Improving Outcomes for Unemployed and Homeless Young People: Findings of the YP4 Clinical Controlled Trial of Joined Up Case Management

Abstract

The YP⁴ study was a clinical controlled trial (CCT) of joined up services for young people experiencing both homelessness and unemployment in Victoria, Australia. The joined up service delivery (J group, n = 222) participants were offered intensive client-centred case management, involving direct provision of a range of services as well as the brokering of additional services. The standard services (S group, n = 174) participants remained eligible for standard services. Access to the Australian Government income support agency's (Centrelink) administrative data provided a retention rate close to 90% over the three annual data collection points of the study (baseline, 12 months and 24 months). Both groups improved their circumstances over the two years of the trial. The results showed no statistically significant treatment effects. The effect for employment earnings was approaching significance (p = .06) with J group increasing their employment earnings to a greater extent than S group. The findings and their implications for the implementation of joined up case management, future policy and practice, and future homelessness research is discussed.     

Hospice and Self-Assessed Quality of Life in the Dying: A Review

This review summarizes the impact of hospice and palliative end-of-life care on the self-assessed quality of life (QoL) in terminally ill persons. Articles were included if researchers utilized at least two observations post–hospice admission and were published in English between January of 2000 and December 2012. Findings from included studies synthesize results of a variety of terminal patients (n = 1,017) across settings. Only one study utilized a non-treatment control group. The remaining studies compared variations of program inclusions, settings, or QoL scores across carcinoma site. The studies included indicated mixed outcomes related to the effect of hospice on QoL in the dying.     

Effects of Parental Monitoring and Peer Deviance on Substance Use and Delinquency

From socialization theory, it was hypothesized that parental support and monitoring as well as peer deviance would influence individual trajectories of alcohol misuse, other substance use, and delinquency. Six waves of data were analyzed using interviews with 506 adolescents in a general population sample. Results from multilevel modeling showed that monitoring significantly predicted adolescents’ initial levels (intercepts) of alcohol misuse and delinquency. Parental monitoring strongly predicted the rates of increase (slope) in all 3 problem behaviors. Peer deviance significantly predicted initial levels of all problem behaviors and the rates of increase in them. This study provides evidence that both effective parenting and avoidance of associations with delinquent peers are important factors in preventing adolescent problem behaviors.     

Examining the relationship between global and domain measures of quality of life by three factor structure models

This study examined the relationship between global and domain measures of quality of life from a psychometric perspective by three different factor structure models. Three hundred and four students at National Taiwan University participated in this study. They completed the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS, a global measurement for quality of life) and the WHOQOL-BREF (a domain-specific measurement for quality of life). Three models were specified to examine the relationships among scores of the SWLS and the WHOQOL-BREF. The first model was a common factor model in which scores of the SWLS and the WHOQOL-BREF were all influenced by a single factor. The second model was a correlated two-factor model in which scores of the SWLS were influenced by one factor and scores of the WHOQOL-BREF influenced by another factor, with these two factors being allowed to be correlated. The third model was a three-factor model, in which one factor (representing quality of life) influenced the scores of the SWLS and the WHOQOL-BREF, another factor (representing global approach) only influenced the scores of the SWLS, and yet another factor (representing domain approach) only influenced the scores of the WHOQOL-BREF. The results showed that the third model was the best, suggesting that global measures (the SWLS) and domain measures (the WHOQOL-BREF) did assess the same construct on quality of life, however, the measurement approaches they adopted (global or domain approach) also have substantial impact on the meaning of scores.     

Identity,beliefs and community: LDS (Mormon) pre‐service secondary teacher views about diversity

Research shows that pre‐service teachers must engage in a self‐examination of identity, attitudes and assumptions concerning such issues as privilege, group membership, religion, gender and language before entering a classroom. However, this is no easy task for students with little experience of living in or learning about diverse communities. Such a state is Utah in the US, a region whose historical roots are rural and—unlike any other American state—whose citizens, political leaders and educators are predominately Euro‐American and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS), commonly known as Mormons. While some teacher educators encourage their predominantly LDS secondary pre‐service teachers to utilize critical pedagogy, it becomes clear that students' religious identity comes into conflict with issues associated with race, class, language and gender. The following qualitative case study examines how the theology of the LDS Church informs the identity and educational belief systems of six female, LDS pre‐service secondary educators as they prepare to teach in diverse communities across the US.     

Race and Redistricting: What the Print Media Conveys to the Public about the Role of Race

In a series of voting rights cases, the U.S. Supreme Court held that race-based redistricting, particularly the intentional formation of majority–minority districts (districts in which voters of color constitute a majority of eligible voters) may be unconstitutional if race was the predominant factor in the formation of the district. The Court stated that "redistricting legislation that is so bizarre on its face that it is unexplainable on grounds other than race" may violate the Constitution because of the messages such districts send to the public ( Shaw v. Reno , 1993 ). Yet neither the Court nor social scientists have examined whether the existence of race-conscious majority–minority districts sends messages to voters and what the nature of these messages may be. This research begins to address this scientific issue. In a quantitative content analysis, we examined messages about racial redistricting conveyed to citizens via the print media. Our sample consisted of 355 newspaper articles about redistricting included in the Lexis–Nexis database between 1990 and 2005. We found that newspaper coverage of racial districting contains messages to citizens about the motives involved in redistricting, the individuals and groups who are responsible for it, and its actual and expected effects. This finding is consistent with the Supreme Court's assumption that districts, particularly bizarrely shaped ones, convey distinct messages to voters. The specific messages communicated varied in important ways across the articles. Newspapers in states subject to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act because of their history of discrimination against voters of color covered racial redistricting differently than states not subject to Section 5. We discuss the legal and theoretical implications of these findings for understanding the role of race in legislative redistricting efforts.     

Application of genetic algorithms to the construction of exact D-optimal designs

This paper studies the application of genetic algorithms to the construction of exact D-optimal experimental designs. The concept of genetic algorithms is introduced in the general context of the problem of finding optimal designs. The algorithm is then applied specifically to finding exact D-optimal designs for three different types of model. The performance of genetic algorithms is compared with that of the modified Fedorov algorithm in terms of computing time and relative efficiency. Finally, potential applications of genetic algorithms to other optimality criteria and to other types of model are discussed, along with some open problems for possible future research.