School Violence Prevention: Evaluating a Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Aggression Among Adolescents

Schools are held accountable for creating and maintaining safe learning environments for all students. The prevalence of behavior and conduct disorders, specifically aggression, remain problematic for school campuses. When a child’s aggressive behaviors persist over time, the development of established patterns of violence become harder to modify later in life. Further, aggressive behaviors may be comorbid with symptoms of anxiety and depression. Thus, there is a need to implement effective and feasible school-based interventions in order to ameliorate these problems. One such program that has demonstrated effectiveness is Creating Opportunities for Personal Empowerment (COPE), an individually-administered intervention based in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) principles. COPE promotes self-regulation and the development of coping skills for managing stress. In order to evaluate the COPE program, a single-case design study will be implemented for three adolescents with a history of aggressive behaviors. This study aims to assess the effects of COPE on aggression, anxiety, and depression. It is hypothesized that the COPE program will (a) reduce aggressive behavior and (b) improve depression and anxiety symptoms among students

Men at Work in a Land Down-under

We use new training data from waves 3-6 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey to investigate the training and wages of full-time men. We explore the extent to which the data are consistent with the predictions of human capital theory or with recent alternative theories based on imperfectly competitive labour markets. According to the raw data, most work-related training received by full-time private sector men is general but it is also paid for by employers. Our fixed effects estimates reveal that this training is associated with higher wages in current and in future firms, and that the effect in future firms is larger and more precisely determined. These results are more consistent with the predictions of human capital theory based on imperfectly competitive labour markets than with the alternative of perfect competition.work-related training, full-time men, training costs, general human capital, turnover

Estimating the Wage Elasticity of Labour Supply to a Firm: Is there Monopsony Down-under?

In this paper we estimate the elasticity of the labour supply to a firm, using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. Estimation of this elasticity is of particular interest because of its relevance to the debate about the competitiveness of labour markets. The essence of monopsonistically competitive labour markets is that labour supply to a firm is imperfectly elastic with respect to the wage rate. The intuition is that, where workers have heterogeneous preferences or face mobility costs, firms can offer lower wages without immediately losing their workforce. This is in contrast to the perfectly competitive extreme, in which the elasticity is infinite. Therefore a simple test of whether labour markets are perfectly or imperfectly competitive involves estimating the elasticity of the labour supply to a firm. We do this, following the modelling strategy of Manning (2003), and find that the Australian wage elasticity of labour supply to a firm is around 0.71, only slightly smaller than the figure of 0.75 reported for the UK. These estimates are so far from the perfectly competitive assumption of an infinite elasticity that it would be difficult to make a case that labour markets are perfectly competitive.monopsony, imperfect competition, separation, labour supply elasticity

Estimating the Wage Elasticity of Labour Supply to a Firm: What Evidence Is There for Monopsony?

In this paper we estimate the elasticity of the labour supply to a firm, using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. Estimation of this elasticity is of particular interest not only in its own right but also because of its relevance to the debate about the competitiveness of labour markets. The essence of monopsonistically competitive labour markets is that labour supply to a firm is imperfectly elastic with respect to the wage rate. The intuition is that, where workers have heterogeneous preferences or face mobility costs, firms can offer lower wages without immediately losing their workforce. This is in contrast to the perfectly competitive extreme, in which the elasticity is infinite. Therefore a simple test of whether labour markets are perfectly or imperfectly competitive involves estimating the elasticity of the labour supply to a firm. We find that the Australian wage elasticity of labour supply to a firm is around 0.71, only slightly smaller than the figure of 0.75 reported by Manning (2003) for the UK. These estimates are so far from the perfectly competitive assumption of an infinite elasticity that it would be difficult to make a case that labour markets are perfectly competitive.monopsony, imperfect competition, separation, labour supply elasticity

Systematic framework and measures of economic policy in function of Serbian agriculture improvement requirements

One of the most significant economic activities in Serbia is agriculture, which also represents the base for food industry and some other branches of processing industry. In this field Serbia finds its developmental opportunity in future period. Inclusion of the country in EU, as well as in the World Tourist Organization, implies appropriate preparation and qualification in this field, so there could be more successful deal with rising competitiveness of foreign goods, in conditions of increasing liberalization level of foreign trade. Therefore, domestic regulatory rules must be adjusted to EU regulatory rules, like as concrete measures regarding agriculture and rural development improvement must be adjusted to the measures in the Joint EU Agrarian Policy. Serbian agriculture is in quite bad condition, and financial possibilities of the state, to expedite its development by abundant assets, are still insufficient. In terms of recession, caused by world economic crisis, too, incentive assets reduce, while making business in this field become more and more aggravated. This paper points out, in short, to significance and condition of agriculture in Serbia, on regulatory rules and future plan documents important for this field, as well as on concrete measures, which have to be undertaken in order to improve this activity.agricultural production, legislature in the field of agriculture, developmental documents, rural development, incentive measures.

Counseling Perpetrators of Violence: Applying the Invitational Approach to Male Professional Ice Hockey Players

Aggression and violence are common characteristics of professional ice hockey games. While hockey players are encouraged to be aggressive on-ice, these behaviors are not welcomed off the ice. Instances of athlete aggression occurring outside the context of professional sporting events have been documented, particularly within interpersonal relationships. In order to address this issue, the process of counseling professional male ice hockey players must be considered. The invitational approach, as outlined by Alan Jenkins, can be used to take into account the contradictions of violence and aggression in professional sporting contexts. Rather than label perpetrators of abuse with psychological shortcomings, invitational practice brings forth the politics of power relations within institutional settings. Narratives from former ice hockey players will be examined and the invitational approach will be applied from a counseling perspective. The institution of the National Hockey League (NHL) will be deconstructed in terms of power relations and practices. Four themes will be examined: fame/approval, masculinity, gender relations, and alcohol consumption. The goals of restorative practice allow for the cessation of violence and abuse, restitution for harm done, and help reclaim a sense of integrity for the perpetrator

Violence and Aggression in School Settings

Violence and aggression continue to cause harm to American schools and communities, which has been visibly illustrated by the continual perpetration of school shootings. In order to prevent these situations for occurring again, the etiology of violent and aggressive behaviors must be studied. Utilizing an ecological perspective, both the risk factors and protective factors of violence and aggression, also known as a dual strategy approach, are examined within an educational context. Specific risk factors reviewed include weapons exposure and social rejection, while protective factors reviewed include school connectedness and pro-social relationships. Implications regarding the prevention of violent and aggressive acts among students, with the goal of creating safer school environments, are provided for each domain