Cultural Complexity and Border Markers in Norwegian Kindergartens

This article has analysed practices towards and views on cultural diversity by staff in two Norwegian kindergartens. The article has focused on food traditions both among minorities and the Norwegian majority that serve as border markers and are used in differentiating processes among the staff. The analysis found concurrent processes towards cultural homogenisation and increased diversity and experienced that staff members are in the process of developing a perception about minority children that is complex, shifting and intersecting, rather than a straightforward perception based solely on minority status. However, the study also identified a tendency operating in parallel where, even though the ideal goal is equality in results, the outcome in practice is often a majority‐based equality practice that leaves little room for difference.     

Retaining Early Childcare Educators

Long day childcare (LDC) services provide education and care for children under 5 years of age in Australia. Those who work in these services are poorly paid and their efforts are undervalued. To support the emotional, social, intellectual and physical needs and interests of children, LDC staff are working physically, exercising vigilance in order to fulfil their duty of care, monitoring their interactions with children and regulating their own emotions. Perhaps for these reasons, the retention of early childhood (EC) educators is significantly lower than of other care‐based professions. However, little attention has been given to the impact of legislative requirements upon the workplace factors beyond pay and conditions that are likely to affect staff retention. This instrumental case study thus investigated workplace factors that personally or professionally affected EC educators' work in their LDC services. The study involves observations and interviews with EC educators (N = 28) from four South Australian LDC services. The results show that current legislative, structural and operational requirements constrain the ability of participants to collaborate across the board and to enhance the quality of their educative care. These concerns were amplified by the funding of their LDC service and the difficulty the participants found in achieving a work–life balance. The implications of the way in which LDC services are perceived and operate in liberal market economies are discussed.     

Maternal labor market return and domestic work after childbirth in Britain and Germany

This study investigates how the duration of maternal labor market interruptions and mothers' employment status after return relate to the division of domestic work in couples after childbirth in West Germany, East Germany, and Britain. It extends the literature by considering how these two aspects of postnatal labor market return decisions of mothers may give rise to or counteract growing gender inequality in domestic work afterbirth events. Using data on 826 British and 1614 German new parent couples based on the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) (1991–2008) and on the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) (1990–2010), I apply fixed-effects panel models. Mothers perform more housework with increasing length of their employment interruptions across the three contexts. For childcare, longer time-outs increase mothers' childcare share in West Germany but not in East Germany. This result is in line with institutional variations in day-care provision. Across contexts, mothers' full-time returns are associated with a larger reduction in their domestic work share than short time-out. After mothers returned to part-time employment, couples show no or much weaker compensating behaviors for longer previous maternal time-outs than after a full-time return.     

Program Evaluation of “Young at Heart”

Abstract

We conducted a program evaluation study of “Young at Heart,” a Texas (United States) program that places elderly volunteers in childcare settings. The main constructs evaluated in this research-based article are Erikson's generativity (a motivation to guide younger generations) and life satisfaction. We compared four groups of elderly persons on these constructs: Young at Heart volunteers, Meals on Wheels volunteers (who deliver food to other elderly persons and thus gain volunteer experience, but not with children), non-volunteers drawn from the general population of one Texas community, and individuals in the same community who volunteered in a variety of activities (“miscellaneous volunteers”). Our guiding assumption was that volunteering with children would appear to be a clear expression of generativity; we thus hypothesized that YAH volunteers would score highest in it. Contrary to prediction, the miscellaneous volunteers averaged the highest generativity, followed by YAH volunteers. Philosophical and conceptual issues are identified with regard to research on generativity and intergenerational programming.     

The Effects of Family-Friendly Policies and Workplace Social Support on Parenting Stress in Employed Mothers Working Nonstandard Hours

This study examines whether family-friendly policies (childcare leave, on-site childcare, and flexible working hours) and workplace social support (supervisor and coworker support) in South Korea are directly related to parenting stress among employed mothers with nonstandard work schedules. In addition, this study investigates the moderating role of family-supportive organization perceptions in the aforesaid associations. Data were collected from 223 employed mothers who have nonstandard work schedules with at least one or more children under the age of six. Results show that on-site childcare, flexible working hours, and supervisor support are negatively associated with parenting stress, whereas childcare leave is positively associated with parenting stress. Employed mothers with high family-supportive organization perceptions report low levels of parenting stress when they received high levels of supervisor support or did not take childcare leave. Additionally, employed mothers with low family-supportive organization perceptions report high levels of parenting stress when they did not use on-site childcare. Consequently, our findings indicate that employed mothers’ greater family-supportive organization perceptions are key factor reducing their parenting stress when they are limited to use family-friendly policies. Implications are discussed in terms of the importance of work-family intervention to the work-family balance among mothers working nonstandard hours.     

同侪激励机制下政府补贴对制造商绿色研发影响的演化博弈分析

针对地方财政支付压力过大的问题,制定合理的补贴机制激励制造商绿色研发,是实现政企合作双赢的关键。在同侪激励视角下建立政府补贴和企业研发的演化博弈模型,结合静态激励和动态激励两种方案,分析双方博弈中的局部稳定性,探讨同侪激励基金、补贴系数等因素对群体演化路径的影响,从合作机制层面验证了同侪激励的可行性:较低的政府补贴支出仍能激励制造商绿色研发,较高的政府补贴支出可能导致补贴困局,动态调节的同侪激励机制可以协调政企双方不稳定的合作关系。     

农机燃油补贴政策满意度影响因素分析——基于山西省问卷调查

采用对山西省领取农机燃油补贴的主体——农户和农机户的调研数据,分析了领取主体对现行农机燃油补贴政策的满意度,并运用Logistic回归模型研究了影响相关补贴政策满意度的因素。模型结果显示:对农户进行农资综合直补而言,受教育程度、对农机燃油补贴程序的满意度等因素对农机燃油补贴政策的满意度有显著影响。对农机户进行燃油补贴而言,对农机燃油补贴金额的满意度这一因素对农机燃油补贴政策满意度的贡献率最高;农机作业支出变动、对农机燃油补贴政策的了解度、能否推动领取主体作业积极性、对政府管理部门工作的满意度、对农机燃油补贴程序的满意度等因素,对农机燃油补贴政策的满意度均有较显著影响。因此,重点需要提升领取补贴主体的教育水平和加强政府在补贴发放中的主导作用。     

基于佩尔兹曼模型的海洋产业管制分析

鉴于近年来海洋产业管制成为社会争议的焦点，因此利用佩尔兹曼模型分析海洋产业管制，认为规制者可以通过有效的规制手段，使规制者、生产者、消费者的效用都得到提高。同时在渔业补贴、伏季休渔管理、质量管理三个方面进行实证分析，并在此基础上结合海洋产业可持续发展的战略，提出了海洋产业管制的对策建议。     

Shared Parenting or Shared Care? Learning from Children's Experiences of a Post‐Divorce Shared Care Arrangement

This article examines three issues raised by three primary‐aged siblings experiencing a post‐divorce shared parenting arrangement. It argues that the conceptualisation of shared parenting in academic and policy discourse concentrates on parent–child relationships, overlooks children's relationships with siblings and fails to fully recognise the social and material resources necessary for shared parenting arrangements to work. It suggests that current policy discourse takes for granted that shared parenting promotes gender equality for fathers and mothers, despite the existing and ingrained gendered parenting practices produced and maintained in this UK context.