The health care Titanic: women and children first?

The plight of people who lack access to health care has captured national attention and led to a number of proposals to remedy the problem. The authors look at three types of proposals being advanced--"pro-competition" plans, "pay-or-play" plans, and a national health care system--and find that they fail to address adequately the pressing needs of two groups of the poor: women of childbearing age and elderly women.     

Food in Foster Families: Care,Communication and Conflict

This study explores the significance of food and mealtimes in relation to the transition into foster care and the therapeutic settling of the child in a new family. In doing so, we draw upon an in‐depth, qualitative case study of 10 experienced foster families in the UK focusing on what helped them to be successful. At the time of the study, there were 16 foster children, aged 9–16, living with the families. Data collection included semi‐structured qualitative interviews and audio‐diaries with all family members who wished to be involved as well as eco‐maps produced by the young people. Thematic analysis and data extracts are reproduced in the study to demonstrate that meals and food preferences can function to affirm identities, membership and boundaries of family life as well as provide a site of conflict and control.     

Transparency tested: The influence of message features on public perceptions of organizational transparency

The concept of transparency has been promoted within the public relations and business literature as both ethical and advantageous; however, the effectiveness of transparency is seldom empirically put to the test. In particular, the use of clarity, disclosure, and accuracy in organizational messages needs to be empirically examined. To this end, we conducted an online experiment using a 2 (high vs. low message transparency) x 2 (news story placed before or after an organizational statement) between-subjects design. Participants (n?=?357) perceived organizations as more transparent and credible when exposed to messages exhibiting greater levels of clarity, disclosure, and accuracy as opposed to messages that did not. Placement of an information anchor in the form of an objective news story before the organizational message increased the perceived organizational transparency when messages employed transparent design features and decreased the perceived organizational transparency when messages did not use these features. These results provide significant implications for practitioners attempting to convey organizational transparency at the tactical level through message features.     

The Nature of the Political Reconsidered

I present an immanent, and explanatory, critique of reflections on the nature of politics and of power within political science. I argue that these reflections are problematic, to the extent that they presuppose an actualist conception of the political, and that this is generated by an empiricist way of thinking on the one hand and a constructivist way of thinking on the other. I show how re‐defining politics, power, and the political on the basis of a dialectical critical realist ontology resolves these problems and, thereby, allows us to understand the conditions for social change and the relationship between the political and the economic. My argument has two, important implications: first, that the proposal that those who study politics professionally should celebrate philosophical diversity is dangerous–at least if it makes it difficult to sustain a distinct, emancipatory form of political inquiry; and, second, that the nature of social reality justifies the need both for specialized forms of inquiry, such as politics and economics, and integrative forms of inquiry, such as political economy.     

Preliminary evaluation of contingent meals and telephone use to improve evidence-supported family therapy session attendance in mothers referred by Child Protective Services for substance abuse

Persons referred by Child Protective Services (CPS) for substance abuse evidence high rates of nonattendance to therapy sessions, taxing systems of care and exacerbating outcomes. This study examined the influence of two telephone-based incentive programs on therapy session attendance in mothers who were referred by CPS for substance abuse. After baseline therapy session attendance was established in an evidence-based clinic that incorporated a telephone engagement intervention (Phase I), participants were provided free cellular telephones with limited minutes and permitted to order free meals delivered by the therapist during upcoming sessions (Phase II). The third phase was similar to Phase II, but participants were provided unlimited minutes. Results indicated that participants’ attendance was significantly improved when meals and cellular telephone minutes were contingent on attendance. Although the percentage of sessions attended by participants during Phase III was higher than Phase II, unlimited minutes and meals did not significantly enhance attendance relative to limited minutes and meals. Session attendance for significant others of these participants was significantly higher during Phase III as compared with Phase I. Session attendance of significant others was statistically similar between Phase I and II and between Phase II and Phase III. Study implications and recommendations for future research and practice are discussed in light of the findings.     

The Progression of Sexual Relationships

The authors examine factors associated with the advancement or dissolution of newly formed sexual relationships. Data from the 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) was used to examine women and men aged 18–39 (n = 2,774) whose most recent sexual relationship began within the 12 months before their interview. Results indicate that newly formed sexual relationships are often transitory. By 12 months, only 23% of respondents remained in nonresidential sexual relationships, another 27% were cohabiting with that partner, and half had ended their relationships. Sexual relationships formed before age 25 are significantly more likely to break up than to transition into cohabitation. Indicators of social class disadvantage, such as living with a stepparent, expedited cohabitation, whereas measures of advantage, such as having a college‐educated mother, deterred transitions into shared living. Racial differences also emerge: Blacks were less likely than Whites to transition rapidly into shared living.     

Dependence function for continuous bivariate densities

The notion of cross-product ratio for discrete two-way contingency table is extended to the case of continuous bivariate densities. This results in the “local dependence function” that measues the margin-free dependence between bivariate random variables. Properties and examples of the dependence function are discussed. The bivariate normal density plays a special role since it has constant dependence. Continuous bivariate densities can be constructed by specifying the dependence function along with two marginals in analogy to the construction of two-way contingency tables given marginals and patterns of interaction. The dependence function provides a partial ordering on bivariate dependence.     

Hindsight,foresight and insight: The challenges of longitudinal qualitative research

This paper describes a UK based longitudinal qualitative study following approximately 100 young people over 9 years. It provides an overview of the research design, methods of data collection and analysis as well as reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of the strategies employed. We focus on the value of a devolved research design, complementary cross-section and temporal analytic approaches and the effects of being involved in a longitudinal study on researchers and participants. The paper aims to contribute to a growing understanding of the practical, ethical and epistemological challenges presented by longitudinal qualitative methods, and highlights those challenges that are specific to this method as well as those which are amplified by this kind of approach.     

Reflexivity

Just as the concept paradigmenergized the human sciences in spite of its manydefinitions and uses, so now does the conceptreflexive seem to be of increasingsalience, again with many definitions and uses. It is argued thatreflexivity, as a fundamental human quality underliesvarious attempts to understand and intervene in humanrelationships. By juxtaposing paradigms, reflexivity, and therapeutic progression it is possible toset out several types of reflexivity, some relativelyself-contained and others at the edge of our possibleknowledges.