Mapping vulnerability to climate change-related hazards: children at risk in a US–Mexico border metropolis

There are significant human impacts associated with climate change. This paper introduces a model for identifying small area risks associated with children’s vulnerability to climate change-related hazard exposures, which is transferable to other regions and adaptable to varied population and exposure scenarios. The cross-national El Paso-Ciudad Juárez (US-Mexico) metropolis serves as the study area for model implementation, which involves mapping social vulnerability, hazard exposure, and cumulative climate change-related risks. This study addresses two limitations of extant fine-scale climate change vulnerability mapping studies. First, rather than focusing on one exposure variable, it assesses the combined risks of multiple exposures (extreme heat, peak ozone, and floods) and, thus, offers a model for mapping neighborhood-level cumulative climate change exposure risks. Second, it provides a model for small area spatial analyses of climate change vulnerability within low-/middle-income countries and in contexts where climate change risks (and appropriate responses) are cross-national in scope.     

Unemployment,Medicaid provisions,the mental health industry,and suicide

This study examines the association between unemployment, Medicaid provisions, the mental health industry, and adult suicides in nine US northeastern states from 1999 to 2009. Results show that increased unemployment is associated with more Medicaid beneficiaries and higher health care spending per beneficiary with no significant relationship with Medicaid mental health spending. The Medicaid beneficiary rate is positively associated with the number of mental health clinics, mental health and substance abuse social workers, mental health counselors, and psychiatrists, with no significant association with mental health physician offices or psychologists. Unemployment is also related with increasing suicide rates for the overall population and White non-Hispanics, aged 16–64, with the worst association for White non-Hispanic males. The composition of the mental health industry is also associated with suicide rates. Maintaining an appropriate mix of mental health facilities and professionals to prevent, diagnose, and treat mental health disorders remains a critical public health challenge.     

Attributions about Addiction among Latina Women

This cross-sectional, secondary analysis study utilizes data from a prior study of intergenerational substance use among Latina women (n = 316). We explored the influence of substance use frequency and type, as well as cultural and socioeconomic factors on attributions about addiction among a predominantly immigrant sample of Latina women. Women who were less proficient in English (an indicator of adoption of the receiving culture in the acculturation process) and more proficient in Spanish (an indicator of heritage-culture retention) endorsed more spiritual model attributions than women who were more proficient in English and less proficient in Spanish. Women were more proficient in Spanish more frequently endorsed the disease attribution model. Alcohol, marijuana use and non-medical sedative use were linked with spiritual, moral /character and disease attribution models respectively. Participants reporting higher education levels indicated less agreement with the moral/character model of addiction. Implications for culturally tailored social work interventions for Latina women are discussed.     

Becoming mother and father in late adoption: a case study

Adoption in Brazil has long been related to practices of not disclosing the child's history and origins, which become a family secret. As a consequence, most couples who apply for adoption prefer newborns. Late adoption is still an uncommon practice and requires a 'family project' which accepts a different family model, new meanings of motherhood and fatherhood, and different ways of building affectionate bonds. It is important to investigate how a man and a woman become parents under those circumstances. This study aimed to follow up the emergence of adoption, motherhood and fatherhood meanings, in the discursive practices involved in the construction of adoptive parenthood in the Brazilian setting. This paper presents important meanings regarding parenthood produced by a couple who adopted two sisters, aged 4 and 5 years. Analysis revealed that to better understand the late adoption process, the meanings that emerge in the discursive practices should be considered. Those meanings pervade and circumscribe the family relationships, influencing how the individuals constitute their roles in the family. It is through the analysis of this dialogical process of construction that it is possible to identify the challenges in late adoption and to unravel the process of constructing affectionate relationships.     

Socio-educational work in at-risk contexts and professional reflexivity: the multi-vision group of “Maestri di Strada”

ABSTRACT

The Association ‘Maestri di Strada’ (MdS) undertakes socio-educational interventions to promote the well-being of young people in the ‘high-risk’ suburbs of Naples. The socio-educational work is not a mere ‘technical-rational’ activity and it relies on the use of ‘self’, which is not an unlimited resource. MdS places great emphasis upon reflexivity after the action and adopts the ‘Multi-Vision Group’ (MVG), which is a modified Balint group, as a support mechanism for its staff. Before trainees begin working, they attend the MVGs, observe them, and provide narrative accounts of the process. In this study, 61 reports prepared by the trainees during an academic year underwent a textual analysis. The aim was to evaluate the reflexive function of the group and the results indicate that, within the MVG, the practitioners express emotions, doubts, and difficulties linked to the job and its high-risk contexts. They show both self-awareness and awareness of the importance of the team, thinking as a community in a cooperative way. These are features related to reflexivity, which is recognised as being crucial for practice; the process of observation and recording also has a high educational importance for the trainees and social work students.     

Moderators of Career Calling and Job-Search Behaviors Among Unemployed Individuals

We examined the relationship between calling, job-search clarity, and job-search intensity in a cross-sectional study of Italian unemployed job seekers (N = 315). Structural equation modeling with observed variables and latent moderated structural equation models were adopted to test whether optimism, self-esteem, and perseverance moderate the relation between calling, job-search clarity, and job-search intensity. Perceiving a calling was positively related with job-search clarity and intensity, and these relations were stronger in individuals with lower levels of optimism, self-esteem, and perseverance. This study suggests that perceiving a calling is an important personal resource that is related to a clearer job-search goal and to more intense job-search activities and can support job seekers in personal adverse conditions. These results suggest integrating job-search behaviors in the work-as-calling theory and that incorporating the construct of calling into career counselors' practices may increase the efficacy of job-search activities.     

Some new results on univariate and multivariate permutation tests for ordinal categorical variables under restricted alternatives

In several sciences, especially when dealing with performance evaluation, complex testing problems may arise due in particular to the presence of multidimensional categorical data. In such cases the application of nonparametric methods can represent a reasonable approach. In this paper, we consider the problem of testing whether a “treatment” is stochastically larger than a “control” when univariate and multivariate ordinal categorical data are present. We propose a solution based on the nonparametric combination of dependent permutation tests (Pesarin in Multivariate permutation test with application to biostatistics. Wiley, Chichester, 2001), on variable transformation, and on tests on moments. The solution requires the transformation of categorical response variables into numeric variables and the breaking up of the original problem’s hypotheses into partial sub-hypotheses regarding the moments of the transformed variables. This type of problem is considered to be almost impossible to analyze within likelihood ratio tests, especially in the multivariate case (Wang in J Am Stat Assoc 91:1676–1683, 1996). A comparative simulation study is also presented along with an application example.     

Grandmothers Who Are Caregivers: An Overlooked Population

This paper examines the concerns of 22 African American grandmothers who are primary caregivers of their grandchildren. In-depth interviews were conducted and revealed that these grandmothers incurred economic hardships, marital difficulties, lifestyle changes, and stressors associated with multiple roles. Overall, however, these grandmothers reported that they enjoyed taking care of their grandchildren because it put meaning back into their lives. Implications for further research and the development of social service programs for African-American grandmothers who are caregivers and have multiple roles are discussed.     

Direct and Indirect Effects of Maternal and Peer Influences on Sexual Intention among Urban African American and Hispanic Females

Peer and family influences are interconnected in complex ways. These influences shape adolescent decision-making regarding engagement in sexual behaviors. Evidence indicates the more proximal (and direct) a process is to an individual, the more likely it is to affect his/her development and behavior. Therefore, family factors (e.g., parenting practices) and peer influence (e.g., peer norms) tend to be more strongly associated with adolescent behavior than distal factors (e.g., media or the economy). Guided by an ecological framework, this study explored how maternal influence variables interact with perceptions of peer influence to affect daughters’ intentions to have sex. A nonprobability sample of 176 mother–daughter dyads was recruited in clinics and service organizations in the northeastern United States. Results from path analysis revealed that maternal influence variables had a significant indirect relationship with daughters’ intentions to have sex through daughters’ perceptions of peer influence. Maternal processes can act as protective factors for adolescent girls who perceive their peers are engaged in sexual behaviors. Therefore, risk reduction interventions with adolescents should include opportunities for parents to learn about sex-related issues and develop skills that will allow them to buffer negative peer influence.     

The role of non-profit organisations in migration policies: Spain and Italy compared

The aim of the paper is to investigate the relation between Non-Profit Organizations (NP) and immigration. In particular, we examine the services offered to immigrants in Italy and Spain, both noted for their similar patterns of migration. In these countries immigration is characterised by a lack of the so-called “real” (not just legislative) measures that take the needs of immigrants into consideration. Even though emergency policies exist to meet various contingencies, lack of awareness of population movements is probably behind the “absence” of the state.The hypothetic and causal connection between the NP sector and immigration will be studied using selected data. The positive results of the analysis are the first stage in considering the possible substitution of state institutions by the NP sector, with regard to immigrants.