Working together as culture brokers by building trusting alliances with bilingual and bicultural newcomer paraprofessionals

The authors' reflect on the challenges and rewards of partnering as casework supervisors with bilingual and bicultural newcomer paraprofessionals in resettlement work with refugee youth. Such individuals are generally recruited for their linguistic abilities and cultural knowledge, but they can lack formal clinical training or licensing credentials. Drawing on their own experience as supervisors of bilingual and bicultural newcomer paraprofessionals from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, the authors compare their early attempts to establish trust and communication with insights gained in more recent supervisory experiences. Recommendations are offered that promote mutual understanding between newcomer paraprofessionals and their Western-trained supervisors.     

Teaching examples for the design of experiments: geographical sensitivity and the self‐fulfilling prophecy

Many scientists believe that small experiments, guided by scientific intuition, are simpler and more efficient than design of experiments. This belief is strong and persists even in the face of data demonstrating that it is clearly wrong. In this paper, we present two powerful teaching examples illustrating the dangers of small experiments guided by scientific intuition. We describe two, simple, two‐dimensional spaces. These two spaces give rise to, and at the same time appear to generate supporting data for, scientific intuitions that are deeply flawed or wholly incorrect. We find these spaces useful in unfreezing scientific thinking and challenging the misplaced confidence in scientific intuition. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Building family functioning scales into the study of at-home income generation

This article describes testing of scales designed to measure the ways family members interact in a personal subsystem. The scales are intended to complement data about the managerial subsystem of a family and are to be used in conjunction with a regional research project focused on home-based work. The article includes conceptual underpinnings, construction of measures, and results of factor analysis of the measures administered. Suggestions for use of a family functioning scale in the context of a household that has a member working at home are explored in the final section.This article reports results from the Cooperative Regional Research Project, NE-167, entitled, At-Home Income Generation: Impact on Management, Productivity and Stability in Rural and Urban Families, partially supported by Cooperative States Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Experiment Stations at the University of Hawaii, Iowa State University, Lincoln University (Missouri), Michigan State University, Cornell University (New York), The Ohio State University, The Pennsylvania State University, Utah State University, and the University of Vermont.Her research interests include measuring household production, at-home income generation and rural families. She received her Ph.D. in Family and Consumer Economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia.Her research is primarily in poverty and divorce and the economic well-being of women and children. She received her Ph.D. from Oregon State University.Her research interests include entrepreneurship, especially as it relates to women and to international development. Her Ph.D. is from Cornell University.     

The utilization of child care by households engaged in home-based employment

A logit procedure is used to examine the factors associated with the likelihood of using child care services among a sample of households with both a home-based worker and a child designated as needing care. Being a single-parent, having high family income, and the presence of a two-year old child are positively associated with the likelihood of using child care. Being an older worker, having a child who is one year or less or children who are 11 to 12 years, and having a less professional occupation decreases the likelihood of using child care. Self-employment decreases the likelihood of usage; owning a business that hires employees or services increases the likelihood of usage. The major conclusion is that home-based work may be a coping strategy for some child care needs, but home-based working households often need and use child care.This article reports results from the Cooperative Regional Research Project, NE-167, entitled, At-Home Income Generation: Impact on Management, Productivity and Stability in Rural/Urban Families, partially supported by the Cooperative States Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture and the Experiment Stations at the University of Hawaii, Iowa State University, Lincoln University (Missouri), Michigan State University, Cornell University (New York), The Ohio State University, The Pennsylvania State University, Utah State University, and the University of Vermont. Authors are listed in descending order of their contributions to this research paper. Appreciation is expressed to Frank Chiang for the computer assistance needed to complete these analyses. Patsy Sellen was instrumental in formatting and stylizing this article to required guidelines.Her current research interests include household asset and debt formation, working families and employers' benefits, and home-based employment. She received her Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1978.Nancy C. Saltford, has recently been a Visiting Scholar at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a public policy research organization in Washington D.C. where she specialized in employer policies for working families. Her Ph.D. was received from Purdue University in 1971.Her research interests include the economics of divorce and at-home income generation. She received her Ph.D. from Oregon State University in 1986.Her primary areas of research are rural families, household production, family time use and its meaning, and the interactive aspects of managerial, productive and affective functions of families. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1983.     

Democracy,Participation, and Life Satisfaction*

Objectives. We examine whether democracy, political participation, and differing systems of democracy influence individual levels of subjective well‐being. Methods. We use individual data on life satisfaction and characteristics related to satisfaction for approximately 46 countries. We estimate ordered probit models with country and time dummy variables and cluster‐adjusted robust standard errors. Results. Democracy is positively correlated with individual levels of well‐being. The opportunity to participate in the political process and whether the democracy is parliamentary or presidential are related to individual well‐being. Conclusions. Democratic institutions influence subjective well‐being. The well‐being of individuals with minority political views decreases in parliamentary systems.     

Strategies to Improve the World Food Programme's Revenue Mobilisation and Procurement Practices

Currently, a vast majority of WFP food procurement is executed through spot markets, which exposes it to substantial commodity and transport price risk as well as significant delays in delivery. The WFP also has limited flexibility owing to unpredictable revenue mobilisation, partly driven by restricted donor contributions. However, a significant portion of its operations are fairly predictable – both in terms of countries and delivery volumes. There are several types of derivatives contracts available at commodities exchanges that can facilitate strategic hedging. Greater commitments of untied cash donations from the US and other major donors can give the WFP significant operational flexibility to execute prudent financial management operations without damaging local food markets.