Giving Back and Staying Put: Volunteering as a Stabilizing Force in Relocation

Relocation in older adulthood has been shown to have health-related and environmental triggering factors. This study explores the relationship between volunteering in a community and relocation. Using data from the 2008 and 2010 Health and Retirement Study, which included 9,220 community-dwelling older individuals who were aged 65 years and older, our findings show that volunteering significantly reduces the likelihood of relocating out of the area, and such a relationship is partially mediated by having friends nearby. This study is innovative because it identifies a stabilizing mechanism important for understanding protective factors, such as volunteering, as a way communities can retain older adults.     

Parenting Discrepancy and Child Development in Chinese Context

Although parent–child discrepant perception of the family has been increasingly noted in the west, pertinent research is limited in Chinese societies. In addition, prior pertinent studies predominantly treated parent–child discrepant effects as independent of the general and aggregate family context, which are in fact inseparable. Furthermore, these studies tended to either look at the positive side of child outcomes or those negative ones. The present study, based on a community sample of 223 Chinese parent–child dyads, attempted to examine effects of parent–child discrepancy in effective parenting practices on both children’s positive, i.e. self-control and other perspective taking behavior, and negative outcomes, i.e. internalizing and externalizing problems, directly or indirectly through the mediator of children’s self-concept at the aggregate effective parenting context. Results largely support harmful effects of parent–child discrepancy in effective parenting on the child outcomes directly or indirectly through children’s self-concept. Besides, aggregate effective parenting practices are found to robustly contribute to the child outcomes directly and indirectly through children’s self-concept, even taking parent–child discrepant effects into account. What’s more important, the former is significantly moderated by the latter for its effects on the child outcomes, explicating the conditional nature of parent–child discrepant effects on child development. Contributions and implications of the current study applied in Chinese culture as well as future study directions are also discussed.     

Mobile Phone Usage Preferences: The Contributing Factors of Personality,Social Anxiety and Loneliness

Psychological factors and social relationships are important components that influence an individual’s communication style. This paper aims to examine the association of personality factors, social anxiety (SA) and loneliness with mobile phone (MP) usage preferences on the basis of voice calling and text messaging. Malaysian MP users (N = 187) completed four questionnaires (Mobile Phone Usage Questionnaire, Big Five Inventory, Interaction Anxiousness Scale and UCLA Loneliness Scale) on paper or online via a web-link. Multiple regression analyses revealed that personality, SA and loneliness broadly predicted preferences for voice calling or text messaging. Further analyses examining the predictability of time spent on voice calls/text messaging and number of people called/exchanged text messages also revealed some significant findings in regards to the openness-to-experience personality dimension, loneliness and SA. The findings of this research have important implications to tailoring the delivery of psychological services to individuals diagnosed with chronic loneliness and SA.     

Challenges of Appraising Intangible Outcomes with Unclear Objectives: Performance Management Issues in Local Government in Ontario

This article discusses the challenges of performance management on social assistance program. These challenges include measuring intangible outcome against unclear organizational objectives, de-coupling of performance management and performance enhancement, stressing on administrative accountability over out-come oriented culture. Then, strategies are suggested to handle these challenges in order to shift the performance management system from merely an auditing mechanism to an engine of change.     

Vestiges of the medical model: a critical exploration of the Ontario Disability Support Program in Ontario,Canada

Although ample literature exists on workfare in Ontario, Canada, research on the social assistance programme for disabled people, the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), is relatively scant. What we do know points to similar shortcomings. We present a critical disability study considering four policy domains to explore how disabled people are identified and accommodated in Ontario. Discussing the principles of universal design, we argue for policy design that meets the needs of as many individuals as possible, while accounting for significant human variability. We conclude that the ODSP, in failing to adopt a rights-based framework, violates the dignity and rights of disabled people.     

Internalized Homonegativity,Confucianism, and Self-Esteem at the Emergence of an LGBTQ Identity in Modern Vietnam

We examine the relationships between internalized homonegativity, Confucianism, and self-esteem among LGBTQ adults who grew up during the Open Door Policy, or ??i M?i, in Vietnam. Participants were identified via activist networks and social media groups. They completed online survey focused on internalized homo/transphobia, self-esteem, and Confucian values. The study revealed that more exposure to Confucian values in early life is related to higher levels of internalized homonegativity. Male-born participants also had a higher level of internalized homonegativity than female-born participants. In general, lower levels of self-esteem were also related to higher levels of internalized homonegativity. We discuss the implications of these findings in light of conflicting values between Confucianism and the economic and social transformation that has occurred under ??i M?i.     

My Assistant and I: disabled children's and adolescents' roles and relationships to their assistants

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to describe how children and adolescents with restricted mobility perceive their assistant with a focus on their roles and relationships with one another. The group investigated consisted of 13 children and adolescents with restricted mobility from northern Sweden, aged from 8 to 19 years. The analysis resulted in five categories: 1, the replaceable assistant; 2, the assistant as mother/father; 3, the professional assistant; 4, the assistant as a friend; and finally 5, my ideal assistant. In each category the child/adolescent was seen in relation to the assistant, i.e. the main story 'My assistant and I' from different perspectives. The findings showed that relation towards/from the assistant were both mutual and non-mutual, and that there were relations that by the children/adolescents were perceived as ambivalent and unequal. The findings are discussed on the basis of the significance of these roles and relations in the children and adolescents' development.     

Informational interventions on paternal outcomes during the perinatal period: A systematic review

Problem

The perinatal period is a stressful transition for new parents.

In memoriam Julius Morel (17. 12. 1927–30. 9. 2003)

Ohne Zusammenfassung