The “Other” Effects of Psychotropic Medication: Social Workers’ Perspectives on the Psychosocial Effects of Medication Treatment on Adolescent Clients

This study explores social workers’ perspectives on the psychosocial effects of psychotropic drug treatment of their adolescent clients. Using a mail survey, we asked a national sample of experienced clinical social workers to answer questions about their perceptions of the effects of such treatment on the sense of self and social well-being of an adolescent client. The survey questions also explored associations between perceived psychosocial medication effects and characteristics of the client and the treatment. The findings suggested that social workers viewed medication treatment as having greater beneficial than harmful psychosocial effects on their adolescent clients, but that both effects existed simultaneously. The most important factors associated with the perceived effects of medication that emerged from social workers’ reports included the etiology of the disorder, the type of drug treatment and its effectiveness in addressing symptoms, the client’s “competence,” and the quality of the relationship between the client and the treating social worker. This study provides direction for future research on a neglected but important question. It would be helpful to broaden the scope of professional discourse on the advantages and disadvantages of psychopharmacologic treatment for youth beyond the effectiveness or safety of the treatment to include questions concerning clinicians’ perceptions of the effects of drug treatment on youths’ sense of self and social well-being.     

Pensions and the uses of ignorance by unions and firms

Pensions are contingent claims contracts that are often fashioned by collective bargaining under conditions of asymmetric information and market power. Pensions are not an employer’s or a union’s optimal contract; they represent compromise. Employers use pensions to minimize labor costs and to adjust to market changes. Pensions help unions improve and protect their members’ work lives and help unions to survive as institutions. When workers’ estimations of their pensions differ from their employers’ estimations a moral hazard can exist. Less mobile workers and those with less influence subsidize the pension benefits of other workers or reduce an employer’s costs. Econometric results based on data from the President’s Commission on Pension Policy show that certain workers, namely women, overvalue their plans, which provides an opportunity to lower labor costs and redistribute benefits. Unions have a contradictory effect on information. The author thanks participants in the Cornell University Collective Bargaining workshop and the Harvard Labor Economics workshop. I especially thank James Medoff for his comments.     

Merger activity and wage levels in U.S. manufacturing

This study uses micro data from the 1981 March Current Population Survey and incorporates industry merger information from the 1979 FTC Large Mergers and Acquisitions Series to examine the relationship between merger activity and wage levels in U.S. manufacturing. These data sources provide the opportunity to control the wage effect of workers’ differing personal qualities and to allow the investigation of wage levels in five merger categories. The findings suggest that in 1980, employees that work in industries composed of firms formed by horizontal, vertical, and product extension mergers received significantly higher wages than other workers. These results indicate that workers should benefit financially from the recent increase in the number of mergers, other than pure conglomerates. The author thanks William Jones, Peter Loeb, and Leo Troy for their valuable suggestions. The author is also grateful to the Rutgers University Research Council for support of this project.     

Union membership,economic rents,and migration behavior

This study represents an extension of the human capital paradigm as it relates to an individual’s decision to migrate. It differs from previous studies by incorporating union membership, a labor market variable, into the model. In effect, the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 granted a monopoly bargaining position to unions. The theoretical implication of a union’s monopoly bargaining position is that union wage levels will increase relative to nonunion wages. The increase of relative wages results in union membership granting a property right that possesses positive net present value and hence reduces an employed union member’s probability of migrating. Additionally, the supra-competitive remuneration of union members results in a surplus of labor supplied to union firms. Employers respond by using quality screening to hire workers from the larger labor pool. As a result, unemployed union members will on average possess higher levels of human capital, which will increase their probability of migrating above that of their unemployed nonunion cohorts.     

Doing Public Sociology in the Field—A Strong Sociological Intervention Project in China

Through the in-depth analysis of the features of Huabei rural industrialization, the unique factory regime in Baigou, Hebei, and the resulting special workers, this paper reveals two dilemmas the migrant workers in Baigou and larger Hubei area face: Because of the interpersonal network of labor market, personalized trade, familial labor process, and patrimonial management, the workers are unable to become either industrial working class or citizens. Facing this special group of workers, we still believe in their power of self-liberation. Drawing on Touraine’s action sociology and sociological intervention, and Burawoy’s public sociology and praxis-oriented research, we modify “sociological intervention” according to the reality of Chinese society and propose the methodology of “strong sociological intervention” whose vehicle is “Baigou Migrant Worker Night School.” The night school provided workers with courses of labor law, English, and computer based on their actual needs. Labor law is the core to evoke the self-consciousness of the workers. Through communications in the night school and workers’ real living circumstances, we collected their true information and treated it as the source of sociological knowledge. After three sessions of night school training, workers showed changes in skills, social, and psychological aspects, laying a foundation for the growth of self-consciousness.     

Combining the liberal and useful arts: Sociological skills in the global economy

The discipline of sociology remains vulnerable in an environment of economic uncertainty and global change. Constraints on higher education are likely to increase and recurrent pressures on traditional liberal arts programs will continue unabated. An older, more diverse, cost-conscious and career-minded student population will increasingly insist on clearer pathways to difficult and bewildering labor markets. But sociology’s weakness as a liberal art may be overcome by combining it with a more applied and practical orientation. The very forces that threaten the discipline’s institutional existence make it profoundly relevant and valuable in an age of social transformation. Based on a familiar Millsian conception of the sociological imagination, this article attempts to combine sociology’s liberal tradition with its role as a “useful art,” honed into the specific features of workplace change and the employment setting. It does so by suggesting five categories of emerging skills in the global economy and ways that sociology has a far reaching claim to their practice and development. The categories are: 1) the skills of knowledge workers; 2) skills in the learning organization; 3) skills in the technological context; 4) skills in the diverse and divided workplace; 5) change-making skills. The article concludes by urging those in the discipline to make sociology more of a useful art that has practical application in a changing world. An earlier version of this article was presented at the Sociological Practice Association 15th Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, June 11, 1993.     

Technology Adoption in Small Family-Owned Businesses: Accessibility,Perceived Advantage,and Information Technology Literacy

The purpose of the study was to examine the antecedents and impacts of information technology (IT) adoption by small family-owned businesses, using data from the National Family Business Survey. This research tested a model based on the Diffusion of Innovations framework and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Family business managers’ prior knowledge and level of IT use, business location, and community size/type were important antecedents to the decision to adopt IT. Ease of use and decision to adopt IT accounted for over 60% of the variance in usefulness of IT and implementation of internet and IT capabilities. The implementation of IT capabilities accounted for nearly 40% of the variance in actual use of IT and perceived impact of the internet.     

Work–Family Conflict and Fertility Intentions: Does Gender Matter?

Fertility among employed women remains far below their desired preferences. Although research has shown that fertility intentions significantly predict subsequent behavior, little is known about the factors that contribute to intentions. We assess the impacts of perceived self and partner work-to-family and family-to-work conflict on the fertility intentions of both women and men. Using a national probability sample of men and women in dual-earner families (N = 630), we find that men’s perceptions of their wives’ work–family conflict significantly predict men’s fertility intentions, even though men’s own work–family conflict does not. Neither women’s own work–family conflict nor their perceptions of their husbands’ work–family conflict predicts women’s fertility intentions.     

The Implementation of Mental Health Evidence Based Practices from the Educator,Clinician and Researcher Perspective

Within the different arenas of social work practice, community based mental health is among the most advanced in terms of defining a set of evidence based practices (EBPs). Social workers play a major role in the delivery of community based mental health and are at the forefront of efforts to implement these practices through state and federal initiatives. One such initiative is The New York Office of Mental Health Evidence Based Project, which is designed to increase the knowledge and skills related to evidence-based practice among New York’s mental health human services workforce. The project had a social work component, which trained students in implementing EBP’s through specially designed curricula and field placements. The students participating in the project encountered numerous challenges in the field including lack of agency “buy-in” and infrastructure support; inadequate training and resources; poor supervision; and provider resistance. From the multilevel perspectives of educator, clinician and researcher, this paper addresses these challenges and makes recommendations to facilitate the implementation of EBPs.     

The Influence of Perceptions of Fairness on Performance Appraisal Reactions

The success of appraisal systems may well depend on ratees’ perceptions of fairness and reactions to important aspects of the appraisal process. My primary purpose is to integrate the literatures on fairness perceptions and appraisal reactions to test specific, heretofore untested, hypotheses. Consistent with predictions of Sweeney and McFarlin’s (Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 55:23–40, 1993) two-factor model, results of structural equation modeling indicated that distributive justice influenced satisfaction with performance ratings and procedural justice influenced satisfaction with the appraisal system. Results indicated mixed support for Bies and Moag’s (Lewicki, Blair, Bazerman (eds) Research on Negotiation in Organization, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, pp. 43–55, 1986) agent-system model as procedural justice (and distributive justice) had more influence on satisfaction with appraisal feedback than components of interactional justice perceptions. The implications of my results are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered.     

Spousal Childcare Involvement and Perceived Support for Paid Work

This study of 76 married or cohabiting two-earner families examined the influence of spouse/partner involvement in childcare and other demand and resource variables on mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of spouse/partner support for paid work. Gender had a significant influence on the relationship between spouse/partner involvement in childcare and support for paid work. Mothers were more likely to report support for paid work when their spouse/partner shared more of the responsibilities associated with childcare. Fathers were more likely to report support for work when their spouse/partner shared fewer of the responsibilities associated with childcare. The findings also suggest that fathers’ perceptions of spouse/partner support for work are more sensitive to ecological factors than are mothers’ perceptions of support for work.     

TECHNOLOGY, CAPITAL SPENDING, AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION

Capacity utilization is a closely watched macroeconomic indicator because rising utilization may signal rising inflationary pressures. However, recent technological changes have increased the flexibility of relationships between inputs and outputs, potentially eroding the predictive value of the utilization rate. This paper examines relationships between technology, capital spending, and capacity utilization. After establishing conceptually that the effect of recent technological changes on capacity utilization is ambiguous, we investigate the effect empirically using panel data on 111 manufacturing industries. Our results suggest that, for the average industry, the technological change of the 1974–2000 period lowered capacity utilization by 0.2–2.3 percentage points. ( JEL D24, E22, E31)     

Live-in Foreign Domestic Workers and their Impact on Hong Kong’s Middle Class Families

This paper discusses the impact of foreign domestic workers (FDWs) on parental roles and family dynamics of Hong Kong’s middle class families. The increase in married women’s labor force participation in Hong Kong has led to a greater demand for childcare, which has been filled by FDWs. Based on interviews with 15 dual-earner couples in middle class nuclear families employing FDWs, how FDWs affect the mother’s gender role and family dynamics is discussed. Boundary work is used by parents in their daily interaction with their children and their FDWs so as to reconcile the perceived indispensability of these workers on the one hand, and the challenges they pose to the definition of parenthood on the other. This research was funded by a Lingnan University Social Sciences Program Research Grant RES/SOC010/978. I am grateful to the guest editors and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.     

The quiet before the storm: anticipating developments in synthetic biology

Synthetic biology aims at designing biological systems, at building ‘living machines’. The emergence of synthetic biology has reignited the cycle of public debate. The old biotechnology debate is being reiterated and the controversies are deepened. The societal debate follows the technological hype cycle. A new technology with a high visibility and high expectations also raises high controversies. For synthetic biology, this hype is currently near its peak and the first signs of disillusionment are getting visible. In policy development, on the other hand, synthetic biology is in the early stages. Governments examine the need for adaptations to existing regulatory frameworks. There is a gap between the visibility of the technological developments and policy formulation. This gap is crucial for technology assessment: while the hype in public attention is over, essential policy steps are taken. In order to close this gap, technology assessment needs to facilitate the societal–ethical debate when media attention, and thus the visibility of the technological developments, declines.     

Workplace hazards and workers’ desires for union representation

This paper investigates “voice” responses to hazardous and otherwise disagreeable working conditions in the form of workers’ expressed desires for union representation. Using data from three surveys conducted between 1977 and 1982, workers exposed to significant health and safety risks on the job are found to be substantially more likely to report a willingness to vote pro-union than are comparable workers not similarly exposed. This finding is obtained using both subjective and objective measures of hazard and both union and nonunion workers. Management resistance, however, appears to play a strong role in determining the actual extent of unionization. Between 41 and 48 percent of workers in hazardous jobs desire union representation but have not achieved it. Support for this research was obtained from the Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California, Berkeley. Computational help was provided by Keun Lee and Glenn Shor. Valuable comments on an earlier draft were obtained from William Dickens.     

Characteristics of Four Kinship Placement Outcome Groups and Variables Associated with these Kinship Placement Outcome Groups

This study investigated factors that might be associated with the disrupted kinship care placements of abused and neglected children. Data were collected from face-to-face interviews of 130 kin caregivers who were randomly selected from lists provided by two child protection agencies and divided into four different outcome groups. Findings of the study revealed that characteristics of the children such as their health status, ages, and the extent to which they were getting into “trouble” were significantly associated with placement outcomes. The caregivers’ perceptions of the quality of relationships between themselves and the children in their care and the birth parents of those children were also associated with placement outcomes. Two other factors affecting outcomes were the frequency of contact between social workers and caregivers and the extent to which services plans were discussed. Practice implications related to these findings are discussed.     

Technology, skills, and health care labor markets

Conclusion I examine the role of technological change in health care labor markets. One of the biggest issues in the U.S. economy over the recent past has been rapidly rising health care costs. Conventional wisdom holds the main factor driving these costs increases has been technological change. These changes in technology have lead to a direct transformation in the delivery of health care and have also lead to indirect transformations through the reshaping of the private and public insurance industry. My findings are consistent with the idea that technological change has resulted in an increase in demand for higher skilled workers in the industry, while being labor-saving among low-skill workers. The earnings of RNs and health therapists rose rapidly over the 1983 to 1993 period, declined between 1993 and 1996, but then began to rise again after 1996. It is generally believed that managed care has had a one-time cost reducing effect in the industry by eliminating some of the inefficiencies associated with fee-for-service health insurance (Newhouse, 1992). The results here suggest a similar finding in the labor market. I appreciate helpful comments from Laurence Baker, James Bennett, Ann Frost, Barry Hirsch, Joanne Spetz, and Daphne Taras.     

Member participation in union activities: Perceptions of union priorities,performance, and satisfaction

Data obtained from union respondents of a survey using a national probability sample that is representative of the U.S. labor force revealed that members’ perceptions of their unions’ effectiveness in obtaining both extrinsic and intrinsic benefits and the unions’ responsiveness to membership were significantly related to member participation in union activities. Union satisfaction was inversely related to participation. Perceptions of union power and service and demographic variables, such as age and education, were found to have less significant linkages with member participation.     

The minimum wage and tipped employees

Using data from theCensus of Retail Trade, I estimate that allowing restaurants to use servers’ tipped income to satisfy minimum wage requirements would create at least 360,000 new high-paying jobs and increase total income for tipped workers by at least 8 percent. Conversely, if the minimum wage were increased 10 percent, tipped workers would experience a 4 percent decrease in employment and a 6 percent reduction in hours worked, and all servers (tipped and non-tipped) would experience a 3 to 5 percent decrease in total income because the tipped jobs lost paid more than the minimum wage. By not allowing employers to use all of a worker’s tipped income to meet the minimum wage, state and federal minimum wage laws inhibit the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs paying well above the minimum wage. Total elimination of this credit would decrease employment at least 10 percent.     

Looking at Smelser’s Theory of Collective Behavior After Almost 50 Years: A Review and Appreciation

A half century has gone by since the publication of Neil Smelser’s classic book on the Theory of Collective Behavior. The re-issue of the book triggered these observations in which I reflect on the fate of old books; trace a bit of the book’s genealogy; note changes in the field; and argue that Smelser’s book is really four books in one with varying impact over the decades and likely to be of varying interest to current scholars—an application of Parsonian theory to conflict and change; an elaboration of key concepts found with collective behavior which involves “uninstitutionalized mobilization to reconstitute components of social action on the basis of a generalized belief”; an elaboration of variables such as objective conditions of the social order, perceptions and belief systems required to understand the topic; and a comprehensive summary and critique of relevant empirical and theoretical work on collective behavior through the 1950s. Based on criticisms of the book, I suggest some areas that should be addressed were the book to be revised.