Working in the Trenches Commentary on Ruth Fallenbaum's Paper

In this paper I respond to Ruth Fallenbaum's account of clinical work with a group of women postal workers. I raise questions about the intersect of political analysis and psychoanalysis, the particular dynamic and structural demands on women workers, as well as the dynamics of precocity in relation to poverty and striving. The work Fallenbaum reports is a wonderful exemplar of clinical work that must remain sensitive on its own terms while the clinician keeps an eye on matters of class, race, and gender. Her essay makes a good argument for the importance of interdisciplinary thinking in clinical psychoanalysis as well as the importance of models of subjectivity in which multiple narratives, loyalties, and experiences are normative.     

Faculty in the Middle

This study was designed to explore how organizational life in university-affiliated graduate social work education programs in the United States is affected by the stress of heightened caregiving roles. Analysis of data from 69 schools demonstrated deleterious effects of caregiving stress on organizational effectiveness, including missed obligations, feeling overwhelmed, and distracting others by seeking social support for specific problems. The authors identify two variables that provided partial amelioration of caregiver stress and appeared to contribute to increased organizational effectiveness: larger faculty size and on-site child care.     

Unpacking Court Divorce Decrees,Children’s Outcomes,and Three Unconfounded Determinants: An Evidence-Based Look

This article examines evidence on 3 determinants of the outcomes of children of divorce that are shaped but neither confound or are confounded by court decrees for custody and parenting time: father contact or involvement, high interparental conflict, and domestic violence. This evidence is brought to bear in an analysis that contrasts predictions based on the rationales for sole maternal versus joint custody and explores implications for judicial decision making. It is found that the best-interests-of-the-child standard better serves children in contested cases when this evidence is taken into account. A call is made for rebuttable presumptions for joint custody and commensurate parenting time except when parent-perpetrated violence or other patterns of abusive behavior are substantiated. Steps for judicial reform are proposed.     

The impact of labor shortage on the employee commitment

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the impact of the shortage of labor on individuals’ workplace attitudes, strangely their commitment. It is beneficial for organizations to develop their management strategies in view of employees’ loyalty attitudes. As a conceptual paper, the article contains a theoretical deduction. The characteristics of the labor market (macro level), the organizational needs and responses (meso level), and the set of the employees’ commitment (micro level) are linked to a theoretical process. According to our results, the average levels of the different dimensions of employee commitment will be changed in the future. The levels of continuance commitment and professional commitment will be higher, while the levels of deliberate commitment and affective commitment will be lower in the employee commitment profiles. By increasing continuance commitment and professional commitment, the toolkit of the HR strategy needs to be transformed to make it more relevant external motivation tools and training-development solutions. Meanwhile, it is important to note that the interactions among the employees will be less frequent and they will have less affection for their workplace. Labor shortage transforms individuals’ workplace attitudes. Understanding of employees’ decisions to maintain their organizational membership is supported by the relationships found in this research.     

Perceptions of Sources of Sex Education and Targets of Sex Communication: Sociodemographic and Cohort Effects

As part of a larger survey study on young adult sexuality conducted over a 17-year period at a Midwest U.S. university, more than 6,000 college students completed questions on the sources of their sex education and the degree to which they have communicated about sex with various types of individuals. Participants reported receiving more sex education from peers and media than from parents (and mothers more than fathers). Respondents also reported communicating more about sex with peers than with parents or any other categories of individuals. Differences were found in the degree of sex education from various sources and in communication with various targets based on gender, ethnic background, and social class. Furthermore, changes were found over the 17-year period. More recent cohorts of students perceived that they received more sex education from media, peers, and professionals, and communicated more about sex with professionals, relative to earlier cohorts.     

A support group for individuals recently testing HIV positive: A psycho‐educational group model

The present paper describes an eight‐week psycho‐educational group model that is easily adaptable to any agency that is concerned with a comprehensive package of services for counseling HIV + persons, as well as for others involved in the long‐term management of issues related to the health threat presented by HIV infection.     

Race and the Religious Contexts of Violence: Linking Religion and White,Black, and Latino Violent Crime

Research has demonstrated that concentrated disadvantage and other measures are strongly associated with aggregate‐level rates of violence, including across racial and ethnic groups. Less studied is the impact of cultural factors, including religious contextual measures. The current study addresses several key gaps in prior literature by utilizing race/ethnic‐specific arrest data from California, New York, and Texas paired with religious contextual data from the Religious Congregations and Memberships Survey. Results suggest that, net of important controls, (1) religious contextual measures have significant crime‐reducing associations with violence; (2) these associations are race/ethnic specific; and (3) religious contextual measures moderate the criminogenic association between disadvantage and violence for blacks. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Marital Quality,Context, and Interaction: A Comparison of Those Currently Receiving Government Assistance with Those Who Are Not

In this study the marital quality of respondents who were currently receiving government assistance was compared with those who were not. Contextual variables (e.g., gender, age, age at first marriage, religiosity, education, etc.) and interactional variables (i.e., escalating negativity, criticism, negative interpretation, withdrawal) were measured as potential correlates with marital quality. Results indicated that those who received government assistance differed significantly from those who did not on all six indicators of marital quality that were measured and on 8 of 11 contextual variables measured. Findings from this study will help policymakers, therapists, and other helping professionals gain an increased awareness of the needs of these two distinct populations and how to target educational programs to best address those needs.