Social Relationships,Well‐Being,and Career Commitment: Exploring Cross‐Domain Effects of Social Relationships

Cette étude explore dans quelle mesure les relations sociales dans divers domaines de la vie sont liées au bien‐être en général ainsi qu'aux exigences de carrière. Cette étude cherche à savoir si les effets de l'interaction des relations sociales sont nuisibles ou bénéfiques et s'ils mesurent les effets du stress sur un ou plusieurs domaines de la vie. Analysant des données d'enquête recueillies auprès de 1,436 avocats mariés de l'Ouest canadien. Les résultats suggèrent que la spécificité de domaine ne détermine pas forcément la nécessité de documenter les effets des interactions. Les résultats Ils suggèrent aussi que les ressources de soutien ou les activités intégratives ne sont pas forcément toutes bénéfiques et qu'au contraire, elles pourraient nuire au bien‐être ainsi qu'à l'engagement de carrière. This study explores the extent to which social relationships in different life domains are related to overall well‐being and career commitment. This study investigates whether the interaction effects of social relationships are harmful or beneficial, as well as whether they moderate the effects of strain within the same domain or across domains. Survey data were analyzed from 1,436 married lawyers in Western Canada. The results suggest that domain specificity is not necessarily a key to documenting interaction effects. They also suggest that not all support resources or integrative activities are necessarily beneficial and instead may be detrimental to individuals' well‐being and career commitment.     

A Social Network Comparison of Low‐Income Black and White Newlywed Couples

Relative to White families, Black families have been described as relying on extended social networks to compensate for other social and economic disadvantages. The presence or absence of supportive social networks should be especially relevant to young couples entering marriage, but to date there has been little effort to describe the social networks of comparable Black and White newlyweds. The current study addressed this gap by drawing on interviews with 57 first‐married newlyweds from low‐income communities to compare the composition and structure of Black and White couples' duocentric social networks. The results indicated that low‐income Black couples entered marriage at a social disadvantage relative to White couples, with more family relationships but fewer positive relationships and fewer sources of emotional support (for wives), fewer connections to married individuals, and fewer shared relationships between spouses. Black couples' relative social disadvantages persisted even when various economic and demographic variables were controlled.     

Becoming Custodial Dads: Exploring Parenting Among Low‐Income and Working‐Class African American Fathers

The authors use an ecological framework and grounded theoretical analysis to explore the circumstances in which working‐class and low‐income custodial African American fathers gain custody of their children, their transition from part‐time to full‐time parents, and the role of support networks in enhancing or inhibiting these men's parenting. Twenty‐four men from an impoverished Midwestern urban area participated in the study. The findings suggest that these men, and perhaps others sharing their demographic profiles, generally become parents by default and are often reluctant to take on a full‐time, single parenting role. Adaptation to the role seems to be enhanced by these men's use of extended kin support networks and shared living arrangements. However, low wages, a lack of sufficient assistance from public assistance programs, and informal custody arrangements often inhibit their fathering.     

Emotional Safeguarding: Exploring the Nature of Middle‐Class Parents’ School Involvement1

Although discussion of parents’ school involvement generally surrounds academic success, there are also emotional motivations for parents’ school interventions. In this exploratory analysis, based on interviews with 21 parents and teachers, I show how these middle‐class parents’ concerns for children extend beyond grades and academic success to the children’s own emotional comfort with schooling. I discuss examples of emotional safeguarding, a parental practice to protect children’s happiness at school. Results also suggest that emotional and academic concerns for children at school are interrelated, and parents often approach the emotional with the academic in mind. Parents focus on reducing children’s anxiety or discomfort at school with the ultimate goal of instilling a love of learning. The parents in this study perceive an emotional route to achieving academic success for their middle‐class children. Unlike parents, teachers in the study identify parents’ concerns as academic or a product of parents’ anxiety. This research introduces the possibility that while parents’ academic concerns are very real, they are also accompanied by equal and occasionally greater concerns for children’s happiness and well‐being at school.     

Young People,Social Exclusion and Inter‐Generational Tension in a Rural Somerset Town

This article seeks to explore how the myth of the ‘rural idyll’ can be detrimental to those who currently experience some of the greatest social exclusion in rural areas — children and young people. The research explores the views and experiences of the young residents of a small town in the south‐west of England (n = 157, ages 12–18 years). The results suggest that rural policy and practice have failed to meet the needs of young people, contributing to their social exclusion in rural communities. Community engagement, facilities and youth consultation are discussed in the context of policy and practice.     

Inter‐professional collaboration and conceptualisations of practice

This article discusses the inter‐professional collaborative experiences of professionals working with children and their families in two areas of high social need. The findings suggest that, although the way that professionals conceptualise their practice may hinder attempts to collaborate effectively, a complex interplay of several factors is involved. A typology of the various collaborations reported is then constructed. Finally, integrating this work with the findings of other studies, an explanatory model is developed. These have particular relevance given the current rhetoric of ‘joined‐up government’. The project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Ref. R000221542). Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Efficacy of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy and Behavioral Couples Therapy: A Meta‐Analysis

Behavioral couple therapy (BCT) and emotionally focused couples therapy (EFCT) are well‐established treatments to reduce couple distress. This meta‐analysis summarizes the current state of knowledge on the efficacy of these two therapy methods by focusing on randomized controlled trials only. A literature search revealed 33 suitable primary studies (2,730 participants in total), all of them measuring relationship satisfaction. Robust‐variance random‐effects meta‐analysis revealed medium effect sizes at post‐test (overall: g = 0.60; BCT: g = 0.53; EFCT: g = 0.73) and small effect sizes of 6 months after treatment (overall: g = 0.44; BCT: g = 0.35; EFCT: g = 0.66), but these gains were not maintained after 12 months (BCT only: g = 0.06). Between the two therapy methods, no significant effect size differences could be found. Results have to be interpreted with caution due to potential publication bias.     

Exploring the Family Album: Social Class Differences in Images of Family Life*

Based on an analysis of twenty family albums, this study investigates how social class affects the family's portrayal of kin and friendship networks as well as its geographical boundaries. The results suggest the visual collections of middle-class families are more likely to present a kin oriented image of family life, include friends, and portray the family as a system with broad geographical boundaries than those of the working-class. Theoretical and methodological implications of these findings are discussed.     

Race and Reciprocity: Inter‐household Exchanges in a Multiracial Neighborhood

This study investigates the degree to which African‐American households are socially integrated into a multiracial, middle‐class suburban neighborhood near Dallas, Texas. Although U.S. neighborhoods are becoming increasingly heterogeneous in composition, little is known about black households' participation in social and informational networks within multiracial middle‐class neighborhoods. Drawing on theories of the gift and social capital, we view neighborhoods in terms of complex patterns of inter‐household exchanges of material and symbolic goods. We predict that black‐led households will exchange at a lower rate with their neighbors than will other households and test this prediction using survey data collected from 119 households and from follow‐up interviews with eight black heads of household. Our main finding from the survey is that black households exchanged at a significantly lower rate than did other households, ceteris paribus. The follow‐up interviews found little evidence of black racial homophily in neighboring or of racism within the neighborhood. However, the low rate of black inter‐household exchanges may be partly explained by black head of households' personal experiences of racism outside the neighborhood and by a racially constituted disposition against borrowing from neighbors. We discuss implications of our findings for research on racial integration and segregation.     

Explaining Men's Entry into Female‐Concentrated Occupations: Issues of Masculinity and Social Class

This article seeks to add to an understanding of why some men enter female‐concentrated occupations (and why the majority do not). Drawing on the results of in‐depth interviews with 27 men in a range of occupations, I illustrate and interpret the complex and often contradictory ways in which men approach the notion of working in female‐concentrated occupations and examine the impact that this has on their occupational outcomes. The data suggest that different attitudes to female‐concentrated work cannot in themselves explain men's presence there. Consequently I explore, with particular reference to social class, the context in which attitudes around gender, work and occupational destinations, are framed. I conclude that men's entry to female‐concentrated occupations may best be approached, not as an issue of ‘masculinity’ but as one of social mobility operating within a gendered labour market.     

Family‐of‐Origin Experiences and Adjustment in Married Couples

Within this article a model is tested that examines the relationship between married individuals' experiences in their family of origin and patterns of marital adjustment. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling procedures, making the couple the unit of analysis. This allowed for an exploration of how one partner's family‐of‐origin experience and the other partner's family‐of‐origin experience uniquely influence each of the partner's experiences of the marriage. Two aspects of the results stand out. First, both husbands' and wives' family‐of‐origin experiences emerged as significant influences on marital adjustment. Second, the data suggest that wives' experiences within their family of origin are more strongly related to both their own accounts of their marriages and their husbands' accounts of their marriages than are husbands' family‐of‐origin experiences.     

Inter‐country wage differences in the European Union

This article investigates the determinants of wage gaps between European Union countries along the wage distribution, applying the methodology proposed by Firpo, Fortin and Lemieux (2009) and Fortin, Lemieux and Firpo (2011). The authors conclude that both wage structure and composition effects contribute to explaining wage differentials, but that the wage structure effect is more important. This latter effect would appear to derive from differences between unknown factors, while the composition effect can largely be explained by differences in the following areas: education, proportion of workers with supervisory responsibilities, occupational structure, and, to a lesser extent, industrial structure.     

Voices From the Field: Social Workers Define and Apply Social Justice

Social justice is embraced as a central mission of social work, yet how the profession defines it lacks clear and common understanding. This qualitative study explored the concept of social justice as perceived and applied by social workers in diverse practice settings. Focus-group participants were asked five primary open-ended questions. Key phrases and terms were identified and grouped into four themes: variation in meaning of social justice, confronting injustices, practice reality, and professional responsibility. The findings suggest that social justice as understood and practiced in the field is compatible with theoretical conceptions in the literature, but a predominant understanding remains lacking.     

A Culture-Centered Approach to Listening: Voices of Social Change

Drawing on an understanding of marginalization as intrinsic to mainstream communication theorizing and research, this essay argues that exploitation is rooted in the denial of the communicative capacity of the margins and in the co-optation of the margins as the subjects of top-down communication directed at the margins by experts. The distributions of communicative infrastructures map out the inequities in distributions of economic resources, reifying the unequal distribution of resources by perpetuating values embedded in the interests of the power elite. Listening offers an opening for interrogating the inequities in the global landscape of distribution of power, by attending to the unvoiced assumptions and principles underlying the logics of concentration of power in the hands of the transnational elite. Drawing from postcolonial and Subaltern Studies theories, I engage with the culture-centered approach to outline key tenets of listening as entry points to addressing the global inequities that are produced by neoliberal globalization. Listening through inversion, incompleteness and imagination works in solidarity with the margins to co-construct theory rooted in the ontologies, epistemologies, and values of the margins.