The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal on First Nations Child Welfare: Why if Canada wins, equality and justice lose

Repeated reports indicate that First Nations children on reserve receive less child welfare funding than other children in Canada despite the fact that First Nations children have higher child welfare needs. After the Government of Canada failed to implement two joint solutions to address the inequality, First Nations organizations in Canada filed a human rights complaint alleging that the Government of Canada is discriminating against First Nations children on the basis of race and national ethnic origin. This historic case is now before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and marks the first time that Canada has been held to account before a legal body for its current treatment of First Nations children and their families. This opinion article presents the facts leading up to the filing of the human rights case, the grass roots advocacy and legal processes after the complaint was filed, and the implications for: First Nations children, individuals from minority groups, and the moral fabric of the country if the Government of Canada wins the case.     

Reducing racial disparities and disproportionalities in the child welfare system: Policy perspectives about how to serve the best interests of African American youth

This article examines current debates about how to reduce the overrepresentation of African American youth in the child welfare system and address related disparities. These debates reflect tensions between four long-standing perspectives in child welfare: expedient permanency, cultural continuity, family preservation, and social advantage. For each point of view, proponents' unique framing of the problem, use of research, and preferred intervention strategies are described. The emphasis of current federal policy on expedient permanency and transracial adoption is explored, followed by a detailed review of the literature evaluating the impact of this intervention on child and system-level outcomes. It is argued that conclusive evidence does not exist in support of transracial adoption and the expedient permanency perspective above others. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.     

Why youth leave care: Understandings of adulthood and transition successes and challenges among youth aging out of child welfare

Child welfare policies and practices are changing to allow more youth to remain in care beyond age 18. Yet, the majority of youth do not stay. Given recent evidence suggesting that remaining in care may be beneficial, there is a need to understand why youth leave. Using data gathered from in-depth interviews with young people aging out of care, this paper explores this question, relating it to youths' understandings of adulthood and the successes and challenges they face during their transitions. We find that youth leave care because of misunderstanding and misinformation about the requirements for remaining in care, as well as because of a desire for autonomy and independence. Specifically, many youth equated adulthood with independence, and thus felt that they needed to leave care to achieve adulthood. Unfortunately, these efforts to be independent often hinder youths' development of supportive relationships, which they reported to be one of the greatest challenges in their transitions. Based on these findings, we conclude by challenging the conflation of adulthood and independence, as well as of childhood and dependence, calling for connected autonomy as a goal for child welfare involved young people of all ages.     

Risk and protective factors for depression and substance use in an adolescent child welfare sample

Research on the mental health needs of maltreated youth in out-of-home care remains limited. The goal of the current study was to examine two common mental health concerns (i.e., depression, substance use) among 122 12-15 year olds in out-of-home placements. Specifically, we investigated potential risk and protective factors among socio-demographic, maltreatment, youth, family, and community variables. We relied on data collected through the AAR-C2, a Canadian needs assessment and outcome monitoring tool. Approximately 4 in 10 (39.2%) youth endorsed at least one mental health problem, which we defined as the youth scoring at least one standard deviation above the sample mean for the depression items and the youth indicating the presence of alcohol and/or substance use over the past year. Almost 1 in 10 (8.3%) reported struggling with both mental health issues. Results from logistic regressions indicated that adolescent females were at higher risk of experiencing depression than males, and increasing age was associated with increased risk for substance use. Turning to protective factors, results indicated that the greater the perceived quality of the youth-caregiver relationship, the lower the risk for mental health difficulties (i.e., depression, substance use). Moreover, participation in extracurricular activities appeared to protect youth against depression or substance use. Results imply that the youth-caregiver relationship and involvement in extracurricular activities are important areas to consider to promote the well-being of maltreated youth in out-of-home care.     

Dosage matters: The relationship between participation in the Nurturing Parenting Program for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers and subsequent child maltreatment

This article uses statewide data on caregivers of young children referred to the Nurturing Parenting Program (NPP) for allegations of abuse and neglect to examine the relationship between program dosage and subsequent maltreatment. At six months after participating in the program, caregivers who attended more sessions were significantly less likely to be reported for child maltreatment, holding other factors constant. At two years after participating, caregivers attending more sessions were significantly less likely to have a substantiated maltreatment incidence, controlling for other characteristics of families associated with maltreatment. These findings demonstrate the program is associated with preventing short-term allegations and longer-term substantiated incidences of maltreatment for a child welfare population. By demonstrating the importance of participation in the NPP, we increase the evidence about effective parent education programs for this population.     

Nonparametric Welfare Analysis for Discrete Choice

We consider empirical measurement of equivalent variation (EV) and compensating variation (CV) resulting from price change of a discrete good using individual‐level data when there is unobserved heterogeneity in preferences. We show that for binary and unordered multinomial choice, the marginal distributions of EV and CV can be expressed as simple closed‐form functionals of conditional choice probabilities under essentially unrestricted preference distributions. These results hold even when the distribution and dimension of unobserved heterogeneity are neither known nor identified, and utilities are neither quasilinear nor parametrically specified. The welfare distributions take simple forms that are easy to compute in applications. In particular, average EV for a price rise equals the change in average Marshallian consumer surplus and is smaller than average CV for a normal good. These nonparametric point‐identification results fail for ordered choice if the unit price is identical for all alternatives, thereby providing a connection to Hausman–Newey's (2014) partial identification results for the limiting case of continuous choice.     

中国社会福利改革与发展战略:从照顾弱者到普惠全民

社会福利是我国社会保障体系的重要组成部分,但一直滞后于社会保险、社会救助的发展,并存在着体系残缺、多元分割、制度紊乱、功能异化等缺陷,越来越不适应人口老龄化与社会发展所带来的城乡居民福利需求全面升级的需要。因此,国家应当全面促进社会福利事业的发展,并在政府的主导下,通过建立项目完整、保障功能强、社会化运行、多层次发展的社会福利体系,全面满足城乡居民的社会福利需求,让全体人民真正实现生有体面、死有尊严,实现中国社会福利体系从照顾弱者向普惠全民的转变。     

电力监管机构与电力消费者保护：理论、经验与启示

垄断固然侵占消费者剩余,市场竞争也并不能自动改善和增进消费者福利,保护消费者权益是反垄断法和消费者保护法的共同目的,但由于采取的路径不同,在竞争秩序维护和消费者保护之间存在着一定张力,行业监管机构的消费者保护措施是实现两者协调均衡的重要手段。我国应以消费者利益作为电力体制改革的考虑基点,避免以社会公共利益侵夺消费者权益,电力监管机构应加强对电力消费合同订立阶段的干预,并完善电力消费者争议庭外解决制度。     

公益基金管理立法刍议

2011年,对于公益基金这个新兴组织的发展是有巨大意义的,公益界瞩目的李连杰壹基金转型成功,壹基金在深圳市的注册不但使其取得了法人地位,可以独立进行法律活动,而且意义更大的是,壹基金通过了公募基金的登记注册,将可以在一定范围内公开向社会募集善款。这对于公益基金管理法的制定,或者说对现行《基金和管理条例》的修改拉响了警报,公益化社会的发展趋势要求法律法规要维护公益事业的秩序和公益组织的权利,同时,绝不能限制甚至阻碍公益事业的职能的发挥和发展进程。     

我国福利彩票业监管机制创新的策略

福利彩票事业是我国社会保障体系的重要组成部分,发行福利彩票可以广泛筹集社会资源,弥补政府财政社会保障资金投入的不足,促进社会救助、社会福利事业的发展壮大。当前,随着福利彩票业的进一步发展,出现了监管机制与市场发展需求不相符合的矛盾。因此,改革并创新我国福利彩票业监管机制就成了当务之急。