Self‐Employed Mexican Immigrants Residing along the U.S.‐Mexico Border: The Earnings Effect of Working in the U.S. versus Mexico1

This study uses U.S. census data from the year 2000 to analyze the earnings of Mexican immigrants along the U.S.‐Mexico border while accounting for the location in which they work. The empirical results indicate that Mexican entrepreneurs who live in U.S.‐border cities but primarily operate in Mexico accrue a significant earnings premium over their entrepreneurial and salaried counterparts working on the U.S. side of the border, even after controlling for differences in observable characteristics. This work‐location earnings gap widens when focusing on Mexican business owners lacking U.S. citizenship. It follows that policies which reduce trade and labor flows across the U.S.‐Mexico border may inadvertently dampen the entrepreneurial activities of foreign‐born residents in U.S.‐border cities.     

Children at the Centre? The Childcare Act 2006

The Childcare Act 2006 is the first piece of legislation of its kind in the UK, and is a significant development for the early years sector and childcare services more broadly. Ensuring every child has the best start in life is one of the guiding principles of the Government's 10‐year strategy for childcare, but the strategies for implementation do not always appear to place the child so firmly at the centre. The childcare agenda is primarily focused on the needs of parents and families to respond to changing working patterns and balancing work and family life.     

A Little Bit of Sugar: Integrated Service-Learning Courses

Approaches to integrated service learning are detailed for three courses—Organizational Theory, Land Use and Environmental Dispute Resolution, and Mediation Skills. The focus of this paper is on the process of integration rather than the specifics of the courses. A faculty member interested in developing a service-learning component in a course is advised to (1) publicly identify the course as one that includes a service-learning experience, (2) be passionate, organized, flexible, and experienced, (3) establish an excellent relationship with a community agency, (4) be flexible about course content and schedule, (5) recognize that some students may have problems with an experience-based approach to learning, and (6) conduct periodic evaluations of all stages of the service-learning experience.     

Borderline and antisocial personality scores as mediators between attachment and intimate partner violence

Court-mandated male batterers (n = 192) attending an intervention program completed measures examining adult attachment orientations (anxious and avoidant), personality disorders (borderline and antisocial), type of violence (psychological and physical), and social desirability. Structural equation modeling was used to determine whether there were significant relationships between anxious attachment and physical and psychological violence that are mediated by either borderline or antisocial personality disorders. Social desirability was included in both models as a covariate. Results indicated that personality disorders fully mediated the relationship between avoidant attachment and physical as well as psychological violence. Personality disorders only partially mediated the relationship between anxious attachment and psychological violence. Implications for intervention are discussed.     

The Deployment of Partnerships by the Voluntary Sector to Address Service Needs in Rural and Small Town Canada

Service restructuring trends since the 1980s have resulted in the downsizing or closure of many services in rural and small town Canada. In response, voluntary groups have been filling some of the emerging service gaps. Services, however, often are directed at complex problems that demand information, support, or assistance from a range of sources and institutions. For voluntary groups, this underscores a need to partner with other groups, organizations, or service providers. At the same time, voluntary organizations are increasingly encouraged to develop partnerships with public or private partners in order to qualify for government funding. This study tracks 29 voluntary organizations in four rural and small town places across Canada to explore the development and maintenance of partnerships (both local and non-local), as well as the types of networks, resources, and expertise for which partnerships were used. The findings indicate that while voluntary organizations feel that local partnerships are more important, partnerships with groups outside of these places are equally developed. Partnerships were used to expand networks, obtain expertise, and access a range of resources to assist in daily operations and delivery of services. The increase in partnerships with groups outside of these communities, particularly with non-local service providers, will have important implications for voluntary organizations and policy makers.

The effect of ergonomic intervention on neck/shoulder and low back pain

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of two types of ergonomic intervention on pain and pain-related disability in the neck/shoulder and low back regions. A cohort of 492 subjects of various occupations with non-specific neck/shoulder or low back pain was followed over a five to six year period. The study subjects were classified into four intervention groups: no ergonomic intervention, educational worksite intervention, workplace intervention, and combined workplace and educational worksite intervention. The group with no ergonomic intervention was used as the reference group. The changes in pain intensity and pain-related disability from baseline to follow-up in each of the three groups with intervention were compared to the changes in the reference group. During the follow-up, 39% of the subjects had received ergonomic intervention. The average change in pain intensity and pain-related disability was smaller in the educational worksite intervention group than in the reference group. The average reduction of pain intensity and pain-related disability did not differ between the two other intervention groups and the reference group. Thus, for subjects still at work, ergonomic intervention seemed to be ineffective for reducing neck/shoulder and low back pain and pain-related disability.     

Period prevalence and types of psychosocial risk factors in pregnant women in an urban Swedish community

During a three-year period a total population of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in Linköping, Sweden was screened for being at psychosocial risk. The prevalence of different psychosocial risk factors was compared with the corresponding prevalence in women referred to and accepting or declining to take part in a specialised training programme at a parent–baby clinic. In general, the present study showed that there was a constant proportion of about 4–5% of pregnant women with psychosocial risk factors. Psychiatric problems and social problems of relevance for pregnancies/parenthood were about equally frequent (i.e. 44 and 45%), while drug-addiction problems were at 11%. Only one in three women with risk factors were eventually referred to the parent–baby clinic, and every second woman referred finally took part in the programme. With the knowledge that an early intervention in families with psychosocial risk factors may alleviate some adverse or disadvantageous developments in children, it is a challenge to identify and to motivate these women to enrol in various support and training programmes. There are still too few pregnant women at risk who are ready to accept the further support that they may need, and the rationale for their reluctance must be better known.     

Can Early Intervention Have an Impact on Future Life? A Study of Life Events,Social Interaction,and Child Behavior Among Mothers at Psychosocial Risk and Their Children Eight Years After Interaction Treatment

Forty-six mothers at psychosocial risk who had undergone interaction treatment when their children were babies were studied with respect to experienced negative life events, social network, and behavior problems in children. One reference group comprising 45 nontreated mothers at psychosocial risk and one comprising 56 mothers without psychosocial problems was used. Children in the study group had experienced more life events than the children of nonrisk mothers but fewer than the children of untreated psychosocial risk mothers. They had a poorer social network than nonrisk mothers, and the children had fewer acting-out behavior than the children of nontreated risk mothers.     

Reducing Prejudice Within Community-Based Organizations

ABSTRACT

Efforts to help community-based organizations (CBOs) develop interventions that reduce prejudice within the workplace and during service provision can be informed by social psychological prejudice reduction techniques, which tend to be successful in controlled laboratory settings but have limitations that inhibit utility in applied settings. Alternatively, the use of diversity training to reduce prejudice has increased within the for-profit sector, but is rarely applied to CBOs. This article discusses the overlap between the basic and applied literatures, and how community practitioners can use the information gained from both to support CBOs who encounter challenges with diversity.