Socializing Children About Family Structure: Perspectives of Lesbian and Gay Adoptive Parents

Despite increasing numbers of lesbian- and gay- (LG-) parent families, little research on LG-adoptive-parent families has examined parental beliefs and perceptions related to discussing their sexual minority status with their children. This study assessed 266 LG adoptive parents (160 lesbian mothers, 106 gay fathers) from the Modern Adoptive Families (MAF) study, a nationwide survey (2012–2013) of adoptive parents' pre- and post-placement experiences. A cultural socialization lens provided the framework for examining LG parenting beliefs and practices. Two measurement scales were developed to examine parents' perceptions and self-efficacy related to socializing their child about being in a sexual-minority-parent family. Results indicate that LG parents endorse the importance of unique socialization practices and generally feel confident engaging in these practices. Parent education, transracial adoption, endorsement of racial socialization, and socialization self-efficacy were positively associated with endorsement of socialization practices. Excellent reliability suggests the 2 scales have the potential of being psychometrically sound instruments with which to measure parental endorsement and related self-efficacy of socialization practices for families headed by sexual minority parents. Findings contribute to a deeper understanding of socialization and communication patterns in LG-headed families, especially those formed through adoption. Research, policy, and practice implications are discussed.     

Self-Stigma of seeking help and job burnout in mental health care providers: the comparative study of Lithuanian and the USA samples

This study aimed to explore the correlation between job burnout and self-stigma of seeking help among nonmedical mental health care providers (psychologists, social workers, and counselors) in two countries – Lithuania and the US. The study included 234 professionals (111 social workers and 123 psychologists) from Lithuania and 93 professionals (33 counselors, 23 social workers, and 37 psychologists) from the US on a voluntary basis (93% females, mean age – 39.81?years). They completed a self-reported questionnaire with the Self-Stigma of Seeking Help Scale (SSOSH) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS). The results revealed a statistically significant positive correlation between self-stigmatization and burnout in the Lithuanian sample, but only weak positive correlation between depersonalization and self-stigma of seeking help in the US sample. The relationship between the self-stigma of seeking help and burnout was stronger in the Lithuanian sample of professionals when compared to their colleagues in the US.     

Measuring ambiguity preferences: A new ambiguity preference survey module

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty - Ambiguity preferences are important to explain human decision-making in many areas in economics and finance. To measure individual ambiguity preferences, the...     

Some implications of common consequences in lotteries

This work studies the implications of some aspects of preferences toward risk in the choice between two binary lotteries exhibiting a common consequence. The results obtained are then applied to two different problems: the choice between two risky challenges characterized by different rewards in the case of success and different probabilities of success and the choice between self-protection and self-insurance in the presence of the risk of incurring financial loss.

     

Resolving Rabin’s paradox

We present a theoretical model of Rabin’s famous calibration paradox that resolves confusions in the literature and that makes it possible to identify the causes of the paradox. Using suitable experimental stimuli, we show that the paradox truly violates expected utility and that it is caused by reference dependence. Rabin already showed that utility curvature alone cannot explain his paradox. We, more strongly, do not find any contribution of utility curvature to the explanation of the paradox. We find no contribution of probability weighting either. We conclude that Rabin’s paradox underscores the importance of reference dependence.

     

Quality of Life Enhancement Research Program: Lessons Learned

The attempted Quality of Life Enhancement program appeared to be a novel method for creating a symbiotic and sustainable relationship between a large Southeastern university and local nursing home and assisted living facilities (ALF), through which ALF residents would attend university arts and sporting events. During implementation, it was discovered that this project was unsustainable, undesired, unneeded by many care centers, difficult to implement, and required a dedicated and specialized staff. After attempting to enroll 14 local care facilities, only 2 were interested in becoming involved and produced 5 eligible participants. During the program itself, coordination with facilities and residents was difficult to maintain and unique transportation and accommodation needs were challenging to overcome. Finally, data collection was time consuming and generally unfruitful. Ultimately the project was discontinued after a year of attempted recruitment and implementation of inclusive changes to protocol. While creating an ongoing relationship with local care facilities and local universities may enhance opportunities for residents and research into important areas, such relationships take time, effort, and specialized staff to maintain.     

Reliability,Population Classification and Weighting in Multidimensional Poverty Measurement: A Monte Carlo Study

Social Indicators Research - In poverty measurement, differential weighting aims to take into account the unequal importance of the diverse dimensions and aspects of poverty and to add valuable...     

Identifying Systemically Important Banks: A temporal approach for macroprudential policies

Contrary to the general belief, systemic risk does not only regard the risk posed by balance sheet relationships and interdependencies among institutions. It also features a temporal dimension related to the inappropriate responses of financial market participants to changes in risk over time. This paper proposes a method to simultaneously address the cross-sectional and the time dimension in which systemic risk materializes. The method is based on the TOPHITS algorithm. It provides three scores, namely borrowing, lending and time scores: the first two represent the systemic importance of the borrowing and the lending activity associated with each financial institution,while the third represents an empirical Early Warning Signal of the financial crisis. Our findings reveal that the identification of the time score as an indicator for an incoming market distress could be relevant to design macro prudential policies.