Design of a language stimulation program for children suffering abuse

This article proposes an intervention program, designed specifically for children in residential care who suffer institutionalized abuse, aimed at stimulating their use of language. The objective of the intervention procedure is to improve children's linguistic competence and their socio-affective development, as well as to enable parents to communicate and interact effectively with their children. Several studies have focused on the difficulties children suffering from abuse have with verbal expression and other areas of development. The research stresses the need to set up intervention programs that can improve the linguistic and social competence of children suffering from abuse. With such children, there is a fundamental need to develop a competence that will encourage their adaptive social skills, which are basic skills for interacting socially and which encourage the pragmatic language function, a skill needed for relating to adults and solving interpersonal problems.     

Grouped Patterns of Heterogeneity in Panel Data

This paper introduces time‐varying grouped patterns of heterogeneity in linear panel data models. A distinctive feature of our approach is that group membership is left unrestricted. We estimate the parameters of the model using a “grouped fixed‐effects” estimator that minimizes a least squares criterion with respect to all possible groupings of the cross‐sectional units. Recent advances in the clustering literature allow for fast and efficient computation. We provide conditions under which our estimator is consistent as both dimensions of the panel tend to infinity, and we develop inference methods. Finally, we allow for grouped patterns of unobserved heterogeneity in the study of the link between income and democracy across countries.     

Some Gestures Develop in Conjunction with Spoken Language Development and Others Don't: Evidence from Bilingual Preschoolers

In past studies, different kinds of gestures have shown different developmental trajectories, with iconic gestures being acquired after words and other gestures before. Similarly, when speech is missing or weak, iconic gestures are rarely used in compensation. These results suggest that iconic gestures are less independent of speech than other kinds of gestures. The present study tested this idea in French-English bilingual children who showed unequal proficiency in their two languages. Eight children between the ages of 3;6 and 4;11 were videotaped in two separate free-play sessions, one in each language. Their use of gestures was coded. The results showed that the children used a higher rate of iconics in their more proficient language but the use of other kinds of gestures did not differ by proficiency. These results suggest that the relationship between iconic gestures and speech is closer than that of other kinds of gestures with speech and cannot therefore be used in the preschool years as a compensatory strategy for weak proficiency.     

Disability, gender, and unemployment relationships in the United States from the behavioral risk factor surveillance system

Women with disabilities face simultaneous oppression in employment due to discrimination with regard to disability and gender. This article investigates the potential disparity in participation in employment for women, particularly women with disabilities. We analysed weighted data from disability surveillance programs and the Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) on over 47,000 respondents. The disability BRFSS was a telephone survey in 11 states and Washington DC. Logistic regression analyses produced adjusted models of the association between gender and employment. Compared with people without disabilities, there were disparities found for people with disabilities, and women with and without disabilities, with the larger discrepancy for women without disabilities. Additional detail about level of employment is needed to make conclusive statements; however, it is clear that disparities in employment continue to exist for women, regardless of their disability status.     

Teaching Characteristics and Student Satisfaction: Impact on Social Work Students’ Interest in Policy

ABSTRACT

Social work educators are charged with the important task of preparing students to carry out the noble mission to focus on the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty. Educators, particularly those who teach social policy, understand that to achieve this mission, it is imperative for social workers to be trained to engage in structural and policy change efforts, regardless of interest in clinical or macro practice. This study explored the characteristics, if any, that make policy instructors in social work effective, as well as instructor characteristics that promote interest in policy work in social work professional practice.     

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Quality of Life in Sexually Abused Australian Children

The study used publicly available data on post-traumatic stress disorder in a sample of the Australian population with a history of sexual abuse to demonstrate how this evidence can inform economic analyses. The 2007 Australian Mental Health Survey revealed that 8.3% of 993 adolescents experienced childhood sexual abuse, of which 40.2% were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis corresponded to a significant loss of quality of life. Survival analysis was used to estimate the lifetime persistence of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. The average time between post-traumatic stress disorder onset and remission was 11.4 years. Results suggest that successful treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder will save 2.05 quality adjusted life years per child or adolescent with post-traumatic stress disorder.     

Child Sexual Behaviors in School Context: Age and Gender Differences

ABSTRACT

The main purpose of the study was to explore the child sexual behaviors that Italian teachers have observed in the school context. A representative sample of 227 children, from 5 to 10 years old, was rated by their teachers through the Child Sexual Behavior Inventory. Frequencies of sexual behaviors among children aged 5 to 6, 7 to 8, and 9 to 10 are presented. Younger children showed a broader range of sexual behaviors that decrease with the growing age, such as males in comparison to females. Moreover, findings showed that child sexual behavior is not only related to age and gender but also to family characteristics. These results suggested that child sexual behaviors reported by teachers through the Child Sexual Behavior Inventory may provide useful information about the development of children’s sexuality. The knowledge of age appropriate sexual behaviors can help teachers discern normal sexual behaviors from problematic sexual behaviors.     

Understanding Urban Adolescent Mothers' Visions of the Future in Terms of Possible Selves

ABSTRACT

As part of a larger study of factors influencing the educational and occupational achievement of adolescent mothers, this study explored the phenomenology of pregnant and parenting teens' aspirations and expectations using the construct, “possible selves.” Focus group discussions, autobiographical projects, and self-report surveys revealed that African American pregnant and parenting youth develop self-representations related to future achievement in the context of interactions with neighborhoods, health care systems, and adult support figures. Results related to teens' “ideal selves,” “feared selves,” and “who they might become” are presented.     

Kinship Structure,Post-Marital Residence and Sex-Role Equality in China

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to articulate the significance of Chinese kinship structure and post-marital rule of residence in shaping the direction of family change, and the attainment of egalitarianism between the sexes. By drawing upon the works of anthropologists on factors associated with changes in rules of post-marital residence and the more theoretical work of Hsu on Chinese and Western kinship structure and content, the author wishes to point out the general direction in which family change may take place in China, and to cast doubt on the inevitability of nuclearization. Field notes gathered during the author's unguided three-week visit to southeastern China (Kwangtung and Fukien provinces) in the fall of 1976 during the time of Mao's death are presented extensively to lend further support to her argument that structural constraints inherent in the Chinese kinship system countervail the official goals of promoting sexual equality in China.     

Increasing Revenue by Decreasing Information in Procurement Auctions

We report on results of several laboratory experiments that investigate on‐line procurement auctions in which suppliers bid on price, but exogenous bidder quality affects winner determination. In procurement auctions, bidder quality may or may not be publicly known to all bidders, and the effect of this quality transparency on the auction outcome is one aspect of auction design that we examine. The second aspect of auction design that we examine is the effect of price visibility on the auction outcome, and the interaction between price visibility and quality transparency. In terms of price visibility, we consider two extreme cases: the sealed bid request for proposals (RFPs), and the open‐bid dynamic auction event. In terms of bidder quality transparency, we also consider two extreme cases: a setting in which bidder qualities are publicly known and the case in which they are private. We find that in our laboratory experiments, the RFP format is consistent in generating higher buyer surplus levels than does the open‐bid dynamic format. This advantage is independent of the quality transparency. In contrast, the open‐bid format is highly sensitive to quality transparency, generating significantly lower buyer surplus levels when the information about bidder quality is public.