Mobile Technology and Boundary Permeability

An extensive review of the literature reveals a lack of insight into why some employees and their families benefit from the adoption of mobile technology while others do not. The paper summarizes the authors' efforts to answer this question. The authors undertook a longitudinal case study of the adoption and use of a BlackBerry Smartphone by 25 professional knowledge workers. Four theoretical lenses were used to help with the data analysis process: boundary theory, the social constructivist view of technology, sensemaking and attribution theory. Analysis of the Time 2 data identified three groups. Segmentors (n = 4) did not use their smartphones outside work hours. Integrators (n = 8), used their smartphones to connect to both work and family anywhere, but not any time (temporally separated work and family roles). Struggling segmentors (n = 13) felt pressured by their organization to use their device 24/7 and did so. The analysis indicates that the relationship between the use of mobile technology and successful boundary management depends on the development of a strategy to manage the device prior to adoption, the ability to change one's strategy to respond to concerns at home, and self‐control.     

Trends in Child Poverty in Hong Kong Immigrant Families

In Hong Kong, child poverty is a serious social problem which may lead to intergenerational poverty, but nevertheless only a few studies have examined this issue, particularly for immigrant families. Using Census data (5 %) from 1981, 1991, 2001, and 2011, we assessed child poverty rates in the past three decades and identified key variables contributing to changes in the risk of child poverty for both immigrant and local families. Our results indicate that child poverty rates in Hong Kong-born families have fluctuated between 14.3 and 15.8 % over the past three decades, while for immigrant families they have increased steadily and substantially from 18.1 % in 1981 to 36.5 % in 2001 and then to 37.5 % in 2011. We show that the increase in immigrant child poverty is associated with changes in the Hong Kong economy that have made it more difficult for such families to adapt to the host society, especially in the 1990s and that this negative effect offset the positive influence of compositional changes among this group of immigrant families in terms of parental education levels and family size. The gap between immigrant and local families in terms of child poverty risk is mainly due to the fact that during the 1990s the negative effect of contextual changes in Hong Kong was cancelled out by the beneficial impact of compositional changes for local families, but not for immigrant families where the latter effect was minimal.     

Neural Correlates of Individual Differences in Infant Visual Attention and Recognition Memory

Past studies have identified individual differences in infant visual attention based upon peak look duration during initial exposure to a stimulus. Colombo and colleagues found that infants that demonstrate brief visual fixations (i.e., short lookers) during familiarization are more likely to demonstrate evidence of recognition memory during subsequent stimulus exposure than infants that demonstrate long visual fixations (i.e., long lookers). This study utilized event‐related potentials (ERPs) to examine possible neural mechanisms associated with individual differences in visual attention and recognition memory for 6‐ and 7.5‐month‐old infants. Short‐ and long‐looking infants viewed images of familiar and novel objects during ERP testing. There was a stimulus type by looker type interaction at temporal and frontal electrodes on the late slow wave (LSW). Short lookers demonstrated an LSW that was significantly greater in amplitude in response to novel stimulus presentations. No significant differences in LSW amplitude were found based on stimulus type for long lookers. These results indicate deeper processing and recognition memory of the familiar stimulus for short lookers.     

The Role of Pre-collegiate Partnership Programs in Environments Ambivalent about Affirmative Action: Reflections and Outcomes from an Early Implementation

Preparing underrepresented students for college success though pre-collegiate partnership programs is one alternative to affirmative action programs. This article describes the Multicultural Excellence Program (MEP), a partnership program between an urban school district and 22 four-year higher education institutions. MEP, begun in 1987, targets 7th–12th-grade students from groups historically underrepresented in higher education. It helps them plan how to prepare themselves for continuing on to a four-year college. Analyses evaluating program effectiveness examined outcomes of over 4,000 secondary students and 243 college students. Despite substantial turnover, particularly at transition points, MEP has been very successful in enrolling its high school graduates immediately in four-year colleges. Although many MEP students have thrived in college, a smaller proportion has struggled.     

Counting llamas and accounting for people: livestock, land and citizens in southern Bolivia

This paper uses historical and ethnographic data to examine the struggles that surround livestock enumeration in highland Bolivia. Colonial officials counted llamas for purposes of taxation, while present‐day government agencies and NGOs enumerate animals to attract money from aid agencies and promote entrepreneurial activity. In both instances, livestock enumeration serves not just to count animals but to render accountable their owners. The paper argues, drawing upon the work of Timothy Mitchell (2002 ) that such enumerative procedures carried out by experts do not simply record a reality, but by rendering herders accountable, seek to produce particular kinds of people within particular economic realities. Far from being a culturally neutral practice, the enumeration of llamas can constitute an act of symbolic violence that seeks to erase specific relationships between herders and animals and to prioritise the individual over the communal. In both colonial and contemporary cases, Andean people seek to produce themselves in ways that contest those in which others would produce them.     

Process and evaluation of a group intervention for mothers with parenting difficulties

Twenty-one mothers with severe parenting difficulties, including 12 children on the Child Protection Register, were involved in an intensive parenting intervention. The 4-month group-based package included psychotherapy to allow mothers to come to terms with past and present stressors, and direct and video work with mothers and children using a multi-dimensional model of parenting. Considerable positive change in interaction and child centredness was evident when before and after videotapes of the mothers and children were compared. Negative interaction dropped to one-quarter of the pre-group level and mothers were more effective in exercising appropriate control. Of the 12 children on the Child Protection Register, 10 subsequently had their names removed, with both remaining children returning to the mother's care from compulsory care. This compares favourably with area figures, suggesting that about one-third of children are removed annually from the register. The multi-dimensional model of parenting not only provided a basis for measuring mother's skills but a coherent focus for intervention.     

Infant Attention to Dynamic Audiovisual Stimuli: Look Duration From 3 to 9 Months of Age

The goal of this study was to examine developmental change in visual attention to dynamic visual and audiovisual stimuli in 3‐, 6‐, and 9‐month‐old infants. Infant look duration was measured during exposure to dynamic geometric patterns and Sesame Street video clips under three different stimulus modality conditions: unimodal visual, synchronous audiovisual, and asynchronous audiovisual. Infants looked longer toward Sesame Street stimuli than geometric patterns, and infants also looked longer during multimodal audiovisual (synchronous and asynchronous) presentations than during unimodal visual presentations. There was a three‐way interaction of age, stimulus type, and stimulus modality. Significant differences were found within and between age groups related to stimulus modality (visual or audiovisual) while viewing Sesame Street clips. No significant interaction was found between age and stimulus type while infants viewed dynamic geometric patterns. These findings indicate that patterns of developmental change in infant attention vary based on stimulus complexity and modality of presentation.     

Working Together for Better Social Work Education

This article looks at the development of user involvement in social work education at national policy level. It is written by a group of service users who are involved in Shaping Our Lives, the national independent user controlled organisation and network. The article looks at the background of user involvement in social work education and the work that Shaping Our Lives has done in the past. The new social work qualification requires user involvement in all its aspects and stages. The results so far have been patchy. Service users have made it increasingly clear that they want to be more directly involved in developing this policy alongside other stakeholders. They are particularly keen that some of the funding available goes to user controlled organisations to help develop service users' capacity to get involved and to ensure diverse involvement. The article looks at problems there have been in taking this goal forward and a positive initiative that has developed to help make it happen, led by service users, working collaboratively with other stakeholders.