Differential predictors of academic achievement: individual and familial factor interactions with community poverty

We present an analysis of the contexts within which adolescents graduate from high school and enroll in college. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health show that adolescents’ school engagement, maternal academic monitoring, and community poverty significantly interact to explain differences in high school graduation and college enrollment rates (n?=?7100). To examine this association, we performed weighted logistic regression analyses, controlling for gender, race, block level unemployment, and block level median income. Findings suggest that protective factors can help youth overcome the challenges associated with community poverty and achieve academically in low and medium levels of poverty, but that youth in high-poverty contexts may need more resources to reach higher levels of academic attainment.     

Understanding care for the poor in rural Russia

The issues surrounding care and care-provision have been key themes in social scientific research, yet the intersections between care and poverty, particularly in rural contexts, have not been sufficiently explored. This paper addresses this gap by studying care for the poor in rural Russia. It argues that isolated, disengaged and decontextualised caring interventions often ignore situated possibilities and traditions of care and overlook what matters to poor people. To overcome this problem, the paper uses 20 and 22 dwelling approach to prioritise a relational framework that focuses on care as concern, solicitude and possibilities for supportive action in the context of rural Russia. Using examples from fieldwork in two Russian villages, the paper stresses the constitutive role of non-representable practices of care which provide the ontological basis for recognising and understanding the worldviews and coping practices of the poor. It concludes with conceptual observations about alternative approaches to care, relations to others and responsibility for the rural poor.     

Older people and poverty in rural Britain: Material hardships,cultural denials and social inclusions

This paper explores the relations between older people, poverty and place in rural Britain. It develops previous work on rural poverty that has pointed both to the significance of older people within the rural poor population and to their denials of poverty. The paper also connects with recent discussions on the complexity of relations between poverty and social exclusion in later life, as well as key themes emerging from studies of older people in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods. Drawing on findings from a survey of 4000 households in rural Wales and interviews with older people in poverty in three rural places, the paper provides a detailed examination of the materialities and experiences of poverty among older people in rural places. In particular, it highlights how older poor groups construct their lives in complex terms with references made to both social inclusions and exclusions. The research also points to the significance of the socio-cultural contexts of place in shaping older people's understandings of poverty in rural areas.     

A Collection of Thoughts and Findings on Affirmative Action

Abstract

During the 1980s and ′90s grassroots feminist and neoconservative movements increased in size and strength around the world. In the U.S. and globally, conservatives organized against the welfare state and against feminism. As a result, feminist social work has been constrained and enhanced by the competing claims of these divergent movements. This article presents a case study of one U.S. battered women's organization which retrenched and then reasserted its feminism in reaction to these contradictory forces. The analysis of this example explores the question of how feminist social workers can apply the capacity of feminist thinking and action, given the conservative constraints.     

我国贫困人口的脆弱度与贫困动态

 在贫困脆弱性和贫困动态理论的逻辑归纳与阐述基础上，利用辽宁省重点贫困县调查样本数据，采用聚类分析、脆弱度分析以及敏感度分析等方法实际测度了贫困县贫困状态的分布情况和脆弱程度；从贫困动态的角度，对贫困户1997～2006年间的贫困发生频次、深度及持续时段进行了统计分析。研究发现，各个贫困县的贫困脆弱性程度存在一定的差异，且受多重致贫因素的影响呈现出一定的类型分布特征；贫困动态的分析在一定程度上支持了贫困脆弱度的结果；贫困时段分析与以往研究发现略有不同，呈现出“暂时贫困”和“长期贫困”二者“并重”的特征，而非“单一分布”的“偏态”， 真正有效率的扶贫救济制度应当准确地锁定在持续贫困的家庭上，政策相应地要具有差异性和弹性，这样才有可能快速及时的解决攻坚阶段的贫困问题。     

中国干群矛盾的类别、发展趋势及缓解机制研究

干群矛盾是中国社会矛盾中最特别、最具有爆炸性的类型,全面解析干群矛盾是社会矛盾预警及治理的重要环节.文章从性质、主体、地域、表现形式、发展阶段、激烈程度等方面对干群矛盾进行分类,把握其发展的现状,概括出具有普遍性、局部激化、振荡调整、危害性大等特征,指出主要诱因包括政治利益冲突、经济利益冲突和情感利益冲突.预测其发展趋势将更为激烈.而且成为其他社会矛盾演化成大规模冲突的催化剂.提出了"一个中心三个层面"、预警机制、综合控制机制等缓解、化解干群矛盾的机制.     

Bayesian estimation for the Pareto income distribution

The Bayes estimators of the Gini index, the mean income and the proportion of the population living below a prescribed income level are obtained in this paper on the basis of censored income data from a pareto income distribution. The said estimators are obtained under the assumptions of a two-parameter exponential prior distribution and the usual squared error loss function. This work is also extended to the case when the income data are grouped and the exact incomes for the individuals in the population are not available. The method for the assessment of the hyperparameters is also outlined. Finally, the results are generalized for the doubly truncated gamma prior distribution. Now deceased.     

Low-Income Mothers' Conversations About Emotions and Their Children's Emotional Competence

This study examined the linkage between low-income mothers' conversations about emotions and their children's understanding of emotion. Forty-five low-income preschoolers and their mothers were videotaped while viewing a wordless picture book designed to elicit talk about emotions. Three maternal and child emotional language behaviors were coded from the videotapes: (a) unelaborated comments about emotions; (b) explanations about the causes and consequences of emotions; and (c) empathy-related statements. The children's questions about emotions were also coded. In a separate interview, the preschoolers were administered tasks that assessed emotional expression knowledge, emotional situation knowledge, and emotional role-taking. The results revealed that emotional situation knowledge was positively predicted by mothers' empathy-related statements. Mothers' explanations about the causes and consequences of emotions were uniquely related to emotional role-taking ability. There were very few correlations between the mothers' and children's talk about emotions. Results are discussed in terms of the functional significance of mothers' emotional language for young children's emotional competence.     

农村家庭“因教致贫”现象解读与政策建议——基于脆弱性理论视角

教育具有促进政治进步、经济发展、文化传承的正向功能。然而,"知识改变命运"作为一个真理性的命题,在我国广大农村地区似乎成为了一个悖论,出现了较大面积的"因教致贫"反常现象。农村"因教致贫"问题具有多维度性和多层面性,是一个复杂的系统性问题。一般来说,此问题涉及到农村的经济基础、自然环境、政策环境以及社会环境等各个层面,农村家庭的抗风险能力差决定了农民家庭脆弱性程度较高,较高的脆弱性是导致"因教致贫"的真正原因。因此,从就学就业先后顺序出发,引入脆弱性理论,分析"因教致贫"动态形成过程中的脆弱性因子,对农村地区"因教致贫"现象进行深入探讨和研究,并提出相应的政策建议。     

扶贫移民适应期生计风险、扶持资源承接与政策优化

扶贫移民兼具扶贫和生态保护功能,有效破解区域生态可持续和社会经济发展矛盾的同时也会出现目标的“反功能”现象。基于适应期扶贫移民生计特征归纳,寻求可能遇到的丧失发展资源、失去公共服务、社会关系网络受损、边缘化等生计损失及致贫风险,针对扶贫移民适应期生计发展扶持政策实施过程中存在的“政策对接有落差、政策衔接有缝隙、政策承接有障碍”等资源承接问题,尝试提出提高移民发展可行能力、注重产业发展、整合发展扶持政策与资源、强化移民专业经济组织建设、健全农村要素市场、促进发展要素整合联动等建议,以促进扶贫移民安稳致富奔小康。