The right to dream: A cross-sectional look at poverty alleviation programs.

Studies on social programs reveal the absence of a cross-sectional perspective capable of identifying common aspects that improve the living conditions of their participants while also contributing to poverty alleviation. To detect such elements, we examined the transformations in the experiences and meanings associated with poverty and its alleviation by conducting semistructured interviews and focus groups with participants and intervention team members that implemented six social programs in Chile and Peru. We conducted a descriptive and relational analysis guided by Grounded Theory, which revealed three overarching elements: notions of poverty, notions of the overcoming of poverty, and changes necessary for overcoming poverty. Lastly, based on a complex view of poverty and considering the contributions of community psychology, we propose that interventions in this field must create meaningful relational spaces that restore participants' objective and subjective rights, such as the right to dream.

COVID-19 and child welfare policy in Chile: The experience of front-line workers.

COVID-19 arrived in Chile amid social protests that questioned the State's ability to protect children's rights. Nevertheless, child policy workers continued working despite the drastic changes to their daily work generated by both the pandemic and conflicts within the child welfare system. In this article, we aim to understand how these workers have experienced and overcome these challenges. We show that they have continued doing interventions with children at the expense of their economic resources and well-being. Our findings highlight the need for the government to take immediate action, offering guidelines to improve child policy workers' labor conditions.

Greater inequalities in dental caries treatment than in caries experience: a concentration index decomposition approach.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the current study was to (a) measure the socioeconomic inequalities in oral health and examine whether the inequalities are greater in disease experience or in its treatment and to (b) decompose the factors that influence oral health inequalities among the adults of Guangdong Province. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 35- to 44-year-old and 65- to 74-year-old adults in Guangdong Province. All participants underwent oral health examinations and answered questionnaires about their oral health. We measured the concentration indices of the DMFT and its separate components, namely, decayed teeth (DT), missing teeth (MT), and filled teeth (FT), to explore the inequalities in oral health status; then, we analysed its decomposition to interpret the factors that influence the inequalities. RESULTS: The results showed that significant inequality was concentrated on FT (CI = 0.24, 95% CI = 0.14/0.33, SE = 0.05). The concentration indices for the DMFT (CI = 0.02, 95% CI = 0.02/0.06, SE = 0.02) and MT (CI = 0.02, 95% CI 0.03/0.08, SE = 0.03) were small and close to zero, while the concentration for DT (CI = - 0.04, 95% CI = - 0.01/0.02, SE = 0.03) was not statistically significant. The results from the decomposition analysis suggested that a substantial proportion of the inequality was explained by household income, high education level, regular oral examination and type of insurance (5.1%, 12.4%, 43.2%, - 39.6% (Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance System) and 34.5% (New-Type Rural Medical Collaboration System), respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated greater inequalities in dental caries than in caries experience. Among the included factors, household income, high education level, and regular oral health examinations had the greatest impact on the inequalities in the number of FT. In addition, the current medical insurance systems, including the Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance System, Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance System, and the New-Type Rural Medical Collaboration System, have not been effectively used in oral treatment. Policy-making and the implementation of interventions for tackling socioeconomic oral health inequalities should focus on reducing the burden of treatment and providing greater access to dental care for low-income groups. Welfare policies are skewed towards rural areas and low-income people.

A Practical Framework for Considering the Use of Predictive Risk Modeling in Child Welfare.

Predictive risk modeling (PRM) is a new approach to data analysis that can be used to help identify risks of abuse and maltreatment among children. Several child welfare agencies have considered, piloted, or implemented PRM for this purpose. We discuss and analyze the application of PRM to child protection programs, elaborating on the various misgivings that arise from the application of predictive modeling to human behavior, and we present a framework to guide the application of PRM in child welfare systems. Our framework considers three core questions: (1) Is PRM more accurate than current practice? (2) Is PRM ethically equivalent or superior to current practice? and (3) Are necessary evaluative and implementation procedures established prior to, during, and following introduction of the PRM?

An evaluation of welfare and child welfare system integration on rates of child maltreatment in Colorado.

Policies that improve the socioeconomic conditions of families have been identified as one of the most promising strategies to prevent child maltreatment, particularly neglect. In this study, we examined the impact of integrated Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and child welfare (CW) systems on child maltreatment-related hospitalizations and Child Protective Services investigations and substantiations in nine counties in Colorado from 1996 to 2014. Regression analyses showed TANF-CW integration was associated with subsequent year, but not second-year, increases rates of substantiated child maltreatment overall and neglect specifically (that is, there was no longer a difference in the rate two years after the change in integration). Neither unemployment nor the one- or two-year lagged effect of integration were significant for investigations or child maltreatment-related hospitalizations. Increased opportunities to interact with a family in crisis using an integrated case management model may help explain these findings. Implications for future research are discussed.

Monitoring the Monitors: Medicaid Integration of Passive Remote Monitoring Technology.

Implementation of passive remote monitoring is advancing faster than our knowledge base about appropriate and ethical use. For all the media and research attention these technologies are getting, there has been very little discussion about how they are positioned to be integrated into health plans, yet their integration is key to how they will be incorporated into social work practice. As coverage of passive remote monitoring technologies expands in Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS), new policies that support informed decision-making, consenting processes, and regulations for ethical, appropriate use are urgently needed. Research translation often trails policy, but the rapid development and implementation of technologies that passively collect and transmit new information about older adults call for a more responsive approach. In this commentary, I describe passive remote monitoring technologies, their implementation in Medicaid HCBS, and ethical issues. I conclude with specific suggestions for policy and practice to start addressing these issues.

Only Making Things Worse: A Qualitative Study of the Impact of Wrongly Removing Disability Benefits from People with Mental Illness.

Many countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have seen a considerable increase in the number of disability benefits recipients (DBRs), in addition to an increase in the proportion of people with mental illness. As in other countries, changes to the welfare benefits system in England were made in order to reduce the number of DBRs. Many people lost their benefit payments, although a considerable number had them reinstated after appeal. Our aim was to investigate the impact of the process on DBRs whose disability was related to mental health and who won their appeal. Seventeen DBRs were interviewed. The participants reported three main types of impact. Beyond the practical reduction of income and the related anxiety, interviewees reported considerable stress when coping with the 'never-ending' cycle of bureaucracy. They also expressed anger, frustration and demoralisation at mistrust on the part of the authorities partly due to the 'invisibility' of their disability.

Recommodification, Unemployment, and Health Inequalities: Trends in England and Sweden 1991-2011.

Recommodification, the withdrawal of social welfare, has been going on for some decades in both Sweden and England. Recommodification disproportionately affects the unemployed because of their weak market position. We investigated the impact recommodification has had on health inequalities between the employed and unemployed in Sweden and England. Using national surveys, odds ratios for the likelihood of reporting less than good health between the employed and unemployed were computed annually between 1991 and 2011. The correlation between these odds ratios and net replacement rates was then examined. Health inequalities between the employed and unemployed were greater in 2011 than in 1991 in both countries. Sweden began with smaller health inequalities, but by 2011, they were in line with those in England. Sweden experienced more recommodification than England during this period, although it started from a much less commodified position. Correspondingly, correlation between unemployment benefit generosity and health inequalities was stronger in Sweden than in England. Recommodification is linked to ill health among the unemployed and to the health gap between the employed and unemployed. We propose that further recommodification will be associated with increased health inequalities between the employed and unemployed.

Evidence on public policy: methodological issues, political issues and examples.

In this paper I discuss how evidence on public policy is generated and in particular the issue of evaluation of public policies. In economics, the issue of attribution and the identification of causal links has recently received considerable attention. Important methodological issues have been tackled and new techniques have been proposed and used. Randomized Control Trials have become some sort of gold standard. However, they are not exempt from problems and have important limitations: in some case they cannot be constructed and, more generally, problems of external validity and transferability of results can be important. The paper then moves on to discuss the political economy of policy evaluations for policy evaluations to have an impact for the conduct of actual policy, it is important that the demand for evaluation comes directly from the policy making process and is generated endogenously within it. In this sense it is important that the institutional design of policy making is such that policy making institutions are incentivized to use rigorous evaluation in the process of designing policies and allocating resources to alternative options. Economists are currently involved in the design and evaluation of many policies, including policies about health, nutrition and education. The role they can play in these fields is not completely obvious. The paper argues that their main contribution is in the modelling of how individual reacts to incentives (including those provided by public policies).

Health Crowding-Out Effect of Family Migration on First Cohort Migrant Workers: An Empirical Analysis.

In the dynamic panorama of China's shifting social mobility, characterized by a transition from individual to family mobility, the migration of the first cohort of migrant workers and their families has taken center stage. However, the scholarly discourse on how family migration influences the health of migrant workers remains contentious. This study uses data from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) of 2017 to focus on the first cohort of migrant workers. Drawing on the theories of family stress and life course, the empirical analysis incorporated heterogeneity tests, total effects, robustness tests, mediation effects, and propensity score matching to explore the mechanisms underlying the impact of family migration on migrant workers' health. Data analysis reveals a substantial negative impact of family migration on the health status of the first cohort of migrant workers. Variations in health outcomes were identified across different family migration patterns. Further analysis indicates that the first cohort of migrant workers, when confronted with family livelihood pressures, tends to prioritize economic resources to support urban family life over their own health. This is because they are influenced by a family-centered culture. Our findings reveal a nuanced landscape. While family migration provides potentially enhances social support systems, it also imposes significant health trade-offs due to increased life stressors. These stressors include economic instability, increased responsibility for family care, and the psychological impacts of adapting to new urban environments. There are the health crowding-out effect of family migration on first cohort migrant workers.

The Effect of Family Fertility Support Policies on Fertility, Their Contribution, and Policy Pathways to Fertility Improvement in OECD Countries.

The cost of childbirth has been confirmed as a vital factor in families' fertility decision-making, and family welfare policies are capable of compensating for the increase in household living expenses regarding childbirth, such that the country's fertility situation can be optimized. In this study, the fertility promotion effects of family welfare policies in OECD(Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries are investigated through regression analysis, grey correlation (GRA), and the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis fsQCA method. As indicated by the results: (1) Family welfare policies notably boost fertility, and the boosting effect is long-lasting. However, this boost will be weakened in countries where fertility rates remain below 1.5. (2) The contribution of welfare policy measures to the fertility-promotion effect varies by country. The contribution of cash benefits is highest in over half of the countries worldwide, the contribution of relevant services and in-kind expenditure is highest in 29% of the countries, and that of tax incentive expenditure is highest in 14% of the countries. (3) The policy mix to boost fertility also varies according to the social context, with three policy groups derived using the fsQCA method. To be specific, the core antecedent conditions comprise cash benefits, relevant services, and in-kind expenditure. On that basis, China should pay attention to the following three points when formulating family welfare policies to tackle their demographic challenges. First, a system of family welfare policies should be developed as early as possible in the context of increasingly severe demographic issues since the incentive effect of family welfare policies will be weakened in countries with chronically low fertility rates. Second, the effects of improvements vary by country, and China should comprehensively consider its national circumstances when formulating and dynamically adjusting the mix of government fertility support policies in accordance with its social development. Third, employment is the main means of securing family income and takes on critical significance to sustaining families. Unemployment exerts a significant disincentive effect, such that it is imperative to reduce youth unemployment and enhance the quality of youth employment. On that basis, the disincentive effect of unemployment on fertility can be reduced.

Occupational survey-based evidence of health status and welfare problems of workers with pneumoconiosis in China.

Background: Pneumoconiosis is the most dangerous occupational disease in China. According to unofficial records, nearly million migrant workers were affected by pneumoconiosis in 2011, with the number increasing annually. Among them, a large number of migrant workers suffering from pneumoconiosis were not medically diagnosed. Therefore, fundamental questions remain unanswered: what is the background of workers who receive a diagnosis of pneumoconiosis, and how does pneumoconiosis affect their future and well-being? Methods: In this study, we identified and surveyed 1,134 workers with pneumoconiosis in seven selected regions in China with substantially high incidences of pneumoconiosis by using a combination of cluster sampling, convenience sampling, and snowball sampling. We used demographic, medical, and rehabilitation conditions and welfare questionnaires to collect the data. Results: The findings highlighted the socioeconomic status of patients with pneumoconiosis. The majority of workers with pneumoconiosis were adult men who had received no higher education, who lived in rural households, and who were employed in mining or manufacturing industries. Among these workers, 52.8% had been exposed to dust at work for more than 10 years, and 53.1% received a diagnosis of stage II or III pneumoconiosis. More than half of the workers (569 workers, 50.2%) did not receive comprehensive, routine treatment; 33.4% (379 workers) visited a doctor when they experienced physical discomfort, and 6.6% (75 workers) never received treatment. Only 156 workers (13.8%) received rehabilitation services, whereas 978 workers (86.2%) never did. The study results also revealed the severe financial difficulties faced by patients with pneumoconiosis. Only 208 workers (18.3%) had access to work-related injury insurance, with the cost of pneumoconiosis treatment being a substantial burden for 668 workers (60.6%). Conclusion: In this study, we explored the existing health and welfare problems faced by workers with pneumoconiosis in China and identified the social injustice and health disparities that these workers experience. We also clarified the primary challenges in implementing safety, health, and welfare policies for these workers and those who are exposed to high-risk environments, such as those working in mining.

Trends in mortality patterns in two countries with different welfare models: comparisons between CUBA and Denmark 1955-2020.

Cuba and Denmark represent states with different welfare models that have reached the same level of life expectancy. The purpose was to investigate and compare mortality changes in the two countries. Systematically collected information on population numbers and deaths for the entire Cuban and Danish populations was the basis of life table data used to quantify differences in the change in age-at-death distributions since 1955, age-specific contributions to differences in life expectancy, lifespan variation, and other changes in mortality patterns in Cuba and Denmark. Life expectancy in Cuba and Denmark converged until 2000, when the increase in life expectancy for Cuba slowed down. Since 1955, infant mortality has fallen in both countries but mostly in Cuba. Both populations experienced compression of mortality as lifespan variation decreased markedly, primarily due to postponement of early deaths. Given the different starting point in the mid-1900s and living conditions for Cubans and Danes, health status achieved among Cubans is striking. A rapidly ageing population is challenging both countries, but Cuban health and welfare are further burdened by a deteriorating economy in recent decades.

Social investment agenda setting: A personal note.

This article reconstructs how, under the umbrella of the Europea Union (EU), discreet opportunities for EU social policy agenda setting opened for academic expertise from the late 1990s to the 2020s. This began with the Dutch presidency of the EU in the first half of 1997, endorsing the notion of 'social policy as a productive factor', followed by the 2000 Lisbon strategy for Growth and Social Cohesion in the open economy. The social investment landmark publication was Why We Need a New Welfare State, written by Gøsta Esping-Andersen et al., for the Belgian presidency of 2001. Ultimately, cumulative academic insights and feedback from country-specific reform experiences found their synthesis in the Social Investment Package in 2013. EU political codification of social investment took effect with the adoption of the European Pillar of Social Rights in December 2017. The paper concludes on the future for social investment with some personal reflections as an engaged scholar.

Using Multi-Arm Designs to Test Operating Welfare-to-Work Programs.

BACKGROUND: In the early 1970s, most researchers thought that randomized controlled trials (RCTs) could not be used to measure the effectiveness of large-scale operating welfare reform and employment programs. By the mid-1970s, the Supported Work Demonstration showed that, under certain conditions, this was both feasible and valuable. However, the experimental design was simple; a multi-arm test had been rejected as unrealistic. Within 10 years, a three-arm design was implemented in San Diego to assess both a welfare-to-work program's overall impact and the contribution of a specific component. Less than 10 years later, the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS)/National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies (NEWWS) study used a more complex design to determine the relative effectiveness of two strategies operated in the same locations: one emphasizing getting a job quickly and the other requiring basic education. In San Diego and JOBS/NEWWS, the tested reforms emerged from political processes and were funded through regular program budgets. In both cases, researchers inserted multi-arm RCTs into operating welfare offices, trading control over the treatment for scale (thousands of people) and real-world conditions. Both RCTs were successfully implemented. OBJECTIVES AND RESULTS: This article examines why multi-arm designs were attempted, how they were structured, why public administrators cooperated, what various actors sought to learn, and how the researchers determined what strategies the different experimental arms ended up to truly represent. The article concludes that these designs provide convincing evidence and can be inserted into operating programs if the studies address questions that are of keen and immediate interest to state or local program administrators and researchers.

Factors Related to Life Satisfaction of Older Adults at Home: A Focus on Residential Conditions.

This study examined which residential conditions increase older adults' life satisfaction at home. We used data from 8903 participants over 65 years old who did not need help in their daily lives from a 2020 survey of older adults conducted by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, Pearson correlation analysis, and hierarchical multiple regression with weights. The final model explained 34.2% of life satisfaction in old age. Residential conditions that increased life satisfaction the most in old age were the community environment (ß = 0.16, p < 0.001) and satisfaction with the house (ß = 0.15, p < 0.001). Other conditions that significantly affected life satisfaction were safety (ß = 0.08, p < 0.001), interaction with neighbors (ß = 0.08, p < 0.001), distance from children or relatives (ß = 0.08, p < 0.001), frequency and route of public transportation (ß = 0.05, p < 0.001), and abundance and distance of green spaces (ß = 0.02, p = 0.031). Housing welfare policies should consider these results to increase life satisfaction for an increasingly aging population. Moreover, these data can be used to design age-friendly community environments.

Beliefs That White People Are Poor, Above and Beyond Beliefs That Black People Are Poor, Predict White (But Not Black) Americans' Attitudes Toward Welfare Recipients and Policy.

In past work, White Americans' beliefs about Black poverty have predicted lower perceived work ethic of the poor, and, thus, less welfare support. In this article, we examine whether beliefs about White poverty predict more positive attributions about the poor among three representative samples of White Americans. Study 1 reveals that White (but not Black) Americans' White-poor beliefs predict increased perceptions that welfare recipients are hardworking, which predict more welfare support. Study 2 demonstrates that the link between White Americans' White-poor beliefs and the humanization of welfare recipients is stronger among White Americans who feel intergroup status threat (i.e., those who hold racial zero-sum beliefs). Study 3 replicates and extends Study 2 by using an experimental approach. Together, these data suggest that White Americans' White-poor beliefs function to humanize welfare recipients as a means to justify policies that could help the ingroup, preserving the racial status quo.

Childcare Subsidy Enrollment Income Generosity and Child Maltreatment.

In the United States, childcare subsidies are available to low-income working parents to assist with the cost of childcare. The subsidies are provided as block grants to states, which allows for a great deal of flexibility in the specific policies guiding their distribution. Prior research has found a protective link between childcare subsidies and child maltreatment, but the variations in policies have been much less explored. The current study used longitudinal administrative child welfare data from 10 years (2009-2019) linked with state policies regarding the income eligibility requirements of states to examine the impact of these policies on child abuse and neglect among young children (0-5); early school-age children (6-12), and older children (13-17). Using multiple regression and controlling for state demographic characteristics, the study found that more generous policies surrounding income eligibility were related to lower rates of child abuse and neglect investigations at the state level.

Who deserves what and why during the COVID-19 pandemic: Applying the CARIN principles of deservingness to the American welfare state.

How does the public decide who is deserving of welfare benefits? To shed light on this question, we investigate whether the CARIN principles of deservingness-specifically the ideas of control, attitude, reciprocity, identity, and need-impact the public's perception of American welfare target groups. We draw contrast between traditional welfare programs and pandemic-related programs to gain a more comparative understanding of the principles' effects as well as to determine what role the pandemic may play in shaping welfare perceptions. We report that positive, deserving social constructions exist for recipients of both traditional and pandemic-related welfare programs, and we find evidence that the distinction between traditional and pandemic-related programs is important for deservingness perceptions in the US. Overall, these results suggest the importance of the CARIN criteria in an American context.

A "Good Life" for Dairy Cattle: Developing and Piloting a Framework for Assessing Positive Welfare Opportunities Based on Scientific Evidence and Farmer Expertise.

On-farm welfare assessment tends to focus on minimising negative welfare, but providing positive welfare is important in order to give animals a good life. This study developed a positive welfare framework for dairy cows based on the existing scientific literature which has focused on developing positive welfare indicators, and trialled a participatory approach with farmers; refining the framework based on their recommendations, followed by a vet pilot phase on farm. The results revealed that farmers and scientists agree on what constitutes "a good life" for dairy cattle. Farmers value positive welfare because they value their cows' quality of life, and want to be proud of their work, improve their own wellbeing as well as receive business benefits. For each good life resource, the proportion of farmers going above and beyond legislation ranged from 27 to 84%. Furthermore, barriers to achieving positive welfare opportunities, including monetary and time costs, were not apparently insurmountable if implementation costs were remunerated (by the government). However, the intrinsic value in providing such opportunities also incentivises farmers. Overall, most farmers appeared to support positive welfare assessment, with the largest proportion (50%) supporting its use within existing farm assurance schemes, or to justify national and global marketing claims. Collaborating with farmers to co-create policy is crucial to showcase and quantify the UK's high welfare standards, and to maximise engagement, relevance and uptake of animal welfare policy, to ensure continuous improvement and leadership in the quality of lives for farm animals.