This study illustrates how the cognitive interviewing (CI) method can provide qualitative evidence of item, construct, and method bias in cross-cultural research. CI was conducted with participants from the Netherlands and Spain, who responded to quality-of-life (QoL) items included in international survey research projects. Qualitative findings…

Background: The universal breadwinner model means both parents are employed; while the universal caregiver model implies that the father's hours of caregiving are equal or higher to those of the mother. This study aims to examine the hypothesis that the universal caregiver model is more related to the overall well-being of mothers of children with…

Kentucky's National Core Indicators project exists to develop a set of data elements that are used to report, on a statewide and national basis, the quality of services supporting people with disabilities. This is accomplished in Kentucky by performing a minimum of 400 direct interviews with consumers and their families annually. Collected data…

Objectives: We assessed policy and system changes and health outcomes produced by the Allies Against Asthma program, a 5-year collaborative effort by 7 community coalitions to address childhood asthma. We also explored associations between community engagement and outcomes. Methods: We interviewed a sample of 1,477 parents of children with asthma…

Background: Community-based peer support may help meet the practical, emotional, and spiritual needs of African Americans with advanced cancer. Support teams are a unique model of peer support for persons facing serious illness, but research is rare. This study sought to (a) implement new volunteer support teams for African Americans with advanced…

The numbers of students choosing to pursue their education at a distance is steadily growing. Distance education, often understood as a means for adults to further or diversify their educational attainment, is increasingly courting the demographic often referred to as "traditional age students" (18-24 yr. old). These students are…

It is commonly assumed that better living standards will boost subjective well-being. The post-apartheid South African government subscribes to this idea; its social policies aim to provide "a better life for all". Since the coming of democracy in 1994, the state has built over 3 million houses and supplied electricity and clean water to…

Professional services for persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) have begun to attach more importance to their environment. The concept of (family-related) quality of life proved to link very well with this idea and lent itself to constructing and evaluating services. One outcome was the emergence of equal partnerships between families,…

Despite clear evidence that Americans' economic standard of living has improved over the last half-century in terms of income, ownership of technology and housing among other indicators, there is scant evidence from non-economic quality-of-life (QOL) indicators of improved life quality to parallel these economic gains. The present article adds to…

Community schools and other approaches to Alternative Primary Education or APE have increased access to primary education for underserved populations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America as a major goal of the Education for All (EFA) movement. In Zambia, a country where an estimated 20 percent of the basic education enrollment now attends community…

This article describes a pay-for-performance system developed for Minnesota nursing homes. In effect, nursing homes can retain a greater proportion of the difference between their costs and the average costs on the basis of their quality scores. The quality score is a derived and weighted composite measure currently composed of five elements:…

Background: This paper examines the perceived quality of working life of workers with intellectual disabilities. Specifically, this paper looks at participants' perceptions in relation to perceived job demands and resources and their impact on experienced job satisfaction. Methods: In this cross-sectional survey, 507 workers with intellectual…

The impacts of direct support professional turnover, wages, and vacancy rates as reported in interviews with 372 adult service recipients and 20 county managers and surveys of 183 families, 520 service coordinators, 228 direct support professionals, and 184 residential and 82 vocational managers were examined. Direct support professional turnover,…

A survey of handicapped people (19,135 usable responses or 3.5 percent of the population) in a French region was conducted, utilizing personal contacts with the recurring involvement of mediators. The survey attempted to establish a database thoroughly describing all handicapped people according to age, type of impairment, type of lodging, and…

As part of a study on faculty career development, analyses focused on the degree to which experiences and/or feelings associated with work directly colored or "spilled over" to life outside of work and vice versa. Differences by gender and rank were also examined. (Author/MLW)