Backing Barack Because He's Black: Racially Motivated Voting in the 2008 Election*

Objective. If racial considerations influenced the outcome of the 2008 presidential election, then how did they shape the campaign, why did race matter, and for whom were such considerations important? I hypothesize that various racial attitudes exert unique influences on voters' support of Obama and that the effects of these attitudes differ by race. Methods. Using a Time Magazine poll, I distinguish between “attitudes regarding Obama's ‘Blackness’” and “opinions about race relations,” and I examine such sentiments among White and African‐American respondents. Results. Regardless of race, Obama support was highest among voters who were “comfortable” with Black candidates. However, increased optimism with racial progress had no effect on Blacks' voting intentions, and it actually lowered Obama support among Whites. Conclusion. The conventional wisdom is that African Americans “backed Barack because he is Black”; I demonstrate that Obama's race mattered more to White voters than it did to Blacks.     

Raising awareness of transformative ecosocial work: Participatory action research with Australian practitioners

This article reports on Participatory Action Research with social work practitioners who collaboratively explored the effects on professional practice when practitioners raise their awareness of an ecosocial work approach. Although contemporary research in the profession has contributed to the ongoing development of ecosocial work, there is a notable lack of collaboration with social work practitioners. Using a transformative ecosocial work model of practice, researchers together with social workers from a range of practice contexts met as co‐inquirers to plan, implement and evaluate ecosocial work interventions. As part of a larger international study, this article reports on research outcomes within the Australian context. Overall, results indicate that practitioners incorporated interventions across personal, individual, group and organisational levels of practice, but were constrained by structural elements at broader levels. Continuing the development of ecosocial work requires further collaborative exploration with practitioners, which takes into consideration communities and broader social and political systems. Key Practitioner Messages: ? This research endeavours to contribute to the evidence‐base for progressing transformative ecosocial work in professional practice; ? Using Participatory Action Research (PAR), this research was done in collaboration with social work practitioners as co‐inquirers to develop ecosocial work interventions; ? A range of ecosocial work interventions were implemented at the personal, individual, group and organisational levels.     

Patterns of Bully/Victim Problems in Mixed Race Groups of Children

This study investigated the extent of bullying within and between British Asian and White girls and boys (n = 156) and some of the reasons why it occurs. There was no significant difference in the percentage of peers that nominated Asian and White children as either bullies or victims. Contrary to our prediction (derived from Tajfel's social judgement theory), both Asian children and White children were significantly more likely to be named as bullies of same-race classmates than to be named as bullies of other-race classmates. Again contrary to our prediction, for Asian boys and White boys there were no significant correlations between general racial preferences/attitudes on the one hand, and the extent to which they were named by classmates as bullies of other-race children on the other hand. In order to investigate the types of bullying directed at own-race and other-race pupils, a subset of the sample of children (n = 60) were also asked about the specific types of bullying they had experienced, and who was responsible. Some significant racial differences emerged, most notably that proportionally more Asian children than White children reported that they had been teased about their colour or race by children of the other-race, and the opposite was the case for non-racial types of teasing. The implications of these results for children's social development, and for school's attempts to remove bully/victim problems, are discussed. One recommendation was that teasing, and especially racial teasing by racial majority pupils, should be a focus for intervention.     

Service Users' Perspectives on the Benefits System in Israel: A Participatory Action Research

This article presents a position paper on Israel's benefits system. It was produced in the framework of a participatory action research with the collaboration of welfare services users and social welfare policy practitioners, academics, social practitioners, and social activists. Some 78 persons living in poverty, from various population groups, were asked, in group settings, to describe their experiences with the benefit system and services, their coping strategies, their perceptions and attitudes towards these services, and their recommendations for ways to improve them. The position paper which emerged from this process served as the basis for discussions between service users, social welfare policy practitioners, researchers, social activists and social practitioners at an academic conference. Issues such as benefits cuts, eligibility, and definitions of poverty are discussed and recommendations are presented.     

Defining the boundaries: social worker assessment of sexual abuse in a cultural context – multivariate analysis of personal and professional factors influencing social workers' labelling of intimacy behaviour

To explore personal and professional factors influencing social worker assessment of family intimacy behaviour in diverse cultural groups, a 27‐item questionnaire was mailed to a random, stratified sample of MSW‐level social workers. The instrument measured rank‐order responses to 10 questions about attitudes towards public exposure to sexual stimuli and rank‐order responses to questions about three vignettes depicting culturally informed family intimacy behaviour. The instrument also measured sample characteristics such as area of social work practice and per cent of caseload involving sexually abused as well as diverse clients. Completed questionnaires (n = 387) were analysed for association between respondents' definition of intimacy behaviour (dependent variable), attitude towards sexual stimuli, and intervening variables thought to explain variance in the dependent measure. Labelling theory provided a basis for hypotheses testing. When mean attitude scores were correlated with mean definition scores, Pearson's r returned a significant low, positive association between conservative attitudes towards exposure to sexual stimuli and definitions of cross‐cultural scenarios as sexual abuse. Holding attitude scores constant, regression modelling of the sample's definition of scenarios indicated that practice area, minority status, and per cent of caseload with sexual abuse clients were significant predictors of R² change in the dependent variable. Further analysis of data through regression tree modelling showed that a small group of conservative practitioners with ethnically diverse caseloads were more likely to label culturally influenced behaviours as deviant. Among conservative practitioners with less diverse caseloads, number of hours in sexuality training had a moderating influence on deviancy labelling. Tree modelling of the data also indicated that an ethnic minority subgroup within the sample accounted for the lowest ranking of scenarios as sexual abuse. Results support earlier work on social worker assessment of child maltreatment as a function of agency setting. Another implication for social work is the need for practitioners to understand their attitudes towards human sexuality in relation to assessment of diverse patterns of childhood sexual socialization.     

Racial Differences in Attitudes Toward Professional Mental Health Treatment: The Mediating Effect of Stigma

Stigma associated with mental illness continues to be a pervasive barrier to mental health treatment, leading to negative attitudes about treatment and deterring appropriate care seeking. Empirical research suggests that the stigma of mental illness may exert an adverse influence on attitudes toward mental health treatment and service utilization patterns by individuals with a mental illness, particularly African Americans. However, little research has examined the impact of stigma on racial differences in attitudes toward seeking mental health treatment. This study examined the hypothesis that stigma partially mediates the relationship between race and attitudes towards mental health treatment in a community-based sample of 101 African American and White older adults. Multiple regression analyses and classic path analysis was utilized to test the partial mediation model. Controlling for socio-demographic factors, African American older adults were more likely to have negative attitudes toward mental health treatment, and they also reported more public and internalized stigma than their White counterparts. As hypothesized, the relationship between race and attitudes toward mental health treatment was partially mediated by internalized stigma, suggesting that internalized stigma may cause older adults to develop negative attitudes about mental health treatment. The partial mediation model was not significant for public stigma, however. Implications for social work research and practice are discussed.     

Racial and Ethnic Variation in the Predictors of Maternal Parenting Stress

ABSTRACT

Little is known about racial and ethnic disparities in maternal parenting stress. Using Belsky's (1984) conceptual model, which characterizes parenting stress as a function of maternal and child characteristics and social context, we examine determinants of parenting stress among Mexican American mothers in comparison to non-Hispanic White and non-Hispanic Black mothers. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being (FFCWB) Study, we analyze a sample of 2,898 mothers. According to our findings, patterns of parenting stress for non-Hispanic White and non-Hispanic Black mothers are fairly consistent with Belsky's model. However, for Mexican American mothers, social support, but not partner support, ameliorates parenting stress, and depression is not associated with parenting stress. Importantly, despite significant social disadvantage, parenting stress levels in Mexican American mothers do not significantly differ from those of non-Hispanic Whites. Specific recommendations are made to practitioners for culturally competent responses to parenting stress with Mexican American families.     

Constructing social work identity based on the reflexive self

Summary In this article, the social work identity is conceptualizedbased on concepts of the self (Benjamin, 1995; Foucault, 1988),rather than concepts associated with ego psychology. Socialwork students, teachers and practitioners have historicallyattempted to gain a sense of ego mastery and control by theacquisition of theory to enhance skill-based practice expertise(Austin, 1952; Zetzel, 1953; Bandler, 1960; Memmot and Brennan,1998). In so doing, they have attempted to manage anxiety asa means to enhance learning. Traditional social work functionssuch as acceptance, non-judgemental attitudes, and empathy (Biestek,1957; Woods and Hollis, 1990) have been utilized to encouragepractitioners to manage their feelings related to difference.We argue, however, that the social work identity is enrichedwhen social workers allow their selves to be in a state of disassemblyin the presence of the other (Smith, 1997). When social workersexperience their selves as complex and dialogical, they aremore open to the influence of the other (Bakhtin, 1993). Wemake the case for practitioners to work on a reflexive selfrather than attempting to achieve ego control through the managementof anxiety.     

Interpersonal Perspectives on Black–White Health Disparities: Social Policy Implications

There are large and persistent disparities between the health status of Blacks and Whites in the United States. On average, the mental and physical health of Blacks is much poorer than Whites. In this article, we discuss several potential direct causes of Black–White disparities in health status, which include biological or genetic factors, prejudice and related processes, and socioeconomic factors. We also consider how the system-level, patient-level, and provider-level components of healthcare contribute to disparities in health status. We examine in detail the psychological processes associated with patient- and provider-level factors that may produce healthcare disparities. Of particular interest is the potential impact of racial attitudes and stereotypes on provider–patient interactions. Finally, we propose possible directions for future research on health disparities and discuss policy changes that might reduce disparities in health status and healthcare between social groups.     

The Attitudes of Social Work Students Toward End-of-Life Care Planning

This study examined the attitudes of social work students toward end-of-life care planning, as well as their degree of willingness to engage in this area of social work practice. Factors associated with their attitudes were measured through structured surveys completed by 102 social work students (N = 102) at a school of social work in the southeast. Results indicated that these social work students tended to have positive attitudes toward end-of-life care planning in general. Moreover, these attitudes were positively associated with preference for pain relief treatment, higher levels of comfort when discussing death, more emphasis on self-determination, and apprehension of conflicts of self-determination. The results of this study underscored the increased societal need for recognition of personal preferences in end-of-life care, higher levels of comfort when discussing death, and an increased commitment of social workers' to maintaining the ethical principle of the client's right to self-determination in end-of-life planning. While this is not surprising, it points to a continuing need to re-assess where the field stands in its preparation of social work professionals who will work closely with people who are dying and their families.     

Variability in the Inter‐group Attitudes of White Children: What We Can Learn from Their Ethnic Identity Labels

The current study examined the ethnic identity of White (N = 120), Latino (N = 87), and African‐American (N = 65) children and early adolescents (aged = 9–14 years), with an emphasis on whether the specific ethnic label White children used to describe themselves might reflect differences in their inter‐group attitudes and whether those differences mirror group differences between White children and children in ethnic minority groups. Results indicated that White children who identified with a minority label (i.e., White biracial, hyphenated American, ethnic/cultural/religious label) had more positive ethnic identities, were more aware of discrimination, and were less likely to show biases in their perceived similarity to in‐group and out‐group peers than youth who identified as White or American. In many instances, White children who identified with a minority label did not differ from ethnic minority youth. In addition, although all participants were more positive about their ethnic in‐group than out‐groups, children who identified their ethnicity as American were less positive about out‐groups relative to other children. Taken together, the findings indicate that children's self‐chosen ethnic identity is as important as their ascribed ethnic or racial identity in predicting their inter‐group attitudes.     

Political Tolerance,Racist Speech,and the Influence of Social Networks*

Objective. This study examines the influence of ethnic and racial network diversity on young people's attitudes about speech rights in Canada by examining the impact of diversity on racist groups' speech compared to other objectionable speech. Methods. After reviewing prior work on diversity and political tolerance judgments, the study presents multinomial logistic regressions to assess the impact of network diversity on three types of political tolerance dispositions. The data are drawn from the Canadian Youth Study, a sample of 10th‐ and 11th‐grade students in Quebec and Ontario (N=3,334). Results. The analysis suggests that exposure to racial and ethnic diversity in one's social networks decreases political tolerance of racist speech while simultaneously having a positive effect on political tolerance of other types of objectionable speech. Conclusions. The dual effects arguably represent an evolving norm of multicultural political tolerance, in which citizens endorse legal limits on racist speech. Future work should assess the extent to which target group distinctions in political tolerance judgments have evolved over time and across age cohorts.     

An Exploratory Study of Social Work with Older Persons in Cuba

Abstract

Assuring a satisfactory quality of life for Cuba's large and fast growing older population is a national challenge. Social work plays an important part in addressing this challenge through its role in Cuba's National Program for the Care of Older Persons. This article explores the role of social work in Cuba's programs for the elderly and its implications for social work practice in the US. The information was obtained from 25 qualitative interviews with policy makers, social work practitioners, and community members in Havana, Cuba in 2003. The community oriented and interdisciplinary nature of Cuban social work with older persons distinguishes it from social work in the US and has implications for social work in this country. Despite the differences between Cuba and the US, the Cuban social work model provides important insights for social work in this country.     

Being the Only One: Finding Connection through the Shared Experience of “Otherness”

ABSTRACT

There is a noticeable paucity of clinical resources that help clinicians of color to name and navigate the multitude of challenges in working through racial, cultural, and power differences in psychotherapy with White clients. African American therapists rarely receive adequate preparation for clinical practice in identifying, addressing, and working through transference and countertransference reactions in racially mixed dyads. The author highlights the challenges she faced early in her career with addressing racial and sociopolitical differences as an African American female clinical social worker providing individual psychotherapy to her older White male client whose traumatic experience focused on racial issues.     

Compassion Satisfaction Among Social Work Practitioners: The Role of Work–Life Balance

Abstract

Previous research has established that social work practitioners are especially vulnerable to work-related psychological distress and burnout due to the high-stress nature of the profession, yet less research has focused on examining factors are associated with social worker retention. Emerging research on compassion satisfaction suggests that this factor could mitigate professional burnout, yet there is a gap in research focusing explicitly on examining compassion satisfaction among social workers. To address this gap in knowledge, this quantitative study collected survey data on practicing social workers who were alumni from a large southeastern university (n?=?120) to examine individual and organizational factors associated with compassion satisfaction. Multiple regression analyses revealed that higher levels of emotional intelligence, perceived work autonomy, and perceived work–life balance were associated with an increase in compassion satisfaction among experienced, licensed social work practitioners. Findings have implications for how social work employers can promote compassion satisfaction through cultivating emotional intelligence among practitioners, allowing social workers autonomy in decision making, and providing supportive work environments. Recommended directions for future research include longitudinal studies with large sample sizes that expound research on compassion satisfaction by examining the role of additional factors, such as client population, job role characteristics, and supervisor support.     

Impression management pressures on racial attitude surveys

For decades, researchers have expressed concern that self-report racial attitude measures are vulnerable to distortion from pressures respondents feel to present themselves as unprejudiced. A common response to this problem is to measure social desirability separately from racial attitudes and control for its variance in statistical analyses. The present study is designed to test whether such controls are sufficient. Participants rated items from both racial attitude and social desirability scales in terms of the amount of pressure they would feel to respond in a particular way regardless of their true attitudes. Participants report significantly greater response pressure on racial attitude items than on social desirability items, and ratings on the two types of items have only moderately shared variance. Implications for controlling social desirability in racial attitude research are discussed.     

Exploring and Evaluating School-Based Interventions to Reduce Prejudice

Three studies examined ways of talking about race and racial evaluations in order to reduce rather than raise prejudice. The first study evaluated an 11-week classroom program designed to encourage, through teacher-led discussion, the processing of internal attributes of people rather than their race. In a second study, high-prejudice White students were paired with a low-prejudice friend to discuss their racial evaluations. The third study explored ways thatstudents orally respond when they overhear a peer's demeaning racial remark and the conflicting pressures influencing their interventions. Results overall support the assumption that talking about race and racial attitudes can reduce prejudice under certain conditions, and that peers may be valuable sources of influence in this dialogue.     

A Model for Implementing an Evidence-Based Practice in Student Fieldwork Placements: Barriers and Facilitators to the Use of “SBIRT”

ABSTRACT

This article reports on focus group data analysis that was used to understand initial, largely positive outcomes from a university-based initiative to disseminate and implement an evidence-based practice (EBP)—Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment for Substance Use (SBIRT)—into student fieldwork placements, which are usual care social work settings. Focus groups were conducted with three groups of stakeholders involved in the ongoing project: social work department faculty (n = 10), bachelor- and master-level social work students (n = 8), and social work fieldwork instructors (n = 6). Dimensional analysis of the focus group data yielded results indicating that dissemination and implementation of SBIRT was influenced by agency- and school-level factors and perceived fit between the EBP and individual professional identity, intrapersonal characteristics, and timing. The resulting model, developed through the focus group analysis, is offered and shows how these factors interacted and affected training, supervision, and use of the EBP. The model provides social work educational programs and agencies a working tool for diagnosing and proactively addressing barriers and breakdowns in the EBP implementation process. Future research that tests the model as a diagnostic tool and generates knowledge about its influence in developing competent evidence-based practitioners is indicated. Future focus groups in relation to this initiative are needed to better understand these barriers and facilitators in the EBP implementation process and their critical roles in the process of translating SBIRT into standard social work practice.     

The Productive Aging Concept and Social Work Students’ Perceptions Toward an Older Population

Social work curriculum that offers an optimistic perspective on aging has the potential to help social work students go on to practice in a nondiscriminatory way with older adults. This study introduces social work students to the productive aging concept, an optimistic view to social potential in later life, in lecture format and assesses postlecture changes in their perceptions of older adults. Seventy-two students (16 BSW; 56 MSW) were recruited from a large university in the southeast United States to participate in a lecture on productive aging. A one-group pretest–posttest design was used, and a paired samples t test (n = 72) was used to analyze changes in social work students’ perceptions toward older adults. Negative attitudes toward older adults decreased and positive attitudes toward older adults increased among students following their participation in the lecture on productive aging. This finding suggests the productive aging concept may favorably influence student perceptions of older adults. Future research should aim to investigate ways in which these changes in perception at the college level can translate and self-sustain in social work practice for social work students postgraduation.     

The role of social desirability bias and racial/ethnic composition on the relation between education and attitude toward immigration restrictionism

Social scientists note individuals tend to respond favorably to sensitive topics in surveys, but few consider factors triggering these responses. This study uses unique data to examine respondents’ racial/ethnic attitude under direct and indirect modes of elicitation. In particular, the list experiment provides a cloak of anonymity to a random subsample of individuals that allows them to respond truthfully about their racial/ethnic attitudes. By comparing responses between administration modes, this study evaluates whether social desirability pressures mediate, and racial/ethnic composition moderate, the relation between education and racial/ethnic attitudes. Findings indicate an initial positive relation between education and racial/ethnic attitudes, but desirability bias mainly drives this relation. Furthermore, there is some support racial/ethnic composition moderates the influence of social desirability on education.