Paving the Way for A Normal Life: A Qualitative Study of Coping Strategies Among Iranian Divorced Women

Regarding the devastating aftermath of divorce among Iranian divorced women, which is mainly affected by sociocultural factors, this qualitative study was conducted to explore their applied strategies in reorganizing their lives. Data collection started through deep unstructured interviews followed by semistructured interviews with 18 divorced women who were chosen by purposive sampling from mental health clinics, social work centers, or available cases. Gathered data were analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method. Two main themes—behaviors of self-preservation and abstinence and struggling for balance—emerged. Subcategories were concealing the divorce, feminine self-restriction, avoidance behaviors, replacement of losses, seeking support, role development, handling the tensions, and defending oneself against the divorce failure. This study provides comprehensive knowledge of how Iranian divorced women reregulate their lives and also highlights their unique and culture-based coping strategies. Therefore, it provides specialists with a context-specific foundation for mental health care and enables them to intervene more effectively.     

High school students’ academic causal attributions in the cultural-political context of the Arab school system in Israel

While motivation is commonly interpreted as an individual student’s characteristic, motivational perceptions and beliefs, such as causal attributions of success and failure, are embedded in cultural meanings and contextual practices. The current study aimed to investigate causal attributions among Arab high school students in Israel and to interpret them in the light of their cultural-political context. Two hundred and five 11th-grade Arab students from three different geographic regions in Israel responded to open-ended and closed survey questions about events of success and failure in school. The analysis indicated that students overwhelmingly considered exams when thinking about events of success and failure, reflecting the normative teacher-centred pedagogical practices in schools. The analysis also manifested patterns of a self-serving bias. These findings are interpreted in the light of the cultural-political characteristics of the Arab school system in Israel.     

On testing random effects in the nested-error regression model

We derive an exact F-test for random effects in the nested-error regression model. The derivation utilizes a matrix decomposition that offers a transformation of the response vector into two independent subvectors. When the random effects are absent, the test statistic reduces to a ratio of two independent residual sums of squares that are computed by fitting a regression model using each subvector. A small simulation study compares the power of the F-test with various recent tests and shows that the proposed test has a competitive performance under small as well as large number of clusters.     

Attitudes of Palestinian pre‐school teachers from Israel towards reporting of suspected cases of child abuse and neglect

The paper documents a study conducted among 225 Palestinian pre‐school teachers from Israel. Data were collected through a self‐administered questionnaire that examined the teachers’ attitudes towards reporting child abuse and neglect. In general, the participants’ attitudes towards reporting child abuse and neglect to the child protection services (CPS) were more positive than their attitudes towards reporting to the police. Willingness to report suspected cases of child sexual abuse to the police and CPS was higher than willingness to report other types of child abuse and neglect. Inconsistent results were revealed with regard to how awareness of reporting regulations and awareness of signs and risk factors for child maltreatment affect willingness to report to CPS and to the police. A comprehensive discussion of the possible relevance of the participants’ socio‐cultural and sociopolitical values to their attitudes towards reporting child abuse and neglect is presented. The implications of the results for future studies are also discussed.     

A variance shift model for detection of outliers in the linear mixed measurement error models

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we extend a variance shift model, previously considered in the linear mixed models, to the linear mixed measurement error models using the corrected likelihood of Nakamura (1990 Nakamura, T. (1990). Corrected score function for errors in variables models: methodology and application to generalized linear models. Biometrika 77:127–137.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This model assumes that a single outlier arises from an observation with inflated variance. We derive the score test and the analogue of the likelihood ratio test, to assess whether the ith observation has inflated variance. A parametric bootstrap procedure is implemented to obtain empirical distributions of the test statistics. Finally, results of a simulation study and an example of real data are presented to illustrate the performance of proposed tests.     

A new economic scheme for CCC charts with run rules based on average number of inspected items

New statistical techniques and procedures have been developed to control high-yield processes along with looking for process improvement opportunities and minimizing production cost. Cumulative count of conforming control chart is generally a technique for high-quality processes, when nonconforming items are rarely produced. The objective of this study is to design control chart based on cumulative count of conforming items and run rules that develops an economic model based on the average number of inspected items to design m-of-m CCC chart in order to facilitate minimum average cost per item produced. The optimal design parameters for different values of nonconforming fraction and different cost parameters in each scenario are determined. Finally, to analyze the behavior of optimal economic solutions, sensitivity analysis of the model parameters is performed.     

Perception of Identity Threat as the Main Disturbance of Iranian Divorced Women: A Qualitative Study

Postdivorce identity challenges can be experienced differently in societies that underline the lack of normalcy of divorce. Therefore, this study was conducted to explore Iranian divorced women’s perceptions of their identities. A qualitative content analysis method was applied. Participants included 18 divorced women recruited based on purposive sampling. Data were gathered using unstructured interviews, and analyzed via content analysis method. Three categories—stigmatization, separation shock, and remarriage paradox—were extracted, and the main theme was identity threat. Findings illustrate that Iranian divorced women can be considered at risk, and hence, understanding their views is vital for developing context-specific preventive and intervention programs.     

Multiple cases deletion measures in linear measurement error models

In this paper, we define a multiple cases deletion model (MCDM) in linear measurement error models (LMEMs). Then, by using the corrected score method of Nakamura (1990), the estimation of parameters is obtained. Furthermore, Based on MCDM, we provide computationally inexpensive deletion diagnostic tools for LMEMs. An example illustrates that our method is useful for diagnosing influential subsets of observations.     

Asymptotic Normality of a Kernel Conditional Quantile Estimator Under Strong Mixing Hypothesis and Left-Truncation

We consider the estimation of the conditional quantile when the interest variable is subject to left truncation. Under regularity conditions, it is shown that the kernel estimate of the conditional quantile is asymptotically normally distributed, when the data exhibit some kind of dependence. We use asymptotic normality to construct confidence bands for predictors based on the kernel estimate of the conditional median.     

Estimation of variance components in linear mixed measurement error models

In this paper, we consider a linear mixed model with measurement errors in fixed effects. We find the corrected score function estimators for the variance components. An iterative algorithm is proposed for estimating the parameters. The computations on each iteration of this algorithm are those associated with computing estimates of fixed and random effects for given values of the variance components. We also derive the consistency of the estimators under regularity conditions. The simulation study shows that for relatively small sample size the corrected estimators perform very well. Finally, an example of real data is given for illustration.