Women’s empowerment and the development research agenda: A personal account from the Bangladesh flood action plan

This article describes the evolution of an applied research project from the point of view of a consultant researcher working on a Bangladesh Flood Action Plan study. As the author familiarized herself with a new working environment and a new country, her view of project goals expanded from straightforward information gathering to include having an impact on attitudes of policymakers. Study findings eventually laid the groundwork for a case to include a gender-balanced approach to planning for floods in Bangladesh. The article defines four phases in feminist social research oriented to women’s empowerment: (1) pressure for change in the research agenda; (2) gathering informationabout women; (3) gathering informationfrom women; and (4) consultation with women. The article argues for connecting externally funded research and communication process with local groups and institutionalized planning processes.     

The Effect of Parental Presence, Parents’ Education, and Household Headship on Adolescents’ Schooling and Work in Latin America

We investigate how the presence and education of parents affect adolescents’ school attendance, work participation, and school attainment in Brazil, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Panama. Across the four countries, approximately 20% of adolescents live in single-mother families and 4% in single-father families. Adolescents who live in single-mother families have significantly lower school attendance and attainment than adolescents who live with both parents. However, the effects of living in a single-mother family are small relative to the effects of parents’ education. Adolescents who live in single-mother families are not more likely to work than adolescents in two-parent families. Finally, targeting benefits to children in single-mother families would reach more children at risk of poor school outcomes than targeting children in female-headed households.Mary Arends-Kuenning, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 408 Mumford Hall, MC-710, 1301 W. Gregory, Urbana, IL 61801; e-mail: marends@uiuc.edu.Suzanne Duryea, Inter-American Development Bank, 1300 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20577, USA; e-mail: suzanned@iadb.org.     

Validation of Multimedia Models Assessing Exposure to PAHs—The SOLEX Study

Polluted soils have become a public health problem. While population exposure to soil pollutants is generally quantified using multimedia models, their estimations have not been validated, and studies that attempted to do so are scarce. The objective of the SOLEX study was to compare the predictions of pyrene exposure levels (converted into 1 hydroxypyrene) computed by several models with the results of urinary 1-hydropyrene (1-HOP) assays among 110 employees working at three sites polluted during their past use as manufactured gas plants. Four models were used: AERIS (Canada), CalTOX (California, USA), CLEA (UK), and HESP (The Netherlands). Three occupational exposure scenarios--with office, mixed, and outdoor workers--were constructed, based upon job activities during two measurement campaigns, one in winter and one in summer. The exposure levels estimated by the four models could differ markedly (from 7 up to 80 times) according to the exposure scenario. Also, the predominant exposure routes differed according to the model (direct soil ingestion for HESP and CalTOX, inhalation for AERIS, and dermal absorption for CLEA). The predictions of CalTOX are consistent with the 1-HOP measurements for all the scenarios. For HESP, the consistency is observed for the scenarios, office and mixed, for which the pyrene level in the soil is low. AERIS and CLEA yield results that are systematically above the 1-HOP measurements. This study confirms that validation of the models is crucial and points out to the need to proceed to assess components of the models that are the most influential using appropriate statistical analysis in combination with true field data.     

C. H. Patterson on Client-Centered Career Counseling: An Interview

C. H. Patterson discusses career counseling as it can be accomplished within the client-centered approach. He notes the importance of the core conditions, the relationship of career counseling to therapy, the difficulty of counselor or therapist role change, the use of interpretation of tests, and the role of the client in the process. Included at the end of this article is a list of relevant publications authored by C. H. Patterson.     

Urban Air Quality in North-East England: Exploring the Influences on Local Views and Perceptions

We set out to explore potential influences on public views about urban air quality in two different, but geographically close, districts in North-East England via a postal survey. The neighborhoods surveyed were chosen to contrast material deprivation, proximity to industry, and two districts (Teesside and Sunderland), and the respondents within them were contrasted by their gender, age, and illness status. The strongest influences on views about local air quality were found to be proximity to industry, residence in Teesside, and, to a lesser extent, age and illness status. This suggests that neighborhood characteristics play an important role in shaping public perceptions of air quality.     

Genetic counseling: Implications for social work practice

Considerable advances have been made in recent years in medical genetics. These advances have led to a better understanding of the inheritance of disease. Social workers involved in schools, child welfare, medical, and other institutional settings often work with clients who have genetically inherited disorders. Consequently, there is a growing need for social workers to increase their knowledge of genetics and genetic counseling. In this article, the authors discuss the emerging field of genetic counseling and its implications for social work practice.     

The gender identity/gender dysphoria questionnaire for adolescents and adults

The present study reports on the construction of a dimensional measure of gender identity (gender dysphoria) for adolescents and adults. The 27-item gender identity/gender dysphoria questionnaire for adolescents and adults (GIDYQ-AA) was administered to 389 university students (heterosexual and nonheterosexual) and 73 clinic-referred patients with gender identity disorder. Principal axis factor analysis indicated that a one-factor solution, accounting for 61.3% of the total variance, best fits the data. Factor loadings were all >or= .30 (median, .82; range, .34-.96). A mean total score (Cronbach's alpha, .97) was computed, which showed strong evidence for discriminant validity in that the gender identity patients had significantly more gender dysphoria than both the heterosexual and nonheterosexual university students. Using a cut-point of 3.00, we found the sensitivity was 90.4% for the gender identity patients and specificity was 99.7% for the controls. The utility of the GIDYQ-AA is discussed.     

Credit risk assessment and meta-judgment

Decision-making problems in credit risk assessment and authorization are often too complex to be processed by conventional methods. They involve judgmental procedures which are by nature non-deterministic. Artificial intelligence methods can be used to approach the problem from a different angle. This paper shows the feasibility of a multi-expert approach driven by a meta-model in assessing business risk. More precisely it describes the meta-expert as part of a knowledge-based system being developed to assist bank loan officers in assessing the activities of firms applying for a loan. The use of a meta-model to represent the expert's strategic reasoning has the advantage of offering adaptable systems capable of building dynamically the resolution strategy most suited to the problem to be solved.     

Predicting Presence and Level of Nonresident Fathers' Involvement in Infants' Lives: Mothers' Perspective

A nonresident father's involvement can be divided into two components: presence (if a father is involved in his child's life) and level (how much he is involved). Guided by role saliency theory, this study simultaneously examined predictors of these two components. Data were drawn from 1,215 mothers of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Zero-inflated negative binomial regression models revealed that the coparental relationship had different influences on the presence and level of father involvement. Although relationship status, quality, and conflict influenced presence of father's involvement, parents' positive relationship was the major factor that predicted level of involvement.