Bias, racism and evidence-based practice: The case for more focused development of the child welfare evidence base

In spite of continuing concerns about disproportionate representation of African Americans, American Indians, and selected other groups in foster care, development of the practice and policy evidence base has paid scant attention to incorporating the specific concerns of these communities in intervention research. The authors review the current foundation of evidence-based practice and identify gaps in the knowledge base with specific reference to race/ethnicity/culture and class. They recognize the current concerns regarding disproportionality in child welfare services; and summarize the current research on bias and racism to establish potential mechanisms contributing to racially disproportionate outcomes. Addressing these literatures in concert with one another gives new meaning to the phrase, culturally competent evidence-based practice. Culturally competent practice goes beyond admonishing practitioners and policy makers to be more sensitive or to undertake such training. It is a pathway to the development of a more targeted and relevant evidence base: 1) rigorous intervention research with diverse populations could be more intentionally developed and 2) existing rigorous research on successfully addressing bias could be more broadly applied and tested in child welfare. A model for evaluating the validity of the evidence base with respect to diverse populations is proposed.     

Migrant Rights: International Law and National Action

Migrant rights were put squarely on the agenda of the Global Forum on Migration and Development when it met in Manila in 2008, as the principal theme of the governmental and civil society discussions. The Forum proceeded with the assumption that migrant rights are a development issue, as well as a fundamental human rights issue. This article begins with a review of the normative framework for protecting migrant rights. While norms by themselves will not prevent abuses, they can serve as a basis for advocating implementation of policies and programs to achieve these goals. We argue that there is ample international law setting out the basic rights of migrants even though the principal migrant‐centric instruments are not widely ratified. Failures in protecting migrant rights arise from the lack of implementation of these standards at the national level. The article then discusses a range of programs, mostly implemented by or in destination countries, which hold potential for overcoming barriers to the protection of the rights of migrants. These practical steps can be found in a wide array of countries, most of which have not become party to the Migrant Workers Convention. The article concludes that these initiatives have been implemented in an ad hoc manner, necessitating a more systematic approach at the national level to the protection of migrant rights.     

Untangling Inequalities: Gender,Race, and Socioeconomic Differences in Depression1

In their important paper, Link and Phelan (1995) argue that socioeconomic status is a fundamental cause of variation in well‐being and that the social resources associated with socioeconomic status constitute the fundamental cause of variation in well‐being. In this article, I elaborate on the fundamental cause perspective in three respects: by suggesting an expansion of the definition of resources, by examining how race and gender influence variation in the relationship between resources and mental health, and by developing a model of the relationship between social class, race, and gender that takes account of the potential asymmetry in the influence of resources across race and gender. Using the 2003 National Health Interview Survey and ordinary least squares regression, I find that black and white men are significantly less depressed than black and white women. However, women accrue greater mental health advantage from marriage, home ownership, and education. African‐American men experience less depression as a result of being unmarried and non‐Hispanic white women experience less benefit from full‐time employment, relative to African‐American women and men. Results are discussed in terms of implications for future research on race, class, and gender differences in health.     

Participative Budgeting and Managerial Performance*

Recent analytical and empirical research in budgeting has focused on conditions under which participation may or may not prove beneficial to the firm. The present study seeks to examine (in a budget setting) the impact on firm returns of managerial participation, private state information, and relative skill. Experimental results indicate a significant improvement in firm and managerial welfare across favorable and unfavorable private state information with budgetary participation. A significant interaction between the type of state information and participation is reported for managers but not firm returns. Finally, relative skill signals are shown to lead to improved managerial performance.     

Parental mental health as a child protection issue: data from the NSPCC national child protection helpline

Analysis of a sample of 2084 child abuse referrals to the NSPCC Child Protection Helpline showed that in 10% a parent or carer was reported as having a mental health problem. Mothers were the parent affected in the majority of these cases. The mental health sample differed from the other referrals in an increased concern about emotional abuse and less about sexual abuse; greater levels of violence and discord between parents; and more agency involvement. Issues of potential labelling and therapeutic needs are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Group Support Systems,Power, and Influence in an Organization: A Field Study

Emerging group technologies are attracting attention from researchers and practitioners for the benefits they potentially offer in terms of communications, productivity, and decision-making capabilities within an organization. To date, research in this area has focused on process or outcome variables, substantively ignoring organizational context issues. This paper reports on a field study that investigated users' perceptions of the impact of group support systems on power and influence within the organization. The study was conducted within a division of a major U.S. software company specializing in the development of business software tools for desktop PCs. Fifteen purposively selected managers and nonmanagers, spanning diverse functional areas, were extensively interviewed for this study. Evidence gathered suggested that group support systems are perceived to exert an equalizing force on power and influence by (1) increasing participation in the decision-making process, (2) improving access to information, (3) improving access to persons, (4) reducing the “power distance” to key individuals, and (5) providing increased opportunities to influence the opinions of others. These results provide a basis for future studies that will attempt to clarify the relationships between organizational context and group technology usage.     

From symptom recognition to services: how South Asian Muslim immigrant families navigate autism

This study examined the experiences of three South Asian Muslim immigrant families who have a young child with autism. It describes the early period of their child’s disability as the families encountered four critical issues in their lives: a complex disability, the culturally diverse conceptualizations of the disability, family‐professional dynamics in cross‐cultural encounters and the search for appropriate services. Analyses were based on interviews with parents, supplemented by 17 months of participant‐observation in homes and community. Parents narrated their experiences beginning with symptom recognition through help seeking, diagnosis and subsequent service provision. Results suggest that for these families the challenging process of diagnosing and ameliorating autism is complicated by their unique positioning within and between diverse meaning systems. Challenges include American health and education professionals’ misunderstandings of their family organization and linguistic practices, and difficulties in cross‐cultural communication with professionals. Implications for professionals are discussed.     

The Cry Wolf Effect and Weather‐Related Decision Making

Despite improvements in forecasting extreme weather events, noncompliance with weather warnings among the public remains a problem. Although there are likely many reasons for noncompliance with weather warnings, one important factor might be people's past experiences with false alarms. The research presented here explores the role of false alarms in weather‐related decision making. Over a series of trials, participants used an overnight low temperature forecast and advice from a decision aid to decide whether to apply salt treatment to a town's roads to prevent icy conditions or take the risk of withholding treatment, which resulted in a large penalty when freezing temperatures occurred. The decision aid gave treatment recommendations, some of which were false alarms, i.e., treatment was recommended but observed temperatures were above freezing. The rate at which the advice resulted in false alarms was manipulated between groups. Results suggest that very high and very low false alarm rates led to inferior decision making, but that lowering the false alarm rate slightly did not significantly affect compliance or decision quality. However, adding a probabilistic uncertainty estimate in the forecasts improved both compliance and decision quality. These findings carry implications about how weather warnings should be communicated to the public.