Transferring training to child welfare practice: Individual and collective efforts

The transfer of training to practice constitutes an ongoing challenge in child welfare services. Many efforts to understand and promote training transfer address the concept as an individual-level behavior. This study suggests that training transfer is both an individual and collective process. The study involves a survey at two time points of 214 workers from child welfare agencies who attended a training program. Principle components analysis identified two meaningful sub-components within the concept of the training transfer. Hierarchical linear regression was used to assess the influence of individual-level and contextual factors on both components. Findings suggest that to promote collective training transfer and enhance both individual and group performance, child welfare administrators may need to strengthen supervisory support and to promote positive work climates in which trainees can discuss training concepts and work together to apply them.     

Harsh Parenting,Deviant Peers,Adolescent Risky Behavior: Understanding the Meditational Effect of Attitudes and Intentions

Although research supports the influence of parents and peers on adolescent risky behavior, less is known about mechanisms proposed to explain this relation. This study examined the influence of adolescent attitudes and intentions about such behaviors. Prospective, longitudinal data came from rural youth who participated throughout adolescence (n = 451). Observed harsh parenting and relationship with deviant peers was assessed in early adolescence, attitudes and intentions were measured during middle adolescence, and risky behavior was assessed in late adolescence. Results indicated that parenting and deviant peers was related to engagement in tobacco use, alcohol use, and risky sexual behaviors. Moreover, attitudes and intentions mediated this relationship even after parent use and adolescent early involvement in these behaviors were taken into account.     

Developing a More Inclusive Social Identity: An Elementary School Intervention

School integration, stimulated by the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, has influenced students' social and educational experiences. Drawing on practice and theory, we focus on strategies for improving intergroup relations. In a series of sessions over four-weeks, 830 first and second grade children participated in Green Circle program activities designed to widen their circles of inclusion to include people who are different from themselves. Although the intervention did not influence children's biases in sharing or how happy they would be playing with others who were different from themselves based on race, sex, and weight, it did lead them to be more inclusive in selecting their most preferred playmate. Implications for friendship development and improvement in intergroup attitudes are considered .

He drew a circle that shut me out- Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win- We drew a circle that took him in.
                              —Edwin Markham (1936, p. 67)

     

Importance of the National Career Development Guidelines to School Counselors

This study surveyed the opinions of a national random sample of school counselors toward the importance of the elementary, junior high/middle, and high school competencies in the National Career Development Guidelines. The results of the study indicated that school counselors consider the career development competencies in the guidelines to be important to very important across the three levels.     

Does Marxism allow for the magical side of things? Magical realism and a comparison between one hundred years of solitude and the house of the spirits

This paper examines Magical Realism from a few different angles. Does this genre arise out of socio‐economic conditions in the Third World, distinguishing it from the cultural conventions of First World Postmodernism? Can the fiction of Magical Realism capture complex social and historical realities? Put another way, are the conventions of Magical Realism compatible with Marxism? Can a Marxist framework incorporate mystery and magic? I deal with these issues both theoretically and by way of a comparison between two well known Latin American novels ‐ One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. These two novels are shown to be quite dissimilar in their use of Magical Realist techniques.     

Responding to student mental health concerns in social work education: reflective questions for social work educators

In this paper, we explore ways in which social work educators might respond to students who report that mental health issues underlie their difficulty in meeting core competencies, or otherwise use the language of mental health to describe their struggles to succeed in social work programs. We discuss various trends in policy responses in Canada, the US, the UK, and Ireland. While there are general policy trends, it is clear that responding to these kinds of issues requires the development of highly flexible and situated policy processes that can respond to student realities, concern for students’ rights and privacy, and an awareness of potential discrimination against students. These processes also need to meet the specificities of practicums, particular institutional policies, the mandates of relevant professional bodies, and the precise local legislative framework that shapes these situations. Given these varying contexts, in this conceptual paper, we used a framework on disability that is informed by critical theory to engage existing school policies and propose a set of reflective questions that can guide schools of social work to create an overall responsive environment. These reflective questions are designed to help social work educators balance the rights and needs of students with the professional and institutional demands that students meet core competencies in their education.     

Race-of-interviewer effects and survey questions about police violence

ABSTRACT

This research uses binary logistic regression to test for a connection between the race of interviewer and race of respondent on five questions in the General Social Survey about the use of physical force by the police. Results indicate two instances of race-of-interviewer effect: (1) black respondents were more likely to voice disapproval about whether the police can strike a citizen trying to escape when speaking to a black interviewer, and (2) white respondents were less likely to voice approval of police striking an adult male citizen in the presence of a black interviewer. Secondary findings indicate that education is consistently significant regardless of race of respondent and the survey question, while social class, sex, age, and region are significant in only limited scenarios.