A research note on Keyfitz's ‘The demographics of unfunded pensions’

Keyfitz (1985), The demographics of unfunded pensions, discusses the performance of pay-as-you-go old age insurance plans under different financial structures. One arrangement is to pay a fixed pension to retirees and collect the necessary contributions from the working population. Another is to fix the contribution per worker and distribute whatever monies are collected to the retirees. Unfortunately, equity problems arise in a pay-as-you-go plan when the population is not stable. Generally, large cohorts will receive greater rates of return than small cohorts when the pension is fixed, while small cohorts will receive greater rates of return when the contribution is fixed. Social security analysts in the U.S. have been concerned with minimizing inequities in cohort rates of return. In considering the US population in 1980, Keyfitz shows that disparities in cohort rates of return are less under a fixed contribution scheme than under a fixed pension scheme. This research note points out that Keyfitz's finding is limited to the specific situation in 1980. When analyzing in a broader framework the mechanics of unfunded pensions and their interaction with nonstable populations, the reverse is true: fixing the pension yields less disparity in cohort rates of return than fixing the contribution.Keyfitz (1985) a déjà discuté dans cette revue des résultats d'un système de répartition pour le financement des pensions de retraite sous diverses conditions financières. Une solution consiste à payer une pension fixée aux retraités et à collecter les fonds nécessaires auprès de la population active. Une autre solution est de fixer la contribution par actif et de distribuer ce qui a été ainsi collecté aux retraités. Malheureusement des problèmes d'équité surviennent dans ces systèmes de répartition lorsque la population n'est pas stable. Généralement, les cohortes nombreuses bénéficieront de plus forts taux de rendement que des cohortes moins nombreuses lorsque la pension est fixée, tandis que l'inverse se produit lorsque la contribution par actif est fixée. Aux Etats-Unis les analystes des systèmes de sécurité sociale ont cherché à minimiser les inégalités dans les taux de rendement. Lorsque Keyfitz considérait la population des Etats-Unis en 1980, il avait montré que les disparités dans les taux de rendement des cohortes étaient moindres sous la condition d'une contribution par actif fixée que sous celle d'une pension par retraité fixée. Cette note the recherche indique que le résultat obtenu par Keyfitz est propre à la situation spécifique de l'année 1980. Lorsque l'on analyse d'un point de vue général le fonctionnement des pensions de retraite et leurs interactions avec des populations non-stables, l'inverse est vérifié : le fait de fixer la pension conduit à moins de disparités dans les taux de rendement des cohortes que le fait de fixer la contribution des actifs.

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This research was undertaken when the author was completing her dissertation at the Graduate Group in Demography at the University of California, Berkeley. The author now operates Lapkoff Demographic Research, a private research consulting firm.     

Cyberbullying on Online Gaming Platforms for Children and Youth

Cyberbullying has been recognized as a serious social concern. Considering the varied contexts of online engagement by children and youth is increasingly necessary to adequately understand their experiences and the impact of their participation. An online context which requires further attention is gaming platforms, which are especially popular among boys. Methods: Using a theoretical approach of social dominance, this paper analyzed secondary data drawn from a mixed methods study of cyberbullying to investigate the prevalence and experience of gaming among a quantitative survey sample (n?=?670) of 4th, 7th, and 10th grade students, as well as the experience and impact of gaming on a qualitative interview sub-sample (n?=?57). Gaming prevalence rates are provided. Boys were significantly more likely to engage in internet gaming (though the effect size was small); χ² (1, n?=?669)?=?10.11, p?=?0.001, phi?=??0.123, 95% CI (?0.207, ?0.047). Qualitative content analysis (QCA) identified four themes: (1) aggression (exceeding what was required to achieve game objectives) characterized gaming culture and pervaded gaming platforms; (2) anonymity contributed to the culture of aggression; (3) participants often did not consider aggression cyberbullying, but rather just a part of the culture of gaming platforms; and (4) participants’ responses to aggressive behaviors. Certain behaviors on gaming platforms may not be appropriately recognized as cyberbullying. Implications for social work practice with children and youth are provided.     

Self Psychology and Male Child Sexual Abuse: Healing Relational Betrayal

The prevalence of male child sexual abuse (MCSA) is higher than initially thought with up to 26 % of men in community samples reporting sexual abuse in childhood, and up to 36 % of men in clinical samples reporting childhood sexual abuse. Disclosure of MCSA is complex because of men’s difficulties in viewing themselves as victims, especially of sexual violence. This difficulty is exacerbated by societal attitudes that sexual abuse rarely occurs with boys, and is further complicated with the taboo of victimization by same sex perpetrators. Too often, the response to disclosure is disbelief and minimization. For these reasons disclosure is often delayed or withheld thus prolonging the abuse. The negative effects of child sexual abuse are well documented and far reaching with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, addictions, sexual dysfunction and impaired interpersonal relations as common presenting issues in therapy. Treatment is indicated for significant numbers of male survivors. This paper identifies aspects of interpersonal relational difficulties commonly experienced by male sexual abuse survivors, and describes self psychology as guiding a clinical approach to address these interpersonal difficulties. The application of self psychology with male sexual abuse survivors is traced and discussed through the use of a clinical case study with Adam.     

Serial Joy and Serial Sorrow: The Experience of the Paraprofessional Serials Manager

Abstract

Paraprofessionals play a major role in the management of serials operations in libraries. Nine paraprofessional serials managers responded to an inquiry on the SERIALST online discussion list in which they shared their impressions on several issues relating to their role, status, motivation, and general perceptions about their work. For many years, there has been an ongoing debate relating to the role of paraprofessionals in libraries. Many library paraprofessionals have advanced their careers in the field of serials and have become managers of high-level operations. This Balance Point column explores the experiences of some of these paraprofessional serials managers.     

Kernel partial correlation: a novel approach to capturing conditional independence in graphical models for noisy data

Graphical models capture the conditional independence structure among random variables via existence of edges among vertices. One way of inferring a graph is to identify zero partial correlation coefficients, which is an effective way of finding conditional independence under a multivariate Gaussian setting. For more general settings, we propose kernel partial correlation which extends partial correlation with a combination of two kernel methods. First, a nonparametric function estimation is employed to remove effects from other variables, and then the dependence between remaining random components is assessed through a nonparametric association measure. The proposed approach is not only flexible but also robust under high levels of noise owing to the robustness of the nonparametric approaches.     

Disproportionality and Acting-Out Behaviors Among African American Children in Special Education

African American children are more likely to be diagnosed with behavioral disorders and are overrepresented in special education. This may be due to misdiagnosis. If diagnoses are accurate, prevention and intervention efforts should be targeted to improve African American children’s behavior and long-term outcomes. This study aimed to see if teachers, mothers, and African American children in special education rate children’s externalizing behaviors differently and to understand what factors impact the externalizing behaviors of African American children in special education. A secondary data analysis of African American children in special education (n = 126) found that teachers’ scores were similar to mothers’ scores of externalizing behaviors and that mothers’ ratings of their children’s acting-out behaviors were significantly higher than children’s self-report. African American boys are more likely to experience acting-out behaviors than girls. Children’s environment, efficacy beliefs, and the Nurse-Family Partnership intervention were not significantly associated with their acting-out behaviors.     

Evaluation of an Innovative Tool for Child Sexual Abuse Education

Child sexual abuse poses a serious threat to public health and is often unreported, unrecognized, and untreated. Prevention, early recognition, and treatment are critically important to reduce long-term effects. Little data are available on effective methods of preventing child sexual abuse. The current research demonstrates a unique approach to promoting awareness and stimulating discussion about child sexual abuse. Qualitative methods have rarely been used to study child sexual abuse prevention. Qualitative inductive analyses of interviews from 20 key informants identified both positive and negative assessments with six emergent themes. The themes revealed inherent tensions in using narrative accounts to represent the complex cultural context within which child sexual abuse occurs. More research is needed, but the program shows potential as a methodology to raise awareness of child sexual abuse.     

Cyber Counselling: An Innovative Field Education Pilot Project

With the ascendancy of the cyber world, client demand for online counselling has increased and is expected to continue to increase dramatically in the coming years. The purpose of this article is to describe an innovative pilot practicum project in which social work graduate interns offered cyber counselling within a university to undergraduate students. In this paper, we describe the key elements of this project, including those that are unique and those that follow typical practicum processes, along with the challenges identified. Implications for practice and social work education are offered.     

The Ethical and Clinical Implications of Utilizing Cybercommunication in Face-to-Face Therapy

Information and communication technology has created a new way for individuals to communicate and has entered a number of professional practices, including clinical social work. This article explores the potential ethical and clinical implications when cybercommunication is used in conjunction with traditional face-to-face clinical social work practice. Specific challenges addressed include confidentiality, professional boundaries, effective and competent practice, and unanticipated contact. The authors discuss how information and communication technology is emerging as an inevitable component of the therapeutic exchange, influencing in-person social work practice and the ways that practitioners interact with their clients.