Research as part of everyday practice: A finishing student's experience

Abstract

While social work education has come a long way, some of the most valuable lessons are learnt not in the class but in the field. This article explores the relationship between the practice of research and social work practice through my struggles within my final social work placement. How does one come to terms with the relationship between everyday social work practice and the practice of research? How does one reconcile what many see as a gap between research and the practice of social work? Is it possible to incorporate research into everyday practice? In the end it must be argued that both have comparable underlying goals and follow almost identical processes. In many ways a researcher carries out similar investigations utilising similar skills as those of a social worker. Thus being skilled in research and being able to integrate research into everyday practice will produce a better social worker.     

Trans Men: Embodiments,Identities, and Sexualities

This article examines the experiences of 25 persons who were assigned female status at birth but do not wish to live as women and take on a masculine or queer gender identity. We employ the concept of “gendered embodiment” and introduce the concept of “sexualized embodiment” to highlight what is involved in this process. We ask how experiencing a masculine gender identity is reflexively tied to a trans man's sexuality and the ways in which these two embodiments are tightly, moderately, or loosely coupled. For example, a tight coupling appeared when trans men began to use testosterone and obtained surgery such as breast removal; a moderate coupling was found where gender validation was sought from a sexual partner (with this being related to sexual preference identities as well as the interpretation of vaginal penetration); the loosest coupling of the gender‐sexuality embodiments was linked to the liberality of the locale and whether “queer” identities could be easily adopted. In sum, our research demonstrates the link between gender and sexuality as a result of the body work trans men do and the historical and geographical situations in which they find themselves.     

Validity of the AUDIT-C screen for at-risk drinking among students utilizing university primary care

ABSTRACT

Objective: Research is needed to establish the psychometric properties of brief screens in university primary care settings. This study aimed to assess the construct validity of one such screen, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C), for detecting at-risk drinking among students who have utilized on-campus primary care.

Participants: 389 students recently seen in university primary care completed a confidential online survey in December 2014.

Methods: Bivariate correlations between the AUDIT-C and measures of alcohol consumption and negative drinking consequences provided concurrent evidence for construct validity. Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analyses determined optimal cut-off scores for at-risk drinking.

Results: The AUDIT-C significantly correlated with measures of alcohol consumption and negative drinking consequences (p < .001). Analyses support optimal AUDIT-C cut-off scores of 5 for females and 7 for males.

Conclusions: The AUDIT-C is a valid screen for at-risk drinking among students who utilize university primary care.     

Social Density of Gambling and Its Association with Gambling Problems: An Initial Investigation

The role of social factors in pathological gambling has received relatively little systematic research. The goal of the current study was to examine the relationship between a target individual’s gambling behavior and the gambling behavior among that individual’s parents, siblings and five closest friends. The specific aims were, first, to apply a novel brief assessment to study the social density of factors relating to pathological gambling; second, to replicate previously observed findings involving the social aggregation of alcohol and tobacco use; and third, to examine social density findings among the three domains. Participants were 128 frequent gamblers from the Athens, Georgia area, 79.7 % male with a mean age of 34.2 (SD = 11.7). Participants were assessed using the Diagnostic Interview for Gambling Severity for gambling severity, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test for alcohol abuse, the Fagerstrom Test of Nicotine Dependence for tobacco use, and the novel Brief Social Density of Gambling, Alcohol, and Tobacco Assessment. Significant relationships were observed between participants’ and friends’ activity within all domains: gambling (ps = .001), alcohol use (p < .001) and tobacco use (p < .001). Relationships with friends’ activity across domains were less strong. Distinct patterns of associations with parents and siblings were not observed. Thus, social aggregation was observed across the three domains of potentially addictive behaviors, generally with specificity within domains and with friends, not biological relatives. Methodological considerations and potential applications of these findings are discussed.     

Sexual Prejudice Among Barbadian University Students

The level of sexual prejudice on university campuses has implications for the health and well-being of gay and lesbian students, and research on sexual prejudice in the Eastern Caribbean is extremely limited. This study assesses the individual attitudes of 251 Barbadian students toward lesbian and gay people using two psychometric inventories. It also examines differences in attitudes as a function of demographic variables including gender, religiosity, and personal acquaintance with lesbian or gay people. The Barbadian students evidenced diverse attitudes, with the average student displaying a moderate amount of sexual prejudice toward lesbian and gay people. Religiosity predicted more negative attitudes toward both lesbians and gay men. Being male predicted more sexual prejudice against gay men, but not against lesbians. Finally, personal acquaintance with a gay or lesbian person did not have a statistically significant relationship with sexual prejudice. This study is among the first of its kind and may serve as a guide to other researchers seeking to further explore attitudes toward lesbian and gay people among Eastern Caribbean students or among Barbadians in general.     

Jabotinsky and Ukrainian nationalism: A reinterpretation

Israel Kleiner, From Nationalism to Universalism: Vladimir Ze'ev Jabotinsky and the Ukrainian Question (Edmonton and Toronto: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 2000). 199pp. Foreword by Wolf Moskovich. Bibliography. Index. ISBN 1–895571–33–2 (paper)     

Report on a workshop on early South Sulawesi, 18-19 August, 2000

In this article, I explore the new forms of people's mobility in the borderlands of the upper Mekong, where China meets Myanmar and Laos. In particular, I examine a way in which returned exiles, restoring their senses of place, focused on their life stories after returning to their motherland in southwest China. Ethnographically, I investigate a Thai restaurant run by a returned exile family and the daily activities in and through this social space, read as ‘a transnational place’. Situating these returned exiles, the Chinese Dai minority, as members of the Tai-speaking peoples of the upper Mekong, who have dispersed across the national borders of China, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, I show that transnational mobility and connectivity, old and new, can be utilised by them to mobilise themselves into the contexts of modernisation, dislocation and regionalisation, re-emplacing their homeland, making their locality visible and sensible.     

Textual accounts,ruling action: the intersection of knowledge and power in the routine conduct of community nursing work

This paper reflects critically on nursing knowledge-based action, its increasingly scientific and text-based manifestations, and the relevance of these practices for power and powerlessness in nursing. Smith's concept of text-mediated relations of ruling (1990. 1999) provides the analytic frame to investigate how nursing case managers articulate public health services and home support for people with disabilities to specific policies, including fiscal policy. An institutional ethnography shows how a nurse's routine text-mediated assessment and exercise of professional judgement establishes a ruling relation with a client (against her intention), as he is “written up” in organizational texts. The analysis of assessment texts spells out how a local perspective is subdued to the ruling discourse. A general argument is made on the basis of this analysis: nurses participate in ruling through the textualization of their knowledge and in the process it dominates their knowing and acting. An ideological construction of nursing knowledge results. The paper suggests what this means for the profession, nurses themselves, and their clients.     

The Oil Depletion Protocol: A Response to Peak Oil

ABSTRACT

After the two-fold crises of the liberal world order in the first decade of the twenty-first century, including the debacle of the Global War on Terror and the global financial crisis around 2008, we are witnessing a combined crisis of US hegemony and the transnational moment, along with the explosion of populism across the Atlantic world. In this context, this research not only analyses how the United States has designed and maintained the liberal interstate order and globalization but also the way the hegemon proactively starts to destroy its cross-national project today. Therefore, I aim to fathom the future of globalization by interrogating the current US state's key strategies that express America's changing national identity and self-role conception under shifting structural imperatives from unipolarity to the emerging multipolar world.     

The Use of Computerized Self-Help Packages to Treat Adolescent Depression and Anxiety

Despite the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in treating adolescent anxiety, few sufferers seek treatment. Barriers to accessing psychologists include a shortage of skilled therapists, long waiting lists, and affordability. The Internet is a medium possibly able to address issues of accessibility and affordability. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of online therapy in the treatment and prevention of adolescent anxiety and depression. Participants (N = 38) were randomly allocated to one of four conditions: online CBT, face-to-face CBT, combined face-to-face/online CBT, and control. Combined face-to-face/online CBT is more effective in treating symptoms of depression and anxiety compared to stand-alone online or face-to-face therapy. The present study suggests that for those who are unable to access face-to-face therapy, computerized therapy may be a viable option. This is an important finding, especially in light of current capacity to treat and accessibility problems faced in the treatment of adolescent depression and anxiety.