Conflicting identities: white racial formation among Mennonites, 1960–1985

In this essay, I argue that rather than correlating white identity and whiteness studies first with invisibility, power and privilege, white identity is more accurately correlated with overt conflict and crisis. Moreover, the study of white racial formation in one US-based but internationally focused religious organization between 1960 and 1985 also suggests that white identity is a conflict that results in power and privilege but that the power and privilege do not define the identity itself.     

Strength in Process: Using Concept Mapping to Inform Community Coalition Development

This study reports on the use of Concept Mapping to delineate a conceptual framework germane to the planning and initial formation of tri-county rural diabetes coalition in a southeast US community. The focus of the tricounty coalition is to reduce diabetes-related inequalities in vulnerable populations. After a review of pertinent literature on community coalitions, this article explicates Concept Mapping processes utilized to plan and organize the formation of a coalition, offers analyses of the results, and discusses implications for current and future practices pertaining to community coalition work.     

A Conceptual Framework for the Professional Socialization of Social Workers

With the Council on Social Work Education revised Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards, professional socialization has become a matter of policy. The social work literature is characterized by a dearth of conceptual models and systematic research regarding professional socialization. The conceptual framework for the professional socialization of social workers presented herein provides a discrete definition and clarifies what was formerly an ambiguous understanding of the elements of professional socialization. Potential applications of this framework include its use as a foundation for systematic research and a bridge between competencies and signature pedagogy and in informing field instructor training and the integration of theory and practice for students and practitioners.     

Defining a threshold of harm from gambling for population health surveillance research

The measurement of harm in the context of non-problem gambling has received little attention from researchers in the field. Using the combined data from six provincial gambling surveys conducted in Canada between 2001 and 2005 (N = 12,285), we compared how different thresholds of defining gambling-related harm impacts prevalence, the relationship with indicators of gambling intensity and the characteristics of non-pathological gamblers who report experiencing below threshold symptoms of problem gambling. Survey items defining harm were drawn from the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) of the Canadian Problem Gambling Index. Three definitions of harm – reporting one or more problem gambling symptoms, reporting two or more problem gambling symptoms and having a PGSI score ≥ 3 – demonstrated a strong relationship with indicators of gambling intensity, and reliably differentiated low-threshold and zero symptom problem gamblers in terms of gambling characteristics and other risk factors.     

Repartnering Following Divorce: Implications for Older Fathers' Relations With Their Adult Children

This study examined the implications of postdivorce fathers' new unions and additional (step)children for two aspects of older fathers' relations with adult children born from a prior relationship: frequency of social contact and fathers' financial transfers. Data from multiple waves of the Health and Retirement Study (N = 13,017 observations on 4,997 adult children belonging to 1,917 ever‐divorced fathers) were used to estimate multilevel models. The results indicated that divorced fathers who go on to form a new union have weaker relations with adult children from a prior union than their postdivorce counterparts who remain single. This finding partly reflects the detrimental effects of repartnered older fathers' new biological children and stepchildren. There is no difference between older remarried and cohabiting fathers' intergenerational ties. Moreover, fathers' additional biological children and stepchildren have similarly negative effects on fathers' relations with adult children from a previous union.