The Social Economy in a Context of Austerity Policies: The Tension Between Political Discourse and Implemented Policies in Spain

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Governments face the challenge of fostering the social economy in a context of economic crisis and austerity policies....     

Maternal education influences Australian infants’ language experience from six months

Disparities in children's early language skills associated with socioeconomic factors have led to many studies examining children's early language environments, but few as yet in the first year of life. This longitudinal study assessed the home language environments of 50 Australian infants, who varied in maternal education (university education, or not). Full‐day audio recordings were collected and analyzed using the LENA system when infants were aged 6–9 months and 12–15 months. Using the device‐specific analysis software, we assessed 12‐h projected counts of (1) adult speech input, (2) conversational interactions, and (3) child vocalizations. At both ages, higher maternal education was associated with higher counts of adult words and conversational turns, but not child vocalizations. The study adds to the literature by demonstrating disparities in the infants’ language experience within the first year of life, related to mothers’ education, with implications for early intervention and parenting supports.     

The development of a systematic approach to mental health screening in Child Advocacy Centers

We report on efforts to implement a new protocol of mental health screening for children seen in Child Advocacy Centers (CACs), including the results from the first year of implementation with 1685 families. The parent-reported child screening results (obtained on 46.3% of children) indicate that while many children were not experiencing significant symptoms of internalizing or externalizing problems, a subset of children had very elevated scores. At the one-week and one-month screening, consistent predictors of more severe internalizing problems included age, a parent or step-parent as the offender, and having been removed from the home. For externalizing problems, consistent predictors included Caucasian ethnicity and having been removed from the home. By the one-week follow-up, about half of those interviewed (50.8%) had entered counseling or had an appointment pending. The likelihood of initiating mental health services was increased when the alleged abuse type was sexual, when the child had been removed from the home, and when the child's internalizing and externalizing symptoms were more severe. Surveys of the CAC staff implementing the new process suggest that it helped them understand the needs of the children, though their ability to reach some families was a barrier to implementation.     

Physical abuse of older adults in nursing homes: a random sample survey of adults with an elderly family member in a nursing home

Few empirical studies have focused on elder abuse in nursing home settings. The present study investigated the prevalence and risk factors of staff physical abuse among elderly individuals receiving nursing home care in Michigan. A random sample of 452 adults with elderly relatives, older than 65 years, and in nursing home care completed a telephone survey regarding elder abuse and neglect experienced by this elder family member in the care setting. Some 24.3% of respondents reported at least one incident of physical abuse by nursing home staff. A logistic regression model was used to estimate the importance of various risk factors in nursing home abuse. Limitations in activities of daily living (ADLs), older adult behavioral difficulties, and previous victimization by nonstaff perpetrators were associated with a greater likelihood of physical abuse. Interventions that address these risk factors may be effective in reducing older adult physical abuse in nursing homes. Attention to the contextual or ecological character of nursing home abuse is essential, particularly in light of the findings of this study.     

Perfect graphs involving semitotal and semipaired domination

Let G be a graph with vertex set V and no isolated vertices, and let S be a dominating set of V. The set S is a semitotal dominating set of G if every vertex in S is within distance 2 of another vertex of S. And, S is a semipaired dominating set of G if S can be partitioned into 2-element subsets such that the vertices in each 2-set are at most distance two apart. The semitotal domination number \(\gamma _\mathrm{t2}(G)\) is the minimum cardinality of a semitotal dominating set of G, and the semipaired domination number \(\gamma _\mathrm{pr2}(G)\) is the minimum cardinality of a semipaired dominating set of G. For a graph without isolated vertices, the domination number \(\gamma (G)\), the total domination \(\gamma _t(G)\), and the paired domination number \(\gamma _\mathrm{pr}(G)\) are related to the semitotal and semipaired domination numbers by the following inequalities: \(\gamma (G) \le \gamma _\mathrm{t2}(G) \le \gamma _t(G) \le \gamma _\mathrm{pr}(G)\) and \(\gamma (G) \le \gamma _\mathrm{t2}(G) \le \gamma _\mathrm{pr2}(G) \le \gamma _\mathrm{pr}(G) \le 2\gamma (G)\). Given two graph parameters \(\mu \) and \(\psi \) related by a simple inequality \(\mu (G) \le \psi (G)\) for every graph G having no isolated vertices, a graph is \((\mu ,\psi )\)-perfect if every induced subgraph H with no isolated vertices satisfies \(\mu (H) = \psi (H)\). Alvarado et al. (Discrete Math 338:1424–1431, 2015) consider classes of \((\mu ,\psi )\)-perfect graphs, where \(\mu \) and \(\psi \) are domination parameters including \(\gamma \), \(\gamma _t\) and \(\gamma _\mathrm{pr}\). We study classes of perfect graphs for the possible combinations of parameters in the inequalities when \(\gamma _\mathrm{t2}\) and \(\gamma _\mathrm{pr2}\) are included in the mix. Our results are characterizations of several such classes in terms of their minimal forbidden induced subgraphs.     

A Systematic Review of Gay,Lesbian, and Bisexual Research Samples in Couple and Family Therapy Journals

The purpose of this study is to review samples from research on gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) issues and to evaluate the suitability of this body of research to support affirmative and evidence‐based practice with GLB clients. The authors systematically reviewed the sampling methodology and sample composition of GLB‐related research. All original, quantitative articles focusing on GLB issues published in couple and family therapy (CFT)‐related journals since 1975 were coded (n = 153). Results suggest that within the GLB literature base there is some evidence of heterocentrism as well as neglect of issues of class, race, and gender. Suggestions to improve the diversity and representativeness of samples—and, thus, clinical implications—of GLB‐related research in CFT literature are provided.     

You’re Deaf? Breaking through Myths for Effective Therapeutic Practice

ABSTRACT

Most mental health practitioners provide services to hearing clients and might be unprepared when a deaf individual requests services. The purpose of this article is to explore commonly held stereotypes and myths about deaf people and to provide guidance to clinicians who encounter deaf clients in their practices. Myths and stereotypes can affect the way clinicians perceive their clients’ needs. This can lead to miscommunication, misunderstanding, and misinformation, which can harm the therapeutic relationship, thus making effective therapy unattainable. Clinicians should reframe these beliefs and overcome barriers to make way for the therapeutic process to begin.     

Bayesian inference and data cloning in the calibration of population projection matrices

Discrete time models are used in Ecology for describing the dynamics of an age-structured population. They can be introduced from a deterministic or from a stochastic viewpoint. We analyze a stochastic model for the case in which the dynamics of the population is described by means of a projection matrix. In this statistical model, fertility rates and survival rates are unknown parameters which are estimated by using a Bayesian approach and also data cloning, which is a simulation-based method especially useful with complex hierarchical models.

Both methodologies are applied to real data from the population of Steller sea lions located in the Alaska coast since 1978–2004. The estimates obtained from these methods show a good behavior when they are compared to the nonmissing actual values.     

Vacant Shops in a Crisis Period – A Morphological Analysis in Portuguese Medium-Sized Cities

Vacant shops are an important problem affecting urban areas today, particularly in the wake of the economic crisis. Most strategies to analyse and deal with this issue are related to economic and financial variables. However, the amount of research associating store geography and performance with urban morphology has increased over the past decade. Thus, this research tests the hypothesis that specific morphological features characterize vacant retail sites. Using four Portuguese cities as test-beds and Kernel density analysis to plot spatial patterns, vacant shops were for example positively correlated with low segment betweenness and negatively correlated with block area.     

Lay Conceptions of Well-Being and Rules Used in Well-Being Judgments Among Young,Middle-Aged,and Elderly Adults

The present study deals with lay conceptions of well-being and its main determinants, and the rules used by everyday people to assess the well-being of others based on various pieces of information. The results showed that (a) most proposed definitions of well-being refer to the family, the physical body, and acceptance of oneself and one's situation; (b) the factors with the greatest impact on judgments of the well-being of others are health, harmony with spouse, harmony with children, self-acceptance, positive relations, purpose in life, and personal growth; (c) the above findings apply to respondents of all ages; and (d) the information integration rule for estimating the level of the well-being is essentially additive.