A Comparison of Advanced Standing and Regular Master’s Students’ Performance in the Second-Year Field Practicum

The author surveyed field instructors of second-year graduate students to ascertain the instructors’ assessments of their students’ preparedness for and skill in social work practice. The variable of interest was traditional second-year or advanced placement status. Results indicate that, with few exceptions, there were no differences in field instructors’ evaluations based on status; those that existed favored advanced placement students. The implications of the findings for the continuing debates over advanced placement and an articulated continuum regarding the bachelor’s versus master’s social work degree are discussed.     

Household dynamics and fuelwood consumption in developing countries: a cross-national analysis

Previous research has suggested a link between household dynamics (i.e., average household size and number of households) and environmental impacts at the national level. Building on this work, we empirically test the relationship between household dynamics and fuelwood consumption, which has been implicated in anthropogenic threats to biodiversity. We focus our analysis on developing countries (where fuelwood is an important energy source). Our results show that nations with smaller average households consume more fuelwood per capita. This finding indicates that the household economies of scale are, indeed, associated with the consumption of fuelwood. In addition, we found that number of households is a better predictor of total fuelwood consumption than average household size suggesting a greater relative contribution to consumption levels. Thus, insofar as declining average household sizes result in increased number of households and higher per capita consumption, this trend may be a signal of serious threats to biodiversity and resource conservation. We also found further support for the ??energy ladder?? hypothesis that economic development reduces demand for traditional fuels.     

The Institutionalisation of ‘TongNian’ and ‘childhood’ in China and Britain: Exploring Cautious Comparisons

This article engages with the question of how theorisation of the social construction of childhood can be applied across cultural contexts, taking China and Britain as examples. The paper draws on collaborative dialogue between scholars from the People's Republic of China and Britain, and literatures from both Anglophone and Mandarin sources. It takes forward emergent work on theorising childhood from diverse global perspectives by focusing on the institutionalisation of childhood in these countries, with particular reference to language, conceptualisation and legal frameworks relating to chronological age.     

Response Thresholds and Demand/Withdraw Communication in Domestic Labor Conflict

Guided by Alberts, Tracy, and Trethewey’s (2011) integrated theory of the division of domestic labor (ITDDL), this study examines the influence of domestic labor response threshold on demand/withdraw communication in domestic labor conflict. Response threshold represents the point at which a negative stimulus produced by an unperformed task is of sufficient intensity to compel an individual to attend to it. One hundred and fifty-five heterosexual marital dyads (mean length of marriage = 19.98 years) completed an online questionnaire about their household labor conflict and response thresholds. Response thresholds were assessed using a photograph-based measure, and data were analyzed via an actor-partner interdependence model. Consistent with theoretical predictions, a significant actor-threshold-by-partner-threshold-by-sex interaction predicted reported demand/withdraw in domestic labor conflict. Individuals with low or mean response thresholds reported more self-demand/partner-withdraw the higher their partner’s response threshold, and this effect was more pronounced among women than men.     

Spatio-Temporal Modeling of Residential Sales Data

This article focuses on the location, time, and spatio-temporal components associated with suitably aggregated data to improve prediction of individual asset values. Such effects are introduced in the context of hierarchical models, which we find more natural than attempting to model covariance structure. Indeed, our cross-sectional database, a sample of 7,936 transactions for 49 subdivisions over a 10-year period in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, precludes covariance modeling. A wide range of models arises, each fitted using sampling-based methods because likelihood-based fitting may not be possible. Choosing among an array of nonnested models is carried out using a posterior predictive criterion. In addition, one year of data is held out for model validation. A thorough analysis of the data incorporating all of the aforementioned issues is presented.     

Extended-family resources and racial inequality in the transition to homeownership

We use longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine how access to financial resources in the extended family affects the accumulation of wealth among non-owners and how these resources subsequently affect transitioning into homeownership. Our findings show that economic conditions of the extended family have substantial effects on non-owners’ wealth accumulation and likelihood of becoming homeowners, even after adjusting for individual sociodemographic and economic characteristics. We find significant effects of extended-family wealth for both black and white households, but effects of extended-family income insufficiency for blacks only. Consequently, limited access to wealth and greater level of poverty in the extended family hamper blacks’ transition to homeownership. Our results show that the level of extended-family wealth necessary for black householders to equalize their likelihood of becoming homeowners with whites is very high. In fact, our findings indicate that white householders embedded in extended families with no net wealth are just as likely to make the transition to ownership as are black householders with affluent extended families. These findings support arguments related to the importance of extended-family resources in processes of residential attainment but also point to important racial differences in not only levels but also consequences of these family resources.     

Barely Bonded: Affective Politics and the Gendered Struggle for Water in Villa El Salvador,Lima, Peru

Qualitative Sociology - Affect is increasingly understood as a critical element of political life and collective action in Latin America and elsewhere. It is critical to generating participation in...     

Social Workers’ Attitudes Towards and Engagement in Self-Disclosure

This article reports on a study of social workers’ engagement in self-disclosure. Consistent with theory and research, participants limited their use of personal self-disclosure but were more willing to be transparent with clients. Yet, the social workers in this study did not always feel prepared by their education to appropriately engage in self-disclosure nor did they believe their use of this skill was grounded in theory or research. Many of the participants also didn’t feel comfortable talking about self-disclosure in supervision or with colleagues. Findings suggest that more attention should be devoted to teaching social work students about appropriate use of self-disclosure, particularly its different manifestations and its indications and contraindications. The findings also underscore the need for more open and direct discussion of this set of skills in supervision and consultation.