Adolescents Coping with Poverty-Related Family Stress: Prospective Predictors of Coping and Psychological Symptoms

Examined prospective associations among poverty-related family stress, coping, involuntary stress reactivity, and psychological symptoms in a sample of 79 rural, low-income adolescents. Poverty-related family stress predicted adolescents’ anxious/depressed and aggressive behavior 8 months later, controlling for prior symptoms. Coping interacted with initial symptoms and involuntary stress reactivity to predict changes in symptoms over time, showing that primary and secondary control coping were most strongly associated with changes in symptoms for adolescents with low initial symptoms and involuntary stress reactivity. The only significant predictor of coping over time was prior coping, suggesting that coping is not symptom-driven and may be somewhat trait-like. Implications for interventions and additional research are offered. Assistant Professor, University of Denver. Received PhD from University of Vermont. Research interests include the effects of poverty on family functioning, developmental issues in stress and coping, and developmental psychopathology Doctoral student in Clinical Psychology, University of Denver. Research interests include close relationship influences on adolescent development and psychopathology.     

The paradox of petrodollar development: Chad’s military diplomacy in regional and global security

This paper examines the Chadian government’s overwhelming preoccupation with state security, rather than individual security, as evidenced by its huge expenditure on arms rather than on poverty-alleviating development projects following the unprecedented influx of petrodollars in the years since production began in 2003. This overemphasis on state security demonstrates a mismatch between the availability of natural resource wealth and ongoing low levels of socioeconomic development in Chad. The country has instead used its enormous oil wealth to boost its standing in the turbulent Central African and Sahelian regions where terrorism is rife. The country’s international diplomacy, which consists of deploying its well-equipped military in international peacekeeping missions and in the fight against terrorism, is a strategy of achieving international recognition while simultaneously diverting the international community’s attention from the country’s democracy deficit and poor human rights record. Internally, authoritarianism and political instability are accompanied by conflict, poverty and underdevelopment, which in turn perpetuate the challenges facing the country.     

贫困女性化与女性贫困化:实证基础与理论悖论

自皮尔斯1978年提出"贫困女性化"概念以来,女性与贫困的关联研究成为劳动经济学、家庭社会学、人类学、发展研究以及女性主义研究的重要领域。在全球化语境下,贫困女性化的现象具有客观性,但在不同政治经济文化条件下呈现的形式则有所不同,因此不能简单地将其看作一成不变的全球性现象。具体而言,对贫困女性化的研究不能只关注收入和消费维度;在研究方法上需要超越以"女性户主家庭"为分析单元的局限性,将贫困问题放置于宽化的性别和其他群体领域,特别需要关注多维度的贫困和致贫的原因;针对城市化、工业化转型过程中所出现的女性的竞争劣势性也需要从总体社会关系的角度加以分析,单一的女性本位的发展干预往往会产生负面结果。本文认为,贫困女性化虽然具有实证研究的支持,但是女性与贫困问题在不同经济社会语境和社会关系维度上呈现出了复杂性和多样性。     

精神扶贫助推精准扶贫

在决胜全面小康的关键时期,脱贫不仅要实现物质脱贫,更要注重精神脱贫,以精神帮扶助推精准扶贫工作,既能够加快贫困人口脱贫,又能够对脱贫攻坚战进行固本培元。精神贫困是由内部因素和外部因素而导致的,就贫困人员内部因素而言,需通过“扶志”调动贫困人员脱贫的积极性,同时开展“扶智”工作以提高他们自身的脱贫能力,以此切断贫穷的根源;就外部因素而言,需要提升基层领导干部的思想觉悟,并加快贫困地区的精神文明建设,以此为贫困群众脱贫营造积极健康的脱贫氛围。内因与外因的结合,才能使贫困人民真正实现脱贫,不再返贫。这一举措不仅对于我国全面建成小康社会具有重要价值,而且为全世界减贫事业提供了中国智慧和中国方案。     

The ontological politics of (in-)equality: a new research approach for post-development

This article aims to add a new line of research to the post-development school of thought. Drawing on the many evident yet rarely noticed parallels between post-development and (post-)anarchism, I develop an understanding of ‘anarchistic post-development’ as a politics based on what French philosopher Jacques Rancière calls ‘the presupposition of equality’. I further connect this with Arturo Escobar and Marisol De la Cadena’s concept of political ontology, suggesting that we can make sense of and analyse both contemporary ‘Development’ projects as well as anarchistic post-developmental ‘alternatives to Development’ through the lens of what I call ‘the ontological politics of (in-)equality’. To substantiate my points, I will draw on the recent case of a Mâori tribe who won a historical legal battle to declare the Whanganui River a living entity.     

The global governance of informal economies: the International Labour Organization in East Africa

This article develops a Gramscian approach to the governance of ‘informal’ economies through a historical study of International Labour Organization (ILO) programmes in East Africa. Drawing on Gramsci’s conception of the ‘subaltern’, the article highlights the ways in which the articulation of ‘informality’ in policy documents is coloured by broader struggles over the political organisation of labour. The article develops this argument through two case studies. The first examines the World Employment Programme mission to Kenya in the 1970s that popularised the concept of ‘informal’ labour. The second is a contemporary programme on apprenticeships in the informal economy that originated in Tanzania.     

Social Ties and the Incidence of Homelessness

Although almost all homeless people are poor, most poor people do not experience homelessness. We use a detailed national survey to explore the role of social ties—including connection to relatives, friends, and religious community—in explaining why only a subset of poor adults fall into homelessness. We find that lifetime incidence of homelessness is reduced by 60% for individuals with strong ties along each of these dimensions. Ties to relatives are most important, followed by ties to religious community, whereas ties to friends are not associated with reduced incidence of homelessness. We also find that among currently low-income individuals, social ties are not associated with income, providing evidence that our results are not explained by unobserved variation in historical depth of poverty that is potentially correlated with our measures of social ties.     

“It’s all about money”: urban–rural spaces and relations in Maputo,Mozambique

Within the anthropological urban scholarship on sub-Saharan Africa, there is a shared notion of the continued, and in some cases re-emerging, importance of rural spaces, values and relations in cities and towns. In Mozambique’s capital city, Maputo, associations with the rural are shaped by the urban dwellers’ different positions on a scale of social (dis)advantage. This has led to very diverse types of engagement with the rural among the population, primarily differentiated along positions of class but also gender and age. For the best-off, who are able to live up to urban expectations, the rural is seen to have little to offer and is largely disregarded. For the poorest and most destitute, rural areas are effectively out of reach and unheeded. For the rest, the rural continues to be an important part of their cosmologies and struggles to survive albeit without losing their urban base and identity.     

巩固产业扶贫成果有效衔接乡村振兴的现状研究

巩固产业扶贫成果作为产业兴旺的重要部分,是实现产业兴旺的前提和基础,更是实现乡村振兴的重要举措。云南省N县集山区、边远、民族、贫困于一体,在云南乃至全国都比较突出。作为山区县,其产业扶贫与乡村振兴探索极具代表性,对于全国组织开展巩固产业扶贫成果对接乡村振兴的研究具有较高的参考价值。     

Social-Demographic,School, Neighborhood,and Parenting Influences on the Academic Achievement of Latino Young Adolescents

Using data from a national sample of 388 Latino young adolescents, this study identified the social-demographic characteristics, influences in the broader social environment, and parenting practices that predict youth academic achievement. Youths who were Mexican American, older, and had an English language problem had lower levels of reading and mathematics achievement. Youths of mothers who began childbearing at older ages, had higher levels of intellectual abilities, and reported no English language problem scored better on both types of achievement tests, but poverty was related only to reading achievement. Attendance in higher-rated schools was associated with higher reading and mathematics scores, but residence in better quality neighborhoods was related only to reading achievement. Three parenting practices—providing cognitive stimulation, parent–youth conflict, and academic involvement—predicted both types of achievement. The effect of poverty on reading achievement was explained by residence in lower quality neighborhoods, lower levels of cognitive stimulation, and parent–youth conflict.Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Received PhD in Social Welfare from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Research interests include examining the effects of poverty and other risk factors on the well-being of children, adolescents, and families.