From Foster Care to Adoption and Guardianship: A Twenty-First Century Challenge

For nearly four decades, child welfare policy and practice have focused on the achievement of legal permanence for children in foster care. Although federal child welfare policy has resulted in the movement of children from state custody to legally permanent adoptive or guardianship families, little is known about the quality and enduring nature of these placements. A significant challenge of the twenty-first century child welfare system is how to ensure the well-being of children currently living with adoptive parents or guardians. This paper discusses child welfare policy and trends related to post-permanency well-being, including the decrease in Title IV-E foster care caseloads nationwide and the simultaneous increase in Title IV-E adoptive and guardianship caseloads. We highlight the needs of a twenty-first century child welfare system, including increased federal efforts to ensure child permanence and well-being after legal adoption or guardianship has been achieved, as well as more rigorous longitudinal and interdisciplinary research focused on the post-permanency adjustment of children and their families.     

Beyond single mothers: Cohabitation and marriage in the AFDC program

We investigate the extent and implications of cohabitation and marriage among U.S. welfare recipients. An analysis of four data sets (the Current Population Survey, the National Survey of Families and Households, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth) shows significant numbers of cohabitors among recipients of AFDC. An even more surprising finding is the large number of married women on welfare. We also report the results of a telephone survey of state AFDC agencies conducted to determine state rules governing cohabitation and marriage. The survey results indicate that, in a number of respects, AFDC rules encourage cohabitation. Finally, we conduct an analysis of the impact of AFDC rules on cohabitation, marriage, and single motherhood and find weak evidence in support of incentives to cohabit.     

Foreign ownership in Latin American microfinance institutions: evidence and impact

Based on a unique dataset covering 84 institutions operating in 15 countries this paper provides evidence as to the impact of foreign ownership on microfinance sustainability and outreach in Latin America. Overall, we find that foreign-owned microfinance institutions have more borrowers than domestic-owned institutions. This suggests that foreign investors, mainly development finance institutions and other investors with close ties to the microfinance industry, exert governance in line with their stated policy goal: expanding financial inclusion among microentrepreneurs and poor households. In contrast to this, majority ownership of foreign investors neither provides a strong push towards the sustainability of microfinance institutions nor does it lead to “mission drift”, i.e. microfinance institutions issuing larger loans to comparatively wealthier clients.     

Teaching clinic lowers radiology utilization. A look at how to achieve more cost-effective imaging

Discover how an Oregon medical clinic made great strides decreasing radiology utilization after implementing a continuous quality improvement project that was embraced by physicians.     

Combining Economic Forecasts

A method for combining forecasts may or may not account for dependence and differing precision among forecasts. In this article we test a variety of such methods in the context of combining forecasts of GNP from four major econometric models. The methods include one in which forecasting errors are jointly normally distributed and several variants of this model as well as some simpler procedures and a Bayesian approach with a prior distribution based on exchangeability of forecasters. The results indicate that a simple average, the normal model with an independence assumption, and the Bayesian model perform better than the other approaches that are studied here.     

Myths and Misconceptions About University Student Volunteering: Development and Perpetuation

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This paper examines myths and misconceptions about university student volunteering. Our study explored the experiences of...     

Gesundheitsförderliches Führungsverhalten bei un- und angelernten, kulturell diversen Belegschaften

One of the most important factors affecting inequitable health opportunities is the work activity. The respective supervisor exerts influence on the subordinates’ health and well-being. This study investigates health-promoting leadership behavior among low-skilled, culturally diverse workforces through interviews with employees and managers of the lowest hierarchical level (N?=?53). Information and approachability as well as appreciative feedback and showing interest of the supervisor are identified as relevant target group specific leadership behavior. Health-promoting effects of work design, learning opportunities as well as strain the supervisors themselves suffer from were also examined.     

Keeping up with the digital age: How the American Red Cross uses social media to build relationships

Forty individuals from the American Red Cross were interviewed to explore the use of social media in communicating with key publics. Results show that practicing public relations through social media is effective and necessary in the emerging digital age, as shown through the Red Cross’ development of a two-way dialogue with younger constituents, the media, and the community. This two-way dialogue has been accomplished primarily through Twitter and Facebook, with barriers such as lack of staff and time, and opportunities to improve National Headquarters and local chapter relations. The insights shared by the American Red Cross are useful for both public relations scholars and professionals to help them understand and apply social media practices to build strong, lasting relationships.     

Book reviews

E. Kofler, G. Menges: Entscheidungen bei unvollständiger Information. Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems 136. Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-NewYork 1976, 357 S., DM 31.

B. S. Everitt: The Analysis ot Contingency Tables. Chapman and Han, London 1977, 128 S., £ 3.75.

O. Barndorff-Nielsen: Information and Exponential Families in Statistical Theory. J. Wiley & Sons, Chichester-New York-Brisbane-Toronto 1978, 247 S., £ 13.50; $ 28.50.

W. Gilchrist: Statisticai Forecasting. J. Wiley & Sons, London-New York-Sydney-Toronto 1976, 321 S., £ 9.50; $ 19.00.

J. M. Chambers: Computational Methods for Data Analysis. J. Wiley & Sons, New York Chichester-Brisbane-Toronto 1977, 279 pp., £ 11.30.

A. Hughes, D. Grawoig: Statistics: A Foundation for Analysis. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading-Menlo-Park London-Don Mills 1971, 525 S., $ 11.50.

K.Krickeberg, H.Ziezold: Stochastiche Methoden. Springer Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York 1977, 201 S., 13 Abb., DM 28.

Ch. Schneeweiss: Inventory-Production Theory. A Linear Policy Approach. Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems 151. Springer Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-NewYork 1977, 122 S., 13 Abb., 9 Tab., DM 18.

S. Dworatschek: Grundlagen der Datenverarbeltung, 6., völlig neu bearb. u. erw. Aufl., Walter de Gruyter, Berlin-New York 1977, 538 S., 200 Abb., 212 Üb.Aufg., 59 Fotos, DM 38.

H. E. Steinhagen, S. Fuchs:Objekterkennung. Einführung in die mathematischen Methoden der Zeichenerkennung. VEB Verlag Technik, Berlin 1976, 436 S., 165 Abb., 32 Tab., 49,–.M.

G. Tinhofer: Mathematik für Studlenanfänger, Carl Hanser Verlag, München 1977, 464 S., 191 Abb., DM 38.