An effective programme is not enough: a review of factors associated with poor attendance and engagement with parenting support programmes

The provision of parenting support is a key feature of wealthier nations’ health and social care services. However, attendance and engagement by the neediest parents remains poor. Barriers experienced by parents include personal life factors (beliefs, lifestyles and limited resources) and programme‐specific factors (delivery, content and support arrangements). Here we give consideration to these issues, drawing on published reviews of parenting programme effectiveness identified through a comprehensive search of electronic databases. We suggest ways of improving attendance and engagement, by providing programmes as part of a comprehensive framework of family support.     

Worry and rumination: Explanatory roles in the relation between pain and anxiety and depressive symptoms among college students with pain

Objective: Pain affects a significant proportion of college students in the United States and has been linked to anxiety and depressive symptoms. Rumination and worry, two transdiagnostic factors linked to comorbidity, may explain the relationship between pain and mental health symptoms.

Current Study: The current study examined worry and rumination as explanatory factors in the relationship between pain and anxiety and depressive symptoms in a sample of college students with pain (n?=?1,577; 79.9% female).

Results: Results indicated that both rumination and worry explained the relationship between pain and depressive and social anxiety symptoms, while rumination alone explained the relationship between pain and anxious arousal symptoms.

Conclusion: The current study provides novel empirical evidence that worry and rumination each help explain the relationship between pain and anxiety and depressive symptoms among college students with current pain, and college students in pain may benefit from targeted psychosocial strategies aimed at decreasing worry and ruminative responses.     

Strategic Migrant Network Building and Information Sharing: Understanding ‘Migrant Pioneers’ in Canada

This article explores the migrant networks that develop between migrants, non‐migrants and the larger Indian diaspora. Specifically, it examines the decision to migrate to Toronto, Canada and how this decision is shaped by, and in turn shapes the migrant network. Based on 35 interviews with migrants from Karnataka, South India, two main findings are presented. First, migrants are deliberately choosing settlement countries in which their families are not yet located, thereby becoming “migrant pioneers” in their country of settlement, which is an attempt to expand their migrant networks globally. Second, the narratives these migrants receive and subsequently impart to others are often inaccurate, which can lead to miscommunication flows among these migrant networks. These findings are considered in light of the large body of research on migrant networks and the ways they develop and transmit information. This paper argues that existing understanding of migrant networks is somewhat static. Findings indicate that these “migrant pioneers” may be engaging in global risk‐diversification strategies for subsequent generations, but may themselves suffer from the more immediate consequences of misinformed networks.     

The Teacher's Corner: A Visual Derivation of Some Elementary Discrete Distributions

As a member of a clinical investigative team developing a protocol for a clinical trial, the statistician has broad responsibilities for ensuring the scientific integrity of the product. To prepare for this role, the statistician must study and learn in detail the clinical subject matter and must be prepared, if necessary, to teach the statistical principles of clinical trials to collaborators. This article discusses various issues that arise in the design of a clinical trial and how the statistician can participate in their resolution.     

DO RACE AND ETHNICITY MATTER AMONG FRIENDS?

Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (or Add Health), a nationally representative sample of adolescents in 1994–1995, we examine if and how friendship activities differ among interracial, interethnic, and interethnic friendships of white, black, Hispanic, and Asian youths. We find that best friends are more likely than higher-order friends to be from the same ethnic group and that best friends report more shared activities during the past week than do their higher-order friendship counterparts. Hence, we argue that shared activities is a useful indicator of friendship intimacy. In general, interracial friends report fewer shared activities than do intraracial friends, although this difference is strongest for white respondents. Moreover, we find that white, Asian, and Hispanic youths all report fewer activities with their black friends. We find little difference in friendship activities between interethnic and intraethnic friendships. Our findings suggest that, even when youths manage to break racial boundaries in friendship selection, these friendships face greater challenges than do those between individuals of the same race.     

Risk-Based Zoning for Toxic-Gas Pipelines

Implicit in the operation of a toxic-gas pipeline is the possibility of an accidental release, which could have serious consequences if upwind of a nearby populated area. Concern for public safety leads to the establishment of isolation corridors or buffer zones to reduce and control the hazard to human settlements. Although "worst case" or "average case" are often used in the determination of safe distances, a probabilistic approach (risk analysis) is superior because it identifies important factors, it makes maximum use of available data, it allows comparison of alternatives, and it quantifies intuitive risk considerations. To illustrate the method, a risk model developed for sour gas pipelines in the Province of Alberta, Canada is outlined and an actual risk-distance curve is presented. The current zoning regulations in Alberta are summarized.     

From behind the shadows: a profile of the sexual abuse of older men residing in nursing homes

Previous research on the sexual abuse of older adults has revealed few cases of the sexual abuse of older men. The first national study of the sexual abuse of vulnerable adults in facilities, reported in this article, collected data on alleged, investigated, and substantiated cases of sexual abuse. This study revealed 26 cases reported and screened in for investigation concerning the alleged sexual abuse of older men (aged 50 and older) residing in nursing homes. Cases occurred in five states within a six month time period. Of these cases, six were confirmed upon investigation by Adult Protective Services or other regulatory agencies. Victims tended to be predominantly white males with cognitive and physical deficits that limited their ability for self care. The most typical sexual abuse alleged and substantiated was fondling. Residents were more often substantiated as the abuser than other perpetrators. Sexual abuse of older men in nursing homes crosses traditional gender, cultural, and role boundaries for both victims and perpetrators.     

Customer incivility and employee well-being: testing the moderating effects of meaning,perspective taking and transformational leadership

This study investigated factors that influence the relationship between experiencing customer incivility and the psychological well-being of employees in the service industry (N?=?215). Using the cognitive appraisal theory of stress, we identified and tested three factors that may buffer employees from the negative effects of customer incivility: finding meaning in work, perspective taking, and transformational leadership of supervisors. Transformational leadership was found to moderate the relationship between customer incivility and employee well-being. Meaning and perspective taking did not moderate the relationship between customer incivility and employee well-being, but did have a positive association with employee well-being. These findings contribute to the literature on customer incivility and suggest that organization-based resources that influence both primary and secondary appraisal, such as transformational leadership, are useful in buffering the harmful employee outcomes related to customer incivility.     

Gender and the Stability of Same-Sex and Different-Sex Relationships Among Young Adults

Most research on the stability of adult relationships has focused on coresidential (cohabiting or married) unions and estimates rates of dissolution for the period of coresidence. Studies examining how the stability of coresidential unions differs by sex composition have typically found that same-sex female couples have higher rates of dissolution than same-sex male couples and different-sex couples. We argue that the more elevated rates of dissolution for same-sex female couples are a by-product of the focus on coresidential unions. We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to compare rates of dissolution based on the total duration of romantic and sexual relationships for same-sex male couples, same-sex female couples, and different-sex couples. Results from hazard models that track the stability of young adult relationships from the time they are formed demonstrate that male couples have substantially higher dissolution rates than female couples and different-sex couples. Results based on models restricted to the period of coresidence corroborate the counterintuitive finding from earlier studies that female couples have the highest rates of dissolving coresidential unions. This study underlines the importance of comparisons between these couple types for a better understanding of the role that institutions and gender play in the stability of contemporary relationships.     

Does Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Matter for Children’s Health Status? Insights from Northern Ghana

Given that women in rural communities in developing countries are responsible for the nutrition and health-related decisions affecting children in their care, their empowerment may influence the health status of their children. The association between women’s empowerment, measured by using a recently developed Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index, and children’s health status is examined for a sample of households in Northern Ghana applying a Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) model. The MIMIC approach is used to link multiple indicator variables with multiple independent variables through a “single underlying” latent variable. Height-for-age and weight-for-height z-scores are used as indicators of the underlying children’s health status and women’s empowerment in agriculture and control variables are used as the multiple independent variables. Our results show that neither the composite empowerment score used to capture women’s empowerment in agriculture nor its decomposed components are statistically significant in their association with the latent children’s health status. However, the associations between children’s health status and control variables such as mother’s education, child’s age, household’s hunger scale and residence locale are statistically significant. Results also confirm the existence of the ‘single underlying’ common latent variable. Of the two health status indicators, height-for-age scores and weight-for- height scores, the former exhibited a relatively stronger association with the latent health status. While promoting women’s empowerment to enhance their ability to make strategic life choices, it is important to carefully consider how the achievement of these objectives will impact the women’s well-being and the well-being of the children in their care.