Trauma Without Borders: The Necessity for School-Based Interventions in Treating Unaccompanied Refugee Minors

This article explores migration trauma among Mexican and Central American unaccompanied refugee minors (URM) with the purpose of developing an understanding of migration as a tripartite process consisting of: pre-migration exposure to traumatic stressors, in-journey stressors, and post-migration stressors. The migration experience of these youth may be subjectively different depending on a wide range of factors. The complexities of migration are explored as a traumatic, tripartite process. These three salient components of migration may act as precursors, often resulting in psychological sequelae such as: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression. Of all migrant groups, URM are more likely to develop psychiatric symptoms. Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS), and Mental Health for Immigrants Program (MHIP) are among the most effective interventions in the treatment of PTSD, anxiety, and depression in refugee minors. Social workers in schools are in unique positions to provide mental health services to URM. A case example illustrating a cultural adaptation of TF-CBT in an urban public high school is included. Clinical implications of culturally responsive and trauma-informed treatment of URM in schools will be discussed. Additionally, this article will emphasize the importance of bridging the gap between research and culturally responsive, trauma-informed interventions for URM in schools.     

A Sociology of Attachment: Music Amateurs, Drug Users

After describing objects as networks, we attempt to describe 'subject-networks'. Instead of focusing on capacities inherent in a subject, we attend instead to the tactics and techniques which make possible the emergence of a subject as it enters a 'dispositif'. Opting for an optimistic analysis of Foucault, we consider 'dispositifs' and their constraints to be generative: they do not simply reduce but also reveal and multiply. The generative power of 'dispositifs' depends upon their capacity to create and make use of new capacities in the persons who pass through them. Drawing upon a diverse body of literature and upon fieldwork among drug addicts and music amateurs, we show how this point of entry into the question of the subject immediately and irredeemably undoes traditional dichotomies of sociology. It becomes impossible to continue to set up oppositions like those of agent/structure, subject/object, active/passive, free/determined. We also have to look beyond studies of 'action' and describe 'events'. Through the words and trials of the music and drug lovers, it becomes clear that the subject can emerge as she actively submits herself to a collection of constraints. These actors describe necessary yet tentative techniques of preparation to produce this 'active passion', this form of 'attachment' which we attempt to describe as that which allows the subject to emerge—never alone, never a pristine individual, but rather always entangled with and generously gifted by a collective, by objects, techniques, constraints.     

The Limits of Care:

In 1985, Roswell Gilbert was convicted of murder in the shooting death of his wife Emily who suffered from Alz- heimers disease and osteoporosis. Although Emily had asked to die in the presence of witnesses, the Florida jury was pressed to- ward its harsh treatment of Roswell by his choice of weapon, staunch refusal to repudiate his decision, and Emilys relatively high functional level at the time of her death. Nearly a decade lat- er, issues of the limits of family responsibility in caregiving re- main prominent in the literatures of gerontology and applied eth- ics. This paper revisits the Gilbert case with insights from Joseph A. Varon, Chief Counsel at the trial of Roswell Gilbert and Martha Gilbert Moran, Roswell and Emilys only daughter. The paper in- tegrates applied ethical and sociological theories about the family into a discussion of family decision making around caregiving and its termination. Specifically, the paper uses symbolic interaction theory with Nod- dings theory of caring and exchange theory with Blusteins discus-sion of duty and autonomy to address two questions: (1) Who owns the decision about the termination of care? and (2) What are the grounds for state intervention into family decision making on behalf of an individual who has expressed, verbally or through a written will, a desire to die? It is suggested that social scientists need to re- fine research methods in order to document the development of fam- ily belief systems that support life-and-death decision making. Fur- ther research is indicated on spousal and intergenerational relation- ships as the social context for decisions families make about care and its termination. The approach of the paper is to integrate family so- ciological theory with perspectives from legal and applied ethical analyses.     

The Origins of Children's Career Aspirations: IV. Testing Hypotheses from Four Theories

In a study of 949 elementary students, mixed support was found for four theoretical positions concerning the role of childhood in career development. For Ginzberg's theory, support was found for his observation that interests play the major role in both the selection and rejection of careers throughout the period of childhood. For Roe's theory, the authors found evidence that family configuration influenced occupational choice/no choice. From Havighurst's theory, support was found for the idea that identification with a parent's work is particularly strong among younger children. A number of aspects of each of the theories failed to be confirmed.     

Family Size and College Aspirations: A Note on Catholic-Protestant Differences

Data from a study of college aspirations among 40,000 Minnesota adolescents indicate that the relationship of family size to aspirations is somewhat higher among Protestants than Catholics. Overall aspirational differences between religious groups are minor. Further analysis suggests that these differences are probably not a function of financial capacities but rather of more basic socialization practices. The data are used to illustrate an alternative approach in analyzing the relevance of religion to contemporary society: examining processual differences between religious groups rather than concentrating only on outcomes–such as net differences in aspirations. The paper concludes by speculating that social process may be critical in distinguishing Protestants from Catholics but has generally been neglected in contemporary research on religion.     

Information and Compassion in Crisis Responses: A Test of Their Effects

We used a national survey of 371 public relations officers in 4-year colleges and universities to examine environmental constraints, style of research, and certain personal characteristics to determine if they differentiate female and male practitioners. First, with regard to constraints, female public relations officers are most likely to occupy what we call the conscience of the organization role, whereas their male counterparts characterize a dominant insider position. Second, no differences in use or style of research were found by gender. Although this is encouraging, it is apparent that there remain environmental constraints—notably administrator expectations—that need to be addressed. Higher education was selected as the context to study in part because it is where we educate future practitioners. With regard to gender-related stereotypical expectations, colleges and universities are not practicing in their public relations offices what they are teaching in their classrooms. Findings are framed and discussed from both individual, liberal-feminist and collective, socialist-feminist perspectives.     

Book Review: The Limits of Privacy. By Amitai Etzioni

Sociological Practice -     

The Compassion Strategy: Race and the Gender Gap in Campaign 2000

Recent studies have shown that social "compassion" issues, andnot those directly linked to women’s interests, seem todrive the gender gap in presidential vote choice. Some of thesecompassion issues are associated with the plight of racial minoritiesin the media and in the minds of average citizens. Drawing ontheories of gender role socialization, we predict that traditionalpartisan stands on racial issues may help to explain the gendergap. Specifically, we hypothesize that the gap emerges becausemen and women react differently to cues about how compassionatecandidates are toward vulnerable social groups. In one experiment,we manipulate news information regarding George W. Bush’scommitment to blacks versus women. The gender gap is maximizedwhen Bush takes the traditional Republican stance, while itis reduced significantly when Bush espouses a more moderateposition. The gender gap is unaffected by variation in the positionthat Bush takes on women’s issues. In another experiment,we also find that the gender gap emerges when traditional partisanappeals are racialized. Finally, exposure to the 2000 RepublicanNational Convention, with its message of racial inclusion, boostedevaluations of Bush among women but not men.     

Gary J. Adler,Jr.: Empathy Beyond US Borders: The Challenges of Transnational Civic Engagement

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

The Limits of Monetizing and Paying for Volunteering in Eldercare: A Behavioral-Economic Approach

The monetary value of informal eldercare in the family and voluntary sector has drawn much attention as it concerns a resource of welfare governments and nonprofit organizations try to activate via cash benefits. Studies addressing the issue in order to assess the economic impact of non-market activities and the willingness to accept financial rewards have largely ignored differences in the utility function of caregivers. Applying a behavioral-economic approach, we report a profound and formerly unobserved distinction between care in the household and non-household care for a family member or in a voluntary framework: whereas caregivers within the household perceive care as a burden and a positive shadow price arises, in the non-household context—and particularly in the volunteering case–care extends well-being and leads to negative shadow prices. The results show that non-market activities can only be measured in monetary terms to a limited extent and contribute to explaining the boundaries of monetary incentive policies.