Interpretive claims and methodological warrant in small-number qualitative,longitudinal research

This article discusses issues of methodological warrant in a qualitative, longitudinal study with only a small number of subjects. The 12 to 18 Project was designed to contribute to research on gender, class and schooling. The rationale for a design using only 26 students spread between four schools is explained. It is argued that even with small-number research, issues of selection and comparison are important--but emphasis on techniques of data-treatment and comparison is misplaced. The meaningfulness and contribution of studies of this type lie in multiple acts of design, comparison, reflexive interpretation and dialogue with the broader field, and the more that such studies emphasize technical analytic procedures, the more they undermine their warrant to be anything other than a report on a small sample. Illustrations of interpretations of the data and from the data are given.     

Individual and Community Aspects of Women's Status and Fertility in Rural Bangladesh

Samples from the U.S. passenger lists are used to focus upon the emigrants from England to the U.S.A. during 1841. Probably as many as three-quarters of the English emigrants of that year made the U.S.A. their destination, though only a minority of Irish and Scottish emigrants sailed directly to U.S. ports. The English appear very largely to have spurned the unusual opportunities for assisted emigration to colonies that were available that year. The occupations of male emigrants are compared with occupations reported in the population census of 1841. Farmers, general labourers, and industrial workers, particularly those employed in textile industries, were overrepresented among the emigrants. Yet the movement was not predominantly an exodus of labourers from agriculture, nor from some of the most depressed occupations such as framework knitters and nailers. Various occupational groups are analyzed according to travelling companions, dependants and age, in an effort to distinguish between the more cycle-sensitive groups and those seemingly intent on permanent emigration.     

Short notices

H. J. Dyos (ed.), Urban History Yearbook 1974, 192; Urban History Yearbook 1975, 188 (Leicester University Press, Leicester, £3.00).

J. R. Raveosdale, Liable to Floods: Village Landscape on the Edge of the Fens, A.D. 450–1850 (1974), xi+206 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, £5.50).

Joel Samaha, Law and Order in Historical Perspective. The Case of Elizabethan Essex (1974), xvi+176 (Academic Press, London and New York, £4.70).

Charles Carlton, The Court of Orphans (1974), 145 (Leicester University Press, Leicester, £3.50).

Hans Christian Johansen, Belolkningsudvikling og familiestruktur i det 18. árhuadrede (1975). 211 (Odense University Press, Odense, Denmark, D.kv. 60+VAT). (Population and family structure in eighteenth‐century Denmark)

Paul Butel, Les négotiants bordelais, l'Europe, et les Iles au dix‐huitième siècle (1974), 427 (Aubier‐Montaigne, Paris, 70 fr.). (Bordeaux merchants, Europe, and the French West Indies in the eighteenth century)

Marcus Cunliffe, The Age of Expansion 1848–1917 (1974), 336 (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, £4.95).

Pamela and Harold Silver, The Education of the Poor. The History of a National School, 1824–1974 (1974), z+197 (Routledge and Kegan Paul, £3.95).     

Vulnerable children's health as described in investigations of reported children

This study explores whether the social services weigh in health aspects, and what these may be, when investigating reported children's life situation. Information about physical and psychological health aspects for 259 children in 272 investigations was included. Overall, information about children's health was limited. Problematic emotions were the most commonly reported health aspect in the investigations, whereas suicidal thoughts, self‐harm behaviour and gastrointestinal and renal diseases were mentioned least of all. A cluster analysis revealed that the low level of health information group included the largest sample of data and consisted of investigations with minimal information about children's health. The three other cluster groups, Neurological diseases and psychosomatic symptoms, Emotional health and Physical and psychological health and destructive behaviour, consisted of investigations conducted mostly according to the model called Children's Needs In Focus (BBIC, in Swedish, Barns Behov i Centrum). Although these investigations also produced limited information, they provided more than those assessed as having a low level of information about health aspects. The conclusion is that it is necessary to increase information about health aspects in investigations if social welfare systems are to be able to fulfil their ambition of supporting vulnerable children's need of health care.     

Social work Education and Students with Disabilities: Implications of Section 504 and the ADA

Abstract

This article addresses major educational issues related to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Because students with disabilities are entering higher education in ever larger numbers, and with greater expectations for accommodation than those of a generation ago, social work educators and administrators should be aware of the implications of these two statutes and relevant case law for admissions, classroom accommodations, and field placements.     

Interprofessional collaboration between social workers and school counsellors in tackling youth at-risk behaviour

In Singapore, although youths are engaged in school, at-risk behaviours still prevail. This study discovers the experiences of collaboration between social workers and school counsellors when working together to tackle the multi-dimensional problems that youths face. It is posited that the collaborative processes have strengthened as seen in the role clarity, flexibility and tight communicative processes amongst professionals. There are also issues of concerns raised, such as confidentiality and clashes in agenda. These are discussed in light of the processes and orientations that influenced professionals in their practise. Last, relevant recommendations are given to develop collaborative work.     

Residential Respite Care: The Caregiver's Last Resort

Understanding the beliefs that caregivers of people with dementia have in regard to the use of residential respite may inform strategies to address low service utilisation. In this article, the application of theory in qualitative research with 36 caregivers provides insight into why most delay service use. Although some believe that service use may increase caregiving longevity, others position service use in conflict with normative values, and may hold beliefs that negative outcomes will result from utilisation. To address caregivers' beliefs to support service use, improvements are required to service promotion, as well as to models of care.     

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Soldiers’ Experiences of Being Married and Serving in the British Army

ABSTRACT

Research suggests certain aspects of military life, especially operational deployments, may negatively impact military marriages. However, much of this research is from the United States and uses deductive quantitative methods. Qualitative research investigating the lived experiences of forming and maintaining marriages was conducted with six male U.K. Army personnel. Semistructured interviews were analyzed, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, identifying five themes, each representing different dilemmas the soldiers’ had to balance to maintain successful marriages and Army careers. These five themes are best understood as practical, emotional, and cultural dilemmas that can be alleviated with practical and emotional methods; such factors could be used to build resilience in soldier’s marriages. These possible resilience factors could shape the content of interventions to increase resiliency in military marriages.     

Racism and anti-racism in placement reports

The focus of this article is upon the way in which practice teachers and students considered individual and institutional racism and anti-racism in a sample of 40 placement reports. First of all we will examine the background to the development of CCETSW policies and requirements for social work courses and the way in which they consider racism and anti-racism. Then we will consider the limitations and aims of our research. We will present a brief summary of our findings which contrasts the content of the placement reports from two cohorts of students in 1995 and 1997, whose reports were prepared using two different placement report frameworks: one framework developed from CCETSW's 1989 guidelines, the other framework from the revised guidelines dating from 1995. We go on to consider in some depth the overall comments of practice teachers and students in the placement reports about work with black clients/users, the use of 'what if' scenarios and case studies. We continue by examining the way in which students considered the numbers of black people in the local population, and the use made by black people of the placement agencies. Also examination is made of multiple oppression, any challenges to racism made by students, differences in terminology used to consider issues associated with 'race' and the attention given to racism and anti-racism as future learning needs. Finally, we consider implications for future research and a summary of the findings.     

The Gateshead Millennium Baby Study: A Prospective Study of Feeding and Growth

This is a study investigating feeding and growth in infancy. Its principal aim was to examine the joint influence of infant feeding behaviour and maternal psychological characteristics on weight gain. Infants of mothers resident in Gateshead, UK, born in pre‐specified weeks in 1999–2000 were eligible, and 1029 were recruited. Routine clinic weights were collected, and heights and weights were measured by research nurses at 13 months for 82% of the cohort. Parental postal questionnaire completion rates varied from 81% at 6 weeks to 63% at 12 months and to 49% at 30 months. The strength of the study was that many data were collected at routine clinical contacts. The main difficulties were maintaining up‐to‐date contact details and keeping the families involved, for which direct contact was more successful than postal contact. Support from health professionals, telephone reminders, media involvement, birthday cards and newsletters helped the success of the study. More recently, 83% of the cohort has been traced to local schools. The overall result is a unique longitudinal dataset of early feeding patterns and maternal characteristics from birth which will form the basis of further investigation and analysis of the cohort.