Hidden champions: Exploring supportive family relationships of youth experiencing homelessness

The relationships that youth experiencing homelessness (YEH) have with supportive family members (i.e. those who provide them with social support) may be protective against risk behaviours and buffer adverse health outcomes. However, little is known about the nature of YEH's supportive family relationships and the type of social support that these family relationships offer them. Thus, we conducted in-depth interviews with 30 YEH to examine the type of social support received from family relationships and to explore the social dynamics of these relationships. We found that many YEH not only continued to maintain relationships with family members after becoming homeless but also received emotional and/or instrumental support from these family members. Beyond providing this type of social support, family members served as a source of motivation for these youth. Additionally, YEH contributed to their family relationships and gained a sense of connectedness in return. Lastly, we found that YEH's family support was influenced by their family circumstances and their need for autonomy. Collectively, our findings suggest there may be a need for interventions designed to strengthen relationships with supportive family members among YEH, who may derive multiple positive benefits from relating with the ‘hidden champions’ in their lives.     

Is There Evidence of Loss Aversion in Saving Behaviors in Spain?

This study uses data from the 2005 Survey of Household Finances to investigate the existence of loss aversion in household saving behavior in Spain. Loss aversion refers to an asymmetry in saving behavior in response to increases and decreases in income, where income decreases have a greater effect than increases. Evidence of loss aversion in household saving behaviors in the U.S. has been presented in previous research, and evidence of loss aversion in saving has been found using aggregate data from Europe, but to date there are no household level studies on loss aversion and saving behaviors in Europe. The present results do not support the existence of loss aversion at the household level in Spain. The results indicate symmetry in the responses to positive and negative income changes, failing to provide support for loss aversion in household saving behaviors.     

Connecting Knowledge and Policy: The Promise of Community Indicators in the United States

There are over 200 identified community based indicator projects in the United States. This paper reviews the factors that contribute to the success and failure of community indicator projects and discusses the types of desired outcomes that communities are trying to achieve. Both organizational and political factors contributing to the success of community indicators projects are discussed. Appendices include information on many of the community indicator projects in the United States. Advice for communities seeking to launch an indicator project are outlined.     

Trends in Late-Life Activity Limitations in the United States: An Update From Five National Surveys

This article updates trends from five national U.S. surveys to determine whether the prevalence of activity limitations among the older population continued to decline in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Findings across studies suggest that personal care and domestic activity limitations may have continued to decline for those ages 85 and older from 2000 to 2008, but generally were flat since 2000 for those ages 65–84. Modest increases were observed for the 55- to 64-year-old group approaching late life, although prevalence remained low for this age group. Inclusion of the institutional population is important for assessing trends among those ages 85 and older in particular.     

Business Continuity Management: Time for a Strategic Role?

Against a background of increasing threats, business continuity management (BCM) has emerged in many industries as a systematic process to counter the effects of crises and interruptions, although its potential to play a more strategic role is still largely under-explored. This article examines the organisational antecedents of BCM and develops a conceptual approach to posit that BCM, in actively ensuring operational continuity, has a role in preserving competitive advantage. Such value preservation is central to the business continuity/business strategy relationship, and gives rise to the central purpose of the paper; to discuss whether firms’ BCM can be seen as strategic rather than purely functional.If so, what form does such provision take in terms of planning, organisation and culture? Evidence from six UK-based financial services firms illustrates differing approaches to business continuity, with two firms showing BCM provision more clearly aligned towards a mission-critical strategic role. Practical precepts for implementation are presented, together with a diagnostic drawing attention to the key determinants of enhanced value preservation.     

On semiparametric pivotal bayesian inference for quantiles

In semiparametric inference we distinguish between the parameter of interest which may be a location parameter, and a nuisance parameter that determines the remaining shape of the sampling distribution. As was pointed out by Diaconis and Freedman the main problem in semiparametric Bayesian inference is to obtain a consistent posterior distribution for the parameter of interest. The present paper considers a semiparametric Bayesian method based on a pivotal likelihood function. It is shown that when the parameter of interest is the median, this method produces a consistent posterior distribution and is easily implemented, Numerical comparisons with classical methods and with Bayesian methods based on a Dirichlet prior are provided. It is also shown that in the case of symmetric intervals, the classical confidence coefficients have a Bayesian interpretation as the limiting posterior probability of the interval based on the Dirichlet prior with a parameter that converges to zero.