THEORETICAL VALIDITY AND EMPIRICAL UTILITY OF A CONSTRUCTIONIST ANALYTICS

Wing‐Chung Ho offers an extensive critique of what he calls our “radical constructionist approach to family experience,” questioning the theoretical validity and empirical utility of the research program. This article responds to the charges in the broader context of the program's constructionist analytics, discussing family's experiential location, organizational embeddedness, and the importance of ethnographic sensibility. A brief extract of situated talk and interaction is presented to illustrate the discursive complexity and institutional bearings of family as a category of experience. The conclusion takes up the issue of whether the program is radical in conceptualization and empirical realization.     

Benefits and costs associated with mutual-help community-based recovery homes: The Oxford House model

We used data from a randomized controlled study of Oxford House (OH), a self-run, self-supporting recovery home, to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the program. Following substance abuse treatment, individuals that were assigned to an OH condition (n = 68) were compared to individuals assigned to a usual care condition (n = 61). Economic cost measures were derived from length of stay at an Oxford House residence, and derived from self-reported measures of inpatient and outpatient treatment utilization. Economic benefit measures were derived from self-reported information on monthly income, days participating in illegal activities, binary responses of alcohol and drug use, and incarceration. Results suggest that OH compared quite favorably to usual care: the net benefit of an OH stay was estimated to be roughly $29,000 per person on average. Bootstrapped standard errors suggested that the net benefit was statistically significant. Costs were incrementally higher under OH, but the benefits in terms of reduced illegal activity, incarceration and substance use substantially outweighed the costs. The positive net benefit for Oxford House is primarily driven by a large difference in illegal activity between OH and usual care participants. Using sensitivity analyses, under more conservative assumptions we still arrived at a net benefit favorable to OH of $17,830 per person.     

Dominant strategy implementation with a convex product space of valuations

A necessary and sufficient condition for dominant strategy implementability when preferences are quasilinear is that, for every individual i and every choice of the types of the other individuals, all k-cycles in i’s allocation graph have nonnegative length for every integer k ≥ 2. Saks and Yu (Proceedings of the 6th ACM conference on electronic commerce (EC’05), pp 286–293, 2005) have shown that when the number of outcomes is finite and i’s valuation type space is convex, nonnegativity of the length of all 2-cycles is sufficient for the nonnegativity of the length of all k-cycles. In this article, it is shown that if each individual’s valuation type space is a full-dimensional convex product space and a mild domain regularity condition is satisfied, then (i) the nonnegativity of all 2-cycles implies that all k-cycles have zero length and (ii) all 2-cycles having zero length is necessary and sufficient for dominant strategy implementability.     

Clinical Social Work Practice with Former System Youth with Mental Health Needs: Perspective of Those in Need

The purpose of this study is to describe the types of programs and mental health services former system youth with mental health histories would be inclined to engage in to manage their mental health difficulties, along with the factors that might hinder them from engaging in these services. A series of closed and open-ended questions on potential programs and services were asked, as part of a larger study. Participants were former system youth; specifically 18?C30?year olds who were diagnosed with a mood disorder and were involved with public mental health and social services (e.g., public welfare, child welfare, juvenile justice) during childhood. Responses to the open-ended questions were categorized and percentages are reported from the yes/no items. Eighty-three percent and 76% reported that they would be enticed to come to a support group and panel discussion on mood disorders, respectively, while only 46% reported that they would attend a family support group. Talking with others who have had similar experiences, material possessions and creative expression were the most common responses regarding what would entice them to get involved. Further, peer disrespect, transportation, and daycare were common barriers to potential participation. As the field continues to build knowledge on system-wide strategies to improve agency-based mental health care for transitioning youth and young adults, new evidence-based approaches may benefit from listening to the specific needs, preferences, and suggestions of these youth themselves.     

A critical review on current practices of the monitoring and evaluation in the preparation of strategic urban plans within the Egyptian context

Worldwide, strategic urban planning is found in very different contexts and planning schemes, where it is always a tool strongly linked to enhancing urban management. Under the umbrella of strategic urban planning different approaches can be perceived, in which within these broad shared characteristics there are significant variations. A key component in the strategic urban planning process is the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) element and these differences can be seen in the way that M&E is approached. Egypt is currently on the track to reform its planning system shifting from the conventional master plans towards strategic urban plans (SUPs). This paper reflects on the current practices of M&E the preparation of SUPs within the Egyptian context. It sheds light on the strengths and weaknesses of the employed techniques and concludes with some recommendations to improve the process of M&E, which builds upon the strengths in the employed techniques.     

Meaning of Political Controversy in the Classroom: A Dialogue Across The Podium

The abstract value of academic freedom is enjoyed (or not) in concrete settings, as interactional and emergent experiences. We examine classroom political controversy in our experiences, understandings, and values, using grounded theory methods and collective autoethnography by a team of five teachers and students. Our data were generated through electronic and face‐to‐face dialogues. Our analysis, guided by a symbolic interactionist and constructionist framework, yields a picture of Controversy in Action, whereby we navigate Barriers to Open Discussion and Costs of Controversy. Results highlight insights into taken‐for‐granted meanings unexamined in day‐to‐day classroom interaction. We attend to the relevance of the local context in which our classrooms are embedded and the interactional, meaning creating work that goes on in those classrooms, as we negotiate controversy.     

CONSUMPTION,SENTIMENT, AND ECONOMIC NEWS

This paper investigates the influence of economic news on consumer sentiment, and examines whether “news shocks”—changes in coverage that would not be expected from incoming data on economic fundamentals—have aggregate effects. Using monthly U.S. data and a structural vector autoregression, I find that (1) sentiment is affected by news shocks; (2) after filtering out effects of news shocks, shocks to sentiment still have positive effects on consumer spending; and (3) news shocks influence both spending and unemployment in significant, though transitory ways. These results are consistent with other evidence of a role of nonfundamental factors in aggregate fluctuations. (JEL E21, E32, D12)     

The incidence of metabolic risk factors in an inpatient psychiatric setting

Our study examines risk factors for metabolic syndrome on admission to an acute psychiatric facility and the incidence of medical referrals at discharge. Data on demographics, risk factors for metabolic syndrome, other health risk factors, medications, related diagnoses, and primary care providers and referrals were collected from 125 psychiatric patient charts. Comparison analysis was done for two groups: those with two or more risk factors for metabolic syndrome and those with less than two risk factors. Differences between groups were statistically significant for age, waist circumference, body mass index, high-density lipoprotein, triglycerides, and fasting glucose levels. Few patients were referred to their primary care provider for follow-up care. This study has clinical implications for improving assessment of psychiatric patients at risk for developing metabolic syndrome, for designing interventions to help patients adopt lifestyle changes to mitigate these risks, and for working toward fuller integration of psychiatric and primary care.     

The unique effects of environmental strategies in health promotion campaigns: a review

Various strategies are used as tools in health promotion campaigns to increase health-related outcomes among target populations. Evaluations of these campaigns examine effects on changing people's knowledge, attitudes, and/or behaviors. Most evaluations examine the combined impact of multiple strategies. Less is known about the unique effects of particular strategies. To address this gap, we used highly systematic methods to identify and review scientifically rigorous evaluations of 18 campaigns that examined the unique effects of three sets of intervention strategies (entertainment education, law enforcement, and mass media) on changes in knowledge, attitudes, and practice with regard to various health behaviors. Results showed differences in evaluation processes based on the type of strategy used to promote campaign messages. For instance, evaluations of mass-media based campaigns were more likely to examine changes in knowledge, relative to evaluations of campaigns that used law enforcement strategies. In addition, campaign effects varied by particular strategies. Mass media-based campaigns were more likely to affect knowledge, relative to behaviors. Law enforcement and entertainment education-based campaigns showed positive effects on behaviors. The implications for planning and evaluating health promotion campaigns are described.