Family Financial Conditions Research Articles

Cuidadores informais de sujeitos com afasia: reflexões sobre o impacto no cotidiano

Introdução: Pessoas com lesões neurológicas adquiridas podem apresentar sequelas motoras e de linguagem que afetam sua vida e a de seus familiares, principalmente quando os últimos assumem a função de cuidadores informais. Objetivo: discutir o impacto das sequelas motoras e afásicas no cotidiano de seus familiares/cuidadores informais. Método: estudo exploratório, transversal, com abordagem qualitativa. Participaram do estudo familiares/cuidadores informais de sujeitos com sequelas motoras e de linguagem, decorrentes de lesões neurológicas que frequentavam o grupo interdisciplinar de convivência. Foram gravados os discursos sobre o impacto dessa situação em seu cotidiano. O tratamento dos dados deu-se a partir da transcrição ortográfica seguida da análise temática/análise de conteúdo. Resultados: O estudo incluiu cinco familiares/cuidadores informais do sexo feminino, do lar (quatro esposas e uma filha), com faixa etária entre 33 e 74 anos. O tempo de cuidado variou de um ano e seis meses a cinco anos. Foram referidas dificuldades na rotina doméstica, vida pessoal e social das cuidadoras assim como nas condições financeiras da família. No caso de os sujeitos apresentarem afasia, obtiveram-se relatos de dificuldades de compreensão e expressão, bem como de lidar com o humor. Conclusão: os resultados evidenciam dificuldades vivenciadas por familiares/cuidadores informais de sujeitos com sequelas motoras e de linguagem, decorrentes de lesão neurológica adquirida e a importância de grupos de convivência com equipe multiprofissional de cuidado inter/transdisciplinar, ampliando as possibilidades de investigações na fonoaudiologia, enquanto área da saúde que estuda a linguagem e as repercussões da afasia na singularidade dos sujeitos acometidos e de seus familiares/cuidadores.

PEMILIHAN INVESTASI KELUARGA UNTUK MENINGKATKAN EKONOMI KECIL DAN MENENGAH DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN AHP

Financial management has an important role in a small family. Many mistakes made in the conduct of investment by a family, it rose doubts in investing. It is necessary to understand to many criterias, so it can be determined the type of investment that appropriate with the family financial conditions. The method used in this research is the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). AHP is used in order to reduce subjectivity of decision-makers. The alternatives in this study are Savings, Gold Investment, Stocks, Insurance, and Property. To optimize the family's investment, it is necessary to make a ranking priority. The ranking was based on five criterias: Economic of Family, Benefit Investment, Operational, Legal, and Syariah Aspect. Based on the alternatives andcriteria and also sub-criteria, the decision of hierarchical model were created. According to experts, the comparison between four criterias and sub-criterias were assessed. The comparison was then tested for consistency. Data were processed using Expert Choice software version 11. The final result is priority ranking of the purchasing property investment with a weight point of 0,313.

Relasi Kuasa Perkawinan Anak di Bawah Umur dalam Novel I Am Nujood, Age 10, and Divorced

Child marriage can be seen as an oppression that not all women in the world will experience it. It happens only in poor and traditional countries like in Yemen. Child marriage in Yemen is clearly described in me Nujood, Age 10, and the Divorce novel. Behind the phenomenon of child marriage, there are several relations of relationships that run it from generation to generation. This study aims to find the power relationships behind the marriage of my child that is Nujood, Age 10, and Divorce. This study uses qualitative methods and readings as data collection. The results of this study indicate that there are three power relationships behind the marriage of children: child marriage as a form of preservation of tradition from generation to generation, marriage of children as a solution to the difficulties of the family financial condition, and marriage of children as a form of preservation of illiterate women.

Smoking related attitudes, motives, and behaviors of male secondary school students in an urban setting of China.

BackgroundMost smokers have their first experience of cigarette use when they are teenagers (i.e. at schools). Aiming tobacco control initiatives at secondary school students offers preventive measures to eliminate or reduce tobacco use initiation by students. This study assessed smoking-related attitudes, motives and behavior as well as other factors associated with smoking among male secondary school students in an urban setting in China.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted in urban areas of Chongqing using a structured questionnaire administered to 1297 male secondary school students. Logistic regression analysis was employed to investigate the factors that affect smoking.ResultsOf the participants (n = 1297), 27.7% were secondary and 72.3% were middle school students. Overall, 30.5% of the participants were smokers. The majority of the students procured their first cigarette from friends. The motivations of middle school students to smoke their first cigarette were curiosity (70.5%) and imitation (13.1%). The motivations of high school students for smoking their first cigarette were to satisfy their curiosity (51.8%), relief of stress and social pressures (17.1%), and imitation of smoker friends (15.9%). Respondents from poor family financial conditions were more likely to smoke than those from rich family financial conditions [odds ratio (OR) 1.59, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.00, 2.52]. Respondents whose fathers were smokers were more likely to smoke than those whose fathers were non-smokers (OR 1.65, 95% CI 1.25, 2.17). Respondents who had one or two smoker friends (OR 2.98, 95% CI 1.93, 4.60) and three or more smoker friends (OR 5.92, 95% CI 4.35, 8.05) were more likely to smoke than those who did not have any. Respondents who were neutral (OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.20, 0.91) and disagreed about the item “friends smoking” (OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.08, 0.39) were less likely to smoke than those who agreed with the item.ConclusionsThis study indicates that male students who have negative attitudes toward smoking, who do not have a father or friends who smoke, and are from affluent backgrounds exhibit low tendency to start smoking at a young age. This study provides some implications for tobacco control policies among male secondary school students in urban settings.

A socio-cultural perspective on children's early language: a family study

This study examines the effect of certain socio-cultural factors of the family environment on the language of toddlers and children in early childhood. The sample included 86 families with one- to six-year-old children. The data on the social, economic, and cultural factors of the family environment, parental reading literacy, parental knowledge of children's development, children's exposure to shared reading, and child language were obtained in the family environment. Path analysis was used to verify the presumed structural model, which included social and economic factors of the family environment, parental knowledge of children's development, and parental reading literacy as independent variables, activities used by parents to encourage their child's language as mediating variables, and children's early literacy and language as a dependent variable. The analysis results showed that the presumed structural model fitted our data well. Parental education (PE), family financial conditions, parental knowledge of children's development, and parental reading literacy was able to explain 13% of the variance in child language. The obtained results confirm the significant effect of social, economic, and cultural factors of the child's family on language during toddlerhood and early childhood.

Health inputs and cumulative health deficits among the older Chinese

Using a health economics framework, we examined how both individual level investments at different life stages and current community-level environmental factors affect individual health stock and flows at old ages. We used a nationwide dataset from the 2002 and 2005 waves of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, which included more than 15,000 adults aged 65 and older from 22 provinces in mainland China. We measured health stock with a cumulative health deficit index, a measure developed in geriatrics and gerontology that reflects deficits, illnesses, and functional impairment in numerous domains of health. The cumulative health deficit index has not been used in health economics before, but is a significant contribution because it captures the health stock concept very well and overcomes the problems of inconsistency resulting from the use of different measures of health stock in research. Our results show that several proxy measures for individual health investments in both childhood (nutritional status and parental survival status) and adulthood (family financial condition and access to healthcare) yielded positive returns to health stock measured by the cumulative health deficit index. Investments in social connections and healthy behaviors (religious involvement, alcohol use, and exercise) also produced positive returns in health stock. Current community-level factors such as air quality and labor force participation rate were significantly associated with levels of health deficits in old age as well. Yet, most of these individual investment and community environment variables did not significantly affect short-term health flows (improvement or deterioration in health status over three years). Our findings have important implications for developing preventive health programs in the context of population aging by focusing on policy-relevant predictors and a comprehensive indicator of health status in later life.

Effectiveness of a Positive Youth Development Program for Secondary 1 Students in Macau: A Pilot Study

With the rapid change to society after the opening of the gaming licensure by the government and the potential attraction to youth caused by the casinos, a well-tested and comprehensive adolescent development program previously established in Hong Kong was adopted and modified to be used in Macau. It is expected to help our adolescents achieve positive growth and be better prepared for future challenges. The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the modified positive youth development program for Secondary 1 Students in Macau. Specifically, two research questions will be asked: (1) How does the positive youth development program affect positive growth for youth in Macau?; and (2) Is youth growth related to different factors such as gender, age, family financial condition, and parents' marital status? A mixed research method with a quantitative approach using a pre- and post-test pre-experimental design, and a qualitative approach using a focus group for the participants is carried out. The study sample included 232 Secondary 1 Students in two schools. The objective outcome evaluation showed that, overall, 123 (53%) of the participants had significant improvement on the total scores of the Chinese Positive Youth Development Scale (CPYDS) and the two composite scores. However, there were some increases in the behavioral intention of alcohol drinking and participation in gambling activities. The “happiness of the family life” was found to have significant differences in the score of the CPYDS, which was shown to be the factor related to youth growth. The focus group interviews revealed that both positive and negative feedback was obtained from the discussion; however, the majority of the participants perceived benefits to themselves from the program. With reference to the principle of triangulation, the present study suggests that, based on both quantitative and qualitative evaluation findings, it should be concluded that there is positive evidence supporting the effectiveness of the Tier 1 Program of the Hong Kong Project P.A.T.H.S. (Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programmes), which was adopted and modified for Macau. In addition, special attention should be paid to the behavioral intention of alcohol drinking and participation in gambling activities in the local context.