Shelly L. Jackson and Thomas L. Hafemeister
The purpose of this paper was to test whether differences in attributions between caseworkers and their elderly clients regarding the cause of reported elder abuse occurring in a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to test whether differences in attributions between caseworkers and their elderly clients regarding the cause of reported elder abuse occurring in a domestic setting impact the ability of caseworkers to effectively intervene in elder abuse cases.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews were conducted with 63 pairs of caseworkers and either the elderly client with a substantiated report of elder abuse or their surrogate.
Findings
Initially, 61.9 percent of the pairs of interviewees held discordant attributions regarding the cause of the elderly person's abuse. However, at the close of the investigation, only 41.3 percent of the pairs of interviewees held discordant causal attributions, with 13 elderly persons having changed their attributions to be in alignment with the caseworker. Discordant causal attributions at the close of the investigation was related to an inability to find a resolution and achieving cessation of abuse.
Research limitations/implications
It will be beneficial to determine methods APS caseworkers can employ to narrow the causal attribution gap.
Practical implications
Reconciling discordant causal attributions while maintaining victim autonomy can enhance the likelihood of effective interventions and lead to greater victim safety. However, this takes more time than most APS caseworkers in the USA are allowed by statute to allocate to one case and may necessitate statutory changes that accompany changes in practice.
Originality/value
This is the first study to assess differences between caseworkers and their elderly clients regarding their causal attributions of reported abuse occurring and whether those differences are related to the likelihood of reaching a resolution and the cessation of abuse.
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Shelly L. Jackson and Thomas L. Hafemeister
Little empirical attention has been given to adult protective services (APS) investigations and the clients involved in those investigations. The purpose of this study was to…
Abstract
Purpose
Little empirical attention has been given to adult protective services (APS) investigations and the clients involved in those investigations. The purpose of this study was to explore aspects of the APS investigation of and response to reported elder maltreatment, the perceptions of elderly victims and their refusal of services, and to compare findings by the type of maltreatment involved (financial exploitation, physical abuse, neglect, and hybrid financial exploitation).
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from two sources over a two‐year period: in‐depth interviews with 71 APS caseworkers and 55 of the corresponding elderly victims who experienced substantiated elder maltreatment; and a statewide database that contained 2,142 substantiated cases of elder abuse.
Findings
Many aspects of the APS investigation and response differed by the type of maltreatment involved. While elderly victims were generally cooperative and satisfied with the APS intervention, 38 percent would have preferred APS not to investigate their case. Elderly clients responded differentially to offers of assistance, depending on the type of abuse involved, with victims of physical abuse most likely to refuse services.
Research limitations/implications
Future research will want to understand why elderly victims refuse services in order to develop appropriate interventions.
Practical implications
New approaches may be required for intervening in physical abuse cases, including collaborations between APS and domestic violence advocates and the inclusion of services for perpetrators.
Originality/value
This is the first large‐scale study to examine elderly victims' refusal of services, further enhanced by the analysis of refusal of services by type of abuse, thereby revealing a group of victims for which changes in intervention strategies may be necessary.
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The purpose of this paper was to study the vexing problem of defining financial exploitation. Advocates and practitioners in the field who have been battling financial…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to study the vexing problem of defining financial exploitation. Advocates and practitioners in the field who have been battling financial exploitation are pleased to observe the increased attention that financial exploitation is receiving at all levels of society. With this increased attention, however, there has been a conflation of terms used to describe financial exploitation, resulting in some confusion about what constitutes financial exploitation.
Design/methodology/approach
Fully recognizing that definitions serve different functions, this paper identifies three main purposes of a definition and then describes the myriad ways financial exploitation has been defined in the research literature, by organizations, and in civil and criminal statutes.
Findings
Financial exploitation has been defined in multiple ways within and across categories. Furthermore, the definition has expanded over time. This paper proposes the need for greater definitional clarity around the concept of financial exploitation, and argues that at a minimum a distinction must be made between financial exploitation and financial fraud.
Originality/value
This is the first paper to comprehensively review the myriad ways in which financial exploitation has been defined in the literature, by organizations and within state civil and criminal statutes.
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Joseph Berger, David G. Wagner and Murray Webster
We survey and organize over fifty years of theoretical research on status and expectation state processes. After defining some key terms in this theoretical approach, we briefly…
Abstract
Purpose
We survey and organize over fifty years of theoretical research on status and expectation state processes. After defining some key terms in this theoretical approach, we briefly describe theories and branches in the program.
Methodology/Approach
We also focus on a few theories that illustrate distinct patterns of theory growth, using them to show the variety of ways in which the research program has grown.
Findings
The program structure developed from a single set of theories on development and maintenance of group inequality in the 1960s to six interrelated branches by 1988. Between 1988 and today, the overall structure has grown to total 19 different branches. We briefly describe each branch, identifying over 200 resources for the further study of these branches.
Research Implications
Although the various branches share key concepts and processes, they have been developed by different researchers, in a variety of settings from laboratories to schools to business organizations. Second, we outline some important issues for further research in some of the branches. Third, we emphasize the value of developing new research methods for testing and applying the theories.
Practical Implications
These theories have been used to explain phenomena of gender, racial, and ethnic inequality among others, and for understanding some cases of personality attributions, deviance and control processes, and application of double standards in hiring.
Social Implications
Status and expectation state processes often operate to produce invidious social inequalities. Understanding these processes can enable social scientists to devise more effective interventions to reduce these inequalities.
Originality/Value of the Chapter
Status and expectation state processes occupy a significant segment of research into group processes. This chapter provides an authoritative overview of ideas in the program, what is known, and what remains to be discovered.
Details
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(a) To examine “native-born/immigrant” (nativity) and “national/foreign professional credentials” (country of credentials) as status factors in terms of expectation states theory…
Abstract
Purpose
(a) To examine “native-born/immigrant” (nativity) and “national/foreign professional credentials” (country of credentials) as status factors in terms of expectation states theory, and (b) to lay out a blueprint for a theory-based, experimental research agenda in this area.
Design/methodology/approach
(for (b) above). I propose a research program based on three types of expectation states experimental designs: the open group-discussion, the rejection-of-influence standardized setting, and the application-files format. All three incorporate measures of either biased evaluations or double standards for competence, or of both. I illustrate how these designs can be adapted to assess, through the presence/absence of one or the other of those practices, the separate impacts of nativity, country of professional credentials and selected additional factors on the inference of task competence. The need for and the advantages of systematic, experimental work on this topic are highlighted.
Findings
(from (a) above). I review evidence of the status value of nativity and country of credentials through data on evaluations, employment, and earnings. My evidence originates in contemporary Canadian studies that present results from surveys, interviews, census records, and – to a lesser extent – experiments, and these findings support my claim.
Practical/social implications
The proposed research will facilitate the development of interventions toward the standardized and unbiased assessment of immigrants’ foreign credentials.
Originality/value
The agenda I put forth constitutes a novel approach to the study of nativity and country of credentials. The work will extend the expectation states program, and enhance immigration research both theoretically and methodologically.
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Audrey C. Rule, Zaid A. Alkouri, Shelly J. Criswell, Judith L. Evans, Angela N. Hileman, Harun Parpucu, Bin Ruan, Beth Dykstra Van Meeteren, Jill Uhlenberg, Olga S. Vasileva and Ksenia S. Zhbanova
Students need to learn and practice creative thinking skills to ensure success in solving everyday, national, and global problems that include those affecting economic issues. The…
Abstract
Students need to learn and practice creative thinking skills to ensure success in solving everyday, national, and global problems that include those affecting economic issues. The global economy requires workers to have research and innovation skills that depend upon creativity. However, many current educational programs focus mostly on factual content, doing little to inspire or apply the creative process. The project presented here shows an engaging activity that combines creative thinking skills with economic content. Although the activity occurred in a college course on creativity theory and practice, this challenging game can be easily adapted and embedded in the Kindergarten-12 social studies curriculum. This article discusses the set-up of the activity and its connection to creativity theory and curriculum standards. It showcases the work of eleven participants who each made a unique object or scene from a given set of craft and recycled materials, subsequently relating the resulting product to a current economic issue. Photographs of the resulting products are provided along with descriptions of the theme of each item, its connection to economics, and creative aspects of the work. Suggestions for adaptation to the Kindergarten-12 classroom are given.
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Researchers have long been interested in understanding why and how corporate managers issue earnings guidance and the effect of such guidance on stakeholders’ (investors’ and…
Abstract
Researchers have long been interested in understanding why and how corporate managers issue earnings guidance and the effect of such guidance on stakeholders’ (investors’ and managers’) behavior. Several recent studies have employed the experimental approach to address these issues. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and synthesize the literature on experimental studies of management earnings guidance. Consistent with the literature, I organize the synthesis to reflect (a) whether, why and how management issues guidance; (b) investors’ reactions to guidance; (c) the effect of guidance on management behavior. In addition, I provide institutional information (e.g., nature and timing of guidance) about guidance as well as provide several directions for future research. The synthesis reveals that the experimental studies have made a unique contribution to this literature by (i) providing evidence on process variables that underlie some empirical associations, (ii) directly measuring managers’ personal attributes and, (iii) closing the causality gap in the guidance literature.