Integrating Children into Families Separated by Migration: A Caribbean-American Case Study

Caribbean peoples have been migrating to the United States for over one hundred years. Since the liberation ofimmigration policy in 1965, migrationfrom the Caribbean has increased considerably and has presented with an interesting permutation. Many single mothers have migrated leaving young children behind until the mother’s situation is stable in the United States. Upon reunification of child and parent, there are reports ofmarked adjustment difficulties. This paper examines one such case, which was presented for mandated treatment. Issues around intention strategy and implementation are explored in detail with references to case history and clinical theory.     

Elsevier's Strategic Partners Forum: A Climate of Change and Challenge

Abstract

Elsevier's Strategic Partners Program (SPP) convened a forum prior to the American Library Association's 2003 midwinter conference in Philadelphia, PA. Two presentations from that forum are published here to indicate the enormous challenges, initiatives, and changes that face all of us in the serials, publishing, and information environments.     

Manufacturing resource planning: An information systems model

This paper presents Manufacturing Resource Planning, an information system that will enable the developing and monitoring of strategic plans. Incorporation proven material and capacity requirements planning techniques, strategic planners can determine readily the impact of their plans on the manufacturing resources of the company. Decision making is more coordinated because all managers work from a common data base. However, the attainment of this level of planning sophistication is costly not only in capital outlays for computer software and hardware but also in the time to train users. But those firms who have successfully incorporated this integrated approach to strategic planning feel strongly that the end results justify the expenditures.     

A Discrete Time Parametric Model for the Analysis of Failure Time Data

This paper introduces a parametric discrete failure time model which allows a variety of smooth hazard function shapes, including shapes which are not readily available with continuous failure time models. The model is easy to fit, and statistical inference is simple. Further, it is readily extended to allow for differences between subjects while retaining the ease of fit and simplicity of statistical inference. The performance of the discrete time analysis is demonstrated by application to several data sets.     

Families and family study in international perspective

Many changes are occurring in the world's families. Some observers feel that the changes are destructive, whereas others see them as leading to new opportunities and understanding. Issues in international family studies include regional limitations and the various aspects of doing research cross‐culturally. Knowledge regarding certain categories of families, inheritance, and the social psychology of families is incomplete. There are, however, some universals and universal or worldwide changes, including movement toward individual partner choice, more divorces, lower fertility, and greater opportunities for women.     

Who Is the Boss and Who Is Not? Accuracy of Judging Status

We investigated whether people were accurate at judging other people's status, what behavioral and appearance cues they relied on when assessing status, whether the way those cues were used was accurate, and whether target gender affected any of the results. Targets (N = 48) were university employees (faculty and staff) who were photographed while interacting with a coworker. One sample of perceivers (66 females, 42 males) rated the relative status of the two people in the photograph to each other, and another sample (60 females and males) rated each target in the photograph on status. Additionally, an array of behavioral and appearance cues of targets in the photograph was assessed. Results showed that (1) people were able to assess status in others, (2) the cues they used to assess female and male targets were somewhat different, and (3) how much people relied on specific cues corresponded to how status was expressed in these cues.     

The effect of migration on ages at vital events: A critique of family reconstitution in historical demography

Demographic rates of historical populations have usually been calculated using only data from stayers alone. Can they be extrapolated to the population as a whole? Ruggles has recently pointed out, using both logic and a computer simulation, that stayers experience vital events earlier in life than movers due to migration censorship: those who experience them later in life have often migrated away from the community being studied. We show that stayers do indeed marry and die at younger ages than do movers, using a genealogical database on the American North (1620–1880). These differences are caused, however, both by migration censorship and by genuine differences between the two groups and the places they lived. Therefore changes over time among stayers are not good indicators of changes in the population as a whole because they are affected by changing migration rates. Thus no simple “correction factor” can be extrapolated to estimate the general population; neither stayers (nor movers) constitute a “baseline” or “normal” process: both must be considered together in order to gain an accurate picture of the population as a whole.     

Participatory analysis of accidents and incidents as a tool for increasing safety behaviour in fishermen. A pilot intervention study

Although occupational accidents are common in fishery, safety work is often not given priority by the fishermen. The aims of this study were to test a group-based intervention for increased activity in safety work through group discussion of accident/incident experience; to study occurred incidents/accidents and how such events were managed; and to study intervention effects on activity in safety work, risk acceptance and perceived manageability of risks. A sample of men from five crews (11 men) of Swedish fishermen participated. The study had a one group pre-test-post-test design for questionnaire data. The emphasis was on qualitative information collected during the intervention and interviews. The results indicated that accident causes could be appraised as being unmanageable even when technical solutions were possible. Psychological factors may cause incidents not to be documented or discussed. Incident experience seldom leads to preventive measures. Interaction between structural, social and psychological factors seemed to explain this. Questionnaires, observations and interview data suggested that some increase in safety work took place during the intervention. After the discussions the participants perceived risks to be less manageable. The study indicated that, although sensitive to dropout, participative safety interventions in fishery are feasible and may be effective. A longer or more intensive intervention may be necessary in order to progress from problem orientation to action orientation.