Developing an undue influence screening tool for Adult Protective Services

The study purpose was to develop and pilot an undue influence screening tool for California’s Adult Protective Services (APS) personnel based on the definition of undue influence enacted into California law January 1, 2014. Methods included four focus groups with APS providers (n = 33), piloting the preliminary tool by APS personnel (n = 15), and interviews with four elder abuse experts and two APS administrators. Social service literature—including existing undue influence models—was reviewed, as were existing screening and assessment tools. Using the information from these various sources, the California Undue Influence Screening Tool (CUIST) was developed. It can be applied to APS cases and potentially adapted for use by other professionals and for use in other states. Implementation of the tool into APS practice, policy, procedures, and training of personnel will depend on the initiative of APS management. Future work will need to address the reliability and validity of CUIST.     

College students coping with interpersonal stress: Examining a control-based model of coping

Objective: The ways that college students cope with stress, particularly interpersonal stress, may be a critical factor in determining which students are at risk for impairing mental health disorders. Using a control-based model of coping, the present study examined associations between interpersonal stress, coping strategies, and symptoms. Participants: A total of 135 undergraduate students from 2 universities. Methods: Interpersonal stress, coping strategies, depression, anxiety, and somatization were assessed via self-report. Results: Students reporting more interpersonal stress reported more depression, anxiety, and somatization, and they reported less use of engagement coping strategies and greater use of disengagement coping strategies. Engagement coping strategies accounted for a significant portion of the association between interpersonal stress and mental health symptoms. Unexpectedly, coping strategies did not moderate the association between stress and mental health symptoms. Conclusion: Interventions designed to improve students' coping strategies may be an effective way to reduce mental health problems on college campuses.     

Elements of Capacity in Youth Development Nonprofits: An Exploratory Study of Urban Sport for Development and Peace Organizations

Organizational capacity is often discussed among nonprofit practitioners and scholars. Yet, empirical research employing a multidimensional capacity framework remains scarce in the nonprofit literature (Andersson et al. in VOLUNTAS Int J Volunt Nonprofit Organ 27(6):2860–2888, 2016). Using a qualitative research approach, we explored capacity in a specific segment of youth development nonprofits—sport for development and peace (SDP). We were guided by three research questions: (1) what are critical capacity elements of SDP nonprofits? (2) how do these capacity elements influence the ability of SDP nonprofits to achieve their desired goals and objectives? and (3) what are the capacity needs of SDP nonprofits in the USA? Findings from in-depth interviews with leaders of 29 organizations contribute to the development of theory on nonprofit capacity by providing a more nuanced understanding of capacity strengths and challenges related to broader nonprofit goal achievement. For example, paid staff, revenue generation, and internal infrastructure emerged as critically more important for capacity in this context. Practical and theoretical implications are further discussed.     

On the Road to Resilience: The Help‐Seeking Experiences of Irish Emigrant Survivors of Institutional Abuse

Understanding how survivors of complex trauma navigate towards resources can inform the design of interventions and health promotion strategies. However, there are little data on the resilience and help‐seeking experiences of this group or others who have experienced institutional abuse in childhood. This empirical study sets out to illustrate the help‐seeking experiences of Irish emigrant survivors of institutional childhood abuse (ICA). Twenty‐two survivors of ICA were purposefully recruited from community organisations in the UK and data were collected via semi‐structured interviews. As a result of negative initial help‐seeking experiences in Ireland, most participants engaged in long periods of self‐management and disclosed information about their childhood as part of a redress scheme in later life. Outside of this scheme, turning points, such as illness or family problems, and the needs of children were influential in seeking help. Peer support networks played an important role as a trusted signposting pathway towards formal interventions. Participants identified interpersonal barriers to formal help‐seeking as helping professionals' failure to share control, insensitivity to identity loss and literacy issues, and the lack of explicit boundaries. The paper concludes with a discussion about the implications for research and future practice.

‘This empirical study sets out to illustrate the help‐seeking experiences of Irish emigrant survivors of institutional childhood abuse’

Key Practitioner Messages:

• Turning points, such as illness and bereavement, and the desire to provide for children, influence the help‐seeking of survivors of ICA.
• Irish emigrant survivors of ICA cite failure to share control, insensitivity to identity loss, literacy issues and the lack of explicit boundaries as barriers to help‐seeking.
• General awareness of ICA can help practitioners in low‐threshold services prevent against culturally insensitive practice.
• Peer support networks can provide uniquely trusted signposting towards formal interventions.

     

Rethinking the Individualized Education Plan process: voices from the other side of the table

Parent involvement in the process of creating an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is authorized under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a federal law in the United States that ensures children with disabilities have the opportunity to receive a free appropriate public education alongside their peers without disabilities in the least restrictive environment. Yet much research has shown that parents often feel like outsiders during the process. To understand parent perspectives about how educators might help make the IEP process more collaborative and inclusive, this study collected qualitative data from 35 parents of students with disabilities who have worked to develop an IEP with a school team. Our findings provide insight into parent experiences and evidence that parents have many suggestions for how educators can improve the IEP process. In our discussion section, we provide educators with strategies to address parent suggestions.     

A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of Social Work Learning Outcomes in Interprofessional Training with Medicine and Pharmacy Students

ABSTRACT

Social work has moved firmly into a need for partnership training models, as our newest Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards explicitly call for interprofessional education (IPE). Although IPE is not a new model, we have not been consistently involved in training partnerships. Three professional schools formed partnerships to provide IPE events for social work (n = 42), medicine (n = 108), and pharmacy (n = 49) students. Social work students showed positive change on a validated measure of attitudes and beliefs regarding interprofessional practice, and debriefing included rich discussions about challenges of communication and boundaries and perceptions of hierarchy and skills of other teammates in the context of case-based learning, guided by faculty from all three professions.     

Nitrogen retention and loss in unfertilized lawns across a light gradient

A desirable function for terrestrial urban ecosystems is the mitigation of nitrogen (N) pollution associated with cities and suburbs. To assist in maximizing this function, identifying locations of sources and sinks of N in the urban environment is crucial to inform management strategies. Lawns are an extensive land cover in urbanized landscapes, and in general, they have demonstrated the capacity to function as a sink for N inputs. How N is cycled by lawns, however, is likely not uniform across the physical heterogeneity or management activities that exist in lawns. We investigated the influence of heterogeneity in light availability on N cycling in lawns that were irrigated but not fertilized. Light availability is affected by tree canopy and built structures and is, therefore, heterogeneous both within individual lawns and among lawns. Light is expected to control N retention and loss through effects on primary productivity. We experimentally examined N regulation over one calendar year by measuring net primary production (NPP), N retention using an isotopic tracer, and N leaching in existing unfertilized lawns under heterogeneous light conditions. We used a budgetary approach to estimate gaseous N loss which we assume is primarily via denitrification. Light functioned as a limiting resource for primary productivity. From low to high light conditions, annual NPP increased 177 to 430 g C?m^?2?y^?1 and retention of N isotope tracer increased from 50 to 65% as a result of increased retention in plants. Nitrate leaching losses were low overall and were not affected by light levels. Light availability regulated the fate of N inputs and unfertilized lawns may function as substantial sinks for reactive N through storage in the terrestrial system and N loss by denitrification. However, whether or not denitrification is generally an N sink will depend on the ratio of non-reactive (i.e., N₂) to reactive (i.e., N₂O, NO) denitrification products. Overall, we find that effective strategies for managing N sources and sinks in cities will likely need to consider light availability, particularly in systems receiving water subsidies via irrigation.     

“It’s a generosity loop”: Religious and spiritual motivations of volunteers who glean produce to reduce food insecurity

Food insecurity is a common social issue and households look to assistance from food pantries, which often have difficulty supplying fresh or nutritious food. A substantial amount of produce is left in the fields, which can be collected through gleaning. In a focus group with volunteer gleaners at a faith-based nonprofit organization that attempts to fill the gaps of food insecurity, the motivations, challenges, and benefits of volunteering were examined. Volunteering in gleaning generated a sense of collective purpose and community; it addressed deeply held religious and spiritual impulses; and it puts volunteers directly in contact with nature.     

Elementary Preservice Teachers’ and Teacher Educators’ Perceptions of Financial Literacy Education

The authors conducted an online survey of elementary teacher education programs within a large midwestern state to assess preservice teachers’ and teacher educators’ beliefs about and preparedness to teach financial literacy. Very few preservice teachers had meaningful experiences with personal finance in high school, college, or personal decision making. No teacher educators reported ever teaching financial literacy in their higher education roles. Only 13% of teacher educators and 25% of preservice teachers thought that it was very important to teach financial literacy in elementary education. Most teacher education faculty and preservice teachers reported that they were not well qualified to use state economics standards or the JumpStart standards for financial literacy. Preservice teachers were more confident in meeting financial literacy standards than teacher educators. Both preservice teachers and teacher educators expressed openness to collaborating with other faculty members, members of the financial service industry, and parents to teach financial literacy. Follow-up phone interviews affirmed that elementary preservice teachers and teacher educators value social studies education (and financial literacy) less than reading and mathematics education. Qualitative results also suggest that elementary preservice teachers and teacher educators would like more easily accessible resources for teaching financial literacy.     

Individualism and Marriage: Ideal Types for Making Sense of the Relationship between Self and Sacrifice

The question of how the individual and group relate is one that has long interested social theorists. Changes in family form and structure in the contemporary West resituate this question in a contentious public debate regarding how the prevalence of new family forms may contribute or be deleterious to the well-being of individuals and families. Sociological discourse on marriage and the family generally tends to mirror this debate by dichotomizing individualism and commitment and self and marriage, resulting in an obfuscation of our understanding of the forms and styles in marriage. In order to clarify and advance this discussion, we show how individualism and commitment are mutually required in a modern world. We follow this by outlining a logically-derived typology that, along with a committed individualist and a group conformer, includes two intermediate types: a self-regulator and a relationship negotiator. We empirically demonstrate the utility of these types by showing how they correspond with the ways that interviewees talk about marriage in six local congregations, and we suggest various social factors that may particularly impact the development of local marriage cultures. These types provide a theoretical frame for understanding how individualism and commitment are intertwined and require each other.