Primary Care Providers’ Perspectives on Screening Older Adult Patients for Food Insecurity

Food insecurity has been associated with poor health and health outcomes among older adults, yet food assistance resources are available and underutilized. Routine screening and referral for food insecurity in primary care is one avenue to connect food-insecure older adults with available resources. This qualitative study aims to better understand the beliefs of primary care providers (PCPs) about food security screening and referrals in a primary care setting and perceived barriers to implementation. PCPs (n = 16) who have older adult patients but do not routinely screen for food insecurity were interviewed by phone. PCPs recognize the importance of food security for older patients and discuss nutrition and food access with patients under certain circumstances. Concerns emerged with regard to implementing a systematic screening and referral process: limited time to meet with patients, a lack of resources for addressing food insecurity, and prioritizing food insecurity at both the health system and the patient levels. Despite perceived challenges, PCPs are receptive to the idea of systematically screening and referring patients to external resources for food assistance and support. Barriers could be addressed by health systems prioritizing food insecurity as a health concern and public and private payers providing reimbursement for screening.     

The potential for golf courses to support restoration of biodiversity for BioBanking offsets

In golf course development there is frequently remnant vegetation on the areas unused for infrastructure. We propose that these areas, together with a whole range of other reserves including sporting fields, cemeteries, railway reserves and educational facilities may be the source of degraded remnant vegetation and associated open space that could be used to provide offsets for biodiversity. We followed the changes in vertebrate biodiversity with low key alteration to management of the Camden Lakeside Golf Course to assess if such areas had the potential for biodiversity banking offsets. Birds, bats, frogs and reptiles increased in species diversity over time. Frogs and reptiles tended to peak in species numbers during the observational period but bat and bird diversity continued to increase. We concluded that on this ‘island’ within a matrix of urbanisation and cleared agricultural lands without remnant vegetation, observed changes in diversity made such areas potential sites for biodiversity banking offsets.     

Welfare benefits,economic opportunities,and out-of-wedlock births among black teenage girls

This article presents a model of teenage out-of-wedlock births that incorporates the effects of both welfare and nonwelfare economic opportunities. We construct measures of the likely "medium-run" income available to a teenage girl in the event of an out-of-wedlock birth and in the absence of a birth and then estimate a logit model to determine their importance in influencing fertility behavior. The model is estimated with data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics on nearly 900 black teenagers. We find weak and statistically insignificant positive effects of Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) benefit levels and stronger and significant negative effects of economic opportunities on the probability of AFDC-related out-of-wedlock teen births.     

What are the economic consequences of divorce?

Our analysis suggests that Weitzman's finding concerning the precipitous decline in the economic status of women following divorce is likely to be incorrect. Her findings not only imply improbably large changes in income but are also inconsistent with the information she reports on changes in income and in income per capita. Corrected estimates suggest a decline in economic status of about one-third, rather than the widely cited 73 percent figure. It remains the case that the economic status of men and women diverge substantially in the years after divorce. That difference, however, is not nearly as dramatic as suggested by Weitzman's findings.     

ARE THE DISABLED LESS LOSS AVERSE? EVIDENCE FROM A NATURAL POLICY EXPERIMENT

Research findings show that disabled persons often develop physical and psychological mechanisms to compensate for disabilities. Coping mechanisms may not be limited to the psychophysiological domain and may extend to cognitive bias and loss aversion. In this study, we apply unique microdata from a natural policy experiment to assess the role of loss aversion in home purchase among nondisabled and disabled households. Results of survival analysis indicate that the physically disabled are substantially less loss averse in home purchase. Furthermore, loss aversion varies with other population characteristics and attenuates with degree of disability. Findings provide new evidence of diminished cognitive bias and more rational economic decision‐making among the physically disabled. (JEL D03, C9, R38)     

The Relationship Between Distance from Gambling Venues and Gambling Participation and Problem Gambling Among U.S. Adults

In this article we examine the relationship between extent of gambling for U.S. adults and the distance from their residence to the nearest casino or track. We employ data from a telephone survey of U.S. adults conducted in 2011–2013. The chances that the respondents gambled in the past year, were frequent gamblers, or were problem gamblers were greater if they lived close to a casino. The chances that the respondents gambled in the past year or were frequent gamblers were greater if they lived close to a horse or dog track. The effects of closeness to a casino on the likelihood of past-year gambling, frequent gambling, and problem gambling, as well as the effect of closeness to a track on past-year gambling, extended to about 30 miles from the respondent’s home. In addition, the concentration of casinos within 30 miles of the respondent’s home was positively related to the respondents’ chance of being a frequent or problem gambler. If a respondent had no casinos within 30 miles, he or she had a 2.7 % chance of being a problem gambler; if one casino, a 3.9 % chance; if six or more, a 6.2 % chance. The authors estimate that at least part of this effect is causal.     

Exploring racism inside and outside the mathematics classroom in two different contexts: Colombia and USA

We give attention to the racial contexts of mathematics education in Colombia and the USA. We discuss the particularities of these contexts but also explore the how in both contexts Blackness and Black people are relegated to the lower rungs of the social order. In offering this comparative analysis, we call for expanded research on race, racism, and mathematics education in global contexts.     

Everyday discrimination,emotion, and daily interactions during adolescence

The present study examined whether everyday discrimination relates to the frequency of adolescents' positive and negative daily social interactions and whether these associations are driven by anger and positive emotion. Adolescents (N = 334) participated in a three-wave longitudinal study, in which they completed surveys regarding everyday discrimination, anger, and positive emotion, as well as 15 daily reports of conflict and getting along with friends and family. Higher everyday discrimination was related to more daily conflicts and fewer experiences of getting along with other people. Longitudinal models also provided preliminary evidence that everyday discrimination was associated with daily conflicts 4 years later indirectly through anger. Overall, results suggest everyday discrimination relates to adolescents' daily experiences, potentially through differences in emotion.     

The Voices Project

The purpose of the Voices Project was to give children and adolescents a greater voice in the local and global dialogues about the precursors and solutions to all forms of school violence. This exploratory project incorporates input from youngsters, educators, community partners, and university researchers into the development of a model for non-violent schools and communities. In this article, the Voices Project is described and implications for practice forwarded.