Changing Frameworks in Attitudes Toward Abortion

For more than two decades, legal abortion has been the subject of heated political debate and adversarial social movement activity; however, national polls have shown little change in aggregate levels of support for abortion. This analysis examines how the determinants of abortion attitudes have changed between 1977 and 1996, using data from the General Social Surveys. While in early time periods, whites were more approving of abortion than blacks, that pattern had reversed by the late 1980s. After controlling for other factors, older people are more accepting of abortion throughout the two decades, while gender is generally unrelated to abortion views. Catholic religion weakens slightly as a predictor of abortion attitudes, while religious fundamentalism and political liberalism increase in explanatory power. The associations between attitudinal correlates and abortion approval also change over this time period. Religiosity becomes a less powerful predictor of abortion attitudes, while respondents' attitude toward sexual freedom and belief in the sanctity of human life increase in their predictive power. Support for gender inequality remains a weak but stable predictor of abortion attitudes. This pattern of results suggests that the public is influenced more by the pro-life framework of viewing abortion than by the pro-choice perspective.     

Examining fostering readiness in treatment parents

Preservice trainings have the potential to improve treatment parent and youth outcomes, yet researchers have noted the lack of empirical research on the effectiveness of these trainings. Preservice outcomes are typically collected immediately after training completion, with little to no follow‐up assessments at other time points. This study aimed to examine the longitudinal changes treatment parents experience throughout preservice training and after a youth is placed in their home. Secondary data analyses were performed on an archival data set (N = 57) that included demographic information and training participant scores from two standardized measurements that examined their fostering readiness before and after preservice trainings as well as after a youth was placed in the home: Personal Dedication to Fostering Scale and Willingness to Foster Scale. Analyses revealed significant changes for treatment parents' personal dedication to fostering, but no significant changes for their willingness to foster. Treatment parents' fostering readiness scores were compared to a normed sample of foster parents and were found to be significantly higher for their personal dedication scores but not for their willingness to foster. The findings suggest certain treatment parent outcomes may change as a result of preservice training and experience with youth, but additional measurements and outcomes should be examined.     

Crisis intervention and social casework: Similarities and differences in problem-solving

Summary The similarities and differences between the traditional psychosocial approach to casework and that of crisis intervention have been discussed with the use of illustrative case material. It is important to recognize that while crisis intervention is justifiably subsumed under the generalist concept of social work theory and practice on the basis of their striking similarities, it is necessary for the sake of professional clarity to differentiate between the two forms of problem-solving treatment methodologies in terms of goals, process, and structure.     

Mechanisms for Building Working Alliances in Clinical Supervision

While social workers and researchers acknowledge the importance of a positive working alliance between service providers and clients, less is known about mechanisms for developing working alliances between supervisors and supervisees. The Alliance Building: Learning to Engage (ABLE) model was developed to measure and enhance the supervisory relationship. The ABLE model consists of a tool for continuous measurement of the supervisory working alliance as well as several research supported resources. This two part study assessed the reliability and validity of the ABLE supervision tool (ABLE-S), and then a randomized control trial pilot study was conducted to determine if the use of ABLE in supervision improves the professional quality of life and occupational self-efficacy for supervisees. Analyses revealed the ABLE-S tool is a reliable and valid form for measuring supervisory working alliance, but the use of ABLE in supervision did not have a significant effect on supervisee outcomes compared to the control group. The findings suggest additional training on proper implementation of ABLE and expanded measurements to capture several confounds inherent in the supervisory context are needed in future studies. Practical implications of using ABLE include effective strategies for promoting positive supervisee development and reducing negative effects of stressful work environments that often exist in the social service field.     

Cohabitation Duration and Transient Domesticity

Research finds that many impoverished urban Black adults engage in a pattern of partnering and family formation involving a succession of short cohabitations yielding children, a paradigm referred to as transient domesticity. Researchers have identified socioeconomic status, cultural adaptations, and urbanicity as explanations for aspects of this pattern. We used longitudinal data from the 2001 Survey of Income and Program Participation to analyze variation in cohabitation and marriage duration by race/ethnicity, income, and urban residence. Proportional hazards regression indicated that separation risk is greater among couples that are cohabiting, below 200% of the federal poverty line, and Black but is not greater among urban dwellers. This provides empirical demographic evidence to support the emerging theory of transient domesticity and suggests that both socioeconomic status and race explain this pattern. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding transient domesticity and make recommendations for using the Survey of Income and Program Participation to further study this family formation paradigm.     

Book reviews

Conclusion The Narcissistic and Borderline Disorder is an unusually thought provoking and useful book because it encourages the reader to compare and evaluate the work of several major theorists who have attempted to conceptualize narcissistic and borderline pathology. In spite of my disagreement with some specific formulations, I think that for the most part Masterson's choice of separation-individuation theory as an organizing framework for describing these disorders is quite effective in providing a logically consistent developmental context in which clinical phenomena can be studied and understood. Regardless of one's theoretical orientation, this book, is notable for its large measure of clinical wisdom, especially Masterson's observations about: (1) The Tallionic Impulse, in which he discusses how borderline patients attempt to injure the object by attacking the self; (2) The False Self, in which he outlines how the patient's compliance with the therapist's unspoken expectations may become a major resistance to treatment; (3) the hopelessness helplessness, and despair that narcissistic and borderline patients predictably experience as they begin to separate and thereby confront the existential loneliness of forging an autonomous identity; and (4) the confusion and discouragement that therapists experience when faced with the patient's despair at the very moment when the patient has initiated some constructive change.