Social support in single parents' transition from welfare to work: Analysis of qualitative findings1

Cook KE. Social support in single parents' transition from welfare to work: Analysis of qualitative findings Since 1995, single parents have been required to participate in welfare‐to‐work activities. While quantitative meta‐analyses have consolidated the social and economic impacts of such transitions, no attempt has yet been made to synthesise the qualitative evidence. In this article, I offer an analysis of 16 qualitative articles that explore the role of social support in the lives of single mothers making the transition from welfare to work. By focusing on the functions and reciprocal nature of social support, this study examined how welfare‐to‐work programmes shift women's dependence from the state onto family and friends, many of whom are in similarly impoverished situations and/or are unable to provide adequate support. Furthermore, women are often required to reciprocate the support they receive, which creates additional barriers to a successful welfare‐to‐work transition.     

Peer Victimization and Psychological Maladjustment: The Mediating Role of Coping Self‐Efficacy

Not all children exposed to peer victimization experience the same type or the same degree of negative outcomes; there is heterogeneity in outcomes. This study examined coping self‐efficacy as a mediator of the relationship between peer victimization and psychological maladjustment in order to gain an understanding of this heterogeneity in children's responses to victimization. In this study, 2,161 children (1,071 females and 1,090 males), ranging in age from 10 to 15 years, 63% White, 17% Middle‐Eastern, 10% Asian, and 10% from other ethnic groups, participated. Results from the mediational analysis revealed that four coping self‐efficacy domains differentially mediated the relationship between peer victimization and social anxiety, cognitive depression, and externalizing symptoms. These findings highlight the importance of increasing children's coping self‐efficacy for proactive behavior, avoiding self‐blame, victim‐role disengagement, and avoiding aggressive behavior in order to attenuate the negative psychological outcomes of peer harassment.     

Managing everyday (in)securities: Normative values,emotional security and symbolic recognition in the lives of Russian rural elders

Qualitative studies of ageing have called for attention to be paid to the diverse experiences of older people and to their agency in negotiating opportunities and constraints. A lack of research into the experiences and subjectivities of rural elders has been noted. Yet, the majority of research concerning elderly people in contemporary Russia continues to treat old age as a category and focus on particular practical and material forms of assistance available to pensioners. This article, aims to contribute to the small but growing body of ethnographic studies which shed light on the lives of elderly people in Russia as subjects in their own right. Based on ethnographic fieldwork from rural Siberia, the article explores the ways in which elderly people experience and interpret day-to-day (in)securities, forms of care and social support. In doing so the article explores three key questions: Firstly, how do lived realities, both past and present, and normative values of rural life intersect in elderly people's experiences of (in)security in post-socialist contexts?; Secondly, what forms of assistance do older people view as legitimate in their everyday lives? In particular, how are emotional exchanges and interpersonal connections interpreted and what securities do they bring?; Thirdly, what is the significance of symbolic support and recognition for elderly people and how do these draw on practices and frameworks from the socialist past?     

The Invisible Unattended: Low‐wage Chinese Immigrant Workers,Health Care,and Social Capital in Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley*

This study investigates the factors affecting the availability of health insurance, the accessibility of health care, and the dissemination of the relevant information among low‐wage Chinese immigrants in Southern California by relying on the concepts of social and cultural capital. Using community‐based research and in‐depth interviews, our study suggests that a severe shortage in health care coverage among low‐wage Chinese immigrants is influenced by the lack of employment with employer‐provided health insurance within the Chinese “ethnoburb” community. Although the valuable social capital generated by Chinese immigrant networks seems to be sufficient enough to provide them with certain practical resources, the lack of cultural capital renders the social network rather ineffective in providing critical health care information from mainstream American society.     

Wem droht die Zinsschranke? Eine empirische Untersuchung zur Identifikation der Einflussfaktoren

One important aspect of the German corporate tax reform 2008/2009 is the introduction of an EBITDA-based interest deduction limitation. This article focuses on the questions how many and which companies are threatened by this so-called “interest ceiling rule”. Based on an analysis of 77.464 financial statements of German corporations this limitation is relevant for 561 up to 1.511 companies. Thus, this thin-capitalization rule affects more companies than expected by politics. Additionally, we derived several hypotheses from theory concerning possible distortions caused by this rule and tested them empirically. As a result, the “interest ceiling” does affect systematically large, less profitable companies, those with high collaterals as well as holding and real estate companies. Consequently, domestic corporate decisions will be distorted and the theorem of production efficiency is violated.     

Development of a Testicular Self-Examination Program for College Men

Abstract

“When to Perform Biopsies of Enlarged Peripheral Lymph Nodes in Young Patients,” GAIL B. SLAP, et al. Identification of young patients with peripheral lymphadenopathy who will benefit from lymph node biopsy often is difficult. A model was developed to differentiate patients whose biopsy results do not lead to treatment (normal, hyperplastic, or benign inflammatory lymph nodes) from those whose biopsy results do lead to treatment (granulomatous or malignant nodes). The medical records and histopathology slides of 123 nine- to 25-year-old patients who underwent biopsies of enlarged peripheral lymph nodes were reviewed for pathological diagnosis and 22 clinical findings. Seventy-two (58%) patients had biopsy results that did not lead to treatment, and 51 (42%) had results that did lead to treatment. Using stepwise discriminant analysis, a predictive model was developed that assigned 95% of the cases to the correct biopsy group based on lymph node size; history of recent ear, nose, and throat symptoms; and chest roentgenogram. When tested prospectively on new patients, the model correctly classified 32 (97%) of 33. We conclude that this simple model can help select adolescents and young adults with peripheral lymphadenopathy for biopsy. (Journal of the American Medical Association 1984;252:1321-1326.)

“The Clinical Information Value of the Glycosylated Hemoglobin Assay,” David M. Nathan, et al. We evaluated the clinical information value of the glycosylated hemoglobin assay by comparing it with practitioners' estimates of glucose control over the preceding 10 weeks in 216 patients with diabetes. Twenty-four percent of the practitioners' estimates, which were based on historical and laboratory data collected during a routine office visit, differed by more than ± 75 mg per deciliter from the actual mean blood glucose levels calculated with the glycosylated hemoglobin assay. One third of the mean blood glucose concentration fell outside the confidence intervals physicians used to bound their estimates. When examined individually or in the aggregate, historical information, such as polyuria, nocturia, or home urine testing for glucose, and laboratory information, such as fasting or random blood glucose levels, were weak predictors of the actual mean concentration of blood glucose.     

(Un)Verst?ndlichkeit des Steuerrechts und Nachfrage nach Steuerberatungsdienstleistungen: Ein Experiment

Although increasing the understandability of tax law is a popular postulation, the consequences for individual decisions and the distribution of the tax burdens are far from clear. For this reason, the effects on the demand for tax advice are analyzed in an experimental setting: the participants had to rank pension plans while the understandability of the tax system was modified. We show that an increasing understandability of tax law significantly decreases the willingness to pay for tax advice and that this relationship is moderated by the individuals?? level of education. In fact, in our experiment only individuals with a high education level benefit from the improved understandability of tax law.     

Applications of social area analysis to program planning and evaluation

The development of social area analysis as a research technique is highlighted, and two illustrative applications are presented. The first example applies social area analysis to the study of an urban region's demography and the distribution of social problems found there. The second example illustrates how social area analysis can be integrated within a larger evaluation effort. Suggestions for undertaking social area analyses and related demographic studies are presented.     

Pearl'S Law and the Growth of the Scottish National Party

An examination of the percentage of the total Soottish poll gained by the SNP at general elections between 1951 and 1974 inclusive suggested that a stable, sigmoidal growth process might be identified if elections were regarded as occurring at unit intervals in time. The resulting time service was extremely well-fitted by Pearl's Law, a theoretical growth curve possessing a signoidal trend, and a theoretical upper limit to growth. On the basis of this model, estimated of, and confidence intervals for, both this theoretical upper limit, and of the party's performance in the next general election were obtained.