Objective: Aboriginal children are disproportionately affected by obesity, as they are twice as likely to be classified as obese compared to their non-Aboriginal Canadian counterparts. Research indicates that income, food insecurity, and diet quality are important predictors of weight status, however these factors are not well explored among Aboriginal children living off reserve. This study aims to identify associations between food insecurity and diet on obesity status among off-reserve First Nations and Métis children. Methods: This study used both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Data from the 2006 Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS) – Children and Youth component were analyzed using binary logistic regression and the proportional odds model to assess relationships between food insecurity, diet, and body mass index (BMI). Fruit and vegetable intake, as well as junk food consumption, were used as proxy measures for children’s diet quality. Additional analyses involving income instead of food insecurity, as well as food insecurity interaction terms, were also explored. Focus groups were conducted with caregivers of Métis and off-reserve First Nations children in Midland-Penetanguishene and London, Ontario, respectively. The focus groups were planned and carried out in partnership with the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) and the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre (SOAHAC). A thematic analysis was conducted with the qualitative data, and the focus group discussions provided important contextual information to complement the statistical results. Results: Approximately 11% of First Nations and 6.8% of Métis children were food insecure according to the 2006 APS. The quantitative analysis did not find a significant association between food insecurity and diet, or food insecurity and BMI for First Nations or Métis children. Income was a better predictor of weight status than food insecurity. For First Nations children, having a household income higher than $60,000 decreased the risk of being overweight/obese. For Métis children, a household income of less than $20,000 increased the risk of overweight/obesity. Food insecurity was only significant as an interaction with parental education for First Nations children, and with parental education and number of people living in the household for Métis children. The proportional odds model produced similar results to the binary logistic regression procedure, and food insecurity remained insignificant in the analyses. Contrary to the quantitative findings, the focus group discussions indicated that caregivers perceived a positive relationship between low income and food insecurity, as well as adverse impacts on their children’s diets. While caregivers did not use the term “food insecurity” explicitly, conversations about not having enough food or money for food, as well as coping strategies for when these situations occurred, suggested that food insecurity manifests itself in different ways. Caregivers mentioned decreased variety of foods, compromised fruit and vegetable intake, as well as decreased traditional food consumption as examples of how families’ food consumption and purchasing patterns changed when food insecure. Food insecurity negatively impacted children’s diets, and many caregivers attributed the rise in overweight and obesity to poor diet quality. Some of the key barriers to children eating healthfully were unaffordability and limited access to healthy foods. Caregivers also discussed the role of various programs for improving child health within their communities. Conclusions: While food insecurity was not significantly associated with obesity in the quantitative analyses, discussions with caregivers of First Nations and Métis children identified food insecurity and low income as important predictors of poor diet, and consequently decreased well-being. Several limitations associated with the 2006 APS design may have prevented food insecurity from being significantly associated with obesity risk; however, it is clear from both the quantitative and qualitative components of this study that income consistently affects diet and child obesity risk. Findings from this study can inform necessary improvements to existing programs, interventions, and policies targeting obesity and health of Aboriginal children.

Increase demand for biofuel in the world as the means to mitigate global climate change, energy option and reduced fule import expenses have attracted many companies to acquire land in developing countries like Tanzania. To invest on biofuel in Africa is believed to be a means for generating incomes from expert, to employ rural people, enhance infrastructure development.However, in Africa biofuels policy is still weak. This study mainly focuses on people`s expectation during and after the investment.Issue of compensation procedure and promises seems to be a big problem; something brought tension of being cheated among local communities. Futhermore, community involvement and integration of jatropha with smallholder´s agriculture is also low.

Title: Research on middle-age worker¡¦s stressors and withdrawal behaviors Student: Tzu Hui Liao Advisor: Jin Feng Uen By the trend of decreasing baby-bust and early-retirement, the labor force structure has changed. Middle age and older workers will become increasingly prevalent in the work place. The impact of an aging workforce raises the height-light issues facing employees today. During the global economic crisis in 2008, there are many business enterprises chose to lay off employees massively or offer unpaid leaves. And the middle age and older workers are the main target. Thus, this worker issue has become more and more important. Attention is mainly given to the human resource policies which may impact middle age workers such as performance management, selection and training etc. Less research has focused on attitudes toward the elderly held by middle-aged adults themselves. The presence of ageism in our society is of mounting concern with regard to the changing demographic shape of the workforce. Governments and organizations have become interested in the middle-age worker on performance, training, in recent years. Middle-age worker has numerous life and working experiences, so their mental and physical attitudes may vary form the ones held by the freshmen in labor market. Therefore, this research aims to explore on middle-age workers and withdrawal behaviors in depth in order to development the best human resource practices.

There is a trend that the phenomenon of inequality is behaved in the market of medical treatment after the exercise of public health insurance. The large-scale hospitals incrementally enlarge to squeeze the survival condition of small and medium hospitals under the situation that supreme will survive to enhance competitive advantage. The competition is fierce between local hospitals to be based on the inequality of survival condition and unreasonable payment system of public health insurance. The research of Tong-Liang Chiang and Ming-San Huang (2000) indicates following phenomenon: the 77% of manager of local hospitals think that the competition is obviously increased between local hospitals after the exercise of public health insurance. The job insecurity of employees is generated by the expecting psychological condition that is derived from change in the organization under the impact of current environment and pressure of survival. What is the response of work influenced by job insecurity? What is the management lesson of hospital brought in the competition of hospitals? I hope to find the real response of employees under situation that feeling of job insecurity is derived by the expecting psychological condition of change in the organization. What is the relationship by the addition of individual personality? There are main findings in the research through the analysis of evidence: 1. Job insecurity is evident positive relevant to variation on work scenario, variation on structure of human resource, variation on management pattern of organization and variation on opportunity of employment that is belongs to the expecting factor of change in the organization. The higher score of variation on work scenario, variation on structure of human resource, variation on management pattern of organization and variation on opportunity of employment, the much easier generation of job insecurity. 2. For the job insecurity, the deviation of explanation on job insecurity is evidently related with the model of expecting factor of change in the organization. And the variation on work scenario and variation on opportunity of employment are evidently influenced by job security. 3. Job insecurity is partial evidently related with the immediate effect that is derived between the expecting change in organization and organizational commitment, leave attitude, work satisfaction, service attitude. 4. The employees that have personality of self-control are evidently interfered by the job insecurity that is derived from variation on work scenario, variation on opportunity of employment, variation on management pattern of organization and variation on work character. The employees that have personality of extraversion are evidently interfered by the job insecurity that is derived from variation on structure of human resource and variation on work character.

The importance of public hospitals is dwindling, and the National Health Insurance Bureau takes initiatives such as the system of payment retrenchment and the large reduction in official budgets due to the insufficiency of government finance in order to control the enlargement of medical expenditures. For this reason, it is necessary for public hospitals to make a change so as to get used to the change of the environment. The research takes Kaohsiung Municipal United Hospital as an example to explore the correlation and effect of all the variables of employees¡¦ job insecurity during the pre- and post-mergence on job satisfaction, organization commitment, job involvement and the intent to quit. Meanwhile, hopefully the research can be the reference for managers in terms of human resource strategies while public hospitals are going to merge. There are two periods of distributing questionnaires. At first, 700 questionnaires one month before the hospital mergence (the end of November in 2002), the subject includes doctors, nurses, administrative staffs, medical technicians, and there are 390 returned questionnaires, which reaches 55.7% return rate. One year later after the hospital mergence, we perform again with 731 questionnaires , and 397 returned, which reaches 54.2% return rate. Here are the main finding (discoveries) of the research as follows: 1. The insufficiency of the consider before the hospital mergence and of the communication after the hospital mergence. 2. There are some differences of employees¡¦ job insecurity and employees¡¦ job attitudes, and the departmental mergence after the public hospital mergence. 3. Employees¡¦ helplessness has no effect between private enterprise and public hospital merging on their job satisfaction before the hospital mergence; employees¡¦ helplessness has the negative effect on their job satisfaction after the hospital mergence. 4. Employees¡¦ helplessness has no effect on their organization commitment before the hospital mergence; employees¡¦ helplessness has the negative effect on their organization commitment after the hospital mergence. 5. Employees¡¦ helplessness has no effect on their job involvement before the hospital mergence; employees¡¦ helplessness has the negative effect on their job involvement after the hospital mergence. 6. Employees¡¦ helplessness has no effect on their intent to quit before the hospital mergence; employees¡¦ helplessness has the positive effect on their intent to quit after the hospital mergence.

The public hospitals in Taiwan are facing the change of public responsibilities that they used to have and on the other hand encountering the fierce competition caused by National Health Insurance. As a consequence of this, public hospitals need to adjust their managerial model, like mergers for example, in order to coordinate their core competence and lower their cost in administration. However, the changes of organizations will cause the job insecurity of employees and further to affect their working attitudes. In hospitals, nursing staff forms the biggest proportion of employees. In this study, we examined the merger of Kaohsiung Municipal United Hospital in 2003. We investigated the job insecurity and working attitudes of nursing staff by questionnaires in the end of 2002 (before the merger) and in the end of 2003 (one year later of the merger) separately. By analyzing those questionnaires we explored the influences of job insecurity on working attitudes, and we also compared the differences of nursing staff¡¦s working attitudes in two hospitals. The findings are: 1. The more job insecurity that nurses got, the worse their job satisfaction will be. 2. The job insecurity and working attitudes of nursing staff will be different based on their different personal characteristics, including the hospital they belonged to, the ages, marriage status, education, levels of position, and their contract types. 3. The influences of job insecurity on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intention to quit will be different based on different hospitals. 4. The influences of job insecurity on job satisfaction will be different before and after merger.

While the scale of an organization has been huge and runs for ages, it is not merely the bureaucracy we have to consider but to properly adjust the main structure of the organization that is adverse to boost up the competitiveness. What Taiwan urgently requires is to enhance the nation¡¦s competitiveness; nevertheless, the fundamentals of four-rank government are necessary to make an adjustment. What is more, they are required to alter and simplify the great overlapping in terms of provincial and central government¡¦s human resource, cost, controlled land and numbers of population. The reasons that influence the success and failure of the government reengineering might be sophisticated; however, the key element is undoubtedly the employees¡¦ support and cooperation. In Taiwan, the researches with regard to the government reengineering are mostly concentrated on the domain of system; as to the impacts of government reengineering on staff¡¦s job satisfaction, organization commitment, job involvement and their intention to quit are lack of related-research. Based on the above stated incentives, and with a view to realizing the influences on reengineering government as to staff¡¦s job satisfaction, organization commitment, job involvement and their intention to quit, this research is attempted to study the staff attitude after simplifying the provincial structure and come up with suggestions as guides on formulating human resource¡¦s strategies when carrying out government reengineering by central government organizations. The suggestions that propose in this research are as follows: communicating with the staff by holding the colloquiums frequently; conducting second-job-skill-training seminars based on individual¡¦s needs; appropriately granting authority to the staff to increase their job satisfaction, organization commitment, job involvement as well as decrease job insecurity and their intention to quit.

The rapid expansion of ecotourism in the Monteverde zone of Costa Rica has increased the incidence in food insecurity in the area. Changes in food preferences and availability have led to a more homogenized diet that is increasingly delocalized and reliant on processed foods. Additionally, there has been a rapid economic shift away from agricultural and dairy farming to an economy more reliant on tourism. This NSF supported study builds upon data from a longitudinal investigation (#BNS 0753017) examining the nutritional effects of this rapid economic transition. Using a mixed methods approach, a culturally appropriate scale of stress was developed and used in conjunction with the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale, the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale, and the Hopkins Symptom Check List to explore the relationship between food insecurity and mental health among residents of the Monteverde zone. Quantitative results show that food insecurity correlated positively with stress, depression and anxiety, and was found to be a significant predictor of stress and depression

This study examined the role of mentoring support played in the relationship between mentors’ and protégés’ perceived job insecurity. Using survey data collected from 153 ongoing mentoring dyads from several industries in Taiwan, regression results indicated that mentors’ job insecurity was positively related to protégés’ job insecurity whereas mentors’ job insecurity was negatively related to mentoring support protégés received. Furthermore, mentoring support was negatively related to protégés’ job insecurity. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

This dissertation explores issues on women’s employment and children’s health in economics. In chapter I, I investigate the causal effects of maternal employment on childhood obesity. Empirical analysis of the effects of maternal employment on childhood obesity is complicated by the endogeneity of mother’s labor supply. A mother’s decision to work likely reflects underlying factors – such as ability and motivation – that could directly influence child health outcomes. To address this concern, this study implements an instrumental variables (IV) strategy which utilizes exogenous variation in maternal employment coming from the youngest sibling’s school eligibility. With data on children ages 7-17 from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth linked to the Child Supplement, I explore the effects of maternal employment on children’s BMI z-score and probabilities of being overweight and obese. OLS estimates indicate a moderate association, consistent with the prior literature. However, the IV estimates show that an increase in mothers’ labor supply leads to large weight gains among children, suggesting that not addressing the endogeneity of maternal employment leads to underestimated causal effects. Chapter II examines the effects of Walmart Supercenters on household and child food insecurity. Walmart Supercenters may reduce food insecurity by lowering food prices and expanding food availability. Our food insecurity-related outcomes come from the 2001-2007 waves of the December Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement. We match these data to our hand-collected data of Walmart Supercenters at the census tract-level. First, we estimate a naïve linear probability model and find that households and children who live near Walmart Supercenters are more likely than others to be food insecure. Since the location of Walmart Supercenters might be endogenous, we then turn to instrumental variables models that utilize the predictable geographic expansion patterns of Walmart Supercenters outward from Walmart’s corporate headquarters. The IV estimates suggest that the causal effect of Walmart Supercenters is to reduce food insecurity among households and children. The effect is largest among low-income families. In the third paper, I investigate the effects of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) on women’s labor market outcomes. The FMLA is a federal policy that aims to help workers balance job and family responsibilities. However, it may have unintended consequences on employment because it imposes costs on firms. In this study, I investigate the impact of the FMLA with labor market flows—i.e., hires, separations and recalls. Focusing on labor market flow outcomes is crucial to identifying the immediate impact of the policy because employment and wages adjust slowly when there is a policy change while labor market flows are flexible. Using data from the Quarterly Workforce Indicators and adopting a triple-difference model, I get results that are unlikely to be interpreted as causal because the data are insufficient to obtain precise estimates. However, the idea of using labor market flows can be easily applied to a broad range of topics relate to workplace mandates.