MATCHED PAIRS DISCRIMINATION: METHODOLOGY AND AN INVESTIGATION OF CORPORATE ACCOUNTING POLICIES

The matched-pairs methodology is becoming increasingly popular as a means of controlling extraneous factors in business research. This paper develops discriminant procedures for matched data and examines the properties of these methods. Data from a recent study by Hunt [14] on the determinants of inventory method choice are used to contrast the performance of the different methods. While all of the methods yield the same set of discriminating variables, those procedures that allow for the dependence among observations within a pair provide greater classificatory power than traditional multivariate techniques.     

‘IF I FEEL LIKE THIS,HOW DOES THE CHILD FEEL?’ CHILD PROTECTION WORKERS,SUPERVISION, MANAGEMENT AND ORGANISATIONAL RESPONSES TO PARENTAL VIOLENCE

This study analysed workers’ experiences of supervision following interactions with hostile and intimidating parents. This analysis examined management and organisational responses to worker stress, and assessed the adequacy of support that workers received. An online survey was designed to collect data on workers’ experiences and free text responses were qualitatively analysed for references to the supervision they received in response to working with parents. 590 participants responded to the survey. 402 were qualified social workers, and 423 worked in child protection. Participants had experienced a range of violent behaviour from parents. The overwhelming theme in responses was the lack of support and supervision workers received, often in stressful and frightening circumstances. Approximately one quarter of participants only used organisational procedures, guidelines or protocols on dealing with hostile parents. Workers reported that mismanaged parental hostility affected their practice and the quality of protection that children received. The violence experienced had a significant negative impact on their personal and professional lives. Organisational responses in the form of supervision and education were often inadequate and resulted in children receiving reduced quality of protection. Recommendations for policy and practice change are discussed, with the aim of caring for workers and the children they protect.     

The effects of right-to-work legislation on union outcomes: Additional evidence

The authors reexamine the role of open shop legislation in affecting union outcomes. New indices of union success are employed which include election voting behavior, the size of newly certified units, and the rate of union decertification. Three competing hypotheses are empirically tested: (1) the free rider argument predicting lower membership levels in right-to-work (RTW) areas; (2) the saturationist hypothesis predicting a higher level of organizing activity in RTW areas as a result of large concentrations of unorganized workers; and, (3) the hypothesis that legislation is vitiated by distinct organizing behaviors in RTW and nonRTW areas. Empirical results, based on SMSA data from 35 states, tend to provide support for hypotheses (2) and (3). Recently, RTW areas have experienced more prounion outcomes, and the union returns to regional attributes (measured by Chow tests) are found to be distinct in the two areas.     

The Painful Truth: Interpretation of Facial Expressions of Pain in Older Adults

The purpose of this study was to determine whether it is more difficult to decode facial expressions of pain in older than in younger adults. The facial expressions of 10 younger and 10 older chronic pain patients undergoing a painful diagnostic test were viewed on videotape by untrained judges. Judges estimated the severity of pain being experienced by the patients. Ratings made of the older faces during painful moments described more pain, and appeared more accurate, than those made of younger faces. Judges also reported seeing more pain in posed, masked, and baseline facial expressions in the older adults. Age-related structural changes to the face were not responsible for this bias. This suggests that judges were predisposed to see pain in the faces of the older patients, and undermines the assumption that their ratings of pain in the painful moment segments were accurate.     

Treatment For Suicidal Thoughts and Behavior: A Review of Family‐Based Interventions

The purpose of this article is to review the scientific evidence on the effects of family based interventions for suicidal ideation and behavior. We conducted an extensive search of electronic databases using a comprehensive search strategy. This search resulted in 16 studies that tested 13 interventions for treating suicidal ideation and behavior using family based interventions. Of the interventions identified, three yielded an overall improvement in suicidal ideation and behavior while an additional three interventions produced partial improvement in mental health symptoms. These studies targeted suicidal ideation and behavior in youth or adolescents while no studies examined family interventions for adults with suicidal ideation and behavior. The limitations of these studies and the need for additional research are examined.     

Food Security: The Elaboration of Contested Claims to a Consensus Frame*

Abstract This article demonstrates Gamson's claim that behind the apparent agreement implied by “consensus frames” lies considerable dissensus. Ironically, the very potency of consensus frames may generate contested claims to the ownership of a social problem. Food security is a potent consensus frame that has generated at least three distinct collective action frames: food security as hunger; food security as a component of a community's developmental whole; and food security as minimizing risks with respect to an industrialized food system's vulnerability to both “normal accidents” as well as the “intentional accidents” associated with agriterrorism. We show that each collective action frame reflects internal normative variation identified here with Goffman's “keying” concept. These keys suggest power differentials in the endorsement or critique of dominant institutional practices. Each frame and associated keys reflect distinct sets of interests by collective actors, such as demands for substantively different applications of science and technology. The prognostic framing of the community food security movement coincidentally holds potential for reducing not only the accidental risks of productivist agriculture but also the uncertainty induced by the risk of terrorist exploitation of those vulnerabilities. The article explores power differentials and variable levels of oppositional consciousness as mechanisms by which keys generate contentious politics within frames while serving as potential bridges between frames. This contested ownership of food security has implications for the associated movements' and organizations' capacity to influence the structure of the agrifood system as well as the broader socioeconomic organization of rural regions.     

Missed opportunity: The NTER and sustainable development outcomes for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory

This article questions why the Labor Government has failed to fundamentally change the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) which it inherited from the Howard government, in the face of evidence which suggests that it is a development intervention unlikely to bring about sustained change. There are two major problems which this article highlights: the coercive and denigrating approach of the NTER, and its failure to address the need for Indigenous governance to drive lasting Indigenous development. Drawing on global research about the reduction of poverty and evidence about the social and economic development of native nations in other settler states, the article suggests that the NTER has been a missed opportunity for Indigenous development. Better policies would have been to address the barriers which Indigenous people identify as blocking their initiatives for development, and to support the essential work of building effective and legitimate community governance to drive development.