Family and work-related risk factors in children's social–emotional well-being and parent–educator cooperation in flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care

Non-standard work schedules (NSWS) have become typical, but their associations with childcare arrangements and children's well-being are unknown. This study explores how risk factors are associated with the social–emotional well-being of girls and boys using flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care. Furthermore, the study investigates whether well-functioning cooperation between parents and educators buffers the negative effects of the risk factors. This study, which is a part of a larger survey carried out in three European countries, reports Finnish parents' (N = 146) perspectives. The results showed that high parental stress was associated with low child well-being. Strong parent–educator cooperation positively impacted both boys' and girls' social–emotional well-being. The risk factors of reconciling work and family life had negative associations with children's well-being and the fulfilment of their basic needs. The results illustrate the complex interrelations between children's well-being, risk factors relating to NSWS and the buffering effect of protective factors.     

Making sense of the senses across species boundaries: designing the Animal Senses gallery at National Museums Scotland

As one of a suite of natural science galleries in the National Museum of Scotland, Animal Senses presents a comprehensive overview of how animals have evolved senses as they have adapted to different ecological niches in order to find food or avoid predation. Using different sensory channels, they also have evolved means of communication to attract mates, deter rivals, and remain hidden from predators and prey. Some of the most extraordinary examples of evolution are those which mimic the appearance of another unrelated species or some feature of the environment such as a thorn on a bush or a piece of coral. New taxidermy and models, engaging text presented hierarchically, and fun interactives were developed specifically for this gallery in order to present an up-to-date review of senses and communication. However, its real strength is the wide array of real specimens and life-size models which allow visitors to see what these animals really look like and how big they are, experiences which cannot be emulated by books or electronic media. By taking a thematic approach, we have created an unrivalled opportunity to compare animals from different taxonomic groups to see how they have solved the problems of life by evolving similar structures or completely different ones in order to find food, avoid being eaten, navigate, find mates and deceive rivals and predators.     

Child Care Arrangements,Division of Household Labor and Other Employment Based Familial Predictors of Marital Adjustment Among Husbands of Employed Females in Pakistan

The primary purpose of the current study was to investigate the influence of division of household labor, child care arrangements, wife’s financial contribution, work-schedule of wife, perception of wife employment and wife’s work preference were contributing to marital adjustment of husbands of working married women. Additionally, it explored the role of wife’s financial contribution, perception of wife’s employment and wife’s work preference in formation of marital adjustment among husbands of working women. The data were collected through a self-structured questionnaire from 283 husbands of employed married women with one year of marital duration and at least one child. The data were collected from the city of Gujrat, province of Punjab, Pakistan. Factor analysis was run for reliability and validity analysis was executed to examine the validity of the existing scales used in the current study. Multiple linear regression analysis was used for model fit. Division of household labor, child care arrangements, wife’s financial contributions, wife’s work-schedule, the perception of wife’s employment, and wife’s work preferences contributed to the marital adjustment of husbands of working married women. Our results seemed to reflect fluctuating dimensions of gender role ideologies among families. Incorporating new predictors of marital adjustment into literature of marriage and family has been a sociological significance of the current study.     

Exploring Policy and Financing Options for Long-Term Care in Taiwan

Summary

Policy and financing arrangements for long-term care are important themes in each country and/or region, and Taiwan, with its unique historic and politico-economic background, can be regarded as a bridge between well-developed and under-developed countries. Policy formulation about long-term care in Taiwan involves several agencies in the government, including Ministry of Health, Interior Affairs, Education, Insurance Bureau, and Economic Council, and formulation of policy objectives has progressed considerably in the last five years. Financing arrangements are less well-developed because the National Health Insurance Program began only in 1995, and most long-term care is not yet covered. As demand for long-term care exceeds supply, and this gap will grow in future, current resource allocation measures are concerned to facilitate the expansion of community care rather than allowing institutional care to absorb more resources. Developing future financing options is now a central task for policymaking, and government must continue to take a leading role in consolidating financing and integrating the service systems.     

The Politics of Pain and the End of Empire

This article is a discussion of the role of feeling and emotion, and particularly the experience of pain, in contemporary global political events. In placing pain at the center of an analysis of a lived experience of global politics, the aim is to forge strategies to resist neoliberal imperialism and to create emotionally literate political communities. Drawing on the work of Elaine Scarry, Sara Ahmed and Frantz Fanon, the article situates the concept of emotions in a modern colonial landscape that is both racialized and gendered, complicated by neoliberalism as a subjectivity that contains the scope for emotions. As a case study, the article considers the emotions of viewing the deliberate infliction of pain through the circulation of the ‘Abu Ghraib photos’, particularly in the form of recent museum exhibitions in the USA.     

Living Arrangements and Quality of Life Among Chinese Canadian Elders

This paper examines the role of living arrangements in thequality of life of community-dwelling Chinese elders (aged 65 andover) currently residing in Vancouver and Victoria, BritishColumbia. Data are based on a random sample of 830 persons[response rate = 71.5%], who were interviewed in their homes inthe language of their choice in 1995–96. Three dimensions ofquality of life – satisfaction, well-being and social support –are examined for married men and women [living with spouse alonevs. living intergenerationally] and widowed women [living alonevs. living intergenerationally]. Few differences are found formarried persons, especially women; for widows, living alonesignificantly reduces quality of life in a number of areas.Regression analyses indicate that living arrangements are not asignificant predictor of life satisfaction or well-being formarried men and women. For widows, living arrangements determinewell-being but not life satisfaction.Overall, age, health status, and social support (havingfriends/confidante) are better predictors of quality of life forelderly Chinese Canadians than are living arrangements. Findingshighlight the importance of: empirically distinguishing maritalstatus and living arrangements in studying the quality of life ofelders; not homogenizing Chinese Canadian seniors with regard toliving arrangements; and focussing on Chinese elderly widows wholive alone as a group at risk of low well-being.     

Child Care and Child Births: The Role of Grandparents in the Netherlands

This study explored the involvement of grandparents in the care for young children and its effect on subsequent child births in dual‐earner families, using data on 898 Dutch men and women aged 18–49 from the Netherlands' Kinship Panel Study. Three theoretical perspectives were used to develop hypotheses: (a) needs and opportunities, (b) normative preferences, and (c) gendered involvement of grandparents. The findings showed that needs and opportunities informed involvement of grandparents but that the availability of formal child care did not predict grandparents' involvement. Maternal grandparents were more likely to provide child care than paternal grandparents, and grandmothers were more likely to do so than grandfathers. Involvement of both maternal and paternal grandparents in turn increased the likelihood of additional child births. The authors conclude that grandparental child care may be part of an emerging reproductive strategy. Implications of these findings for the theoretical approaches used are discussed.     

《淮南子》的情感论

《淮南子》中情感论材料丰富,虽散布于各卷中,但可从中总结提炼出这样一个体系:情感的发生论、规约论、表现论、接受论;而且论述深入详致。这一承前启后的体系化情感论发生在汉初,而且发生在一部著作中,这是难能可贵的。我们不但可由此管窥中国古代对情感世界的较早而又较为全面的自觉性体认,而且这对研究古代文学情感学体系也有不容忽视的价值。汉代由先秦的重志轻情,一变为重情轻志,在《淮南子》这里已露端倪,可以说,魏晋南北朝的“人道当情”论、“诗缘情”论在汉初就已开始酝酿了。     

Rota-Risk-Profile-Analysis

In this article an update of the Rota-Risk-Profile-Analysis (RRPA) is presented. This RRPA is based on 9 rota-risk criteria that are central to a more encompassing rota theory. The RRPA allows coherent assessment of the physical and social risks of a working-time schedule (rota). comparison of schedules with one another in quantitative terms and interpretations of possible differential effects more adequately. First, a closer look at the instrument-a computer program-is taken. Afterwards the criteria and their way of implementation are discussed briefly. To get an impression of the way that RRPA functions an example will be given by applying the instrument to the working rotas from a study on shiftwork in the Netherlands.