Government Respect for Human Rights and their Relation to Shadow Economic Activity

Shadow economic activity can have detrimental effects on many aspects of a society including trust in government policies, quality of public institutions, government revenues, and economic growth. Empirical studies have generally employed a rational actor approach and focused on economic factors. Most studies in this literature claim that when individuals do not receive the right economic stimuli from the government, it damages the relationship between individuals and the state and citizens opt to move into the shadow economy. A small but growing body of research, however, suggests that certain political factors can also lead to shadow economic activity because of a breakdown in the relationship between individuals and the state. Building on this growing body of research, this study investigates how governments\u27 repression of human rights can play an important role in the growth of shadow economic activities. The empirical literature on human rights offer three main groups of human rights: Survival Rights (physical integrity), Women\u27s Economic Rights, and Civil Liberties (i.e. freedom of speech). This study expects a similar pattern for all sectors of human rights, that when they are abused, citizens will react to those abuses by moving into the shadow economy because of the breakdown in the citizen-state relationship. Several multiple regression analyses are conducted for 150 countries from the years 1999 to 2011 to investigate if these different types of human rights had an impact on the levels of shadow economic activity. Results indicate that while Survival Rights and Women\u27s Economic Rights have no statistically significant impact on the size of the shadow economy, the respect or abuse of citizens\u27 Civil Liberties are statistically significant after the introduction of control variables. A possible reason for the difference in these findings might be that while the fear of reprisal of Survival Rights can work to deter shadow economic activity, repression of Civil Liberties may not create enough fear to deter it. Future research is necessary in this area to expand our knowledge on the political determinants of the size of the shadow economy as well as the creation of policies to combat its growth

Elementary School Teachers\u27 Student Health Concerns and Knowledge of Resources

Teachers are with their students an average of seven to 10 hours a day, five days a week. The substantial amount of time teachers spend with their students allows them to provide helpful insight into health problems children face. The purpose of this study was to identify elementary school teachers’ concerns for student health and to assess their knowledge of resources that address those health concerns. A convenient sample of 86 teachers from three elementary schools in Northwest Arkansas was surveyed. Surveys were used to identify the three main concerns teachers have for their students. A cross-sectional design was used with descriptive statistics to identify the top three health concerns. The top three concerns identified were hygiene, mental health, and nutrition. It is hoped that this research will assist schools in determining the necessary resources needed for elementary school children to have successful and healthful lives

Using Various Strategies to Increase Reading Comprehension

Reading is more than knowing how to sound out the words. It also entails comprehension and meaning, making connections with prior knowledge and learning. This thesis project examines what types of quality instructional strategies can be implemented by a general education English Language Arts teacher in order to improve the reading comprehension of students who are reading below grade level. The literature review section discusses comprehending text, decoding skills, and building fluency with the intermediate student in mind. The six week active research for the project was conducted in a western New York suburban school district with five sixth grade students and used four different instructional strategies based on the study participant’s comprehension level. Extended Day program time, 50 minutes twice per week, was utilized for the research. Data was gathered from student questionnaires pre and post study as well as field notes, student interviews, classroom activities, and teacher reflections. Conclusions from the research data and observations note an increase in reading comprehension and student participation, and support the use of quality instructional strategies to increase reading comprehension in the intermediate grades

The dramatization of short stories for the understanding and appreciation of literature at the ninth grade level.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit

Migration, Integration and Health for Aging LgbtQ2 Populations in the eu:a Strengths-based Approach to Policy

hat is often absent in accounts of LGBTQ2 migration experiences are the roles of policies and legislations in the regulation of sexual and gender minoritized populations’ movements across borders. Specifically, many health policies can simultaneously impact on access to and uptake of health services and thereby influence health outcomes among older LGBTQ2 populations. In this paper we offer an analysis of the ways in which current policies and legislation within select European Union (EU) states can impact on freedom of mobility; recognition of same-sex partners and gender-identity in receipt of social benefits; social and labour market integration; language and cultural competency; anti-discrimination policies in health and care; healthy aging initiatives; and the mainstreaming of health policies versus targeted health intervention policies could potentially impact the flow of migration of older LGBTQ2 individuals between select Member States and outside of them. In the following synthesis, we argue the need to approach health policies from ‘strengths-based’ approaches within a life course framework in exploring the development and implementation of policies surrounding the healthy aging of older LGBTQ2 people; and to articulate how policies surrounding these issues could influence the migration of older LGBTQ2 individuals and their families. We argue that there is a need to develop both mainstream and targeted-intervention policies, and direct future research towards the assessment of the specific health needs and initiatives for aging LGBTQ2 populations both in Canada and in EU Member States with comparable health systems