Reducing problem behavior during care-giving in families of preschool-aged children with developmental disabilities

This study evaluated two variants of a behavioral parent training program known as Stepping Stones Triple P (SSTP) using 74 preschool-aged children with developmental disabilities. Families were randomly allocated to an enhanced parent training intervention that combined parenting skills and care-giving coping skills (SSTP-E), standard parent training intervention alone (SSTP-S) or waitlist control (WL) condition. At post-intervention, both programs were associated with lower levels of observed negative child behavior, reductions in the number of care-giving settings where children displayed problem behavior, and improved parental competence and satisfaction in the parenting role as compared with the waitlist condition. Gains attained at post-intervention were maintained at 1-year follow-up. Both interventions produced significant reductions in child problem behavior, with 67% of children in the SSTP-E and 77% of children in the SSTPS showing clinically reliable change from pre-intervention to follow-up. Parents reported a high level of satisfaction with both interventions.

Directed Giving: Evidence from an Inter-Household Transfer Experiment*

We investigate the determinants of giving in a lab-in-the-field experiment with large stakes. Study participants in urban Mozambique play dictator games where their counterpart is the closest person to them outside their household. Dictators share more with counterparts when they have the option of giving in kind (in the form of goods), compared to giving that must be in cash. Qualitative post-experiment responses suggest that this effect is driven by a desire to control how recipients use gifted resources. Standard economic determinants such as the rate of return to giving and the size of the endowment also affect giving, but the effects of even large changes in these determinants are significantly smaller than the effect of the in-kind option. Our results support theories of giving where the utility of givers depends on the composition (not just the level) of gift-recipient expenditures, and givers thus seek control over transferred resources.

Giving SBML support to ByoDyn

Report for the scientific stay at the California Institute of Technology during the summer of 2005. ByoDyn is a tool for simulating the dynamical expression of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) and for parameter estimation in uni- and multicellular models. A software support was carried out describing GRNs in the Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML). This one is a computer format for representing and storing computational models of biochemical pathways in software tools and databases. Supporting this format gives ByoDyn a wide range of possibilities to study the dynamical properties of multiple regulatory pathways.

Santé et besoins en soins des personnes âgées: différences liées au genre [Health status and care giving needs in the elderly: gender related differences].

The health status and need for care differ depending on the gender. The most notable differences are life expectancy, life expectancy in good health and the prevalence of geriatric syndromes or chronic illnesses. Some social health determinants (social isolation or financial precariousness) seem to act as risk factors for vulnerability, mostly amongst old or very old women. Through some examples of differences between men and women in terms of health and caregiving needs, this article tries to heighten the awareness of health professionals to a gender based approach of the elderly patient in order to promote the best possible equity in healthcare.

Giving Children a Voice

Accessing the Views and Interests of Three to Four Year Old Children in Playgroups

Personal and household care giving for adult children to parents and social stratification

Using SHARE database the paper explores the factors conditioning personalcare giving from adult children to their parents. Frequency and intensity ofpersonal care is contrasted with the reciprocal expectations that children haveabout wealth inheritance from their parents and with the opportunity costs of helping, as well as with the capacity of parents of getting help from othersources of personal care. The results may help to understand how inequalitiesin accessing to formal services relate with intergenerational solidarity.

Do welfare benefits affect womens' choices of adult care giving?

The efficacy of social care, publicly and universally provided, has been contested from two different points of view. First, advocates of targeting social policy criticized the Matthew’s effect of universal provision and; second, theories arguing in favour of heterogeneous rationalities between men and women and, even different preferences among women, predict that universal provision of services is limiting women’s choices more than home allowances. The author tests both hypotheses and concludes that, at least in the case of adult care, women’s choices are significantly affected by women’s social positions and by the availability of public services. Furthermore, targeting through means-test eligibility criteria has no significant effect on inequality but, confirming the redistributive paradox, reduces women’s options.

Environmental factors giving rise to variations in national management accounting practice

Comparative national management accounting is the least developed aspect in the field of international accounting. Only during the second half of the 1990's some comparisons of national managementaccounting practice have appeared published but only at theregional level. In this paper a range of factors that give rise to variations in national management accounting practice are postulated. We support this list with examples from a range of analyses of national management accounting practices, drawing particularly on the work of Lizcano (1996) and Bhimani (1996).Finally, twelve key factors are identified as influencing an individual country's approach to management accounting.

Measures of health and disease in Africa: are current methods giving us useful information about trends in cardiovascular diseases?

An enormous burst of interest in the public health burden from chronic disease in Africa has emerged as a consequence of efforts to estimate global population health. Detailed estimates are now published for Africa as a whole and each country on the continent. These data have formed the basis for warnings about sharp increases in cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the coming decades. In this essay we briefly examine the trajectory of social development on the continent and its consequences for the epidemiology of CVD and potential control strategies. Since full vital registration has only been implemented in segments of South Africa and the island nations of Seychelles and Mauritius - formally part of WHO-AFRO - mortality data are extremely limited. Numerous sample surveys have been conducted but they often lack standardization or objective measures of health status. Trend data are even less informative. However, using the best quality data available, age-standardized trends in CVD are downward, and in the case of stroke, sharply so. While acknowledging that the extremely limited available data cannot be used as the basis for inference to the continent, we raise the concern that general estimates based on imputation to fill in the missing mortality tables may be even more misleading. No immediate remedies to this problem can be identified, however bilateral collaborative efforts to strength local educational institutions and governmental agencies rank as the highest priority for near term development.

Consumer Advisory Bulletin, Some Guidance on Giving Avoiding charity fraud, October 2011

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Some Guidance on Giving Avoiding charity fraud

Giving or Receiving Something for Sex: A Cross-Sectional Study of Transactional Sex among Ugandan University Students.

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to determine the prevalence of transactional sex among university students in Uganda and to assess the possible relationship between transactional sex and sexual coercion, physical violence, mental health, and alcohol use. METHODS: In 2010, 1954 undergraduate students at a Ugandan university responded to a self-administered questionnaire that assessed mental health, substance use, physical violence and sexual behaviors including sexual coercion and transactional sex. The prevalence of transactional sex was assessed and logistic regression analysis was performed to measure the associations between various risk factors and reporting transactional sex. RESULTS: Approximately 25% of the study sample reported having taken part in transactional sex, with more women reporting having accepted money, gifts or some compensation for sex, while more men reporting having paid, given a gift or otherwise compensated for sex. Sexual coercion in men and women was significantly associated with having accepted money, gifts or some compensation for sex. Men who were victims of physical violence in the last 12 months had higher probability of having accepted money, gifts or some compensation for sex than other men. Women who were victims of sexual coercion reported greater likelihood of having paid, given a gift or otherwise compensated for sex. Respondents who had been victims of physical violence in last 12 months, engaged in heavy episodic drinking and had poor mental health status were more likely to have paid, given a gift or otherwise compensated for sex. CONCLUSIONS: University students in Uganda are at high risk of transactional sex. Young men and women may be equally vulnerable to the risks and consequences of transactional sex and should be included in program initiatives to prevent transactional sex. The role of sexual coercion, physical violence, mental health, and alcohol use should be considered when designing interventions for countering transactional sex.