Serious case reviews: learning to use expertise

While undertaking an analysis of 20 serious case reviews for the Welsh Assembly Government, the authors became aware of important, largely unexplored, practice issues with implications for training, service delivery and the role of the lead professional. The reviews were studied using a ‘layered reading’ methodology to ensure that emerging themes were grounded entirely in the reports. In looking beyond the familiar recurring themes and practice failings, findings emerged about the use of expertise in its widest sense. The need for more skilled use of expertise was identified, from external specialists and child protection specialists, and from children, siblings and parents. Professionals from agencies who contribute less routinely to the process of safeguarding children should be consulted as experts and be empowered to play a fuller part. Consultation could often be used prior to, or in place of referral. The barrier to the collation and analysis of relevant information often appeared to be a failure to recognize and understand expertise rather than a lack of communication as often postulated in review reports. Skilled use of expertise and consultation in a coordinated manner could result in more rigorous assessments and promote greater professional trust, confidence and challenge. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Paradoxical Misuse of Power by Those Who See Themselves as Powerless: How Does It Happen?

Consideration is given to the paradoxical misuse of power by those who perceive themselves as powerless. A general model is presented to account for the coercive response style often shown by adults with low perceived power when they are placed in a position of authority (e.g., as parents or teachers). Specific hypotheses are tested here concerning control-oriented cognitive activity and speech patterns shown by "powerless" adults when their authority is challenged. Women with high or low perceived power (as measured by the Parent Attribution Test) attempted to teach a computer game to a responsive or unresponsive child. "Powerless" women showed high levels of control-oriented appraisal activity preceding teaching interactions and a high level of nonfluency during teaching interactions (an ineffective speech style). It was concluded that the responses shown by "powerless" women set the stage for misunderstanding and future conflict.     

Widening the gap: White ignorance,race relations and the consequences for Aboriginal people in Australia

White ignorance has a critical impact on race relations and is implicated in the maintenance of Aboriginal disadvantage. Addressing this ignorance is a largely overlooked capacity-building opportunity within Australia's non-Aboriginal population. It warrants consideration as a key component of strategies targeting Aboriginal disadvantage. Despite the established links between race relations and Aboriginal well-being, Aboriginal perspectives on non-Aboriginal people rarely feature in public discourse on “Aboriginal problems.” This paper draws on data from 180 in-depth interviews with 44 Aboriginal people in Darwin on the topic of White Australian people, culture and race relations. It reports Aboriginal perceptions of White Australian ignorance across areas of great symbolic and practical significance to Aboriginal people's lives. Their experience is that most White Australians are ignorant of the history of colonisation and the complexities of its aftermath. They are ignorant of Aboriginal law, cultures and languages, and of the extent of their own ignorance. The call to address White ignorance subverts assumptions about whose ignorance and capacity must be dealt with in order to progress national goals of reconciliation, address Aboriginal disadvantage and achieve justice and equality for Aboriginal people.     

Income Volatility and Family Structure Patterns: Association with Stability and Change in Food Stamp Program Participation

Using the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study, this research investigated how income volatility and family structure patterns influence participation patterns of stability and change in Food Stamp Program participation among a sample of young families (n = 1,263). Multinomial logistic regression models suggested that families that experienced significant declines in income were more likely to persistently participate and initiate participation than to never participate. Furthermore, stably married families were more likely to never participate; while other stable family structures (cohabitating couples and singles) and transitional unions were associated with persistent participation compared to other participation patterns. Immigration status, health, multiple indicators of economic hardship, and participant access rates were also significant in predicting patterns of participation. Strategies to increase participation are discussed.     

“Why Don’t You Just Tell Me How You Feel?”: A Case Study of a Young Mother in an Attachment-Based Group Intervention

This paper describes an attachment-based parenting intervention, the Circle of Security, and presents a case study of one participant’s experience as a member of it. The Circle of Security is a group intervention for parents of young children ages 1–5 that teaches parents to recognize and respond to their children’s alternating needs for attachment and exploration. The intervention content in group sessions relies to a great extent on discussions of videotaped vignettes of each parent–child dyad. Ultimately, the intervention focuses on strengthening parents’ capacities for empathic responsiveness to their children’s needs for them. In the second part of the paper, the case study illustrates one mother’s experience in a Circle of Security group designed for parents involved with the child welfare system as a result of substantiated maltreatment. Observations of this parent indicate that her capacity for empathic understanding was greatly strengthened, which appears to be related to important behavior change.     

Assessing Risk in Graphically Presented Financial Series

It has been argued that traders use their natural sensitivity to the fractal properties of price graphs to assess risk and that they are better able to do this when given price change as well as price level information. This approach implies that risk assessments should be higher when the Hurst exponents are lower, that this relationship should be stronger in the presence of price change information and that risk assessment should depend more strongly on the Hurst exponent than on the standard deviation of the series. Participants in Experiment 1 decided which of two assets was riskier by inspecting graphs of their price series. Graphs with lower Hurst exponents were selected only by those who were less emotionally stable and hence more sensitive to risk. However, when both price series and price change series were presented, the assets with lower Hurst exponents were selected by all participants. In a second experiment, participants were given both price level and price change series for a number of assets and rated the risk of trading in each one. Ratings depended more strongly on Hurst exponents than on other measures of volatility. They also depended on indicators of potential loss. Human risk assessment deviates from the way that risk is measured in modern finance theory: it requires integration of information relevant to both uncertainty and loss aversion, thereby imposing high attentional demands on traders. These demands may impair risk assessment but they can be eased by adding displays of price change information.     

How new lawyers use E-voice to drive firm compensation: The “greedy associates” phenomenon

Discussions and Conclusions How can we distinguish the GA phenomenon from unions? Unions’ raison d’etre is employee representation through collective bargaining, supported by a permanent institutional structure of professional officers and business agents and a revenue base from dues. The GA sites are idiosyncratic, based on the voluntarism and self-interest of secret founders, and lack any sort of disciplined approach to negotiation. Both unions and the GAs have adversarial relationships with management. Rather than bargaining, however, the GAs engage in concerted and surreptitious sniping. Both gather and share information, but unions use it to advance the interests of the collective whereas the GAs are left to their own individual devices when dealing with their employers. The GA sites suffer from problems of possible disinformation being posted by partners and others in the firms, and there have at times been false postings. The sock-puppet issue not only masks identities but also distorts the communication flow such that it is difficult to distinguish real conversations from ersatz relationships.     

His,hers, or ours? Work-to-family spillover,crossover, and family cohesion

Using the contagion model of spillover and crossover, this study examines gender differences in the effects of workplace characteristics (e.g., hours worked in the paid-labor force, job satisfaction, work flexibility, perception of partner's work–family spillover) on family cohesion among a random sample of dual-earner couples. Important gender differences were found among respondents: the crossover effect is stronger among men, while women's perceptions of family cohesion are more strongly influenced by work and job characteristics. Work–family policy implications are examined.     

Getting by with a Little Help from Workplace Friends: Workplace Culture,Social Support,and Family Cohesion

Studies have shown a negative association between certain aspects of workplace culture and family functioning. Using a neo-institutional framework, we examine whether workplace social support moderates the influence of three features of workplace culture—time demands, work pressure, and work strain—on family cohesion. Analyzing survey data from 312 individuals in dual-earner relationships, we control for number of children, education, income, employment status, and occupational status. We find that workplace social support is directly associated with family cohesion but does not serve as a buffer between dimensions of workplace culture and family cohesion.