A Multilevel Analysis of Factors Related to Poverty in Welfare States

This study aims to investigate factors contributing to poverty, one of the most significant social problems in Western societies. To this end, 13 countries that have made a variety of efforts to reduce poverty, and therefore experienced similar development processes related to welfare, were selected. To overcome the methodological limitations of previous studies, the study utilized a Hierarchical Generalized Linear Model to simultaneously analyze individual-level and state-level factors that might affect the poverty status of a household, employing household data from the fifth wave of Luxembourg Income Study and Comparative Welfare State data. By comparing the magnitude of individual- and state-level effects in the analysis process, the model can empirically illuminate which of the two levels is more responsible for households’ destitution. Furthermore, by analyzing the level of and characteristics of poverty in each country, this study examines whether there are discrepancies in the level of poverty across types of welfare states and what factors contribute to these discrepancies.     

Children’s Resilience-Related Beliefs as a Predictor of Positive Child Development in the Face of Adversities: Implications for Interventions to Enhance Children’s Quality of Life

This paper reports the findings of a longitudinal childhood resilience study which investigated the relationship between resilience-related beliefs and positive child development. Three waves of data collection (T1, T2, and T3) were completed in January 2005, July 2005, and January 2006 with a sample of 843 grade 4 pupils, drawn from six primary schools in Hong Kong, and their parents or guardians. At T1, parents/guardians responded to a 24-item inventory of life adversities affecting their children since birth; at T1 and T3, they completed a 25-item Parental Assessment of Child’s Habit, which provided parental evaluation of children’s performance at home and in school. At T1, T2, and T3, children responded to a 58-item Child and Youth Resilience Measure, a 9-item scale on Chinese cultural beliefs about adversity, and an 11-item Chinese Resilience Measure for Children and Adolescents in Hong Kong. Regression analyses, based on linear mixed models, controlling for gender, T1 and T2 scores, personal variables, and random effects of schools, were conducted to test and validate the hypothesis that children’s resilience beliefs are predictive of positive child development, and that this predictive relationship is stronger with increasing adversity in children’s lives. Implications of these findings for the development of resilience-based interventions to enhance the quality of life of children facing adversities are examined.     

Quality of College Life (QCL) of Students: Further Validation of a Measure of Well-being

This paper reports a study designed to further validate a measure of quality of college life (QCL) of university students (Sirgy, Grzeskowiak, Rahtz, Soc Indic Res 80(2), 343–360, 2007). Two studies were conducted: a replication study and an extension study. The replication study involved surveys of 10 different college campuses in different countries. The results of the replication study provided additional nomological (predictive) validation support of the measure based on a theoretical model mapping out the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction with college life. With respect to the extension study, the focus was to further test the nomological validity of the QCL measure by arguing and empirically demonstrating that the consequence of QCL is life satisfaction. The extension study involved a survey of three college campuses in different countries. The results were also supportive of the nomological validity of the QCL measure.     

Integrative Families and Systems Treatment: a middle path toward integrating common and specific factors in evidence-based family therapy

A moderate common factors approach is proposed as a synthesis or middle path to integrate common and specific factors in evidence-based approaches to high-risk youth and families. The debate in family therapy between common and specific factors camps is reviewed and followed by suggestions from the literature for synthesis and creative flexibility in manual development. A preliminary integrative model termed Integrative Family and Systems Treatment is offered as one option in developing and testing a moderate common factors approach. Such a model might then be studied in eventual clinical trials with other well-developed evidence-based protocols to further address the common versus specific factor debate. Implications for further research and practice are offered.     

Uniqueness of family therapists as family business systems consultants: a cross-disciplinary investigation

The purpose of this study is to address how the consulting approaches of family therapists working with family businesses differ from those of business consultants. The logic of analytic induction was used to analyze qualitative data from family business consultants with and without training in family therapy. Consultants were asked to respond to two vignettes: one emphasized primarily family system problems, whereas the other emphasized business problems with influencing issues at the family/business intersection. Both similarities and differences were found in reference to problem assessment, consulting goal orientation, intervention strategy focus, consultant role and function, and consulting setting preference between consultants with and without family therapy training. Results indicate that consultants of each discipline provide a unique perspective and expertise that allow them to successfully address the spectrum of issues that family firms face. Further, findings highlight the unique contribution of family therapists to an interdisciplinary consulting team.     

Institutional abuse of older adults: what we know, what we need to know

Although Canadian policies support "aging in place," there still will be a number of older adults who will require institutional care in the future. Most research on elder abuse, however, has focused on domestic abuse and has paid less attention to institutional abuse. The purpose of this article is to comprehensively review current research to identify gaps in knowledge and methodological issues in the study of institutional abuse. Overall, 49 studies in English and 20 studies in French were reviewed, and 11 key-informant interviews were conducted with methodological experts. Methodological challenges are addressed in light of the review and interviews.     

Interface design and contemporary: human creating new guidelines for high-tech products

Contemporary electronic industry offers a wide range of products. Usually touch sensitive and with few buttons and a lot of functions these products not always have a friendly interface. The human x design interface based on electronics' ergonomics is the focus of this research. An evolutionary analysis of the electronics industry design within a contemporary context clarifies this relation and proposes new guidelines for a more conscious design.     

Automatic sleep stage classification based on easy to register signals as a validation tool for ergonomic steering in smart bedding systems

Ergonomic sleep studies benefit from long-term monitoring in the home environment to cope with daily variations and habituation effects. Polysomnography allows to asses sleep accurately, but is costly, time-consuming and possibly disturbing for the sleeper. Actigraphy is cheap and user friendly, but for many studies lacks accuracy and detailed information. This proof-of-concept study investigates Least-Squares Support Vector Machines as a tool for automatic sleep stage classification (Wake-N1-Rem to N2-N3 separation), using automatic trainingset-specific filtered features as derived from three easy to register signals, namely heart rate, breathing rate and movement. The algorithms are trained and validated using 20 nights out of a 600 night database from over 100 different healthy persons. Different training and test set strategies were analyzed leading to different results. The more person-specific the training nights to the test nights, the better the classification accuracy as validated against the hypnograms scored by experts from the full polysomnograms. In the limit of complete person-specific training, the accuracy of the algorithm on the test set reached 94%. This means that this algorithm could serve its use in long-term monitoring sleep studies in the home environment, especially when prior person-specific polysomnographic training is performed.