Changing households in Britain: do families still matter?

The decline in traditional nuclear family households, and the marked increase in the proportion of people living alone, or alone with dependent children have led some to claim that individualism has replaced the importance of family life. In this paper we use data from a large household panel study of Britain to suggest that this is not true. Regardless of people's own household circumstances, family issues and events are clearly top of the agenda of what people consider matter most in their lives. Moreover, in talking about events that mattered, people are almost as likely to talk about something that happened to other family members, as they are to talk about themselves. Surprisingly, people living alone or alone with children are as likely to mention other family members as those who live in family households. Yet the importance of family does vary considerably by gender and age. Women give more importance to family events and events in the lives of other family members than do men. Young people are far more self-centred than older people but whether this is a generational or life-stage difference is open to question.     

Medical examinations for child sexual abuse in Scotland: good enough practice?

This questionnaire survey of a representative sample of practitioners in Scotland sought to establish speci?cally how widely guidance on child protection issued by the Scottish Executive Health Department was being followed by practitioners, NHS Trusts and health boards. It aimed to identify the medical practitioners involved and the range of current practice in child sexual abuse examinations throughout Scotland. The results suggest that the medical assessment of children who disclose sexual abuse is a low‐volume, highly specialized activity, practised by about one in ?ve paediatricians and forensic medical examiners in Scotland. Most (79%) are aged between 41 and 60 years; 59.8% have less than 10 years' experience in the ?eld; and the majority (86.3%) perform fewer than two examinations per week. Available guidance is comprehensive and uniform, highlighting the importance of joint specialist working, use of the colposcope for photodocumentation, training and continuing professional development in this specialized area of work. Despite this, the results of our survey of practitioners show that throughout Scotland, the care offered to children and the service provided to the courts are suboptimal. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Food Insecurity in Regional Rural Australia

ABSTRACT

This study explores food relief recipients' and providers’ experiences and perceptions of food insecurity in a large regional town in Australia. The cross-sectional qualitative methods research design incorporated survey-based interviews of four food relief services, a focus group of food relief recipients and two biographical interviews of food insecurity experience. Qualitative thematic data analysis provided insight into the respondents’ experience and perceptions of the causes of food insecurity, the provision of food relief and the limitations of a charity model. An ecological-model-based analysis shows that food insecurity is the product of multiple complex causes including chronic and situational poverty. Political dimensions emerged in terms of the policies that are developed or omitted.

IMPLICATIONS

• Social workers need to advocate for the human right to food and strengthen capacity at multiple levels to improve food security.

• Improving access to quality and culturally appropriate food requires the implementation of multiple strategies.

     

Prioritizing Environmental Health Risks in the UAE

This article presents the results of a comparative environmental risk‐ranking exercise that was conducted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to inform a strategic planning process led by the Environment Agency‐Abu Dhabi (EAD). It represents the first national‐level application of a deliberative method for comparative risk ranking first published in this journal. The deliberative method involves a five‐stage process that includes quantitative risk assessment by experts and deliberations by groups of stakeholders. The project reported in this article considered 14 categories of environmental risks to health identified through discussions with EAD staff: ambient and indoor air pollution; drinking water contamination; coastal water pollution; soil and groundwater contamination; contamination of fruits, vegetables, and seafood; ambient noise; stratospheric ozone depletion; electromagnetic fields from power lines; health impacts from climate change; and exposure to hazardous substances in industrial, construction, and agricultural work environments. Results from workshops involving 73 stakeholders who met in five separate groups to rank these risks individually and collaboratively indicated strong consensus that outdoor and indoor air pollution are the highest priorities in the UAE. Each of the five groups rated these as being among the highest risks. All groups rated soil and groundwater contamination as being among the lowest risks. In surveys administered after the ranking exercises, participants indicated that the results of the process represented their concerns and approved of using the ranking results to inform policy decisions. The results ultimately shaped a strategic plan that is now being implemented.     

Engaging Expert Peers in the Development of Risk Assessments

The participation of external technical experts in the development of risk assessment documents and methodologies has expanded and evolved in recent years. Many government agencies and authoritative organizations have experts peer review important works to evaluate the scientific and technical defensibility and judge the strength of the assumptions and conclusions (OMB, 2004; IPCS, 2005; IARC, 2006; Health Canada, 2007; U.S. EPA, 2006). Expert advice has been solicited in other forms of peer involvement, including peer consultation in, for example, the U.S. EPA's Voluntary Children's Chemical Evaluation Program (VCCEP). This article discusses how the principles and practices of peer review can be extended to other types of peer involvement activities (i.e., peer input and peer consultation) to develop high-quality risk assessment work products. A comprehensive process for incorporating peer input, peer consultation, and peer review into risk assessment science is outlined. Four key principles for peer involvement-independence, inclusion of appropriate experts, transparency, and a robust scientific process-are discussed. Recent examples of peer involvement in the development of Health Canada's Priority Substances and Domestic Substance List (DSL) programs under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) serve to highlight the concepts.     

Residential Segregation on the Island: The Role of Race and Class in Puerto Rican Neighborhoods

In this paper, we use racial data from Census 2000, available for the first time in 50 years, to examine the links among race, socioeconomic status, and residential location on the island of Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans overwhelmingly chose white as their race, and they chose only one race, not a combination of races that would seem more in keeping with the ideology of mestizaje. Overall, segregation by race is modest compared with residential segregation in the United States. In keeping with the Puerto Rican claim that class is more important than race, we find that segregation by race is generally lower than segregation between the lowest and highest income categories in all metro areas, but that the results for education and occupational status differ by metropolitan area. In San Juan-Bayamón, the most diverse metropolitan area on the island, we find that as percent black increases, neighborhood socioeconomic status decreases, though the changes are not that stark, except in Loiza, a community of black Puerto Ricans and in some Dominican neighborhoods, though there are relatively few of these neighborhoods.     

‘I don't have anything to hide,but … ': the challenges and negotiations of social and mobile media privacy for non-dominant youth

Drawing from interviews and focus groups with teens in a low-income and ethnically diverse high school in central Texas, this paper explores the unique social privacy challenges and strategies of low-income and non-dominant youth. Situating the research in a broader context in which non-dominant teens are increasingly surveilled, I demonstrate how teens manage social privacy in at least three ways. First, they negotiate liminal boundaries of what constitutes a communal or shareable mobile device, which are structured around financial constraints. Second, through nonuse, they actively resist the ways mobile and social media reconfigure social and physical spaces. Third, they deliberately use multiple platforms as a way to cope with evolving privacy settings, social norms, and technological affordances; this is a deliberate strategy intended to resist social convergence. Because low-income and non-dominant youth are increasingly surveilled by adults, peers, and institutions, it is imperative that they find spaces that afford greater freedom of expression, interest-based communities, and privacy.     

Gender, widowhood, and long-term care in the older Mexican American population

The objective of this study is to examine the influences of gender on long-term care service use among older Mexican American widows and widowers. Our analysis is based on a sample of 773 widows and 183 widowers from the Longitudinal Study of Elderly Mexican American Health (H-EPESE). In this sample widows resemble widowers in terms of demographic and health characteristics. However, widows report more financial strain than widowers and a greater welfare dependency (SSI) and Medicaid use. Among those who suffered diminished health, widows were more likely than widowers to use community-based long-term care services whereas widowers were more likely to enter a nursing home. Widows also had more instrumental and socioemotional support than widowers. Serious cognitive and functional impairment, though, places widows and widowers at the same risk of institutionalization. We end with a discussion of the policy implications of these findings.     

Financial strain and health among elderly Mexican-origin individuals

In this paper we examine the associations among perceived financial strain and various health measures--including self-rated health, self-reported functional capacity, performance-based mobility, and mortality--in a sample of older Mexican-origin individuals. We employ the Hispanic Established Population for Epidemiological Studies of the Elderly, an eight-year longitudinal survey of over 3,000 Mexican-origin individuals in five southwestern states who were initially interviewed in 1993 and 1994. Although financial strain is associated with actual income and poverty, it is also associated with cognitive capacity, depression, and self-esteem, and while it is strongly associated with subjective measures, it has a weaker association with more objective measures, such as performance-based mobility and mortality. Financial strain appears to be part of a package of cognitions and emotions indicative of low morale or demoralization that has adverse effects on subjective health.