Resident Perspectives on Life in a Transitional Living Program for Homeless Young Adults

Safe and affordable housing is critical for any young person’s well-being, and yet many youth are without a reliable place to live. Knowledge of the perceptions of housing programs and shelter among homeless young adults ages 18–24 is very limited. Using qualitative methodology, the present study explores the perceptions of homeless young adults on their experiences as residents of a transitional living program (TLP) by asking the following research questions: (1) What are TLP residents’ expectations of themselves and others in the program? and (2) How do residents perceive the rules and structure of the TLP? Sixteen interviews were conducted with residents at a TLP for homeless young adults, with participants ranging in age from 18 to 22. Findings illuminated residents’ strong emphasis on the values of hard work, self-discipline and a good attitude. Results revealed that residents felt that they are overly monitored within the program, particularly around daily living in the residence and felt a lack of flexibility in the rules and regulations. It is important that the structure of a TLP housing program so that rules are not disruptive to healthy development and successful transition from adolescence to adulthood. Further implications for practice are discussed.     

Envisioning emerging nanotechnologies: a three-year panel study of South Carolina citizens

This article reports results from a three-year panel study of a nonrandom sample of 76 South Carolina citizens, recruited from a variety of walks of life, and their impressions of emerging nanotechnology. This discussion focuses on material from depth interviews conducted alongside a baseline opinion and awareness inventory at the beginning of the study, the most intensive data-gathering phase. These results are placed in the context of data from three additional surveys conducted at about equal intervals over the three years, plus exit interviews from 21 of the 34 individuals who completed the entire study. The results give insight into popular thinking about technology but little indication of strong emerging concerns, a trajectory of amplification of those concerns, or opinion polarization over time, despite some awareness of risks and potential ethical dimensions. Nanotechnology may stand out more as an example of risk attenuation than of risk amplification, consistent with most results from national surveys.     

Improving the Well-Being and Safety of Children with Sensors and Mobile Technology

The well-being and safety of children and young people are important aspects in all contexts of everyday life. In particular, a feeling of insecurity might be a problem when being alone. Bullying is also common among school-age children and teenagers. Hence, there is a great need for personalized support systems to resolve these problems. This article describes a new area of research in sensor and social web development to help indicate children’s insecurity in their daily environment. Deeper integration of sensors and the social web would allow us to foresee drastic changes in communities and new social–ethical scenarios will emerge.     

Multilevel analysis in social research: An application of a cross-classified model

The multilevel approach can be a fruitful methodological framework in which to formulate the micro-macro relationships existing between individuals and their contexts. Usually, place of residence is taken as proxy for context. But individuals can be classified at the same level in more than one way. For example, not only may place of residence be relevant, but birthplace, household or working relations may also be taken into account. Contextual effects can be better identified if multiple classifications are simultaneously considered. in this sense, data do not have a purely hierarchical structure but a cross-classified one, and become very important to establish whether the resulting structure affects the covariance structure of data. In this paper, some critical issues arising from application of multilevel modelling are discussed, and multilevel cross-classified models are proposed as more flexible tools to study contextual effects. A multilevel cross-classified model is specified to evaluate simultaneously the effects of women's place of birth and women's current place of residence on the choice of bearing a second child by Italian women in the mid-1990s.     

The use of different data sources in the analysis of co-authorship networks and scientific performance

Scientific collaboration is usually derived from archival co-authorship data. Several data sources may be examined, but they all have advantages and disadvantages, especially when a specific discipline or community is of interest. The aim of this paper is to explore the effect of the use of three data sources – Web of Science, Current Index to Statistics and nationally funded research projects – on the analysis of co-authorship networks among Italian academic statisticians. Results provide evidence of our hypotheses on distinct collaboration patterns among statisticians, as well as distinct effects of scientist network positions on scientific performance, by both Statistics subfield and data source.     

Bayesian Spatial Analysis for the Evaluation of Breast Cancer Detection Methods

This study investigated the impact of spatial location on the effectiveness of population‐based breast screening in reducing breast cancer mortality compared to other detection methods among Queensland women. The analysis was based on linked population‐based datasets from BreastScreen Queensland and the Queensland Cancer Registry for the period of 1997–2008 for women aged less than 90 years at diagnosis. A Bayesian hierarchical regression modelling approach was adopted and posterior estimation was performed using Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques. This approach accommodated sparse data resulting from rare outcomes in small geographic areas, while allowing for spatial correlation and demographic influences to be included. A relative survival model was chosen to evaluate the relative excess risk for each breast cancer related factor. Several models were fitted to examine the influence of demographic information, cancer stage, geographic information and detection method on women's relative survival. Overall, the study demonstrated that including the detection method and geographic information when assessing the relative survival of breast cancer patients helped capture unexplained and spatial variability. The study also found evidence of better survival among women with breast cancer diagnosed in a screening program than those detected otherwise, as well as lower risk for those residing in a more urban or socio‐economically advantaged region, even after adjusting for tumour stage, environmental factors and demographics. However, no evidence of dependency between method of detection and geographic location was found. This project provides a sophisticated approach to examining the benefit of a screening program while considering the influence of geographic factors.     

A Permutation Approach to Split-Plot Experiments

Split-plot design may be refer to a common experimental setting where a particular type of restricted randomization has occurred during a planned experiment. The aim of this article is to suggest a new method to perform inference on split-plot experiments by combination-based permutation tests. This novel nonparametric approach has been studied and validated using a Monte Carlo simulation study where we compared it with the parametric and nonparametric procedures proposed in the literature. Results suggest that in each experimental situation where normality is hard to justify and especially when errors have heavy-tailed distribution, the proposed nonparametric procedure can be considered as a valid solution.     

Introducing Technology in Child Welfare Referrals: A Case Study

Access to social services is important for the safety of children and ultimately for reunification of families involved in the child welfare system. The process of linking families to services, however, varies by caseworker and can be cumbersome and time consuming. The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) Needs Portal is an Internet-based intervention to improve the timing and quality of social service referrals in Los Angeles County We used a case study approach including in-depth interviews, direct observations, and user feedback obtained from the Needs Portal to (a) determine perceived benefits and barriers to adopting the Needs Portal, and (b) report how the flow of information between users and developers was used to adapt to user needs. Our analyses revealed four major barriers: (a) caseworker apprehension regarding new technology, (b) variation in communication styles by user type, (c) lack of technological infrastructure, and (d) competing workplace demands. Information sharing between developers and users has the potential to better meet the needs of users and ultimately maximize utilization of new technology. Although Internet-based interventions are designed to inexpensively and effectively coordinate services, emerging interventions may require in-person assistance and modifications in order to succeed.     

Chorus for Community Integration and Recovery for Men with Psychiatric Disabilities in a Supportive Housing Community

This study reports the findings from a mixed-methods evaluation of the effectiveness of a choral program for 34 homeless men with substance abuse and mental illnesses. The evaluation focused on the chorus experience as one way to promote community integration and recovery. Fifteen residents (44.1%) were chorus members (CMs), and their responses were compared with those of 19 nonmembers (NCMs). When examining the quantitative data only, significant differences were not found between CMs and NCMs. However, narrative data and participant observation revealed that the choral program may have helped CMs improve their subjective experience of community integration by enhancing psychosocial components.     

The relationship between longevity and lifespan variation

Statistical Methods & Applications - This paper contributes to the current discussion on longevity by investigating the long-term dynamics of life expectancy, and lifespan variation. The...