Pathways to educational aspirations: resilience as a mediator of proximal resources and risks

Educational aspirations play an important role in educational achievement, understanding more about the factors that shape aspirations should enable educators and others who support young people to better articulate educational ambitions and then to work towards their achievement. Given this, the current paper uses a form of integrative data analysis to examine two issues. First, it identifies that a social ecological measure of resilience mediates the impact which proximal risks and resources have upon young people’s educational aspirations. Second, it establishes that the linkages between these proximal risks and resources, resilience and educational aspirations are similar for young people facing high levels of adversity and young people on more or less normative developmental pathways. The paper draws on a data collected in the first wave of the Youth Transitions Study; a longitudinal mixed-methods investigation of the factors that influence transitions to adulthood for a group of vulnerable teenagers.     

Critical Commentary: Planning a submission for ESRC recognition

This paper outlines the processes involved in planning a submission for recognition as an ESRC recognised outlet for research training at doctoral level. It identifies the need to address issues surrounding the nature of social work research and in particular, the contested nature of its boundaries and its claim to distinctiveness. This opens the way to planning an overall balance of general and discipline specific components within the overall programme curriculum.     

Casino gaining offense inmates: What are these men like?

The characteristics of 28 men convicted for casino gaming offenses in Nevada were determined. Twenty-seven of these inmates cheated using slot or video poker machines. Most of the subjects used slugs. The other cheated at cards. Compared to other inmates, a disproportionate number of inmates were white. There were no black inmates incarcerated for this crime. Eighteen (57%) of the gaming offenders were over the age of 40 when convicted, in significant comparison to 27% of the general population inmates. They had significantly more aliases than the general population inmates. None of the gaming offenders had a history of violent felony convictions. They had, however, a history of great social, marital, occupational, and financial instability in addition to a criminal life style.     

Becoming involved in raising a relative's child: reasons, caregiver motivations and pathways to informal kinship care

Interviews with 207 informal kinship caregivers describe a dynamic process that influences how children come to live with a relative other than their parent. This process involves three overlapping and often simultaneously occurring factors: (1) the reasons the children's parents were unable to care for them; (2) the caregiver's motivation for assuming responsibility for the child; and (3) the pathways or routes that children took to the caregiver's home. Understanding these factors and their mutual and simultaneous influence is important as we shape policies, programs and interventions to support families as they consider whether to care for a relative's child and once they assume this responsibility.     

Factors Affecting Australia's Refugee Policy: The Case of the Kosovars

This article seeks to explain Australia's refugee policy and to identify the various objectives and factors that influence the development of that policy.
Australia's refugee programme seeks to: provide a humanitarian response and protection to individual refugees; participate responsibly in the international community; honour its Convention obligations; further the interests of the people of Australia; meet high standards of administration and; acknowledge as much as possible changes in refugee populations.
In fulfilling these objectives, Australian governments must weigh and balance various competing factors. These include: humanitarian responsibility, international obligations, social, political, economic and foreign policy factors, as well as efficient administration.
In balancing the relative importance of these factors, the Federal government hopes to fulfil all its refugee and humanitarian objectives. However, the pluralistic nature of Australian society and the often conflicting ideals associated with protection of Australia's interests and the preservation of the rights of refugees, means that fulfilment of these objectives is difficult.
This article examines the Australian government's response to the Kosovar conflict, to assess the relative success Australia had in fulfilling its refugee policy objectives and identifying the various factors that produced the final result.