贫困大学生就业心理障碍分析

在大学生就业形势仍然严峻的今天,贫困大学生就业尤其令人关注。贫困大学生在就业过程中经常表现出焦虑、自卑、被动、从众等因自我认知失调导致的心理障碍,分析发现他们产生心理障碍的原因包括对自己认识不充分、自我认识矛盾、社会实践经验缺乏等主观因素和社会、家庭、学校等客观原因。因此,贫困大学生需要从多途径了解自己、客观地评价自己、坚定地相信自己、充分认识求职单位等方面来认识自己．有的放矢：同时通过学好专业知识、培养兴趣特长、不断完善人格来完善自己,扬长补短;并运用转化法、宣泄法、慰藉法、放松法等多种手段及时调适、缓和冲突。     

How good is good enough? Exploring social workers’ conceptions of preparedness for practice

This study examined the question: ‘How do social work practitioners construct preparedness for practice?’ The answer to this question was explored through a research conducted in 2013 consisting of a survey based on the Australian Association of Social Workers’ Practice Standards and interviews with social work practitioners who had experience working with graduating social work students in their final field education placements. The responses of 25 survey participants suggest that social work practitioners generally expect new graduates to have ‘moderate’-level skills across the different practice areas, although a small but notable number of supervisors expect new graduates to have general work preparedness at a ‘developed’ level. In addition to having a clear understanding of and identification with professional values, purpose and ethics, the eight interview participants spoke of the importance of empathy and the ability to work within a multidisciplinary organisational environment.     

“It’s a whole orchestra”: what are the instrumental elements in quality field education?

ABSTRACT

Field education is widely upheld as an essential component of social work education; however, definitions of ‘quality’ field education are contested. Increasing competition for placements in Aotearoa New Zealand has placed considerable pressure on tertiary providers and organizations to provide placements considered to be ‘of quality’. Current conversations across the social work sector are emphasizing the importance of further examination of placement quality. While the development of national field education guidelines for field educators has assisted in clarifying their particular contribution to successful placements, equivalent guidelines for other stakeholders do not currently exist.

This timely study generated qualitative data through interviews with agency managers, academic staff and students. The findings present their perspectives on elements that contribute to ‘quality’ field education. Overall, the participants agreed ‘quality’ field education is underpinned by a focus on student learning alongside a desire from the organization and the field educator to support a student placement. Student readiness and suitability, a match between the student and the placement, adequate preparation and understanding of the responsibilities of each stakeholder role were noted. The development of national guidelines on the responsibilities, skills and knowledge of students, organizations and academic staff engaged in field education is recommended.     

Learning to Be a Social Worker in a Non-traditional Placement: Critical Reflections on Social Work,Professional Identity and Social Work Education in England

Drawing upon findings from a national evaluation of student social workers' experiences of ‘non-traditional’ placements with a national charity, this article considers what such placements can contribute to the development of an individual and collective sense of professional identity for social work. This is explored against the background of current developments in social work education in England, including changes to the requirements for practice placements and the introduction of ‘fast-track’ routes to qualification, preparing students for social work in statutory children's services. The article suggests that with the establishment of The College of Social Work and the development of the Professional Capabilities Framework, relevant to all social workers throughout their careers, the profession has an opportunity to promote a concept of social work in England beyond that required by statutory sector employers; and that practice learning in non-statutory and non-traditional settings has an important role to play in this.     

Students and Refugees Together: Towards a Model of Practice Learning as Service Provision

Between 2001 and 2003, 14 assessed placements were provided for social work students through students creating a ‘virtual’ agency offering a service to refugees and asylum seekers. Drawing on research in progress regarding a unique project in South West England, this paper explores an inclusive model that creates a context for students to integrate theory and practice at the cutting edge of professional practice.

The START project is a service to refugees and asylum seekers, a group that experience acute social exclusion and media‐induced hostility, provided for two years entirely by students as part of their professional course requirements. Holistic, needs‐led assessment, cultural sensitivity and advocacy by students allow families and unaccompanied minors to access otherwise inaccessible resources.

In the current context of changing arrangements for practice assessment, emphasis on multi‐disciplinary learning and service user involvement, this offers an alternative to the ‘apprenticeship’ model for students in developing a secure professional identity. Student learning is framed as contribution rather than burden in the organisational and employment arena and service‐user outcomes have been dramatic. The focus of this paper is on the educational impact from the perspectives of students and practice teachers and an alternative model of practice learning.     

A single-subject design of ergonomic intervention effectiveness for university employees in a new facility

As clinicians are searching for evidence to support their practice interventions, it is sometimes hard to find the "real-world" studies that incorporate the complexities of actual practice. Following calls in the public health, nursing and medical literature for clinicians to participate in practice-based evidence, this pilot study explores the effectiveness of a single-subject design for practice-based evidence. Twenty-five "well" university employees participated in an ergonomic intervention over the course of one academic semester that consisted of a 15 min ergonomic intake session, a 45 min group hands-on ergonomic educational session and a 15 min individual ergonomic consult in their offices. Participants were sent postural comfort surveys weekly and their subjective ratings were analyzed to determine the effectiveness of the intervention to decrease their perceived postural discomfort at a computer work station. Twenty-one of the twenty-five participants reported an improvement in postural comfort over the course of the study. This pilot study suggests that further investigation needs to be conducted to determine the effectiveness of hands-on ergonomic education and consultation for well populations working at computer workstations.     

Field Placement and the Impact of Financial Stress on Social Work and Human Service Students

While significant research has been undertaken exploring the pedagogical benefits of undertaking lengthy social work and human services field placements, there has been very little consideration given to the potential financial stress involved for students. This study sought to address this knowledge gap. Research was conducted in 2014 using quantitative and qualitative methods with students and academic and professional staff from six Queensland universities. The findings show a significant relationship between unpaid placements and financial hardship, creating considerable stress for students and at times a compromised placement learning experience. The limited flexibility in requirements from professional bodies and universities for how placements are undertaken has been identified as a key contributor to financial hardship. Addressing the complexities inherent in this issue requires a collaborative effort from multiple stakeholders and should not be regarded as a problem for students to endure and manage.     

Evaluation of an Online Group Intervention to Improve Test-Taking Self-Efficacy and Reduce Licensure Test Anxiety

We evaluated whether a synchronous online group intervention, using the Association for Social Work Boards Group Review Practice Test© items, increased students’ LMSW licensure test-taking confidence and decreased their test anxiety. A non-equivalent comparison group study was used to measure change in 59 graduate students’ confidence in test-taking and test anxiety. Almost 45% of students reported test anxiety in the clinical range at pretest. Using a repeated measures GLM, we found that students in the intervention group experienced a significant increase in confidence from pretest posttest. For overall anxiety, impairment anxiety, and worry anxiety, students in the intervention group experienced less anxiety over time, and students in the comparison group experienced more anxiety over time. Implications for programs are discussed.     

School counseling practices related to postsecondary STEM participation

This qualitative exploratory cross-case analysis analyzed the beliefs and practices of high school counselors related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) academic advisement, postsecondary planning, and career participation. Interviews were conducted with high school counselors (N = 13) who were purposively sampled to represent a diversity of schools in terms of demographic variables. Findings indicated that high school counselors perceived that (a) sociocultural factors influenced student preparation for STEM, career planning, and decision making; (b) students’ STEM-related career goals and academic behaviors were sometimes misaligned, and academic advisement often mediated this tension; and (c) their professional STEM knowledge, beliefs, and practices were influenced by professional preparation, workplace characteristics, and their academic experiences. Implications include the need for early, sustained high school STEM counseling and academic advisement; accessible professional development in STEM preparation and careers to promote multiple pathways and reduce school counselor bias; and encouraging family involvement in STEM career decision making.     

Total Immersion: Using Group Care Placements to Maximise Practice Learning

This paper presents findings from a survey of students' views on the experience of undertaking assessed placements in group care settings as part of their qualifying social work training. Respondents are positive and enthusiastic about the available learning opportunities in these settings, especially in terms of the possibilities for close involvement with service users and for learning about ‘real social work’. They emphasise the value of support from both on‐site supervisors and off‐site practice teachers, and reflect on the demands which such placements make in terms of students' personal resourcefulness in ambiguous role sets. The paper also offers advice for students, tutors and practice teachers on a range of issues involved in the planning of placements in group care settings, including comments on anti‐oppressive practice and on the use of reflective journals by students.     

Tutor and Student Experiences of Teaching and Learning Law in UK Social Work Education

In a project researching the outcomes of teaching law in social work education, students and tutors were asked to reflect on their experiences of both the academic curriculum and how learning was translated into practice. Curriculum documents in the eight participating universities were also analysed.

At times distinctive orientations emerged from approaches to teaching and practising social work law articulated by tutors and students, and captured in course documentation. On what contributed to effective teaching outcomes, both students and tutors emphasised the application of law learning to practice and the importance of considering learning styles. For students, law learning remains a complex challenge but with a clear interface with social work values. Teaching can help to reduce anxiety about practising social work law but familiar barriers to learning and its application in practice also surfaced. In addition to the time allocated to law learning, development of legal knowledge and skills was greatly affected by the priority given to this aspect of practice during placements.

The openness of practice assessors and managers towards the legal rules and students who use their legal and ethical literacy to advocate for particular outcomes for service users was a crucial factor positively affecting the student experience.     

Abilities in Romantic Relationships and Well-Being Among Emerging Adults

The psychological well-being of emerging-adult college students may relate to their success in romantic relationships. One hundred forty-five emerging-adult undergraduate students (117 women, 28 men) completed an online questionnaire about their attachment style, dating anxiety, fear of being single, self-efficacy, subjective happiness, self-esteem, and psychological distress. Low attachment anxiety and social distress in group dating situations and high levels of self-efficacy in romantic relationships predicted happiness. Low attachment anxiety and high self-efficacy predicted low psychological distress. Less fear of negative evaluation from a dating partner and high self-efficacy in romantic relationships predicted self-esteem. Given the findings of self-efficacy in romantic relationships on well-being, relationship education is recommended.     

Social work field education: believing in students who are living with a disability

This paper is an exploration of social work placements with students who are living with a disability. The paper discusses hurdles including censoring placements and opportunities, equal access, strategies for building a belief in ability and self-esteem. Field education is a significant part of the social work degree internationally. It allows social work students to further develop their social work identity and to apply their knowledge to professional practice through real-life learning. The paper broadens the conversation on social work placements and ability, adding some personal narratives and sharing some insights from an Australian university context.     

Increasing Opportunities for Co-production and Personalisation Through Social Work Student Placements in Disabled People's Organisations

Social work student practice placements in disabled people's organisations offer several advantages for individual students, their peers and tutors, and DPOs themselves, who can offer placements for students in supporting service users to give their views as well as delivering social care services. In this context professional skills and anti-discriminatory practice are fostered through learning directly from disabled people as experts without the constraints of local authority policies.

This paper draws on my experiences of such student placements at Wiltshire and Swindon Users' Network over a 15-year period, 1993–2008, in collaboration with different universities. The social work student on placement here experiences an alternative organisational culture which recognises service users' expertise over professionals. The student learns to value collective peer support and working with activists who view their experience through the framework of the social model of disability. This facilitates a two-way exchange as the student learns about user-led practice and the disabled activists appreciate the skills the student brings.

The advent of policies of personalisation, the Big Society and the decreased role of local authorities is challenging the traditional model of adult care social work within local authorities. The placement of social workers in local centres for independent living, in order to provide intensive one-to-one support in support planning for those in complex situations, is only likely to increase in future. This can be seen as a positive alternative which enables professionals to rediscover their professional values and practice and extends the opportunity for placements beyond DPOs concerned with user involvement only.     

Adult learning styles: Implications for practice teaching in social work

This paper focuses on the current aspiration to further the process of continuing professional development in social work. It contends that knowledge from the field of adult learning theory may be helpful in sign-posting some tangible ways forward here. The particular emphasis is on critically assessing the usefulness of identifying learning styles as indicators of preferred ways of learning. Knowledge of learning styles is explored as one way of promoting students' learning on practice placements. A small-scale qualitative research study with a group of practice teachers and their students is presented as a vehicle for exploring this new terrain in social work. The findings of this research build on key themes identified by the current literature in this area. The author's findings suggest that information about learning styles has direct practical application in the social work practice teaching arena. The data points to the potential value of using such information to guide students' learning on practice placements and has relevance to considerations of their continuing professional development. Suggestions are put forward to highlight how practice teaching and Diploma in Social Work programmes could facilitate this process. The paper stresses the over-riding need to view students as actors in a broader social context, however, and highlights how information regarding learning styles needs to be utilised in this context.     

IMPACT OF A FOUNDATION-LEVEL MSW RESEARCH COURSE ON STUDENTS' CRITICAL APPRAISAL SKILLS

Evidence-based practice (EBP) has increasingly been put forth as a new paradigm of social work practice. One of the critical elements of EBP is the ability of consumers of research to be able to critically appraise research evidence. The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the extent to which an introductory MSW research methods course affected student attitudes toward, and aptitude in, using research evidence. The study used a modified version of the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme instrument developed in the health care profession. Findings indicated that students reported an improvement in subjective attitude toward research. However, there was no significant change in students' ability to critically appraise research evidence.     

Changes in Relationship‐Specific Attachment in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy

Emotionally focused couple therapy (EFT; Johnson, The practice of emotionally focused couple therapy (1st/2nd edition). Brunner‐Routledge, New York, 2004) is an effective treatment of relationship distress (Johnson et al., Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 1999; 6, 67). However, less is known about EFT's impact on couples' relationship‐specific attachment bond. Using hierarchical linear modeling with a sample of 32 couples, we examined session‐by‐session changes in couples' relationship‐specific attachment anxiety and avoidance and pre‐ to posttherapy changes in their relationship‐specific attachment behaviors. Couples significantly decreased in relationship‐specific attachment avoidance, and those who completed a blamer softening significantly decreased in relationship‐specific attachment anxiety. Couples' attachment behavior significantly increased toward security. Finally, session‐by‐session decreases in relationship‐specific attachment anxiety and avoidance were significant associated with increases in relationship satisfaction across sessions. These results provide empirical support for the attachment‐based assumptions of EFT. Video abstract accessible by clicking here     

Exploring the transfer of self-efficacy: academic self-efficacy predicts exercise and nutrition self-efficacy / Una exploración de la transferencia de la autoeficacia: la autoeficacia académica predice la autoeficacia nutritiva y del ejercicio físico

In this research, we investigated the transfer of self-efficacy (SE) beliefs from one domain to another. Specifically, we explored whether academic SE beliefs might be able to predict exercise (Study 1) and nutrition (Study 2) SE. Additionally, to explore the underlying mechanisms, participants reported on domain confidence, perceived similarity and domain importance. Specifically, in Study 1, undergraduate students reported on their academic SE beliefs, confidence in the academic and exercise domains and their exercise SE beliefs (n = 50). In Study 2, participants reported on their academic SE beliefs, confidence in the academic and nutrition domains and their nutrition SE beliefs (n = 71). Moreover, in both studies, the perceived importance and the perceived similarity between domains were measured. Multiple regression analyses revealed that academic SE beliefs, academic confidence and exercise confidence were significant predictors of exercise SE beliefs (Study 1); for Study 2 nutrition SE was predicted by academic SE, academic confidence, nutrition confidence and nutrition importance diet. Additionally, we found a partial suppression effect in both studies: academic confidence strengthened the relationship between academic SE and exercise SE in Study 1, and between academic SE and nutrition SE in Study 2. Discussion focuses on the similarities and differences between the studies’ results and the implications for the literature.