Motivating the Unemployed? Attitudes at the Front Line

Abstract

Underlying employment services policy in many countries is the assumption that the unemployed exhibit a range of deficits. The goal of employment activation programs is to develop self-efficacy. Noting the determinants of self-efficacy, we illustrate how case managers and social workers think about the unemployed and suggest that negative attitudes held by case managers are not conducive to the promotion of self-efficacy, unlike the orientation displayed by social workers. We suggest that employment services, wherever provided, would be significantly improved if social work frameworks informed policy and practices.     

A Survey of Wellness/Healthy Lifestyling on College and University Campuses

Abstract

Mental health providers at university counseling and health centers should be alert to the possibility that college students with previously unrecognized attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may present for initial evaluation at their centers. This study was a systematic chart review of 42 students at an Upper Midwest university who were diagnosed with ADHD during calendar year 1993. Diagnoses were made by the treating psychiatrist, who reviewed records for presenting problems; recent associated problems; previous evaluations as a child, adolescent, or adult; and associated problems in childhood. Presenting problems included ADHD symptoms, mood symptoms, nonspecific learning disability, and academic underachievement. Associated problems were depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, drug and alcohol abuse or both, dependency, legal problems, learning disabilities, and eating disorders. Thirty-three percent had been evaluated for academic or behavior problems as children, and 36% had sought previous psychological care for non-ADHD symptoms as adults. Thirty-one percent were presenting at the university health center for their first evaluation. Childhood histories showed educational underachievement, learning disabilities, and behavior problems.     

Tensions and contradictions in Australian social policy reform: compulsory Income Management and the National Disability Insurance Scheme

This paper explores contemporary contradictions and tensions in Australian social policy principles and governmental practices that are being used to drive behavioural change, such as compulsory income management. By means of compulsory income management the Australian Government determines how certain categories of income support recipients can spend their payments through the practice of quarantining a proportion of that payment. In this process some groups in the community, particularly young unemployed people and Indigenous Australians, are being portrayed as requiring a paternalistic push in order to make responsible choices. The poverty experienced by some groups of income support recipients appears to be seen as a consequence of poor spending patterns rather than economic and social inequalities. By contrast, Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has been constructed as a person centred system of support that recognises the importance of both human agency and structural investment to expand personal choices and control. Here we look at the rationale guiding these developments to explore the tensions and contradictions in social policy more broadly, identifying what would be required if governments sought to promote greater autonomy, dignity and respect for people receiving income support payments in Australia.     

Young children returning home from care: the birth parents' perspective

While a wide range of literature exists on the experiences of children in foster care or adoption, much less is known about children who return home from care to their birth parents. This paper focuses on the perspectives of a small sample of birth parents of young children who returned home from care. It draws on findings from the Northern Ireland Care Pathways and Outcomes Study that has been following a population ( n  = 374) of children who were under 5 years and in care in Northern Ireland on the 31st of March 2000. As part of this study, interviews were conducted with the foster parents of 55 children, the adoptive parents of 51 children and the birth parents of nine children who had returned home from care. The paper explores the birth parents' views on how they coped while their child was in care, how they were coping after the child had returned home and how their child was faring at home. Results revealed that these parents, and their children, were experiencing multiple difficulties and struggled to cope after the children had returned home.     

The Importance of Early Childhood Poverty

Most poor children achieve less, exhibit more problem behaviors and are less healthy than children reared in more affluent families. We look beyond correlations such as these to a recent set of studies that attempt to assess the causal impact of childhood poverty on adult well-being. We pay particular attention to the potentially harmful effects of poverty early in childhood on adult labor market success (as measured by earnings), but also show results for other outcomes, including out-of-wedlock childbearing, criminal arrests and health status. Evidence suggests that early poverty has substantial detrimental effects on adult earnings and work hours, but on neither general adult health nor such behavioral outcomes as out-of-wedlock childbearing and arrests. We discuss implications for indicators tracking child well-being as well as policies designed to promote the well-being of children.     

‘We need to start building up what's called herd immunity’: Scientific dissensus and public broadcasting in the Covid-19 pandemic

This article uses content and thematic analyses to examine how UK public service broadcasting (PSB) reported on the Covid-19 pandemic prior to the first lockdown on March 23, 2020. This was a period when the British government's response to the pandemic was being heavily criticised by the World Health Organisation and other parts of the scientific community. This paper finds that in PSB these criticisms were muted and partially given. Instead, broadcasting explained in detail—and directly endorsed—government policy, including the ‘herd immunity’ approach. Most coverage of international responses focused on the United States and Europe with little attention paid to states that had successfully suppressed the virus. When such states were featured their public health measures were not explained nor compared to the UK's strategy with the consequence that PSB was unable to alert the public to measures that could have contained the virus and saved lives. These patterns in PSB coverage can be explained by the close links between key lobby journalists and the government's communication machine as well as the broader political and social contexts surrounding broadcasting at the onset of the pandemic.     

Habitat selection by an arboreal lizard in an urban parkland: not just any tree will do

The nocturnal, arboreal Marbled Gecko, Christinus marmoratus, is a common reptile in urban areas in southern Australia. This study compared the demographics and the distribution of geckos occupying different tree species in a modified urban park, the Adelaide Parklands, with those of a population occurring in Ferguson Conservation Park, a nearby native vegetation remnant surrounded by suburbia. The geckos in the modified urban and native remnant parks demonstrated different demographic characteristics. These differences were explained by tree circumference and the amount and type of bark cover on the tree trunk. In the Parkland, geckos were limited by the availability of thick exfoliating bark, its clearly preferred microhabitat as demonstrated by a laboratory choice experiment. The preference for trees with larger circumference, more cover, and thick bark were probably linked to thermoregulation, predator avoidance, and food resources. This study supports the premise that to support populations of urban animals, tree species selection needs careful consideration with regard to its microhabitat capabilities as well as food provision and other resource supports it can provide.     

“Islam Is Everywhere”: Pre-Arab Spring Coverage of Islam in the English Egyptian Press

This study investigates how Islam is reported by English-language Egyptian media. Much research has examined the orientalism that occurs in the coverage of Islam in the West, but little has occurred on how Islam is covered in a Muslim-majority context. This study conducted interviews with eight journalists who report on Islam as a part of their beat in Egyptian publications and a news framing analysis was performed on articles relating to Islam in English-language Egyptian news sources Al Ahram Weekly, Daily News Egypt, and Al-Masry Al-Youm in the months before Arab Spring radically altered the shape of the country. By applying orientalism, this study hopes to examine coverage of Islam in an environment where one would expect better portrayal of Islam and to examine the ways in which reporting regarding Islam foreshadowed the changes to come.     

Diversity in the Academy: On the Growing Prominence of Race and Ethnicity in the Pacific Sociological Association, 1929–2014

This article examines issues related to the underrepresentation of faculty of color in higher education, with specific attention to the discipline of Sociology and the Pacific Sociological Association (PSA). The authors explore the role that professional organizations such as the PSA have played in promoting racial and ethnic diversity within the Sociology pipeline. Further, it provides an analytic overview of the history of conference presentations on the topic of race and ethnicity within the PSA over the last eight decades. The article proceeds in three major parts: First, is an outline of the contours of the problem of racial underrepresentation in the academy. Next, follows a content analysis of PSA programs, which indicates that race continues to be of central importance to the PSA and that the 1970s were a turning point when the PSA began to examine its role in promoting diversity in the discipline. Finally, mentorship is presented as a critical vehicle for promoting greater racial equity in the PSA and the discipline of Sociology more broadly.