Yearning, learning, and conceding: reasons men and women change their childbearing intentions

People's childbearing intentions change over the course of their reproductive lives. These changes have been conceptualized as occurring in response to the realization that an individual is unlikely to achieve his or her intended fertility, because of constraints such as the "biological clock" or lack of a partner. In this article, we find that changes to child-bearing plans are influenced by a much wider range of factors than this. People change their plans in response to the wishes of their partners, in response to social norms, as the result of repartnering, and as the result of learning about the costs and benefits of parenthood; there are also differences between the factors that influence men's and women's decision-making. In a departure from existing studies in this area, we use a flexible analytical framework that enables us to analyze increases in planned fertility separately from decreases. This allows us to uncover several complexities of the decision-making process that would otherwise be hidden, and leads us to conclude that the determinants of increases in planned fertility are not simply equal and opposite to the determinants of decreases.     

Competence effects for choices involving gains and losses

We investigate how choices for uncertain gain and loss prospects are affected by the decision maker’s perceived level of knowledge about the underlying domain of uncertainty. Specifically, we test whether Heath and Tversky’s (J Risk Uncertain 4:5–28, 1991) competence hypothesis extends from gains to losses. We predict that the commonly-observed preference for high knowledge over low knowledge prospects for gains reverses for losses. We employ an empirical setup in which participants make hypothetical choices between gain or loss prospects in which the outcome depends on whether a high or low knowledge event occurs. We infer decision weighting functions for high and low knowledge events from choices using a representative agent preference model. For gains, we replicate the results of Kilka and Weber (Manage Sci 47:1712–1726, 2001), finding that decision makers are more attracted to choices that they feel more knowledgeable about. However, for losses, we find limited support for our extension of the competence effect.     

Performance of coefficient of variation estimators in ranked set sampling

In this paper, we propose and evaluate the performance of different parametric and nonparametric estimators for the population coefficient of variation considering Ranked Set Sampling (RSS) under normal distribution. The performance of the proposed estimators was assessed based on the bias and relative efficiency provided by a Monte Carlo simulation study. An application in anthropometric measurements data from a human population is also presented. The results showed that the proposed estimators via RSS present an expressively lower mean squared error when compared to the usual estimator, obtained via Simple Random Sampling. Also, it was verified the superiority of the maximum likelihood estimator, given the necessary assumptions of normality and perfect ranking are met.     

Heterogeneous Perspectives in Coalitions and Community-Based Responses to Sex Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation: Implications for Practice

ABSTRACT

Despite increases in community-based coalitions to address sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation (CSE), and the coinciding ideological debates surrounding sexual commerce, few studies have examined the dynamics between and perspectives among coalition members. This paper aims to explore 1) coalition members' perspectives on religion, politics, feminism, sex trafficking/sex work, neoliberalism/neo-abolitionism and 2) the impacts of such perspectives on coalition members' anti-trafficking/CSE work. Drawing from a larger qualitative study, 24 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with current and former coalition members in an urban Midwestern city. Findings suggest varied religious identities, which challenged some providers in coordinating services for the lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer/questioning (LGBTQ) community or women with a history of or considering abortions. Providers generally identified as democrat as well as feminist in some way, but had conflicting views of sexual commerce. These competing ideologies created challenges for cohesive coalition action. Consequently, it may be essential to facilitate intergroup dialogues addressing diverse perspectives, come to consensus on goals, or develop subgroup goals in order to create a functioning inter-agency response. Future studies should explore such dynamics across multiple coalitions nationwide and the impact such perspectives may have on survivors engaging in services.     

Time as a limited resource: Communication strategy in mobile phone networks

We used a large database of 9 billion calls from 20 million mobile users to examine the relationships between aggregated time spent on the phone, personal network size, tie strength and the way in which users distributed their limited time across their network (disparity). Compared to those with smaller networks, those with large networks did not devote proportionally more time to communication and had on average weaker ties (as measured by time spent communicating). Further, there were not substantially different levels of disparity between individuals, in that mobile users tend to distribute their time very unevenly across their network, with a large proportion of calls going to a small number of individuals. Together, these results suggest that there are time constraints which limit tie strength in large personal networks, and that even high levels of mobile communication do not fundamentally alter the disparity of time allocation across networks.     

An Examination of Listening Concepts in the Healthcare Context: Differences Among Nurses,Physicians, and Administrators

This study explores the perceived conceptualizations of listening in a healthcare context. The review of literature focusing on communication and listening in healthcare supports the belief that listening is an essential element in patient satisfaction. This study sought to determine which activities physicians, nurses and healthcare administrators perceive as similar or identical to listening. A survey of 203 health care professionals, using a web-based version of the Imhof-Janusik Listening Concepts Inventory (Imhof and Janusik, 2006 Imhof, M. and Janusik, L. A. 2006. Development and validation of the Imhof-Janusik listening concepts inventory to measure listening conceptualization differences between cultures. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 35(2): 79–98. [Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) was completed. The results suggest the listening conceptualizations vary among physicians, nurses, and administrators with administrators exhibiting the most flexibility in their conceptualization of listening. It is concluded that these conceptualizations may play a critical role in the behaviors displayed by nurses, physicians and hospital administrators.     

Muslim Women's Challenges to Islamic Law The Case of Malaysia

The reform of Islam by women and especially the lessons this activism might contain for feminist praxis is a highly topical and important issue. This article outlines some of the lessons to be drawn from studying this area with a specific focus on the activism of some groups of Malaysian Muslim women aimed at the reform of Islam. Two different strategies for reform are explained and traced in their attempts to reform religious interpretation and the Islamic legal system, the Syar'iah. The aim of the article is to provoke dialogue over the relationship of Islam to women's rights, while highlighting the agency of Muslim women within an Islamic framework. Another aim is to contribute to the debate over what constitutes feminism and the need to subject the debate continuously to cross-cultural and international perspectives.     

Comparing Pansexual- and Bisexual-Identified Participants on Demographics,Psychological Well-Being,and Political Ideology in a New Zealand National Sample

Pansexuality, characterized by attraction to people regardless of their gender, is an emerging sexual identity. Research has started to explore the differences between those who identify as pansexual and those who identify as bisexual, typically defined as being attracted to both men and women. This article extends past research by testing for differences between those who identify as pansexual (n = 52) and bisexual (n = 497) in a nationally representative sample. We used the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (NZAVS) to test for differences in demographic variables, psychological well-being, and political ideology. We found that pansexual participants were younger, more likely to be gender diverse (transgender or nonbinary), and more likely to be from the indigenous Māori ethnic group than bisexual participants. Pansexual participants also reported higher psychological distress and were more politically liberal than bisexual participants. These results suggest that people who identify as pansexual are, on average, quantifiably different from those who identify as bisexual; this study adds to a new but growing body of research on emerging plurisexual identities.