The Importance of Practice Learning in Social Work: Do We Practice What We Preach?

This paper reports on themes identified from focus group discussions with practice educators, in which they articulated concerns about factors that limited their work with students on placement. Four key themes are identified from analysis of the data: (1) The absence of workload relief for agency based practice educators; (2) A lack of knowledge about the academic curriculum in qualifying social work programmes; (3) A sense of isolation from universities placing students with them; (4) Concerns about the quality of practice learning experiences they could provide to students. Expressions of guilt and anxiety were a prominent feature of the focus group discussions. Almost all the practice educators felt that their work in this role was not good enough. They were concerned about standards and missed opportunities to work developmentally with students who may be at risk of failing, or conversely to stimulate those who were more able. The findings suggest that universities should consider whether practice educators are sufficiently connected with other parts of the social work education system to fulfil their role.     

Empowering teen peers to prevent bullying: The Bully Busters Program for high school (Peer leader guide and CD) by Horne,A. M., Nitza,A., Dobias,B. F., Jolliff,D. L., Raczynski,K. A., & Voors,W.

This article describes low-cost and tested procedures which may be used by the social work pracritioner-researcher for collection of data about what takes place in groups in natural setting. Some technical issues in uses of tapes of group sessions obtained by portable cassette recorders are explored. Content analysis as a research technique is explained and illustrations provided. Process analysis through measurement of such dimensions as frequency and initiator of speech is described.     

Networks of Attachment Relationships in Low-income Children of Mexican Heritage: Infancy through Preschool

Eighty-three low-income Mexican-heritage children (44 girls) and their mothers participated in this research. Children were observed with alternative caregivers at 14, 24, and 36 months of age using the Attachment Q-Set. Most children received regular care from infancy through preschool from relatives and childcare providers. Children had high attachment security scores with both mothers and caregivers. Child–mother and child-alternative caregiver attachment security scores were independent of each other. Children whose mothers did not participate in family clusters were lowest in child–mother attachment security at 14 months. More emotionally sensitive mothers and responsive alternative caregivers were associated with more secure child–adult attachments. Mothers who had more contact with relatives still in Mexico were more likely to have somewhat more positive relations between intrusive interaction and positive attachment relationships than mothers who had less contact.     

A Genetic Analysis of Differential Experiences of Adolescent Siblings Across Three Years

Environmental factors work to make siblings in the same family different from one another rather than similar. The Sibling Inventory of Differential Experience (SIDE; Daniels & Plomin, 1985) was constructed to evaluate how differently siblings perceive their experiences to be across three domains: parental treatment, sibling treatment, and peer characteristics. The goals of the study were threefold: to assess the degree to which siblings agree about their differential experiences; to examine the stability of perceived differential treatment across three years; and to assess genetic and environmental contributions to the SIDE using both the twin design and the stepfamily design. These goals were explored using a genetically sensitive sample of 719 same-sex sibling pairs ranging from 10 to 18 years of age of whom 94% of eligible pairs were retested three years later. Results indicated moderate agreement between siblings, and considerable stability across 3 years. As in previous research on the SIDE, MZ vs. DZ results indicated greater genetic influence than did results for full siblings vs. genetically unrelated siblings. The results suggest that, although intended as a measure of nonshared environment, the SIDE is not impervious to genetic influence as assessed by the twin design.