Informing Theory from Practice and Applied Research

Editors' introduction: Patricia Gurin grew up in southern Indiana where citizens split in support of the South and the North during the Civil War, and where the Ku Klux Klan was founded. After graduating from Northwestern University, she worked with the American Friends Service Committee (the social action voice of the Quakers). Later, after earning her PhD in social psychology at the University of Michigan, she (with Edgar Epps) conducted a study of students attending historically Black colleges, focusing on how the vast majority integrated collective and individual achievements, worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and stayed in college at the same time. That work initiated her life-long interest in personal and group identity. Most recently, Gurin presented expert testimony in the 2003 Supreme Court cases on affirmative action and the use of race in college admissions decisions. This social science evidence, providing strong support for the compelling interest for diversity in higher education, was widely cited in the majority opinion favoring race-conscious admission policies. Gurin brings this rich activist scholarship to her commentary and discusses the promise of practice and applied research for informing theory. She traces her own professional biography, one that evolved from being a researcher (using primarily national surveys) and teacher (primarily large lecture courses) to becoming intimately involved in teaching through interactive, small group learning communities. Gurin brings to light contributions from the articles that converge on theorizing about the social context such that the theorizing can take into account differences rather than be applied universally.     

Learning about Difference, Learning with Others, Learning to Transgress

Emerging work in intergroup contact has vitalized a focus on processes affecting the impact of interventions on outcomes. We theorized that intergroup learning—learning about other groups, educating others about one's own groups, intention to bridge intergroup differences, and reflecting on one's own group—mediates the effect of a combined enlightenment-encounter curricular intervention on assessments of importance and confidence in taking action to reduce prejudice and promote diversity. Results from a pretest/posttest design with a diverse group of undergraduate social welfare majors (n = 175) show (a) increased motivation for intergroup learning, and importance of taking action, and confidence in doing so, and (b) intergroup learning partially or fully mediates the impact of enlightenment and/or encounter on taking action .     

Does Campus Diversity Promote Friendship Diversity? A Look at Interracial Friendships in College*

Objectives. One of the hopes of having diverse campus environments is that the daily interaction with students from different backgrounds will promote interracial understanding and friendship. However, it is not clear to what extent interactions and friendships are multiracial. This article examines the impact of college characteristics, social distance felt toward other groups, and precollege friendship diversity on the formation of interracial friendships in the first year of college. Methods. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, I examine how college characteristics, social distance felt toward other groups, and precollege friendship diversity affects the formation of interracial friendships in the first year of college. Results. The results show that while precollege experiences and initial attitudes do have an impact on the formation of interracial friendship in college, campus racial/ethnic diversity is also important in predicting friendship heterogeneity. Minorities have higher predicted friendship diversity than whites, but this difference nearly disappears in the most diverse schools due to the interactive effects of school diversity on friendship diversity for white students. Conclusions. This research provides evidence of the social benefits of assembling a diverse student body, particularly for white students, and can add to the debate over the continuation of affirmative action policies.     

Creating aging-enriched social work education:a process of curricular and organizational change

The CSWE Geriatric Enrichment in Social Work Education Project, funded by the John A. Hartford foundation, aimed to change curricula and organizational structure in 67 GeroRich projects so that all students would graduate with foundation knowledge and skills to work effectively with older adults and their families. The emphasis was on change processes to infuse and sustain gerontological competencies and curricular resources in foundation courses. This article presents lessons learned and strategies for engaging faculty, practitioners and students in the curriculum and organizational change process.     

Creating Aging-Enriched Social Work Education

Summary

The CSWE Geriatric Enrichment in Social Work Education Project, funded by the John A. Hartford foundation, aimed to change curricula and organizational structure in 67 GeroRich projects so that all students would graduate with foundation knowledge and skills to work effectively with older adults and their families. The emphasis was on change processes to infuse and sustain gerontological competencies and curricular resources in foundation courses. This article presents lessons learned and strategies for engaging faculty, practitioners and students in the curriculum and organizational change process.     

Students' of Color and European American Students' Stigma-Relevant Perceptions of University Instructors

In classrooms students of color may experience stigma (i.e., concern about being stereotyped) because negative stereotypes of their intellect are salient. Two studies included African American, European American, and Latina/Latino female and male undergraduates. Study 1 ( n = 86) demonstrated while students of color generally had positive expectations of teachers, their expectations declined when imagining class with a European American instructor who would repeatedly versus never evaluate their work or an ethnically matched instructor across conditions. Study 2 ( n = 136) revealed all students had more positive expectations of culturally tolerant versus culturally intolerant instructors. Students of color more than European American students perceived that intolerant instructors could grade them unfairly. We discuss implications for ethnically diverse classrooms .     

Gang membership and bias against young people who break the law

High school students (n=148), college students (n=98) and adult church members (n=108) reacted to vignettes depicting an illegal act by a young person: spray painting a wall (malicious mischief) or pointing a handgun at another person (felony menacing). In a randomized 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design, manipulated variables were perpetrator as male/female, as Hispanic/not, as a gang member/not, and perpetrator accompanied by other young people versus alone. Church members perceived greatest danger, were most likely to report the incident, but high school students were the most punitive. The mischief vignette showed subjects were less likely to confront gang members, perceived them to be more dangerous, were more likely to report them to police, and more were likely to advocate locking them up. This bias was not observed in the menacing vignette. Perhaps greater seriousness of the incident overwhelmed the salience of gang membership.     

Benefits Associated with Nutrigenomics Research and Their Reporting in the Scientific Literature: Researchers' Perspectives

Nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics (NGx) are fields of research that have raised significant expectations about their potential benefits. This article presents empirical data from an online survey seeking the opinions of NGx researchers (n = 126) regarding the achievability of the potential benefits of NGx, the time envisioned for their realization, the motives that may lead to their explicit mention in scientific peer-reviewed articles and the audience(s) targeted by NGx researchers when reporting their results in such articles. Results show that caution should be taken to avoid the risks associated with biohype and the premature dissemination of the potential benefits of NGx among various audiences.     

“任务驱动法”在团体工作教学中的应用

任务驱动法是以任务为线索的探究式教学方法,其实践性、综合性、系统性等特点与团体工作的课程特点、教学目标和教学内容相适应。教师可根据团体工作教学三阶段,布置相应的课堂任务、实验任务和课外实训任务,让学生在完成任务的过程中掌握团体工作的理论、方法和实务技巧,全面提升专业素质。     

Bringing the community in: partnerships for aging enrichment

Aging enrichment of undergraduate social work curricula ensures that program graduates will be prepared to practice with older adults. This article reports the results of focus group research that was designed to engage social workers from community agencies serving older adults in preparing students to become "aging-savvy" social workers. The workers highlighted the importance of wide-ranging exposure to older adults, the changing needs of older adults, and the importance of increasing students' comfort with self-determination. These findings informed the program's ongoing curricular transformation process through the incorporation of new assignments that enabled increased contact with older adults in a variety of settings.     

Structural Deficiency or Cultural Racism: The Educational and Social Experiences of Arab‐Australian Youth

This paper discusses the cultural, attitudinal and structural factors that impact upon the social experiences and educational achievements of Arabic‐speaking background (ASB) students in three Melbourne secondary schools with high levels of cultural and linguistic diversity. The paper makes the case for and then outlines a multidimensional approach to multicultural education to better integrate ASB students and their families into the schooling environment. Key strategies developed and tested include a model of school‐community partnership, online and interactive teacher support material (TSM) as well as on‐going teacher professional development workshops on reflexive approaches to cultural diversity and intercultural tension.     

Cultivating Interest and Competency in Gerontological Social Work: Opportunities for Undergraduate Education

Undergraduate social work programs are well-positioned to recruit students to gerontology, but little is known about how well curricular activities help foster students' commitment to the field. This study considers whether a small group of undergraduate students' interactions with older adults positively impacts students' plans to work with older adults; perceptions of skills; and feelings of comfort and competency in working with older adults. Experiences from this study suggest that experiential learning can positively impact students' perceptions of work with older adults, but may not be enough to draw students to the field. Implications for undergraduate education are discussed.     

Bridging the Researcher-Practitioner Divide in Intergroup Relations

Editors' introduction: Walter Stephan's interest in intergroup relations grew from his early involvement in intercultural relations. He spent substantial time in Latin America as well as Vietnam during his college years. These experiences influenced his choice to study social psychology at the University of Minnesota. His first foray into intergroup relations came with his move to Austin, Texas, in 1971. A Court mandate ordered schools to be desegregated, and Stephan examined the effects of school desegregation there on students' self-esteem and intergroup attitudes. His field research on the effects of desegregation as well as classroom interventions to improve intergroup relations was complemented by his laboratory research on intergroup biases, intergroup threat, intergroup anxiety, and empathy. Stephan brings this lifetime of involvement in both basic and applied research, and deep concern for effective practice and humanistic philosophy, to his commentary. He opens the commentaries with an elucidation of the difficulties in, and benefits of, the central thrust of this volume: the researcher-practitioner collaboration. He paints portraits of practitioners, researchers, and practitioner-researchers, and classifies articles in this issue accordingly. He notes the difficulties among the various parties interested in improving intergroup relations, spanning from simple lack of knowledge to lack of contact to lack of meaningful ways to interact. However, potential benefits of collaboration are abundant for all parties, and Stephan proposes a number of ways in which such partnerships could be actualized.     

Turning Doctoral Students into Faculty in Gerontological Social Work: The AGESW Experience

ABSTRACT

Developing faculty interested in aging may help social work meet the needs of our growing aging population. However, doctoral students need a variety of supports to complete PhDs and become gerontological social work faculty. This study explored one program’s role in supporting the development of social work doctoral students to faculty in gerontology. An e-mail invitation was sent to all former participants (2010–2016 cohorts) of the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work (AGESW) Pre-Dissertation Fellows Program (PDFP). The 38-question online survey consisted of Likert-type scales, multiple answers, and one open-ended question per section about the program’s impacts on their academic career development in teaching, research, mentoring, and support. Forty-five respondents, representing all six cohorts, completed the survey. More than half reported that the PDFP contributed to their ability to publish their research (64.4%, n = 29), grow their professional network (86.7%, n = 39, and teach (55.5%, n = 25). Doctoral programs provided different experiences than the PDFP, including mentoring, methodological training, professional development, networking, and peer support. Results suggest the PDFP provides content recipients value that supplements instruction received in their institutions. The program’s ability to connect students to each other and to national leaders enhances their career development and socialization into academic roles.     

Individual Differences in the Pathways into and Beyond Higher Education in the UK: A Life-Course Approach

This article uses data from the UK 1970 Birth Cohort ( N = 10,000) to address the research questions: (a) Who in this cohort made the transition to higher education (HE), and (b) how are the benefits and risks of such participation distributed? We assess the way that the benefits and risks of participation differ according to family background and child development, finding risks to mental health for individuals who attend HE against the odds. We also explore the errors in prediction of standard statistical models in order to introduce a discussion of selection bias linked to a broader policy question of the appreciation of the complexity and idiosyncrasy of individuals' educational pathways. We explore this question in relation to three particular cases that confound the prediction of the statistical analysis in order to clarify the assumptions and limitations of a standard analysis in approaching the problems of developing policy that recognizes individual heterogeneity and diversity .     

Depression Treatment and Cost Offset for Rural Community Residents with Depression

ABSTRACT

This study examined the relationship between costs of treating physical problems and costs of treating depression, for 322 rural residents with depression. Multiple regressions were used to control for sociodemographics, depression severity, and physical and mental health comorbidities at baseline. The results indicated a $1.42 (n = 322) reduction in the costs of treating physical problems for a $1.00 increase in the costs of treating depression. The reduction was $2.61 (p < 0.05) among those receiving depression treatment (n = 125). These findings suggest a net savings from depression treatment, in addition to other benefits such as improved symptoms and functioning and increased productivity.     

Clinical social work education in palliative and end-of-life care: relational approaches for advanced practitioners

This paper describes the first post-Master's program in the US in end-of-life care for social workers. Developed at the Smith College School for Social Work, this program used innovative relational methods in student recruitment, curricular design, supervision, and leadership development, based upon input from the faculty, students, and field supervisors. Collaborations emerged with funders, agencies, and programs nationally. The program was based on a pedagogical stance that clinical work with dying people requires the capacity to be fully present- in individual, group, and family work; in interdisciplinary meetings; and in advocating for quality and equity of care-while attending to diverse and at-risk populations. Students deepened their clinical skills and took leadership in the field of end-of-life care.     

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: The Elusive Search for Racial Equity in Higher Education

In 1965, when affirmative action officially became part of the national consensus to achieve racial social justice, it was based on the compelling justification of establishing equality and remedying the effects of past discrimination. Since then, there has been a slow but steady shift from "equity" to "diversity" as its rationale. The shift has had a negative effect on achieving the original goal of racial equality. The diversity rationale has permitted parallel procedures to evolve that provided majority students with an even larger differential advantage than that conferred on minority students by affirmative action. In addition, we continue to have massive segregation. Minorities are concentrated in second level schools in urban areas, while whites are concentrated in higher quality institutions in the educational suburbs. It is without factual or legal foundation that whites can argue that they (relative to minorities) are the victims of discrimination through unfair and unequal educational policies and practices that determine access to higher education.     

Beneficial Effect of Altruism on Well-Being Among Chinese College Students: The Role of Self-Esteem and Family Socioeconomic Status

ABSTRACT

The motivation for voluntary social service has been identified as altruism. This study aimed to establish the relationship between altruism and well-being in Chinese college students at the undergraduate level. To better understand altruism, two groups were selected, one that used self-reporting and another related to the perception of peers. Self-reported altruism and self-reported decisions to help in real-life situations were measured in the first sample (N₁ = 525); peer-rated altruism was measured in the second sample (N₂ = 189). The results showed (when socially desirable responding was controlled) (1) self-reported altruism and self-reported decisions to help exerted significant direct effects on well-being, while peer-rated altruism did not; (2) self-esteem mediated the effects of self-reported altruism, self-reported decisions to help, and peer-rated altruism on well-being; (3) family socioeconomic status moderated the effects of self-reported altruism on well-being via self-esteem; college students with low family socioeconomic status were more likely to reap benefits from altruism. These findings confirm the emotion-elevating effects of altruism in collectivistic societies like China, which may encourage more people to engage in voluntary social service. Future research should adopt longitudinal or experimental designs with a more nationally representative sample to better confirm these findings.     

Bringing the Community In

Summary

Aging enrichment of undergraduate social work curricula ensures that program graduates will be prepared to practice with older adults. This article reports the results of focus group research that was designed to engage social workers from community agencies serving older adults in preparing students to become ‘aging-savvy’ social workers. The workers highlighted the importance of wide-ranging exposure to older adults, the changing needs of older adults, and the importance of increasing students' comfort with self-determination. These findings informed the program's ongoing curricular transformation process through the incorporation of new assignments that enabled increased contact with older adults in a variety of settings.