Women, Health and Aging: Building a Statewide Movement

Provides an overview of current policy and program environments that affect the state's most vulnerable elder population, and considers some effective strategies to address the growing needs of older persons in California

Middle-School Girls\u27 Behavioral Responses to Ostracism: How Much Does Inclusion Cost?

Bullying among school-aged children is problematic in the U.S., with 22% of students aged 12-18 years reporting experiences with bullying at school (Zhang, Musu-Gillette, & Oudekerk, 2016). Whereas early bullying research focused heavily on the physical bullying common among boys, more recent studies have included examinations of bullying using relational aggression. Defined as removing or threatening to remove relationships to cause harm to another, relational aggression includes behaviors such as spreading lies, gossiping, or ignoring a peer and has been found to be more common among girls (Crick & Grotpeter, 1995; Cullerton-Sen & Crick, 2005; Murray-Close et al., 2007). A specialized form of relational aggression that has been relatively under investigated among adolescents involves ostracism, the excluding or ignoring of others by individuals or groups (Williams, 2009). The paucity of research on ostracism in childhood and adolescence is surprising, given that research with adults has linked ostracism to a variety of negative outcomes, including suicidal ideation or attempts, depression, and other breakdowns in psychological functioning (Saylor, Williams, Nida, McKenna, Twomey, & Macias, 2013). Further, given the importance of healthy peer relations on child and adolescent psychological functioning, studying teen responses to ostracism is of great importance. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine how adolescent girls respond to ostracism experiences in the lab. Girls’ willingness to ingratiate with those who had ostracized them was of primary interest, as previous research has failed to examine teen behavior following ostracism and how it affects teens’ potential for future relationships. While research with adults suggests that individuals may be prosocial to gain inclusion, it is unknown whether ostracized youth will attempt to ingratiate with ostracizers as a means to gain the inclusion that is crucial to teen development. As such, this was the first known study to examine how individual differences among middle school-aged girls’ social-cognitive functioning moderated their affective and behavioral responses to being ostracized. Fifth through 8th grade girls (N= 110) completed several surveys assessing individual differences, including those related to involvement as perpetrator or victim of relational and overt aggression. At least one week after completion of these surveys, girls participated in a game of Cyberball in which they were randomly assigned to be either fully or partially ostracized. Following the game, participants completed the Primary Needs Questionnaire-Children (PNQ-C; Zadro et al., 2013) to assess need threat, as well as a resource allocation task in which they had the opportunity to “buy” inclusion in a second game of Cyberball by giving cookies to the original game players or an uninvolved player. After these tasks, participants played a final game of Cyberball in which they were fully included. Results indicated that girls who were fully ostracized in the game experienced significantly more need threat than those who were partially ostracized. In addition, girls who were partially ostracized made a greater effort to ingratiate with original players compared to girls who were fully ostracized. Hypotheses regarding the moderating role of relational aggression were not supported. However, a history of involvement in overt aggression did moderate resource allocation of cookies, with more frequent engagement in these behaviors associated with greater ingratiation towards original players. In addition, girls’ feelings of threat to belonging following ostracism mediated the relationship between level of ostracism and their ingratiating behaviors. Results suggest that ostracism is harmful regardless of one’s history of involvement with aggression, indicating that school-based professionals working with teens have an obligation to identify and intervene when ostracism is occurring. Further, girls who were partially ostracized and believed they could gain inclusion in the second Cyberball game chose to ingratiate with ostracizing players to “buy” their inclusion. This finding suggests a need for adults to assist in teaching social skills and structuring healthy interactions so that youth are not exploited by more socially skilled peers. In addition, study results make an important theoretical contribution to the ostracism literature. Specifically, girls’ threat to belonging was the process through which ostracism influenced ingratiation behaviors. This mediation was previously unstudied in teens and adds support to Williams’ (2009) theory that threatened needs influence individuals’ behavior following the ostracism experience

A systematic review of the influence of taxation on corporate capital structure

Purpose: The aim of this paper is a systematic review of the corporate finance literature on tax and capital structure since the complexity of legislation on taxation. It is a challenge for to researchers to understand the influence of this legislation on corporate financing. Approach/Methodology/Design: A systematic review is a useful and important tool to check what has being studied and what are the gaps on the specific subject. Therefore, the study provides an examination of a sample of 33 most cited articles in the period from 2013 to 2017 that have been published in the main international financial journals. It is assumed that this analysis is sufficiently robust to support and contribute to the knowledge gaps identification. Findings: It presents the most relevant papers about the influence of taxes on corporate capital structure, classifies and codifies the various characteristics of these articles, describes the strengths and the weaknesses of the studies in the available literature, and provides an agenda and a research framework to address the key gaps in the current knowledge on the theme. Practical Implications: The study will contribute positively to the understanding of foreign direct investment for the governments, world organizations, academia, companies and investors. Originality/Value: To the best of the authors´ knowledge, this is the first systematic review identifying what is missing in the literature on taxation and capital structure.peer-reviewe

Value-Based Evaluation of Chinese Provincial Health Insurance Policy Schemes

Since 2011, an international group of health policy experts has been working on a value-framework to be used for pharmaceutical policy decisions based on multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA). This tool can be easily adapted to a local decision-making context through a facilitated workshop format. Several workshops have been conducted in emerging markets to test the acceptance and feasibility of using MCDA in local decision-making. In China, national policy goals for expanding health-care coverage pressure the provincial governments to implement more comprehensive coverage schemes. This chapter demonstrates the adaptation of a global value-framework to the local policy environment. In September 2018, nine leaders from provincial health insurance bureaus responsible for the urban employee basic medical insurance (UEBMI) participated in a 1-day workshop to build a consensus on the most important objectives for the health-care reform and to translate these into measurable criteria. The participants ranked the criteria by importance and MCDA methodology was used for weighing the importance of each criterion in the final decision. The model driving this process will be presented and discussed by comparing two policy options for health-care reform

Chapter Value-Based Evaluation of Chinese Provincial Health Insurance Policy Schemes

Since 2011, an international group of health policy experts has been working on a value-framework to be used for pharmaceutical policy decisions based on multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA). This tool can be easily adapted to a local decision-making context through a facilitated workshop format. Several workshops have been conducted in emerging markets to test the acceptance and feasibility of using MCDA in local decision-making. In China, national policy goals for expanding health-care coverage pressure the provincial governments to implement more comprehensive coverage schemes. This chapter demonstrates the adaptation of a global value-framework to the local policy environment. In September 2018, nine leaders from provincial health insurance bureaus responsible for the urban employee basic medical insurance (UEBMI) participated in a 1-day workshop to build a consensus on the most important objectives for the health-care reform and to translate these into measurable criteria. The participants ranked the criteria by importance and MCDA methodology was used for weighing the importance of each criterion in the final decision. The model driving this process will be presented and discussed by comparing two policy options for health-care reform

Agent-based modeling for migration and modern slavery research: a systematic review

AbstractThis systematic review aims to synthesize how agent-based modeling (ABM) has been used in migration and modern slavery research and provide the basis to model development for social science researchers exploring the use of ABM. We searched five bibliographic databases using two terminology categories: (1) migration or modern slavery terminology; (2) complex system methods terminology. Two reviewers conducted independent article screening. Peer-reviewed articles presenting original migration or modern slavery ABMs were included. Data extraction included model development steps and model characteristics. The dataset was synthesized and compared across studies. We identified 28 articles for inclusion. Many of the ABMs tested theories and about half were based on empirical data. Model development varied considerably and reported methods were extremely opaque. Only five studies used a structured development framework. The most common model involved agents deciding whether and where to migrate and attempting migration. Climate change was a common exogenous scenario modeled. Most of the ABMs did not undergo any sensitivity analysis or validation.ABM has a greater capacity to account for heterogeneous and dynamic decision-making than more frequently applied methods in research on migration and modern slavery. However, there is still a paucity of studies adopting ABM methods. These reviewed ABMs highlight gaps in the reporting and implementing of model development. ABM is a promising technique to address many urgent and complex questions in research on migration and modern slavery to better support decision-makers, but addressing current methodological gaps is a critical first step.</jats:p

Job evaluation model of major public hospitals in China

The current economic climate has contributed to an increasingly competitive environment among organizations. In order to ensure competitive advantage, they must be able to promote high levels of professional performance. This research is part of this theme and aims to analyze how the job characteristics, professional knowledge, skills, competencies, training and work engagement influence the job evaluation and, consequently, the performance of employees of six public hospitals, China. The sample consists of 546 subjects aged between 21 and 58 years (M = 37.9; SD = 8.73), with the majority being females (55.5%). For the collection of data, such scales were used as the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS), the Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other Personal Characteristics Scale (KSAOS), the Competencies and Training Scale (CTS) and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). The results obtained show that the job characteristics, the professional knowledge, the skills, the training and the work engagement influence the job evaluation. It was also found that the male respondents, those belonging to the older age group, those with higher academic qualifications and those with higher positions present higher average performance in all dimensions under study. It was also possible to verify that Autonomy is the JDS variable with greater effect on the Job evaluation and the bigger the Autonomy, Skill variety and Feedback given to the employees, the more positive their perception of Job evaluation. Data analysis also reveals that KSAO moderate the relations between job characteristics and job evaluation and the dimension with the most effect on Job evaluation is Professional Ethics and Health Law. On the other hand, the higher the competencies and professional training in the area of Organization and finance, the greater the Job evaluation. Finally, it was verified that Vigor is the only variable with significant effect on Job evaluation. It is hoped that these results may inspire further research that contributes to a better understanding of these relationships; and at the practical level, it is intended to alert the justified investment by the organizations in the implementation of a performance evaluation model. Taking into account the current competitiveness at the organizational level, it is considered that the analysis of the relationships between these dimensions is crucial to an organization. In this way, this project is intended to build a new process of performance evaluation in public hospitals in China, based on the competencies identified for each job.Atualmente, o clima económico contribuiu para um ambiente cada vez mais competitivo entre as organizações e para garantir a vantagem competitiva, as organizações devem ser capazes de promover altos níveis de desempenho profissional. Esta investigação insere-se nesta temática e tem como objetivo estudar como as características da função, o conhecimento profissional, as habilidades, as competências e o envolvimento no trabalho influenciam a avaliação do trabalho e, consequentemente, o desempenho dos funcionários de seis hospitais públicos . China. A amostra é composta por 546 sujeitos com idades compreendidas entre os 21 e os 58 anos (M = 37.9; DP = 8.73), sendo a maioria do sexo feminino (55.5%). Os dados foram recolhidos através das seguintes escalas: Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS), Escala de Conhecimento, Habilidades, Aptidões e Outras Escalas Pessoais (KSAOS), Escala de Competências e Formação (CTS) e Escala de Envolvimento no Trabalho de Utrecht ( UWES). Os resultados obtidos mostram que as características da função, o conhecimento profissional, as habilidades, a formação e o envolvimento no trabalho influenciam a avaliação do trabalho. Constatou-se também que os entrevistados do sexo masculino, os que pertencem à faixa etária mais avançada, os que possuem maior qualificação académica e que ocupam posições hierárquicas mais elevadas, apresentam um desempenho médio superior em todas as dimensões em estudo. Também foi possível verificar que a Autonomia é a variável do JDS com maior efeito na avaliação do trabalho e que quanto maior é a Autonomia, a variedade de competências e o feedback dado aos funcionários, mais positiva é a sua perceção da avaliação do trabalho. A análise dos dados também revelou que o KSAO modera a relação existente entre as características da função e a avaliação do trabalho e que a variável com maior efeito na avaliação do trabalho é a Ética Profissional e a Lei da Saúde. Por outro lado, quanto maiores são as competências e a formação profissional na área de Organização e Finanças, melhor é a avaliação do trabalho. Por último, verificou-se que o Vigor é a única dimensão do envolvimento no trabalho com efeito significativo na avaliação do mesmo. Espera-se que esses resultados possam inspirar pesquisas futuras e que possam contribuir para uma melhor compreensão dessas relações; a nível prático pretende-se alertar os gestores para a implementação de um modelo de avaliação de desempenho. Considerando a atual competitividade a nível organizacional, considera-se que a análise da relação entre estas dimensões é crucial para qualquer organização. Esta investigação pretende assim construir um novo processo de avaliação do trabalho nos hospitais públicos na China, com base nas competências identificadas para cada função