System management and compensatory parenting: Educational involvement after maternal incarceration

Research has demonstrated that paternal incarceration is associated with lower levels of educational involvement among fathers and primary caregivers, but little is known regarding caregiver educational involvement when mothers have been incarcerated. In this study, we present the first analysis of variation in school- and home-based educational involvement by maternal incarceration history, pairing survey and interview data to connect macro-level group differences with micro-level narratives of mothers’ involvement in their children's education. Our survey data demonstrate that children of ever-incarcerated mothers experience increased school-based educational involvement by their primary caregivers, regardless of whether the caregiver is the mother herself. Our interview data point to compensatory parenting as a key motivating factor in educational involvement, wherein a caregiver endeavors to “make up for” the child's history of maternal incarceration. Findings add to the literature demonstrating maternal incarceration as a distinct experience from both paternal incarceration and material disadvantage alone, and they suggest the need to explore the role of schools as potential points of productive institutional involvement for mothers with an incarceration history.     

Fiscal Consolidation and Australia's Public Debt

Australia has experienced one of the fastest growing public debt levels in the world post‐Global Financial Crisis due to a series of large federal budget deficits driven by high government spending. In this paper we examine the balance sheet implications of this escalating public debt, before proposing some macro‐fiscal objectives for determining its sustainable level. These objectives are to (i) restore the federal government's solvency; (ii) eliminate foreign public debt; and (iii) achieve budgetary balance over the business cycle. Empirically, we first examine how much fiscal consolidation is required for debt stabilisation at current levels, before considering what sized budget balances are needed to achieve the target debt to GDP ratios consistent with the proposed objectives. The results show that no target debt to GDP level consistent with the optimal levels will be met on current fiscal settings in the medium term. This implies significantly greater fiscal consolidation is required to minimise future fiscal risk.     

Participatory numbers for integrating knowledge and actions in development

This article discusses the opportunities and challenges associated with the use of quantitative participatory methods and participatory numbers for integrating locals’ and outsiders’ knowledge, as well as actions from the bottom-up and top-down, in development. It places emphasis on the contribution of quantitative participatory methods and participatory numbers to foster dialogue between a wide range of stakeholders, for example, local people, NGOs, government agencies and scientists, who usually seldom directly engage with each other. The article draws on case studies that discuss remittances and disasters in Samoa, and disaster risk reduction in the Philippines.     

Psychometric Properties of a Brief Instrument to Assess Perceptions of Injustice Associated with Debilitating Health and Mental Health Conditions

The present study examined the psychometric properties of a shortened and simplified version of the Injustice Experience Questionnaire (IEQ). The instructional set of the original IEQ was modified to make it better suited to the context of debilitating health and mental health conditions that do not necessarily arise as a result of injury. The number of items was reduced from 12 to 5, and the response scale was simplified. The Injustice Experiences Questionnaire – Short Form (IEQ-SF) was administered to individuals diagnosed with a chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) condition (N?=?88) or major depressive disorder (MDD) (N?=?87). The internal consistency of the IEQ-SF was acceptable. The IEQ-SF was significantly correlated with measures of pain severity, depressive symptom severity and disability in both samples. Individuals with MDD scored higher on the IEQ-SF than individuals with MSK. The IEQ-SF was shown to be sensitive to treatment-related reductions in perceived injustice. Preliminary analyses suggest that the IEQ-SF is a reliable and valid measure of disability-related injustice perceptions associated with debilitating health and mental health conditions.