Mothers and children alone: The stamp of poverty

The contributions from a variety of potential sources of emotional and economic support are evaluated as well as their impact on female-headed households in a university community. A qualitative, in-depth interview investigation of 36 single mothers is summarized; illustrative quotations and marginal tabulations are provided.The single mothers considered in this study report great difficulty in balancing their own needs for a social life with the needs of their children. These low-income mothers are well educated; their life situations can only be described by the word struggle. Same-sex friends offer considerable support, but economic and child care needs stand out strongly as needs that are often unmet. Their dependency on the welfare system is determined to be an interim need. Mothers in this sample were trying to find work, go to school, and parent while maintaining some social life for themselves and for their children. Coping strategies are discussed, as are the strengths of mother-headed families.Barbara Goldfarb is a social worker at Victim Services Agency, New York, New York, and Roger W. Libby is a professor at the Center for the Family, Division of Home Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. A University of Massachusetts Faculty Research Grant to Roger W. Libby supported this study.     

Analyzing organizational ideology: A workplace assessment exercise

This paper provides an experiential exercise to increase understanding of employees attraction to ideological organizations and its relation to employees perception of loyalty, value congruence, and affective organizational commitment. Three separate conditions influencing employee attraction to organizational ideology are loyalty, value congruence, and affective commitment. These three component dimensions of employee attraction are outlined and used to define an eight-phase model through which individuals tend to pass in their decision to form and join ideological organizations.The analysis supports the notion of a stepwise movement from loyalty to value congruence to perceived commitment in strengthening ideological attraction and demonstrates how progressive phases are associated with perceived quality and connection to ideological organizations. Although the levels and phases are progressively prepotent and attractive in predicting employee propensity to form and join ideological organizations, different patterns and paths through the phases for individuals are indicated.The workplace assessment exercise is a tool that will permit managers and professionals to make first order assessments of quality of work life. This survey will discover which personnel and/or jobs are most strongly bonded to the organization and which are the most likely candidates for intervention and revitalization.     

Mental health and the aging: A review of the literature for clinical social workers

This article is a review of the literature on recent trends in mental health services to the elderly. The focus is on clinical services to elderly living outside of mental hospitals but includes services to residents of community nursing homes and homes for the aged. It is concluded that there is currently a non-system of services failing to meet present mental health needs. Current restrictive government reimbursement policies and national health insurance proposals are focused on treatment for acute episodic illness. This orientation does not permit a broader preventive perspective or a comprehensive mental health care approach.     

Video game playing,dependency and delinquency: A question of methodology?

A methodological challenge to Fisher's (1992) study of adolescent fruit machine gamblers was carried out with young video game players. Fisher (1992) described an association between frequency fruit machine playing, dependency and delinquency. Some methodological concerns were considered that might weaken this conclusion, in particular the use of heterogeneous measures that fail to distinguish between variables. As such measures feature elsewhere in contemporary gambling research it was deemed important to examine some of the potential problems that may arise. 183 11–16 year old video game players (152 males; 31 females) were recruited from four amusement arcades to answer a computerised questionnaire. Using an analysis similar to Fisher (1992) her results for adolescent fruit machine use were confirmed. However a separation of key variables and the use of a multiple regression analysis showed that of money spent, time spent and impaired choice, only the first was a significant predictor of delinquency. It is suggested that delinquents have higher disposable incomes to spend on their leisure activities. Video game playing and possibly fruit machine gambling appear to be independently associated with delinquency; in video game playing this association is not mediated by dependency. It was argued that a similar methodology should be used in the UK to re-examine Fisher's (1992) conclusions for children who use gaming machines.The authors wish to thank Timezone Amusement Arcades for the generous use of their centres, Colin Davis for programming the questionnaire and Dr. Sung-Mook Hong for statistical advice.     

Social Capital and Internet Use: The Irrelevant,the Bad,and the Good

The social effects of Internet use have been a major concern for social scientists and society alike. How the Internet affects social capital has been a hot topic in sociology and other social sciences: Is the Internet reinforcing and complementing social capital? Or is it isolating people and diminishing their social capital? Social capital is here defined as the resources that are embedded in one's social ties. This article reviews the literature on the subject, looking at three perspectives: one that suggests no relationship between the Internet and social capital, a second that suggests a negative relationship between the Internet and social capital, and a third that suggests a positive relationship between the Internet and social capital. I conclude by showing that despite the prominent dystopian view of the Internet in the public and in some academic discourse (and the moral panic associated with it), research supports a positive relationship between Internet use and social capital. In addition, I discuss new trends and directions for future research.