Reciprocity in Parent–Child Exchange and Life Satisfaction among the Elderly: A Cross-National Perspective

This study explores the role of intergenerational exchange relationships in the life satisfaction of a cross-national sample of older people. Specifically, it replicates and extends the study by Lee, Netzer, and Coward (1995) , which examined the effects of aid exchanged between generations—older parents and their adult children. Social exchange and equity theories serve as the theoretical frameworks for the present research. The current research is based on data collected in the OASIS cross-national five countries project from 1,703 respondents (75+) living in urban settings. The main results are that the capacity to be an active provider in exchange relations enhances elders' life satisfaction. Being mainly a recipient of help from adult children is related to a lower level of life satisfaction. Filial norms are negatively related to life satisfaction. The study also underscores the importance of the emotional component in intergenerational family relations to the well-being of the older population. Intergenerational family bonds reflect a diversity of forms related to individual, familial, and social structural characteristics. The research highlights the importance of reciprocity in intergenerational relations between older parents and their adult children.     

Divison of Labor,Perceived Fairness,and Marital Quality: The Effect of Gender Ideology

This study assesses the relations between division of household labor, perceived fairness, and marital quality by comparing three ethnic‐religious groups in Israel that reflect traditional, transitional, and egalitarian ideologies. The findings, based on structural equation modeling (SEM) methodology, show that sense of fairness mediates the relation between division of labor and marital quality and gender ideology moderates these relations for women but not for men. Perceived fairness is related to the division of labor for women in egalitarian and transitional families but not in traditional ones. For egalitarian women, a more segregated division of labor is linked directly with lower marital quality whereas for women in transitional families it is mediated by sense of fairness. The findings are discussed on two overlapping levels—conceptual‐theoretical and sociocultural—with implications for understanding families in cultural transition.     

Money Management Patterns of Dual-Earner Families in Israel

The purpose of the present study is to assess money organizing patterns and banking arrangements in dual-earner families and how they are affected by both the economic and social context. A log linear analysis of data from the International Social Survey Program for working couples in Israel indicates that the combination of money organizing patterns and banking arrangements enables meaningful distinction between traditional, modern and individualistic spousal economic behavior modes. A further comparison of demographic, employment and attitudinal effects suggests that both the economic and social context approaches are necessary to identify the factors associated with different spousal economic behavior modes. Both the spouses' labor force positions and their attitudes regarding family roles contribute to their using a particular mode.     

Trends and Issues in the Dissemination of Child Development and Early Education Knowledge

SUMMARY. The ideas presented in this paper draw on the author's 25 years experience as Director of the ERIC Clearing House on Elementary and Early Childhood Education (ERIC/EECE), and the responsibility for disseminating the information from this vast document collection to teachers, parents and others in the field. The paper discusses current trends in the environment to which the dissemination of child development and early education knowledge is directed. It considers ways in which practitioners receive and use new information and research findings, and particularly the culture gap between scientist/researcher and clinician/practitioner, and considers the implications of this for those who disseminate this information.     

Gramsci, Hegemony, and Global Civil Society Networks

This study offers a first empirical test at a truly global level of two contradictory models of global civil society in the global governance system that are put forth by neo-Gramscian thought. The first model posits that global civil society is coopted by hegemonic capitalist and political elites, and promotes hegemonic interests by distributing neoliberal values and providing a façade of opposition. The second model views global civil society as the infrastructure from which counter-hegemonic resistance, and ultimately a counter-hegemonic historic bloc will evolve and challenge neoliberal hegemony. The predictions that these two views make as to the structure of global civil society networks are tested through network analysis of a matrix of links between 10,001 international NGOs in a purposive sample of INGOs extracted from the database of the Union of International Associations. The findings provide partial support to the predictions of both models, and lead to the conclusion that at present global civil society is in a transitional phase, but that the current infrastructure provided by the global INGOs network is conducive to the development of a counter-hegemonic historic bloc in the future, providing the northern bias in network is decreased. Strategic steps needed to achieve this are presented.     

BSW students and interviewing: physiological,psychological, and pedagogical perspectives from Canada

The acquisition of interviewing skills is a hallmark of social work education; however, few studies have examined the experience of learning these skills from the students’ perspective. This qualitative study undertaken in Ontario, Canada, examined Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) students’ perceptions of interviewing. Individual interviews were conducted with second-year BSW students (n = 17) following their completion of an interviewing course. The following six themes emerged as to how students perceived learning interviewing skills: 1) emotional responses; 2) physiological responses; 3) psychological responses; 4) coping strategies; 5) the need for constructive criticism; and 6) the role of the course instructor. The study suggests that instructors normalize the presence of negative emotions and provide more structure and instructions for giving and receiving feedback when using role-plays.     

A Study of Social Workers' Job Satisfaction as Based on an Optimal Model of Care for the Terminally Ill

ABSTRACT

To address the need for empirical evidence on how culture is and should be addressed in child protection work in Australia to ensure equity in service delivery, this study reviewed 120 case files of children from ethnic-minority, Aboriginal, and Anglo backgrounds and conducted 46 qualitative interviews with ethnic-minority client families and the caseworkers who service them. Overall, the results indicated that the issue of culture for ethnic-minority families receives less consideration than it does for Aboriginal families and more than it does for Anglo families, indicating that cross-cultural parity is yet to be achieved. To ensure equity in service delivery, it is important that culture is neither overlooked nor used to essentialize the needs and experiences of ethnic-minority families; balancing the amount of attention that culture receives in child protection work may help “normalize the novel”—that is, reduce the use of cultural stereotypes without reducing the significance of cultural factors in child protection work with culturally nonmainstream families. Mandatory consultation with “multicultural” caseworkers may help get the balance right and warrants future research.     

Power analysis for cluster randomized trials with binary outcomes modeled by generalized linear mixed-effects models

Power analysis for cluster randomized control trials is difficult to perform when a binary response is modeled using the generalized linear mixed-effects model (GLMM). Although methods for clustered binary responses exist such as the generalized estimating equations, they do not apply to the context of GLMM. Also, because popular statistical packages such as R and SAS do not provide correct estimates of parameters for the GLMM for binary responses, Monte Carlo simulation, a popular ad-hoc method for estimating power when the power function is too complex to evaluate analytically or numerically, fails to provide correct power estimates within the current context as well. In this paper, a new approach is developed to estimate power for cluster randomized control trials when a binary response is modeled by the GLMM. The approach is easy to implement and seems to work quite well, as assessed by simulation studies. The approach is illustrated with a real intervention study to reduce suicide reattempt rates among US Veterans.