فصلنامه رفاه اجتماعی
پیاپی 33 (تابستان 1388)

Sound income inequality issue and poverty measures and reliable statistical inference have become increasingly important in policy making. As inequality is broader concept than poverty in that it is define over the entire population, the present paper is seeking identification of the inequality structure in Iran’s Economy in the recent decade and realization of effective factors and components on inequality changes among Iranian households in the decade and especially on the 1383-84 period by using Gini and Atckinson coefficient, generalized entropy indices and quantile regression. In the paper by utilizing the data from the Statistical Center of Iran’s Household Expenditure and Income Survey for the period of 1997-2005, as calculating the inequality indexes of Gini and Atckinson coefficient, it was tried by decomposability states of generalized entropy indices, the inequality is calculated by deciles levels and based on the separation of the household expenditure. In addition, by means of quantile regression, the manner of affecting the household characteristics on the increase of inequality, on the 2005 comparing to 2004, along the achieved results from the separation of the entropy class indexes, have been analyzed. The Gini measured a decrease in income inequality from 1997 to 2005. In urban areas it is decreased from 0.431 to 0417 and in rural areas from 0.39 to 0.41. The result of Theil index indicating that, in urban areas about the %85.7 to %88.9 of inequalities were the consequence of the inequality between deciles and in rural areas it was about %81. 9 to %89.2. the results of Atckinson and GE(0) index measured a decrease in income inequality from 1997 to 2005. But according in GE(0) index results in 2004 inequality in urban areas increased and in rural areas decreased.The result of quantile regression shows that, supporting the households with female head and education lower than high school diploma who are tenants has positive effect on the reduction of inequality in the deciles. Especially overlooking supervision over the households housing expenditure and lack of support on educational expenditures of income low deciles, can lead to the rise of inequality among the rural households and ill consequences on the coming years. The results indicating that from 1997-2005 the Iran’s economy inequality structure, despite minor changes on its trend, has enjoyed a relative stability, and on the average about %87 of inequalities were the consequence of the inequality between deciles. And food component had positive effect on inequality reduction in rural area, but in urban area non-food expenditures had strong effect on reduction of inequality.

Because of 16’s economical vicissitude and increasing gaps between countries in production affairs, almost all of economic schools have special attention on poverty and that’s efficacious factors, as a cause and consequence of underdevelopment. Part of the ongoing debate on poverty reduction strategies bear on the issue of the actual contribution of economic growth to poverty reduction. There is no doubt that faster economic growth is associated with faster poverty reduction. But what is the corresponding elasticity? With contemplate the importance of poverty present study aims to find answers of a main question. How much is the influence of economic growth on Inequality and poverty? Sake to find answer, we attempt to collect data of 50 developed and developing countries (include Iran) for 3 period (1993-1996, 1997-2000 and 2001-2004). Based on this data set, three different econometric models are estimated. The first model alluded to measure elasticity between poverty reduction and growth. It consists of regressing observed changes in the proportion population with less than 1$ per day on observed changes in GDP growth and unemployment rate. The second model has a same structure like previous model, but we employ other indicator to measuring absolute poverty this indicator is proportion of population that live under national poverty line. The final model includes the observed change in income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, economic growth and unemployment rate. To survey impressionability of absolute poverty and income inequality from economic growth, we estimate these econometric models by Panel Date approach. Estimations results show that, in that periods, Variables like unemployment rate, economic growth and Gini index have significant and considerable role in reduction of absolute poverty, similarly, economic growth and unemployment have same effects on income inequality. Undoubted, predisposing the economic growth and sustainable employment can effectively reduce poverty of nations.

Existence of positive relationship between on the other hand, income distribution and macroeconomic variables such as productivity and economic growth, and on the other hand undesired impacts of unfair distribution of income on social variables including crime and delinquency, has caused [fair] distribution of income to be one of the most important macroeconomic goals of governments. Hence, it is one of policy-maker's main concerns and has obtained a special stand in socio-economic planning. In this regard, economic policy-makers are interested in explaining the relationship between income distribution and macroeconomic variables so that they can help the economy to achieve proper distribution of income through identification and control of influencing variables. Economic literature suggests that increasing the minimum wage is a potential way of improving low-income worker's level of living and decreasing income inequality. Increase in the minimum wage level has been one considered problems in Iran during the recent years. In fact, it has become a main economic challenge which has always laid huge costs on government and society. Therefore, knowledge of the relationship between minimum wage and inequality is necessary for government to decrease the mentioned costs. Hence, an essential question proposed for Iranian economy is," How is the relationship between the increase in minimum wage level and income inequality?" The main goal of this article is to analyze the effects of minimum wage on income distribution in the economy of Iran. We use an econometric model based on Kuznets Hypothesis to study the effects of minimum wage on distribution of income. For this purpose, annual time series of Iranian economy for the period 1969 to 2005 have been used. Using seven different models, the effects of nominal and real minimum wage on income distribution were estimated with Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method. Finally, the appropriate model was chosen according to goodness-of –fit and robustness criteria. The literature suggests that the effects of minimum wage on distribution of income are vague, though most of theories believe that increase in minimum wage can lead to decrease of income inequality. Empirical findings suggest that over the period from 1969 to 2005 in Iran: a) The Kuznet's hypothesis implying the presence of an inverted-U shape relationship between income distribution and per capita income is not rejectable. b) Increase in real minimum wage level in Iran has decreased income inequalities significantly in such a way that the interval of minimum wage effects on Gini coefficient has been estimated from 0.017 to. 018. Therefore, we can argue that the minimum wage has been among key influencing variables on income distribution in Iranian economy. c) Increase in minimum wage levels not only has not have negative inflationary effects, but also has decreased inflation through improving labor productivity and thereby has improved the distribution of income. Although little, these effects have been statistically significant. The main policy implication of this research is that Iranian government can decrease income inequalities significantly besides keeping worker's purchasing power in inflations through an increase in real minimum wage levels without any serious worry about negative inflationary consequences. Of course, the government can adopt other policies besides increasing minimum wage levels including appropriate selection and implementation of other complementary supportive policies, extending social supports (creating efficient social security system), empowering workers through educating and training them, and creating a proper and efficient tax system.

Periodical revision of regular surveys is inevitable and essential to keep or to raise their efficiencies through making necessary improvements in designing process and application of available methods, usually such improvements or adjustments could affect the Comparability of the data time series so that it may not permit such comparability easily.It is important to note, however, that despite the benefits of improving current survey, changes should be approached cautiously and the effects measured and evaluated. When possible, methods to bridge differences caused by changes or techniques to avoid the disruption of historical series should be included in the testing of new or revised survey. The present study aims to ensure the comparability of Unemployment rates from the two Labour Force Surveys (2005 and 2006) and the Household’s Employment and Unemployment Characteristics Surveys (2002 to 2004) by adjusting such rates based on the standard definitions. The methodology that implied in this research is a librarian method. It is based on documents, information and data that Produced and accessible in this area from related resource. The Household’s Employment and Unemployment Survey is suffering from a considerable overestimation in unemployment rate because of sum deference’s between its definitions and international standard definitions, mostly caused by lack of care for the criterion "Seeking work" in the survey implementation and processing its results and undercount employed with work house of 16 or less and self employed in agriculture sector. Comparison of the adjusted rates in the years from 2002 to 2006 is indicative of reasonable increase in Unemployment rate in 2005 and 2006 as compared with the preceding years. The extent of such an increase is not observable on the basis of figures released from the two surveys in the years mentioned. As a result of using different definitions and criterias for dividing work age population to employed, unemployed and inactive in new and old surveys, the resulted unemployment rates by those surveys are not comparable directty. In fact we can compare above rates just after reconstructing them by the same definitions.

The role and significance of local communities and participation in rural, urban development and planning is increasing throughout the world day by day. UNICEF in cooperation with the municipality and City Council of Bam are trying to establish the city of "Dustdare-E-Kudak" (Child-Friendly City) in the quake-hit city. The plan will involve citizens’ sustained participation in planning and decision-making processes, management, executive tasks, assessment, supervision, and distribution of benefits within local communities. Since the nature of a local community depends on the social capital which, in turn, relies on the neighbors’ networks in urban areas, it was necessary for the level of local and social capital in the city of “Dustdar-E-Kudak” (Child-Friendly City) to be determined both qualitatively and quantitatively, and the weaknesses be identified and, accordingly, the necessary planning and required measures be taken. The present article is the result of a research aimed at gaining this basic and necessary goal. The study is a survey research in which data were collected by means of standardized interviewing (questionnaire), in which questions were mostly based on Likert Scale and suitable for Bam’s setting. About 1417 subjects were involved in the research, of whom, 288 above the age of 15 from both genders, were selected through Stratified Random sampling and finally were given interviews. The five following factors were considered for social capital: social participation (formal and informal/ traditional and modern), interactive norms, social trust (inter-personal, generalized, institutional and governmental). It should be noted that the validity and reliability of the research were acceptable. For reliability of the test, Cronbach’s alpha, and for validity of the research, formal and construct validity were used. The state of social capital’s components in the target area is generally average. The index of participation was divided into two dimensions: objective and subjective. The subjective participation among citizens was low and the objective participation was average. Applying the hypothetical testing of U Mann-whitney, we also showed that there is significance difference between the average formal objective participation with informal objective participation, and traditional objective participation with modern objective participation. In other words, objective participation in formal and modern forms is low, whereas objective participation in informal and traditional forms is average. Descriptively speaking, traditional participation is high and new participation is low, and participation in informal participation is far more than participation in formal participation. The social capital’s internal relationships were tested through Spearman’s Coefficient of correlation, and participation, the basis for a local community, was considered as the dependent variable. Positive and significant relationship between the index of norm (strength of correlation = 0.31) and the index of trust (strength of correlation =0.33), and also the negative and significant relationship between the sense of powerlessness (correlation = -0.45) with the social participation were confirmed. The results of the regression equation are as follows: Interaction0/13+ social confidence 0/23+ sense of powerlessness 0/34 = social participation 1/60 If a local community is a network made up of individuals having interactions with each other and generally living in a single area, then social capital is something which creates and objectifies that local community (like an interacting group with a local identity). Therefore, for creating local communities based on the residents’ stable participation in the city of “Dustdare Kudak” (Child-Friendly City) in Bam, it was necessary to identify the potential for social capital, particularly social participation as well as the factors affecting participation in the questioned area, and to plan accordingly. So, the findings indicates that: here are necessary capacities for establishing local communities however, there is little inclination on the individuals’ part towards civil, modern, organized institutions and some forms of subjective participation which can be disruptive. To promote participation we should consider such factors as reducing the sense of powerlessness, raising trust and interactive norms among the citizens of the city of “Dustdar-E-Kudak”. To cover the weaknesses and to promote participation, methods like “participatory problem-solving workshops”, “local meeting”, “local training” can be used.

Youth are a significant proportion of Iranian population and one of the main problems of them is delinquent behavior. This study investigates the relationship between the socio-economic factors and high school student's delinquency in Abadeh County. Selection of variables was mostly based on the theories of social control as presented by scholars such as Gut Fredson and Travis Hirshi. The research is quantitative and uses survey method. The sample under study consists of about 500 male and female students were randomly selected. The related data was collected by self report questionnaires. By using SPSS package and inferential statistics, 16 hypotheses are tested. Using one-way analysis of variances and multiple regression techniques for explaining the data, the findings show that attachment to friends, religiosity and mass media use on the whole can explain 31 percent of variations of Juvenile delinquency in Abadeh County. The findings demonstrate that as friend ties become stronger and attachment to friend's increases, severity of acts of delinquency increase also religious beliefs prevent delinquency and reinforcement of religiosity identity can decreases delinquency rates. Also, reducing the aggressive content of mass media programs decreases delinquent acts in youth.

Child abuse is a complex phenomena and one of the most serious social pathology that resulted from multiple factors in familial, psychological and social domain. In this research the effective family factors on the child abuse are identified. Then on this basis with a preventive outlook, scientific and applied tactics are presented. Through different psychological and sociological theories include Violence cycle, Self attitude, Resource, Social control, Exchange and Social structure which everyone tells the theorical frame, it was chosen in the case of integrating. The research method of this study is a case control kind. The statistical society is comprised of two groups: The abuser parents (case group) and non-a(control group).In fact the study population of this research include all parents whose children are students in one of guidance schools education organization 15 district of Tehran. The sample is 382 selected. Among all schools (male&female) 6 schools were randomly selected using multistage cluster sampling method then in each school one class of 1, 2 and 3 elementary level randomly were selected then students completed child abuse measuring questionnaire. After analysis information 40 students that had the most abuse grades were selected as case group, 40 students that had the least abuse grades were selected as control group. By using T test there was significant difference between two groups in violence. Then questionnaire was completed by the parents of two groups in order to effective family factors contributing to the child abuse. After making a list and confirming the validity of questions by professors of social work and sociology, its reliability was confirmed through cronbach alpha coefficient. This information is gathered by systematic interviews. For data analysis and testing the hypothesis Independent Samples T Test and chi – square () were used for describing the study population and from descriptive statistics. Spss software type 15.0 was used for data's reductions. According to statistical analysis of the data, the main result was obtained: there was significant difference between abuser parents and non abuser parents in variables such as violence experience in their family, rate awareness of child growth period trait, rate access to social supports, social isolation and number of family members but there wasn’t significant difference between two group parents in self confidence and social class. Based on the comparative study and results Independent Samples T Test showed there is statistically significant difference between abuser parents and non abuser parents on factors of violence experience in their family, rate awareness of child growth period trait, rate access to social supports, social isolation and number of family members but there wasn’t significant difference between two group parents in self confidence and social class.. in fact they are the effective main factors for the child abuse. To prevent this social pathology, we need to raise the awareness of parents regarding the appropriate ways to contract with their children. We also need to identify and protect the vulnerable families.

Population aging has become one of the most significant demographic processes of modern times. Aging and its consequences is become one of the major population – related issues in all countries. At present Iran is undergoing population transformation from a young age structure to an old age one. Aging is a sensitive period in human life. Thus attention to needs and problems of this period has an especial importance. One of the domains that need to more attention in elderly life is their quality of life and its effective factors. Quality of life in elderly peoples means more emphasis on social policy and reforms of social goals. As the population of older people in Iran increases in number and proportion, it is important to understand which factors are associated with elderly quality of life. The purpose of this research is to explore the effects of social support on the quality of life of elderly peoples in region 2 of Tehran. This study is a cross - sectional study and descriptive analytical kind. that information has collected with using of elderly specific quality of life questionnaire (Lipad) and Norbeck social support questionnaire in a sample of 100 elderly in region 2 of Tehran. In this study the range of men’s quality of life scores was 28-87 with the means of 61.45(SD = 13.83) and the range of women’s quality of life scores was27-70 with the means of 51.76 (SD = 12.50). and also with using of correlation test got appeared that there is a significant relation between all kinds of social support (functional, structural, emotional, aid) and total quality of life (P < 0.05).but in regression analysis only the significance of structural and emotional support approved. In this study emotional support had most effect on elderly quality of life and social support types had most correlation with social dimension of quality of life. Thus the necessity of considering social determinant of health in the elderly as such social support has notably important.

The aim of this present study was to evaluate mental health status of professional and unprofessional drivers in road car accidents resulted to severe human damage or death (serious accidents) in Iran. In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated 453 drivers who were condemned in mentioned car accidents, using convenient sampling method. The study was conducted from March, 2006 to December, 2006. The fields of study were road police stations, all through the country. Evaluation was done within the first 24 hour of accident. All drivers completed a demographic questionnaire and revised form of Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90-R). We used Farsi version of SCL-90-R which has reliability of 80-97%. Data were analyzed using SPSS software and descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation (SD) and frequency), chi square test and T test for independent samples. We calculated odds ratio (OR), with 95% confidence interval (CI), as indicated. Type I error (&alpha) was set at 0.05. There was not any statistically significant different between professional and unprofessional drivers in SCL-90-R subscales. Mean (±SD) Global Symptom Index (GSI) in professional and unprofessional drivers was 0.86±0.58 and 0.86±0.55, respectively. In addition, GSI was higher than cut of point for normal Iranian population (0.81) for both groups. Totally, 209 drivers (46.1%) had GSI higher than 0.81. Odds ratio (OR) for having GSI higher than 0.81 for professional groups was 0.904 (95% CI: 0.566-1.444). Mean (±SD) Positive Symptom Total (PST) scores in professional was 45.8±24.5 and in unprofessional was 47.7±22.9. Mean (±SD) Positive Symptom Distress Index (PSDI) in two groups were 1.6±0.43 and 1.5±0.42, respectively. There was not any statistically significant difference between two groups, according to these three scores. In both groups, the mean score for paranoid ideation, obsession and compulsion, interpersonal sensitivity and depression subscales were higher than other subscales. Sixty-three of 106 drivers who hah history of previous serious car accident and 43 of 335 individuals who had not such history had GSI higher than 0.81 (p=0.001). OR was 2.12 (95% CI: 1.36-3.30). OR for having higher GSI among who used medicines related to sleepiness was 2.01 (95% CI: 1.14-3.53). The study shows that mental health problems and using medicine (especially sedatives and hypnotics) may result in higher probability of serious car accidents. It seems that intervention in such domains may be beneficial to prevent such accidents.

Describing Problem: In this article reasons for not growth of insurance in order to identify impediments for development of this kind of insurance coverage is investigated. Research Research method is descriptive-survey from kind of field method. Sampling method is simple random sampling and by using questionnaire for 400 sample volume that after gathering information the data of research is described and analyzed by using SPSS software system. Case study is possible earthquake of Tehran. Results & In this article it is showed that logical solution for compensating life and financial loss result from possible earthquake of Tehran is Earthquake Insurance and developing it. Based of results of findings the main effective factors for development of earthquake insurance are: * Low income level of families, * Not accepting insurance as a necessity of life, * Not familiarity and not having enough information of earthquake insurance policy, * Negative thought of people for negative background of branches of insurance companies for paying recompense.

The man and woman who live and get married with each other should adapt with half a century of their growth and Change.Other wise, their marriage relationship will be encountered with problem certainly. As the first and most important stage in marriage is choosing spouse, therefore we should notice and pay attention to the spouse choosing process. Educational level is considered as a criterion for choosing spouse. This research attempts to assess the criterion in university undergraduate students and then considers how much this criterion matters for different sexes. Gender differences in choosing educational degree of spouse is one of the effective factors in raising the marriage age in Iranian young people. Research questions were as follows: 1.Is the education level an imported factor in choosing spouse? 2. Is the criterion of choosing the educational level of spouse different for male and female students? The method of this research was survey. A random sample was selected from students of Isfahan university (in the academic year 2002-2006/ 1381-1385SC), The sample consisted of 107 female and 105 male students. To collect the data, two researchers. made questionnaires were applied. The first questionnaires consisted of 5 questions. The scale was in likert form 1 to 5. These questions evaluated the importance of spouse education form the view point of the students. The reliability coefficient of this questionnaire is according to the test of cronbach's Alpha 0.73. The questionnaires consisted of two questions that can evaluate students ideas about choosing spouse education level in two forms: as less thanMore thanthe same and as diplomabachelormaster. To assure the content validity of the research questionnaires, these were reviewed and cheeked by a group of psychologists in the university. The statistics methods which were used in this research were one sample t-test and keramers V. It was concluded that from the point of view of young students educational level is very important. and it is considered as a criterion for choosing spouse (p<.001).Also, there was a significant difference between male and female students in choosing this criterion (p<.001). Female students rather choosing high levels of education as their criterion but male students conversely showed less intention for their spouse having high levels of education. The results showed that 52.8 percent of girls preferred their spouses having high ring educational levels than themselves, but only 6.8 percent of boys preferred to have higher level of education than their spouses. Also, only 0.9 percent of female students but 17.5 percent of male students, preferred the lower level of education for their spouses. According to the results of this research, these exists this attitude and stereotype in the society that the education level of man should be higher than his wife. Also, the statistics are indicating that the number of girl students, in comparison with boys students, is increasing. This trend may increase the bachelor's age, particularly the educated girls in the society. Therefore, on some effective strategies were emphasized to change the existing attitudes and practices in the society.