A Preliminary Study on the Effectiveness of the Chinese Career Key Online

The Chinese Career Key (CCK) Online was studied for its effectiveness and user satisfaction. Study participants were 92 students at a public high school in Hong Kong. The research findings provide preliminary evidence of reliability, validity, and user satisfaction for the CCK Online. Limitations and implications for future studies and counseling practice across cultures are discussed.     

Acculturation and Enculturation Trajectories Among Mexican‐American Adolescent Offenders

This study examines changes over time in ethnic affirmation/belonging and ethnic identity achievement, Spanish language use, English language use, Mexican/Mexican‐American affiliation/identification and Anglo affiliation/identification in a sample of Mexican‐American adolescents participating in a longitudinal study of juvenile offenders. The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure and the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans‐II were completed by the Mexican‐American adolescents 7 times over a 3‐year period. The findings from longitudinal growth modeling analyses and growth mixture modeling analyses indicate that there is heterogeneity in the initial scores and changes over time on these variables that are related to markers for the cultural qualities of the home environment (i.e., generational status and mother's most frequent language use). In contrast to expectations, marginalized or assimilated acculturation trajectories/types were not overrepresented in this sample of adolescent offenders. Implications for our understanding of the nature of acculturation and enculturation processes and the way these processes are studied are discussed.     

Escape from the Iron Cage? Organizational Change and Isomorphic Pressures in the Public Sector

Institutional theory suggests that organizations pursue legitimacyby conforming to isomorphic pressures in their environment.We extend previous research on institutional theory by distinguishingbetween two definitions of conformity (compliance and convergence)and by taking a comprehensive view of the organizational characteristicsthat might be subject to isomorphic pressures. This frameworkis applied to change between 2001 and 2004 in the internal characteristicsof 101 public organizations in England. We find substantialevidence of compliance but more limited support for convergence.Furthermore, the impact of isomorphic pressures was strongeron organizational strategies and culture than on structuresand processes. Thus, the relevance of institutional theory tochange in the public sector depends on the definition of conformitythat is used and the organizational characteristics that areexamined.     

The potential of a couples approach to employment assistance: results of a nonexperimental evaluation

We present findings from a nonexperimental evaluation of an employment program in which both partners in young, low-income, primarily African-American couples simultaneously participated. Mothers participating in the couples program had larger immediate gains in employment and earnings and decreases in TANF receipt following their exit from the program relative to mothers who received employment assistance as individuals. Fathers showed similar although weaker results. These immediate benefits appeared to be driven by higher rates of program completion among couples’ participants. Couples in which both partners completed the program experienced the largest quarterly earnings gains, and couples with greater earnings’ gains were more likely to still be together one year after the program ended. Mothers’ earnings gains eroded in the two years following program completion and many reported new pregnancies and problems with child care. We suggest directions for future programs and encourage future studies to consider the range of mechanisms associated with a couples focus, including potential motivational benefits and unintended consequences.

Long‐Term Contribution of Immigration to Population Renewal in Canada: A Simulation

We analyze the direct and indirect demographic contribution of immigration to the foreign‐origin composition of the Canadian population according to various projection scenarios over a century, from 2006 to 2106. More specifically, we use Statistics Canada's Demosim microsimulation model to assess the long‐term sensitivity to immigration levels and the frequency of mixed unions of the share of immigrants in Canada and of persons who have at least one ancestor who arrived after 2006. The results of the simulations show that the population renewal process through immigration happens at a fast pace in a high immigration and low fertility country such as Canada. Under the scenarios developed, immigrants who entered after 2006 and their descendants could form the majority of the population by 2058 at the earliest and by 2079 at the latest and could represent between 62 percent and 88 percent in 2106. They also show that mixed unions are a key element of the speed at which the changes are likely to occur in the long run.     

Early Segmentation Abilities in Preterm Infants

Infants born preterm have higher risks of developing linguistic deficits. Considering that the ability to segment words from fluent speech is crucial for lexical acquisition, Experiment 1 tested the ability of healthy extremely‐to‐late preterm infants to segment monosyllabic words at 6 months of postnatal age. Results establish basic segmentation skills in these infants. While we failed to find an effect of the degree of prematurity, this issue will need further exploration. Future studies will also have to specify the scope of these early segmentation skills, both in terms of the types of words segmented, the cues used to do so, and in terms of possible differences in performance between subgroups of preterm infants (e.g., based on gestational age or medical risks). Lastly, given that the preterm infants tested had a mean maturational age of 4 months, Experiment 2 explored monosyllabic segmentation in full‐term 4‐month olds. Infants succeeded at the task, providing the earliest developmental evidence of word segmentation in full‐term infants. These findings better specify the early trajectory of segmentation abilities in both full‐term and healthy, low‐risk preterm infants and support the proposal that prematurity might have a differential effect on the early acquisition of various linguistic levels.     

Infant Sex Moderates the Effects of Maternal Pre‐ and Postnatal Stress on Executive Functioning at 8 Months of Age

Previous studies report that early life stress, including maternal pre‐ and postnatal stress, has adverse effects on cognitive development and that these associations might be sex‐specific. However, no studies exist on early life stress and infant executive functioning (EF). The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between maternal pre‐ and postnatal stress and infant EF, and whether these associations are moderated by infant sex. Maternal prenatal depressive, general anxiety, and pregnancy‐specific anxiety symptoms were measured three times, and postnatal depressive and general anxiety symptoms were measured 6 months postpartum. Infant EF was assessed with a modified A‐not‐B task 8 months postpartum (N = 214). Maternal postnatal general anxiety predicted poorer EF in girls in comparison with boys. Moreover, there was a trend toward an interaction between prenatal anxiety and infant sex such that prenatal anxiety predicted infant EF differently in girls and in boys. No association was found between depressive symptoms or pregnancy‐specific anxiety symptoms and infant EF. These findings suggest that maternal anxiety may have sex‐specific effects on early EF and that pre‐ and postnatal stress may differently affect infant EF/cognitive development. The implications of these findings and important future directions are discussed.     

Improving and measuring transparency in NGOs: A disclosure index for activities and projects

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are established not with the aim of making profits but rather to provide social values by implementing different projects and activities. Transmitting complete information about these projects to society is a key element of transparency, as they operate within an atmosphere of public trust. Although there is a large body of literature on transparency in NGOs from a global perspective, very little research has been conducted on transparency within the area of projects and activities. This study takes a deeper look at this line and contributes to the literature on transparency in NGOs by proposing an index to measure the information transparency of the projects implemented by these organizations. The index captures three dimensions of the information about the projects (technical, financial, and scope) and makes it possible to: analyze the level of transparency of the portfolio of projects, detect the specific aspects that could be improved in each organization, and carry out comparisons among organizations.