Local polynomial estimation of Poisson intensities in the presence of reporting delays

Summary.  The system for monitoring suicides in Hong Kong has considerable delays in reporting as the cause of death needs to be determined by a coroner's investigation. However, timely estimates of suicide rates are desirable to assist in the formulation of public health policies. This motivated us to develop a non-parametric procedure to estimate the intensity function of a Poisson process in the presence of reporting delays. We give closed form estimators of the Poisson intensity and the delay distribution, conduct simulation studies to evaluate the method proposed and derive their asymptotic properties. The method proposed is applied to estimate the intensity of suicide in Hong Kong.     

Bidirectionality in kindergarten children's school readiness and emotional regulation

This study examined the longitudinal associations of emotional regulation and school readiness among Chinese kindergarten children. Data were collected from 523 children (mean age at time 1 = 52.42 months; 52.9% male) at two time points separated by approximately 1 year in Hong Kong, China. At times 1 and 2, children's school readiness was assessed by their teachers and parents while their emotional regulation was directly tested. Teachers also rated children's emotional regulation at both time points. The results from the two reciprocal path models showed that, controlling for the corresponding autoregressive effects, school readiness at time 1 was predictive of emotional regulation at time 2. However, emotional regulation at time 1 did not emerge as a significant predictor of school readiness at time 2. Theoretically, these results underscored children's school readiness as a potential contributor to their emotional regulation. Practically, these findings suggested the utility of supporting children's school readiness to foster their emotional regulation.     

SORTING OUT THE CUCKOO'S NEST: A FACTORIAL SURVEY APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF POPULAR CONCEPTIONS OF MENTAL ILLNESS

Research relevant to understanding how mental illness is popularly conceptualized owes much to the methods pioneered by Star in 1950. However, while her six vignettes have been used extensively over the last 30 years to test the public's ability to recognize mental illness, subsequent research has provided little insight into which factors contribute most to the judgment process. This study introduces a factorial survey research method that is more appropriate for the task. A sample of 143 college undergraduates responding to the experimentally designed vignettes were found to be most influenced by a vignette person's behavioral impairment, followed by the psychological attributes of depression, obtrusive thoughts, beliefs, conflict, engagement/withdrawal, fear, and anxiety. Other factors that significantly affected mental illness ratings included a vignette person's past history of mental illness and the relationship of the vignette person to the rater. These ten dimensions were found to be considerably more important than sociodemographic characteristics in judging persons mentally ill.     

An Unfinished Reflexive Journey: Social Work Students' Reflection on their Placement Experiences

The fieldwork placement is recognized as one of the major componentsof social work education and a major determinant of its quality.A key aspect of the learning process in the fieldwork placementis the exposition of practice encounters to the students’critical reflection. Given the importance of the process of‘reflection’ or ‘reflective learning’,a qualitative study based on the reflective logs of social workstudents was conducted to explore the meaning of social workfield education and the learning experiences of social workstudents during their placement. The study findings revealedthat disturbing events experienced by students in their fieldworkwere a catalyst to their reflective process. Meanwhile, theirundue concern with knowledge and skills application within acircumscribed knowledge frame suggests the dominant influenceof scientism and competence-based practice in social work, inwhich learning outcomes and instrumental and technical reasoningare highly emphasized. Discovery of ‘self’ was alsothe major premise in the students’ reflection logs, inwhich a majority of them took their prevailing self-identityas a constant state to be verified in interaction with othersin the fieldwork placement. Reflexivity is manifested in askingfundamental questions about assumptions generated by formaland practice theories; it addresses the multiple interrelationsbetween power and knowledge, and acknowledges the inclusionof self in the process of knowledge creation in social workpractice. Its realization in social work education requiresthe social work educators’ reflexive examination of thedynamics that influence the construction of curriculum, whichin turn construct our prospective social workers.     

Leadership and Stress Orientations of Germans: An Examination Based on Gender, Age, and Government Work Experience

Today??s working adults often display different leadership orientations, as well as moderate to severe levels of stress depending on the situation and various demographic traits. In order to explore the stress, task orientation and relationship orientation variables of German people, this study examined the differences of 232 respondents in Germany based on their gender, age, and public sector work experience. The results showed that respondents had dissimilar scores on their leadership orientations. Younger respondents had significantly lower task and relationship orientation scores. Furthermore, females reported having a significantly higher level of stress perception. These findings are useful for expatriate managers and professionals who work with German-born workers. Besides, relevant literature on the German culture, suggestions and implications for future studies are presented.     

Parenting stress and anger: the Hong Kong experience

This paper examines the relationship between parenting stress and anger. A study was done on parenting stress and anger and its form of expression among Hong Kong Chinese parents. Three measures were used in the study: Abidin's Parental Stress Index/Short Form (PSI/SF; 1990), the Maternal Social Support Index (Pascoe et al. 1981) and Spielberger's State Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI; 1991). A total of 475 parents of children in a primary school participated in the study. The Chinese PSI/SF and the STAXI showed good inter-item reliability. The study helped to provide a profile of the parenting stress and the style of anger expression of Hong Kong Chinese parents. Stress was not found to be related to the year of the children in school or the general socio-economic conditions of the family. But stress correlated positively with anger expression. Multiple regression showed that anger expression was most strongly related to Trait Anger, the Difficult Child scores and the social support available to respondents. Rather than blaming the parent or the child, it is suggested more services should be provided to enhance the anger management, problem-solving skills and social support of the parents.     

Parental migration and disruptions in everyday life: reactions of left-behind children in Southeast Asia

ABSTRACT

Increasing feminisation of transnational labour migration has raised concerns over potential ‘care crises’ at home, and consequently a ‘care deficit’ for children left in origin countries. Our paper focuses on how left-behind children from Indonesia and the Philippines understand, engage and react to changes in their everyday lives in their parents’ absence. While many children had no say over their care arrangements, some were able to assert their agency in influencing their parents’ decisions and eventually migratory behaviours. Their thoughts and actions reinforce the importance of including children’s views in development and migration studies to improve both the children’s and families’ well-being, and make migration a sustainable strategy for all.     

How the World Survived the Population Bomb: Lessons From 50 Years of Extraordinary Demographic History

The world population will reach 7 billion in late 2011, a demographic milestone that is causing renewed attention to the challenges caused by population growth. This article looks at the last 50 years of demographic change, one of the most extraordinary periods in demographic history. During this period, world population grew at rates that have never been seen before and will almost surely never be seen again. There were many concerns about the potential impact of rapid population growth in the 1960s, including mass starvation in countries such as India, depletion of nonrenewable resources, and increased poverty in low-income countries. The actual experience was very different. World food production increased faster than world population in every decade since the 1960s, resource prices fell during most of the period, and poverty declined significantly in much of the developing world. The article considers the economic and demographic explanations for the surprising successes of this important period in demographic history. It also looks at regions that have been less successful, especially Africa, and at the lessons for dealing with the important challenges that still remain.     

Psychological Stress and Parenting Behavior Among Chinese Families: Findings from a Study on Parent Education for Economically Disadvantaged Families

With the recognition of the crucial role of family and with the belief that parents have the greatest influence on a child’s life, family and parent education has been widely practiced in Hong Kong and many other countries as measure for poverty alleviation. A study, employed quantitative method of a cross-sectional parent survey (N = 10,386) was conducted to comprehend needs and parenting practice of poor families, and to identify appropriate strategies to promote family and parent education in Hong Kong. Regression analysis was used to investigate the association between family variables, psychological stress and parenting behavior. The study identified five categories of disadvantaged families and salient factors that distinguished families from the normal population based on the findings of discriminant analysis. Moreover, data indicates that family relationship and social networks are protective factors to economically disadvantaged families, whereas sense of powerlessness amplifies the negative effects of low income. Base on the findings, the paper suggests that strategies for poverty alleviation that focus purely on parenting or parent education are fragmented and fail to address the complexity of poverty as a social issue. A holistic perspective that goes beyond the scope of parent education to support families, adopting a family perspective in poverty-alleviation work and service provision, and addressing barriers constrain parenting are the future service directions.