Children and Parents Deserve Better Parental Discipline Research: Critiquing the Evidence for Exclusively “Positive” Parenting

This article critiques the scientific evidence for the emerging view in nonclinical parenting research and in popular books that parents should use only positive methods of parenting and rarely resort to any disciplinary consequences. Four methodological fallacies pervade research used to support this viewpoint: the correlational fallacy (inferring causation from correlations), the trumping fallacy (permitting correlational conclusions to trump stronger causal evidence), the extrapolation fallacy (extrapolating favorable comparisons of under-usage versus over-usage to zero usage), and the lumping fallacy (lumping inappropriate and appropriate usages together). Conclusions based on any of these methodological fallacies are premature at best and counterproductive at worst. These fallacies would incorrectly make many medical procedures appear to be harmful, such as radiation treatment. Premature conclusions supporting exclusively positive parenting may partially explain the immigrant paradox in the United States and escalating criminal assaults against minors according to Swedish criminal records (where positive parenting is most prominently advocated). Exclusively positive parenting needs to be supported by stronger research, including randomized trials with oppositional defiant children, before being accepted as definitive. We also need research to understand how the parental management skills featured in effective clinical treatments for young oppositional defiant children generalize to parenting in nonclinical families.     

Women’s views about the timing of birth

Background

Estimated date of birth (EDB) is used to guide the care provided to women during pregnancy and birth, although its imprecision is recognised. Alternatives to the EDB have been suggested for use with women however their attitudes to timing of birth information have not been examined.

Are Area-Level Measures of Employment Associated with Health Behaviours and Outcomes?

Accessible employment suited to residents’ needs is an important equity issue and social determinant of health and wellbeing, and a balanced jobs-housing ratio within a region has the potential to provide health benefits. This paper aims to provide evidence on the associations between employment and health, and the potential pathways, as well as identifying spatial indicators that can be used to measure urban employment, a construct of liveability. We used 2011 census data to create and test two area-level spatial measures of urban employment with geo-coded population health behaviour and outcome data (2011 VicHealth survey) in 5206 employed adults living in urban Victoria, Australia. Those living in areas with higher levels of local employment had reduced odds of a longer commute (OR 0.87). The odds of a longer commute time was also greater for those who lived in an area where more people commuted to work by private vehicle (OR 1.20), and less for those who lived in local areas where more people travelled to work by public transport (OR 0.85) or active travel (OR 0.80). The odds of reporting longer sitting times was less for those who lived in a local area where more people commuted to work by private vehicle (OR 0.65). Those who had a longer commute times, regardless of travel mode, had greater odds of reporting more sitting during a typical weekday (OR 1.67). In turn, those who spent more time sitting had significantly greater odds of reporting poorer self-rated health (OR 1.34). Such work provides evidence to policy-makers to help build the argument for which area-level attributes are needed to support urban employment across a region.     

Applications of the Capability Approach in the Health Field: A Literature Review

The scientific understanding of the causes of global warming is based on a vast body of rigorous, peer-reviewed research, but there is little systematic empirical evidence on consequences for humans. Using direct questions about satisfaction with winter and with summer weather, I show that warming’s effects on subjective well-being can be reliably estimated from cross-sectional survey data across a broad temperature spectrum and, moreover, that these effects are large. Combining a US national survey (N = 2295) and standard National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data on actual month-by-month temperatures at each location over many years, shows that changes to be expected from the widely discussed, allegedly “dangerous”, 2 °C of global warming are both familiar and small, equivalent to moving from Wisconsin to Michigan, or Virginia to North Carolina, or more generally 180 miles south. Such warming will greatly increase Americans’ satisfaction with winter weather, especially in the north, but somewhat decrease satisfaction with summer weather in both north and south. On balance, the nation benefits slightly. Regional differences are large, with northerners’ gains roughly equivalent to a 1–2 % increase in their GDP, while southerners losses are about the same size. These changes are important, about as large as the combined financial implications of all other aspects of global warming. They have important policy implications, suggesting that prompt action to reduce carbon emissions may not be optimal because that would restrict warming both in the summer and in the south (gains) but also in the winter and in the north (losses).     

Assessing the value of family safety networks in child protective services: Early findings from Minnesota

The considerable number of families served continues to place systemic challenges on the child welfare system. Jurisdictions are turning to new strategies to increase family engagement in services and to leverage taxed or limited resources. Signs of Safety® is a strengths‐based and safety‐focused approach to child protection work that is grounded in partnership and collaboration. This exploratory pilot study with a referred participant sample used interviews with 26 parents and 32 safety network members to explore respondents' perceptions and use of a safety plan and safety network, core components of the Signs of Safety framework. Findings from this pilot investigation include insights about how safety plans and safety networks are established, how they function, and opportunities for enhancing their use with families with the goal of providing supports that increase the likelihood of continued safety for children after case closure. Preliminary results also suggest these tools may contribute to reduced re‐reports to child protection.     

Person‐centredness in the community care of older people: A literature‐based concept synthesis

‘Person‐centredness’ is a ubiquitous term, employed in modern care services to signify policies and practices that attend to the uniqueness of each individual user. Despite being highly regarded in older adult community care services, there is much ambiguity over its precise meaning. Existing reviews of person‐centredness and its attributes have tended to focus on the medico‐nursing literature, neglecting other interpretations, such as those relevant to community social care. A new literature‐based concept synthesis reported here identified 12 common attributes within the broad themes of ‘understanding the person’, ‘engagement in decision‐making’ and ‘promoting the care relationship’. The review also contrasts how these attributes are applied across different interpretations of person‐centredness. The article argues that not all attributes necessarily pull in the same direction, and that older adults may require them to be delivered in different ways than they are to younger people. Thus, a ‘one‐size‐fits‐all’ approach should be discouraged in community care. Key Practitioner Message: ? ‘Person‐centredness’ is open to multiple interpretations, causing difficulties for services trying to gauge performance and quality; ? Three themes are central to person‐centred services: ‘understanding the person’, ‘engagement in decision‐making’ and ‘promoting the care relationship’; ? A ‘one‐size‐fits‐all’ approach to applying person‐centredness is to be discouraged.     

Student involvement in the UK sex industry: motivations and experiences

The Student Sex Work Project was set up in 2012 in the United Kingdom (UK) to locate students who are involved in the sex industry, to discover their motivations and needs, and in doing so provide an evidence base to consider the development of policy and practice within Higher Education. As part of this initiative, a large survey was undertaken comprising students from throughout the UK. Reporting on the findings from this survey, the article sheds some light on what occupations students take up in the sex industry, what motivates their participation and how they experience the work. The study also offers a much‐needed empirical input to the ongoing academic debates on the nature of sex work. The results suggest that there can be little doubt of a student presence within the sex industry in the UK. The motivations and experiences of student sex workers cover elements of agency and choice as well as of force and exploitation and it is suggested that student sex work is best understood from a polymorphous framework which leaves room for a wide variety of experiences and challenges.     

Towards optimal scaling of metropolis-coupled Markov chain Monte Carlo

We consider optimal temperature spacings for Metropolis-coupled Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMCMC) and Simulated Tempering algorithms. We prove that, under certain conditions, it is optimal (in terms of maximising the expected squared jumping distance) to space the temperatures so that the proportion of temperature swaps which are accepted is approximately 0.234. This generalises related work by physicists, and is consistent with previous work about optimal scaling of random-walk Metropolis algorithms.     

Identity,impairment and disablement: exploring the social processes impacting identity change in adults living with acquired neurological impairments

The social model of disability acknowledges the impact of impairments but argues that disablement is socially constructed. Taking a theoretical perspective, underpinned by the social model of disability and elements of social identity theory, we investigated the relationship between impairment, disablement and identity change in adults living with an acquired neurological impairment. Through the thematic analysis, three themes emerged: changing self described the personal factors for identity change in people acquiring impairment; changing communities explored the contextual factors creating both socially constructed disablement and identity change; and influencing identity change considered strategies adopted by individuals to both counter socially constructed disablement and promote exploration of identity. A systemic change towards acknowledgement and valuing a disabled identity may counter socially constructed disablement and support enablement and social inclusivity.