Parental Parenting And Child Welfare Parenting Program

The study by Estefan, Coulter, Vandeweerd, Armstrong, and Gordki had two main purposes. The first was to determine the different stressors and attitudes given by the parents in a child welfare-parenting program. Program files and interviews were used to conclude the statistics of the different stressors that could cause ineffective parenting to children. The second main purpose was to get a better understanding of the different issues, so there can be better involvements growth in the parenting. Sample The participants in this study are parenting dyads that have completed the Nurturing Parents Program (NPP) between July of 2008 and October of 2010. The participants included 124 individuals. These individuals came from 62 couples.†¦show more content†¦The data information also included the component of the data collection, the operational definition, the type of analysis, and the location in the program file. Along with the Nurturing Parents Program, data was also collected from the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI-2) to determine attitudes regarding parenting and child rearing. In this program, it used five categories that specified child maltreatment risk. These five categories included the inappropriate parental expectations of children, parental lack of empathy towards children’s needs, strong belief in the use of corporal punishment, and reversing parent-child family roles, and oppressing children’s power and independence. There are two main wa ys for applicants to be chosen for the interviews. This is either through a small presentation or through letters delivered to prior applicants. The applicants, no matter which way they were chosen, could then reach out to the researcher and find a way to contact them, if they desired an interview. There were a couple of details that could cause a parent not to be chosen, including if they do not speak or are not at ease with speaking in English, if the parents were not involved with the services, or if they were not of

Improving your Fitness Center free essay sample

An examination of how to provide or improve a fitness facility through better management, improved programming and additional training or equipment. This paper lays out strategies and concepts which are designed to help owners and managers of fitness facilities to boost their clientele and their image. It discusses the importance of effective advertising and the necessity for innovative new programs aimed at all age levels. Does your fitness center seem to be lacking business? Does it seem to lack those select customers that you imagined when you open your fitness center? There are steps the management can take to improve the quality and quantity of customers. Give it a boost by adding some new equipment, some motivation with bonuses, shake up the advertisements, and educate some local businesses. Your fitness center can be boosted from the humdrums to a busy fun fitness center with active participation from a variety of new customers. We will write a custom essay sample on Improving your Fitness Center or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page

Sexual Preference, Gender, and Blame Essays - Rape, Sexual Abuse

The Journal of Social Psychology, 2011, 151(5), 592607 Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC Sexual Preference, Gender, and Blame Attributions in Adolescent Sexual Assault MICHELLE DAVIES KERRY AUSTEN PAUL ROGERS University of Central Lancashire ABSTRACT. The study investigated the impact of victim sexual orientation, perpetrator gender, and participant gender on judgements toward a 15-year-old male victim of a depicted sexual assault. One hundred and eight-eight participants (97 male, 91 female) read a hypothetical scenario depicting the sexual assault of a 15-year-old male victim where the victims sexual orientation and the perpetrators gender were varied between subjects. Participants then completed a questionnaire assessing their attributions toward both the victim and the perpetrator. Results revealed that male participants blamed the victim more than female participants when the victim was both gay and attacked by a male perpetrator. All participants, regardless of gender, made more positive judgements toward the female as opposed to male perpetrator. Results are discussed in relation to gender role stereotypes and homophobia. Keywords: gender, homosexuality, sexual assault, sexual preference CHILDREN OF BOTH GENDERS ARE AFFECTED by child sexual abuse (CSA). Fergusson and Mullen (1999) reviewed studies over a period of 20 years and found CSA prevalence rates ranging from 3% to 30% for males and 6% to 62% for females, depending on the definition and type of measure used (see also Bolen, Russell & Scannapieco, 2000). In Britain, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) estimated that around 1.1 million of British girls (21%) and half-a- million British boys (17%) have experienced some form of sexual abuse with around 16% of girls and 7% of boys being victims of contact CSA (that is, CSA where there is direct physical contact between victim and perpetrator, rather than non-contact CSA, which does not involve direct contact, such as forcing a child to watch pornography; Cawson, Wattam, Brooker Nurse, 2006; see Bacon, 2008). Address correspondence to Michelle Davies, University of Central Lancashire, School of Psychology, Preston, Lancashire PR1 2HE, UK; [emailprotected] (e-mail). 592 Davies, Austen, & Rogers 593 More sample-specific rates of the lifetime prevalence of sexual abuse on males have been investigated among gay and bisexual men who had been sexually assaulted both as children and adults. Hickson, Davies, Hunt, Weatherburn, McManus and Coxon (1994) investigated rates of non-consensual sexual activity among 930 gay and bisexual males, living in England and Wales. Of these, 257 (27.6%) had been subjected to non-consensual sexual activity at some point in their lives. In this study 10 of the cases stated the perpetrator was female. Gay and bisexual youths appear to be victimized physically and sexually during childhood and adolescence more so than heterosexual youths (Finkelhor & Dziuba-Leatherman, 1994; see Davies, 2002, for a review of other prevalence studies in relation to male sexual assault). Victims of sexual assaults are sometimes considered partly responsible for their abuse. Howard (1984) found that male victims of (adult) sexual assault were blamed more for their own abuse than were their female counterparts. Moreover, this blaming stemmed from observers negative perceptions of males victims behavior (e.g. looking scared, failing to fight back or escape) during and/or immediately after their ordeal. Such failures to protect oneself during a (sexual) confrontation violate the gender stereotype that men are strong and in control (Thompson & Pleck, 1986) and subsequently increases the amount of responsibility attributed to victims for their own (sexual) assault (Howard, 1984). Perceptions of adult male sexual assault victims also differ in terms of observers endorsement of negative attitudes toward homosexuality. Anderson (2004), for instance, found that expressing high levels of homophobia predicted negative perceptions on male rape victims, more so amongst male than female participants. Additionally, Davies and McCartney (2003) found that whilst heterosexual men blame male rape victims, gay men do not. This gives further support to the notion that holding negative attitudes toward gay men will contribute to the blaming male of sexual assault victims. Finally, several studies have shown that male victims portrayed as gay are blamed more than those portrayed as heterosexual (Burt Davies, Pollard & Archer, 2001, Davies, Pollard Davies, Rogers Davies Ford, Liwag-McLamb Mitchell, Hirschman & Nagayama-Hall, 1999; Wakelin see Davies & Rogers, 2006, for a review), adding further support for the homophobia hypothesis. Another factor to influence attributions toward male sexual assault victims is perpetrator gender. Smith, Pine and Hawley (1988), showed that adult male victims (whose sexual orientation was not specified) were more negatively evaluated when assaulted by a femalerather than maleperpetrator. Davies and colleagues (2006) furthered Smith and colleagues work

Editoral Comparison essays

Editoral Comparison essays In early last year when grade 13 was omitted from the curriculum a literacy test was implemented for grade 10 students to evaluate their ability to read and write. This literacy test has been the most controversial issue to hit the education board since the lack of funding for extra curricular activities. This issue has brought hard aches to students, parents, and even teachers. Students are thrown in to making the decision of what they are planning on doing with the rest of their lives before they even have the chance to grow up and experience what real education is like. Within their first year of secondary education children have to make the drastic decision of deciding whether university is for them, or should they just jump into the working force. Yet a drastic problem has arisen. So many students who written the literacy test have failed, leaving them without a chance of obtaining a high school diploma. The Toronto Star brought about a clear point retaining to the failure o f this test, how can someone who fails this test and doesnt obtain a diploma possibly go out there and get a job? Ontarios education minister Elizabeth Witmer has brought up the discussion of possibly implementing a secondary diploma for students who do not successfully pass the literacy test. While the Toronto Star completely mocks the idea, the National Post looks at this and adds possible ways to strengthen it. The main question that has arose since the results of this test are what should we do with the so many children who have not completed the test successfully? The question that has arisen so many controversial issues was easily identified with the vast amount of failing students. The National Post came up with these vital statistics 56% of Grade 10 students who do not plan to attend college or university failed the reading or writing or both portions of last Februarys literacy test. (National Post para. 3) Wh...

Management accounting system Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Management accounting system - Essay Example A cost management system for Skytop would provide information to make life easier for all involved.Cost accounting system will assign costs (costing) to specific products (meals, room per night, gaming machine round, etc.) and services (cleaning, room service, meal preparation, etc.) and other cost objects as identified by management. This in-turn will satisfy the financial reporting requirements then management decision-making essentials. For example the General Manager gets to know the actual cost of a room to make the pricing decision; the HR Manager is informed of the actual cost of each staff (salary, benefits, etc.) for HR related decisions; the Marketing Manager would be able to find out actual profit (revenue from the campaign minus the actual cost of the campaign) generated by a specific marketing campaign; the respected owners will be informed of the actual cost of keeping a hotel and would be able to make related decisions. Operational control system on the other hand will provide accurate and timely feedback concerning performance; the activities that should be performed and evaluation of those activities (controlling). Furthermore it concentrates on finding scope for improvement and aids in the planning process. In other words helps planning realistic budgets (uses information from cost accounting system as well) and accordingly enables performance control. For instant all managers will be able to compare budgeted costs to actual costs, understand the difference and thereby use the information to find means of improvement e.g. cost cutting, hire new staff, changing the menu policy, etc. The owners too can conduct performance evaluations of the management, measure actual return on investment and assess hotel’s growth in financial and non-financial terms. b) Type of information required For efficient function of the system the management will be required to gather variety of information both fina ncial and non-financial. The sources of this information could be from both internal (within the company) and external sources (external environment for comparison purposes). The internal information from within the company which are financial such as cash flows, labor charges, material costs etc Also non-financial information such as time records (labor hours, meal preparation time), stock levels, quality measures, customer feedback ratings, etc. The external information from the environment would typically include global competition, growth of the hotel industry, advances in information technology, advances in the food preparation, customer orientations, new product development, total quality management, time as a competitive element, and efficiency. Depending on the budgetary control system and the reporting system that is used these information would be required regularly on daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly basis. c) Key cost drivers A cost driver is an activity or factor that originates costs. Activity based costing which is considered to be the most realistic and accurate method of costing requires identification of cost drivers. Thus, ‘Number of rooms’ night’ and ‘number of stays’ is two of the key cost drivers that are widely used in the hotel industry (Pavlatos & Paggios,

LEGAL ASPECTS OF INTL BUSINESS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

LEGAL ASPECTS OF INTL BUSINESS - Essay Example American may use all forms of treats against Russia including economic sanctions, but will never go to war with Russia. This article addresses issues that relate to international relations, business, and law, as most consequences of Russia actions in Ukraine will be felt outside Ukraine. The outside effect will be felt in international business, political stability, and law. Business and other economic activities in both countries have been affected especially the Crimea region where Russian troops have seized the Airport and borders (Peck 1). The sovereignty of Ukraine has also been interfered with since international laws, which recognizes the sovereignty of a country have been violated by Russia invasion. Among the issues raised in this article are reasons why America may never manage to go to war with Russia over Ukraine. I believe that these reasons would make sense to anyone reading this article due to the facts supporting. The Russian army is powerful and alongside the power of the army, they are a nuclear superpower. Russia has the advantage of being close to Ukraine than US making it easier for them to send troop. The US is tired after a long period of war and does not have adequate army to send to Russia. The American people are also tired of war and most of their allies tired as well and are not ready for war. However, it is not in order for countries to think war always whenever conflict arises between them. Russia has over 4500 active nuclear warheads that could devastate the US totally and the world at large (Peck 1). Their military is well equipped with weapons that would make America not good enough. Compared to Taliban and Iraqis, the Russian army is not lightly armed as them. Russia can easily send its troops to Ukraine, which is close unlike US. With nearly 13 years of involving itself in war, America has used most of its resources and need a

Benefits of Training Employees in an Organization

Benefits of Training Employees in an Organization The aim of this paper is to identify all there is to know about training, the impact it has on both firms and employees and then, the reason why, although it is beneficial provision to business growth, still some organisations and individuals are not willing to accept the idea of investing in training and development. In order to come to that claim, it is necessary to mention first the cost-effectiveness of training and development, by which methods it can be reinsured, and the involvement of training in an organisations prosperity and even more, when it has to do with the integration in a international market. To begin properly, it should be noticed that training at any level and in whatever form this can take, could have only positive aspect. Considering that, training means investing in people to enable them perform better and to empower them to make the best use of their natural abilities (Armstrong, 1996; 2003). Through the practice of a range of activities, it is believed that learning is an important clue here, as a means for developing a high performance culture and achieving businesss competitive advantage (Pieper, 1990, Salaman, 1992, Tyson, 1996). This appear clearly from the below definitions of training. According to Heevy and Noon (2001), training is the process of changing the skills, attitudes, and knowledge of employees with the purpose of improving their level of competence. It is a planned process, usually involving a series of stages where incremental improvements can be identified. It takes two main focus 1) on the job training whereby an employee observing the tasks, being guided through them by experts, and then practising them. 2) Off the job training whereby an employee is instructed away from the place of work, either in a training room on the premises or at a separate location. This training is more often theory based and might even take the form of self learning packages (Heevy and Noon, 2001). Furthermore, as Manpower Services Commission defined training in 1981, it is the following: A planned process to modify attitude, knowledge or skill behavior through learning experience to achieve effective performance in an activity or range of activities. Its purpose, in the w ork situation, is to develop the abilities of the individual and to satisfy the current and future manpower needs of the organization. Seeing the definition of the training from the perspective of education as Smith put it: Development refers to the growth of realization of a persons ability, through conscious or unconscious education, where education is activities which aim at developing the knowledge, skills, moral values and understanding required in all aspects of life, rather than a knowledge and skill relating to only a limited field of activity (Smith, 1992). Besides the definition of training, the mention of the potential benefits for both employees and firms and from which methods these are derived, is essential in order to understand why training is so important for the business (Lonr, 1990, Murray, 2007). It is worthwhile to point that it cannot be any development without the training procedure. As it has already been mentioned, training aims to develop employees competences and to improve their performance but also, to reduce the learning time needed for employees starting in a new job on appointment, transfer or promotion and to ensure that they will become fully competent as quickly and economically as possible (J. Swart et al, 2005). When a training programme being used effectively, then the benefits for employees are numerous and are illustrated on firms performance. It also helps to manage changes and provide to employees the knowledge and skills they need to adjust with new situations and work demands, as well as to adopt new t echnologies and methods, to be innovative (Armstrong, 2003). In that way, employees motivation is increased and the same goes to efficiencies in processes resulting in firms financial gain while employees turnover is being reduced. Highly trained workforce provides higher levels of service to customers which enhance companys image (Mullins, 2007). The cost-effectiveness of training is a vital element because it can help the line manager to establish credibility, to reveal the value of the training by achieving both operational savings and increases in firms revenue; then, enforce the organization to look training more as an investment and less as a dispensable cost of operation. By training their employees, companies maximize the potential of this investment (Campbell, 1995). In order to improve the skills of its human resource, an organization can either train its existing employees or recruit pre-skilled labor forces that have been trained elsewhere (Booth, 1998; Jameson, 2000). The importance of investment in training and development is matter of whether a firm is treating its employees as a resource or as a cost (Tysson, 1996; Long, 1990; Jackson, 1989; Jameson, 2000). By exploiting the meaning of each word that consists Human Resource Management; human implies the workforce, resource implies investment, management implies development (Sisson, 1989). It is demonstrated that the consideration of human asset as investment for the firm through strategic development can maximize its potential, and the training is the tool that can provide it. So, companies with unwillingness to consider employees as investment, can simply be called not HRM practicing. In adverse, companies reluctant to invest in their human resources, rely on a short-term human asset, which, mainly, is low skilled training, less loyalty to its work and easy replaceable due to the lower cost of loss for the firm (Harzing, 1995; Jameson, 2000; Mullins, 2007). Most managers recognize the vital role that continuous learning plays in todays marketplace in order to maximize companys competitive advantage (Harzing, 1995; Gordon, 1991). However, some managers are reluctant to invest in their employees and train them. The reasons why is happening are variable. The market from its own, in which each company is doing business, deduct any potential training (Booth, 1994; Graven, 1998). More specific, the market is divided to the primary labour market, where jobs tend to be supplied by large, highly profitable firms with high capital to labour ratio and high productivity. Here, production is usually large scale with high investment in technology with more opportunities for training. The secondary labour market includes small firms with low capital to labour ratio, low productivity and small scale production. In these firms, wage and skill levels tend to be low, employment is unstable and training opportunities are usually limited. Significantly, small businesses experience problems in providing training for both owner-managers and workers. (Curran et al., 1996) Reasons for not providing such training are that companies do not believe in the effectiveness of training and they do not consider it as a big component for a better performance. Hence, when profits are under pressure or other developments are on stake, the most common reaction is to cut training fund. Also, recruiting skilled labor is more economical than practicing training and development policies. But they neglect that teamwork, employees initiatives, people talents are all part of the financial model and when these figures are maximized the same goes with the business economic growth (Bentley, 1991; Campell, 1995) Traditional styles of management based on authoritarian, non-participatory tenets of employees and managers who have grown up in a system like this, is unlikely to be ready to abandon familiar tried and trusted methods and be welcomed to a better trained, self reliant and questioning human force (Sisson, 1989). Some of them claim that there is limited time for the practice of training program. Indeed, a training program to be effective needs a lot of both employers and employees time and commitment, it also may take all employees job-life to be efficient. Job conditions change constantly in the business environment, so the continuous learning is required but nobody has the state or the emotional strength to be in a training position all the time. In that point, there are two categories that can be distinguished (Armstrong, 2003; Murray, 2007; Currie, 1997). Employers that do not believe in the importance of the process and employees that do not find interest to be trained, specifically if they have obtained a high image in the firm and they are known for their distinctive qualifications. Contrary to that, some employees want to develop their skills and knowledge whereby they will contribute to their companys success (Keep, 1989). They want training but their managers do not want to be confronted by this task, they are unwillingness to try, and simply they avoid it. From the perspective of the length of a training program, which could take weeks, months or even the entire career of the employees it can be a major expense especially for firms with traditionally high turnover. Besides, the common belief that is the responsibility of the school system to train people to be workers and is the workers responsibility to learn how to do a job so they can get hired is another reason why employers not practice their manpower (Collin, 2003). Government regulations, insurance coverages, and common sense dictate relevant training that should be given to every employee. Still, few employers do not find it significant to train their human force (Collin, 2003; Noon, 2001). A discouragement of not training is, also, the gap that arises when trainees are transferred from the training course to a job, to apply their knowledge and skills in practice. As long as they are in a training centre, they are sheltered from the realities of the rough and tumble workplace. For managers and team leaders, the problem of transferring from learning situation to the real conditions may be even more difficult because most of management training tends to deal with relatively abstract concepts like motivation and leadership, and the connection between what is being learned in the class room and what is really happening in work, may not always be apparent. That is why the training must always be compatible to employees needs (Armstrong, 2003, Noon, 2001). Another reason of not practicing training can be regarded the difficulty in measuring the effectiveness of a training program. Measuring cost of training needs a lot of efforts from the senior manager because apart from training results are also other interacting variables such as administrative costs, relocation, course design and material costs that have to be taken into account. Therefore are different methods that can be used from the manager in order to derive an acceptable figure for the effectiveness of training course. Those methods vary from sector and companys size. Hence manager has to have the ability to choose the one, which fit to the business needs. Any failure to the accounting of training-cost can mislead to wrong results, to an ineffective training proposal and that will discourage the company to practice training (Murley, 2007; Belcour, 1995t; Gordon, 1991). Moreover, it can be said that firms are not invested in training because of the flexible working environment. They claim that investing in people can be a boomerang for their business competitive advantage, as it is likely employees will leave the company and transfer their knowledge into competitors firm. Despite the likelihood of this event, employers have to understand that the key for organizations success is the human factor. By investing in human asset training, they invest in employees commitment to the firm and more as the firm invests in the development of their skills (Armstrong, 2003; Craven 1994; Hall, 1991). It cannot be ignored the providence of the HRDF, a levy reimbursement scheme establishing in 1992. Under HRDF, employers pay a payroll contribution of one percent and are eligible to claim a portion of allowable training expenditures up to the limit of their total levy for any given year. The reimbursement rates vary by sector and type of training. Empirical analysis showed that firms least likely to claim from HRDF are small firms and firms providing no training or only informal training. Important factors that employers cite as inhibiting their training: the limited resources available for it, the use of mature technology with low skill requirements, the adequacy of skills provided by schools, and the availability of skilled workers who can be hired from other firms (Tan and Gill, 1998). Generally, levy schemes have led to an increase in quantity of training. In some countries levy schemes have had some impact on increasing training. A common feature of schemes in which training has increased has been the fact that an effective system is in place for administering the levy both for levy collection as well as administration of grants. On the other hand, there were very complicated rules governing training requirements for the levy and the criteria for approval, dissuade employers from investing in it (Edwards, 1997). Firms which may have otherwise invested more in training, tend to reduce their effort to the level required by law in order to receive the minimum rebate or tax credit. There is also some evidence which suggests that if firms are reluctant to train, they organize training which is not relevant to their needs in order to qualify for the rebate or tax credit. Additionally, smaller firms may be less likely to train their workers as they feel that costs are significant and the training which is provided may not be relevant to their needs. Even if training is provided, the bureaucracy involved in persuing reimbursements dissuades firms from submitting claims for reimbursements. (Herschbach, 1993). Concluding, this paper attempted to define the reasons why there are organizations that are reluctant to see their manpower as an important asset in business success and so invest on them and train them. Now, the interplay between the benefits that are derived from any form of training and the cost-effectiveness of training for the firms is seemed to be more clear. In general, companies which operate in the increasingly competitive international market were forced to attach training and development as equal to the vital acknowledgement that the training needs are more like an investment rather than a cost and that, partly due the cultural diversity that the international integration occurs and partly because of the rapid economic and technological growth. All these also reflect the companies outlook on how important is the quality of those they recruit, because a companys image is as good as is its personnel and it is vital to select and train the best. (Upton, 1987) Unfortunately, i n many cases this process is considered by many managers as meaningless, too time consuming, a bureaucratic exercise only, or even as something that intervene to their departments work. For some organizations, the maintenance and the wellbeing of the equipment and machinery seems more important than to make an effort to the wellbeing and development of their own employees (Sun, 2001). But as it has been already highlighted, the key for success, even profit, for any firm at any size is its human asset and to invest in them infer to business future (Hall, 1991, Armstrong, 2003).