A Boy’s Journey and the Journey to Freedom*

The journey to freedom is a literary genre that involves a realization of oppression, a decision to leave, a journey that is both physical and moral, a wilderness experience, a self‐reinvention, and, most importantly, a first person testimonial to the reality of oppression.     

Adolescents’ Views on Families as Metaphors in Hong Kong: Implications for Pre‐counselling Assessment

This interpretative study aims to offer metaphors that describe family meanings from the adolescent’s perspective by encouraging them to give a metaphor with their own explanation on a self‐administering essay form. This study has three objectives: to explore the family meanings as a metaphor from the Hong Kong adolescent’s perspective; to reveal any common and unique features of these metaphors; and to search for the possibilities of collecting metaphors from adolescents as a pre‐counselling assessment tool. The 12 participants for this study were referred to me for family counselling because of poor self‐esteem, loss of life goals or ineffective relationships with their parents. Based on the 12 metaphors, the following five themes can be discerned: (i) gender role in a family, (ii) Chinese culture in a family, (iii) heat in a family, (iv) security in a family and (v) the family as honey and a loan company. Based on the above five themes, there are some common metaphors (e.g. a warm place, honey, a shelter, a boat shelter, a chick and a hen, a volcano, a fire, an oven and a loan company), trans‐cultural and unique metaphors (e.g. a wet market and ‘Kung Fu’ experts), and those that are culturally specified. Both strengths and limitations of collecting and analysing metaphors were discussed.     

Measuring Fidelity in Research Studies: A Field Guide to Developing a Comprehensive Fidelity Measurement System

An accurate assessment of fidelity, combined with a high degree of fidelity to the intervention, is critical to the reliability, validity, replicability, and scale-up of the results of an intervention research study. However, extant measures of fidelity are infrequently applicable to the program or intervention being studied, and the literature lacks guidance on the specific process of developing a system to measure fidelity in a manualized intervention. This article describes a five-step process to define the scope, identify components, develop tools, monitor fidelity, and analyze outcomes to develop a comprehensive fidelity measurement system for an intervention. The process describes the components, measures and key decisions that form a comprehensive fidelity measurement system. In addition, the process is illustrated by a case study of the development of a fidelity measurement system for a research study testing Pathways Triple P, a behavioral parent-training program, with a population of child welfare-involved families. Pathways Triple P is a common, manualized intervention and the process described in this article can be generalized to other manualized interventions. The implications and requirements for accurately assessing and monitoring fidelity in research studies and practice are discussed.     

The value of public relations: Different impacts of communal and exchange relationships on perceptions and communicative behavior

The study, using a survey of 508 university student publics, investigates (a) the impacts and mechanisms that a relationship has on a public’s perceptions and behavior around an issue and (b) how relationship types impact a public’s perception toward a tuition increase issue differently. The situational theory of publics was used as a theoretical framework. The results generally supported the theories. More important, the findings indicated that a communal relationship and an exchange relationship had different impacts on problem recognition, constraint recognition, and involvement recognition.     

Personal, health, academic, and environmental predictors of stress for residence hall students

The authors studied contributors to stress among undergraduate residence hall students at a midwestern, land grant university using a 76-item survey consisting of personal, health, academic, and environmental questions and 1 qualitative question asking what thing stressed them the most. Of 964 students selected at random, 462 (48%) responded to the survey. The authors weighted data to reflect the overall university-wide undergraduate population (55% men, 12% minority or international, and 25% freshmen). Women and US citizens experienced greater stress than did men and non-US citizens, respectively. Frequency of experiencing chronic illness, depression, anxiety disorder, seasonal affective disorder, mononucleosis, and sleep difficulties were significant stress predictors. Although alcohol use was a positive predictor, drug use was a negative predictor of stress. Both a conflict and a satisfactory relationship with a roommate, as well as a conflict with a faculty or staff member, were also significant predictors of stress.     

Semi-structured interview protocol for constructing logic models

This paper details a semi-structured interview protocol that evaluators can use to develop a logic model of a program's services and outcomes. The protocol presents a series of questions, which evaluators can ask of specific program informants, that are designed to: (1) identify key informants basic background and contextual information, (2) generate logic model elements, (3) model program inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes, (4) build a rational theory, (5) develop a program theory, (6) prioritize logic model elements, and (7) build a graphical or tabular logic model. The paper will also provide an example of how this approach was used to develop a logic model for a youth mentoring program. It is our hope and belief that with this interview protocol, novice evaluators will be able to generate comprehensive logic models like seasoned professional evaluators.     

Evaluation and redesign of manual material handling in a vaccine production centre's warehouse

This study was conducted in a warehouse at a vaccine production centre where improvement to existing storage and working conditions were sought through the construction of a new refrigerated store section (2-8C°). Warehousing tasks were videotaped and ergonomics analysis tools were used to assess the risk of developing MSDs. Specifically, these tools were the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) and the NIOSH equation. The current plant layout was sketched and analyzed to find possible targets for improvement trough the application of general work space design and ergonomics principles. Seven of the eight postures evaluated with REBA had a total score between 8 and 10, meaning a high risk, and only one was at a medium risk level. Nine of the eleven manual material handling tasks analyzed with the NIOSH equation had a Lifting Index between 1.14 and 1.80 and two had a recommended weight limit of 0 kg, indicating a need for job redesign. Solutions included the redesign of shelves, the design of a two-step stair and a trolley with adjustable height; also, changes in work methods were proposed by introducing a two-workers lifting strategy and job rotation, and, finally, a restructuring of plant layout was completed.     

Seeing beyond the datasets: the unexploited structure of electoral and institutional data

We propose relational data modeling as a tool for replacing the ad hoc and uncoordinated approaches commonly used throughout the social sciences to gather, store, and disseminate data. We demonstrate relational data modeling using global electoral and political institutional data. We define a relational data model as a map of concepts, their attributes, and the relationships between concepts developed using a formal language and according to a set of rules. To demonstrate the methodology, we design a simple relational data model of six concepts: countries, parties, elections, districts, institutions, and election results. Furthermore, we introduce a data model to solve the particularly vexing issue of party discontinuity (party splits, mergers, and alliances). We show how the solution facilitates computational tasks, such as the calculation of core measures of political phenomena (ex: electoral volatility). Ultimately, a relational data approach will play a central role in collective investments to develop advanced data capabilities, and thereby advance the accuracy, pace, and transparency of scholarship in the social sciences.     

Sexualization and Gamer Avatar Selection in League of Legends

To replicate and expand Reinhard’s 2009 study of video game avatar selection in gamers, a survey was developed that asked 282 respondents to select between sets of video game characters. In each pair of characters, different levels of sexualization were displayed, and respondents had the choice between a more sexualized avatar or a less sexualized avatar. When presented with a choice between a subtly sexualized avatar and an overtly sexualized avatar, the overtly sexualized avatar was chosen. However, in nearly every case, when presented with a choice between a hypersexualized avatar and a less sexualized avatar, the less sexualized avatar was chosen. This seems to indicate that character sexualization reaches a point of diminishing returns for gamers and there is such a thing as too much sexualization in video games.     

Is governing board behavior cyclical?

An empirically derived model of cyclical board behavior holds that following a nonrecurring founding period, a board typically progresses through a sequence of three distinct operating phases and then experiences a crisis that initiates the whole sequence over again. During each cycle, board members become progressively less interested in the agency's mission and programs and more interested in the board's bureaucratic procedures and the agency's reputation for success in the community. Although the sequence of phases is predictable, the timing of them is not. As a conceptual framework, the model integrates the results of a variety of valuable, but otherwise unrelated, studies of governing board behavior. The cyclical model can also be used as a diagnostic tool that can enable a board member, executive director, consultant, foundation officer, or public funder to analyze quickly a particular board's perspective and potential.     

Mental health and firearms in community-based surveys: implications for suicide prevention

Suicide rates are higher among those who own a handgun and among those who [corrected] live in a household with a hand gun. This article examines the association between [corrected] gun ownership and mental health, another risk factor for suicide. Data from the General Social Survey, a series of surveys of U.S. adults, are analyzed to compare general emotional and mental health, sadness and depression, functional mental health, and mental health help seeking among gun owners, persons who do not own but live in a household with a gun, and those who do not own a gun. After taking into account a few basic demographic characteristics associated with both variables, there appears to be no association between mental health and gun ownership. Nor is there any association between mental health and living in a household with a firearm. Findings suggest that the high risk of suicide among those who own or live in a household with a gun is not related to poor mental health. Implications for prevention are discussed.     

Framing public policy towards a public health paradigm for gambling

This paper examines the public policy value of looking at gambling from a public health perspective. The manner in which social issues are framed will either expand or curtail public policy debates. The existing and traditional frames for gambling (e.g. gambling as a matter of individual freedom, gambling as a form of recreation) fail to consider research on the social and economic impacts of gambling. Because a public health frame offers a broad viewpoint of society, it encompasses a number of social and economic impacts not considered in traditional frames. However, the existing gambling frames enjoy varying degrees of cultural, economic, and political support and, as a result, creating a higher profile for a public health framework will encounter a number of barriers. Research can play a decisive role in overcoming these barriers, as it has in a number of related fields (e.g., tobacco use, addiction and product liability, the epidemiology of AIDS). The paper concludes that research that identifies and quantifies the public health factors of gambling will substantially contribute to a public shift toward a public health frame.     

Social work through collaborative autoethnography

This paper discusses a research project involving five MA Social Work Students and one member of Social Work Academic Staff. Using narrative and taking a collaborative autoethnographical approach, this project highlights some of the feelings that students articulated following a 70-day placement experience. Findings include anxiety, powerlessness and frustration, together with growing confidence, recognition of their skills and a deeper understanding of the role of ‘self’ in social work. Raising issues of preparedness for practice placement, this paper has implications for both social work practice and social work education. Autoethnography (AE) is both a method of carrying out research and a methodology, specifically a qualitative methodology linked to ethnography and narrative inquiry. AE results in highly personalized narrative accounts of the researcher’s engagement with specific sociocultural contexts in the pursuit of knowing more about a phenomenon. Applying such a methodology to explore collaboratively issues of student lived experience of placement is a new and innovative use of this method.     

Biography,Trauma, the Holocaust and the Sociological Eye

My book, A Boy’s Journey: From Nazi-Occupied Prague to Freedom in America (2019) chronicles the first 15 years of my life in the context of the Holocaust, a war and an occupation, relatives disappearing, father returning from a concentration camp, and meeting Jewish relatives who resisted and survived. It is also a story of immigration and assimilation, learning a new language and a new culture in America, of forgetting the old and developing a new identity.     

Reputation spillover effects from grant‐providing institutions

There is a broad academic discussion about the impact of funding grants from a foundation or a government department on individual support intentions toward the nonprofit organization receiving the grant. However, the role of the grant provider's reputation has frequently been overlooked. In this study, we experimentally tested whether there is a reputation spillover effect of a grant‐providing organization. Based on a real‐life example, we asked citizens to rate their willingness to donate to a nonprofit organization, and we experimentally manipulated the available information on funding sources. We test this for both a government department and a foundation as a grant provider. Our results suggest that not the act of receiving a grant, but the citizens' awareness about the funding organization—at least in the case of a foundation—has an impact on support intentions. In contrast, for a prominent government department as a grant provider, we did not find support for a reputation spillover effect.     

Transition from school for youths with a disability: issues and challenges

Australian research has demonstrated that students with a disability are more likely to remain out of the full‐time workforce. These research findings have been the catalyst for a call for a comprehensive career development and transition planning approach for all students with disabilities in schools as well as for employers to rethink the role of people with disabilities in the workforce. In the Australian context the transition from school for individuals with a disability is complicated by a disparate and fragmented group of service agencies providing a range of services, including employment, supported accommodation, recreation and leisure pursuits, as well as training and placement, along with, at times, a deep‐seated prejudice towards people with disabilities in the market place. This paper reviews a number of issues and challenges confronting individuals with a disability making the transition from school to the post‐school environment.     

The COVID‐19 Pandemic: An Evolving Story. Professional and Personal Insights using Self and Culture as Agents of Calm and Healing after a Year of Co‐habitation with Imminent Threat

Being a cross‐cultural systemic therapist, clinical supervisor, and educator means that culture and language are central to my work. They provide a scaffold to develop deeper understanding, increased trust, and connection between myself and my supervisees, students, and clients and facilitate a process for the latter to connect to their own selves and values. Given the fear and uncertainty generated by the COVID‐19 pandemic, there exists a pervasive activation of the sympathetic nervous system in the community. In this article, I present two case studies as examples of a cross‐cultural/cross‐linguistic approach that facilitates two clients to find a place of comfort and calmness and consequently a balancing activation of the para‐sympathetic nervous system. First is a client who, due to the overwhelming pandemic chaos, suddenly exhibited a host of signs and symptoms of a functional neurological nature, which she experienced as a lack of control and disconnection from her body, her primary language, and herself. Within a trusted therapeutic relationship that draws on the culture and primary language of the therapist, the client regains connection with language and enhances her ability to communicate and connect with her body. Second is an international student who is encouraged to use her culture of origin and primary language to induce calmness, reconnect with herself, and return to the familiar as a ‘known’ collectively inclusive, comforting, and nurturing environment.     

Core/periphery structure models: An alternative methodological proposal

The idea of a structure made up of a core and periphery is a common, classic paradigm in many fields of science. Following this line, in 1999, researchers Stephen Borgatti and Martin Everett developed a model of structural analysis based on the delimitation of a core formed by a group of densely connected actors, in contrast to a class of actors, more loosely connected and forming the periphery of the system.The original approach of these authors is modified, employing measures that, in our opinion, show a larger degree of coherence and accuracy in the proposed objectives.