Who Is Supporting Homeless Youth? Predictors of Support in Personal Networks

Homeless youth lack the traditional support networks of their housed peers, which increases their risk for poor health outcomes. Using a multilevel dyadic analytic approach, this study identified characteristics of social contacts, relationships, and social networks associated with the provision of tangible and emotional support to homeless youth (N = 419, M age = 20.09, SD = 2.80). Support providers were likely to be family members, sex partners, or non–street‐based contacts. The provision of support was also associated with contacts' employment and homelessness status, frequency of contact, shared risk behaviors, and the number of network members that were homeless and employed. The results provide insights into how homeless youth could be assisted to develop more supportive social networks.     

Why Seek Asylum? The Roles of Integration and Financial Support

The suspicion that asylum seekers seek beneficial conditions in host areas has become a controversial and popular topic. It has led to accusations of economic migration, with deterrent and preventative measures introduced to try to control this “problem”, and in particular, the intended uniformity of asylum procedures has been a key aim of European harmonisation talks. As a small, qualitative study, this article is based upon thirteen semi‐structured interviews held with Somali individuals who sought asylum. It aims to explore destination choices with reference to the experiences and explanations given by some whose voices are otherwise largely excluded from debates. It asks to what extents and why they occurred. It reveals that having homes, jobs, educations, and more were key parts of what exile meant to these individuals, and so demonstrates reactivity behind topics more typically held to be “voluntary” concerns. Choices upon destinations were limited, however, and far bigger influences were the people smugglers or agents whom most relied upon to facilitate their entries past the preventative border controls. Beyond this, deterrence or prevention measures had no effect. The data is also used to explore the controversial and similarly under‐researched role of financial support. It is shown to have been connected with the interests that persons had in adjusting to new areas and dealing with their interim disadvantage, and not as something that justifies suspicions. This study supports arguments that policy makers should concentrate less upon deterrence or prevention, and more on the conditions that exist to propel such movements. Its findings suggest that insufficient certainty, support, or quality of life can create pressures for seeking asylum and that these should be addressed by policy makers; it also argues that “voluntary” aspects of movements might more recognisably be parts of exile.     

Who Experiences Leisure Deficits? Mothers' Marital Status and Leisure Time

The authors used the 2003 to 2012 American Time Use Survey to examine marital status variation in mothers' leisure time. They found that never‐married mothers have more total leisure but less high‐quality leisure when compared with married mothers. Never‐married mothers' leisure is concentrated in passive and socially isolated activities that offer fewer social and health benefits. Black single mothers have the highest amount of socially isolated leisure, particularly watching television alone. Results suggest that differences in the context and type of leisure are salient dimensions of the divergent and stratified life conditions of married, divorced, and single mothers.     

Who's Controlling Who? Personal Communication Devices and Work

Personal communication devices have long been part of work life. In recent decades, the range of modes available has proliferated and their use has became widespread. This article examines the ways that personal communication devices have shaped workers' experience of work. It reviews four key areas of research on this topic: the ability to work in new times and spaces; the relationship between work and personal life; the fragmentation of work; and the pace and intensity of work. The article highlights how the issue of control is critical when attempting to understand the how and why of any effects arising from workers' use of these technologies.     

Who Enrolls in Teen Parent Education Programs? An Emphasis on Personal and Familial Characteristics and Services Received

This study describes personal and familial characteristics of 58 teenage mothers enrolled in Mama Club, a free community-based teen parent education program. It also identifies types of services and support participants received and program elements perceived to be important for attending Mama Club. Most participants were raised single-parent households (55.0 %), reported having mothers who were teenage parents (64.8 %), were impoverished (86.0 %), not enrolled in school (54.5 %), and unemployed (81.8 %). Participants primarily received assistance from Medicaid (86.5 %), Food Stamps (67.3 %), and family members (40.0 %); only 5.5 % received money from their child’s father. Teen parent education programs should educate parenting teenagers about available assistance programs and involve diverse community partners to establish a seamless referral system.     

Who Am I? A Black Leader's Personal Reflections of that Journey

The article offers insights into the intricacies of black leadership development. It explores the personal and professional development of ‘self’ in relation to black leadership within white British social, educational and employment contexts. It provides illustrations of self discovery to support black leaders operating closer to who they are.     

An Examination of ‘Irregular Competition’ between Corporations and NGOs

The purpose of this article is to develop a theory which frames the demands of civil society in such a way as to better enable corporate subjects to manage and navigate ‘irregular’ engagement from activist organizations. Activist NGOs engage in advocacy at times by mounting, facilitating or encouraging popular social campaigns and actions against targeted corporations. In many cases, radical ‘direct action’ tactics are adopted, taking such approaches, NGOs may capitalise on the broader, more ethically diverse strategic possibilities open to them than are available to their corporate adversaries. We employ institutional theory to map out this asymmetric distribution of strategic possibility. We theorise NGOs and corporate subjects as effectively ‘competing’ with one another to maximise their own strategic possibilities and to minimise those of their opponents, in the perennial battle for hearts and minds that plays out between NGOs, corporate subjects, and broader civil society actors who ultimately determine boundary rules for NGO-corporate conflict. Within this context we explore the normative challenge arising from the possibility that corporate subjects might seek to tip the competitive balance by learning from how the military has adapted to successfully engage with ‘irregular’ adversaries through what is often termed ‘asymmetric’ or ‘irregular’ warfare. Should corporations follow a similar adaptive process, by mirroring the ‘irregular’ strategies of activist groups? Drawing evidence from the military experience, we suggest—perhaps counter intuitively—that such adaptations can create new opportunities for conflict resolution and for building sustainable cooperation between former adversaries.     

Who Helps Single Mothers in Nairobi? The Role of Kin Support

Single mothers often turn to their extended kin for financial assistance and to help with child care. Such support may be especially important in areas of high poverty and poor environmental conditions. Using novel kinship data, this article assesses the extent of support given by more than 3,000 relatives to 462 single mothers living in a slum area of Nairobi, Kenya. Contrary to stereotypes about families in sub‐Saharan Africa, the active kin network of single mothers is relatively small, and nearly a fifth of mothers do not receive any financial or child‐care assistance. Different types of kin offer different kinds of support according to culturally proscribed roles. However, support also depends heavily on kin's employment status, geographic proximity, and age. These findings offer a nuanced picture of how single women living in slum areas draw on their kin network to cope with their daily demands as mothers.     

Science or Propaganda? An Examination of Rind,Tromovitch and Bauserman (1998)

SUMMARY

An article, “A Meta-analytic” Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples, published in the July 1998 edition of the Psychological Bulletin resulted in an unprecedented amount of media attention and became the first scientific article to be formally denounced by the United States House of Representatives. The study's authors analyzed the findings of 59 earlier studies on child sexual abuse (CSA) and concluded that mental health researchers have greatly overstated CSA's harmful potential. They recommended that a willing encounter with positive reactions would no longer be considered to be sexual abuse; instead, it would simply be labeled adult-child sex. The study's conclusions and recommendations spawned a debate in both the popular and scholarly press. A number of commentators suggested that the study is pedophile propaganda masquerading as science. Others claimed that the authors are victims of a moralistic witch-hunt and that scientific freedom is being threatened. After a careful examination of the evidence, it is concluded that Rind et al. can best be described as an advocacy article that inappropriately uses science in an attempt to legitimize its findings.     

Is it Generalized Anxiety Disorder or Poverty? An Examination of Poor Mothers and Their Children

This paper addresses generalized anxiety disorder in poor families and argues that DSM definitions have led to an expansion in the domains of what is considered disorder. Social factors, which are importantly involved in many samples used to study GAD, have been overlooked. This was a secondary analysis of data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N?=?4,898). The findings confirmed that the poorest mothers had greater odds of being classified as having generalized anxiety disorder. We also conducted a structural equation model. Our findings suggest that anxiety in poor mothers is not psychiatric, but a reaction to severe environmental deficits. Thus assessment and interventions should be targeted at the environmental level and diagnostic labels should be used judiciously.     

Does Who Decides Really Matter? Causes and Consequences of Personal Financial Management in the Case of Larger and Structural Charitable Donations

We study causes and consequences of financial management in households in the specific case of charitable giving. We test hypotheses using couples in the Giving in the Netherlands Panel Study (n = 1,101). We find that more relationship specific investments lead to deciding on charitable giving as one economic actor. Furthermore, we find that the partner with the highest relative educational resources has most decision making power over charitable donations. Separately deciding couples are smallest charitable donors. Households in which the male partner decides are largest charitable donors when only larger and more structural donations are considered. This can be explained by their more conservative religious denomination.     

Who’s minding the kids? An economic comparison of sole and joint custody

We examine the allocation of spending by divorced parents on both private goods and goods which they share with their child. Sole and joint custody arrangements differ in the pattern of shared goods. Parents play a non-cooperative game. We compute and compare the outcomes under sole and joint custody, and examine the effects of income redistribution.     

An Examination of College Students' Perceptions of Transformative and Culturally Competent Educators: Are Social Work Students Unique?

The purpose of this study was to examine college students' perceptions of transformative and culturally competent educators. Using data collected from a cross-section of 194 undergraduate (associate and bachelor level students) and graduate students in social work and other majors from four colleges or universities in the Midwest region of the USA, the findings indicate that transformative and culturally competent educators are important to college students. Using the Students' Perceptions of Transformative Educators Scale (SPTES), the data revealed that the overall mean for the SPTES was high, with a score of 198.24. The range was 131–233. The standard deviation [SD] was 21.55. This mean suggests that students place a high level of importance on attributes of transformative educators. When examining the culturally competent subscale of the SPTES, the data also revealed that students want educators who personify culturally competent attributes. The data illustrated a mean for cultural competence of 63.27. The range was 36–70. The standard deviation was 7.89. This mean suggests that students also place a high level of importance on this attribute in educators. ANOVA results indicate that respondents do not significantly differ along the lines of age or race on the SPTES. Student rank (associate, bachelor and graduate), however, did reveal significant differences on the cultural competence [F(2, 174) = 3.280, p < 0.040] and socialization [F(2, 187) = 4.172, p < 0.017] subscales of the SPTES. Social work students also demonstrated statistically significant differences in their slightly higher scores related to the perceptions of the overall SPTES (mean = 202.17, SD: 22.88, p < 0.01); the cultural competence subscale (mean = 65.03, SD: 6.64, p < 0.00) of the SPTES; and the socialization subscale (mean = 26.21, SD: 3.06, p < 0.02) of the SPTES.     

What Gets Covered? An Examination of Media Coverage of the Environmental Movement in Canada

This article analyzes press releases from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Greenpeace (GP) to assess how their tactics and frames affect the amount of coverage they receive in The Globe and Mail and National Post from 2000 to 2010. While it is clear that some tactics are more likely to garner media coverage, the full range of tactics and frames are not effective for all groups. For example, calling to the public to engage in a social issue leads to increased media coverage for GP but not WWF. And, using research does not affect media coverage for WWF, but decreases coverage for GP. This study demonstrates that the effect of tactical choices on media coverage is contingent on the identity of the group using them.     

An Examination of Drinkers’ Consequences by Sexual Orientation

Abstract

Objective: This study examined college student drinkers by sexual orientation (SO), alcohol use, and negative consequences in a national sample that self-identified gender and SO. Participants: Students completing the Spring 2005 National College Health Assessment (N = 54,111). Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted examining student responses by SO to items regarding negative consequences associated with alcohol. Results: Bisexual students had the highest mean scores on an index of alcohol-related harm. Significant differences were found by SO among male high-risk drinkers for alcohol-related consequences of “fighting” and “injuring another,” and females for “injuring another” and “unprotected sex.” Bisexual students had significantly greater than expected cell counts for significant results, including a significant finding for bisexual low-risk female students for alcohol-related “regret.” Conclusion: These findings suggest that more research is necessary to discern real differences in alcohol-related risk among college students by sexual orientation.     

Can Institutional Support Improve Volunteer Quality? An Analysis of Online Volunteer Mentors

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Volunteer management practices have been shown to have positive effects on employees in terms of skill development, job...     

Is Household Wealth Sustainable? An Examination of Asset Poverty Reentry After an Exit

This paper analyzed the influence of financial behaviors on the duration out of asset poverty while controlling for households’ life cycle and demographic characteristics. We found evidence for the existence of structural barriers to asset acquisition. Asset accumulation at or above levels equal to nine-months worth of income at the income-poverty level was important for improving a household’s odds of permanently escaping asset poverty, but a linear relationship between asset accumulation and the likelihood of returning to asset poverty did not emerge. Moreover, minimizing debt and diversifying the asset portfolio to include more productive assets were positively related to maintaining assets; but households should also consider the risks associated with portfolio allocations.     

Does Talk Lead to Action? An Examination of the Relationship between Debate and Funding for NGOs in Canada

All organizations, including nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), need funding to survive and fulfill their mandates. What is the best strategy for securing that funding? Should groups work to attract government attention and be a focus of government debate or should they avoid this type of scrutiny? This article uses innovative data to systematically examine how being the subject of debate in parliament is related to NGO funding for Indigenous, women, and environmental groups. We also examine if the relationship between debate and funding is dependent on the political party in power. We use data collected from Canadian Public Accounts, which lists all grants to groups by the federal government, and the index of Hansard, a full record of parliamentary debates at the federal level in Canada. Our findings demonstrate that the relationship between debate and funding is dependent on the issue area. While debate is positively associated with funding in all areas, it is a stronger predictor of funding for environmental and Indigenous groups than for organizations focusing on women. In addition, the party in power is critical for shaping how debate is related to funding. Debate has a much stronger effect on environmental funding when Liberals are in power than it does when Conservatives control the Prime Minister's office. This research shows that NGOs must be strategic when garnering attention to their cause as more debate does not necessarily lead to more funding across issue areas and contexts.     

The Who of Power?

How is the causative role of ideas appreciated in understanding the political economy of neoliberalism? What are the origin stories of neoliberalism and how are these related to the periodisation of capitalism? Is there a role for an explicit normative perspective in critiquing neoliberalism as a set of class relations? These broad questions are raised in this feature review, which looks at the latest work on the durability of embedded neoliberalism. It does so by highlighting the importance of revealing and critiquing ideas-centred assumptions within political economy in order to offer an alternative stance on the class relations, institutions, and ideology of present-day capitalism. As a consequence, reflecting further on the who of power remains an enduring challenge for political economy.