Disseminating science-based prevention: lessons learned from CSAP's CAPTs

A wide variety of prevention approaches that reduce substance use and associated problems have been developed and tested. But successes have been limited in promoting the use of these scientific advances by the policy makers, practitioners, and concerned citizens. The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention's six regional Centers for the Application of Prevention Technologies (CSAP's CAPTs) are a major mechanism by which CSAP brings research to practice. This article synthesizes the issues that the CAPTs have faced, the solutions they have developed, and conclusions concerning the work that still needs to be done to increase the application of science-based approaches to prevention. These discussions highlight the particular importance of addressing issues related to the larger systems in which prevention programs and strategies operate.     

"Eurokid": An innovative pedagogical approach to developing intercultural and anti-racist education on the Web

Most schools in today's Europe have a high percentage of immigrant students. This percentage has increased in typical immigration countries such as Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, France and the UK. However, this is also true for countries such as Sweden or Spain. Aware of this multicultural picture, in this paper we present the methodological approach of a European Comenius project, "Eurokid", based on the template "Britkid" (see www.britkid.org), which addresses intercultural education and anti-racism. Three countries are involved in the project: the UK, Sweden and Spain. The project is an educational and innovative tool and a learning and teaching resource for students and teachers in secondary schools. How? Through websites where a group of adolescents (minorities and majorities) "meet" and "talk" about issues of acceptance, difference, racism, mixed cultures, (multiple) identitie, and integration. Their "talks" in the three websites--written in each country's language(s) and in English--as well as the characters, are based on original research (via interviews and questionnaires). The project's objectives, content, pedagogical approaches and authentic classroom material, created to facilitate and promote dialogue among minorities and majorities, form the basis of this paper.     

Are young people in the Philippines taking chances with HIV / AIDS?

The numbers of AIDS cases and HIV infections detected in the Philippines have risen slowly but steadily since the first AIDS case in the country was diagnosed in 1984. By the end of 1995, 234 AIDS cases and 470 HIV infections had been reported to the country's Department of Health. However, given the limited extent to which people have been tested for HIV infection, there are most likely many more cases than reported. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is spreading within the Filipino population. The country's substantial commercial sex trade, reports suggesting that many unmarried young men have sexual intercourse with girlfriends and acquaintances, and IV drug use among a small number of young people are factors which contribute to the potential for a serious HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Philippines. Findings from the 1994 national Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study, a household survey covering 10,879 men and women aged 15-24 years in 959 different communities, are presented. Almost all respondents had heard of AIDS, but there was some degree of ignorance and misinformation on the modes of HIV transmission. 13% of all single men reported having had only one sex partner, 10% reported two or more partners, and 3% reported five or more. 98% of sexually active men had heard of condoms, 58% knew that condom use can protect against HIV infection, 23% reported ever having used one, and 4% reported using a condom during the most recent act of sexual intercourse.     

FP client-worker interaction as an ingredient of quality of care

In order to contribute to the improvement of the clinic-level management of the family planning (FP) programs of the Philippine FP Program, an assessment was made of client-staff interactions. Data were collected during May-June 1990 from 107 FP personnel and 1440 clients using a purposive sampling procedure which identified project sites on the basis of their FP performance; evenly divided the sample between government-sponsored programs and nongovernmental organizations; and randomly drew a sample of clients which included past users, never users, and current users. Data were gathered from a survey and from observations of at least 27 client-staff interactions in each of the four project sites. The observations were followed by in-depth interviews. While the interactions were positively viewed by the clients, some of the service providers (perhaps coping with an overly large case load) tended to shorten the duration of the interaction. The recommendations which arose from this study include: 1) FP personnel in this study, who indicated a preference for recruiting new acceptors rather than motivating past users, should be given a travel allowance and time to use the effective technique of home visits to try to reduce the number of drop-outs; 2) specific topics and counseling techniques should be included in the training courses for FP personnel; 3) the clinic setting must be improved to conform to quality standards and provide privacy for clients; and 4) clinic visits should be personally satisfying for the client as well as efficient.     

The Elasticity of Demand for Microcredit: Evidence from Latin America

Microcredit demand is frequently assumed to be inelastic, yet understanding the price elasticity of demand for microcredit is highly relevant in designing appropriate microfinance institution (MFI) financial products and policy. This article extracts loan demand schedules and elasticities of MFI borrowers in the Dominican Republic using a unique survey instrument. We analyse the intensive margin of microcredit demand and find that client demand elasticities are not homogeneous and are correlated with certain borrower characteristics. Overall results suggest that these micro‐entrepreneurs, who have already entered the MFI market, have close to unit elastic demand for microcredit. The mean demand elasticity for our sample is ‐1.0.     

Social policy expansion and segmentation in the first two decades of the 21st century in Latin America

Latin American countries saw an important expansion in social policy in the first two decades of the 21st century. Along with this increased inclusion, however, social policy remains segmented. Using recent data from ECLAC, World Bank, and other sources, this paper offers a comprehensive analysis of trends in social policy for the period 2000–2020 for 17 countries in Latin America. Four areas of social policy are assessed in longitudinal and comparative perspectives: transfers, health care, education, and family policies. Conditional cash transfers (CCT) and noncontributory pensions (NCP) are the two main policy innovations that allowed countries in the region to expand social rights to previously excluded populations (outsiders). At the same time, due to their design, these policies have introduced new layers of fragmentation to the welfare mix, without resolving—or even increasing—segmentation in social policy. Segmentation is still the rule for the areas of health care and education, and increasing privatisation went unabated even in the periods of social policy expansion and in the countries governed by left coalitions.     

Free time,gender and the pandemic: An exploration of children's daily routines in the times of COVID-19 in Chile

This article discusses the differentiation by gender displayed by children between 8 and 12 years old on how they used their free time during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile. This study had a qualitative approach, where 43 in-depth interviews were conducted with children from three different regions of the country, using participatory photo-elicitation as the central tool. The main results of the study show a configuration of free time based on gender stereotypes, showing that boys are the ones who most adhere to such stereotypes, triggering a crisis in the identity construction of masculinities during childhood. The study also suggests that socioeconomic and territorial differences between children configures different experiences of the use of free time.