Does differential response make a difference: examining domestic violence cases in child protection services

Large numbers of domestic violence (DV) cases on child protection caseloads have necessitated the development of practices that address both DV and child safety. The first step in this process is to gain an understanding of the differences between DV‐involved cases and other forms of maltreatment. The implementation of a differential response service model in Ontario offered an opportunity to compare risk assessment ratings, service outcomes and recurrence and to identify pathways of DV cases through child protection services (CPS). A sample (n = 785) of child protection investigations over a 4‐month period was examined. Of these investigations, 26% cases were DV referred; 87% of the DV victims were mothers; perpetrating partners were mostly absent from investigations; non‐white families were more often investigated for DV than white families; and DV cases were more likely to remain open for ongoing CPS. Only one‐third of DV‐exposed children were assessed as having been harmed and most community referrals were made for the victim parent. Mothers were the primary target of investigation, remaining in CPS for extended service provision although recurrence rates were lower than found in other investigations. Results are discussed to inform investigative procedures, assessment and service response to more adequately respond to children and families when DV is present.     

Making Sense of Meta-Analysis: A Critique of “Effectiveness of Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy”

Evidence-based practice depends in part on knowledge derived from relevant research. For any given topic, there are likely to be many, potentially relevant studies; a careful appraisal and synthesis of the results of these studies is needed to understand the state of the empirical evidence. Meta-analysis is widely used to combine results of quantitative studies; yet this method is unfamiliar to many people and, as a result, meta-analyses are often uncritically accepted. In this article, we argue that meta-analysis is only one component of a good research synthesis. We critique a recent metaanalysis on the effectiveness of long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy, showing that this metaanalysis failed to meet current standards for the conduct and reporting of systematic research reviews and meta-analyses. We demonstrate the use of AMSTAR, a straightforward tool for assessing the quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.     

The Role of Systematic Reviews and the Campbell Collaboration in the Realization of Evidence-Informed Practice

Evidence-informed practice asks practitioners and policy-makers to integrate current best evidence with client context in order to provide meaningful and potentially effective services across a range of presenting problems. Done correctly, systematic reviews are a crucial part of this process, providing social workers and other helping professionals with transparent, rigorous, and informative syntheses of research in a given area. This paper makes clear the need for systematic reviews in social work, briefly explains what systematic reviews are and how they are made, and describes the role of the Campbell Collaboration in creating a world library of systematic reviews.     

The Impact of Europeanization upon Party Systems in Slovakia and Romania

Usually the concept of Europeanization refers to processes that download the European Union (the EU) regulations and institutional structures to the domestic level. Moreover, in the last few years the specialized literature has become increasingly preoccupied by the development of national patterns of government through the impact of European policies, processes and institutions. The developments and changes in domestic systems—much more visible in the new member states—suggest that the EU has enormous political and institutional influence. In line with this view, the paper examines the different degrees in which Europeanization has become a transforming political process, particularly in two new post-Communist democracies: Slovakia and Romania. More specifically, the interest is to survey the impact and the way in which Europeanization was incorporated in the rationale of party discourse, identity and policies in the Central-Eastern countries in the pre-accession period.      

Using Methodological Search Filters to Facilitate Evidence-Based Social Work Practice

The process of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) requires clinical social workers to conduct systematic searches of academic databases in order to ascertain current best evidence and integrate this with client preferences/values and clinical state/circumstances. Yet social workers are often pressed for time, and searches for evidence disregarded as too time-consuming to conduct. There is hope. Searches of the literature can be more easily and quickly facilitated through the use of methodological search filters. This study introduces a new methodological search filter created especially for social care and evaluates the extent to which this and four other filters accurately and efficiently identify known social care effectiveness studies in two major scholarly databases (Psycinfo and Medline). Sensitivity, specificity, and a new metric for establishing efficiency (the AVALANCHE INDEX) are reported.     

论以中关系的发展现状及其前景

60余年来的以中关系历经波折。在中华人民共和国成立后,以色列就寻求与新中国建立外交关系,但因朝鲜战争与万隆会议等故使得以中关系趋于冷淡并中断。中美缓和、以埃媾和以及中越战争为中以关系的发展提供了契机,香港开始成为中以军事、经济与政治合作的桥头堡,两国最终于1992年建交。由于以阿关系的反复、以色列对华武器出口中的美国压力以及中国内部的民族分离主义问题等因素,中国在以阿之间平衡取舍,影响其参与中东和平进程的成效。当前全球金融危机使国际社会普遍意识到中国的重要地位,以色列需要制定契合国际体系转型的对华新政策。     

Placement of children in out-of-home care in Québec,Canada: When and for whom initial out-of-home placement is most likely to occur

This study contributes to the growing child protection placement literature by providing the first Canadian provincial longitudinal study examining when and for whom initial out-of-home placement is most likely to occur. Anonymized clinical-administrative child protection data were merged with the 2006 Canadian Census data for the province of Québec, and the final dataset included 127,181 children investigated for maltreatment for the first time between April 1, 2002 and March 31, 2010. Cox proportional hazard results indicate that the vast majority of investigated children do not experience a placement, but for the others, placement tends to occur immediately following the maltreatment investigation with only a slight increase in risk over time. The increased risk of placement for younger children aged 0 to 9 years was statistically explained by a combination of male gender, behavioral problems, parents' high risk lifestyles, hospital referral, the number of investigations and neighborhood area socioeconomic disadvantages. The increased risk of placement for older children aged 10 to 17 years was statistically explained by a combination of behavioral problems, police reporting, the number of investigations and neighborhood area socioeconomic disadvantages. Neighborhood area socioeconomic disadvantages significantly contributed to the increased risk of out-of-home placement for all children, but this factor is most influential when it comes to younger children.     

Effects of vibration exercise on muscle performance and mobility in an older population

This study was designed to investigate the effects of vibration on muscle performance and mobility in a healthy, untrained, older population. Forty-three participants (23 men, 20 women, 66-85 y old) performed tests of sit-to-stand (STS), 5- and 10-m fast walk, timed up-and-go test, stair mobility, and strength. Participants were randomly assigned to a vibration group, an exercise-withoutvibration group, or a control group. Training consisted of 3 sessions/wk for 2 mo. After training, the vibration and exercise groups showed improved STS (12.4%, 10.2%), 5-m fast walk (3.0%, 3.7%), and knee-extension strength (8.1%, 7.2%) compared with the control (p < 0.05). Even though vibration training improved lower limb strength, it did not appear to have a facilitatory effect on functional-performance tasks compared with the exercise-without-vibration group. Comparable mobility and performance changes between the experimental groups suggest that improvements are linked with greater knee-extension strength and largely attributed to the unloaded squats performed by both exercise groups.     

Examining the Firm's Value Creation Process: A Managerial Perspective of the Firm's Value Offering Strategy and Performance

The primary pursuit of any business is to understand what customers value and to create that value for them. While customers are the final arbiter of value, it is the firm's role to explore, interpret and deliver value based on what they believe customers are seeking. Based on this premise we adopt the firm's perspective on value creation to extend both Bowman and Ambrosini's theoretical framework and the work of DeSarbo, Jedidi and Sinha and focus on two issues. The first is the strategic emphasis firms place on the design and delivery of their value offering. The second is the extent the firm's value offering explains performance differentials at the customer‐centric performance level. We present a conceptual model of how firms gain positional advantage via their value offering and the realized outcomes they achieve. We present two approaches to modelling the firm's value offering (type II and type IV models) and articulate the theoretical underpinnings and results for these models. Our results validate the conceptualization of the firm's value offering and suggest that creating superior value offerings enables firms to achieve superiority in customer‐centric performance.