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The purpose of this study is to identify clinically meaningful groups of Health of the Nation Scales Learning Disabilities (HONOS-LD) single-item scales that might be used as short scales that are more reliable than single-item scale scores and more focused than the sum of scale scores. The single-item scales are likely to be unreliable in many applications. The sum of scale scores is a heterogeneous measure that is not a good representative of any specific difficulties that people who have intellectual disabilities may have and the effects of interventions on any specific difficulties may be masked by fluctuations in the ratings of other scales.

A total of 2,109 pseudonymised complete HONOS-LD ratings were factor-analysed using principal factor extraction and oblimin rotation. Three-, four- and five-factor rotated patterns were examined.

Three factors that each have three or more strong loadings (≥|0.50|) were identified that jointly included 11 single-item scales: one representing problems with cognitive competencies, one representing depressive phenomena or other mood problems and one representing problems with social competencies. A weaker factor that represents behaviour that challenges services is indicated; it includes five single-item scales. Both the cognitive competencies and social competencies groups of items were also reported in a previous study by Skelly and D’Antonio (2008) and may be stable. The present study’s factor representing behavioural difficulty has some similarity to Skelly and D’Antonio’s “functional behaviour and attachment disturbance” group. In other respects, the present study and the previous study differ.

The outcomes of these factor analyses indicate that some of the single-item scales can be combined into groups. However, the specific groups found in this study must be regarded as possibly unstable because of the likelihood of weak inter-rater reliability in HONOS-LD data and differences between this analysis and Skelly and D’Antonio’s. Further research is needed to support or modify them.

The cognitive competence and social competence groups of items may be used as subscales if they are convenient. The groups representing mood and behavioural problems should be supported by further research before being used.

This is the second published factor analysis of the HONOS-LD and includes a much larger data set than the first. It has some similarities to and differences from the first and is a further step in the process of identifying useful groupings of HONOS-LD single-item scales.

Challenging behaviours are defined in part by the risks of harm they present and the support of individuals who challenge would be improved with effective assessments of the risks posed by challenging behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to outline a model of risk assessment and review literature that provides relevant information.

Literature review.

Forensic risk assessment has a well worked-out and validated approach but tools used to assess challenging behaviours are not effective risk predictors. Applied Behaviour Assessment provides methods that can be more effectively used for risk assessment.

There is a need to develop valid risk assessment procedures for assessing the risks presented by challenging behaviours.

This is a fresh perspective on risk assessment in relation to challenging behaviours.

Thailand’s modernization and shift to a wage labor economy has led to increases in children’s educational attainment. This research, in two rural northern Thai villages, explores globalizing labor markets, traditional familial roles, and parental bias of educational investment by children’s gender and birth position, using a human behavioral ecology (HBE) framework. Survival models suggest that northern Thailand’s matrilineal tendencies may be increasing, not decreasing, with globalization: daughters bearing long-term expectations of support and remittance are more heavily invested in than sons, from whom matrilines expect and receive less. Birth position strongly affects educational attainment, reflecting differential familial helper and provider roles.

So far as the various British Food and Drugs Acts are concerned, the meaning of “sophistication” or “adulteration,” which includes “substitution,” is now very wide.

This paper explores corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Thailand and analyses how CSR practice is informed by local values rather than merely driven by CSR practices designed in developed countries.

The analysis is based on a comparative series of interviews of Thai business leaders in 2009–10 and 2019–20 within the conceptual context of Thai CSR discourse/practice, especially Buddhist Economics.

This paper argues that CSR practice in Thailand is substantially informed by local socio-economic context, particularly Buddhist Economics, including the concepts of suffering (dukkha), the Eightfold Path of the Middle Way, and gifting and reciprocal exchange.

Local contexts are crucial not only for understanding local models of CSR but also for challenging what has been perceived as an imperialistic neo-liberal agenda in western-originating CSR.

The wider practical implications of this paper are that, like Thailand, CSR practices in other developing economies and emerging markets (DEEMs) may also have their own distinctive ‘local’ origins, contexts and developments which need to be considered.

The social implications of this paper are that local context is determinant in the development of CSR practice, especially in DEEMs.

This paper contributes to the CSR literature by highlighting the often-marginalised existence of local CSR context and practice in DEEMs and questions CSR based solely on western theorisations.

There is increasing interest in long-term conditions experienced singly and in combination. This paper aims to address this by considering the impact of long-term conditions on female labour market participation in later life.

This literature review considers a variety of evidence and policy related to long-term conditions as experienced by women.

The review suggests the importance of gender when considering long-term conditions and when considering employment because this is often gendered. There are several long-term conditions affecting women in particular that need to be considered by employers and policy makers.

This review scopes the literature offering some illustrative examples of long-term conditions.

The review encourages practitioners and policy makers to include long-term conditions, as people age in thinking about ways to prevent, alleviate and respond to long-term conditions and to consider them in age-related initiatives in employment.

The review addresses long-term conditions among women in later life, suggesting that multiple policy and practice responses may need to be considered together in the development of any strategies and guidance.