Uniform stochastic orderings and total positivity

Uniform stochastic orderings of random variables are expressed as total positivity (TP) of density, survival, and distribution functions. The orderings are called uniform because each is a stochastic order that persists under conditioning to a family of intervals—for example, the family consisting of all intervals of the form (-∞,x]. This paper is concerned with the preservation of uniform stochastic ordering under convolution, mixing, and the formation of coherent systems. A general TP₂ result involving preservation of total positivity under integration is presented and applied to convolutions and mixtures of distribution and survival functions. Log-concavity of distribution, survival, and density functions characterizes distributions that preserve the various orderings under convolution. Likewise, distributions that preserve orderings under mixing are characterized by TP₂ distribution and survival functions.     

Assessment and management of hospitalized suicidal patients

Suicide in inpatient psychiatric settings is a critical problem. A comprehensive literature review was performed to determine risk factors for inpatient suicide, instruments for assessing suicide, and treatment of hospitalized suicidal patients. Findings suggested that root causes of inpatient suicide were factors related to the treatment environment, failure to assess patient behavioral characteristics, and staff reliance on no-suicide contracts. Recommendations include assessing suicide risk regularly throughout hospitalization, including on admission, during changes in a patient's mental or physical status, after a change in observation level, and before discharge. Orientation and inservice education for all staff and additional research on the psychometric properties of available suicide assessment instruments are also essential.     

Pre-Sentence Reports: Does Quality Matter?

In recent years much attention has been paid to research into the value and effectiveness of pre-sentence reports and this has contributed to the emergence of the concept of "quality assurance". This encompasses the practice of monitoring reports for "quality" and "effectiveness" and the assumption that there is a positive association between these two factors. In other words, higher quality will normally be associated with a higher level of agreement or concordance between report recommendation and sentencing outcome. Using evidence gained from a sample of pre-sentence reports from a busy magistrates' court in the south-west of England, the authors' three main findings show that this is not the case. First, contrary to expectation, there was little or no relationship between quality of report and concordance rate for the whole sample of pre-sentence reports. Second, whilst there was some relationship between quality of report and concordance for those reports which proposed community sentences, this was not significant. Finally, whilst report writers were generally in favour of quality assurance systems, they did not have any universal definition of "quality" in relation to pre-sentence reports. As a result of these findings the authors question existing practice and make several suggestions for improvement, including the replacement of pre-sentence reports with a new personal social enquiry report and an alternative model of quality assurance based on models from social science. Finally, several key recommendations are identified as essential in order to safeguard the crucial role of the Probation Service as adviser to sentencers.     

Adoption as a Diversity Issue in Professional Preparation: Perceptions of Preservice Education Professionals

This research explored preservice teachers' and counselors' perceptions of the needs of adopted children in schools. Using a quasi-experimental survey design, this study examined the views of preservice teachers and counselors toward adoptive families before and after an educational intervention. Findings from this research support the effectiveness of a brief, standardized intervention in increasing preservice education professionals' awareness of particular challenges adopted children and their families may face in school settings. Qualitative data indicated preservice education professionals' awareness of adopted children and their families in their internship experiences. Learning about adoptive families can be part of sensitizing education professionals' to the growing diversity of families and children in U.S. schools.     

Low Birth Weight and Parental Investment: Do Parents Favor the Fittest Child?

Do parents contribute to birth weight disparities in status attainment? This study uses a nationally representative sample of 8,550 children and 1,450 twins from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort to investigate whether, as recent studies have suggested, parents favor healthier children. Children with poor health are found to receive fewer parental investments, including breast‐feeding and quality parent–child interaction, but results from between‐ and within‐family regression models, using low birth weight as a proxy for child health, find no evidence that parents compensate for or reinforce child health endowments. Instead, birth‐weight disparities in parental investment are linked with observable family, maternal, and child sociodemographic characteristics. Our results raise doubts about the utility of human capital models to explain health disparities in parental investment and shed new light on the broad spectrum of disadvantage faced by children with poor health.     

Social Work within a Community Discourse: Challenges for Teaching

This paper considers the continuing debate about the relationship between social work and community work. We write about our collaboration as educators, one from a social work background and the other from a community work background and discuss the challenge of teaching community work to social work students in a way that is relevant for contemporary practice, and that embraces community work principles and values. Our paper explores Ife's framework of competing discourses of human services and discusses how it has helped us to articulate our thinking and teaching practice in the Irish context. For us, the framework integrates social work and community work within a community discourse that provides a language transcending disciplinary boundaries. This approach represents a means of familiarising students with the community work process and enabling them to take action on issues of social justice. The framework represents four competing models of human service delivery: the managerial, the market, the professional and the community. We discuss how we use this conceptualisation to teach and engage students in a process of critical reflection. The paper discusses methods we use to undertake this process, and the development of our teaching practice over the last two years.     

The Roles of Instability and Housing in Low-Income Families’ Residential Mobility

Given the repercussions of residential mobility, increased understanding of correlates of mobility is important for efforts to support family well-being. Using survey data on low-income families from the Three City Study (N = 2393), multilevel mixed longitudinal analyses examined factors associated with family residential mobility across the domains of family instability, housing and neighborhood contexts, and family characteristics. Results revealed contributions of family instability and housing and neighborhood contexts to residential mobility, with a higher rate of residential moves associated with experiences of intimate partner violence, relationship transitions, and job transitions, as well as with living in private-market rentals, substandard housing, and disordered neighborhoods. However, owning a home and living in disadvantaged neighborhoods predicted a lower rate of residential moves.