Issues in the development of a computer-based safety programme for children with severe learning difficulties

In the last decade, professional interest in and awareness of the sexual abuse of children has increased dramatically and has led to the development of safety programmes which aim to teach children a range of personal safety skills (Tutty, 1992). These efforts have previously concentrated on children in mainstream schools, but there is growing recognition of the need for parallel concern for children in vulnerable groups such as those with learning difficulties. The present paper outlines the development of a personal safety prevention programme for children with severe learning difficulties. The programme has incorporated work by Tutty (1992, 1994) and others who argue for a more developmental view in designing such programmes. Concepts such as the child's understanding about authority figures and moral development have been integrated into the programme, which utilizes multi-media technology. As this is a computer-based programme, the reason for such a medium rather than previously implemented presentation (e.g. books, film) are discussed. Views of the participants evaluating the implementation of the teaching package are also described. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Implementing the Power to Kids programme in home-based (foster) care: Identifying the SAFETY approach

Sexual abuse and dating violence are chronic problems for children and young people in out-of-home care. This study explored the impact of a prevention and response programme Power to Kids, which targets harmful sexual behaviour (HSB), child sexual exploitation (CSE) and dating violence (DV) for children and young people in home-based (foster) care. Twenty-eight case managers, 25 foster carers and 13 children and young people participated in a mixed methods study in Victoria, Australia informed by the research question: How does the Power to Kids programme impact the sexual health and safety of children and young people in home-based (foster) care? The data analysis revealed a SAFETY approach whereby the sexual health and safety knowledge of carers and case managers was enhanced, and carers were given permission to have Brave Conversations with children and young people, who could then apply the new knowledge to their lives. Case managers were upskilled in identifying indicators of sexual abuse and empowered to escalate stalled therapeutic and disruption practice when children and young people were identified as experiencing HSB, CSE or DV.     

Depression, anxiety, and religious life: a search for mediators

We examine several potential mechanisms linking religious involvement to depressive symptoms, major depression, and anxiety. Logistic and OLS regression estimations test five sets of potential psychosocial religion mediators: perceived attitudes toward and motivations for attendance; positive and negative religious coping; religious attitudes, beliefs, and spirituality; congregational support and criticism; and interpersonal and self-forgiveness. Compared to attending services less than once a month or never, attending services once a week but no more is associated with fewer depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms. Hypothesized mediators, including meaning, interpersonal and self-forgiveness, congregational criticism, social attendance beliefs, and negative coping are independently associated with one or more mental health outcomes.     

Reviews

Raising Parents: Attachment, Parenting and Child Safety: Patricia McKinsey‐Crittenden The Child's Voice in Family Therapy: A Systemic Perspective: Gammer, Carole, WW Norton & Company Inc.     

Masking methods that preserve positivity constraints in microdata

Statistical agencies have conflicting obligations to protect confidential information provided by respondents to surveys or censuses and to make data available for research and planning activities. When the microdata themselves are to be released, in order to achieve these conflicting objectives, statistical agencies apply statistical disclosure limitation (SDL) methods to the data, such as noise addition, swapping or microaggregation. Some of these methods do not preserve important structure and constraints in the data, such as positivity of some attributes or inequality constraints between attributes. Failure to preserve constraints is not only problematic in terms of data utility, but also may increase disclosure risk.In this paper, we describe a method for SDL that preserves both positivity of attributes and the mean vector and covariance matrix of the original data. The basis of the method is to apply multiplicative noise with the proper, data-dependent covariance structure.     

Care management in practice: on the use of talk and text in gerontological social work

Cedersund E, Olaison A. Care management in practice: on the use of talk and text in gerontological social work Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 339–347 © 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Journal of Social Welfare. This is a study of encounters between social workers and citizens in one type of welfare organisation, the municipal elder care system. The article sheds light on how older people's claims are dealt with in the processing of home care applications. Twenty encounters between social workers and older people were studied using discourse analysis. The findings reveal that discursive practices are part of the routine when the applications are processed. The application handling follows an agenda‐bound pattern that is visible in the encounters. In these standardised procedures, oral discourse is embedded in routines that also include the use of texts. However, within this institutional order, there is also an important element of negotiation between the parties. It is therefore claimed that the encounters include a negotiated order that does not exist on its own, but is achieved in the ongoing interaction.     

Creating Connections,Building Community: The Role of Oral History Collections in Documenting and Sharing Campus Diversity

Abstract

The collection and sharing of oral history is a growing area that libraries and archives are using to connect with their communities and document campus diversity. This column discusses opportunities for libraries and archives to include diverse and underrepresented voices in the historical record, highlighting the Wolf Tales project from the North Carolina State University Libraries, which was the topic of a talk by Virginia Ferris at the 2018 North Carolina Serials Conference. This column discusses that presentation and briefly examines oral history projects at several other institutions, providing perspective on the efforts to use oral histories to document campus and community diversity in the profession. Further resources for institutions interested in pursuing or growing oral history programs are also provided.     

A bivariate distribution with Lomax and geometric margins

We develop a stochastic model describing the joint distribution of $(X,N)$, where $N$ has a geometric distribution while $X$ is the sum of $N$ dependent, heavy-tail Pareto components. Models of this form arise in many applications, ranging from hydro-climatology to finance and insurance. We present fundamental properties of this vector, including marginal and conditional distributions, moments, representations, and parameter estimation. We also include an example from finance, illustrating modeling potential of this new bivariate distribution.     

Dopamine and risk choices in different domains: Findings among serious tournament bridge players

We explore how risk-taking in the card game contract bridge, and in a financial gamble, correlate with variation in the dopamine receptor D4 gene (DRD4) among serious tournament bridge players. In bridge risk-taking, we find significant interactions between genetic predisposition and skill. Among men with the 7-repeat allele of DRD4, namely 7R + men, those with more bridge skill take more good risks and fewer bad risks, while the opposite is found for less-expert 7R + men. Conversely, skill does not predict risk-taking among men without the 7R + allele. Consistent with some prior studies, we also find that 7R + men take more risk in the financial gamble. We find no relationship between 7R + and either risk measure among our female subjects. Our results suggest that the dopamine system plays an important role in individual differences in risk-taking among men, and is the first to distinguish between advantageous and disadvantageous risk-taking.     

Positive and negative impacts of job loss on family life: the perceptions of Australian car workers

This article contributes to research on the impact of job loss on families. It is based on survey responses from 371 workers and in‐depth interviews with 39 of them about the family impacts of their job loss from the Mitsubishi car factory in Adelaide in 2004–2005. A majority of workers said family life had been affected by their job loss. Quantitative analysis identified four variables significantly associated with family impacts: marital status, children living at home, employment status and financial management. Qualitative responses showed the predominantly negative impacts were financial strain, loss of relationship stability and general stress and worry, although few faced catastrophic impacts from their job loss. However, in contrast to most previous research, the in‐depth interviews also revealed positive impacts from job loss, such as having more time at home and to spend with their family. We conclude that the existence of ongoing income support and public health insurance in Australia were important in avoiding catastrophic financial impacts on these workers and their families.