Latin Americans and Caribbeans in Europe: A Cross-Country Analysis

With the beginning of the 21st century, there has been an acceleration of migratory flows from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to Europe. As a result, and despite the negative impact of the economic crisis, 4.6 million Latin American and Caribbean immigrants reside in Europe, half of them in Spain. This article analyses the recent evolution of these migratory flows, their territorial distribution, and their demographic profiles according to the 2011 European census data disseminated by a new tool —the Census Hub— implemented by the European Statistical System. The analysis shows the existence of a high LAC immigrant concentration in Spain and in certain European cities, a marked young and feminized demographic profile, a great variety of educational levels and a different insertion in each European labour market, although many LAC immigrants work in low-skill occupations, being overqualified and underemployed in most of the countries.     

Job‐related stress,social support,and work–family conflict among Mexican workers in a multinational company: A case study of a Korean‐owned,US‐branded former “sweatshop” in Mexico

Due to globalization and outsourcing of commodity production, an estimated 60 million workers are employed in the garment industry by multinational corporations, yet relatively little is known about the work–family tensions experienced by these workers. Building on role stress and job demands–resources theories, this study employed mixed methods to examine job stressors, support, and work–family conflict (WFC) in a sample of 168 Mexican workers in a multinational factory, a rarely studied and underserved population. As hypothesized, results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that workers experienced high job stress and WFC. Social support from spouses, family, and friends increased the positive association between job stress and WFC, suggesting that culturally relevant obligations increased WFC. This study highlights the need for multinational corporations to implement culturally adaptive, family‐friendly policies. Implications for social workers in multinational work organizations and for future research are discussed.     

A simple solution for spurious regressions

ABSTRACT

The literature on spurious regressions has found that the t-statistic for testing the null of no relationship between two independent variables diverges asymptotically under a wide variety of non stationary data-generating processes for the dependent and explanatory variables. This paper introduces a simple method which guarantees convergence of this t-statistic to a pivotal limit distribution, thus allowing asymptotic inference. This method can be used to distinguish a genuine relationship from a spurious one among integrated processes. We apply the proposed procedure to several pairs of apparently independent integrated variables, and find that our procedure does not find (spurious) significant relationships.     

Relabelling in Bayesian mixture models by pivotal units

Label switching is a well-known and fundamental problem in Bayesian estimation of finite mixture models. It arises when exploring complex posterior distributions by Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms, because the likelihood of the model is invariant to the relabelling of mixture components. If the MCMC sampler randomly switches labels, then it is unsuitable for exploring the posterior distributions for component-related parameters. In this paper, a new procedure based on the post-MCMC relabelling of the chains is proposed. The main idea of the method is to perform a clustering technique on the similarity matrix, obtained through the MCMC sample, whose elements are the probabilities that any two units in the observed sample are drawn from the same component. Although it cannot be generalized to any situation, it may be handy in many applications because of its simplicity and very low computational burden.     

A Multi-Exchange Neighborhood for Minimum Makespan Parallel Machine Scheduling Problems

We propose new local search algorithms for minimum makespan parallel machine scheduling problems, which perform multiple exchanges of jobs among machines. Inspired by the work of Thompson and Orlin (1989) on cyclic transfer neighborhood structures, we model multiple exchanges of jobs as special disjoint cycles and paths in a suitably defined improvement graph, by extending definitions and properties introduced in the context of vehicle routing problems (Thompson and Psaraftis, 1993) and of the capacitated minimum spanning tree problem (Ahuja et al., 2001). Several algorithms for searching the neighborhood are suggested.We report the results of a wide computational experimentation, on different families of benchmark instances, performed for the case of identical machines. This problem has been selected as a case study to perform a comparison among the alternative algorithms, and to discover families of instances for which the proposed neighborhood may be promising in practice. Based on the results of the experiments, we can suggest which among the many possible variants of the proposed approaches may be more promising for developing local search algorithms based on multi-exchange moves for related problems. Also, on some families of instances, which are very hard to solve exactly, the most promising multi-exchange algorithms were observed to dominate, in solution quality and in computational time, competitive benchmark heuristics.     

How Routine Patient‐Centered Monitoring Relates to Therapeutic Gains in Family Therapy: A Single‐Case Study

As routine outcome monitoring systems develop, questions emerge about how therapists incorporate feedback into their practice, and how this relates to therapeutic gains. A case of covert grief was monitored in each session with the Personal Questionnaire and the Helpful Aspects of Therapy instruments. At 4 months follow‐up, the Change Interview was administered. Individualized items facilitated access to the private views and needs of each member, which was useful for case formulation and ongoing personalization of the intervention. Qualitative feedback of treatment experiences helped therapists confirm the impacts of interventions, monitor therapeutic alliance, reformulate clinical hypothesis, and plan sessions. Therapists followed a critical triangulation process to decide the clinical meaning of feedback, according to his/her intervention model, expertise, and case‐specific context.     

Examining the Incidence and Clients’ Experiences of Single Session Therapy in Italy: A Feasibility Study

Single session therapy (SST) postulates that one session can be sufficient for a client to take charge of the process and work toward their own solutions. Research has been conducted worldwide corroborating SST assumptions with several mental health conditions, but not in Italy. For the first time in Italy, this paper aims to explore: (1) if the most frequent number of sessions in traditional psychotherapy (not SST) is one (Study 1); and (2) the satisfaction of clients who attend SST services and the number who consider one session sufficient to address their presenting problem (Study 2). In Study 1, the records of 476 voluntary clients referred to three different traditional (not SST) psychological services in the west-central region of Latium, Italy, were retrospectively screened, and the number of sessions attended by each client recorded. In Study 2, 85 consecutive clients who voluntarily asked for SST with seven mental health professionals across Italy received a link to an online ad hoc survey, 1–3 weeks after the consultation, evaluating their experience. Study 1 found that the most frequent number of traditional psychotherapeutic (not intentionally SST) sessions was one (124 out of 476 clients (26%). Study 2 found that 44 out of 85 clients (52%) considered one session to be enough, as they felt better or much better and chose not to attend further sessions. Of those who asked for a second session (41 clients), 33 clients (80.5%) indicated that the first session was not enough and 8 clients (19.5%) wanted to address a new problem. These results converge with previous international studies and provide encouragement for the use of SST in both private and public psychological services to address the demand for timely mental health services in Italy. Further research is needed to support the efficacy of SST and to evaluate its cost-effectiveness.     

Higher education students with disabilities speaking out: perceived barriers and opportunities of the Universal Design for Learning framework

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework offers a promising strategy to address the needs of higher education students with disabilities; UDL aims to support access, participation and progress for ‘all’ learners, resulting in more accessible learning environments. The objective of this qualitative study is to explore whether UDL addresses the learning needs of students with disabilities effectively. Findings suggested that students’ perceptions align well with UDL’s principles, especially with the principle of multiple means of engagement. Additionally, we found that meeting the learning needs of some students may create barriers for others. To overcome these weaknesses, UDL needs to address the individual learning needs of students, not only through setting and curricular changes, but also in a direct way. Therefore, this study argues for responsive teaching whilst implementing UDL in a flexible way. Helping students to articulate their learning needs by asking them the right questions will be crucial.     

Gambling,geographical variations and deprivation: findings from the adult psychiatric morbidity survey

Gambling problems are prevalent in the UK, especially in the most deprived boroughs of the country. Individual-level characteristics may exist alongside a social and geographical gradient. The study aimed to establish whether living in specific geographic areas increases problem gambling likelihood. It used data from the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey. It adopted a twofold categorization distinguishing recreational from problem/pathological gambling. It used the 2004 Overall Index of Multiple Deprivation to measure deprivation of the district of residence, and primary sampling units, based on postcode sectors, to take into account area characteristics in multi-level mixed-effects regression models. The determinants of recreational gambling operated solely at the individual level. These included male sex, stable relationship and employment, though a number of clinical variables were also important: impulsivity, hazardous use or dependency on alcohol, and current smoking. In contrast, an appreciable proportion of the variance in problem/pathological gambling was explained by area-level clustering. Unlike recreational gamblers, problem/pathological gamblers appear to cluster in specific areas. Thus, there are grounds for restricting the location and density of gambling opportunities and for providing selective prevention programmes targeting geographic areas characterized by contextual determinants.     

Does diversity matter? exploring workforce diversity,diversity management,and organizational performance in social enterprises

This study explores the dynamics of workforce diversity, diversity management, and organizational performance in social enterprises. Semi‐structured in‐depth interviews were conducted with 14 individuals working in the social enterprise sector in Los Angeles, California, including both top management and regular employees. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis rooted in grounded theory. Overall, high levels of diversity in gender, race/ethnicity, education, and sexual orientation were identified in social enterprises, while low levels of age and value diversity were found. Workforce diversity and diversity management were reported to be crucial factors that positively influence organizational performance. Although interviewees considered diversity management to play an important role in promoting organizational performance, they were less likely to implement diversity management themselves. By providing important insights into workforce diversity, diversity management, and organizational performance in social enterprises, this study contributes to an understanding of the dynamics and provides suggestions for sustainability in social enterprises.