Young workers in Latin America: protection or self-determination?

The author offers a wide-ranging comprehensive picture of the kinds and nature of child labor in Latin America, against a historical background of social and economic conditions.     

Two tests for sequential detection of a change-point in a nonlinear model

In this paper, two tests, based on weighted CUSUM of the least squares residuals, are studied to detect in real time a change-point in a nonlinear model. A first test statistic is proposed by extension of a method already used in the literature but for the linear models. It is tested under the null hypothesis, at each sequential observation, that there is no change in the model against a change presence. The asymptotic distribution of the test statistic under the null hypothesis is given and its convergence in probability to infinity is proved when a change occurs. These results will allow to build an asymptotic critical region. Next, in order to decrease the type I error probability, a bootstrapped critical value is proposed and a modified test is studied in a similar way. A generalization of the Hájek–Rényi inequality is established.     

The S-estimator in the change-point random model with long memory

This paper considers two-phase random design linear regression models. Errors and regressors are stationary long-range-dependent Gaussian processes. The regression parameters, the scale parameter and the change-point are estimated using a method introduced by Rousseeuw and Yohai [Robust regression by means of S-estimators, in Robust and Nonlinear Time Series Analysis, J. Franke, W. Hrdle, and R.D. Martin, eds., Lecture Notes in Statistics, Vol. 26, Springer, New York, 1984, pp. 256–272], which is called the S-estimator and has the property be more robust than the classical estimators in the sense that the outliers do not bias the estimation results. Some asymptotic results, including the strong consistency and the convergence rate of the S-estimator are proved. Simulations and an application to the Nile River data are also presented. It is shown via Monte Carlo simulations that the S-estimator is better than two other estimators that are proposed in the literature.     

Predicting Condom Use Outcomes via the Information Motivation Behavioral Skills Model: An Analysis of Young Black Men

Objectives: This study examines the relationships between information motivation behavioral skills model constructs and their associations with consistent condom use and condom use problems among young Black men. Methods: The authors use baseline data collected from 702 participants in a randomized controlled trial. Analyses involved path modeling and bootstrapped standard errors to estimate associations. Results: Motivation had the largest association with consistent condom use, whereas condom application skills had the largest association with condom use problems. Conclusion: Motivation is the most important predictor of consistent condom use, whereas condom application skills are the most important predictor of condom use problems.     

Children as co-researchers in pandemic times: Power and participation in the use of digital dialogues with children during the COVID-19 lockdown

This paper documents co-participatory research with children in six primary schools in Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores the use of what we term digital dialogues with diverse groups of children aged 9–10 years as members of Child Research Advisory Groups. The paper conceptualises the digital dialogues as sites of resistance as well as constraint, empowering children to articulate their voices in relation to schooling and the pandemic, whilst mediated by power dynamics—between adults and children, and between children, in the articulation of those voices.     

The context of infants' giving gestures in mother-infant dyads: Typical giving gestures and those contingent on exploration and play

This study aimed to focus on a niche that has not yet been investigated in infants' gesture studies that is the effect of the prior context of one specific gestural behavior (gives) on maternal behavior. For this purpose, we recruited 23 infants at 11 and 13 months of age yielded 246 giving gesture bouts that were performed in three contexts: typical when the object was offered immediately, contingent on exploration, and contingent on play. The analysis revealed that maternal responses to infants' giving gestures varied and were affected by their age and gesture context. Hence, mothers amended their responses according to the background that generated each gesture. The number of verbal responses to infants' giving gestures decreased as the infants aged, whereas the number of pretense responses increased. For infants aged 11 months, mothers generally provided motor responses to typical gestures. However, for infants aged 13 months, this trend declined and was replaced by a strong positive correlation between giving gestures contingent on play and verbal responses. We concluded that the type of activity with objects prior to employing giving gestures could enhance infants' symbolic skills because caregivers monitor the contingent act that yields the gesture that shapes their response.     

Penalized least absolute deviations estimation for nonlinear model with change-points

This paper studies the asymptotic properties of a smoothed least absolute deviations estimator in a nonlinear parametric model with multiple change-points occurring at the unknown times with independent and identically distributed errors. The model is nonlinear in the sense that between two successive change-points the regression function is nonlinear into respect to parameters. It is shown via Monte Carlo simulations that its performance is competitive with that of least absolute deviations estimator and it is more efficient than the least squares estimator, particularly in the presence of the outlier points. If the number of change-points is unknown, an estimation criterion for this number is proposed. Interest of this method is that the objective function is approximated by a differentiable function and if the model contains outliers, it detects correctly the location of the change-points.     

Life Story Reflection in Social Work Education: A Practical Model

ABSTRACT

Drawing from the practice-oriented conception of reflection in social work, its applications in social work education typically focus on students’ encounters with the field. Recognizing the value of practice-oriented reflection yet aware of its limitations, complementing it with life story reflection (LSR) is urged. The importance of LSR in social work education is discussed, and a three-phased application is proposed, which encourages reflection and reflexivity. First, future professionals recount their life stories, subsequently they analyze them, and eventually they explain them. LSR might be doubly beneficial in forming social workers as reflective practitioners. It is valuable in its own right, encouraging students’ “big” self-understanding, and when combined with the customary modes of reflection in and on action, potentially deepening insights attained through them.     

Anthropological Takes on (Im)Mobility

In this introduction, we outline the general conceptual framework that ties the various contributions to this special issue together. We argue for the importance of anthropology to “take on” mobility and discuss the advantages of the ethnographic approach in doing so. What is the analytical purchase of mobility as one of the root metaphors in contemporary anthropological theorizing? What are the (dis)advantages of looking at the current human condition through the lens of mobility? There is a great risk that the fast-growing field of mobility studies neglects different interpretations of what is going on, or that only patterns that fit the mobilities paradigm will be considered, or that only extremes of (hyper)mobility or (im)mobility will be given attention. The ethnographic sensibilities of fieldworkers who learn about mobility while studying other processes and issues, and who can situate movement in the multiple contexts between which people move, can both extend the utility of the mobilities approach, and insist on attention to other dynamics that might not be considered if the focus is first and last on (im)mobility as such. In this special issue, we do not want to discuss human mobility as a brute fact but rather analyze how mobilities, as sociocultural constructs, are experienced and imagined.