Guidelines for Incorporating Nonprint Media into Social Work Education

This research evaluated admission criteria as a predictor of academic performance and professional potential of social work students. The findings indicated that performance can be predicted successfully. The faculty interview and undergraduate grade point average were useful predictors. The Graduate Record Examination score was a relatively weak predictor, and the required letters of reference were of little value. Multivariate statistical procedures were demonstrated that could be utilized by others for this type of analysis.     

Differences in Views of Family Life According to Age,Gender, and Parental Marital Status

A sample (N = 706) of children, adolescents, young adults, and older adults were surveyed with regard to their views of family. Young adults endorsed more nontraditional views than children and older adults and were more likely than other age groups to indicate that there is no best family type. Children and older adults were more likely than adolescents and young adults to endorse married or living together parents as the best family type. Women and respondents who had experienced parental divorce endorsed traditional views of family less strongly, but women also endorsed stronger expectations for their own family formation. Findings support the possibility of both developmental and sociocontextual influences on attitudes toward family life.     

Do the Kids Think They're Okay? Adolescents' Views on the Impact of Marriage and Divorce

A sample (N?=?365) of middle school and high school students from both divorced and intact families were surveyed with regard to their opinions about the impact of their parents' relationships (divorced or married) on a variety of areas of their lives. Adolescents from separated or divorced (S/D) families tended to rate their parents' relationships and impact on them more negatively than adolescents from living together or married (L/M) families. However, both groups consistently rated their parents in the same direction on a variety of topics. Gender was not a factor in the responses of either group. However, age (middle school vs. high school) was related to significant differences in adolescents' views about parents.     

Coming-Out Narratives Across Generations

This study is a thematic analysis of narratives about the coming-out process. Participants (N = 30) were part of a stratified random sample of a large data set generated from a research project investigating changes in the coming-out process over time. Participants were 15 women and 15 men from 5 age cohorts (ages 18 to 74) who self-identified as members of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) communities. Themes related to the struggles and rewards of going through the coming-out process are explored in these narratives. Organizing themes of those who figured it out in their heads and those who figured it out in their hearts emerged from this analysis and suggest two paths to coming out. Generational themes are also explored in this analysis. This study aims to provide contextualization to the diverse experiences of LGB people in the coming-out experience.     

The effect of alternative staff time data collection methods on drug treatment service cost estimates

Although a limited number of service cost estimates exist, no study has evaluated how differences in the method used to collect the staff time allocation across treatment services contribute to differences in service cost estimates. Three alternative data collection methods for estimating service-level costs in methadone treatment programs were evaluated: key informants, staff surveys, and staff diaries. We analyzed data from 25 methadone clinics across the United States. Results indicate that for the three primary services offered at methadone clinics—individual counseling, group counseling, and methadone dosing—no statistically significant differences exist in the mean estimates of costs per session across programs. Of the other five services analyzed, we found no statistically significant differences in two of the mean costs per session and a small but statistically significant difference in another service. We found large and statistically significant differences in mean costs for two services, initial patient assessment and initial medical services. Although there is no gold standard available to judge which method is the best to use, we concluded that the key informant method yields more reliable cost estimates compared with the staff methods and is less burdensome to both the treatment programs and to researchers. Our findings suggest that the key informant method is the preferred method for costing substance abuse treatment services.     

Qualitative data analysis with hypertext: A case of New York City crack dealers

Ethnography has become a useful method in procuring sensitive information from the ‘hidden population’ who may not be accessed with quantitative survey techniques. Researchers are generating huge amounts of qualitative/textual data. Qualitative data require careful planning in storage, coding, retrieval, and analysis. Personal computers have solved data management problems, but data analysis remains problematic. The paper describes some qualitative data management and analytic problems faced by a team of ethnographers engaged in a longitudinal epidemiological study of cocaine and crack distribution/abuse in New York City. Ethnographic data was collected through multi-session open-ended interviews with more than one hundred cocaine/crack dealers and extensive field-notes were kept. Compared to other programs, a hypertext software — Folio Views — was more useful in solving (a) data management and (b) analytical problems. Authors used this software to handle more than twenty-five thousand pages of texts; search and sort the database by any words or codes; and retrieve relevant textual materials needed to complete comparative and thematic analysis. Authors analyzed the data from outsiders’ point of view (etic) as well as from the viewpoint of the subject populations (emic).     

No Nukes! A Comparison of Participants in Two National Antinuclear Demonstrations

Results of a survey of participants in the April, 1979 antinuclear demonstration in San Francisco are compared to those obtained from a similar study of participants in the May, 1979 antinuclear demonstration in Washington, D.C. Both sets of demonstrators are found to be young, well-educated and politically liberal, and to reject several dominant American values. The similarity in findings betwcen the two studies provides increased confidence in our understanding of the social composition of the antinuclear movement.     

Endorsement of Agrarian Ideology and Adherence to Agricultural Paradigms1

Abstract Despite the fact that groups of alternative and conventional agriculturalists do not differ in their overall scores on an agrarianism scale, their responses do differ significandy on several of the agrarianism items and on the items related to agrarianism from a scale designed to assess competing agricultural paradigms. This suggests that there are differences in these groups' agrarian ideologies even though their overall scores on the agrarianism scale are nearly identical. Although divergent agricultural groups support agrarian ideals such as family farms and the farm way of life, the way in which these groups conceptualize and would achieve these ideals appear to be different. Consequendy, the relatively generic items typically used to analyze agrarianism fail to capture the differences in the agrarian ideologies of competing agricultural groups. The need to reconceptualize agrarianism so as to make it more meaningful to contemporary agriculture is discussed.     

Wind,coal, and copper: the politics of land grabbing,counterinsurgency, and the social engineering of extraction

ABSTRACT

The multiplicity of violent techniques employed to impose land control and extraction remains under acknowledged. This article reviews research conducted between the years 2014 and 2018 and draws on three case studies: wind energy development in Mexico, coal mining in Germany, and copper mining in Peru. The idea of 'engineering extraction' is advanced through counterinsurgency to acknowledge the extent of extractive violence, arguing that the term ‘land grabbing’ is indeed a more appropriate term than ‘land deals’. Engaging with the land grabbing literature, the three cases seek to advance discussions around ‘the political reactions “from below”’ by emphasizing ‘insurrectionary’ positions with resistance movements fighting land deals and extractive projects. This is followed by offering a typology of ‘hard’ coercive techniques and ‘soft’ technologies of social pacification that surfaced in each case. The conclusion reflects on the social technologies of resource extraction, recognizing how social discord, ecological and climate crises are engineered and enforced.