Child Advocacy Center Based Group Treatment for Child Sexual Abuse

The present study examines initial symptom presentation among participants, outcomes, and social validity for a group treatment for child sexual abuse delivered at a child advocacy center. Participants were 97 children and their nonoffending caregivers who were referred to Project SAFE (Sexual Abuse Family Education), a standardized, 12-week cognitive-behavioral group treatment for families who have experienced child sexual abuse. Sixty-four percent of children presented with clinically significant symptoms on at least one measure with established clinical cutoffs. Caregivers of children who presented with clinically significant symptoms reported more distress about their competence as caregivers. Children who presented as subclinical were more likely to have experienced intrafamilial sexual abuse. Posttreatment results indicated significant improvements in functioning for all children who participated in treatment, with greater improvements reported for children who initially presented with clinically significant symptoms. Overall, the program was rated favorably on the posttreatment evaluation of social validity.     

Globalization and Free Trade Agreements: A Profile of a Nicaraguan Factory Community

This study examines a Nicaraguan community 3 years after the signing of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to learn how families, living in a community constructed near a US-owned factory, maintained resilience under growing negative conditions. These conditions relate to family dislocation, loss of support systems, lack of childcare, safe water, and food security, in addition to labor injustices. Although maintaining relatively high scores on a baseline resilience test, these families and others like them in Central America, demonstrate a struggle for survival in a globalized context.     

Schulman's Urban Lesbian: A HoboSexual Pedestrian Rhetoric

The following article reads the protagonist in Sarah Schulman's Girls, Visions and Everything as not only lesbian, but as hobosexual—a concept representative of anti-capitalist practices in both sex and labor. The hobosexual is developed as an extension of the lesbian flâneur, as a concept that requires reading Schulman's urban lesbian at the intersection of class and sexuality. Lila Futuransky's sexual identity is suspended and complicated through an emphasis on her desire for queer mobility; her urban movements connect her to hobo history, but also expose the effects of capitalism that thwart her urban movement.     

Association between employee department and responsible gambling program perceptions

ABSTRACT

Academic studies of employee perceptions of and engagement with responsible gambling (RG) provide important insight into how employees engage with RG, but typically treat employees as a singular entity. Employees in different departments, however, have different work experiences that affect their likelihood of directly interacting with gamblers. It is conceivable that degree of contact with gamblers affects employees’ opinions about RG. To examine this possibility, we surveyed cohorts of employees at MGM Resorts International (MGM) (N = 2,192) regarding their (1) perceptions of RG programs, (2) behaviors and beliefs about gambling, and (3) comfort with MGM’s corporate RG environment. Using MANCOVA, with years employed in the gambling industry as a covariate, we observed that employees in departments with less direct contact with gamblers were more likely to perceive RG programs to be effective at MGM than employees who have more direct contact with gamblers. In addition, employees who work in the Food, Beverage, & Retail departments were more likely to hold misconceptions about gambling than employees in Back of House operations. The differences in how departments view RG programs suggest that one-size-fits-all approaches to employee training might not be suitable for RG topics, and that position-based training might be necessary.     

About the contributors

The paper reports secondary analysis of data from the 2010 British Gambling Prevalence Survey, a household survey of a representative sample of the population aged 16 years and over (N = 7756). Responses to questions about frequency of gambling and average monthly spend on each of 15 forms of gambling, and responses to two different problem gambling screens (DSM-IV and PGSI), were used to derive estimates, for each form of gambling separately, of the percentage of (1) all days play (two estimates), and (2) all spend (four estimates), attributable to problem gamblers. Although these estimates must be treated as approximations only, they demonstrate that problem gamblers make a far greater contribution to total gambling attendances and losses than problem gambling prevalence figures would suggest. There are certain forms of British gambling to which problem gamblers may be contributing as much as 20–30% of all days play and spend, and moderate risk gamblers a possible further 10–20%.     

On being moved

In this paper, drawing on Henri Bergson's writing knowledge is seen as a virtual asset, i.e. , a resource that transgresses the distinction between past, present and future. Knowledge is never solely related to the actual present, but is continuously related to and associated with previous experiences and anticipated futures. By conceptualizing knowledge as a virtual asset, the notion of knowledge is freed from its commonplace metaphor of being a stock of skills and know-how that the organization can make use of. In this perspective, knowledge can never be fully conceived of as a stock, but must always be related to practices and activities. As a consequence, knowledge management theory needs to redirect its attention towards practices, rather than theorizing in terms of the taxonomies of knowledge employed by organizations.     

Public sphere as assemblage: the cultural politics of roadside memorialization

This paper investigates contemporary academic accounts of the public sphere. In particular, it takes stock of post‐Habermasian public sphere scholarship, and acknowledges a lively and variegated debate concerning the multiple ways in which individuals engage in contemporary political affairs. A critical eye is cast over a range of key insights which have come to establish the parameters of what ‘counts’ as a/the public sphere, who can be involved, and where and how communicative networks are established. This opens up the conceptual space for re‐imagining a/the public sphere as an assemblage. Making use of recent developments in Deleuzian‐inspired assemblage theory – most especially drawn from DeLanda's (2006) ‘new philosophy of society’ – the paper sets out an alternative perspective on the notion of the public sphere, and regards it as a space of connectivity brought into being through a contingent and heterogeneous assemblage of discursive, visual and performative practices. This is mapped out with reference to the cultural politics of roadside memorialization. However, a/the public sphere as an assemblage is not simply a ‘social construction’ brought into being through a logic of connectivity, but is an emergent and ephemeral space which reflexively nurtures and assembles the cultural politics (and political cultures) of which it is an integral part. The discussion concludes, then, with a consideration of the contribution of assemblage theory to public sphere studies. (Also see Campbell 2009a)     

Parenting During Childhood Predicts Relationship Satisfaction in Young Adulthood: A Prospective Longitudinal Perspective

Using three waves of data drawn from the National Survey of Families and Households (n = 438 young adult children) we examined the process by which parental warmth and harsh parenting during childhood influences children's romantic relationship satisfaction in young adulthood. Harsh parenting was directly associated with children's relationship satisfaction, independently and in conjunction with parental warmth, whereas parental warmth was indirectly associated with relationship satisfaction through family cohesion during adolescence. Results were consistent across male and female young adults involved in married, dating, and cohabiting relationships. Findings from this prospective, longitudinal study coincide with previous research using adult children's retrospective reports of parenting behavior and highlight the importance of family of origin influences on romantic relationships in young adulthood.     

An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of an FE/HE Partnership in the Delivery of a Preparation for Practice Module within an Undergraduate Social Work Degree Programme

The Preparation for Practice module at the University of Ulster is delivered to 170 first year students via a collaborative arrangement between higher and further education institutions. In each of the five sites, students receive large group and small group teaching facilitated by social work training agency workers and academic tutor dyads. An evaluation of the module sought the perceptions of the agency and academic facilitators regarding the overall collaborative arrangement and the model of co-teaching involving social work academics and agency partners. Respondents were asked to complete a semi-structured questionnaire, which generated data from a Likert scale and also invited qualitative commentary. The Likert scale data were analysed via SPSS and the qualitative information was scrutinised using a manual thematic analysis technique. Findings indicated that continuous communication, consistency in programme content and the acknowledgement of the differences in organisation resources were key to a successful collaborative arrangement. It was also noted that a co-teaching model should be viewed as a positive vehicle for achieving module objectives in a safe learning environment.