Preventing Prevention

Preventing climate change and damage from natural disasters typically requires policies with up‐front costs that promise a flow of benefits over time. Why has obtaining such policies in a competitive electoral democracy proved so intractable? We develop a formal model of electoral accountability in this context, in which politicians have private information about their motivations. The model shows why fully rational voters, though certain that incumbents spend less on disaster prevention than is good for them, reelect incumbents at very high rates. In addition, in such equilibria, voters would punish incumbents who spent more on disaster prevention. This equilibrium is consistent with (and implies) some of the major empirical regularities observed in the literature on voting and disaster prevention. We discuss some implications of our analysis for advancing public debates about disaster and climate change mitigation.     

Do multilingual androids dream of a better life in Australia? Effectiveness of information technology for government translation to support refugees and migrants in Australia

Without high‐quality translation of online information about government support and services, refugees and migrants from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in Australia experience a major barrier to improved health, employment, education and social outcomes. Recent advances in the ability of Google Translate, Skype Translator and other forms of machine translation that use artificial intelligence can help translate government information to better support refugees and migrants but they bring the risk of ineffective communication, and exclusion from services that could positively impact on settlement experiences and daily life. Evidence suggests that government agencies are likely to be using human translators for most translation work, but the degree to which any form of information technology is used, how it may be best applied and the associated effects are not known. This study systematically reviewed the peer‐reviewed and grey literature to determine effective ways of using information technology for translating government information to refugees and migrants from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in Australia. Included studies were analysed to identify techniques and other characteristics of translation, information technology and language support more broadly, and outcomes on education, health, social and other refugee and migrant experiences relating to translated information. Our review found a small evidence base featuring studies with strong evaluation demonstrating effective forms of ‘language support’ for refugees and migrants from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in Australia in a broad sense. However, there is a major gap in knowledge that is contributing to barriers in the use of online government information in Australia. In particular, there is an absence of evidence demonstrating what is effective in the use of machine translation with artificial intelligence, websites and other kinds of information technology for translating government information with refugees and migrants from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The oversight risks further excluding already marginalised groups from services and support. This paper makes a number of suggestions practitioners can take to address the issue and guidelines for future research.     

So far so good? Tracking the poverty eradication goal of SDGs in Kenya,Nigeria, and South Africa

This paper tracks the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals in selected countries in sub‐Saharan Africa, namely, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. The study assesses economic indices such as GDP growth, employment, and poverty rate of each country to understand the present performance of these countries and the feasibility of it attaining the first goal of the Sustainable Development Goals. Considering the current economic outlook and trajectory of these countries, eradicating poverty in 2030 is highly unlikely, unless drastic measures are taken. GDP growth in Kenya is currently low, whereas the poverty and the unemployment rate are very high. Nigeria still battles with economic recovery following the recession since 2016 and a soaring poverty level. Equally, South Africa is saddled with the problem of rising poverty, unemployment, and corruption. The study recommends that cooperation between government, civil society, and the private sector needs to be drastically improved and promptly to meet the poverty eradication goal by 2030.     

Designing for equitable civic engagement: Participatory design and discourse in contested spaces

A common theme of research on participatory democracy and citizen engagement centres on the need for empirical studies that conduct a deep exploration of the nuances and complexities of these processes. This article offers a distinct response to this need through an examination of two ethnographic case studies of a participatory budgeting process in a multilingual, highly diverse community in which Spanish-speaking Latino immigrants were involved. By analyzing participants discourse from the case studies, the findings highlight the risks and rewards of reframing participatory processes as design decisions rather than static procedures.     

Intimate Partner Violence and Parenting: Examining the Roles of Parenting Stress,Timing, and Maternal Abuse History

Maternal intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure has been linked to negative parenting outcomes. Studies suggest that parenting stress is an intermediary between IPV exposure and parenting, though past work has relied on small, clinically- referred samples. Moreover, it is unclear if parenting is differentially affected by a mother’s recent versus past history of IPV exposure, or whether a mother’s childhood abuse history moderates the associations of IPV with parenting stress and parenting behaviors. The current study examines whether recent IPV, versus past IPV, has stronger associations with parenting stress and parenting behaviors and tests whether maternal abuse history moderates these associations. Using structural equation modeling, we tested relations between IPV (frequency and recency), parenting stress, and parenting behaviors cross-sectionally and longitudinally in a large community sample of IPV-exposed low-income Hispanic and African American mothers of children aged 0–14 years (N?=?1159). We found that mothers who reported IPV exposure in the past year reported higher negative and lower positive parenting behaviors than mothers who reported less recent exposure. Further, we found that the frequency and timing of IPV exposure affected parenting indirectly through increased parenting stress. However, a childhood history of abuse did not appear to sensitize women to these effects. These findings suggest that psychological interventions aimed at reducing the subjective experience of parenting stress, as well as increased access to resources that reduce objective childcare burden, are important for promoting resilience among families exposed to violence.

     

Breastfeeding Duration and Reported Child Maltreatment in a Population-based Alaskan Birth Cohort

Journal of Family Violence - Research suggests that breastfeeding may reduce child maltreatment risk. Alaska has high rates of both breastfeeding initiation and maltreatment reports to Child...