Connecting and Strengthening Young Aboriginal Men: A Family Wellbeing Pilot Study

A significant proportion of young people in Australia are currently not being engaged in school and other social systems. This article presents the results of a mixed-methods study of a pilot Family Wellbeing intervention designed to enhance the social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) of young Aboriginal men and improve engagement in education, employment, and other social participation. A questionnaire incorporating the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale and respondent self-assessment SEWB questions was administered to program participants pre and post intervention (N = 30) and qualitative data were collected from program organisers (N = 6). The results suggest that the Family Wellbeing intervention has the capacity to make a marked contribution to the SEWB of young Aboriginal men; participants experienced strong improvement in capacity to manage relationships, engagement in education and employment, and mental and physical health. The factors that enabled the program to be adapted to the target group and setting are documented.     

Bayesian Estimation and Model Choice in Item Response Models

Item response models are essential tools for analyzing results from many educational and psychological tests. Such models are used to quantify the probability of correct response as a function of unobserved examinee ability and other parameters explaining the difficulty and the discriminatory power of the questions in the test. Some of these models also incorporate a threshold parameter for the probability of the correct response to account for the effect of guessing the correct answer in multiple choice type tests. In this article we consider fitting of such models using the Gibbs sampler. A data augmentation method to analyze a normal-ogive model incorporating a threshold guessing parameter is introduced and compared with a Metropolis-Hastings sampling method. The proposed method is an order of magnitude more efficient than the existing method. Another objective of this paper is to develop Bayesian model choice techniques for model discrimination. A predictive approach based on a variant of the Bayes factor is used and compared with another decision theoretic method which minimizes an expected loss function on the predictive space. A classical model choice technique based on a modified likelihood ratio test statistic is shown as one component of the second criterion. As a consequence the Bayesian methods proposed in this paper are contrasted with the classical approach based on the likelihood ratio test. Several examples are given to illustrate the methods.     

Assessing emotional and social health using photographs: An innovative research method for rural studies and its applicability in a care-farming program for youth

A framework for assessing photographs for the emotional and social health of young people (SHAPE) is described and tested, within the context of a rural program. Two independent raters assessed the photographs of participants. To assess inter-rater reliability, Cohen’ K and Kendall’s W were calculated. The two reviewers’ assessments of photographs were in agreement. The assessment of emotional/behavioural display showed 82% agreement. Agreement between reviewers’ judgements of proxemics (W = .866), interaction (W = .722), engagement (W = .932) and overall impression (W = .804) were all significant (p < .005). The method yielded results indicating that participants found gardening immediately engaging but their approach to equines exhibited a change from fascination to confidence during the program. The visual-diary method is a useful and sensitive method for research: where resources are limited; to complement traditional measures; for use with people who lack appropriate verbal communication or literacy skills to complete questionnaires; young children; other underrepresented groups.     

Educational gradient of health in rural China

The aim of this paper is to examine whether and how rural residents’ educational attainment is associated with their self-rated health in China. Taking advantage of the National Exercise Facility Survey that was collected between December 2015 and March 2016, we find that educational attainment has a significant and positive correlation with self-rated health, net of the effects of age, gender, and geographical region. This correlation is mediated by factors such as perceived importance of exercise and healthy lifestyle. Relatively, people’s cognitive knowledge about health-related information and material resource access fail to play a significant mediating role. The findings highlight the non-material and non-cognitive attributes of educational attainment in shaping the gradient of health in the rural setting of China. Interventions that expand formal education to the mass and optimize teaching contents may offer an effective means to balance the health gradient.     

三次党内集中学习教育活动的回顾与思考(英文)

21世纪以来,中国共产党相继开展了农村三个代表重要思想学习教育活动,以实践三个代表重要思想为主要内容的保持党员先进性教育活动和深入学习实践科学发展观活动。通过这三次活动,广大党员、干部受到深刻的马克思主义教育,进一步增强了对三个代表重要思想的认识。这三次活动对于在新的历史起点上推进党的建设的伟大工程,具有十分重要的启示意义。     

Providing Mental Health Services to Older People Living in Rural Communities

Summary

Rural dwelling elders who experience mental health problems often have difficulty finding help since rural communities often lack adequate mental health service providers. This paper reports on the initial phase of a 5-year, interdisciplinary clinical research study that is testing the effectiveness of providing a home delivered, therapeutic psychosocial intervention, aimed at improving the emotional well-being and the quality of life of medically frail elders who live in rural communities. In the early phases of this study, the clinical research team encountered a number of interesting and often unanticipated challenges as it attempted to recruit study participants and provide services to them. In this article, we examine these challenges and share what we have learned so far about providing mental health services to elderly persons living in rural environments.     

中国实践区域经济合作的法律问题

随着世界经济的快速发展，经济全球化与区域经济一体化如同两股不可逆流的洪潮，席卷世界。为适应国际经济的发展趋势，我国积极加入至经济区域合作的行列之中。事实上，区域经济合作已成为了我国经济发展不可或缺的重要组成部分。在区域经济合作领域，特别是在东盟区域，我国已取得了较大的成绩，但仍存在着诸多不足。这些不足突出地体现在法律体系不够完善、缺乏具体法规支撑等多个方面。对此，我们可通过建立有效的预警机制，借鉴其他区域经济合作经验等措施，促进我国实践区域经济合作更好地发展。     

魏晋南北朝史发展要义二题

魏晋南北朝约400年,为分裂割据时期,战乱促使人们思维活跃,无论政治、军事、经济、文化皆出现了承上启下的新内涵。而其要义则为政治上的儒法结合和三省六部制,军事上的府兵制,经济上的均田制,文化上的永明新体诗和骈文的出现,所有这些对后世历史发展具有深远影响。     

王岱舆著作的思想结构

研究王岱舆著作的思想结构,必然要涉及到他的《正教真诠》、《清真大学》和《希真正答》之间的关系,涉及到这三本著作的内容及其表述形式。只有这样,才能了解他的整个著作的思想结构,进而有可能从整体上对他的思想作深入、系统的分析和探讨。 一、王岱舆的著作 20世纪80年代,王岱舆的《正教真诠》、《清真大学》和《希真正答》由余振贵点校、宁夏人民出版社结集出版。该合刊本是目前比较流行的版本。书后,以白寿彝的《王岱舆传》和金吉堂的《王岱舆阿衡传》为附录。本文拟依据该合刊本展开相关的讨论。其中,     

中国农村社会学研究现状与前景展望——“第七届农村社会学论坛”观点综述

“第七届农村社会学论坛”于2016年5月21－22日在西北农林科技大学成功举办。这次论坛主要围绕现代乡村文化建设与公共空间重建、乡村的现代命运及其未来发展趋势、国家治理下的基层社会治理困境与逻辑、农村公共事务治理及社区发展转型、农村社会发展和社会治理等议题展开讨论交流。