A Longitudinal Study of Seventh-day Adventist Adolescents Through Young Adulthood Concerning Retention in or Disaffiliation From the Church

Problem. Why do some Seventh-day Adventist youth leave the church in North America? The proportion of the youth who disaffiliate themselves from the church is considered to be a problem of serious concern for parents, teachers, other religious educators, and the church itself. It was the purpose of this study to discover the relationships that may exist between youth retention in the church and other selected variables. Method. The Ten-Year Youth Study of Youth Retention in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America furnished data for statistical analyses. Out of the 578 questions of the Ten-Year Youth Study, relevant items for this study were sorted out, and some of them were grouped together for scales development. SPSS factor analysis and reliability analysis programs were utilized in formulating the scales. Then, these scales and other selected individual items were put into statistical analysis such as Pearson correlation and a stepwise logistic regression analysis. Results. Approximately 55% of the members who were baptized at the age of 15 or 16 were active in attending worship regularly after 10 years. The stepwise logistic regression result selected seven primary predictors that seem to influence youth retention the most as measured by worship attendance. The positive influential predictors were, in descending order, Teacher encouraged thinking, Giving tithe regularly, Involvement in the church, and Agreement with distinctive Adventist doctrines. And the negative influential predictors were, in descending order, Teacher emphasized rules and regulations, Anti-traditional Adventist behavior, and Mother\u27s indifference and rejection. Conclusions. Youth retention in the church is a combined result of psycho-social and cognitive experiences a person had at home, school, and church during childhood through adolescence. Parents\u27 modeling with warm and caring attitudes, teachers\u27 grace oriented attitudes, teachers\u27 encouragement of thinking, congregational leaders\u27 affectionate and supportive attitudes are significantly correlated with the youth retention in the church. Also, youth\u27s agreement with distinctive Seventh-day Adventist doctrines, agreement with church standards, involvement in church activities, and paying of tithes significantly correlated with youth retention in the church as measured by worship attendance

Microinsurance and risk management

Im Zuge der rasanten Verbreitung von Mikrokrediten und Mikrosparprodukten werden seit etwa einem Jahrzehnt auch Mikroversicherungen an einkommensschwache Haushalte in Entwicklungsländern verkauft. Sie stellen für diese Haushalte eine Möglichkeit dar, mit den Folgen von Risiken besser umzugehen und somit ihren Wohlstand zu steigern. Diese Arbeit verwendet quantitative und qualitative Analysemethoden – basierend auf eigenen Haushaltsumfragen und Fokusgruppendiskussionen –, um die Aufnahmebedingungen von Mikroversicherung in Ghana zu untersuchen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen erstens, dass über Standarddeterminanten der Versicherungsnachfrage hinaus Faktoren informeller Vertrauensbildung und die subjektive Risikoeinschätzung eine entscheidende Rolle spielen. Dies begründet sich in bestehenden Informationsasymmetrien und einer geringen Erfahrung mit dem Versicherungsprodukt und dem Versicherer. Ferner steht die Nutzung von Mikrolebensversicherung in einer sich verstärkenden Beziehung zu der Nutzung anderer formaler Finanzdienstleistungen. Zweitens wird deutlich, dass der Wert (Client Value), den die Zielgruppe in Mikroversicherung sieht, nicht allein auf Kosten- und Nutzenerwägungen basiert. Vielmehr spielen auch emotionale- und soziale Aspekte eine Rolle. Der Kundenwert wird dabei von Faktoren wie (geringen) Finanz- und Versicherungskenntnissen, der Beeinflussung durch die soziale Gruppe und dem Vergleich mit alternativen Risikomanagementstrategien beeinflusst. Drittens bestehen genderspezifische Muster in der Aufnahme von Mikrolebensversicherung, die mit dem Haushaltstyp und regional unterschiedlichen soziokulturellen Bedingungen zusammenhängen. Die Ergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass Präferenzen bezüglich Lebensversicherung innerhalb von Haushalten variieren und die Wahrscheinlichkeit eines Versicherungskaufs mit wachsender Verhandlungsstärke der Frau zunimmt. Die Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass Frauen eine besonders wichtige Zielgruppe für Mikrolebensversicherungen sind.Microinsurance has been the third financial service – following microcredit and microsavings - to enter emerging financial markets in the developing world. It is widely regarded as a promising innovation that could provide high welfare gains, given that low-income people often lack efficient strategies to manage and cope with risks. This thesis applies quantitative econometric and qualitative methods – based on own household and individual survey data and focus group discussions – to investigate participation patterns and perceived value in micro life insurance in Ghana. The results of this thesis show that household, first, uptake of micro life insurance does not entirely follow the predictions made by standard insurance theories. Informal trust-building mechanisms and subjective risk perceptions turn out to play an important role in the context of information asymmetries and limited experience with formal insurance. Furthermore, there is a mutually reinforcing relationship between micro life insurance and other formal financial services available in the rural and semi-urban study areas in Ghana. Second, the perceived value of microinsurance consists not only of the expected or experienced benefits and costs, but also of quality, emotional and social dimensions. Perceptions of high or low value are driven by large discrepancies between expectations and experiences, clients’ knowledge about insurance, their interaction with peers, and the availability and effectiveness of alternative risk management options. Third, there are gender-specific patterns of market participation between and within households that are intertwined with the household type and regionally varying sociocultural conditions. Spousal preferences on insurance differ and women with a higher bargaining power are more likely to purchase insurance on their own. The results suggest that women are an important target group for the provision of micro life insurance

Microinsurance and Risk Management: Evidence from Ghana

After the rapid success of microcredit and, to a lesser extent, microsavings in the past decades, microinsurance has been the third financial service to enter emerging financial markets in the developing world. Microinsurance could provide high welfare gains, given that low-income people often lack efficient strategies to manage and cope with risks, such as death, illness, old age, droughts or floods. In light of the low coverage of public security systems in many developing countries, it is seen as a promising innovation that could offer better protection for low-income people. However, little is known about the factors that constrain or facilitate demand to translate into uptake of microinsurance and on the product characteristics and business practices that create value for them. This thesis applies quantitative econometric and qualitative methods – based on own household and individual survey data as well as focus group discussions – to investigate participation patterns and perceived value in micro life insurance in Ghana. The results reveal, first, that household uptake of micro life insurance does not entirely follow the predictions made by standard insurance theories. Informal trust-building mechanisms and subjective risk perceptions turn out to play an important role in the context of information asymmetries and limited experience with formal insurance. Furthermore, there is a mutually reinforcing relationship between micro life insurance and other formal financial services available in the rural and semi-urban study areas in Ghana. At the same time, microinsurance does not substitute informal financial services. Given that households are burdened with a number of other risks besides death and old age, more universal strategies, such as risk sharing within social networks, do not lose their significance. Second, the perceived value of microinsurance consists not only of the expected or experienced benefits and costs, but also of quality, emotional and social dimensions. Perceptions of high or low value are driven by large discrepancies between expectations and experiences, clients’ knowledge about insurance, their interaction with peers, and the availability and effectiveness of alternative risk management options. Third, there are gender-specific patterns of market participation between and within households that are intertwined with the household type and regionally varying sociocultural conditions. Households headed by single women are less likely than other households to purchase micro life insurance, which could be a sign of gender discrimination in the market. However, results on the intra-household level show that women in couples are, in fact, more likely to purchase micro life insurance compared to their husbands. This is found especially in regions dominated by matrilineal societies, in which husbands typically have less control over household decision-making. Results at the intra-household level suggest that the wives’ bargaining power has little influence on their husbands’ decisions to purchase insurance, but increases uptake by the wives themselves. Overall, the results suggest that spousal preferences on insurance differ and that women are an important target group for the provision of micro life insurance

SPATIAL BEHAVIOR, FORAGING, AND POPULATION DYNAMICS OF A SUBARCTIC UNGULATE

The concept of density-dependence is foundational to our understanding of the ecology and management of large herbivores. As the abundance of large herbivores increases, competition for high-quality resources increases and animals select for lower-quality foods potentially resulting in reduced vital rates that cause declines in population growth. What remains unclear is how foraging at finer scales, like the ‘bite’, translates to demography. This is difficult because it’s challenging to scale bite-level foraging to population-levels. I test the fine-scale foraging mechanisms of density dependence in a large subarctic herbivore, Barrenground caribou (Rangifer tarandus granti). The nutritional landscape for arctic herbivores is changing faster than anywhere else on Earth from global climate change, so understanding population-level consequences of foraging behavior is paramount. The Fortymile Caribou Herd (FCH) is a barrenground population ranging across Alaska and Yukon, Canada that, unlike most, has recently increased in abundance and distribution. First, I used GPS-video-camera collars to understand fine-scale behavior and diet patterns. This revealed i) a pronounced tradeoff in summer foraging between lichens and shrubs and, ii) the costs of insect harassment on eating. Second, I tested how foraging choices were influenced by spatiotemporal factors in summer. I found spatial tradeoffs in behavioral and foraging choices. As spatial densities of the FCH increased, the probability of eating shrubs increased as cover (%) for Salix spp. shrubs increased. Conversely, the probability of caribou eating lichen declined with increasing spatial densities. Caribou choice for preferred summer foods also increased with the availability of such foods revealing foraging functional responses. Finally, I linked bottom-up drivers of nutritional ecology to juvenile survival to test predictions of density dependence. I found biologically important effects of bottom-up forage-related factors on maternal condition, neonate birth weight and hence, survival, and overwinter juvenile survival. However, I found opposing signals of classical density-dependence suggesting this population was not approaching food-regulated carrying capacity. Understanding the mechanisms of density-dependent foraging for an increasing population provides critical insights into potential future impacts of global change in the Arctic on caribou, and valuable information for caribou managers especially given recent declines of most populations

EVALITA Evaluation of NLP and Speech Tools for Italian Proceedings of the Final Workshop

Editor of the proceedings of EVALITA 2016