Pregnancy Prevention from the Teen Perspective

One hundred and five teens from primary and secondary pregnancy prevention programs attended focus group interviews. This article reports teens' perceptions of the factors that contribute to adolescent pregnancy and the steps that can be taken to prevent early childbearing. Lack of knowledge and accessibility to contraceptives as well as unfulfilled emotional needs were considered crucial factors. Suggestions for service delivery from findings are explored.     

Relatives as Child Care Givers: After Hours Support for Nontraditional Workers

This study uses a sample of 1,841 families from the National Child Care Survey (1990) and accompanying Low-Income Supplement (1990) to determine the amount and timing of child care services offered by relatives to working families with young children. Results indicate that relative care is primarily provided by grandparents. Compared to other parents, single parents and those working nontraditional hours are significantly more likely to use relatives for child care, and their children spend significantly longer periods of time in relative care, especially at nontraditional times of the day. The study conclusion is that relatives are facilitating parental employment by providing child care at times of the day when other market alternatives usually are not available.     

What attributes do Australian midwifery leaders identify as essential to effectively manage a Midwifery Group Practice?

Background

Despite well-known benefits of continuity of midwifery care, less than 10% of women have access to this model of care in Australia. Staff retention and satisfaction are strongly related to the quality of management; however, little is known about the attributes required to effectively manage a midwifery group practice.

Using Community-Based Participatory Research Strategies in Age-Friendly Communities to Solve Mobility Challenges

ABSTRACT

The number of older adults is steadily increasing in the United States and across the globe. Aging is linked to an increased risk of disability. Disabilities that limit one or more major life activities such as seeing, hearing, walking, and motor skills impact a person’s ability to drive a car. Low utilization of alternative transportation by older adults and people with disabilities may put them at risk for social isolation. Social isolation is associated with a variety of negative health outcomes. While communities are challenged to create available, acceptable, accessible, adaptable and affordable mobility options, there are widely held, inaccurate biases around older adults’ abilities to contribute to the development and improvement of alternative transportation options. Gerontological social workers are well-positioned to address this bias. This paper presents a case study of a large metropolitan county in the Midwest where community-based participatory research (CBPR) strategies were used to engage older residents to support the development of alternative transportation options supporting the tenets of environmental justice.     

Excluding particular information from consent forms

Although the informed consent process is crucial to protecting human research subjects, there are cases when particular information within the consent form may present risks to those subjects. In this paper, we examine a case in which including the sponsor's name on the consent form may allow the form to serve as a surrogate for subjects' HIV status. There is no literature addressing the ethical acceptability of excluding particular information from consent forms, and there exists little regulatory guidance on this issue. We argue that excluding information from the consent form is, in fact, obligatory when that information is disclosed orally during the consent process but its presence on the form poses risks to the subjects the consent process is designed to protect. Further, we argue that the regulations ought to be amended to reflect this obligation.     

Feminist Institutional Activists: Venue Shifting,Strategic Adaptation,and Winning the Pregnancy Discrimination Act

We examine efforts of feminist institutional activists in the 1960s and 1970s as they worked to gain U.S. federal policy to combat workplace pregnancy discrimination. The success of these activists in winning policy change provides a case that allows us to develop a theoretical understanding of how feminist institutional activists can succeed in winning policy change. We find that when institutional activists strategically shifted governmental arenas and adapted their mobilization and discursive strategies to these arenas, they were able to dismantle policy‐specific barriers that impeded their goals. In taking these steps, feminist institutional activists were successful in opening up both contingent and structural opportunities, which ultimately allowed them to gain the policy change they sought.     

Where’s dad? Exploring the low take-up of inclusive parenting policies in the UK

This research explores approaches to promoting gender equality in the workplace by highlighting barriers to take-up of statutory policies designed to increase fathers’ involvement in childcare. Specifically, the paper examines why take-up of Shared Parental Leave (SPL), designed to improve gender equality in the workplace and home, has been low in the UK. There is a dearth of academic literature in this area. Extant grey literature suggests financial barriers, maternal gatekeeping and the perceived effects of extended leave on fathers’ careers are key, but fails to explore other barriers, or the variations in take-up. We interviewed 70 men and women entitled to SPL to address these limitations. We identify new barriers, notably poor policy communication at an organizational level, perceived policy complexity and societal expectations around maternal identities, while also showing how these barriers affect different groups of parents. We find professional couples are most likely to take SPL, particularly where the mother earns more or the father’s company enhances Shared Parental Pay. The complex, multiple barriers parents face also differ, according to the couple’s educational background and the workplace culture. Finally, we offer recommendations for increasing SPL take-up and driving workplace gender equality in the UK and internationally.