Exploring the needs of parents for achieving reunification: The views of foster children,birth family and social workers in Spain

BackgroundFamily reunification refers to the process through which children and adolescents under a measure of temporary separation (foster care or residential) return to live with their biological families. The research has begun to reflect a paradigm change in intervention and support for these families that affects the consolidation of reunification and the prevention of new processes of separation and reentry into the protection system.ObjectivesThis article examines the needs of parents who are susceptible to an educational intervention from a positive focus that contributes to the consolidation of family reunification.MethodEighteen semi-structured interviews were conducted and 22 discussion groups were convened with 135 participants (63 protection-system professionals, 42 parents and 30 children and adolescents). The data were analyzed through content analysis and were subject to peer revision.ResultsA series of parents' specific educational needs when their children return home was recognized. These needs can be the objects of family intervention based on a positive focus directed toward highlighting parents' strengths and are related to awareness of family progress, emotional management, giving and receiving help from other families and social support. The participants' comments show that feelings of self-sufficiency and positive reinforcement are fundamental for consolidation of the process.ConclusionsSocial support through formal and informal networks may be a path to explore for providing more and better support after returning home. Empowering families so that they can be agents of support for other families can be a way to consolidate reunification, allowing families to be active agents in the reunification process. In addition, listening to children's voices can be a good strategy for family consolidation.     

Three-dimensional virtual reality: Applications to the 12 grand challenges of social work

Abstract

The American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW) identified 12 Grand Challenges of Social Work to unify the profession with focused research, practice and policy applications for the most pressing social issues. Virtual Reality (VR), specifically three-dimensional immersive computer-generated environments, has a history of research and applications to address social and behavioral problems. VR is becoming more readily available, as the technology is becoming more common in mainstream platforms such as mobile technology. While social work interventions are often tailored for vulnerable populations that may not have access to VR computing, it appears that virtual reality is gaining accessibility with these advances. Within the framework of the 12 Grand Challenges of Social Work, researchers from three social work virtual reality laboratories in the United States, Texas State University, the University of Houston, and the University of Alabama, review applications previously tested and currently in development to focus future research and intervention in social work practice.     

Social Work and Social Justice: What Are We Fighting For?

Abstract

A cardinal value of social work practice is social justice. Social justice ranks as the second of five values that underpin the Code of Ethics of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW. However, although social work's commitment to promoting social justice is laudable and, indeed, may even be a distinguishing feature of the profession, precisely what kind of social justice does social work espouse? The answer to this question remains unclear. Views about the nature and scope of social justice stem from broader conceptions of justice that not only differ from, but may also conflict with, each other. Therefore, it is important not only for social work to be clear about the type of social justice that it currently advocates, but also to ensure that it is one that the profession seeks to defend and maximise. It is argued that the choice must be as egalitarian as possible. Indeed, it must be radically so. Otherwise, what is social work fighting for?     

Resiliency in Divorced Families

Abstract

The aim of this cross-sectional and exploratory study was to identify resiliency factors that are associated with family adaptation after divorce. Questionnaires (The Family Hardiness Index, The Family Crisis Oriented Personal Evaluation Scales, The Relative and Friend Support Index, The Social Support Index, The Family Sense of Coherence Scale) and an open-ended question were used to collect data independently from parents and children belonging to 68 divorced families in Belgium. Results indicate that there is a significant positive correlation between the three components of family hardiness (commitment, challenge, and control—according to the parents) and the family's adaptation to its changed circumstances. There are also positive correlations for both parents and children between the positive redefining of stressful situations by the family, the social support of the family, and the family's adaptation after divorce. According to the children there are also significant positive relationships between the family's use of avoidance strategies, the parents' educational level, the number of years that the parent had been divorced, and the family's adaptation.     

Social Capital and Adolescent Well-Being in a National Sample

Abstract

Using data from the 1999 National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) on 11,809 boys and girls aged 12 to 17 years, the present study examined measures of adolescent social integration and the availability of community programs against the outcome measures of the Child Behavioral and Emotional Problems Scale (CBEPS) and the Child School Engagement Scale (CSES). On ordinary least squares regression analysis, adolescent participation in an organized activity, the adolescent's not changing schools, and a community program targeting adolescent pregnancy, drugs, or crime were significantly associated with higher scores on both scales. Adolescent employment was associated with a lower CSES score and had no effect on CBEPS. Neither residential stability (years in the home) nor parental religious attendance had any effect on the outcomes, but parental volunteerism was associated with a higher CSES score. The findings may be useful for the design of community programs targeting adolescents in particular because the NSAF has a focus on low-income families.     

The contribution of the intervention in social networks and community social work at the local level to social and human development

ABSTRACT

The primary task of community social work is building social networks by reinforcing people's resources and those of the different environmental and social contexts from three dimensions: personal development, social development and organisational development. The new information technologies today establish a relationship of communication with local communities and citizens that promotes proximity to social networks. Social intervention is supported by a set of methods from human geography that can be used as tools to create maps of the territory and the networks for planning, diagnosing and classifying the management of community network intervention. In this discussion we set out to analyse the contribution of the intervention in social networks as a means of achieving a new configuration of social networks at the local level. This information is obtained from semi-structured interviews with social workers and other professionals in the social sphere in municipalities with over 100,000 inhabitants in the Madrid region (Spain). The research results show that intervention in social networks locally multiplies the opportunities to enhance the quality of people's social relationships, thus expanding their social support by strengthening their bonds, their personal network and support systems; secondly, it increases empowerment to facilitate a type of intervention to strengthen human potential and to gain autonomy and full citizenship.     

‘Pain on Top of Pain,Hurtness on Top of Hurtness’: Social Discrimination,Psychological Well-Being,and Sexual Risk Among Women Living With HIV/AIDS

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study explored how a subsample (n = 26) of participants in Protect and Respect (N = 184), a safer-sex intervention for women living with HIV/AIDS (WLH/A), discussed their experiences of social discrimination and the impact of discrimination on their lives, psychological well-being, and risk behaviors during group intervention sessions. The majority of participants was Black (83%), earned less than $10,000 per year (80%), and acquired HIV through heterosexual sex (58%). Analyses demonstrated that social discrimination manifested in the women's lives as poverty, HIV/AIDS-related stigma, and gender inequality. These experiences caused intense psychological distress and limited WLH/A's ability to implement the safer-sex skills that they learned during the intervention. We discuss the applied and theoretical implications of our findings, advocating for HIV and sexual risk-reduction interventions that are based on an ecological framework that addresses holistically the individual, relational, and sociostructural factors that affect women's sexual risk behaviors.     

Assessment of frailty syndrome using Edmonton frailty scale in Polish elderly sample

The aim of the study was to assess the incidence and severity of the frailty syndrome assessed with the Edmonton Frailty Scale. This is a cross-sectional study conducted among 382 patients (236 men and 146 women, mean age 71.9?years). The Edmonton Frailty Scale was administered during the patient’s admission to the hospital. The Polish adaptation was performed using the standard methodology. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the whole Edmonton Frailty Scale was 0.709. The mean correlation between positions and the overall result was r?=?0.180. There were no statistically significant differences between women and men in the area of Edmonton Frailty Scale mean score (p?70?years than for those?<70?years (p?相似文献   

Graduate Education for Social Change

ABSTRACT

Is it possible to conduct an effective, progressive, and politicized program for graduate students in our contemporary conservative context? This article evaluates the outcomes over seven years of a pioneering program in Political Social Work. Based on survey data of Political Social Work alumni, it addresses four outcome measures: enrollment, satisfaction with curriculum and field opportunities, job and career development, and persistence of political ideology and practice. While being “political” during the past decade is clearly different than it was in the 1960s, the evidence proposes that political content and practice can have a significant place in both social work education and the field. More specifically, the study demonstrates that politicized social workers in the 1990s were able after graduation to secure employment, sustain progressive values, and practice political social work.     

Development of a short-form scale of public attitudes toward homelessness

How do urban Americans regard the problem of homelessness? Recent surveys by pollsters and social scientists seem to document a “backlash” during the 1980s, with public sentiment shifting from sympathy to resentment. The U.S. Supreme Court, for example, recently upheld a controversial 1990 New York City law forbidding poor people from panhandling in the city's subways. This study was designed to develop a brief, reliable, valid scale to more precisely assess public attitudes toward homelessness (acronym PATH), which future researchers can use to more exactly chart changes and correlates of public opinion toward homelessness. Here, a cross section of 222 adults in New York City responded to a 38- item survey containing PATH and five other brief scales. Analysis of responses found general support for four initial hypotheses: (1) There was indeed a remarkable diversity of public opinion, from 3 to 20 points on the 0– 20- point PA TH Scale, ranging from profound sympathy to anger and disgust. (2) A short- form of MacDonald's Poverty Scale correlated only modestly with one's PATH score (r=+0.49) that, along with respondents' comments, suggests these two forms of social distress may now be viewed quite separately in the American psyche. (3) Psychometrically, the 5- item PATH proved to be high in internal reliability (α=0.74), and in construct validity, with significant correlations with 4 other items. (4) Results so far indicate at least some personality basis for PATH. As expected, those most sympathetic to the homeless were significantly lower in authoritarian personality (r=?0.24) and in belief in a just world (r=?0.13). Unexpectedly, PATH correlated negatively with Social Desirability (r=? 0.15, p < 0.05). Potential uses of this PATH scale are explored, along with the notion of important distinctions in poverty and homelessness as two increasingly separate forms of social distress.     

Campus 1980—The Shape of the Future in American Higher Education,Edited by Alvin C. Eurich and the Staff of the Academy for Educational Development. New York,Delacorte Press, 1968. 327 pp. $6.95 Paperbound

Abstract

Harry Specht's argument against private practice is really an argument against social work's involvement in psychotherapy. He says it's not social work, despite the fact that social work provides more psychotherapy than any other profession in the nation, and more professional social workers are involved in it than in any other method of intervention.     

Teddy Bears: Facilitators of Love,Friendship and Therapy

Abstract

An edited version of a paper delivered to the Scottish branch of the Group for the Advancement of Psychodynamics and Psychotherapy in Social Work, Edinburgh, Winter 1976.

After finishing her degree in Social Science in Dublin Una McCluskey took her professional training at Edinburgh University (1971), specialising in psychiatric social work. She worked for a number of years in a Department of Child and Family Psychiatry, where she was the Principal Social Worker, and was involved in the Innovation of the in-patient treatment of whole families. She worked with Barnardo's in Edinburgh, and went as a lecturer to York University in 1978. Interests have always lain in the marriage of psychodynamic and systemic thinking and the application of these ideas to working with individuals, families and organisations.     

Analysis of Sexual Behavior Acceptance In Poland

Abstract

Current investigations into post-communist Polish sexual behavior acceptance levels indicate that men show a decidedly higher concern for their partner's sexual satisfaction than women do, and that women are more sensitive than previously thought to smells and pre-or-gasmic activities. Research was conducted with a 200-person married population (25–40 years old) in Wroclaw, Poland. The Sexual Stimuli Scale developed by Z. Lew-Starowicz (1988) was the basic testing method. The results of this investigation also indicate that men are more active and women relatively passive, in compliance with social mores. Men are more open than women to various kinds of stimulation and forms of sexual contact, activity directed not only to achieving personal pleasure but also including various kinds of caresses, manual and oral, leading to the woman's sexual satisfaction.     

Social workers' views of parents of emotionally disturbed children: Replicating a US study

Abstract

This article reports the results of a survey of Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) members in relation to their views of parents of emotionally disturbed children. The survey involved a random sample of AASW members. It replicates a US study of members of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) conducted by Johnson, Renaud, Schmidt and Stanek (1998). The study was conducted in order to see if there was any similarity in the views of United States (US) and Australian social workers in regard to their view of these parents. The data from the Australian sample using the US Providers' Beliefs About Parents (PBAP) instrument did not support the conclusions of the study in the US. This result emphasises the importance of replication studies when transferring measurement instruments from one country to another.     

Parent Effectiveness Among Single,Low-Income,African American Mothers

Abstract

This study was an exploratory investigation of parenting effectiveness among 135 single, low-income African American mothers. Two aspects of parenting were investigated, satisfaction with one's ability to parent and parent effectiveness or abilities. Two instruments were used to measure these concepts, the Kansas Parental Satisfaction Scale (James, Schumn, Kennedy, Grigsby, Shectman, & Nichols, 1985) and the Parent Success Indicator for Parents (Strom & Strom, 1998).

Results indicate high levels of effective parenting among the group on both measures. This was true regardless of the mother's age, level of income, level of education, number of children, or age of the oldest child. Implications for social work practice, policy, and research are presented.     

Social networks and getting a home: Do contacts matter?

Under what conditions does one find a new home via one's social network? Does the way in which a house is acquired affect how satisfied one is with the house? We formulate hypotheses on the characteristics of personal networks, the context of the move and their effect on those who attain a house through informal channels and how satisfied they are with the new home. We use a representative dataset from the Netherlands (the Survey of the Social Networks of the Dutch, SSND, n = 1007) to test our arguments. Our results show that buyers with more diverse social networks and renters with larger social networks are more likely to find their home via social contacts. However, finding a home through an informal channel does not enhance their satisfaction with the house that is found.     

Stumbling towards oblivion or discovering new horizons? Observations on the relationship between social work education and practice

What should social work education be training students for? What should the relationship be between social work education and practice? The first half of this article cautions that social work education, as currently constituted, may 'unfit' people. Principally, this is because social work practice, as envisaged by employer interests, has not been subject to the same critical scrutiny as social work education and has come to dominate perceptions of the training task. The dangers that follow from this position are outlined. The second half of the article proceeds to explore the contribution that practice teachers and tutors can make to enable practitioners to remain confident, credible, critical and creative in this practice environment. The article concludes with some observations on the future as envisaged in the proposals to modernise social services and to create a General Social Care Council.     

Computer Diffusion and Worker Empowerment

Abstract

Much anecdotal material describes various human impacts of computer adoption within the social work profession, however, there is scant research which confirms or challenges these assumptions. This article describes a study which investigates the diffusion of computers into the social work profession in terms of empowerment as an individual outcome for workers. A questionnaire returned by 520 social workers provided data on organizational computer diffusion, organizational centralization, and the Social Worker Empowerment Scale. Workers in organizations where computer diffusion was more advanced, and those in more decentralized decisionmaking environments were found to be more empowered.     

Do “Clicker” Educational Sessions Enhance the Effectiveness of a Social Norms Marketing Campaign?

Abstract

Objective: Social norms campaigns are a cost-effective way to reduce high-risk drinking on college campuses. This study compares effectiveness of a “standard” social norms media (SNM) campaign for those with and without exposure to additional educational sessions using audience response technology (“clickers”). Methods: American College Health Association's National College Health Assessment questions are used to evaluate actual and perceived use. Additional survey questions assess individual exposure to the interventions. Results: The authors find “clicker” technology to be more effective than social norms poster media alone in reducing misperceptions of normative alcohol use for those students who attended clicker sessions. Conclusion: Poster SNM campaigns may be most effective when supported by group “clicker” heath-related sessions.     

Coming Events

Abstract

In Australian Social Work, June 1992, Cheers gives an overview of ‘Rural Social Work and Social Welfare in the Australian Context’. This is an important contribution to our understanding of working in rural and remote areas in Australia. Over the past five years Cheers, through his published articles, has been instrumental in increasing our knowledge base of the requirements for social workers to be effective in these areas. In giving an overview it is not possible to discuss some of the problems in implementing the ideas presented by Cheers. It is the purpose of this article to extend Cheers' article by discussing the difficulties faced by social work(ers) in rural and remote areas as well as making suggestions for the development of social work practice in rural and remote areas.