Working Relationally with Youth in Child Protection Institutions: A Milieu‐Therapy Perspective

Children and youth who have shown serious difficulties or if it is surmised that parents over time will not be able to care for the child or youth, could be placed in a child protection institution. The therapeutic work in such institutions is often described as milieu therapy. There has been little focus on the milieu therapist's relational work in child protection institutions. The research question for this study was: What factors are described by milieu therapists as significant for relational work with youth placed in institutions? To answer this question, we collected data from qualitative semi‐structured interviews with four milieu therapists working in child protection institutions. Interpretative phenomenological analysis helped us identify three overarching categories: (1) structural and personal factors as a basis for relational work; (2) various forms of communication in relational work; and (3) relational work with a starting point in everyday events.     

Theory‐of‐mind during childhood: Investigating syntactic and executive contributions

Both syntax and Executive Functions (EF) are involved in Theory‐of‐Mind (ToM) but their contributory roles have mainly been studied separately. Moreover, researchers have mostly administered False Belief (FB) tasks while they may not be representative of all ToM abilities. Studies of adults give valuable information regarding whether syntax and EF are useful for ToM reasoning (i.e., Reasoning account), however, only the study of children brings direct evidence in favor of ToM emergence (i.e., Emergence account). Also, because the ToM tasks used often entail verbal and executive demands, the links observed could mostly result from such confounds (i.e., Expression account). We evaluated ToM, syntactic and EF abilities in 126 children (3‐11 y.o.) using a set of ToM tasks with minimal verbal and executive demands. Our goals were to assess (1) the hierarchical contribution of syntax and EF to ToM, (2) whether results previously obtained for FB tasks are representative of ToM in general, (3) whether the ToM‐syntax and ToM‐EF links are constant (i.e., Reasoning account) or decrease during development (i.e., Emergence accounts). Results of stepwise regression analyses showed a predominant role of syntax over EF to predict ToM abilities. The comparison of results for ToM and FB tasks showed that FB is not always representative of ToM. Finally, there was no moderating effect of age on the syntax‐ToM or EF‐ToM relations, thus suggestive of the Reasoning account rather than the Emergence account.     

A Generalization of the Skew-Normal Distribution: The Beta Skew-Normal

We consider a new generalization of the skew-normal distribution introduced by Azzalini (1985 Azzalini , A. ( 1985 ). A class of distributions which includes the normal ones . Scand. J. Statis. 12 ( 2 ): 171 – 178 .[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). We denote this distribution Beta skew-normal (BSN) since it is a special case of the Beta generated distribution (Jones, 2004 Jones , M. C. ( 2004 ). Families of distributions of order statistics . Test 13 ( 1 ): 1 – 43 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Some properties of the BSN are studied. We pay attention to some generalizations of the skew-normal distribution (Bahrami et al., 2009 Bahrami , W. , Agahi , H. , Rangin , H. ( 2009 ). A two-parameter Balakrishnan skew-normal distribution . J. Statist. Res. Iran 6 : 231 – 242 . [Google Scholar]; Sharafi and Behboodian, 2008 Sharafi , M. , Behboodian , J. ( 2008 ). The Balakrishnan skew-normal density . Statist. Pap. 49 : 769 – 778 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Yadegari et al., 2008 Yadegari , I. , Gerami , A. , Khaledi , M. J. ( 2008 ). A generalization of the Balakrishnan skew-normal distribution . Statist. Probab. Lett. 78 : 1165 – 1167 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and to their relations with the BSN.     

Occupational mobility and fertility in metropolitan Latin America

The relation between career mobility and reproductive behavior is examined for five cities of developing Latin American nations: Bogota, Columbia; San Jose, Costa Rica; Mexico City, Mexico; Panama City, Panama; and Caracas, Venezuela. The data are obtained from fertility surveys conducted between September, 1963, and August, 1964, in the above-named cities under the auspices of the Centro Latinoamericano de Demografía (CELADE), and the analysis is based on information from 600–800 women per city who have been married only once and married ten years or more. Career mobility is defined as an occupational change of the husband between the date of marriage and 1963–1964, based on the Hall-Jones occupational scale. Reproductive behavior is operationalized as the number of live births. The conclusion of the multiple classification analysis is that the process of career mobility in four out of five Latin American samples is not a significant factor in explaining differential reproductive behavior. These results are compatible with a variety of North American studies which stress that variation heretofore ascribed to the process of mobility is an additive composite of past and present status effects. These findings are discussed; a theoretical and methodological critique of mobility-fertility research is presented.     

Granger-causality in Markov switching models

In this paper, we propose a new approach for characterizing and testing Granger-causality, which is well equipped to handle models where the change in regime evolves according to multiple Markov chains. Differently from the existing literature, we propose a method for analysing causal links that specifically takes into account Markov chains. Tests for independence are also provided. We illustrate the methodology with an empirical application, and in particular, we investigate the causality and interdependence between financial and economic cycles in USA using the bivariate Markov switching model proposed by Hamilton and Lin [13 J.D. Hamilton and J. Lin, Stock market volatility and business cycle, J. Appl. Econ. 11(5) (1996), pp. 573–593. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1255(199609)11:5<573::AID-JAE413>3.0.CO;2-T[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]]. We find that financial variables are useful in forecasting the aggregate economic activity, and vice versa.     

Left behind in the return-to-work journey: consumer insights for policy change and practice strategies

This study examined system barriers that precluded injured workers from accessing services and supports in the return-to-work (RTW) process. A grounded theory approach was used to investigate injured worker experiences. Methods included in-depth telephone interviews and the constant comparative method to analyze the data. Findings revealed that consumers experienced tensions or a tug-of-war between the RTW system, the health care system, and in accessing and using knowledge. Over time consumers reflected upon these tensions and initiated strategies to enhance return to function and RTW. Insights from consumer-driven strategies that might inform future policy change and promote positive service delivery for injured workers are examined.     

EVALUATING THE EMPLOYMENT IMPACT OF A MANDATORY JOB SEARCH PROGRAM

This paper exploits area‐based piloting and age‐related eligibility rules to identify treatment effects of a labor market program—the New Deal for Young People in the U.K. A central focus is on substitution/displacement effects and on equilibrium wage effects. The program includes extensive job assistance and wage subsidies to employers. We find that the impact of the program significantly raised transitions to employment by about 5 percentage points. The impact is robust to a wide variety of nonexperimental estimators. However, we present some evidence that this effect may not be as large in the longer run. (JEL: J18, J23, J38)     

The Organizational Architecture of Nonprofit Governance: Economic Calculation Within an Ecology of Enterprises

This paper treats nonprofit firms as elements within the ecology of enterprises that constitute an economy. Within this ecological framework, nonprofit governance must to a significant extent be guided by economic signals generated through market competition. After we examine the problems of economic calculation that nonprofit enterprises face, we consider the organizational logic of nonprofit firms as one that is driven by the creation of points of contact with the market economy. The operation of this logic creates some general limit on the range and size of nonprofit firms, and also presents issues of governance that differ from those faced by profit-seeking firms. Subsequently, we use our conceptual framework to illuminate some issues concerning the organization of nonprofit firms.