Targeting,Universalism, and Single-Mother Poverty: A Multilevel Analysis Across 18 Affluent Democracies

We examine the influence of individual characteristics and targeted and universal social policy on single-mother poverty with a multilevel analysis across 18 affluent Western democracies. Although single mothers are disproportionately poor in all countries, there is even more cross-national variation in single-mother poverty than in poverty among the overall population. By far, the United States has the highest rate of poverty among single mothers among affluent democracies. The analyses show that single-mother poverty is a function of the household’s employment, education, and age composition, and the presence of other adults in the household. Beyond individual characteristics, social policy exerts substantial influence on single-mother poverty. We find that two measures of universal social policy significantly reduce single-mother poverty. However, one measure of targeted social policy does not have significant effects, and another measure is significantly negative only when controlling for universal social policy. Moreover, the effects of universal social policy are larger. Additional analyses show that universal social policy does not have counterproductive consequences in terms of family structure or employment, while the results are less clear for targeted social policy. Although debates often focus on altering the behavior or characteristics of single mothers, welfare universalism could be an even more effective anti-poverty strategy.     

Sex Differences in Constituent Engagement*

Objectives. This article updates and expands the research on sex differences in legislators' relationships with constituents. Methods. A 2008 survey of legislators from 26 states is used to collect data on constituent‐initiated contact, hours legislators spend keeping in touch with constituents or conducting casework, legislators' use of constituent information, and accuracy of legislators' perceptions of constituents. Results. The findings suggest that female legislators do not differ from male legislators in the time they spend contacting constituents or doing casework or in the accuracy of their perceptions of constituents. However, female legislators received more contact from constituents, and were more likely to attend meetings and use constituent‐derived information. Conclusion. Although sex has small effects on the amount of contact legislators have with constituents, it does affect the way legislators contact their constituents. This is likely because engagement has become an important role for legislators. Thus, while legislators all have to be actively engaged, they have some flexibility in how they engage with constituents.     

Understanding Responses to Foster Care: Theoretical Approaches

Foster children making the transition from birth to foster homes or from foster homes to foster homes often present problematic behaviors. Limitations of attachment theory and reactive attachment disorder are presented, and three alternative approaches for understanding behaviors exhibited in foster settings are presented: conservation of resources, child alienation model, and developmental trauma disorder.     

Depressive symptoms of caregiving women in midlife: the role of physical health

This research examined the relationships between providing assistance to aging family members, caregivers' age, caregivers' perceptions of their physical health, and caregivers' depressive symptoms. Several alternative hypotheses were examined. Longitudinal data from 1,898 women from the 1992 and 2000 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) were used. Results indicate a reciprocal relationship between depression and physical health. These processes were examined using a path analysis. Although the evidence only supported one of the hypotheses, this study clearly demonstrated the importance of physical health for the psychological well-being of women in midlife.     

Toward Best Practices in Analyzing Datasets with Missing Data: Comparisons and Recommendations

Although several methods have been developed to allow for the analysis of data in the presence of missing values, no clear guide exists to help family researchers in choosing among the many options and procedures available. We delineate these options and examine the sensitivity of the findings in a regression model estimated in three random samples from the National Survey of Families and Households (n = 250–2,000). These results, combined with findings from simulation studies, are used to guide answers to a set of 10 common questions asked by researchers when selecting a missing data approach. Modern missing data techniques were found to perform better than traditional ones, but differences between the types of modern approaches had minor effects on the estimates and substantive conclusions. Our findings suggest that the researcher has considerable flexibility in selecting among modern options for handling missing data.     

The Researched Opinions on Research: visually impaired people and visual impairment research

In this paper, we describe our research review, commissioned by 'the Gift of Thomas Pocklington', into the opinions of visually impaired people on visual impairment research. We interviewed 37 visually impaired people across Central Region, Scotland. Our findings suggest areas of need for visual impairment research, both concerning what is researched and how it is researched. We make recommendations for future research addressing both resource and methodological issues. We suggest increasing resources for recruiting participants and multimedia dissemination (e.g. audio tape, Braille, Moon). Methods may need to be refined to address difficulties in recruiting participants, and to capture the diversity of strengths and needs of visually impaired people. We make three core recommendations that identify the need for research to: respect people's individuality; be practical and action orientated, and contribute to an empowering and emancipatory research agenda. We conclude by reflecting on our role as community psychologists through examining the ideological position we adopted in this study.     

The Changing Experience of Australian Female Entrepreneurs

The study of female entrepreneurship is a dynamic field, with more women than men engaging in self‐employment in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Prior research in this field has identified a series of factors which characterize entrepreneurs. This paper examines the extent to which the experiences of Australian women entrepreneurs are reflected in the prior research. In particular, emphasis is placed on whether the personal characteristics, educational levels, motivations for starting business and resource acquisition behaviour of contemporary Australian women entrepreneurs are reflected in the prior research. While many of the key findings of prior research were found to describe accurately the experience of Australian women entrepreneurs, three new factors have been identified. First, Australian women entrepreneurs have increasingly come from business education backgrounds compared to the predominantly liberal arts backgrounds reported elsewhere. Second, the reasons for establishing small business differ insofar as they represent a greater proportion of general business needs as well as personal internal needs. Third, Australian women entrepreneurs are moving away from traditional ’female industries‘ into sectors identified as ’male industries‘ such as manufacturing. Overall, Australian women entrepreneurs demonstrate similarities in their identifying characteristics; however, significant shifts are occurring in their behaviours.     

Regulation of unregistered birth workers in Australia: Homebirth and public safety

Background

Australian midwives are regulated under the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme. Unregistered birth workers may provide midwifery services at homebirths without any regulatory oversight. To address this issue, several states have passed legislation enabling prohibition orders to be made (negative licensing) against unregistered health practitioners who fail to comply with a statutory code of conduct developed for those not covered by the National Scheme.

Rural governance,community empowerment and the new institutionalism: A case study of the Isle of Wight

This article compares two different institutional models—state-sponsored rural partnerships and community-based development trusts—for engaging and empowering local communities in area-based regeneration, using the Isle of Wight as a case study. Following a critical review of the literature on community governance, we evaluate the effectiveness of community involvement in the Island's small towns through a comparison of the performance of the two development trusts in Cowes and Ryde, on the one hand, and that of the partnerships established under the Market Towns Initiative in Sandown, Shanklin and Ventnor, on the other. We conclude that both models reflect the structuring effect of central, regional and local state steering of the Island's regeneration policy community but also that a ‘development trust effect’ is observable in one location (Ryde), due to a capacity to stimulate new forms of community enterprise and to successfully alter political relationships within the local community. These findings support a ‘new institutionalist’ account of community empowerment which emphasises the importance of contextual variation and locally specific processes of institutionalisation rather than the determining effect of institutional design per se.