751 research outputs found
Outcomes For Street Children and Youth Under Multidisciplinary Care in a Drop-In Centre in Tegucigalpa, Honduras
BACKGROUND: There is little evidence to describe the feasibility and outcomes of services for the care of street children and youth in low-income countries. AIMS: To describe the outcomes of a multidisciplinary case management approach delivered in a drop-in centre for street children and youth. METHODS: A longitudinal study of street children and youth followed in an urban drop-in centre. Four hundred (400) street children and youth received a multidisciplinary case management therapeutic package based on the community reinforcement approach. The main outcomes were changes in psychological distress, substance abuse and social situation scores. RESULTS: The median follow-up time for the cohort was 18 months. There were reductions in the levels of psychological distress (p = 0.0001) and substance abuse (p ≤ 0.0001) in the cohort as well as an improvement in the social situation of street children and youth (p = 0.0001). There was a main effect of gender (p < 0.001) and a significant interaction of gender over time (p < 0.001) on improvements in levels of psychological distress. Survival analysis showed that the probability of remaining on substances at 12 months was 0.76 (95% CI: 0.69-0.81) and 0.51 (95% CI: 0.42-0.59) at 24 months. At 12 months, fewer female patients remained using substances compared to male (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: To be most effective, programmes and strategies for children and youth in street situations in developing countries should target both their health and social needs
Star House: Services, Training, Advocacy and Research on Behalf of Homeless Youth
IMPACT. 1: Research: Since 2004, $20.6 million in federal research funding has been awarded with the goal to identify strategies for ending homelessness and its associated problems among youth and mothers with children in their care. -- 2. Teaching: Star House serves as an internship site for the colleges of Social Work and EHE. High-achieving underrepresented undergraduate students from around the country receive a summer research experience through NIDA. -- 3. Service: Consistent with the mission of a land-grant university, Star House not only translates research to serve the community, but also provides significant education to the community around issues of homelessness.OSU PARTNERS: Faculty partners are represented by the colleges of Education and Human Ecology, Social Work, Nursing, as well as Nationwide Children's Hospital. Star House also partners with Ohio State's Facilities and Operations Department, and the Morrill Scholars Learning Center.COMMUNITY PARTNERS: Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio; Mount Carmel; Nationwide Children's Hospital; Columbus Public Health; Moms2B; Gracehaven; Salvation Army; Safelink Wireless; Flex High School; Academy for Urban Scholars; Family and Children First; Maryhaven; Mid-Ohio Food Bank; Ohio Benefit Bank; Northwest Counseling (Syntero); Youth Empowerment Program; ...and many morePRIMARY CONTACT: Natasha Slesnick ([email protected])Star House integrates research, teaching and community service to provide central Ohio's 1,200-1,500 youth experiencing homelessness with a safe respite from the streets and connections to a chance for productive lives. Leaders and staff partner with the broader Ohio State and central Ohio community to facilitate services to this vulnerable, underserved population
Unemployment Insurance and Household Welfare: Microeconomic Evidence 1980-93
This study examines the relative economic well-being of households that receive unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, as measured by consumption flows that are derived from information on households' spending in the Consumer Expenditure Surveys from 1980- 1993. For each quarter during this period we obtain the per-capita and equivalence-scale adjusted economic welfare of the two types of households. Adjusting for differences in the households' characteristics, we find: 1) The average UI recipient household during this period had a level of economic well-being that was on average between 3 and 8 percent below that of otherwise identical households (depending on the welfare measure used); 2) During a substantial part of this time the economic well-being of households that received UI benefits was at least that of other households; and 3) There is no cyclical variation in the relative well-being of UI recipient households compared to others. The findings imply that during the 1980s and early 1990s states' UI programs did a satisfactory job of maintaining the well-being of UI recipients. Emergency programs enacted during recessions raised potential duration sufficiently to prevent the economic position of the average UI recipient from deteriorating.
Interventions for promoting reintegration and reducing harmful behaviour and lifestyles in street-connected children and young people
Background
Numbers of street-connected children and young people run into many millions worldwide and include children and young
people who live or work in street environments. Whether or not they remain connected to their families of origin, and despite many strengths and resiliencies, they are vulnerable to a range of risks and are excluded from mainstream social structures and opportunities.
Objectives
To summarise the effectiveness of interventions for street-connected children and young people that promote inclusion
and reintegration and reduce harms. To explore the processes of successful intervention and models of change in this area, and to understand how intervention effectiveness may vary in different contexts.
Search methods
We searched the following bibliographic databases, from inception to 2012, and various relevant non-governmental and
organisational websites: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL); MEDLINE and PreMEDLINE; EMBASE and EMBASE Classic; CINAHL; PsycINFO; ERIC; Sociological Abstracts; Social Services Abstracts; Social Work Abstracts; Healthstar; LILACS; System for Grey literature in Europe (OpenGrey); ProQuest Dissertations and Theses; EconLit; IDEAS Economics and Finance Research; JOLIS Library Catalog of the holdings of the World Bank Group and IMF Libraries; BLDS (British Library for Development Studies); Google, Google Scholar.
Interventions for promoting reintegration and reducing harmful behaviour and lifestyles in street-connected children and...
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Selection criteria
The review included data from harm reduction or reintegration promotion intervention studies that used a comparison group
study design and were all randomised or quasi-randomised studies. Studies were included if they evaluated interventions
aimed to benefit street-connected children and young people, aged 0 to 24 years, in all contexts.
Data collection and analysis
Two review authors independently extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Data were extracted on intervention delivery, context, process factors, equity and outcomes. Outcome measures were grouped according to whether they measured psychosocial outcomes, risky sexual behaviours or substance use. A meta-analysis was conducted for some outcomes though it was not possible for all due to differences in measurements between studies. Other outcomes were evaluated narratively.
Main results
We included 11 studies evaluating 12 interventions from high income countries. We did not find any sufficiently robust
evaluations conducted in low and middle income countries (LMICs) despite the existence of many relevant programmes.
Study quality overall was low to moderate and there was great variation in the measurement used by studies, making
comparison difficult. Participants were drop-in and shelter based. We found no consistent results on a range of relevant
outcomes within domains of psychosocial health, substance misuse and sexual risky behaviours despite the many
measurements collected in the studies. The interventions being evaluated consisted of time limited therapeutically based programmes which did not prove more effective than standard shelter or drop-in services for most outcomes and in most studies. There were favourable changes from baseline in outcomes for most particpants in therapy in terventions and also in standard services. There was considerable heterogeneity between studies and equity data were inconsistently reported. No study measured the primary outcome of reintegration or reported on adverse effects. The review discussion section included consideration of the relevance of the findings for LMIC settings.
Authors' conclusions
Analysis across the included studies found no consistently significant benefit for the 'new' interventions compared to standard services for street-connected children and young people. These latter interventions, however, have not been rigorously evaluated, especially in the context of LMICs. Robustly evaluating the interventions would enable better recommendations to be made for service delivery. There is a need for future research in LMICs that includes children who are on the streets due to urbanisation, war or migration and who may be vulnerable to risks such as trafficking
The Na 8200 Angstrom Doublet as an Age Indicator in Low-Mass Stars
We investigate the use of the gravity sensitive neutral sodium (NaI) doublet
at 8183 Angstroms 8195 Angstroms (Na 8200 Angstrom doublet) as an age indicator
for M dwarfs. We measured the Na doublet equivalent width (EW) in giants, old
dwarfs, young dwarfs, and candidate members of the Beta Pic moving group using
medium resolution spectra. Our Na 8200 Angstrom doublet EW analysis shows that
the feature is useful as an approximate age indicator in M-type dwarfs with
(V-K_s) >= 5.0, reliably distinguishing stars older and younger than 100 Myr. A
simple derivation of the dependence of the Na EW on temperature and gravity
supports the observational results. An analysis of the effects of metallicity
show that this youth indicator is best used on samples with similar
metallicity. The age estimation technique presented here becomes useful in a
mass regime where traditional youth indicators are increasingly less reliable,
is applicable to other alkali lines, and will help identify new-low mass
members in other young clusters and associations.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, accepted to the Astronomical Journa
The Spectroscopically Determined Substellar Mass Function of the Orion Nebula Cluster
We present a spectroscopic study of candidate brown dwarf members of the
Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). We obtained new J- and/or K-band spectra of ~100
objects within the ONC which are expected to be substellar based on their
K,(H-K) magnitudes and colors. Spectral classification in the near-infrared of
young low mass objects is described, including the effects of surface gravity,
veiling due to circumstellar material, and reddening. From our derived spectral
types and existing near-infrared photometry we construct an HR diagram for the
cluster. Masses are inferred for each object and used to derive the brown dwarf
fraction and assess the mass function for the inner 5.'1 x 5.'1 of the ONC,
down to ~0.02 solar masses. The derived logarithmic mass function rises to a
peak at ~0.2 solar masses, similar to previous IMF determinations derived from
purely photometric methods, but falls off more sharply at the hydrogen-burning
limit before leveling through the substellar regime. We compare the mass
function derived here for the inner ONC to those presented in recent literature
for the sparsely populated Taurus cloud members and the rich cluster IC 348. We
find good agreement between the shapes and peak values of the ONC and IC 348
mass distributions, but little similarity between the ONC and Taurus results.Comment: Accepted for Publication in Apj. Added Erratu
Service engagement in interventions for street-connected children and young people: a summary of evidence supplementing a recent Cochrane–Campbell review
Abstract
Background This paper builds on a Cochrane–Campbell systematic review of interventions that reduce harms and promote reintegration in street-connected children and young people focusing on intervention outcomes. The aim of the present analysis is to explore questions raised in the systematic review over the potential role of service engagement in mediating outcomes of relevant interventions.
Objective The paper summarises engagement-related findings from quantitative intervention evaluations with street-connected populations of children and young people, as reported by study authors. It seeks to contribute to theoretical and methodological understandings of service engagement with street-connected youth populations and to highlight gaps in current knowledge.
Methods Drawing on the original search for the Cochrane–Campbell review, we rescreened search results in our database and included quantitative findings if relevant to our current research questions, regardless of study design. Additionally, we sought new study publications from authors whose work was included in the original systematic review. The discussion explores relevant data from five studies included in the original systematic review, ten studies excluded from the review, and two studies published after the completion of the review.
Results The measures of service engagement in the included studies focused on treatment attendance, ‘level of engagement’, and service satisfaction. Evidence on the impact of service engagement on other outcomes in interventions for street-connected children and young people was limited. Available data on the predictors and impact of service engagement were mixed and appear not to provide robust support for common hypotheses in the relevant context
Ultraviolet-Selected Field and Pre-Main-Sequence Stars Towards Taurus and Upper Scorpius
We have carried out a Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) Cycle 1 guest
investigator program covering 56 square degrees near the Taurus T association
and 12 square degrees along the northern edge of the Upper Scorpius OB
association. We combined photometry in the GALEX FUV and NUV bands with data
from the Two Micron All Sky Survey to identify candidate young (<100 Myr old)
stars as those with an ultraviolet excess relative to older main sequence
stars. Follow-up spectroscopy of a partial sample of these candidates suggest 5
new members of Taurus, with 8-20 expected from additional observations, and 5
new members of Upper Scorpius, with 3-6 expected from additional observations.
These candidate new members appear to represent a distributed, non-clustered
population in either region, although our sample statistics are as of yet too
poor to constrain the nature or extent of this population. Rather, our study
demonstrates the ability of GALEX observations to identify young stellar
populations distributed over a wide area of the sky. We also highlight the
necessity of a better understanding of the Galactic ultraviolet source
population to support similar investigations. In particular, we report a large
population of stars with an ultraviolet excess but no optical indicators of
stellar activity or accretion, and briefly argue against several
interpretations of these sources.Comment: 46 pages, 16 figures, 13 tables; Accepted to the Astronomical Journa
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