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This article aims to broaden the understanding of quasi-experimental methods among marketing scholars and those who read their work by describing the underlying logic and set of actions that make their work convincing. The purpose of quasi-experimental methods is, in the absence of experimental variation, to determine the presence of a causal relationship. First, the authors explore how to identify settings and data where it is interesting to understand whether an action causally affects a marketing outcome. Second, they outline how to structure an empirical strategy to identify a causal empirical relationship. The article details the application of various methods to identify how an action affects an outcome in marketing, including difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, instrumental variables, propensity score matching, synthetic control, and selection bias correction. The authors emphasize the importance of clearly communicating the identifying assumptions underlying the assertion of causality. Last, they explain how exploring the behavioral mechanism—whether individual, organizational, or market level—can actually reinforce arguments of causality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We posit that evaluators of relationship education interventions can explore a policy relevant outcome by assessing relationship stability and conflict in a single index that is based on the literature on the effects of divorce and marital distress on children. We provide an empirical example from a randomized trial. Background: The U.S. Administration for Children and Families funds community‐based projects using relationship education with a foundational goal of fostering stable and healthy relationships. Assessing this outcome requires an approach different from separately analyzing stability and relationship quality. Method: We used data (N = 1,156 couples) from a randomized trial of Family Expectations to test the Stable Low‐Conflict Index, comparing couples assigned to the intervention to couples assigned to an untreated control group at a follow‐up 8 to 9 months postintervention. Results: Intervention couples were more likely to be in a stable, low‐conflict relationship at the follow up than control couples (b =.36, SE =.15, odds ratio = 1.44, p =.014). Conclusion: An index based on empirical precedence showed evidence of an intervention impact in a community‐based program. Implications: Evaluators of family policy linked interventions may advance the field by exploring outcomes that encapsulate aspects of both relationship stability and quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors demonstrate that betting market outcomes are a statistically significant and economically relevant driver of local market television viewership in the National Basketball Association. Ratings are higher when the local market team covers the point spread and when point spread outcome uncertainty is increased. They further illustrate that point spread market outcomes have a larger relative impact on viewership in less-popular games and when the local market team is expected to perform poorly. This suggests wagering market access serves as insurance to the league and its franchises against reduced viewership in games that are less appealing to consumers. The results assess the degree to which wagering interest has driven past revenues as well as how the legalization of sports wagering may influence future revenues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the norm-referenced effects of a campus-based therapeutic mentoring program, specifically the Campus Connections program. It aims to track the emotional and behavioral changes in mentees over time, using a validated behavioral monitoring tool, the Behavior Intervention Measurement Assessment System, Second Edition (BIMAS-2). It also examines the potential moderating influence of mentees caregiver-identified sex assigned at birth.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the status of urban family practice program in Iran from the perspective of experts. Methods: This qualitative study with a phenomenological approach was conducted on July 20, 2021. Data were gathered using an interview guide (semi-structured interview), which outlined the urban family practice program in four dimensions program achievements, challenges, assessment indicators, and suggestions for program development. Results: A total of 19 participants were included in the study, and the mean age was 46.2±7.3 years. The participants reported the achievements of the urban family practice program in six areas of health indicators, fi- nancial protection, workforce, referral system, meeting the needs of the community, and universal health coverage. The challenges of this program were reported in five areas of financing, payment system, organization, rules and regulations, and behavior. Furthermore, the assessment indicators of the family practice program were in three sets of input, process, and output. Participants' suggestions for improving the family practice program were divided into financing, payments, organization, rules and regulations, and behavior dimensions. Conclusion: Urban family practice program in the implemented cities has many strengths and weaknesses. Participants suggested several ways to enhance the family practice program, such as aggregation of health insurance, making general reforms in the financing, raising service tariffs (outside the referral system), equity in paying public and private sector employees, training the required workforce, attracting the cooperation of specialized physicians, and integrating family practice program protocols in physicians' training packages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of diversity initiatives is to help groups that face disadvantage in society achieve better outcomes in organizations, but they do not necessarily work as intended. To advance understanding of the effects of diversity initiatives, I develop a typological theory of their unintended consequences. I propose that diversity initiatives produce four unintended consequence types: backfire (negative diversity goal progress), negative spillover (undesirable effects on outcomes other than diversity goal progress), positive spillover (desirable effects on outcomes other than diversity goal progress), and false progress (improved diversity metrics without true diversity goal progress). I then adopt a signaling perspective to identify mechanisms underlying the four types and the diversity practices most likely to produce them. The resulting typological theory not only provides an organizing framework for prior work on the unintended consequences of diversity initiatives but also specifies new unintended consequence types, identifies signals that serve as their root causes, and suggests that the unintended consequences of diversity initiatives are interrelated and multidetermined. Collectively, these contributions advance a broader conceptualization of diversity initiative effectiveness, in which a wider range of mechanisms and outcomes, as well as the relationships among them, must be considered. More comprehensive theory regarding their unintended consequences provides a foundation for increasing diversity initiative effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People are eager to update their beliefs, such as a perceived risk, if they receive information that is better than expected but are reluctant to do so when the evidence is unfavourable. When estimating the likelihood of future outcomes, this phenomenon of asymmetrical belief update helps generate and maintain personal optimism bias. In this study, we investigated whether asymmetrical belief update also extends to estimating the future of other individuals. Specifically, we prompted respondents to assess the perceived likelihood of three social targets experiencing future positive and negative events: An in-group, a mild out-group, and an extreme out-group. We then provided the respondents with feedback about the base rates of those events in the general population and prompted them to re-assess their initial estimates for all social targets. Respondents expected more positive than negative outcomes for the in-group and the mild out-group, but more negative outcomes for the extreme out-group. We also found an asymmetrical update of beliefs contingent on the valence of the future event and the social target. For negative outcomes, respondents updated more following good news than bad news, particularly for the mild out-group. For positive outcomes, respondents equally updated their beliefs following good news and bad news for the in-group and the mild out-group. However, they updated their beliefs significantly more following bad news than good news for the extreme out-group member. Our data thus reveal the strong influence of social stereotypes on future expectancies for others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developmental theories often assume that specific environmental risks affect specific outcomes. Canonical Correlation Analysis was used to test whether 28 developmental outcomes (measured at 11–15 years) share the same early environmental risk factors (measured at 0–3 years), or whether specific outcomes are associated with specific risks. We used data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (N = 10,376, 51% Female, 84% White) collected between 2001 and 2016. A single environment component was mostly sufficient for explaining cognition and parent‐rated behavior outcomes. In contrast, adolescents' alcohol and tobacco use were specifically associated with their parents', and child‐rated mental health was weakly associated with all risks. These findings suggest that with some exceptions, many different developmental outcomes share the same early environmental risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The aim was to evaluate the performance of thorax trauma severity score (TTSS) in predicting hospital mortality in thoracic trauma and comparing its performance with the trauma and injury severity score (TRISS). Background Because the great risk of thoracic trauma that may be life-threatening especially if uncontrolled, early management of it reduces mortality of polytraumatized patients. TTSS and TRISS were developed for the purpose of prediction of hospital mortality in thoracic trauma. Patients and methods This is a prospective comparative study done on 100 patients with chest trauma, either isolated chest trauma or as a part of polytrauma, who presented to the Emergency Department of Menoufia University Hospital during the period from April 2019 to April 2020. TTSS score was applied to assess its performance and comparing it with TRISS score. Results TTSS and TRISS scores were applied on 100 patients with trauma meeting inclusion criteria to predict the hospital mortality in thoracic trauma. The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve was 0.88 for TTSS score and 0.892 for TRISS score. Conclusion This study demonstrates that the TRISS, and the TTSS, can be used to predict hospital mortality in patients with thoracic trauma; hence, additional prospective studies are required. We believe that the study provides important information regarding validation of the TTSS, as it had a direct correlation with need for oxygenation, ventilator, duration of hospital stay, mortality, or outcome in patients with chest trauma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of RICYDE. Revista Internacional de Ciencias del Deporte is the property of Revista Internacional de Ciencias del Deporte and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Exit poll surveys during elections are conducted to predict the outcome of actual elections. However, such polls historically have been controversial, particularly for multi-phase elections, because they can influence the behavior of voters in the later rounds of voting. If subsequent voters are more likely to vote for the predicted frontrunner, the effect is known as the bandwagon voting phenomenon, whereas if they vote for the predicted trailing candidate, the phenomenon is known as underdog voting. To avoid such issues, in 2009 the election administration in the world's largest democracy (India) introduced a blanket ban on publishing exit polls in the media until all rounds of an election are completed. Exploiting the potentially exogenous timing of this reform, and using administrative data to compare states that went to elections before and after the ban, we find that in response to the policy, vote shares increased for the frontrunner and declined for others. The result implies that in the counterfactual, without the ban, fewer people would have voted for the frontrunner. The evidence is suggestive of underdog voting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines whether gender representation of government leadership in the legislative and executive branches improves social equity related to women's social outcomes and how this effect is moderated by the status of democracy. Using a panel data set on 135 OECD and non‐OECD countries from 2005 to 2015, the analysis shows that in non‐OECD countries, political gender representation has a significant, positive impact on female educational attainment and overall gender equality, while bureaucratic gender representation is significant for educational attainment only. For OECD countries, political representation has a consistent effect on educational attainment, labor force participation, and overall gender equality, but there is no evidence of bureaucratic representation. Democratization plays a more critical role in shaping the relationship between institutional representation and women's social outcomes in non‐OECD countries than their OECD counterparts, where gender equality is attributable to broader social, economic, and cultural factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce the construct of abusive supervision climate, the collective perceptions employees hold regarding abusive supervision in their work unit. We thereby extend research on abusive supervision to the team level, which allows us to explore its relationship with outcomes not addressed by individual-level theories of abuse. First, we explain the emergence of abusive supervision climate through the lens of social information processing theory. Then, drawing on team process and effectiveness models, we develop a multiple-mediation model that identifies two distinct mechanisms by which abusive supervision climate impacts group-level outcomes: social identity and collective efficacy. Results demonstrate that abusive supervision climate influences social- and task-related group outcomes through these two mediation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims The EMPERIAL (Effect of EMPagliflozin on ExeRcise ability and HF symptoms In patients with chronic heArt faiLure) trials evaluated the effects of empagliflozin on exercise ability and patient-reported outcomes in heart failure (HF) with reduced and preserved ejection fraction (EF), with and without type 2 diabetes (T2D), reporting, for the first time, the effects of sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibition in HF with preserved EF (HFpEF). Methods and results HF patients with reduced EF (HFrEF) (≤40%, N = 312, EMPERIAL-Reduced) or preserved EF (>40%, N = 315, EMPERIAL-Preserved), with and without T2D, were randomized to empagliflozin 10 mg or placebo for 12 weeks. The primary endpoint was 6-minute walk test distance (6MWTD) change to Week 12. Key secondary endpoints included Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire Total Symptom Score (KCCQ-TSS) and Chronic Heart Failure Questionnaire Self-Administered Standardized format (CHQ-SAS) dyspnoea score. 6MWTD median (95% confidence interval) differences, empagliflozin vs. placebo, at Week 12 were −4.0 m (−16.0, 6.0; P = 0.42) and 4.0 m (−5.0, 13.0; P = 0.37) in EMPERIAL-Reduced and EMPERIAL-Preserved, respectively. As the primary endpoint was non-significant, all secondary endpoints were considered exploratory. Changes in KCCQ-TSS and CHQ-SAS dyspnoea score were non-significant. Improvements with empagliflozin in exploratory pre-specified analyses of KCCQ-TSS responder rates, congestion score, and diuretic use in EMPERIAL-Reduced are hypothesis generating. Empagliflozin adverse events were consistent with those previously reported. Conclusion The primary outcome for both trials was neutral. Empagliflozin was well tolerated in HF patients, with and without T2D, with a safety profile consistent with that previously reported in T2D. Hypothesis-generating improvements in exploratory analyses of secondary endpoints with empagliflozin in HFrEF were observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the impact of fast track extubation versus late extubation in cardiac surgery patients being operated in Bahawal Victoria hospital, Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in department of cardiac surgery, Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur, from March 2018 to March 2020. All patients who underwent cardiac surgical procedures were consecutively enrolled. Fast-track extubation (FTE) and delayed extubation (DE) in these patients were recorded. Moreover, information regarding baseline and clinical characteristics was collected and outcome like reintubations, hospital stay, and mortality were observed. Results: Of 86 patients, FTE was successful in 70 (80.14%) patients, while DE was observed in 16 (18.6%) patients. High dose inotropes 6 (37.50%) and increase drain output 5 (31.25%) were the most common cause of FTE failure among 16 patients. NYHA class was found to be significantly higher in DE group as compared to FTE group (pvalue 0.002). The mean ventilation time in FTE group was significantly higher as compared to DE group, i.e., 2.7±1.6 hours vs. 6.5±4.4 hours respectively (p-value 0.001). While, inotropic support (p-value 0.047), drain volume at 4 hours (p-value 0.039), and drain at the time of removal (p-value 0.002) were significantly lower in FTE group as compared to DE group. There was a single reintubation (1.16%) and mortality (1.16%). Conclusion: FTE is a safer technique in planned cardiac surgical procedures resulting in least morbidity and mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Camps provide a positive environment for all youth, and can be an added bonus for those living with type 1 diabetes (T1D), to have fun, socialize, and learn new skills. These benefits are extended in family camps where a collaborative approach between children with T1D, their families, and medical staff can provide opportunities for youth to better manage living with diabetes. To date, however, little is known about parents' perceptions of their child(ren)'s skill development as they participate in a family camp. The overarching aim of this study was to explore parents' perceptions of a family diabetes camp. The first purpose within that aim was to understand parents' perceptions of the impact camp had on their child's skill development of friendship skills, camp connectedness, perceived competence, responsibility, and independence. The second purpose was to examine parents' perceptions of the residual impact of camp after a four-week period. This study centered on a three-day, family-oriented medical specialty camp focused on developing youth skills (e.g., responsibility). Data were collected from parents using the American Camp Association's Youth Outcomes Battery-Parent Perception Scale at camp and open-ended questions four weeks after camp. The parents' perceptions of their children's five outcomes (i.e., friendship skills, camp connectedness, perceived competence, responsibility, and independence) revealed the highest average improvement in the independence subscale. Consensus coding resulted in three broad themes that communicate the essence of the open-ended question responses: commonality, making new friends, and control over what is happening with their child's diabetes. Parent perceptions of camper development at family diabetes camp are important for understanding the multifaceted approach for youth with T1D. Additionally, it can help guide camp practitioners as they include parents in the camp experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the responses of major pharmaceutical firms to the advent of biotechnology over the period 1980 to 2008 to explain why established firms vary in their adoption of technological discontinuities. Combining insights from upper echelons theory, personality theory, and research on organizational responses to new technologies, we posit that narcissistic chief executive officers (CEOs) of established firms will be relatively aggressive in their adoption of technological discontinuities. We propose, however, that the effect of a CEO’s narcissism on organizational outcomes will be moderated by audience engagement—the degree to which observers view a phenomenon as noteworthy and provocative—which varies over time. When audience engagement is high, narcissistic CEOs will anticipate widespread admiration for their bold actions and thus will invest especially aggressively in a discontinuous technology. Drawing from work on managerial cognition, we further hypothesize that CEOs’ narcissism will influence their top managers’ attention to a discontinuous technology, an association that will also be moderated by audience engagement. Finally, we suggest that managerial attention to the discontinuous technology will subsequently be reflected in company investments in the new technological domain. Results provide considerable support for our hypotheses and highlight the role of narcissism in the context of radical organizational change, the influence of audience engagement on executive behavior, and the effect of executive personality on managerial attention. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the influence on organizational outcomes of CEOs’ political ideology, specifically political conservatism vs. liberalism. We propose that CEOs’ political ideologies will influence their firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, hypothesizing that (1) liberal CEOs will emphasize CSR more than will conservative CEOs; (2) the association between a CEO’s political ideology and CSR will be amplified by a CEO’s relative power; and (3) liberal CEOs will emphasize CSR even when recent financial performance is low, whereas conservative CEOs will pursue CSR initiatives only as performance allows. We test our ideas with a sample of 249 CEOs, measuring their ideologies by coding their political donations over the ten years prior to their becoming CEOs. Results indicate that the political ideologies of CEOs are manifested in their firms’ CSR profiles. Compared with conservative CEOs, liberal CEOs exhibit greater advances in CSR; the influence of CEOs’ political liberalism on CSR is amplified when they have more power; and liberal CEOs’ CSR initiatives are less contingent on recent performance than are those of conservative CEOs. In a corroborative exploration, we find that CEOs’ political ideologies are significantly related to their corporate political action committee (PAC) allocations, indicating that this largely unexplored executive attribute might be more widely consequential. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In her ground-breaking and highly influential book Transformative Experience, L.A. Paul makes two claims: (1) one cannot evaluate and compare certain experiential outcomes (e.g. being a parent and being a non-parent) unless one can grasp what these outcomes are like; and (2) one can evaluate and compare certain intuitively horrible outcomes (e.g. being eaten alive by sharks) as bad and worse than certain other outcomes even if one cannot grasp what these intuitively horrible outcomes are like. We argue that the conjunction of these two claims leads to an implausible discontinuity in the evaluability of outcomes. One implication of positing such a discontinuity is that evaluative comparisons of outcomes will not be proportionally sensitive to variation in the underlying features of these outcomes. This puts pressure on Paul to abandon either (1) or (2). But (1) is central to her view and (2) is very hard to deny. We call this the Shark Problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we assessed how 34 young adult participants in an environmental education (EE) program from 2011 to 2014 constructed their learning outcomes through interviews and the exploration of autobiographical memory functions (AMFs) regarding program experiences. We articulated a variety of directive, social, and self AMFs, including the achievement of the top five typical objectives of EE, increase in positive social norms through reminiscing and sharing memories, and attainment of diverse personal growth. We also constructed the relationship of these outcomes with the ultimate objective of EE. This method can presumably be used to emergently construct outcomes for evaluating emancipatory EE programs, which are on the request of tackling wicked environmental problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the incidence of race discrimination and cultural assimilation among a large sample of population whose parents immigrated to the U.S. during the Age of Mass Migration from Europe in 1850-1913. Topics discussed include incidence of discrimination based on foreign-sounding first names, the relationship between foreign-sounding names and adult economic outcomes, and the return to cultural assimilation.

The article discusses the concept of rationing as a determinant of immigrant composition and outcomes based on the U.S. immigration system. Topics discussed include the impact of immigration patterns and policy on immigrant composition, the slot allocation system for rationing under the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, and the role of immigration policy and rationing as determinants of flows and outcomes.

We examined the impact of a German workfare programme for hard‐to‐place welfare recipients, the so‐called '€1‐jobs', on staff in public and non‐profit establishments. We applied static and dynamic panel models using IAB Establishment Panel data from 2005 to 2013. To account for regional influences, we linked the establishment data to indicators at the district level. We identified a positive complementary effect on high‐skilled workers and a negative substitution effect on low‐skilled workers. We interpreted these findings as follows: In that €1‐jobs require highly skilled staff for management, instruction, qualification and support, this indicates that the programme generates jobs for skilled workers within the welfare‐to‐work industry. The negative effect that we found for low‐skilled workers suggests substitution effects between the programme participants and regular low‐skilled workers; although in this study, both effects were relatively small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common explanation for the rise in outcome evaluation among American human service agencies is the concomitant spread of performance-based funding in the late twentieth century. Although not dismissing this resource-dependence explanation, I argue that a further-reaching historical perspective combined with a social constructivist lens adds critical context to this important development in the human services sector. Adopting this approach and focusing on social work's history, I call attention to past efforts to delegate evaluative responsibility to service providers, framing these attempts as part of an ongoing negotiation of professional expertise and authority. Based on this review, I argue that modern agency-led outcome evaluation reprises historically recurring dilemmas and missteps. At the same time, this system of evaluation exhibits a historically novel and characteristically neoliberal attribution of outcomes to distinct organizations over replicable service technologies. The article concludes by drawing out practical implications for incentivizing and implementing outcome evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"PISTAS - Development of Personal and Social Skills" is a universal prevention program for 5thto- 6th graded-students of basic education aimed at promoting the personal and social skills. This study intends to evaluate the outcomes obtained by the program application using two already tested adapted instruments. The analysed results compare the data before and after the intervention, throughout one and two years of the Pistas program application. A prevention area technician or a teacher is also involved in the obtained results application. The program usually turns out to be efficient concerning the improvement of the emotional regulation competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-standing divide between sociology as an activist discipline vs. sociology as a science is examined in light of the current trend for American sociology focus on a limited set of justice issues resulting from inequalities and discrimination against certain categories of persons. Increasingly, this trend is pushing sociology toward become an activist discipline and, as a result, an ideologically-oriented discipline in its teaching and research activities. The outcome of this trend is the growing marginalization of those committed to sociology as a science in departments and academic meetings, resulting in demoralization of sociology's scientists and their escalating concern over their fate in a discipline increasingly mimicking a social movement organization. Even more damaging to sociology will be a loss of respect inside academia and a loss of relevance among publics not sharing American sociology's political biases. Furthermore, the chance for sociology to use its vast store of knowledge to help clients of all types solve their organizational problems will be lost if sociology is defined as a political rather than scientific enterprise. Sociology will thus willingly leave the vast resource niche for applications of social science knowledge to disciplines that know little about social organization (i.e., economics and psychology). Sociology will endure, of course, but it will not realize its enormous potential for reshaping societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Counterfactual thinking (CT) is the process of mentally undoing the outcome of an event by imagining alternate antecedent states. This research distinguishes between two types of CT: positive CT, which involves undoing the absence of previous positive outcomes, and negative CT, which involves undoing the presence of previous negative outcomes. Three experiments demonstrate that engaging in positive CT makes an individual's promotional goals (those related to attaining positive outcomes, such as accomplishments) more accessible relative to preventional goals (those related to avoiding negative outcomes, such as mistakes), whereas engaging in negative CT leads to a reversed effect. Furthermore, the type of CT (positive versus negative) induced prior to ad exposure influences the relative persuasiveness of promotion- versus prevention-focused ad appeals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offender rehabilitation is typically thought to have been successful if a higher proportion of a sample of treatment completers avoids being reconvicted for an offence than a comparison sample. Yet, this type of evaluation design tells us little about what brings about these outcomes. In this study, we test whether change in dynamic risk factors during treatment is a recidivism-reducing mechanism in a sample of high-risk offenders. We also examine the extent to which change after treatment-in the period of reentry from prison to the community-mediates this relationship. We found that although individuals made statistically significant change during treatment, this change was not significantly related to recidivism. We did, however, find tentative support for an indirect relationship between treatment change and recidivism, through change that occurred during reentry. These findings signal the importance of the reentry period for understanding how change in treatment is related to long-term outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature suggests that skin tone segmentation is a salient characteristic of intergroup economic inequality in the United States. Yet empirical investigations of this social phenomenon and its impact on labor market outcomes for Puerto Ricans remain limited. This article asserts that despite the salience of race as a powerful force shaping outcomes for Puerto Ricans in the US, colorism presents a new challenge for scholarship. The article analyzes a recent study on skin tone labor market segmentation in the US and highlights the importance of the findings related to Puerto Ricans. Three significant implications for research related to the intersections of race, socioeconomic opportunity, and Puerto Ricans are presented. The article concludes with a proposed reorientation of the general perspectives that have guided research in this area of Puerto Rican Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the response providing an additional Russian perspectives on the IMEMO 2019 Forecast. Topics include covering natural disasters, climate, global approaches, the Paris Agreement, and green finance in the European Union (EU); an acknowledgement of the existence of conflicting interests and a readiness in looking for acceptable outcomes seems addressing such situations; and ‘Storm Warning' concept seems quite appropriate for an analysis of the IMEMO forecast.

The purpose of this article is to identify what internal and external factors increase the probability of local officials actually using performance data for decision making within Italian local government, responding to one of the basic questions of performance management theory. Based on a sample of local governments from the Apulia region, we used an ordinary least squares regression model to show that local officials are more likely to engage in performance data use when they rely on input, output, and outcome measures and when they increase the level of citizen participation. While the reliance on more advanced performance measures clearly builds on previous research, our study represents one of the few studies that demonstrates a statistically significant relationship between performance management and citizen participation in local government. We conclude from our findings that we cannot forget about basic performance measurement and external stakeholder involvement as scholars continue to push the boundaries of performance management theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental justice (EJ) literature can benefit from comparative analysis that helps to identify conditions for more and less successful outcomes. A data set of 50 EJ cases in the U.S. was developed with high and low remediation as the outcome. Causal conditions were selected on theoretical grounds, and included five mobilizing strategies (local and state government coalitions, federal government attention, civil disobedience, litigation, and national NGO support) and three general conditions (absence of industry counter-mobilization, presence of water pollution, and proposed or new siting). Qualitative comparative analysis and other analyses indicated that all causal conditions were found in the high-remediation cases but that some conditions (water pollution and local–state coalitions) were more consistently associated with the high-remediation outcome. The analysis points to the value of systematic studies of the factors that affect local EJ outcomes and to the need for better case study collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decades, governing by contracts, and in particular security contracts and pacts, has been increasingly promoted as a principal means of advancing crime prevention and governing security issues. Security pacts are a form of contract in which various institutional actors declare publicly to approve a common line of action, and/or taking mutual commitments and measures to prevent and control crime and disorder. Unfortunately, impact evaluations of the policy outcomes of security pacts are lacking. In this article, we aim to provide the first rigorous evaluation of the impact of a large-scale policy based on security pacts (involving around 12 million people) on various types of crimes in Italy. We built an ad hoc macro-level panel dataset of the 103 Italian provinces, with indicators covering a period spanning between 2004 and 2013. We applied generalized difference-in-difference models exploiting variation in the time and place in which the policy was adopted. Results indicate that security pacts had a limited impact on crime one year after the adoption, but significantly reduced thefts and micro-criminality two years after the adoption. We also found evidence of heterogeneous effects along province population size, with the largest effects in the larger provinces and null effects in the smaller ones. These findings are robust to a number of different sensitivity checks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increase in the number of students entering higher education has intensified the need for targeted strategies to support a wider range of student requirements. Current research suggests that emotional intelligence (EI) may be associated with academic success, progression and retention in university students but the use of EI screening as a prospective measure of success requires further investigation. This study evaluates the utility of prospective EI screening to predict progression rates, mean grades, attendance and online engagement in a sample of first-year undergraduate students enrolled on the same degree programme (N = 358). A supportive text messaging intervention was employed during potentially stressful periods of the academic year with a subsection of participants (n = 60) who demonstrated low total EI scores relative to the cohort. Results showed no effects of EI classification on progression rates, mean grades, attendance or online engagement (all p > 0.418). Alternatively, the text messaging intervention was associated with significant improvements compared with a matched control group for progression rates (p = 0.027), mean grades (p = 0.026) and attendance (p = 0.007). The frequency of access to the virtual learning environment also tended to be higher in the intervention group compared with the control group (p = 0.059). In conclusion, this study did not identify any benefits of EI screening as a prospective indicator of student success but provides encouraging indications that a text messaging support intervention could help to improve progression rates, mean grades, attendance and online engagement in first-year undergraduate students. Further research is warranted to develop these proof-of-concept findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

College sense of belonging and well-being constitute critical components of college student adjustment and success. Previous studies have generally measured these outcomes at one (or sometimes two) points in time, which prevents researchers from understanding the ongoing adjustment process as well as the dynamic interplay between college experiences and outcomes. This study provides unique insights by examining week-by-week data that consisted of 12,529 total responses from 882 undergraduates during their first semester of college. Fixed-effects regression analyses were used to examine the extent to which weekly changes in students' experiences and interpersonal relationships predicted corresponding changes in adjustment outcomes. Social connection, relationship satisfaction with college friends, and feeling successful in class were most strongly related to changes in belonging and well-being. Some experiences that are often overlooked in higher education research were also significant predictors; specifically, time spent exercising and relationship satisfaction with parents were associated with more favorable outcomes, whereas extensive social media use was associated with poorer outcomes. Implications for research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Previous studies of parenting programs suggest that facilitator fidelity, participant attendance and engagement often influence treatment outcomes. While the number of parenting program evaluations has been growing in low- and middle-income countries, little is known about the implementation processes and their impact on participant outcomes in these settings.Methods: This study was nested within a cluster-randomised trial of a parenting program in South Africa. The paper aims to, first, describe the implementation of the intervention over 14 weeks. Second, using longitudinal multilevel analyses, the paper examines the impact of variation in observer-rated fidelity, attendance, and engagement on participant outcomes - parenting and maltreatment reported by caregivers and adolescents aged 10-18 (N = 270 pairs), 14 outcome constructs.Results: Fidelity, attendance and participant engagement rates were similar to those reported in high-income country studies. However, the participation and implementation characteristics did not predict participant outcomes. This may be due to limited variation in dosage as home visits were comprehensively provided when participants could not attend group sessions, and fidelity was monitored by the implementers and researchers. One statistically significant predictor after the multiple testing correction was higher fidelity predicting an increase in adolescent-reported maltreatment at follow-up, possibly due to an increase in reporting (incidence rate ratio 1.33, 95% CI [1.19, 1.49], p < 0.01).Conclusions: Our study confirms that a high quality of implementation can be achieved in a low-resource context. Suggestions for future research on parenting programs include examining therapeutic alliance alongside program fidelity and facilitator skill as well as systematically recording program adaptations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanisms for Nash implementation in the literature are fragile in the sense that they fail if just one or two players do not follow their equilibrium strategy. A mechanism is outcome-robust if its equilibrium outcome is not affected by any deviating minority of players. Is Nash implementation possible with outcome-robust mechanisms? I first show that in the standard environment, it is impossible to Nash-implement any nonconstant social choice rule with outcome-robust mechanisms even if a small number of players are partially honest. If simple transfers are used and if at least one player is partially honest, however, any social choice rule is Nash implementable using an outcome-robust mechanism. The mechanism presented in this paper makes no assumptions about how transfers enter players' preferences except that transfers are valuable. Moreover, it has: no transfers in equilibrium, arbitrarily small off-equilibrium transfers, and no integer or modulo games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students in the Frontline social work qualifying program undertake seven graded observations of practice in child welfare contexts during their qualifying studies. Before the Frontline program, educators had not attempted to implement graded observations of practice in a qualifying program in the United Kingdom. In this paper, we seek to show how graded practice observations have been undertaken in the Frontline program and provide information about the research base informing its development. A summary of findings from three preliminary research studies are presented. We suggest it is possible to grade practice consistently in child-welfare social work. However, we found considerable variation in marks awarded and evidence of grade inflation in all three studies. Using an interpretive lens, we argue that differences between graders should be anticipated because this is a complex assessment task requiring context-dependent judgment. We recommend developing a "consensus discussion" approach to moderation to improve reliability of grading practices, in which graders are encouraged to make the reasoning behind their grading decisions explicit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Although much research has investigated the impact of social capital on objective career success, the process through which this relation is established remains under-explored. In addition, studies conducted in the Middle East and North Africa region are scarce. The purpose of this paper is to examine and potentially bridge these gaps.Design/methodology/approach Data were collected via survey from 348 Tunisian bankers. Path analysis using AMOS was used to explore the relationships between mentoring received, network resources training and development and objective career success. For testing the mediating hypotheses, the authors employed bootstrapping.Findings Results support the conjecture that social capital is useful for career success. The authors found that when the employees receive mentoring, they seem to develop more instrumental network resources, and consequently they have wider access to training and development, which, in turn, will be related to better promotion outcomes. However, expressive network resources were not related to objective career success, and training and development did not mediate the relationship between these network resources and career success.Originality/value To the authors' knowledge, this is one of the first studies to explore the relationship between social capital and objective career success in the Tunisian context. This paper also reveals the mediating role of training and development in the above relationship. These findings add to the cross-cultural literature on careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Our theory shows that the extent to which individuals behave dishonestly is sensitive to the probability of observed outcomes. • We demonstrate robust support for this theory by reanalyzing the results from the extant literature on lying. • We designed a new experiment that varies the outcome probabilities and is run double-anonymous. • It confirms that the proportion of people that lie to avoid a low payoff is higher when this outcome is less likely. Abstract We theoretically show that loss-averse agents are more likely to lie to avoid receiving a low payoff after a random draw the lower the ex-ante probability of this bad outcome. The ex-ante expected payoff increases as the bad outcome becomes less likely, and hence the greater is the loss avoided by lying. We demonstrate robust support for this theory by reanalyzing the results from the extant literature and with a new experiment that varies the outcome probabilities and is run double-anonymous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the long-term outcomes for a population of teenage mothers who give birth to their children around the end of high school. We compare the mothers whose high school education was interrupted by childbirth (because the child was born before her expected graduation date) with mothers who did not experience the same disruption to their education. We find that mothers who gave birth during the school year are 5.4 percentage points less likely to complete their high school education, are less likely to be married, and have more children than their counterparts who gave birth just a few months later. The wages for these two sets of teenage mothers are not statistically different, but with a lower likelihood of marriage and more children, the households of the treated mothers are more likely to fall below the poverty threshold. Although differences in educational attainment have narrowed over time, the differences in labor market outcomes and family structure have remained stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether public services are better delivered through centralized or decentralized administrative systems is one of the most enduring debates in public administration. This article contributes to the debate with a study of program outcome achievement in U.S. child welfare services. We examine whether centralized state‐administered or decentralized county‐administered systems are more successful at realizing desired outcomes, which exhibit greater performance equity, and which are more successful at securing program outcomes in rural settings. Using a coarsened exact matching approach to quasi‐experimental research, we find that centralized child welfare systems exhibit greater success at achieving desired outcomes—in both rural contexts and overall. No discernible difference is found in centralized and decentralized systems' performance equity; outcome disparities exist under both structures. The study thus lends credence to centralization arguments, but at the same time cautions that centralized administration is not a structural panacea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The educational experiences and outcomes of care experienced children and young people is of longstanding concern. The pervasive inequalities they face suggest that current policies have been unable to respond fully to the complex causes of the problem. This paper reflects on a qualitative study into the educational experiences and aspirations of children and young people who are looked after in Wales. The project worked with care experienced peer researchers and drew on visual, creative and participatory techniques to explore 67 children's and young people's experiences of education and, importantly, their opinions on what could be done to improve it. This multimodal approach allowed space for participants to think through their subjective, mundane, but important, experiences that operate alongside, and interact with, more structural challenges. A range of films, magazines, artwork, and music outputs were developed to ensure that the project recommendations could reach wide and diverse audiences. This paper argues the voices of children and young people need to be given a platform to inform policy and practice. For this to happen researchers need to be creative in their approaches to both fieldwork and dissemination; harnessing the power of the arts to make positive changes in the everyday lives of children and young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • In light of the relatively scarce empirical evidence about personal networks beyond strong or core ties, we focus on broader acquaintanceship volume. • We present novel national survey data including a Network Scale Up Method. • We estimate that Spaniards know approximately 536 people (median) -very close to earlier estimates of acquaintanceship volume and theoretical work about the size of the acquaintances layer-, with a large interindividual variation. • We show that acquaintanceship volume differs with gender, age, education, income, participation in voluntary associations and employment situation. • The size of both core and acquaintanceship networks are related to adequate availability of social support. Abstract Personal network researchers have extensively studied the characteristics and effects of individuals' closest relationships, but they have paid much less attention to broader acquaintanceship networks, despite evidence that weak ties can also provide social support. In this paper we focus on one aspect of these networks: acquaintanceship volume. We estimate its distributional parameters for a large, representative sample of the general population of Spain, explore its variation across social groups as well as its implications for social support availability. We designed a survey instrument based on the Network Scale-Up Method and implemented it in a national survey in Spain. Our results suggest that Spaniards have approximately 536 acquaintances, with a large inter-individual variation, comparable to the estimates reported for the American population. Acquaintanceship volume varies with gender, age, education, and income. These differences are partially related to the unequal participation of social groups in voluntary associations, confirming the civic value of such associations, and in employment. Even with similar core network size, acquaintanceship volume increases the likelihood of having adequate social support available, suggesting that broader acquaintanceship networks also structure individual outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the use of performance information may change according to economic circumstances. In a fiscal crisis, policy-makers likely demand less documentation of service quality, but under longer-term term austerity they can use performance information, including outcomes measures, to target and reallocate scarce resources across organizational boundaries. The argument is tested in an analysis of six Danish municipalities after the financial crisis. In these cases, performance information was used in new ways. For instance, outcomes measures were linked to overall strategies and used in the budgeting process to promote the reallocation of resources towards more effective services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinical supervision is an embedded resource for practice quality in community mental health organizations. Supervision has been found to increase provider competence and decrease stress. In addition, supervision has been associated with service user outcomes including decreased depressive symptoms. However, little is known about the availability and nature of supervision in real world settings. The primary aims of this study were to identify available supervision and the extent to which contextual factors are related to that availability. The data source for this study was a multi-state and multi-site (N = 14) NIMH-funded trial survey of providers (N = 273). Supervision was measured by hours per week (quantity) and by utilization of best practice activities (content). Univariate, Chi square, independent samples t-tests, and ANOVA analyses were used to assess supervision content and quantity and to examine subgroup differences. Participants reported an average of 2.17 h of supervision per week and 28.6% of participants endorsed best practice content. Supervision quantity varied significantly across sites (p < 0.05) and program type (p < 0.05) while content did not. Individual role within the organization had a significant relationship with reported supervision content (p < 0.001). In these settings, staff in organizations are exercising discretion in how to utilize supervision within the available time. Supervision time also varied by program type, increasing with the intensity of services. Findings demonstrate that reports of availability vary according to position within the organization and the intensity of services within a given program type. Implications for workforce development, access to quality services, and implementation of evidence-based practices are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]