Stages of adolescent testing of social workers in an alternative school setting

Many of the problems faced by a new social worker at an alternative school for adolescents are unique to the setting. The students often distrust and fear new persons. Fearing rejection, they develop unique defense systems against it. The new social worker must pass a rigorous period of testing before being trusted. This article discusses the dynamics, importance, and successful handling of such an experience by a new worker.     

DOES THE CENTRAL AMERICAN COMMON MARKE1 BENEFIT ITS MEMBERS?

This paper estimates the welfare consequences for members of the Central American Common Market if they abolish their union by imposing tariffs against each other. An imperfect substitutes trade model is used and direct estimates are provided for the effects of the union. These are important advances over previous studies, which relied on perfect substitutes models and merely imputed the effects of the union by assuming that it left either market shares or income elasticities of demand constant in member countries. The union is shown to impose static welfare losses on the members, which contradicts the results of previous studies.     

Siblings of handicapped children

There is a strong suggestion that the siblings of handicapped children are at risk psychologically. Factors which contribute to this risk, aspects of the sibling relationship, and the siblings' issues, concerns and feelings are discussed so that professionals may have a framework within which to assess and evaluate these children's needs. Case examples are given.     

England, France and their North American Colonies: An Analysis of Absolutist State Power in Europe and in the New World

Using Michael Mann's concepts of "despotic" and "infrastructural" power as a starting point, this paper examines how the political associations between the state elite and dominant groups in "absolutist" England and France gave rise to state mechanisms that resulted in their exercising very different sorts of power, both at home and in their respective North American colonies. It is determined that the system of governance that defined the infrastructural power of the English state was less conducive to trans-Atlantic rule than the system that defined the combined despotic/infrastructural power of the French state. The analysis shows how the social relationships that comprise the structure of a state come to define the source and character of state power, and how the durability of those relationships can have a lasting effect on the exercise of state power.     

Child-rearing practices of two generations of Punjabi parents

The major objective of this article is to report the findings of two studies which compare and contrast the early child-rearing practices of two generations of Punjabi parents (1970s and 1990s) living in England. Additionally, the findings are compared with a small group of white mothers to broaden our understanding of the changing patterns of parenting. The data was collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews from the first generation during the period 1970–73 and from the second generation in 1995. The research perspective adopted is a qualitative one in that variables and procedures for data collection are not rigorously controlled, and the narratives of the mothers are used extensively to illuminate the key areas of early child rearing. The findings show that the second-generation mothers are shedding most of the traditional customs and practices and are moving towards modern British ways.