Developing social work students' communication skills with children and young people: a model for the qualifying level curriculum

Currently, there is no explicit requirement for qualifying level social workers to be skilled in communicating with children. In a recent Knowledge Review, we argued that practitioners should have a basic level of competence in such skill at the point of qualification. If that argument is accepted then how this should be acquired within the qualifying social work curriculum needs consideration. The authors present a framework for understanding those components of skilled communication with children that should be included in the qualifying curriculum. A whole programme approach to curriculum development will be outlined which, we suggest, might enable students to develop the knowledge, capabilities and values required for skilled practice in this area.     

Consent requires a relationship: rethinking group consent and its timing in ethnographic research

ABSTRACT

Activist groups in ethnographic research re-negotiated our Ethics Committee’s expected order of securing consent before data collection, demonstrating the importance of researchers taking time to build relationships first. Although the Ethics Committee expected us to obtain group consent, the literature provides little guidance on how to do this. We developed a Memorandum of Understanding to summarize what forms of participant observation each group agreed to and how we would reciprocate. In this article, we (re)conceptualize consent, using analogies to consent in social contract theory and sexual relations to offer a critical perspective on what constitutes consent. We argue that taking time to build relationships before expecting research participants to consent and replacing informed consent with a negotiated agreement is a more ethical approach. We advocate for Ethics Committees to expand the meaning of ‘informed consent’ and review its timing, especially for ethnographic research with groups.     

The two-sample Winsorized t

This paper extends the single-sample Winsorized t to the case of two independent samples. Statistics are defined for both the cases of equal and unequal population variances. Monte Carlo techniques were used to find the approximate distributions of these statistics as well as to evaluate their performances in comparison to the trimmed t . It was found that as far as the power is concerned, the differences between the Winsorized t and the trimmed t are so small that the choice is immaterial for practical purposes.     

The experience of rural midwives in dual roles as nurse and midwife: “I’d prefer midwifery but I chose to live here”

ObjectiveTo explore and describe the experiences of working in the dual role as nurse and midwife in rural areas of far north Queensland, Australia.MethodThe methodology was informed by Heidegger's interpretive phenomenological philosophy and data analysis was guided by van Manen's analytical approach. Data was generated by conversational interviews. Eight midwives working in a dual role as midwife and nurse were interviewed individually.FindingsThree themes were identified: Making choices between professional role and lifestyle: “Because I choose to live here”; Integration of maternity and general nursing: “All in together this fine weather” and: “That's part of working in a small place”.ConclusionParticipants recognized that in rural areas it is important to be a multi-skilled generalist; however they were concerned that midwifery skills could be eroded or even lost with the diminishing amounts of midwifery work available. Appropriate re-structuring of maternity services could provide better use of the midwifery workforce in rural centres, and reduce the current problems associated with transferring birthing mothers to larger facilities. Further research is needed to examine the extent to which the requirement to work in a dual, or multifaceted role is an impediment to the recruitment and retention of midwives to rural areas.     

Transforming mental health services to address gender disparities in depression risk factors

ABSTRACT

Depression in older women is a significant and growing problem. Women who experience life stressors across the life span are at higher risk for developing depression than their male counterparts. Research has focused primarily on identifying and reducing the symptoms of depression for the general aging population, disregarding gender-specific differences in the foundational causes of depression. This article examines how women’s unique experiences influence the development of depression and highlights how the current mental health system could better meet older women’s needs by moving from a gender-neutral model to one that emphasizes women’s experiences.     

I Love You,Man

This article begins with a simple observation: there are very few contemporary Hollywood films in which women are shown becoming friends. This is in contrast to the “bromance,” in which new connections between men are privileged, yet this pattern has gone largely unremarked in the literature. This article has two aims: to sketch this pattern and explore reasons for it through comparing the “girlfriend flick” and “bromance.” To do this, we first discuss those rare occasions when women do become friends on screen, using Jackie Stacey's work to understand the difficulties this narrative trajectory poses for Hollywood. This raises questions about the relationship between the homosocial and homosexual which set up our comparison of female and male friendship films and provides the rationale for our focus on the beginnings of friendships as moments where tensions around gendered fascinations are most obvious. The films discussed are Baby Mama, Step Brothers, I Love You, Man, Funny People, Due Date, and Crazy, Stupid, Love. The differences we identify hinge on issues of gendered representability and identification which have long been at the heart of feminist film scholarship.     

Gender, social capital and location: understanding the interactions

In recent years, governments in many post-industrial nations have re-discovered 'community'. Social capital and neighbourhood renewal are key concepts underpinning policies aimed at building the capacities of communities to respond to the problems facing them. Despite the apparent consensus amongst Anglo-American governments about the use of social capital, and related concepts, as a guide for policy formulation these ideas remain hotly contested amongst social policy commentators. Against a general backdrop of disquiet about the application of social capital initiatives to communities facing significant social and economic challenges, some commentators highlight the curious inattention to gender in debates about social capital. This is all the more troubling given the apparent reliance of social capital initiatives on the informal network-building activities often undertaken by women. In this article we present findings from an empirical study of social capital creation across four geographically diverse communities. We show that the relationship between gender and social capital is complex. We argue that the 'one-size-fits-all' approach to social capital formulation fails to recognise gendered patterns of social capital formulation, but so, too, do analyses of gender that neglect the complex interactions between gender and other factors, particularly location, age and income. We argue for approaches to policy formulation that recognise local differences, including differences between and amongst men and women in social capital creation.     

The mental health status of Latino children in the public child welfare system: a look at the role of generation and origin

As the number of Latino children in public child welfare continues to grow, it is necessary to understand how their mental health is faring. The paper examines emotional and behavioural needs among Latino children who had contact with the public child welfare system. The purpose of this longitudinal study was twofold: to examine the severity of emotional and behavioural problems, and to assess the predictive role of generation status and Latino origin. Latent growth models were completed using the National Survey on Children and Adolescent Well‐Being. The predictive model for the externalizing CBCL scale revealed that generation status and Latino origin were significant predictors. At baseline, Puerto Rican children exhibited higher rates of externalizing problems compared with Mexican children. Over time children who were first/second generation tended to have lower scores compared with the third‐plus generation children. Implications for practise are discussed.