Potential Selective Responding in a Parent Questionnaire Study of Post-Institutionalized Children

This study assesses selective responding in a single wave of data collection and a four-wave study. Participants were 121 parents of post-institutionalized children, identified as “never responders,” “previous responders,” or “wave 4 responders.” Parents evaluated their adopted child's family, school, peer, and behavioral adjustment. Children (47% male) were 2 to 20 years old (M = 10.79, SD = 4.59) and adopted between 5 and 54 months of age (M = 15.49, SD = 9.94). Within a single wave of data collection, no evidence suggested that selective responding contributes much bias. Over a multi-wave study, however, results may under-represent adjustment difficulties.     

(Un)expected exception: validating acquiescent response style factor in the Czech Republic

ABSTRACT

This study explores the acquiescent response style (ARS) among respondents in the Czech Republic. To analyse ARS, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed and the response style (RS) was modelled as a latent variable. The RS factor in the CFA model must be validated by its relationship to education and age, i.e. proxies of cognitive ability. The two studies presented in this article use large amount of data as all available balanced batteries of items were analysed. In Study 1, the RS factor showed no correlation with age/education in most of the models. Study 2 employed additional measures of cognitive ability and education and confirmed the overall absence of the relationship. Author concludes that the modelled RS factor then cannot be considered the ARS and deduces that the most likely explanation of the identified systematic error variance is the respondents’ carelessness manifested by automatically choosing the extreme agreement, or choosing the first presented answer as a result of memory effect.     

The elephant in the newsroom: Current research on journalism and emotion

The article seeks to review current work on the obvious but complex entanglement of journalism and emotion. The field has been under‐theorized and under‐researched; however, in recent years, the body of studies that attempt to grasp the relationship between journalism, journalists, media content, and emotion is growing. The paper roughly systematizes the literature on journalism and emotion based on the Goffmanian distinction between front region and back region; that is, I consider both research on emotionality of the public outcomes of journalists' work marked by journalists' professional ideology and less visible journalists' emotional labour that is behind media content. Based on the review of the body of research and on a sociological conceptualization of emotions, I identify several blind spots. Most importantly, what is still largely missing from the emergent work is research that complies with the social character of journalists' emotions: acknowledges emotions as a force central to the contemporary networked, dynamic and increasingly precarious journalism work, and conceptualizes emotions in journalism as a sociologically relevant phenomenon articulated by the context including newswork, technologies, and media organizations.     

Risk of Illness with Salmonella due to Consumption of Raw Unwashed Vegetables Irrigated with Water from the Bogotá River

The Bogotá River receives untreated wastewater from the city of Bogotá and many other towns. Downstream from Bogotá, water from the river is used for irrigation of crops. Concentrations of indicator organisms in the river are high, which is consistent with fecal contamination. To investigate the probability of illness due to exposure to enteric pathogens from the river, specifically Salmonella, we took water samples from the Bogotá River at six sampling locations in an area where untreated water from the river is used for irrigation of lettuce, broccoli, and cabbage. Salmonella concentrations were quantified by direct isolation and qPCR. Concentrations differed, depending on the quantification technique used, ranging between 10^7.7 and 10^9.9 number of copies of gene invA per L and 10^5.3 and 10^8.4 CFU/L, for qPCR and direct isolation, respectively. A quantitative microbial risk assessment model that estimates the daily risk of illness with Salmonella resulting from consuming raw unwashed vegetables irrigated with water from the Bogotá River was constructed using the Salmonella concentration data. The daily probability of illness from eating raw unwashed vegetables ranged between 0.62 and 0.85, 0.64 and 0.86, and 0.64 and 0.85 based on concentrations estimated by qPCR (0.47–0.85, 0.47–0.86, and 0.41–0.85 based on concentrations estimated by direct isolation) for lettuce, cabbage, and broccoli, respectively, which are all above the commonly propounded benchmark of 10^?4 per year. Results obtained in this study highlight the necessity for appropriate wastewater treatment in the region, and emphasize the importance of postharvest practices, such as washing, disinfecting, and cooking.     

Care for vulnerable and disadvantaged children in the Czech Republic

The problematic issue of care for vulnerable and disadvantaged children in the Czech Republic, highlighted in this article, stems from the large number of children in institutional care. Workers from the Department for Social and Legal Child Protection (OSPOD) may get involved if there are factors in the family jeopardising the child's healthy development that cannot be improved, and institutional care may be recommended. This article discusses factors that influence and many times complicate the worker's job and are often the reason for an adversely high number of children living without a family. Attempts to reunite children with their biological families are complicated by the fact that the family situation rarely improves. Therefore children returning to live with their own families face the same conditions they were previously removed from. A more positive option for some children placed in institutional care is adoption or long-term foster care. However, many children continue to spend their whole childhood in a care home. The authors describe the care system in the Czech Republic and point out its weaknesses and some controversial facts. They also discuss and evaluate the ‘National Action Plan’, a government policy document, which articulates aspirations and obligations for all government departments and organisations involved in the Czech childcare system.     

The ambiguity of social return policies in the Netherlands

Social procurement policies, which aim to create employment opportunities for vulnerable groups, such as the long‐term unemployed and the disabled, have become increasingly popular in recent years. Despite their growing popularity, empirical research on this topic is limited. Combining insights from the social policy and public administration literatures, we explore the development and implementation of “social return” policies by the Dutch government. These policies are a form of social procurement that require private employers to spend a percentage of public tenders to hire individuals far removed from the labor market. Social procurement appears, by definition, to be a form of social investment. However, our analysis of the ideas underlying its use in the Netherlands suggests that significant contradictions exist, with evidence of neoliberal New Public Management tendencies, social investment, and the more recent form of public administration, New Public Service. Using extensive document analysis of parliamentary documents, discussions and evaluative reports from 2008 to 2014, we reveal the tensions inherent in the Dutch approach and discuss possible implications for our understanding of social policy and administration as well as social protection.