Great Expectations: The Growing Divide between Students and Social Work Educators

This article examines and reflects upon initial findings from a longitudinal study evaluating the experiences and views of students on professional social work programmes across four higher education institutes in the North West of England, on the BA and the MA routes. The paper focuses on one aspect of this study; the students' experience of assessment. In particular it examines how students experienced the process of learning, assessment, support and feedback, which was found to be in part shaped by previous educational experiences. The range of assessment methods previously experienced by students was diverse, some of which were more helpful than others in preparing them for their professional training. Lack of foundation subject knowledge presented a challenge to students on both courses, in particular for MA students who were being assessed at ‘M’ level. Unmet expectations of both the amount and type of support created anxiety, frustration and even anger for some. The ‘search for certainty’ led to anxiety amongst many first year students who believed that academics could facilitate the assessment process by providing ‘the answer’. This exploration of assessment reveals, we believe, a growing divide in the expectations of social work students and their educators.     

Therapeutic alliance between youth and staff in residential group care: Psychometrics of the therapeutic alliance quality scale

Therapeutic alliance has been frequently studied in individual counseling sessions; however, research on therapeutic alliance in residential settings for youth with mental health diagnoses has been limited. This may be due, in part, to the presence of multiple service providers often in caregiving roles. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric quality of a widely utilized measure of therapeutic alliance used in psychotherapy with youth in residential care where the treatment is provided by a trained married couple. We also compared the relationship between youth ratings of their male and female service providers, as well as examined correlations in ratings between youth and staff on therapeutic alliance. Finally, we investigated the direction, magnitude, and trajectory of change in therapeutic alliance over a 12-month period following admission into residential care. The method was a longitudinal assessment of 135 youth and 124 staff regarding therapeutic alliance over the course of 12 months or discharge from services. Results indicated strong psychometric properties and high correlations for youth ratings of both their male and female service providers. However, the correlation was low between youth and service provider ratings of alliance. Longitudinal analyses indicated that rates of therapeutic alliance changed over time.     

Mobilities,mobile work and habitation: truck drivers and the crisis in occupational auto-mobility in the UK

This paper examines the relation between mobilities and mobile work through a focus on occupational auto-mobility and habitation. Drawing on qualitative research conducted on truck drivers/driving in South-east England, it shows habitation emerges when driving stops; that it is cab-based dwelling-in-transit and nomadic dwelling rooted in and bounded by the material culture of the cab; and that it is displaced to the margins and interstices of the road and logistical network. The paper highlights the discomfort of cab-based habitation and its limits, in sanitation, and examines how recent developments at distribution centres intensify discomfort by denying cab-based habitation. These developments recast the relation of occupational auto-mobility and habitation through transient dwelling and are key to understanding the current crisis in labour supply in truck driving.     

Pluralistic ignorance and Hooking up

“Hooking up “—when two people agree to engage in sexual behavior for which there is no future commitment—has become popular on college campuses. In this study we examined the extent to which pluralistic ignorance affects hooking up. One hundred thirty‐six female and 128 male college students answered questions regarding their own comfort and their perceived peers'comfort in engaging in a variety of sexual behaviors while hooking up. We hypothesized and found that both women and men rated their peers as being more comfortable engaging in these behaviors than they rated themselves. Men expressed more comfort than did women in engaging in these behaviors, and both sexes overestimated the other gender's comfort with hooking up behaviors. Pluralistic ignorance appears to apply to hooking up on college campuses, and we explore some potential consequences of pluralistic ignorance in this context.     

Travail salarié, travail domestique,travail au noir : l’économie domestique à l’épreuve de l’accession à la propriété

A survey conducted in a recent housing development located in an exurban township to the east of Lyon, France, investigated how owning a house affects the work for wages and work in the household of each person in a couple. Though an economic burden, a house can represent a family and occupational resource for low-income households in a context where wage earning is precarious. This is especially true for women with few skills who “choose” to specialize in day-care work, whether declared or not. Home ownership often reinforces the division of labor between men and women. The articulation of the occupational and household spheres also depends on the household's financial and social resources and on the distance from family networks of exchange and support.     

Famine,Maternal Nutrition and Infant Mortality: A Re-examination of the Dutch Hunger Winter

During the Dutch Hunger Winter (1945), a unique, documented example of mass famine in an industrialized population, total reproductive loss (fetal and infant mortality) among most exposed mothers remained relatively low. This is explained by highly favourable fetal mortality and unfavourable infant mortality. The author traces the pattern of low fetal mortality to the higher levels of ‘embodied health status’ of famine mothers. The high infant mortality of the famine area testifies to the severity of the food and fuel shortage, yet another factor held down the rate of stillbirth. This other factor, it is argued, has a socio-economic character, it is the intrinsic ‘embodied’ nutritional status of the regional population, arising from favourable opportunities for growth and development among successive generations of mothers. This explanation highlights the importance of maternal vitality, (a synthetic, historically variable and culturally determined phenomenon) as a neglected feature of historical demography.