Intercountry Adoption Flows from Africa to the U.S.: A Fifth Wave of Intercountry Adoptions?

This article addresses whether there is the beginning of a fifth wave of intercountry adoptions (ICAs) from Africa to the United States (U.S.). ICAs function as a “quiet migration” of children [ Weil (1984) International Migration Review 18(2):276–293; Lovelock (2000) International Migration Review 34 (3):907–949; Selman (2002) Population Research and Policy Review 21:205–225]. U.S. Department of Justice Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) data from 1971 to 2009 indicate that there were 421,085 ICAs to the U.S. Tarmann (2003:2 , http://www.prb.org/Articles/2003/InternationalAdoptionRateinUSDoubledinthe1990s.aspx?p=1 ) reported that in 2000, U.S. parents completed one ICA for every 200 births. In the past, top sending countries have followed flows from Europe, South America, and Asia. INS data are used to analyze the increase in the intercountry adoptees from Africa from 1996 to 2009. Similar Hague Convention data are used for the comparison of the number of ICAs from Africa to other top recipient nations. Demographic and economic data are used to support the suggestion that ICAs, similar to other migratory flows, are from developing to developed countries.     

Slicing Up the Pie: Allocation of Central Government Funding of Care of Older People

The allocation of central government funds is a critical element in the equitable provision of local authority‐commissioned and ‐provided services. A variety of approaches to allocating funding for social services for older people have been used over the years, most recently founded on ‘needs‐based’ formulae. In 2004, the Department of Health for England commissioned research to help inform the improvement and updating of the formula. The results of individual‐level analyses were compared with the results obtained from analyses of small area (ward‐level) data on service users. Both analyses were affected by problems of data availability, particularly the individual‐level analysis, and the Department of Health and the (then) Office of the Deputy Prime Minister decided that the formula calculations should be based on the results of the small area analysis. However, despite the differences in approach, both methods produced very similar results. The correlation between the predicted relative needs weights for local authorities from the two models was 0.982. The article discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and developments that could allow a normative approach that would incorporate future policy objectives into formulae that, to date, have inevitably been based on historical data and service patterns.     

Lessons Learned From the First-Year Evaluation of a Small-Scale Home Visitation Program

ABSTRACT

Home visitation programs to prevent child maltreatment are offered in many communities. Agencies in these communities want to help families in need while under increased pressure to provide effective services. Funding is limited and competitive; some agencies might choose to limit funds spent on supervision, training, and evaluation as a way to provide more direct service. In this article, we use an implementation science framework and the results of an evaluation of a small home visitation program to underscore the importance of ongoing training and supervision, attention to fidelity, and program evaluation. The evaluation included 17 families entering the program during 21 months. Evaluators visited families in their homes at the beginning of the program and again 10 months later. Like many other well-intended, small-scale programs, this one “borrowed” from evidence-based models and expanded enrollment criteria in an attempt to better serve families. Findings from the evaluation suggest that the program, as it was carried out, was not effective at reducing parenting behaviors known to be associated with child maltreatment. We offer advice to funding and community agencies based on these findings and implementation science. Future evaluation research must pay greater attention to fidelity and implementation.     

Youth supervision while mothers work: a daily diary study of maternal worry

Using data from a daily diary study of hourly hotel employees in the US and their children, this study examined links between youth supervision arrangements and maternal worry while at work, examining both differences between individuals and day-to-day variation within individuals. Multilevel model analyses revealed both between- and within-person effects linking youth supervision to maternal worry. Mothers’ partner status functioned as moderator, and maternal knowledge also emerged as a protective factor when youth were in self-care, highlighting a potential target for future work–family interventions, particularly those for hourly employees with limited access to family-friendly workplace policies.     

Two Centuries of Mortality Change in Central Japan: The Evidence From a Temple Death Register

Temple registers in a remote area of central Japan are used to produce a portrait of mortality change over a period of nearly two centuries. This portrait is most remarkable in showing a near-stability in life expectancy at birth between 30 and 40 years until the middle of the twentieth century. This stability was to some extent a product of offsetting trends. Infant and child mortality declined sharply after 1885, coinciding with a major national effort to vaccinate against smallpox. At the same time, mortality was rising at ages 15–29 as industrialization brought increased exposure to tuberculosis. Both these trends are likely to have been shared throughout much of rural Japan.     

Change Management Choices and Trajectories in a Multidivisional Firm

This paper draws on a comparative case study of the implementation of a planned change initiative across three different divisions of a multidivisional oil company to investigate the influences guiding division‐level change agents in their choice of a change management approach and the impact of different approaches on change outcomes. While the contingency perspective suggests that change management approaches should be chosen to fit with change content and context, we found that change agents navigated amongst three concerns: substantive concerns related to goal attainment, political concerns related to conformity to corporate demands, and relational concerns concerning relations with employees. We identified three different change management trajectories across the three divisions based on alternative ways of balancing the concerns. The data show that, regardless of the change management approach adopted, change tends to be diluted in implementation. However, the various trajectories have differential consequences for other important dimensions such as corporate approval and relationships with employees.