Welfare Policy and the Construction of Legitimate Authority: The Case of Puerto Rico

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the role of the welfare state in maintaining state authority by testing the relationship between participation in state social programs and the espousal of ideals that reject the sovereignty of the existing state. We use the case of Puerto Rico, drawing on surveys of residents of Puerto Rico regarding their participation in social welfare programs and their views on the legitimacy of the U.S. state, distinguishing between means-tested and universal social programs. The research demonstrates that the form and extent of social citizenship programs affect the continued acceptance of authority of the U.S. federal government over the island’s territory and population. Specifically, the use of means-tested social benefits predicts a greater acceptance of the authority of the sovereign state. These findings may be considered broadly informative to the power of social welfare programs in garnering quiescence among minority populations, expanding the existing literature to illustrate differences in opinion of state legitimacy based on the type of social benefits one receives.     

‘Baptism of Fire’: The First Year in the Life of a Newly Qualified Social Worker

This paper describes research commissioned by Skills for Care South West to identify and track the learning and development needs of newly qualified social workers through their first year of employment. The perceptions of 22 newly qualified social workers based in statutory settings are reported concerning the effectiveness of the social work degree (England), their induction and probationary periods and their progress towards post-qualifying social work education as part of their continuing professional development. The perspectives of line managers, people who use services and carers are also discussed. Findings from the research suggest that the social work degree has been well received by most newly qualified social workers and highlights the perceived importance of a statutory placement for social work degree students. Key social work practice skills that require further development are identified and a rationale is presented for greater investment in the induction and probationary periods of newly qualified social workers.     

The influence of childhood personality and environment and onset of the psychosis on recovery from dementia praecox 1

Beyond Ego Psychology: Developmental Object Relations Theory. Rubin and Gertrude Blanck. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.)

The Perilous Bridge: Helping Clients Through Mid‐Life Transitions. Naomi Golan. (New York: The Free Press, 1986.)

Progress in Self Psychology (Vol. I). Arnold Goldberg (Ed.). (New York: Guilford Press, 1985.)     

Being “easy”: Women’s desire to accept help in later life

ABSTRACT

This article examines the concept of being “easy” as a quality that female caregivers aspire to as they envision their potential care in later life. It draws on data from a qualitative study exploring the significance of caregiving to adult daughters’ perspectives and plans for their own aging. Caregivers’ experiences differ based upon their perception of how easy or difficult it was to care for their loved one. The former exemplifies a positive way to approach aging and the receiving of care. Being easy describes an attitude that these caregivers desired for their own later life.     

Effects of Video-Guided Group vs. Solitary Meditation on Mindfulness and Social Connectivity: A Pilot Study

Clinical Social Work Journal - Interest in mindfulness meditation continues to grow as accumulating evidence suggests mindfulness training encourages more positive functioning. However, basic...     

Hierarchical Bayesian models to assess between- and within-batch variability of pathogen contamination in food

Assessing within-batch and between-batch variability is of major interest for risk assessors and risk managers in the context of microbiological contamination of food. For example, the ratio between the within-batch variability and the between-batch variability has a large impact on the results of a sampling plan. Here, we designed hierarchical Bayesian models to represent such variability. Compatible priors were built mathematically to obtain sound model comparisons. A numeric criterion is proposed to assess the contamination structure comparing the ability of the models to replicate grouped data at the batch level using a posterior predictive loss approach. Models were applied to two case studies: contamination by Listeria monocytogenes of pork breast used to produce diced bacon and contamination by the same microorganism on cold smoked salmon at the end of the process. In the first case study, a contamination structure clearly exists and is located at the batch level, that is, between batches variability is relatively strong, whereas in the second a structure also exists but is less marked.     

PARTY FORMATION IN SINGLE‐ISSUE POLITICS

We study the implications of economies of party size in a model of party formation. We show that when the policy space is one‐dimensional, candidates form at most two parties. This result does not depend on the magnitude of the economies of party size or sensitively on the nature of the individuals' preferences. It does depend on our assumptions that the policy space is one‐dimensional and that uncertainty is absent; we study how modifications of these assumptions affect our conclusions. (JEL: D70, D72)     

Testing for a Change of the Innovation Distribution in Nonparametric Autoregression: The Sequential Empirical Process Approach

We consider a nonparametric autoregression model under conditional heteroscedasticity with the aim to test whether the innovation distribution changes in time. To this end, we develop an asymptotic expansion for the sequential empirical process of nonparametrically estimated innovations (residuals). We suggest a Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistic based on the difference of the estimated innovation distributions built from the first ?ns?and the last n ? ?ns? residuals, respectively (0 ≤ s ≤ 1). Weak convergence of the underlying stochastic process to a Gaussian process is proved under the null hypothesis of no change point. The result implies that the test is asymptotically distribution‐free. Consistency against fixed alternatives is shown. The small sample performance of the proposed test is investigated in a simulation study and the test is applied to a data example.