Family Work in Oncology: Trusting the Narrative

The author describes her work with a dying patient, work that extends from the patient to his wife and adult offspring, and has transformative benefits for the family.     

Structure and Psychometric Properties of the Father Involvement Scale Used in a Retrospective Pretest–Posttest Design

Abstract

Several programs that address responsible fatherhood exist; however, these programs need strategic evaluation and appropriate tools to measure success of the programs. The goal of this research was to understand the structure and psychometric properties of a father involvement measure used to assess the change in parenting and co-parenting behaviors of fathers in a child welfare program. Analyses used secondary data from a father parenting program, with a retrospective pretest–posttest design. Participants were fathers (N?=?361) who attended a parenting program in three large counties in the North Texas region. Missing data diagnosis and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed on 13 items to investigate scale structure and psychometric properties. The following three factors with adequate to good internal consistency emerged: self-efficacy, parenting (emotional and physical support), and co-parenting skills. Fit indices showed good model fit for pretest items and a moderate fit for posttest items. The survey instrument demonstrates potential to be adapted to diverse populations, other languages and cultures to further expand program components. Based on the findings, future research should utilize more items to enhance the alpha reliability of the scales. Furthermore, revised scales can be validated across diverse populations based on socioeconomic, ethnicity, and cultural backgrounds.     

Descriptive tests for the identification of outliers in the errors in variables linear model

In this paper the most commonly used diagnostic criteria for the identification of outliers or leverage points in the ordinary regression model are reviewed. Their use in the context of the errors-in-variables (e.v.) linear model is discussed and evidence is given that under the e.v. model assumptions the distinction between outliers and leverage points no longer exists.     

The hidden payroll: Employee benefits and the structure of workplace inequality

Employee benefits contribute to the stratification of the labor force into occupational markets. Employee benefits and earnings form compensation packages available in different combinations and at different levels to occupations located in different labor markets. In this study I have merged and aggregated data from the Current Population Survey Pension Suppolement in 1979 at the detailed occupation level with data from the Fourth Edition of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles to examine the relative importance of workforce characteristics, occupational content, and labor market context in the provision of selected employee benefits both separately and in combinations with earnings. The analyses reveal that fringe benefits are structurally-determined factors that represent a dimension of the reward structure of occupations different from earnings, but they combine with earnings to stratify the workplace into occupational markets.     

The new EU industrial policy: authoritarian neoliberal structural adjustment and the case for alternatives

ABSTRACT

In 2017, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker declared the re-industrialization of the European Union (EU) a top priority. The new EU industrial policy seeks to boost industrial competitiveness and leverage investments into manufacturing, thereby increasing industry’s share of EU Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 20% by 2020. What may appear to be a Keynesian industrial policy and thus a move away from the EU’s previous neoliberal agenda, however, seeks to calibrate a further neoliberal structural adjustment in a highly authoritarian fashion. Internal devaluation through devaluing labour, intensifying competition and reducing corporate taxes takes centre-stage. As an auxiliary to the European Semester, national productivity boards have been established to monitor wage developments alongside labour productivity and to suggest policy adjustments when cost competitiveness lags behind the Eurozone average and that of the main trading partners. Not only have formal democratic institutions and organized labour been circumvented in the decision-making process regarding such boards, they will have little voice in the future, and this an area that hitherto fell largely within the scope of member states: wage bargaining. Hence, the new EU industrial policy needs to be discredited, de-legitimized and thus, politicized. A political counter-project, rooted in an alternative industrial policy geared towards fostering horizontal and democratic solidarity economy initiatives which have proliferated since 2008, is discussed in the article’s closing pages.     

Theorising visual framing: contingency,materiality and ideology

Visual framing is a popular paradigm for media research around the world but its conceptualisation remains vague and often neglects the richness of images. Just as with framing theory generally, its definition and operationalisation are matters of considerable debate. Visual framing’s many applications may be advantageous for their bridging properties but at the same time demand theoretical refinement. Based on a review of 165 scholarly publications from the humanities and social sciences, this essay first argues that media research tends to emphasise literal depictions more than visual conventions or production, falling short of its interrogative and critical potential. The essay then proposes a model of visual framing that attends more carefully to the contingency and materiality of images in order to strengthen the paradigm’s explanatory and critical value.     

“Too…To…“结构语法新解

中外语法学家对“Too…To…”结构做了大量研究。他们根据各自的理解对此结构进行了不同的语法解释。本文作者提供一种新的解释,将形容词分为四种:程度形容词、情感形容词、品质形容词和动态形容词,同时认为“Too”有两个意义:1.in a higher degree than is allowable,required,etc.2.very or extremely.第一意义的“too”只与程度形容词搭配使用,使这一结构中的不定式的意义变成否定。第二意义的“too”可与情感形容词、品质形容词或动态形容词搭配使用,这一结构中的不定式的意义为肯定意义。     

Till Debt do us Part: A Model of Divorce and Personal Bankruptcy

The number of personal bankruptcies has increased dramatically since 1990, and a growing number of filers are divorced. While previous research shows that divorce significantly increases the probability of bankruptcy, these studies assume divorce is exogenous. This study uses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to investigate the relationship between divorce and bankruptcy. Single-equation probit results show that divorce significantly increases the probability of bankruptcy and bankruptcy significantly increases the probability of divorce. However, after controlling for endogeneity, the effect of divorce on bankruptcy and the effect of bankruptcy on divorce both fall by a significant amount and are statistically insignificant. The findings suggest that future research needs to more carefully model the role that financial distress plays within a marriage.

Medical Problems Where Talk is the Problem: Current Trends in Conversation Analytic Research on Aphasia,Autism Spectrum Disorder,Intellectual Disability,and Alzheimer’s

While a large body of conversation analytic research focuses on talk in medical settings, a relatively small but important emerging body of research on that subset of medical problems which affect individuals’ ability to produce and comprehend language has been developing. This paper reviews such research on four such medical problems: aphasia, Autism Spectrum Disorder, intellectual disability, and forms of dementia such as Alzheimer’s. This research provides useful insight into the nature of symptoms and the actual communicative competence of the individuals affected, as well as improving our knowledge of the best ways to diagnose, assess, and treat these conditions.