under lognormal assumptions. The asymptotic properties hold for all parameters of the distributions, including the mixing parameter. In order to make parameter estimation meaningful it is necessary to know that the censored mixture distribution is identifiable. General conditions under which this is the case are given. The stochastic EM algorithm addressed in this paper is used for estimation of wood fibre length distributions based on optically measured data from cylindric wood samples (increment cores).     

Child Well‐Being Scales (CWBS) in the assessment of families and children in home‐care intervention: an empirical study

This paper reports research carried out in Italy designed to investigate the usability of Child Well‐Being Scale (CWBS) for the outcome evaluation of home‐care interventions for vulnerable families and children in need. Using a pre‐ and post‐test design, the study traces the changes in 18 vulnerable families and 23 children in need included in a programme of home‐care intervention over a period of 11 months. All the families and children were assessed twice: at intake and at the end of the intervention (after 6 months). Furthermore, 10 families and 11 children had a longer intervention and were assessed three times. Moreover, two focus groups involving 13 home‐care workers and 11 face‐to‐face interviews were used to collect practitioners' points of views on CWBS. The results generally support the idea that families' and children's situation improved over time, as shown by an improvement in almost all of the considered dimensions after 6 months and after 11 months. Specifically, the families improved more on household adequacy in the long term while children on the child performance dimension improved in the short term. Practitioners reported that CWBS was an aid to multi‐professional decision‐making, as the systematic evaluation of the subscales was a practical base upon which to activate shared decision‐making during the casework.     

Using Advertising Constructs and Methods to Understand Direct Mail Fundraising Appeals

This study examined whether we could use a Solicitation Response Model adapted from the consumer research literature to increase our understanding of nonprofit direct mail solicitations. We sent 389 surveys to people listed in the database of a homeless shelter. In response, 166 people rated an envelope and appeal from the shelter. The model successfully explained potential donors' intention to open the envelope and intention to donate. Emotional responses to the envelope and attitude toward the envelope were more important influences upon acquisition (or new) donors' intention to open the envelope than upon renewal donors' intention. Attitude toward the appeal had a stronger effect upon acquisition donors' intention to donate than it did upon renewal donors' intention. The study suggests differences in the way that appeals should be designed for acquisition and renewal donors. As well, we present a small sample method for diagnosing direct mail charitable solicitations.