Music in conflict management: Fostering interracial understanding through music

In the last decades Norway has seen substantial immigration into the country, largely from South Asia. In the capital (Oslo) one out of every four school children have foreign roots. This development poses a great challenge to educational policy, and begs for efforts that foster interracial harmony and prevent ethnic conflict. The Norwegian Department of Culture and the Culture Fund in the years 1989‐1992 supported a school research project run by the State agency for music promotion — NorConcert.

Eighteen schools with varying percentages of immigrants and of various location and size were selected to test the effectiveness of an art program rooted in the cultural heritage of the countries of origin. Music, dance and theatre from Asia, Africa and Latin‐America were presented by renowned artists from the countries represented, supported by immigrant teachers and culture workers.

The results of the study revealed significant improvement in the social milieu of participating classes and schools, with a lessening of conflict and harassment. The program was also seen to foster self‐esteem and the development of individuality among immigrant children.

As a result of the project a Norwegian Multicultural Music Centre was established in 1992, and the programming of State supported school concerts was extended in an intercultural direction.     

Socially Diverse Polis: Social and School Exclusion

This paper addresses the questions of citizenship in socially diverse polities. Such issues are presently not dealt with adequately because social scientists, parliamentarians and policy makers do not have an informed view which is relevant for the governance of stable democratic systems which embody cultural diversities. The role of social policy systems in ensuring equity in the delivery of services is important in ensuring the citizenship rights of all groups in society.

At the present time economic policies have created a culture of winners and losers which makes the efforts of schools more difficult.

The schools and the educational systems face the challenge of creating a common and shared values orientation on the diversities in the polity. Such communities also present the schools with immense possibilities, if teacher education, school policies and practice, curriculum and classroom organisation can be optimised. Such measures may help obviate the school exclusion of specific groups.     

Teachers’ Attitudes about the Integration of Roma:the case of Spain

This article, taking data from my thesis dissertation, examines the attitudes of Spanish teachers towards Roma children (and other ethnic/cultural minorities) in their schools, and the role that teachers, schools, parents and the community play with regard to the integration of Roma in schools and in society. Although teachers’ views of Roma are, on the whole, positive, confusion between acculturation and integration exists in some cases. With the intention of shedding some light on these attitudes, the Roma community within Spain's multicultural context is introduced, and general data provided.

This work is based on original research undertaken in 1996/97, mainly through questionnaires distributed in state primary schools consisting of 25% or more ethnic/cultural minorities. The questionnaire included both closed and open questions.

     

A Web-based review of sexual and reproductive health services available at colleges and universities in Georgia

Objective: Although two-thirds of graduating high school seniors attend college or university in the U.S., there is a paucity of national or state specific research regarding SRH services available on or near college and university campuses.

Methods: A review of websites for all colleges and universities in Georgia was conducted to evaluate sexual health services available on campuses and evidence of referral to community providers.

Results: Of 96 colleges in Georgia, 44 had campus-located health centers, with only 3 at two-year colleges. Overall SRH service provision was low, with great variation between colleges. Distances between colleges and Title X clinics ranged from 0.33 to 35.45 miles.

Conclusions: Many students lack access to campus health centers, and information on college websites regarding SRH service availability and referrals differs dramatically between campuses. In the absence of robust campus-located services, schools should highlight where students can obtain comprehensive SRH care in the community.     

Book review

Wives and warriors. Women and the military in the United States and Canada L. Weinstein & C.C. White (Eds) Westport, Connecticut; London: Bergin & Garver, 1997. ISBN: 0-89789-491-X (hbk), 0-89789-526-6 (pbk)

Social skills for people with learning disabilities–A social capability approach Mark Burton & Carolyn Kagan (with Pat Clements) London: Chapman and Hall, 1995 ISBN: 0-412-43380-X (pbk)

Social Work with Children. The Educational Perspective

Jobs, Technology and People

Children in Difficulty: A Guide to Understanding and Helping

Step-parenting in the 1990s

Jobs and Economic Development Strategies and Practice

Caring to Work: accounts of working parents of disabled children

The WorWFamily Challenge. Rethinking Employment

No Place to Go. The Civil Commitment of Minors

Black Families in Corporate America     

Social work with vulnerable families and children in 11 Russian regions

Purpose. The purpose of the study was to describe and analyse how key actors in the social sector in Russian regions identify problems, objectives and social work achievements in connection with vulnerable families and children.

Methods. University personnel conducted 209 interviews using semi-structured questionnaires.

Results. Family problems were reported to be related to poverty, parents’ alcohol abuse, the child's behaviour, the child's lack of social skills, domestic conflicts and problems getting adequate housing. The view of the majority of the respondents was that social orphanhood depends on poverty, alcohol abuse and the family's diminished role in society. Family incomes have improved but services have become more expensive. The social workers mostly put the child, not the family, in focus. Alcohol abuse was considered to be a greater problem in wealthier regions. Analyses between key groups showed that the respondents ranked problems differently, had similar ways of defining important objectives, but had divergent opinions on what social work could achieve concerning, for example, re-establishing the child's contacts with his/her biological parents.

Conclusions. The respondents seem to be highly ambivalent toward alcohol abuse as a social problem and toward biological parents in vulnerable families. Social work in the regions is a profession in the process of formation.     

Immigration and resiliency: unpacking the experiences of high school students from Cape Verde and Ethiopia

This article explores the complex factors, both individual and social, that contribute to the resiliency and academic achievement of six adolescent African immigrant students from Cape Verde and Ethiopia who were enrolled in a small high school in the United States. The school was designed specifically for recent adolescent immigrant students. Using an in-depth qualitative case study research design, this study provides insight into the educational and social issues confronted by these students and the factors that contributed to their resiliency. The competencies and social capital that students acquired in school and at home were major contributing factors to their resilience and academic achievement. Findings show that these students had a supportive social network of family and friends who had encouraged them to succeed in school and provided mentoring, and material and social resources that helped them to succeed. In addition, teachers encouraged and engaged the students by having high expectations and connecting them to the curriculum in meaningful ways.     

Not only men but also migrants in non-traditional occupations

Domestic labour is considered a typical female job, and due to the arrival of large migration flows to Italy it has experienced a massive ethnicized connotation, peculiar of this sector. This paper focuses on how a double and subaltern condition of belonging to a ‘minority group’ affects gender perceptions of male migrant domestic workers and how they construct their masculinity.

This research is based on a comparison between 54 interviews with male and female migrant domestic workers, drawing on an intersectional approach based on gender and nationality. It shows how moving across borders, living in a host society, and working in a non-traditional job can reshape male immigrants' gender division perceptions, often in contradictory and unexpected ways. It also emerges how the ‘racial glass escalator’ allows reaffirmation of characteristics tied to the privileges of masculinity and furnishes an important and useful framework in which to analyse the experience of men in ‘female’ occupations.     

“What Will My Friends Think?” Social Consequences for Danish Victims of Sexual Assaults in Peer Groups

Being exposed to sexual assaults has numerous psychological and social consequences, which may interfere with the adolescent’s still-ongoing development. This article focuses on social consequences for adolescents exposed to sexual assault by someone from their peer group.

Participants were 148 in number and 15–18 year olds (M = 16.34 years, 90.5% female) from Centre for Victims of Sexual Assault’s “Youth Programme.”

A mixed methods design combined extensive survey data collected from the 148 adolescents and five case stories. Almost half of the assaults (47.4%) were committed by someone from the victim’s social circle who was not a family member. Only 30.5% of these victims reported the assault to the police. Fear of social consequences was the main reason for not reporting. The majority of the participants described failure to thrive in school in the aftermath of the assault, for example, because the assailant attended the same school. Result furthermore showed how social relations can be complicated due to an assault and subsequent reactions, which can result in isolation for the victim and exclusion from their peer group.

Sexual assaults in peer groups have great impact on the victim’s well-being. Understanding and support from peers is of the utmost importance. Implications for practice are discussed.     

Implementation of Intercultural Education Programmes based on Cooperative Learning

An intercultural programme must not overlook the elimination of racist attitudes, but should especially promote multicultural and democratic values.

In Spain, one of the most rejected groups is Gypsy people and their schooling is a problematic issue. We believe that intercultural attitude training programmes can be a practical pedagogical answer for promoting acceptance and respect for diversity.

To do this, we have chosen educational strategies of Cooperation in the Classroom, Active Participation and Persuasive Communication. All of them involve a search for new perspectives, the use of sociocognitive conflict as a driving impulse for learning, and an atmosphere of equality, respect and participation in the classroom.

We present in this paper one of the school programmes we have implemented in Valencia. This programme has been designed to be integrated within the ordinary school curriculum and not regarded as an added out‐of‐school activity. In order to implement it, we organised a teacher‐training course to analyse the intercultural model, to show the need for attitude training in education and to offer pedagogical guidance for the implementation of this type of intercultural programme.

The results of the programme show the improvement in pupils ‘ attitudes towards Gypsy people and cultural diversity in general.     

The Impact of the Physical Home Environment for Family Carers of People with Dementia: A Qualitative Study

Background: The majority of people with dementia are cared for by their families at home. This study aimed to elicit family carers' perceptions on home environmental aspects and strategies with the view to identify barriers and facilitators when caring for a person with dementia at home.

Design and methods: Thirteen co-resident family carers were engaged in semi-structured in-depth walking interviews. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis.

Results: Home environments can pose a number of challenges and opportunities. Aspects of the architectural and interior environment (e.g. size, condition, layout and accessibility, familiarity) are perceived as important (Theme 1) as well as a plethora of environmental strategies that encourage independence and comfort at home (Theme 2). Carers' scepticism, timing, costs, property characteristics and mistrust to services are some barriers to implementing environmental strategies (Theme 3).

Conclusions: Carers improvised solutions via trial and error and need further education on strategies to create an enabling and comfortable home environment.     

The discretion and power of street-level bureaucrats: an example from Swedish municipal eldercare

This paper focuses on discretion in the frontline practice of social work with elderly people in Sweden. The aim is to describe and analyse how care managers in municipal eldercare use discretion and power in needs assessment and decision-making. Emanating from Lipsky's concept of discretion, we identify the conditions of decision-making, which along with the concepts of structural power and intentional power constitute the theoretical framework of our analysis. Eight care managers from four Swedish municipalities were observed and interviewed. The researchers carried out 38 observations and nine in-depth interviews. The analysis led to the identification of four techniques in the decision-making process of care managers: reject, execute, transform needs and control. The consequences of these practices are discussed at the end of the paper.

Denna artikel handlar om beslutsprocessen inom socialt arbete med äldre i Sverige. Syftet är att beskriva och analysera hur några biståndsbedömare inom kommunal äldreomsorg, som exempel på frontlinjebyråkrater, använder sitt handlingsutrymme och sin makt. Utifrån Lipsky's begrepp handlingsutrymme, beskriver vi de villkor för beslutsfattandet som tillsammans med begreppen strukturell och intentionell makt, utgör ramen för analysen av det empiriska materialet. Åtta biståndsbedömare, från fyra svenska kommuner, har observerats och intervjuats. Sammanlagt har 38 observationer och nio djupintervjuer genomförts. I analysen framträder fyra handlingssätt i biståndsbedömarnas beslutsprocess: avvisa, expediera, omvandla behov och kontrollera. Konsekvenserna av dessa handlingssätt diskuteras avslutningsvis i artikeln.

Handlingsutrymme

Strukturell Och Intentionell Makt

Frontlinjebyråkrater

Beslutsfattande

Äldreomsorg

Biståndsbedömare     

Acceptability of an Aboriginal Wellbeing Intervention for Supporters of People Using Methamphetamines

Families and workers often suffer significant stress while supporting people who are experiencing problems related to methamphetamine use yet there is little evidence on how best to help. Small pilot studies can provide valuable information about potential ways to intervene. This paper presents a pilot study of an Aboriginal family wellbeing intervention with workers in an Aboriginal health service. The pilot indicated that participation in the intervention improved the psychosocial empowerment and wellbeing of workers, that these workers perceived the program as relevant to families, and that this was an intervention they felt they could deliver to clients themselves.

IMPLICATIONS

• An Aboriginal family wellbeing intervention was piloted and found to improve the empowerment and wellbeing of workers. Participants regarded it as highly relevant for families supporting people using methamphetamines and other drugs.

• This research has added to our knowledge about how to assist those supporting Aboriginal people using methamphetamines and other drugs.

     

Is this the Price for Integration? Some thoughts on the limited intergenerational achievements of second generation Germans in Australia

There is only limited educational and occupational advancement between first and second generation Germans (and Dutch) (aged 25‐34) in Australia. Second generation Germans (and Dutch) are also not performing as well as their Southern‐European counterparts, the Greeks and Italians. It is proposed that the convergence to Australian education values of the German second generation was precipitated by the German migrant parents’ desire to submerge into a different culture, by a high degree of out‐marriages, but also by the general acceptance of second generation Germans by the Australian host society. Some comparison is made to the educational achievements of children of ‘guest‐workers ‘ in Germany and to children of immigrants in Sweden.

     

From childhood to young adulthood: the importance of self-esteem during childhood for occupational achievements among young men and women

This study investigates the impact of self-esteem during childhood on men’s and women’s occupational prestige in young adulthood. By combining first-hand information from parents in the Swedish Level-of-Living surveys (LNU) 2000 and their children in the Child-LNU in 2000 and the follow-up study in LNU-2010, we are able to assess how self-esteem during adolescence is related to occupational prestige in adulthood. Multivariate analyses were used to determine whether associations between self-esteem (global and domain-specific) in childhood (aged 10–18 years) and occupational prestige in young adulthood (aged 20–28) exist and, if so, what the magnitudes of these associations are for each respective gender.

For women, there is a positive association between confidence in mathematics and prestige, even when accounting for actual math grades. Global self-esteem is positively related to later occupational prestige as well. For men, self-esteem is unrelated to occupational prestige. Only actual performance in mathematics is important for men’s occupational achievements.

These results indicate the importance of taking gender differences into account when investigating how self-esteem is related to outcomes in young adulthood. A possible implication is the importance of focusing on the development of self-esteem among children, particularly girls, in school.     

Childhood Victimization,Cognitive Schemas,and Unwanted Consensual Sex Among College Students

Objective: Unwanted consensual sex (UCS)—freely consenting to sex that is neither wanted nor desired—is largely excluded from campus programming and the literature on sexual behavior. The present study expands on previous research to examine the relation between childhood victimization experiences and UCS.

Methods: Data were gathered using an online survey of college students.

Results: In the past year, 43% percent of 587 college students who engaged in sexual activity also engaged in UCS at least once. Childhood victimization was modestly related to frequency of UCS. The relation between childhood victimization and UCS was mediated by disconnection/rejection schemas (e.g., beliefs that one’s needs will not be met by others).

Conclusions: Results suggest that altering cognitive schemas through evidence-based psychotherapy may interrupt the relation between childhood victimization and engagement in UCS.     

Job satisfaction in social services in Crete,Greece: social workers’ views

This research-based article presents the results of a study examining job satisfaction among social workers in public social services in Crete, Greece. It focuses on their overall job satisfaction, as well as on their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with intrinsic, extrinsic and organisational work aspects. The results of this study suggest that while respondents experienced a quite high level of overall satisfaction with their job, other indicators of job satisfaction showed that the level of job satisfaction was not so high. The main sources of respondents’ satisfaction were intrinsic work aspects while the main sources of dissatisfaction were organisational and extrinsic work aspects. Respondents’ job satisfaction was found to be significantly correlated with: the years of unemployment before respondents first worked as social workers, the number of social workers working in the organisation, and their intention to leave or change their present job.

     

A meta-analysis of effectiveness of E-interventions to reduce alcohol consumption in college and university students.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness and moderators of E-Interventions versus assessment only (AO) controls in the reduction of alcoholic drinks per week (DPW) in university students.

Study design and methods: Cochrane library, CINAEL, ERIC, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched up to June 2017. Studies were included if they were: an RCT, assessed the effectiveness of E-Interventions at reducing DPW, and employed university/college students. 23 studies (N = 7,614) were included and quality was assessed using the JADAD scale.

Results: Weighted mean effect sizes were calculated using random-effects models. These showed a small, significant effect of E-Interventions at reducing the number of alcoholic DPW. Moderator analysis found a significant advantage for web-based personalised feedback interventions compared to other E-Interventions.

Conclusions: E-Interventions show a small, significant effect at reducing mean alcoholic DPW. Personalised feedback E-Interventions showed the strongest effect.     

Book reviews

Maurice Milliard and Simon Lee (eds.): The Politics of Social Policy in Europe. Cheltenham, Edward Elgar Publishing, 1997. 290 pp, ISBN 1-85898-367-3.

Jane Lewis (ed.): Lone Mothers in European Welfare Regimes: Shifting Policy Logics. London and Philadelphia, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1997. 214 pp., ISBN 1-85302 448-1 hbk; 1-85302 461-9 pbk.

Mlta Castle-Kanerova/ School of Policy Studies, Social Research & Politics, University of North London, UK

Saul Becker: Responding to Poverty. The Politics of Cash and Care. Social Policy in Britain Series. London, Longman, 1997. 223 pp., ISBN 0-582-24322X PPR.

Gunn Strand Hutchinson and Siv Oftedal: Modeller i sosialt arbeid: fra ulike retter til samme felt (Models in Social Work: From Different Roots to the Same Field). Tano-Aschehoug, Oslo, 1996. 265 pp., ISBN 82-518-3462-7, N.Kr. 268.00.

Michael Seltzer/ Faculty of Economics, Public Administration and Social Work, Oslo College, Norway

Malcolm Payne: Modern Social Work Theory (Second edition). Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1997. xiv+ 354 pp., ISBN 0-333-67654-8, £ 13.50.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference (Frost, 1916)

Martin Davies (ed.): The Blackwell Companion to Social Work. Oxford, Blackwell, 1997. 376 pp., ISBN 0-631-19876-8 (hbk), £50.00; 0-631-19877-6 (pbk), £14.99.

Steven Shardlow/ Director of Social Work Studies, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, UK

Malfrid Grude Flekkoy and Natalie Hevener Kaufman: The Participation Rights of the Child: Rights and Responsibilities in Family and Society. London, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1997. 182 pp., ISBN 1-85302-490-2, £13.95.

Nigel Thomas/ Lecturer in Applied Social Studies, University of Wales Swansea

Adalbert Evers, Riita Haverinen, Kai Leischenring and Gerald Wistow (eds.): Developing Quality in Personal Social Services. Concepts, Cases and Comments. Aldershot, Ashgate, 1997. 312 pp., ISBN 1-84014-337-1.

John Harris/ Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Studies, University of Warwick, UK

Crescy Cannan and Chris Warren (eds.): Social Action with Children and Families. A Community Development Approach to Child and Family Welfare. London, Routledge, 1997. 218 pp. ISBN 0-415-13151-0.

Bert Jones/ North East Wales Institute of HE, Wrexham, North Wales, UK.