‘The terrorist in my home’: teenagers' violence towards parents – constructions of parent experiences in public online message boards

Teenagers' violence towards parents is a hidden and underexplored problem, particularly within the UK, and the stigma attached to such experiences makes research access difficult. In this study, two online message boards which featured parents' posted accounts of their teenagers' violence towards them were analysed. Using discourse analysis, three consistent discursive themes were identified: the emotional terrain of such experiences, the psychologisation of the child‐as‐‘perpetrator’ and parental responses to these complex experiences. Overall, these three themes were weaved together to produce overarching narratives of powerlessness and loss of hope. The theoretical and practical implications of this analysis are discussed, including a consideration of how such online message boards enable and delimit parental agency.     

Cohabiting Men’s Preferences for and Roles in Determining the Outcomes of Unexpected Pregnancies1

Growing numbers of men are fathering children within cohabiting unions. However, we know little about their desires for and preferred roles in making fertility decisions. To address this gap, I use data from 61 in‐depth interviews with working‐ and middle‐class cohabiting men to examine their stated preferences should their partners experience an unplanned pregnancy. For some men, the decision appears to be a relatively stable personal or political one, but most draw on their current relationships and/or financial or maturational situations when noting their desires. A subsample of 22 men from this group who have experienced pregnancies is used to explore men’s actual roles in negotiating whether a conception was terminated or carried to term. Despite the fact that most men would like to have input into decisions to abort or carry a pregnancy to term, the majority were not actually involved in making decisions with their partners (especially the decision to abort) when pregnancies occurred. Results are interpreted in light of social class differences in family formation processes.     

Debunking macro myths: findings from recent graduates about jobs,salaries, and skills

Research suggests that interest in macro social work practice is declining, a trend that has been well documented in the United States. Studies find that social work educators and practitioners may foster beliefs among MSW students that discredit macro practice and associated skills while asserting macro graduates are likely to face poorer employment prospects and lower salaries than micro counterparts as they start their careers. This study builds on and extends this literature by examining 27 skills in their current job using a five-point Likert-type scale among the early career trajectory of MSW alumni (N = 182) who graduated between 2008 and 2012 from a public social work institution in the southeastern United States. The skills included in the survey, as well as decisions about how to group them into scales, were made based on theoretical links between the skills by macro faculty members. Findings highlight the use of macro practice skills regardless of concentration focus, no differences in salary, or the time it takes to find employment between micro and macro alumni. Implications for social work education are discussed.     

Toward More Targeted Capacity Building: Diagnosing Capacity Needs Across Organizational Life Stages

Investments to build nonprofit organizational capacity have increased rapidly in recent years as both funders and nonprofits seek ways to improve performance. Yet, while research has elucidated the variety of capacity areas organizations generally depend on, we do not yet have a clear empirical understanding of which capacity areas are important to focus on developing or how these capacity needs vary across organizations. Using a life-cycle perspective and extensive data on 71 human service organizations, we examine the relative strength of ten capacity areas at different stages of the nonprofit life-cycle. Findings contribute greater empirical grounding for research on organizational capacity development and have implications for researchers, managers, and funders interested in nonprofit capacity building.     

Attachment Style Predicts Jealous Reactions to Viewing Touch Between a Romantic Partner and Close Friend: Implications for Internet Social Communication

Using vignettes and online photos, this study explored the relationship between touch intimacy, biological sex, attachment, and the experience of jealous emotions in the context of seeing one’s partner touch a close, opposite-sex friend. Results indicated that hypothetical scenarios elicited significant emotional responses and increases in touch intimacy (as depicted in digital photos) heightened these responses. Males indicated more sexual arousal when seeing their partners interacting with a friend, while females indicated more sadness, fear, and envy. In terms of attachment, preoccupied individuals expressed the most anger and fear, dismissives and secures expressed the least envy and embarrassment, dismissives expressed the least fear, and fearfuls expressed the most sexual arousal. The two forms of touch (face touch and lower back touch) elicited stronger jealous emotions (anger, sadness, fear, and embarrassment) than no touch. Lastly, in regards to lower back touch, fearfully attached males responded with the most fear, females with the most anger, sadness, fear, and envy, and fearfully attached individuals the least amount of fear. This occurred despite the fact that face touch was characterized as more intimate than lower back touch; our results suggest that this form of touch may have been perceived as sexual. We relate our findings to the context of viewing digital photos on social networking websites.     

An examination of the impact of maladaptive coping on the association between stressor type and alcohol use in college

Objective: Examine the impact of maladaptive coping style on the association between source of stress (academic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, environmental) and alcohol use (consumption, heavy episodic drinking, driving under the influence) among college students. Participants: 1,027 college students completed an online survey in April 2014. Methods: To test the mediating effects of maladaptive coping on the association between academic stress and alcohol use variables, indirect effects were examined using the PROCESS analytical framework for SPSS. Results: Maladaptive coping and academic stress were associated with alcohol use outcomes. Moreover, maladaptive coping mediated the relationship between academic stress and two of three alcohol use outcomes (consumption, heavy episodic drinking). Conclusions: Among college students, the association between academic stress and alcohol use may be driven by maladaptive coping. College students may benefit from interventions that seek to improve coping skills, potentially alleviating the burden of academic stress and decreasing problematic alcohol use.     

Perceptions of Substance Abuse on College Campuses: Proximity to the Problem,Stigma, and Health Promotion

For college students recovering from substance addiction, the path to sobriety is fraught with challenges. Many campuses offer recovery support resources, but students indicate stigma associated with recovery prevents them from using these services. This problem could be ameliorated through communication campaigns addressing misperceptions of substance abuse and recovery. The purpose of this study was to understand how students’ perceptions of addiction and recovery vary based on their experience and background. A quantitative survey was employed to examine stigma beliefs among 2 subpopulations of college students at a large Southwestern university. Findings indicate students with exposure to issues surrounding substance abuse and recovery held fewer stigmatized beliefs, emphasizing the importance of identifying and researching a target audience before developing a health promotion campaign.