Resolutions: Working with Families Where Responsibility for Abuse is Denied

Current thinking suggests that little productive work can be undertaken with families where serious physical or sexual abuse of children has occurred in the absence of a clear acceptance of responsibility for that abuse. This means that children are often removed from their families because of the perceived risks, with the disadvantages that being looked after in local authority care often brings. Alternatively, children may be left in the same environment where serious abuse has taken place with little or no work being undertaken with the family. Either approach fails children, especially those who have made clear and believable allegations in the hope of bringing about a process of change and protection. This article describes the work of a pilot project at the Avon NSPCC in Bristol working with families where the alleged abuser disputes responsibility for maltreating the child. Key to this approach is the support of the non-abusing carer and the child/ren while the concerns of the professional agencies are addressed. The work has two main phases. The first looks for structural change in the organization of family life. The second part asks carers to role-play a ‘similar’ hypothetical family where child abuse has been established. This enables difficult issues raised by the abuse to be addressed and provides an opportunity for carers to express thoughts and feelings to their partner regarding abuse without the seriousness of the concerns being lost.     

Addiction science and the perception of freewill

Do people think individuals with Substance Use Disorder (SUD) have freewill? How does addiction science inform views on the issue? We distinguish between two senses of freewill: 1) libertarian freewill , in which freedom turns on a particular metaphysical conception of action (sometimes operationalized as “could have done otherwise”), and 2) compatibilist freewill , in which freedom depends on the relation between the actor's psychology and her actions (e.g., “was the act what she wanted to do?”). We argue that, in different ways, scientific accounts can impact conceived freewill by linking addictive behavior to mechanisms that observers view as peripheral to the actor ( motivation modularity) . While a variety of impacts on conceived compatibilist freewill are plausible, we argue that contemporary addiction science has no direct bearing on conceived libertarian freewill. Addiction science may, however, indirectly impact conceived libertarian freewill by priming an explanatory framework in which intention is superfluous (especially materialism).     

Opting out of workers’ compensation: Non-subscription in Texas and its effects

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty - Texas is the only state that does not mandate that employers carry workers’ compensation (WC) insurance coverage. In place of traditional WC, companies can...     

Changement technologique et emploi au Brésil,en Colombie et au Mexique: quels sont les travailleurs les plus affectés?

L'analyse, axée sur les tâches, de la structure de l'emploi urbain du Brésil, de la Colombie et du Mexique montre que celui-ci a nettement diminué entre 2002 et 2015 dans des professions semi-qualifiées et augmenté dans les professions faiblement et fortement qualifiées. La décomposition des résultats suggère que le déclin de l'emploi des secrétaires et des sténographes s'explique entièrement par les changements intrabranche (hypothèse de «routinisation»), tandis que dans la conduite des machines et l'artisanat l'explication tient aux changements interbranches. Sous l'angle sociodémographique, le changement technologique affecte négativement les femmes, mais il profite aux travailleurs plus jeunes et plus instruits.     

A Path Analytic Model of a Theory of Quality Management Underlying the Deming Management Method: Preliminary Empirical Findings*

Despite the impact that Deming and his 14 Points have had on the practice of quality management, empirical support for the effectiveness of the Deming Management Method has not advanced beyond the presentation of anecdotal, case-study evidence. In part, this is because theory to guide the conduct of empirical research has not been available. Only recently has such a theory of quality management to describe and explain the effectiveness of the Deming Management Method been articulated in the literature. This paper continues the journey of theory development; it reports the results of an exploratory empirical analysis of an articulated theory of quality management underlying the Deming Management Method. The constructs in the proposed theory are operationalized using measurement statements developed by the World-Class Manufacturing research project team at the University of Minnesota and Iowa State University. Path analysis is applied to the World-Class Manufacturing project data to explore the empirical strength of relationships advanced in the theory. The path analytic results provide support for several of the proposed relationships in the theory, and more importantly, suggest a number of new relationships which have not heretofore been proposed.     

Orphanhood and School Attendance in Nigeria: Do Gender and Household Income Matter?

Using the 2010 Nigeria Education Data Survey, this research examines the interaction of paternal and maternal/double orphanhood with gender and household income on school attendance; we ascertain whether the relationship varies by age and urban-rural residence. The research employs an economic explanation and the sociocultural construction of the gender division of labor in sub-Saharan Africa as theoretical frameworks. Findings show that the combination of being a maternal/double orphan and being female or living in a poor household leads to the lowest probability of attending school. The results also indicate that female maternal/double orphans who live in rural areas and whose age is eleven or older have the lowest probability of attending school. Both results are statistically significant. The findings support the economic explanation and the theory of sociocultural construction of the gender division of labor. Future policies should focus on subsidizing the costs of schooling for orphans.     

The Effects of Briefly Interrupting Marital Conflict

This study examined couples’ (N = 94) behavior resulting from two proximal change interventions. One was a spousal “compliments intervention” to increase positivity, and the other was a “criticize intervention” to increase negativity. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two intervention conditions or a control group. There was no main effect in affect from the pretest conflict discussion to the posttest conflict discussion between the interventions or control group. However, a manipulation check on how couples acted during either intervention produced a significant interaction effect. Pretest affect during conflict and marital satisfaction significantly predicted couples’ construal of the intervention. Professionals may need to monitor how couples use specific interventions and direct the processes how the intervention is construed by the couple.