Becoming a Narrator: A Case Study in the Dynamics of Learning Based on the Theories/Methods of Vygotsky

This article focuses on the learning that is enabled while a primary school child makes a story using multimodal software. This child is diagnosed with autism. The aim is to use a cultural-historical framework to carry out an in-depth analysis of a process of learning with action as a unit of analysis. The article is based on a collaborative research project in which assignments on narration concurrently served as experiments with cultural tools. The child's learning process in one assignment is analyzed sequentially, highlighting changes in the action, based on data from videotape. The child's decision to record audio was a turning point that expanded the formal learning and animated the idea of making the story in a desired multimodal format. The multifaceted quality and the dialectics revealed in the process are vital to achieve expansive action and learning. The combination of a generative narrative model and the multimodal affordances is crucial for actualizing the potential in the research approach to accomplish an analysis of the learner's changes in action. Thus, the study indicates the relevance of using a cultural-historical framework in research and practice that focuses on processes of learning and processes of becoming among diverse learners.     

Physical and mental health inequalities between native and immigrant Swedes

To study health inequalities between native and immigrant Swedes, we investigated differences in self‐rated health (SRH), mental wellbeing (MW), common symptoms (CS), and persistent illness (PI), and if socioeconomic status (SES), negative status inconsistency, or social support could account for such differences. A secondary analysis was conducted on questionnaire data from a random adult population sample of 4,023 individuals and register data from Statistics Sweden. χ² tests and binary logistic regressions were used to identify health differences and study these after accounting for explanatory variables. Compared with natives, immigrants more commonly reported negative status inconsistency, poorer SES, and poorer social support as well as poor SRH, very poor MW, and high level of CS but not PI. Significant differences were accounted for by work‐related factors and social support. We encourage future research to address how pre‐ and peri‐migration factors relate to immigrants’ post‐migration SES, social support, and health status.

Policy Implications

• Given the relationship between work‐related factors (employment status, hours worked per week, and income) and all health outcomes in this study, labour market interventions that facilitate the integration of immigrants into the labour market, and into occupations that better correspond with their capacity, will arguably have public health benefits.
• Feelings of loneliness was, in our study, important in accounting for immigrants’ poorer self‐rated health compared with natives’. Therefore, we endorse interventions that facilitate immigrants’ social networking and integration and thereby reduce feelings of loneliness.
• Common physical and mental symptoms may be important indicators of health and we, thus, suggest these to be taken into account when developing ill‐health prevention programmes.

     

Optimal Inference in Regression Models with Nearly Integrated Regressors

This paper considers the problem of conducting inference on the regression coefficient in a bivariate regression model with a highly persistent regressor. Gaussian asymptotic power envelopes are obtained for a class of testing procedures that satisfy a conditionality restriction. In addition, the paper proposes testing procedures that attain these power envelopes whether or not the innovations of the regression model are normally distributed.     

Nearly Efficient Likelihood Ratio Tests of the Unit Root Hypothesis

Seemingly absent from the arsenal of currently available “nearly efficient” testing procedures for the unit root hypothesis, that is, tests whose asymptotic local power functions are virtually indistinguishable from the Gaussian power envelope, is a test admitting a (quasi‐)likelihood ratio interpretation. We study the large sample properties of a quasi‐likelihood ratio unit root test based on a Gaussian likelihood and show that this test is nearly efficient.     

Resource Immobility and Sustained Performance: A Systematic Assessment of How Immobility Has Been Considered in Empirical Resource‐based Studies

The core notion of the resource‐based view (RBV) is that the possession of certain resources can result in superior performance and, in order for this performance to be sustained, these resources cannot be perfectly mobile. Whereas previous reviews have mainly focused on the relationship between resources and temporary performance, no studies have systematically analyzed the extent to which empirical RBV studies have specifically considered immobility of resources. By analyzing a sample of 218 empirical RBV studies, the authors found that 17% of the studies directly measured some dimension of immobility (by, for example, actually measuring the level of social complexity, unique history, tacitness or tradability). Fewer than 2% of the studies measured the outcome of resource immobility, i.e. sustained performance differences. Based on these results, this paper discusses the consequences of overlooking this key dimension of the RBV (i.e. immobility) and suggests that, and discusses how, future research should consider resource immobility to a greater extent.     

Instability and caregiving in the lives of street‐involved youth from foster care

A large proportion of youth who become street‐involved have experience in foster care, and our sample of 92 street‐involved youth, aged 14–18 years, all had foster care experience. We report on (i) instability of guardians and home from birth to street involvement; (ii) the connection between perceptions about foster care and measures of well‐being; and (iii) the implications of these findings for understanding street‐involved youth and the role of foster care in their life. The average number of transitions per youth from birth to mid‐teens was nine. Youth with experience in permanent care first lived away from biological parents at age 8.5 years, and for those with temporary care experience, it was age 10 years. Foster care was one of many living situations and one of several sources of caregivers. If participants were satisfied with foster care, they were more likely to be currently hopeful and happy. Participants who experienced positive influences from at least one long‐term caregiver tended to have other positive caregiver experiences, and those with negative influences were more likely to also have a positive relationship with a female caregiver. Foster care was one of several ‘way stations’ in their lives, one whose meaning needs further study.     

Prostitution Stigma and Its Effect on the Working Conditions,Personal Lives,and Health of Sex Workers

Researchers have shown that stigma is a fundamental determinant of behavior, well-being, and health for many marginalized groups, but sex workers are notably absent from their analyses. This article aims to fill the empirical research gap on sex workers by reviewing the mounting evidence of stigmatization attached to sex workers’ occupation, often referred to as “prostitution” or “whore” stigma. We give special attention to its negative effect on the working conditions, personal lives, and health of sex workers. The article first draws attention to the problem of terminology related to the subject area and makes the case for consideration of prostitution stigmatization as a fundamental cause of social inequality. We then examined the sources of prostitution stigma at macro, meso, and micro levels. The third section focuses on tactics sex workers employ to manage, reframe, or resist occupational stigma. We conclude with a call for more comparative studies of stigma related to sex work to contribute to the general stigma literature, as well as social policy and law reform.     

The Error in Rejection Probability of Simple Autocorrelation Robust Tests

A new class of autocorrelation robust test statistics is introduced. The class of tests generalizes the Kiefer, Vogelsang, and Bunzel (2000) test in a manner analogous to Anderson and Darling's (1952) generalization of the Cramér–von Mises goodness of fit test. In a Gaussian location model, the error in rejection probability of the new tests is found to be O(T^‐1logT), where T denotes the sample size.     

Common areas in group homes: arenas for different interests?

In Sweden, more than 5000 people with intellectual disabilities have moved from institutions into new types of integrated housing areas during the last decade. In order to safeguard the residents’ private lives, the role of the private sphere has been exaggerated and, subsequently, the importance of other more collective spheres has been underrated. This article examines the function, the use and the staffs’ ideas of common areas in various kinds of group accommodations in Sweden. The data consist of qualitative interviews with 34 individuals with intellectual disabilities, interviews with members of staff at the group homes and participant observations. The analysis focuses on the ways in which placement, architecture and decoration of the common areas as well as the staffs’ ideas and approaches influence the residents’ everyday lives. Three types of common areas were consequently identified: the restrictive, the familiar and the neutral room.