The Benefits and Costs of Head Start

In this essay we review what is known about Head Start and argue that the program is likely to generate benefits to participants and society as a whole that are large enough to justify the program's costs. Our conclusions differ importantly from those offered in some previous reviews because we use a more appropriate standard to judge the success of Head Start (namely, benefit-cost analysis), draw on new accumulating evidence for Head Start's long-term effects on early cohorts of program participants, and discuss why common interpretations of a recent randomized experimental evaluation of Head Start's short-term impacts may be overly pessimistic. While in principle there could be more beneficial ways of deploying Head Start resources, the benefits of such changes remain uncertain and there is some downside risk.

Developmental Pathways for Children with Disruptive Behavior Disorders

The purpose of this study was to incorporate attachment theory and psychopathy into a transactional model to explain the development of disruptive behavior disorders in children. The model tested in this study proposed two broad pathways leading to the development of disruptive behavior disorders. Each pathway was characterized by an atrisk child temperament, negative reactivity and psychopathy, which when embedded in an at-risk environment, would result in conduct problems. Hyperactivity and negative life events were hypothesized to be broad band risk factors for both pathways. The first pathway, characterized by callous-unemotional traits (CU), was hypothesized to be positively associated with thrill seeking behavior and proactive aggression in the child, and insecure attachment in the caregiver. A second pathway, characterized by child negative reactivity, was hypothesized to be positively associated with reactive aggression in the child and disorganized attachment in the caregiver. Data was collected from 48 low income caregiver/child dyads. Children were between the ages of 6 and 12 (mean age=9.3, SD=1.85), and received services from a state mental health clinic. A series of hierarchical regression analyses were performed to evaluate the relationship between the predictor variables and conduct problems. A primary finding was an extremely strong positive correlation between CU traits and conduct problems. Also, several distinct differences were found between groups of children low and high on CU traits. For those children low on CU traits, thrill seeking behaviors were positively associated with conduct problems, while negative life events, attachment insecurity, and attachment disorganization were all negatively associated with conduct problems. For the children high on CU traits, thrill seeking and attachment insecurity had no meaningful impact on conduct problems, while negative life events and attachment disorganization were positively associated with conduct problems. Hyperactivity, proactive aggression, reactive aggression, and negative reactivity were all broad risk factors for conduct problems in this study. The findings of this study suggest that several developmental pathways do exist for children who develop conduct problems, and that future research should utilize developmental models that include a number of broad risk factors, as well as factors that may be specific to certain developmental pathways

Prospective associations between cardiovascular reactions to acute psychological stress and change in physical disability in a large community sample

Exaggerated haemodynamic reactions to acute psychological stress have been implicated in cardiovascular disease outcomes, while lower reactions have been considered benign. This study examined, in a large cohort, the prospective associations between stress reactivity and physical disability. Blood pressure and pulse rate were measured at rest and in response to a stress task. Physical disability was assessed using the OPCS survey of disability at baseline and five years later. Heart rate reactivity was negatively associated with change in physical disability over time, such that those with lower heart rate reactivity were more likely to deteriorate over the following five years. These effects remained significant following adjustment for a number of confounding variables. These data give further support to the recent argument that for some health outcomes, lower or blunted cardiovascular stress reactivity is not necessarily protective

The Pennsylvania Reformed Divorce Code: Equitable Distribution of Marital Property

In 1980, the Pennsylvania state legislature adopted the reformed Divorce Code, which provides for no-fault grounds for divorce, the award of alimony after divorce and the distribution of marital property. The author explores the provisions of the Code allowing for the distribution of marital property. The author surveys recent decisions arising under the equitable distribution provisions and attempts to bring some continuity to this quickly developing area of Pennsylvania\u27s divorce law

Employee engagement model for the multi-family rental housing industry

Employee Engagement Model for the Multi-family Rental Housing Industry Deborah R. Phillips 238 Pages Directed by Dr. Roozbeh Kangari The multi-family rental housing industry has faced numerous challenges in the past decade. Increased competition, declining occupancy rates and higher operating expenses have forced management companies to re-examine their organizational strategies, particularly as it applies to its human capital. Employee engagement has become an emerging topic and shows that engaged employees perform better, put in extra effort to help get the job done, show a strong level of commitment to the organization, and are more motivated and optimistic about their work goals. Companies now recognize the value in fostering a climate in which engaged employees drive sales by creating loyal customers. However, despite documented support identifying the link between engaged employees and more impressive business outcomes, little research has concentrated on the special needs and challenges of the multi-family rental housing industry. Further, there are limited tools available to assist owners and managers with the task of identifying the drivers affecting employee engagement. An Employee Engagement Model (EEM) was developed to allow multi-family apartment rental property owners and managers to determine the percentage of satisfied residents for a given average level of engagement score. This research utilized statistical analysis, neural network techniques, and probabilistic modeling to develop the Employee Engagement Model. The Employee Engagement Model (EEM) offers new knowledge in the relationship between employee engagement and resident satisfaction in the multi-family rental housing industry. New knowledge may also be derived in correlations of certain aspects of employee engagement and the likelihood of residents extending their leases or referring others to his/her community, thus improving business performance. It is expected that the Employee Engagement Model (EEM) will provide useful feedback to multi-family professionals in their process of talent management. It is also expected that further discussions toward improvements in measuring employee engagement and its impact on satisfaction will be prompted by this research.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Kangari, Roozbeh; Committee Co-Chair: Roper, Kathy; Committee Member: Castro, Daniel; Committee Member: Cummings, William; Committee Member: Thomas-Mobley, Lind

Constitutional Law - Fourteenth Amendment - Equal Protection - Aliens\u27 Rights - Governmental Function Doctrine

The Supreme Court of the United States has held that a state may exclude aliens from deputy probation officer positions which involve the exercise of the sovereign police power. Cabell v. Chavez-Salido, 102 S. Ct. 735 (1982)

Labour, lodging and linkages: migrant women's experience in South Africa

This historiographical overview examines the literature on women migrants in South Africa, arguing that it is important to consider domestic struggles and their impact on women’s urban experiences within and beyond the workplace in order to understand the unfolding of the migrant labour system in the 20th and 21st centuries. Looking at writing on pre-1994 migrancy, it highlights women’s experiences in the workplace, in the residential spaces they occupy, and in their associational life. We also draw out some of the major trends in the post-1994 period, focusing in particular on scholarship that considers HIV/AIDS. Migrant women, we argue, are neither simply home-based nor town-linked; rather their experiences and struggles provide the means to accommodate both while also transforming these polarities

Conceptualising leadership in early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand

The New Zealand Teachers Council Te Pouherenga Kaiako o Aotearoa is pleased to publish this occasional paper focused on leadership in early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand. The project that led to this publication grew out of a desire of the Council’s Early Childhood Education Advisory Group to promote some action on leadership development specifically for ECE. Whereas there is a well-developed leadership strategy for the school sector there is no equivalent support for teachers in ECE. Yet it is well established in the literature that an effective professional learning community is most likely to result from leadership that has learning as the central focus. Thus the absence of a cohesive leadership strategy was seen as a significant risk to professional initiatives supporting quality teaching in ECE

Intersections of Poverty, Geography, and Custodial Grandparent Caregiving in Appalachia

The purpose of this study is to compare the incidence of custodial grandparenting in Central Appalachia to other areas in Appalachia and the rest of the U.S., to explore how recent economic changes have affected poverty rates of custodial grandparents in all of these areas, and to explore what influences the probability of custodial grandparenting. We hypothesize that the recent economic upheaval of the Great Recession has pressured many families to rely on grandparents to provide care for their grandchildren and that these trends are particularly evident in the Appalachian region due to longstanding historical trends and unique cultural factors. Three year summary data from the American Community Survey (ACS) was used to compare rates of grandparent caregiving along with poverty, children living in grandparent only households, and other indicators of poverty and economic distress both between regions and across three different time periods (2005-07, 2008-10, and 2011-13). We then developed at logistic regression model using the ACS individual level data (Public Use MicroData) for 2009-13 to estimate the probability of caregiving status among grandparents living with grandchildren in each Appalachian region compared to the entire United States. Grandparents living with grandchildren in Central Appalachia had more than double the odds of being the primary caregiver when compared to the rest of the U.S. when controlling for demographics, poverty, gender, race, age, and education. While grandparents can provide an important resource for these families, advocates and state level policy makers need to be aware of the potential downstream costs to children and older adults over time and consider how to better support these Appalachian grandfamilies

Developing core economic outcome sets for asthma studies: a protocol for a systematic review

Introduction Core outcome sets are standardised lists of outcomes, which should be measured and reported in all clinical studies of a specific condition. This study aims to develop core outcome sets for economic evaluations in asthma studies. Economic outcomes include items such as costs, resource use or quality-adjusted life years. The starting point in developing core outcome sets will be conducting a systematic literature review to establish a preliminary list of reporting items to be considered for inclusion in the core outcome set. Methods and analysis We will conduct literature searches of peer-reviewed studies published from January 1990 to January 2017. These will include any comparative or observational studies (including economic models) and systematic reviews reporting economic outcomes. All identified economic outcomes will be tabulated together with the major study characteristics, such as population, study design, the nature and intensity of the intervention, mode of data collection and instrument(s) used to derive an outcome. We will undertake a ‘realist synthesis review’ to analyse the identified economic outcomes. The outcomes will be summarised in the context of evaluation perspectives, types of economic evaluation and methodological approaches. Parallel to undertaking a systematic review, we will conduct semistructured interviews with stakeholders (including people with personal experience of asthma, health professionals, researchers and decision makers) in order to explore additional outcomes which have not been considered, or used, in published studies. The list of outcomes generated from the systematic review and interviews with stakeholders will form the basis of a Delphi survey to refine the identified outcomes into a core outcome set. Ethics and dissemination The review will not involve access to individual-level data. Findings from our systematic review will be communicated to a broad range of stakeholders including clinical guideline developers, research funders, trial registries, ethics committees and other regulators