The Changing Face of Computer Utilization in Social Work Settings

Abstract

This paper describes survey results from 103 human service agencies serving as MSW training sites. The survey concerned: (a) Their current and projected computer utilization for direct and indirect practice activities; and (b) perceived issues, benefits, and emerging training needs regarding responsible and effective use of the computer. These findings' implications for curriculum planning, for practicum development, and for reconceptualizing computer literacy are explored.     

Attitudes About Remarriage in Malta

This study investigated the attitudes about remarriage of married and previously married Maltese people. Respondents were selected using stratified random sampling; 810 men and 1,196 women answered a questionnaire by means of computer-assisted telephone interviewing. The majority (67.4%) of respondents did not consider remarriage. Remarriage was more likely to be considered by respondents who were younger, previously married, nonparents, had children who were not all born within marriage, and were of higher socioeconomic status. The study highlights the differences in attitude according to gender and marital status. The fact that pro-remarriage attitudes were endorsed by 32.6% of respondents and that these were more likely to come from nontraditional family forms suggests that family life in Malta is no longer dictated by normative social imperatives. The need for the legal protection of families headed by cohabiting partners is highlighted.     

Factor Structure,Reliability, and Known Groups Validity of the German Version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (Short-Form) in Swiss Patients and Nonpatients

The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire–Short Form is the most widely used instrument to assess childhood trauma and has been translated into 10 languages. However, research into validity and reliability of these translated versions is scarce. The present study aimed to investigate the factor structure, internal consistency, reliability, and known-groups validity of the German Childhood Trauma Questionnaire–Short Form (Bernstein & Fink, 1998). Six-hundred and sixty-one clinical and nonclinical participants completed the German Childhood Trauma Questionnaire–Short Form. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to assess the 5-factor structure of the original Childhood Trauma Questionnaire–Short Form. To investigate known-groups validity, the confirmatory factor analysis latent factor levels between clinical and nonclinical participants were compared. The original 5-factor structure was confirmed, with only the Physical Neglect scale showing rather poor fit. As a conclusion, the results support the validity and reliability of the German Childhood Trauma Questionnaire–Short Form. It is recommended to use the German Childhood Trauma Questionnaire–Short Form to assess experiences of childhood trauma.     

Positioning and subjectivation in research interviews: why bother talking to a researcher?

Qualitative research interviews constitute specific contexts for creating and telling stories. This study illuminates the significance of the research interview on the subjectivation of participants who are usually rendered problematic or victimized – in this case, young people who live in residential care provided by child protection services (CPS). It explores how the interview situation offers possible subject positions for the interviewees that contradict with how they are positioned in their daily lives. In contrast to the conversations, these young people often engage in with professionals, the research interview may position them as competent actors. It may also allow for a greater degree of complexity, ambiguity, and ambivalence. When the aim is not necessarily to acquire an understanding of how things ‘really are,’ or to describe the participants in categorical ways, the variety and diversity of life may be speakable. This in turn allows for the telling of new narratives, the prospect of other subjectivities and the creation of new developmental possibilities.     

Participatory research and the voice‐centred relational method of data analysis: is it worth it?

Much has been written about participatory approaches in planning and implementing research. The process and practice of participatory data interpretation and analysis is, however, less discussed. This article explores the value of the Voice‐Centred Relational (VCR) method of data analysis and interpretation in the context of participatory research with socially excluded teenagers. Focussing on participatory data analysis, the implementation of the method with teenagers in a West of Ireland town who have left school early is described. Written from the perspectives of academic researchers, members of a research team that included teenagers and a Community Arts artist, this article introduces the VCR method and describes the participatory processes, practices and pitfalls. The challenges of doing participatory interpretation with VCR method are considered.     

The Dark Side of Art’s Social Turn: Towards a Discourse on the Impact of Art’s Use of Social Forms Upon the Social

The recent “social turn” in art, in which art favours using forms from social life above its own, has been extensively discussed. Relational Aesthetics by Nicolas Bourriaud, Conversation Pieces and The One and the Many by Grant Kester, essays by Claire Bishop who supplies the term “the Social Turn,” and her recent publication Artificial Hells, are now as important to the field as the art they scrutinise. Ironically, however, when this discussion regards the implications of the “turn”, it habitually addresses the effects of this development from – and for – art’s point of view, overlooking the way in which artists’ inroads into social life may be differently regarded in the social realm. As much as this represents a failure to illuminate a particular area for knowledge, it also signifies a failure to take art’s revalorised commitment to the social to its ethical conclusion: such, from two perspectives, is the “dark side” of art’s social turn. This article seeks to mitigate these oversights. In particular, it looks at art in which an artist undertakes another person’s professional work. Considering the effects of this on those whose practices are appropriated, I propose a consultative approach, involving ethnographic and empathetic modes of address. Consequently, this article does not present an answer to the question it poses, “how do professionals in the social realm see art’s appropriations of their practices?” but rather, a framework for approaching that.     

Social Work and Transitions of Care: Observations from an Intervention for Older Adults

Making the transition from hospital to home can be challenging for many older adults. This article presents practice perspectives on these transitions, based on a social work intervention for older adults discharged from an acute care setting to home. An analysis of interviews with clinical social workers who managed 356 cases (n?=?3) and a review of their clinical notes (n?=?581) were used to identify salient themes relevant to care transitions. Concepts developed and discussed identify the role of surprises after discharge, an expanded view of the client system, and relationship building as instrumental in carrying out effective care transitions.     

Health and distress in social workers: Results of a national survey

Abstract

This study investigated the physical and emotional health status of professional social workers as well as their levels of distress. The results of this national survey of 668 randomly selected NASW‐member social workers indicated that while most were healthy and satisfied with work and relationships, 17% experienced distress, defined as substance abuse, emotional problems, and/or physical illness. The distressed social workers were more likely to experience difficulties in many areas of their lives, including dissatisfaction with work and low self‐esteem. Some of the social workers reported seeking help for personal/ emotional problems, but very few sought help for alcohol/other drug problems.     

The only child 1 : A study of one hundred only children living at home with both parents,referred, to a child guidance clinic

This study examined differences in attachment typology, early histories of unresolved trauma and loss, and intergenerational patterns of substance abuse in a high-risk sample of African American, White, Mexican American, and Native American mothers involved with the child welfare system. The Adult Attachment Interview and Chemical Dependency Assessment Profile were used to collect data from 24 mothers who were in-patients at a substance abuse treatment center. Consistent with attachment theory mothers classified as secure/autonomous (46%) had positive early attachment relationships, although several mothers in this group had histories of unresolved trauma and loss. The insecure classification included 21% dismissing and 33% preoccupied. The unresolved classification included mothers from all racial/ethnic groups who had histories of trauma and loss. Results indicated prevalence of substance abuse in all racial/ethnic groups as well as patterns of intergenerational substance abuse in the aforementioned attachment classifications.