Racial differences in birth health risk: A quantitative genetic approach

In the United States the gap between black and white babies' birth weights has remained largely unexplained. Rather than trying to measure all relevant variables, we used a genetically informative design to study the relative importance of genetic and environmental factors. Employing multiple indicators of "birth health risk," we found that the racial differences increased with the magnitude of the shared environmental effects. This suggested that possible genetic effects would not pertain to fetal genes, although genes affecting the mother's physical or physiological characteristics could be important because they contribute to shared environment in our analysis.     

Managing Assessment. Quality Planning in Assessment Procedures of the Dutch Child Protection Board

Correspondence to Carolus van Nijnatten, University of Utrecht, Department of General Social Sciences, P.O. Box 80140, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands. E-mail: C.vanNijnatten{at}fss.uu.nl Summary The Child Welfare and Protection Board (CP), which plays a centralrole in Dutch child welfare is an agency of the Dutch Ministryof Justice. The CP may present petitions to the juvenile courtfor their judgement regarding the custody or guardianship ofchildren. The Board presents petitions concerning legal propositionsfor custody, suspension of the execution of custody, provisionalguardianship, and dispossession and restriction of custody.These petitions are based on an investigation of the socialconditions of the child and the family. In the past, the qualityof these investigations has often been questioned, the maincriticism being the lack of any systematic procedure and thestrong intrusion of personal opinion. Nevertheless, social workersof the CP Board often regarded potential changes to these investigationswith some apprehension because they feared the assessment proceduresmight lose their human character. More recently, the CP Boardhas experimented with a system of testing hypotheses in itsassessment procedures. In this article, we present the resultsof an evaluation of this new procedure. The results are presentedin the context of the recent debate, published in the BritishJournal of Social Work, between the advocates and opponentsof making social work more scientifically rigorous.     

The impact of early-life economic conditionson cause-specific mortality during adulthood

The aim of this study is to assess the effects of economic conditions in early life on cause-specific mortality during adulthood. The analyses are performed on a unique historical sample of 14,520 Dutch individuals born in 1880–1918, who are followed throughout life. The economic conditions in early life are characterized using cyclical variations in annual real per capital gross domestic product during pregnancy and the first year of life. Exposure to recessions in early life appears to significantly increase cancer mortality risks of older males and females. It also significantly increases other mortality risks especially for older females. The residual life expectancies are up to about 8 and 6 % lower for male and female cancer mortality, respectively, and up to about 5 % lower for female cardiovascular mortality. Our analyses show that cardiovascular and cancer mortality risks are related and that not taking this association into account leads to biased inference.     

Job Durations With Worker- and Firm-Specific Effects: MCMC Estimation With Longitudinal Employer–Employee Data

We study job durations using a multivariate hazard model allowing for worker-specific and firm-specific unobserved determinants. The latter are captured by unobserved heterogeneity terms or random effects, one at the firm level and another at the worker level. This enables us to decompose the variation in job durations into the relative contribution of the worker and the firm. We also allow the unobserved terms to be correlated in a model that is primarily relevant for markets with small firms. For the empirical analysis, we use a Portuguese longitudinal matched employer–employee dataset. The model is estimated with a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimation method. The results imply that unobserved firm characteristics explain almost 40% of the systematic variation in log job durations. In addition, we find a positive correlation between unobserved worker and firm characteristics.     

Survey non-response and the duration of unemployment

Summary.  Social surveys are often used to estimate unemployment duration distributions. Survey non-response may then cause a bias. We study this by using a data set that combines survey information of individual workers with administrative records of the same workers. The latter provide information on durations of unemployment and personal characteristics of all survey respondents and non-respondents. We develop a method to distinguish empirically between two explanations for a bias in results based on only survey data: selectivity due to related unobserved determinants of durations of unemployment and non-response and a causal effect of a job exit on non-response. The latter may occur even in fully homogeneous populations. The methodology exploits variation in the timing of the duration outcome relative to the survey moment. The results show evidence for both explanations. We discuss implications for standard methods to deal with non-response bias.     

Internationally adopted children's general and adoption‐specific stressors,coping strategies and psychological adjustment

We examined stress, coping and psychological adjustment of 68 children, aged 8–12, who were internationally adopted to Spain. Using the Kidcope, all children were asked about the most stressful general and adoption‐related problem they experienced and the use and effectiveness of various coping strategies when dealing with the problem. For all reported problems, the nature of the problem (personal, interpersonal, regarding others), the content, the degree of stress it created and its perceived controllability were analysed. Emotional and behavioural functionings were assessed with the Behaviour Assessment System for Children. About half of the children mentioned specific problems concerning the adoption, with inracial adoptees reporting less adoption‐related problems than transracial adoptees. For general and adoption‐related problems, interpersonal problems were mentioned most often. With regard to the content, ‘relationships’ and ‘victimization’ were mentioned most often for general and adoption‐related problems, respectively. Adoption‐related problems were appraised as less controllable. No differences emerged in terms of coping with general or adoption‐related problems except for ‘self‐criticism’. Overall, the children used many coping strategies and were generally well‐adjusted. Identifying the problems and coping strategies of adoptees is important in order to help these children and their families tackle these stressors.     

When digital natives instruct digital immigrants: active guidance of parental media use by children and conflict in the family

Based on the premise that children are active agents who influence their parents’ media use, this study investigated child–parent digital media guidance. Children often introduce new media into the family and influence parents’ media adoption and use. This study also investigated whether this child–parent digital media guidance is associated with media conflicts in the family. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 187 parent–child dyads in Flanders, Belgium. Paired samples t-tests and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted. The results showed that both children and parents reported that children guide their parents how to use digital media, especially for newer media forms such as smartphones, tablets, and apps. Families where there was more child–parent digital media guidance reported more conflicts about media. These relationships were comparable in the parent and child reports.     

The Experience of Work–Family Conflict Among Divorced Parents in Flanders

This study investigates the difference between married and divorced parents, accounting for gender and relationship status after divorce. It also provides insight into differences within the category of divorced parents. Data from 769 married and 1,424 divorced parents were analyzed using logistic regression analysis. The results identify a complex interplay among marital status, relationship status, and gender. For mothers, both marital and relationship status have an impact on work–family conflict. For fathers, it is the presence of a partner that affects the interference of family with work. Gender, working hours, and child’s presence were identified as important factors influencing work–family conflict among divorced parents.     

Stepping stones for the unemployed: the effect of temporary jobs on the duration until (regular) work

Transitions from unemployment into temporary work are often succeeded by a transition from temporary into regular work. This paper investigates whether temporary work increases the transition rate to regular work. We use longitudinal survey data of individuals to estimate a multi-state duration model, applying the ‘timing of events’ approach. The data contain multiple spells in labour market states at the individual level. We analyse results using novel graphical representations, which unambiguously show that temporary jobs shorten the unemployment duration, although they do not increase the fraction of unemployed workers having regular work within a few years after entry into unemployment.