The Dimensionality and Gender Differential Item Functioning of the Mini Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (MiniAQLQ)

The present study investigated the factorstructure and item analysis of the Mini AsthmaQuality of Life Questionnaire (MiniAQLQ) in asample of 258 community-dwelling asthmaticadults between the ages of 16 and 87 years. The mean age was 56 years for males (N = 99) and50 years for females (N = 159). This studycompared the fit of three factor solutionsusing a maximum likelihood confirmatory factoranalysis. Based on the fit indices, supportwas found for a hierarchical factor structurewith a second-order factor of quality of lifeand four first-order factors of symptoms,activity limitation, emotional function andenvironmental stimuli. Given that the data fitan essentially unidimensional model, genderdifferential item functioning (DIF) wasexplored using Zumbo's (1999) ordinal logisticregression method with corresponding logisticregression effect size estimators. Aftermatching males and females on the underlyingvariable of quality of life, gender DIF wasfound on the cigarette smoke and weather or air pollution items. Thesefindings indicate that gender influences how anindividual endorses these particular items onthe MiniAQLQ.     

Differences Between Men and Women in Social Relations, Resource Deficits, and Depressive Symptomatology During Later Life in Four Nations

This article examines gender differences in social relations and resource deficits in France ( N = 553), Germany ( N = 516), Japan ( N = 491), and the United States ( N = 514). These data, from regionally representative samples, indicate few gender differences in quantity or quality of social relations, but that women are more likely than men to experience widowhood, illness, and financial strain. In all countries, more deficits and more negative social interactions are associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. Interestingly, among women in France and Japan but not among men in any country, quality of social relations offsets the negative consequences of resource deficits. Findings suggest that quality of social relations may have important implications for helping people, particularly women, cope with resource deficits common in late life.     

Social Workers' Experiences of Fear

Correspondence to Dr Martin Smith, Emergency Duty Team, Katherine Knapp House, Stretton Close, Tylers Green, Bucks, HP10 8EW, UK. E-mail: msmith{at}buckscc.gov.uk Summary This paper argues that the impact of fear on social workersand social work practice is a relatively neglected topic thatdeserves attention. With this in mind a sample of 60 employeesof social services departments comprising home carers, rehabilitationofficers, receptionists, residential workers in children's homes,special hospital social workers and social workers working inNorthern Ireland were asked to talk of a time in their workwhen they had experienced fear. Eighty-two fears were reported.These comprised fear of being assaulted, fear of being killed,fear of losing control/being overwhelmed, and fear of disapprovaland rejection by seniors and managers. The social workers interviewedappreciated talking openly about their fears in a manner andcontext that was acceptable to them. It is recommended thatfurther work be undertaken to build upon this research so thatfear in the professional context becomes acknowledged as a realityand the need to share the experience becomes an accepted partof practice.     

Face-to-Face Contact Post Adoption: Views from the Triangles

The importance of ongoing contact for children with membersof their birth families is currently a matter of great concernto both practitioners and academics and there is ongoing debateabout the merits or otherwise of the different forms of postadoption contact. Research evidence remains largely inconclusiveand the Prime Minister in his review of adoption highlightedthe urgent need for more research evidence to assist professionalsin making decisions about adoption and contact. To date, muchof the research does not adequately differentiate between typesand frequency of contact, the conditions under which contactis arranged and members of birth families who are involved.Whilst the needs of the child should be at the forefront ofany decision about contact, it is also important to considerthe repercussions for others involved in contact arrangements.This paper reports the findings from a sample of eleven adoptivekinship networks. Adoptive parents, children and birth relativesfrom the same kinship networks who were sharing direct, face-to-facecontact were interviewed. We were able to explore the developmentof relationships between adults and the ways in which theirinteraction affected the experience of contact as reported tous by the children. By focusing on issues associated with theconvergence or divergence of attitudes, feelings and perceptionswe identify factors that facilitate or impede beneficial contactand contribute to its maintenance. Understanding similaritiesand differences between participants in the adoption triangleprovides important information for adults and children involvedin face-to-face contact and for those professionals attemptingto facilitate the openness process.     

Returning to Normality: Substance Users' Work Histories and Perceptions of Work During and After Recovery

Correspondence to Andreas Cebulla, National Centre for Social Research, 35 Northampton Square, London EC1V 0AX, UK. E-mail: a.cebulla{at}natcen.ac.uk Summary New service provisions designed to improve the employment prospectsof former substance users will enhance the roles and responsibilitiesof Drug Action Teams (DATs), Jobcentre Plus offices and otherproviders and co-ordinators of support services for substanceusers. This paper discusses the findings of a study of 30 currentand former drug and alcohol users, exploring past substanceuse histories and current employment aspirations. The researchinforms new policy initiatives designed to assist substanceusers’ entry or return to work. Differences in presentperceptions of work-readiness were observed, which reflectedusers’ perceptions of the nature of their addiction. Theattribution of blame for the substance dependency to either‘the drug’ or the individual’s psychologywas a critical influence on users’ work-readiness assessments.Work was perceived to benefit recovery from substance dependency.The evidence suggests that substance users’ return towork might be helped by their staged (re-) introduction to thelabour market as well as encouraging the primary labour marketto employ (more) recovering substance users. The research highlightedthe need for joint working between employment services and DATsto help substance users into work and to support their recovery.It also highlighted the need for mutual understanding and recognitionof each collaborator’s expertise.     

What is child protection? Historical and methodological issues in comparative research on lastensuojelu/child protection

This article addresses comparative research on what has come to be called, in (British) English, 'child protection' or, rather differently, in Finnish ' lastensuojelu '. In developing a cross-national research project on lastensuojelu /child protection practices in England and Finland, we found it necessary to go back a few steps, to address what might usually be considered as 'background issues'. This article discusses the welfare state traditions in both countries, especially with respect to families and children, in order to contextualise the focus of ongoing qualitative research on micro comparisons. When comparing the mundane practices of child protection and the ways problems and clienthoods are constructed, as in this study, historical, social, cultural and linguistic issues matter. Indeed, very basic concepts such as 'child protection' and 'child protection case' become problematic in the comparison.     

Inferring Labor Income Risk and Partial Insurance From Economic Choices

This paper uses the information contained in the joint dynamics of individuals' labor earnings and consumption‐choice decisions to quantify both the amount of income risk that individuals face and the extent to which they have access to informal insurance against this risk. We accomplish this task by using indirect inference to estimate a structural consumption–savings model, in which individuals both learn about the nature of their income process and partly insure shocks via informal mechanisms. In this framework, we estimate (i) the degree of partial insurance, (ii) the extent of systematic differences in income growth rates, (iii) the precision with which individuals know their own income growth rates when they begin their working lives, (iv) the persistence of typical labor income shocks, (v) the tightness of borrowing constraints, and (vi) the amount of measurement error in the data. In implementing indirect inference, we find that an auxiliary model that approximates the true structural equations of the model (which are not estimable) works very well, with negligible small sample bias. The main substantive findings are that income shocks are moderately persistent, systematic differences in income growth rates are large, individuals have substantial amounts of information about their income growth rates, and about one‐half of income shocks are smoothed via partial insurance. Putting these findings together, the amount of uninsurable lifetime income risk that individuals perceive is substantially smaller than what is typically assumed in calibrated macroeconomic models with incomplete markets.     

The Big Freak Out: Educator Fear in Response to the Presence of Transgender Elementary School Students

Increased visibility of transgender children requires elementary school professionals to take on issues of gender diversity, sex and sexuality, which are considered taboo in elementary school spaces. School professionals who have worked with transgender children were interviewed about their experience with these students, perceptions of their school's success in supporting them, and recommendations for information and resources needed by schools to provide support. Findings indicate that fear and anxiety are common educator responses to the presence of a transgender child and the disruption of the gender binary, and these emotions are limiting the possibilities for schools to affirm transgender identity.     

Conflicting or Compatible: Beliefs About Religion and Science Among Emerging Adults in the United States1

A wide‐held assumption is that increased religiousness is associated with stronger perceptions of a conflict between religion and science. This article examines this assumption using four distinct questions asked on the third wave of the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR). Results indicate a variety of viewpoints for constructing the relationship between science and religion, rather than a simple conflict‐compatibility continuum. Further, findings suggest that increased religiousness among emerging adults is associated with a stronger agreement in science and religion’s compatibility, rather than conflict. Incorporating New Age or non‐Western spiritual tradition and a strict adherence to fundamentalist Christian doctrine are associated with complex configurations of beliefs on the relationship between religion and science. Collectively, the findings among emerging adults contradict traditional assumptions about how religious experiences influence beliefs, suggesting that such social factors may influence beliefs and attitudes uniquely at different points in the lifecourse or across generations. More broadly, the findings speak to the ongoing debate about the extent to which differing social experiences may produce consistent or discordant sets of beliefs and values, and in turn how particular configurations may impact strategies of action across a range of life domains.