Reconciling Work, Family and Child Outcomes: What Implications for Family Support Policies?

This paper discusses the potential of family policies to reconcile the multiple objectives that they are expected to serve, over and above their role in offsetting the economic cost of children. We start by emphasizing the need to consider the multiple challenges that family policies in European Union??and/or OECD??countries have to address through a broadening of the standard economic approach to the cost of children. Policies indeed aim to reduce the ??direct?? monetary cost of raising children, but they also aim to minimise the indirect cost arising from the incidence of children on the parents?? work-life balance and on the aggregate level of employment. Moreover, motives for policy intervention such as concerns about child development, gender equity or aggregate fertility levels are not fully captured by cost measurements. We thus analyse how, and to what extent, family policies can successfully reconcile these multidimensional objectives. We offer a holistic approach, pointing out that a coherent family policy mix supporting working parents with preschool children is the only way to reconcile or limit the conflicts between work, family and child outcomes. Three main dichotomies are identified to explain cross-country differences in family policy packages: the emphasis on poverty alleviation; the supposed antagonism between fertility and female employment; and the potential conflict between this latter and child development. Ways to reconcile these objectives and to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of family policies are further discussed.     

Computer experiment designs for accurate prediction

Computer experiments using deterministic simulators are sometimes used to replace or supplement physical system experiments. This paper compares designs for an initial computer simulator experiment based on empirical prediction accuracy; it recommends designs for producing accurate predictions. The basis for the majority of the designs compared is the integrated mean squared prediction error (IMSPE) that is computed assuming a Gaussian process model with a Gaussian correlation function. Designs that minimize the IMSPE with respect to a fixed set of correlation parameters as well as designs that minimize a weighted IMSPE over the correlation parameters are studied. These IMSPE-based designs are compared with three widely-used space-filling designs. The designs are used to predict test surfaces representing a range of stationary and non-stationary functions. For the test conditions examined in this paper, the designs constructed under IMSPE-based criteria are shown to outperform space-filling Latin hypercube designs and maximum projection designs when predicting smooth functions of stationary appearance, while space-filling and maximum projection designs are superior for test functions that exhibit strong non-stationarity.     

A Response to Susie Orbach: On Generation and Femininity

This article provides a response to the article by Susie Orbach proposing that a more intensively regulated framework of femininity is now directed to young women in the guise of freedoms won and choice exercised. Orbach is right to argue that among its various performances femininity has recently lost many of its subservient dimensions. However, this is replaced by a regime of cultural values associated with body image that both appropriates from feminism and disavows it as having any new place in young women's worlds.     

Racial Discrimination, Post Traumatic Stress, and Gambling Problems among Urban Aboriginal Adults in Canada

Little is known about risk factors for problem gambling (PG) within the rapidly growing urban Aboriginal population in North America. Racial discrimination may be an important risk factor for PG given documented associations between racism and other forms of addictive behaviour. This study examined associations between racial discrimination and problem gambling among urban Aboriginal adults, and the extent to which this link was mediated by post traumatic stress. Data were collected via in-person surveys with a community-based sample of Aboriginal adults living in a mid-sized city in western Canada (N = 381) in 2010. Results indicate more than 80 % of respondents experienced discrimination due to Aboriginal race in the past year, with the majority reporting high levels of racism in that time period. Past year racial discrimination was a risk factor for 12-month problem gambling, gambling to escape, and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in bootstrapped regression models adjusted for confounders and other forms of social trauma. Elevated PTSD symptoms among those experiencing high levels of racism partially explained the association between racism and the use of gambling to escape in statistical models. These findings are the first to suggest racial discrimination may be an important social determinant of problem gambling for Aboriginal peoples. Gambling may be a coping response that some Aboriginal adults use to escape the negative emotions associated with racist experiences. Results support the development of policies to reduce racism directed at Aboriginal peoples in urban areas, and enhanced services to help Aboriginal peoples cope with racist events.     

Anxiety and Depression: Implications for Older Adults

By the year 2030, it is projected that one in every three Americans will be 55-years-old or older. This age group is by far thefastest growing segment of the population. With the growing number of older adults, the importance of understanding aging and common disorders of laterlife is essential. In particular, anxiety anddepression are among the most common problems in older adults. However, differentiating anxiety and depression at the mood, symptom, and syndromal levels has been a long-standing problem in psychopathology research. In addition to a growing need for research, clinicians will also need to take an active role in the development and implementation of treatment as the population of older adults increases. In particular, mental health service providers must become informed about the economic implications for older adults as the structure of health insurance continues to change.     

Training Mental Health Professionals in Child Sexual Abuse: Curricular Guidelines

This study explored whether counseling practices with women survivors of child sexual abuse reflect the belief that women do not sexually abuse children. Canadian therapists (n?=?164) who work with women survivors of child sexual abuse were surveyed about their beliefs about what constitutes child sexual abuse, who commits child sexual abuse, and their practices regarding inquiries about abusive behavior. A majority self-reported that they ask women and think it is important to ask but most believe that clients will not spontaneously self-disclose inappropriate sexual thoughts or behaviors. How broadly or narrowly therapists defined child sexual abuse was not related to self-reported therapeutic discussion. Therapists demonstrated differential gender beliefs about child sexual abuse perpetration, but this did not relate to self-reported counseling practices. Implications for therapist education are discussed.     

Finding Primary Publics: A Test of the Third-Person Perception in Corporate Crisis Situations

Exaggerated projections of the 3rd-person effect of crisis news on target groups may play a key role in escalating corporate crises. A 2 (locus of control: internal vs. external) × 2 (product category of crisis: food vs. laptop) experiment found that the 3rd-person perception varies as a function of product category. Our results indicated that in a laptop product category crisis, participants perceived target audiences to be more influenced than themselves when locus of control was internal rather than when it was external. This study delved into the potential effect on target groups and the corporation resulting from possible exaggerated perceptions of the impact of the crisis on the target groups. This perception may prompt or even pressure target audiences to react more strongly in keeping with the perceived impact, not their actual concern with the crisis. In turn, corporations may respond to a target audience based on the reaction the target audience feels obligated to portray in response to perceived impact, not actual impact measured independently in various ways.     

Four contexts of institutional oppression: Examining the experiences of Blacks in education,criminal justice and child welfare

ABSTRACT

Institutions are key sites of oppression. Institutional oppression is defined as the mistreatment of people of a particular group that is enforced by society and its institutions. It is a system of invisible barriers that emerge from institutional laws, customs and practices, thus producing inequities for particular groups across race, gender and class. Woven together, the web of institutional oppression is vast, cumulative and multi-faceted, including both overt and covert discriminatory practices and behaviors. Based in a critical review of the literature, the authors of this article introduce and describe four characteristics of institutional oppression that specifically impact the lives of Black Americans. Furthermore, we provide a case vignette that illustrates these characteristics of oppression. The article concludes with recommendations on dismantling institutional oppression and highlights the roles that social workers can play in collaboration with educators and other professionals.     

Engaging Students in Social Work Research Education

This article discusses existing issues in social work research education. It includes challenges to delivering research education at the MSW level such as student anxiety and disinterest, and incorporates an exploration of post graduation interest in research. The authors recommend that professors increase the emphasis on practical applications of research and encourage students to disseminate research results via publication. The article concludes with the implications of encouraging student research within the social work profession.     

Polygynists and Their Wives in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Analysis of Five Demographic and Health Surveys

Differential polygyny in Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Uganda, and Zambia is investigated using individual-level Demographic and Health Surveys data. As well as contrasting polygynists' first wives with women in monogamous unions, the analysis distinguishes higher-order wives from first wives. This permits study of the determinants of the prevalence and intensity of polygyny respectively. Polygyny and other aspects of marriage interlock in very similar ways in all five countries. Individuals' experience of polygyny tends to reflect their luck in the marriage market rather than their socio-economic characteristics. While polygyny is less prevalent in urban areas, other socio-economic factors are important only in Kenya and Zambia, the two countries where less than 25 per cent of married women are in polygynous unions. The prevalence and intensity of polygyny are negatively associated. Thus, any drop in the prevalence of polygyny in Africa may be accompanied by a rise in the number of wives per polygynist.