Etiology of School Shootings: Utilizing a Purposive,Non-Impulsive Model for Social Work Practice

Many schools have introduced violence prevention measures that aim to combat acts such as bullying and carrying weapons on school premises. Despite these attempts, students and faculty live in fear of a school shooting happening in their community. This article reviews the factors that are most prevalent in those who follow through with school violence and the most prevalent cluster of variables seen in cases of school shootings. Next, the etiology of school shootings and the stages-of-change model, applied to school violence, is discussed. The analyses are then followed by implications for social work and how to augment existing practices through practice and policy changes.     

Developmental deviations in happy victimization across early childhood predict behavioral adjustment in middle childhood

This study examined whether the development of happy victimizing (HV) from early to middle childhood predicted prosocial and aggressive behaviors 3 years later. Participants included 150 children (50% female, M_age at study onset = 4.53 years) and their parents at four annual time points. At each time point, semi-structured interviews were conducted to assess children's emotional expectations after committing hypothetical transgressions. Child and parent reports of children's prosocial behaviors and aggression were provided at the beginning and end of the study. Children who experienced faster declines in HV reported higher prosocial behaviors 3 years later, controlling for initial levels of prosocial behaviors. Children who exhibited increases or lesser declines in HV reported higher aggression at the study end. The development of HV was not related significantly to parent reports of prosocial behaviors and aggression in middle childhood. Findings confirm theorizing on the normative developmental trajectory of HV and suggest that deviations in HV across early childhood may partially explain later behavioral adjustment.     

Developmental Trajectories of Sympathy,Moral Emotion Attributions,and Moral Reasoning: The Role of Parental Support

We examined the role of parental support to children's sympathy, moral emotion attribution, and moral reasoning trajectories in a three‐wave longitudinal study of Swiss children at 6 years of age (N = 175; Time 1), 7 years of age (Time 2), and 9 years of age (Time 3). Sympathy was assessed with self‐report measures. Moral emotion attributions and moral reasoning were measured with children's responses to hypothetical moral transgressions. Parental support was assessed at all assessment points with primary caregiver and child reports. Three trajectory classes of sympathy were identified: high‐stable, average‐increasing, and low‐stable. Moral emotion attributions exhibited high‐stable, increasing, and decreasing trajectories. Moral reasoning displayed high‐stable, increasing, and low‐stable trajectories. Children who were in the high‐stable sympathy group had higher self‐reported support than children in the increasing and low‐stable trajectory groups. Children who were in the high‐stable moral emotion attribution group or the high‐stable moral reasoning group had higher primary caregiver‐reported support than children in the corresponding increasing trajectory groups. Furthermore, children who were members of the high‐stable group in all three moral development variables (i.e., sympathy, moral emotion attribution, and moral reasoning) displayed higher levels of self‐reported parental support than children who were not.     

Understanding and working in welfare organisations: Helping students survive the workplace

In preparing students to function as competent social workers, educational establishments have to be mindful both of the need to communicate the ideals and values of the profession and the requirement to produce practitioners who are capable of functioning productively within the organisational environment. It cannot be assumed that these two tasks are necessarily complementary. Feedback from former students suggests they feel less well prepared for the latter. This paper explores the way in which one Diploma in Social Work programme attempts to prepare its students for the realities of the organisational context of their work with service users. It focuses on a module which aims to teach students about some of the key tensions inherent in social welfare organisations by arranging for them to interview managers and practitioners in their chosen pathway setting. Their findings are analysed in relation to the theoretical teaching given at the start of the module. The positive feedback from the students suggests the overall learning experience for the student group is very positive.     

Index

Abstract

Korea in Focus, 1994, a twenty-five-minute VHS video produced by the Korean Film Production Center, Seoul, Korea. Reviewed by John Douglas Hoge.

Social Studies Guide on Korea for High School Teachers by Craig S. Coleman, published by the Korea Society/Los Angeles in July 1994. Reviewed by John Douglas Hoge.

Armento, B., and T. Murray, 1994. Teaching about Korea: Lessons for Students in Grades 4–12. Korea Society–New York, ATTN: Education Programs, 950 3rd Avenue, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10022, (212) 759–7525, FAX (212) 759–7530. $3.00 postage and handling. Reviewed by Robert W. Wood.     

Monitoring of autocorrelated general linear profiles

A collection of quality data represented by a functional relationship between response and explanatory variables is called a profile. In the literature, the errors of profiles are often assumed to be independent. However, quality data often exhibits time correlations in real applications. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate a general linear regression model with a between-profile autocorrelation. We propose a multivariate exponentially weighted moving average chart for monitoring shifts in the regression parameters, and an exponentially weighted moving average chart for monitoring shifts in the standard deviation. A simulation study reveals that our proposed schemes outperform competing existing schemes based on the average run length criterion. An example is used to illustrate the applicability of the proposed scheme.