A Measure Whose Time has Come: Formalizing Time Poverty

Poverty remains a primary public policy issue, and a large literature has discussed the limitations of an income poverty measure. Using income as an indicator of poverty is a helpful simplification designed to capture ability to meet consumption needs. We argue that time is a basic economic resource allocated to create well-being along with income. Time is a scarce resource that individuals and households must allocate to produce goods, obtain services, and pursue rest and relaxation. Time poverty has been proposed as a complement to income poverty, yet it remains a relatively unknown measure in both policy and research spheres. The many ways time poverty is conceptualized and measured across studies has limited its adoption. To help familiarize readers with time poverty, we apply basic tenets of income poverty measurement to time. We conduct a survey of the theoretical and empirical literature discussing similarities, differences, and the pros and cons of different approaches to time poverty. In particular, inconsistent definition and categorization of necessary and discretionary time has been a barrier to the transparent application of time poverty in the literature, and we outline guidance on defining necessary and discretionary time for future studies. Finally, we outline future research directions for time poverty.     

Why populations persist: mobility,place attachment and climate change

Explanations of relationships between migration and environmental change now focus on multiple interactions, risks in destination and immobility. This research applies behavioural migration theory to examine the extent to which immobile populations experiencing environmental degradation exercise agency with respect to location and, in doing so, elucidates what it means to be trapped. This research uses individual survey data from a migrant-sending area in highland Peru where the population experiences negative health and livelihood impacts from climate-related phenomena. Analysis of these data reveals three reasons for non-migration: high levels of satisfaction, resource barriers and low mobility potential. Immobility in dissatisfied people is more likely to be caused by attachment to place than resource constraints. Thus, the results suggest that trapped populations exist along a continuum. This highlights the need for policy responses differentiated by the mobility characteristics and preferences of the individual. Caution, therefore, must be exercised when labelling populations as trapped and promoting relocation.     

Discretion in Welfare Provision

While discretion has been studied in systems of distribution which are governed by rules, or in those where there is a crucial gatekeeper, there remain many informal and diffuse systems where little is known about the discretion used. An example is the allocation of community services. In such cases, a useful strategy is to analyze the informal rationing system along lines which are discussed, and by this means to identify as discretionary the cases which emerge as anomalous.
Possibilities are outlined for comparing the amount of discretion used and its bias, in areas with different resource levels or degrees of regulation; and the paper concludes with a detailed illustration, drawn from an area study of community services for the elderly, of changes in the use of discretion with increasing pressure on resources.     

From Public Housing to Welfare Housing

This paper examines the shift in housing policy from public housing to welfare housing during the 1970's and the period of the Fraser government in particular. The period saw a series of new Commonwealth State Housing Agreements directed toward market pricing of public rental stock; at the same time Federal funds were declining, with marked effects on the public housing sector. The paper reflects on these trends and highlights certain contradictions in public housing policy.     

Adolescents Who Sexually Abuse and Residential Accommodation: Issues of Risk and Vulnerability

Summary This article, arising out of quantitative and qualitative researchstudies conducted by the authors, begins with a brief overviewof current knowledge about male adolescent sexual abusers andassociated policies, procedures and services. A particular concernraised by professionals and welfare agencies, who are strugglingto develop appropriate responses to young sexual abusers, concernsthe circumstances and problems of young people who are placedin residential accommodation as a result of their sexually abusivebehaviour, often where there are also child victims of sexualabuse. The vulnerability of young sexual abusers and the riskthey pose to others is considered in the light of the findingsof qualitative research by one of the authors into the constructionand control of children and their sexualities in residentialchildren's homes. This research suggests that the inadequateways in which sexual behaviour in children's homes is perceivedand managed, serves to compound the problems of both the sexuallyabusive and non-abusive adolescents placed there. The findingsfrom both authors' research are then theorized within broaderconceptual frameworks about the nature of childhood, childhoodsexuality and institutionalization and its links with peer sexualabuse.     

Context of Acceptability of Topical Microbicides: Sexual Relationships

Domains central to the effects of sexual relationships on the acceptability of a vaginal protection method were explored in 14 focus groups and 38 in-depth interviews with women and men recruited from a health department's sexually transmitted infections (STI) and family planning clinics. Findings indicate that acceptability depended on a couple's relationship type, classified as serious, casual, or "new." Potential barriers to communication about product use may be overcome through direct or indirect covert use, depending on relationship type. More men than women thought women should always tell their partners if they use microbicides, regardless of relationship type. Results indicate the importance of the relationship context in understanding the likely acceptability of using microbicides, and perhaps any method of STI/HIV protection .     

Judgments regarding parental alienation when parental hostility or child sexual abuse is alleged

Abstract

Allegations of Parental Alienation (PA), the systematic disparaging of one parent by the other parent aimed at alienating their child’s affections, as a basis for child custody decisions are highly controversial. Claims of parental hostility or allegations of child sexual abuse in custody cases may trigger concerns about PA. Family court professionals (N?=?280) rated young children’s accuracy of report (e.g., suggestibility, honesty) in general and also read three custody scenarios varying as to whether or not they included allegations of parental hostility or child sexual abuse, or no such allegations. For each scenario, the alleged alienating parent’s gender was experimentally varied between subjects. Participants rated the likelihood that each case involved PA. For the scenario that included allegations of child sexual abuse, professionals who viewed young children as more inaccurate reporters or who read about the mother (rather than a father) as the alleged alienator were more likely to rate the scenario as involving PA. For the scenario that described parental hostility but no child sexual abuse allegations, professionals who were older or female were more likely to judge the scenario as involving parental alienation when a mother (rather than a father) was the alleged alienator, whereas there were no significant predictors of responses to the no-allegation scenarios. Findings are discussed in relation to the difficult task of evaluating custody cases for PA when parental hostility or child sexual abuse is alleged.