Mentor Attunement: An Approach to Successful School-based Mentoring Relationships

Despite the ongoing popularity and appeal of youth mentoring programs across myriad of contexts, the achievement of high quality relationships between adult volunteers and school-aged youth remains a vital challenge to the work of youth development professionals. This paper outlines the role of mentor attunement in the experience of relationships between volunteer adults and youth in schools. Through an in-depth, inductive analysis of qualitative data, including on-site observation of relationship development over time, attunement at varying levels is illustrated. Implications for future research and program development are discussed.     

Natural Mentoring Relationships Among Adolescent Mothers: A Study of Resilience

This study focused on natural mentoring relationships between nonparental adults and African American adolescent mothers. Data were collected from 93 adolescent mothers over 5 time points, starting in the adolescent mothers' senior year of high school and ending 5 years after high school. We found that having a natural mentor was related to fewer depressive symptoms and fewer anxiety symptoms over time. Natural mentor presence also modified the relationship between stress and mental health problems over time. Facilitating these natural mentoring relationships between adolescent mothers and nonparental adults may be a useful strategy for promoting healthy development within this population.     

Through the Ages: Developing Relationships Between the Young and the Old

This article evaluates a program between students at a primary school and aged care residents. The aim of the program was to increase respect and appreciation between the groups. Visiting programs between children and the elderly are well documented, and assumes that the contact will benefit both groups. However the research is contradictory. To ensure that this program was achieving its goals, pre-post test data using the Children’s Perceptions of Aging and Elderly test was collected. Significant improvements in attitude were seen in two items. Overall, there was an improvement in attitude in 12 of the 18 instrument items.     

Strategies for Developing Cross-Cultural Sensitivity

Developing cross-cultural sensitivity currently is a primary challenge for social work educators. In this article, the authors propose the use of an analogy between child abuse and cultural wounding to provide a metaphorical understanding of minority cultures. From the overtly physical wounding of castration to the more subtle forms of psychological wounding that occur through denying the importance or value of one’s culture, the range of cultural wounding that occurs as a result of oppression, devaluing or stigmatizing is presented. It will be shown that the use of the child abuse metaphor will allow the student to understand the feelings and behaviors of those oppressed and through a new level of empathy, learn to join the oppressed in a different type of problem—solving effort.     

From Hell to Utopia and Back to Hell: Charismatic Relationships

Weber and most subsequent analysts of charisma have adopted a synchronic standpoint. The author offers a diachronic formulation, delineating the social processes that create, modify, and transform charismatic relationships. A mature charismatic relationship emerges as: (1) consensual definitions of discontents emerge; (2) the identities of leader and followers are established; (3) social encounters (gatherings) are programmed to enhance charismatic acts; (4) new solidarities are established; (5) new consensual definitions of reality are established; and (6) a Utopian future is formulated. The common phenomenon of charismatic relationships transforming into tyrannies is a consequence of the qualities of some of the social processes produced to maintain a charismatic relationship. Representative relationships are an alternative to charismatic and tyrannical ones.     

Interactional Dynamics in Alcohol-Complicated Marital Relationships: A Study From India

This study seeks to understand differences in the interpersonal dynamics of couples living in alcohol-complicated and alcohol-free marital relationships in India. An ex-post facto cross-sectional design was used to compare 150 wives of alcoholics with an equal number of wives of nonalcoholics, who were administered standardized instruments to assess marital adjustment and family interaction pattern. Analyses show that wives of alcoholics have lower levels of marital adjustment and a poorer family interaction pattern across various domains, in consonance with the Western literature on these issues. Covariates analyzed included four variables such as type of family, type of marriage, consanguinity, and wife's occupational status. Implications for de-addiction programs in India are discussed and the need for couple/family-based therapy is emphasised.     

Status Inequality and Close Relationships: An Integrative Typology of Bond-Saving Strategies

Equality is described in the literature as a prerequisite to satisfying close relations, but research has not seriously grappled with how a sense of equality is created or how inequalities might be overcome. This paper uses an interactionist perspective to explore how individuals maintain or repair a close social bond when a perceived difference in status is defined to be problematic. In 7 76 essays, respondents described a situation where a status inequality disrupted a close relationship, the strategies one or both of the participants used to maintain the bond, and how effective the strategies were. Analytic induction yielded four basic strategy types: (a) accept the status inequality; (b) avoid the situation which fosters feelings of inequality; (c) alter the inequality by redefining or concretely mitigating it; and (d) acknowledge and discuss the problematic situation. Findings from previous research on facework, embarrassment, and shame are integrated into this typology, and implications are drawn for symbolic interactionist theory and research.     

From Silos to Scaffolding: Engaging and Effective Social Work Practice

In this final article of the special issue Beyond the Manual: Using Data and Judgment in Clinical Social Work Practice, we extend the discussion regarding the use of data and judgment. We discuss the multiple sources of data used in practice, including research evidence, client perspectives and experience, moment-by-moment process observation, and client feedback regarding progress towards specific, desired outcomes. We move beyond current debates purporting one framework over another to propose a synthesizing framework that situates evidence-based practice, empirically supported interventions and common elements/mapping and adapting practice within a common factors scaffolding framework. This framework provides a way for social workers to effectively make sound judgments using research and client data within the demands of contemporary practice. The article provides a brief overview of the four practice approaches followed by the proposed scaffolding framework and rationale, and concludes with implications for practice, professional education, and research.     

Mentoring Policy Research Organizations: Project Evaluation Results

The international community has identified a positive link between good governance and economic development. There is an increasing appreciation of the effective role that local policy research organizations (PROs) in transition and developing countries can play in providing evidence-based policy recommendations as the basis for sound legislation and in assessing the efficacy of existing programs. Capacity building programs for PROs are seen as a key component of growth strategies. The donor community has responded with support for such efforts, which take many forms. On the other hand, the evaluation of the effectiveness of these capacity building and mentoring programs has been inadequate. This article presents the evaluation of one program, focusing on two important capacity building program outcomes: improved research capacity and greater effectiveness in the policy arena. A reflexive design is used. The results suggest the program??s approach is promising.     

Family Relationships and Adolescent Psychosocial Outcomes: Converging Findings From Eastern and Western Cultures

This study investigated the role of parent–adolescent relationships in mediating the association between family‐related negative life events and adolescent depressive symptoms and problem behaviors among 1,696 eleventh graders from the United States (n=201), China (n=502), Korea (n=497), and Czech Republic (n=496). Results indicated that perceived parental involvement and parent–adolescent conflict mediated the link between family‐related life events and adolescent depressed mood. The path from family‐related life events to adolescent problem behaviors was mediated by perceived parental involvement, parent–adolescent conflict, and perceived parental sanctions of adolescent misconduct. With the exception of minor cross‐cultural differences in the magnitude of associations among variables, this study revealed considerable similarity in the association of family factors with adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptomatology. The findings contribute to the growing literature on culture‐general developmental processes.     

Characterizing Emotional Support Development: From Adolescent Best Friendships to Young Adult Romantic Relationships

This study examined development of emotional support competence within close friendships across adolescence. A sample of 184 adolescents (53% girls, 47% boys; 58% White, 29% Black, 14% other identity groups) participated in seven waves of multimethod assessments with their best friends and romantic partners from age 13 to 24. Latent change score models identified coupled predictions over time from emotional support competence to increasing friendship quality and decreasing support received from friends. Friend-rated emotional support competence in adolescence predicted supportiveness in adult romantic relationships, over and above supportiveness in adolescent romantic relationships. Teen friendships may set the stage for developing emotional support capacities that progress across time and relationships into adulthood.     

Developing Strategies for the Prevention,Detection and Management of Elder Abuse: The Irish Experience

ABSTRACT

It is only within the past two decades that elder abuse has received governmental attention in Ireland. There had been little awareness, and no structures in place to tackle this problem prior to this. Media highlighting of particular cases, and an exploratory study undertaken in 1998, prompted the setting up of a governmental working group on elder abuse. Unique to this group was the trialling of a proposed system in two pilot sites. This allowed for recommendations based on actual practice, and has lead to the adoption of a network of elder abuse caseworkers, among other recommendations.