Overcoming Language Barriers in the Informed Consent Process: Regulatory and Compliance Issues with the Use of the “Short Form”

Language barriers in the informed consent process can be a significant impediment when recruiting non-English speaking subjects into clinical research studies. Regulatory guidelines indicate that the short form procedure be utilized in such circumstances. In this paper, we examine some of the ambiguities in the regulatory framework, the resulting need for institutional policy guidelines, and compliance issues with the short form process.     

Development Social Policy: An Operational Model for Implementing the Scietific Approach to Development

文章指出,近20年来中国社会政策发展的主要问题是理论繁多。大量有关发达国家的社会福利理论和实践被介绍进来,使我们陷入伪问题的误区,社会政策模式选择的范围局限于发达国家的框架之中,造成了社会政策目标模糊等一系列问题。这些问题还隐含着对社会政策本体的认识偏差,即忽视社会政策对效率的贡献,忽视社会政策的长期目标和内在机制。文章在回顾国际发展理论演变的基础上提出,发展型社会政策与科学发展观有内在的契合之处,可以作为其在社会政策领域的操作化模式。作者指出,发展型社会政策的深层理论是对社会政策功能的全新认识:(1)社会政策不仅仅是个承载器,还是个加速器,特别是在可持续发展上。(2)社会政策不仅可以为经济发展提供一个稳定的社会环境,也具有经济效益。社会政策可以促进生产力的发展。文末,作者提出了投资现在和未来的劳动人群、在政策设计中逐步纳入并强化"发展"的维度等构建发展型社会政策的思路。     

Adding the “Symbolic” to Interactionist Practice: A Theoretical Elaboration of William Schwartz' Legacy to Group Workers

Symbolic interactionism is one of the premier theoretical perspectives on group life, but group work theorists have neglected it. This article provides metatheoretical reflections on the legacy of William Schwartz and the stalled project of theorizing about the communicative foundation of groups. Exemplars in the interactionist tradition are profiled, and their conceptual and practical contributions to a “symbolic” interactionist group theory are highlighted. The structure of interactionist theory is mapped, and a set of distinctive concepts and assumptions organized around the construct of symbolic practices is presented. The article concludes with a call to group workers to harvest the fruits of the interactionist theoretical and research program.     

From “State and Society” to “Institutions and Life”: A Shift in the Study of Social Change in China

Abstract

The term “institutions and life” is proposed as an alternative perspective to “state and society.” Here, “institutions” refers to formal institutions set up in the name of the state and supporting its agents at various levels and in different departments in the exercise of their functions. “Life” refers to the everyday activities of social beings, involving not only the interests, powers and rights-based claims of expedient production and life strategies and techniques, but also relatively routine popular mores and informal institutions. The purpose of constructing and applying this perspective is to probe the complex mechanism of the interaction between living subjects and the agents of formal institutions in institutional practice and thereby analyze the actual logic and changing direction of China’s formal institutions and explore the mechanisms behind changes in mores so as to grasp the main thread running through China’s modern nation building.     

Transcending Hukou Barriers Effectively Unleashes the Income-Raising Effect of Education:Based on an “Agricultural to Non-agricultural Hukou Conversion” Perspective

The relatively low rate of return to education has played an important role in explaining the urban-rural income disparity. However, rural residents have a high demand for education, and one significant reason is that education can help them break the restrictions of the household registration(hukou) system and obtain a higher income. Using data from the 2017 China Household Finance Survey(CHFS 2017), this study employs unconditional quantile regression to find that after reclassifying individua...     

Social Work Research and Its Relevance to Practice: “The Gap Between Research and Practice Continues to be Wide”

The social work profession requires a body of scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of interventions; yet, the social work scientific community could benefit from strengthening its contribution to the profession's body of evidence. Through twenty qualitative interviews with social work professors who are employed at four-year academic institutions (referred to as “social work academics”), this study explored how academics define social work research and how they perceive research to inform practice. The data were analyzed along the six steps of thematic analysis, resulting in 13 themes and six sub-themes in relation to the definition of research activity and social work research, the extent to which research informs practice, and the barriers and facilitators to research informing practice. The findings revealed that social work continues to lack a clear definition of research and produces research that only minimally influences practice, often due to the pressure for social work academics to research and publish in support of their career trajectory within academia versus writing for practitioners. The social work profession should take action to address and further research the research-practice disconnect by establishing a clear definition and aims of social work research, and training academics in effective research-to-practice translational methods.     

The Trans-Theoretical Model of Change: A Reliable Blueprint for Assessment in Work with Children and Families?

Correspondence to John Corden, 1 Brockfield Road, Huntington, York YO31 9DX, UK. Email: John_Corden{at}msn.com Summary In this paper, the authors consider the promotion of Prochaskaand DiClemente’s transtheoretical model of change (theTTM) to the assessment of parenting capacity, within the literaturewhich supports the Framework for Assessment. A number of criticismsof the model, originating from within its original area of applicationare reviewed, and considered in the context of the assessmentof parenting. The authors go on to raise certain questions aboutthe validity of transferring this model from the field of addictivebehaviours to that of parenting and child protection.     

Practice innovations in mental health services to children and families: New directions for Massachusetts∗

This research report highlights selected findings that describe the characteristics of excellent, innovative programs for high‐risk children and adolescents in Massachusetts. The conclusions reported are based on interviews with administrators and providers at nine sites. A research consortium composed of policy makers, administrators, clinicians, and academic researchers recommended the site selections. The study describes a spectrum of innovative practices used to help youngsters in severe crises. Innovative practice was shaped by a common vision of doing treatment within family and community contexts, and coordinating overall care at all levels of the family's social and professional networks. Topics addressed include an examination of the core values directing these programs, the four distinct subtypes of design, therapeutic approaches, management, and evaluation. Obstacles to innovation are considered in light of current policy and practice limitations. The discussion concludes with a summary of the challenges and future directions for policy makers, funding agencies, program directors, and clinicians committed to addressing the current crisis in mental health care for children and youth.     

The New “Bridge to Adulthood”: Searching for Meaning and Cohesion in the Nexus of “Hook-ups,” Internet Porn,and Instant Messages

The transition from adolescence to young adulthood has sometimes been referred to as the “bridge to young adulthood.” This period is critically important for consolidating identity and for developing a deeper capacity for sexual and nonsexual intimacy. However, widening reliance on cyber technology, social media websites, and instant text messaging, in combination with newly emerging patterns of sexual relations and recreational drug and alcohol use, has complicated the navigation of the developmental transition to young adulthood. We review psychoanalytic theory pertaining to the transition from adolescence to adulthood with a focus on Erikson’s theory of psychosexual/psychosocial epigenesis in order to explicate the developmental tasks specific to this transition. This developmental stage will also be examined through the lens of developmental neurobiology. Recent theorizing on Internet-mediated sexuality will be discussed as it relates to the case studies presented. Case material will demonstrate difficulties with the transition to adulthood, manifested in part-object relating, and the use of cyber-mediated and compulsive sexuality to resolve dysphoric self-states.     

Qin Huanming:The Trend to the“Restoration of Elegance and the Veneration of Elevated Moral Character”in the Poetry of the Song Dynasty

InSongdynastyPoetics,andspecificallyinthetrendtowards"therestorationofeleganceandthevenerationofelevatedmoralcharacter"(fuyachongge),ya(elegance)stressedthepoet'sinternalizednobilityoftaste.Therecognitibnoftheexistenceofthisqualitywasfoundedonanevaluation…     

Refugee community organizations in Canada: From the margins to the mainstream? A challenge and opportunity for social workers

Various waves of asylum seekers and resettled refugees arriving in Canada since the 1980s reflect the eruption of war and ethnic conflicts in parts of Africa, Central America, and South East Asia. Contrary to long‐established immigrant communities such as the Greeks, Italians, and Portuguese, these newcomers have had to fend for themselves and develop their own support networks, leading to new forms of organizing and to the formation of refugee community organizations (RCOs). This article discusses the findings of a 2008–2011 study on RCOs in Canada, specifically in Montréal and Winnipeg. The objective of the study was to understand the context in which RCOs have developed, the populations they serve, and the role they play in their ethnic communities. Working within the RCO paradigm, we analyze the creation of these organizations, contrast findings with research done in the UK, and raise issues for social work practice. Key Practitioner Message: ● Innovative research in Canada documenting refugee community organizations gives fresh insight regarding community organizing practice; ● Documents the situation of asylum seekers and refugees on an individual and a collective basis in terms of needs; ● Focuses on the necessity of building bridges with refugee organizations to bring them into the mainstream.     

A Review of and Prospects for Ding Ling Studies in the New Period

I.AGeneralEvaluationofDin9Lin9StudiesintbeNewPeriodDingLingstudieswentthroughtwostagesinthefifteenyearsbetween1979and1994.ThefirststageconsistedoftheeightyearsimmediatelybeforeDingLingpassedaway,thatis,from1979to1986.Researchatthattimefocusedmainlyonremov…     

A Discussion on the Conversion of Literary History─Efforts to Build a New Model for Literary History

Editorialnote:Bornatthebeginningofthiscentury,literaryhistoryasabranchoflearninghasnowdeveloPedforalmostahundredyears.ItisacommonconcernamongacademiccirclesattheturnofthecenturythatweshouldexamineboththePastandfutureofstudiesonliteraryhistory,bringaboutaconversionandestablishanewmodel.Thefollowingarticlesprovideideas,aPProachesanddirectionsforthenewmodel,basedontheauthors'refectionsonPastandpresentstudiesofliteraryhistory,aswellastheirownresearch.IStudiesofliteraryhistoryhavebeenconductedal…     

Who Owns the Group? The Role of Worker Control in the Development of a Group: A Qualitative Research Study of Practice

This paper presents an application of the qualitative research methodology of ethnographic content analysis as a means to discover the salient features and nature of a social work group. Observational data from process recordings of a thirty-week group of mothers at a child guidance center are systematically analyzed. This paper addresses a number of issues: (1) the need to explore and further articulate the role of worker vis-à-vis the dynamic of mutual aid in social work groups, particularly in regard to the concept of exercising 'control;' (2) the applicability of qualitative research methodology as a means of conceptualizing aspects of group work practice, thus contributing to our theory base and knowledge and tools for practice; and (3) the wealth of data for such research lying available in the written recordings of every group practitioner, and the natural logic that the development of theory in social work with groups comes most aptly from the practice domain.     

Variables and Constants in Literature:A Discussion of “Extrinsic Research” and “Intrinsic Research”

The variables and constants in literature are as difficult to separate and understand as the intricacies of quantum physics. This is the basic mode of literary existence and also an important precondition for the longevity of literary classics. However, since the late 19th century, literary currents have been turbulent, and wave upon wave of critical theory has evinced a discord between “the intrinsic and the extrinsic,” even amounting to mutual exclusion, with the result that literary constants...     

On “Being” and “Doing”: Supervising Clinical Social Workers in Case-Management Practice

As clinical social work has increasingly become synonymous with reflective psychotherapeutic intervention, case-management practice is often perceived as an impediment to the consolidation of a professional identity as a clinical social worker. The clinically oriented case manager is faced with the difficult challenge of addressing the inseparable psychological and environmental needs of clients while meeting the expectations of relevant agencies and institutions. In the supervisory process of case-management practice, clinical social workers have a unique opportunity to consolidate their professional identity as they directly address the dialectic between the individual's maturational processes and the larger facilitating environment. Using illustrations from supervisory relationships, this article discusses the specific challenges of clinical supervision in case-management practice.     

Ning Ke and Jiang Fuya:Kingship and the Concept of Loyalty to the Sovereign in Chinese History

AftertheQinandHandynasties,thefeudalregimetooktheformofacentralizedautocracycenteredaroundkingship.Theconceptofloyaltytothesovereigndominatedfeudalethicalandmoralprinciples,andwastheideologicalpillarofabsolutekingship.Theconceptofloyaltytooktimetoformandbecomeconsolidated.IntheclassicaltextsoftheShangandZhoudynastiesthecharacterzhong(loyaltytoasuperior)didnotexist.Thepatriarchalsysteminaslavesocietyboundpeopletogetherthroughasystembasedonhierarchyandbloodties,whichrequirednoloyaltytoasuperio…     

The Diversification of Children’s Support for Their Parents in the Context of an Aging Society: Concepts and Behavior*

China’s aging society and the family-based model of basic aged care determine that children’s support for their parents directly affects the standard of living of the majority of the aging population. Existing theories indicate that in this era of social transition, the implications of filial piety have shifted from the traditional emphasis on the parent-child generational relationship and children’s duty to obey their parents to a dual mode in which family love coexists with the authority of the elders. Using data from the Chinese General Social Survey of 2006, we explore the ways in which the two basic dimensions of authoritarian filial piety and reciprocal filial piety connect with various types of filial behavior. The results of our multivariate linear model show that on average, authoritarian filial piety, which emphasizes authority relationships and children’s duty, increases children’s financial support for their parents, while reciprocal filial piety, stressing family love and generational equality, significantly increases children’s emotional support for their parents. A comparison of the basic dimensions of filial piety shows that neither significantly increases children’s physical support for their parents. Further analysis of the interaction effect indicates that the link between authoritarian filial piety and financial support is more significant among younger groups. In addition, for males, a marginally significant positive relation exists between authoritarian filial piety and physical support for their parents.