From counselling to community work: Developing a framework for social work practice with displaced persons

Abstract

This paper represents the outcome of a process of reflection during and following a practice experience with 400 displaced persons from Kosova who were accommodated in southern Tasmania in 1999. Engaged to provide counselling services, the authors experienced misgivings from the outset that this alone would be an effective and appropriate response to people in circumstances of continuing displacement and uncertainty. The paper describes the evolution of services from counselling to community work, discusses emergent practice issues and identifies key principles for future practice.     

Child Protection Workers’ Perspectives on the School-to-Work Transition for Young People in Care

Abstract

Young people in the care of the state are reported as having generally poor education and employment outcomes due to such factors as high rates of school exclusions and non-attendance, frequent placement moves with consequent school disruptions, deprived precare backgrounds, lack of coordination between education and child protection personnel, lack of attention to educational needs by professionals, and low expectations held by carers and caseworkers. The present article examines child protection worker perspectives on young people's transition from school to work. Caseworkers believe that, for young people in care, factors such as unstable placements, psychological and behavioural problems, inadequate vocational options, poor caseworker knowledge of available training and education, and negative perceptions of young people in care may impede them from making a successful transition from school. Research suggests that child protection caseworkers need to integrate education and work with leaving care planning, given it is vital to the future wellbeing of young people in care.     

Estimating the Standard Deviation From the Range: a Replication of Analysis of Demographic Data Reported in Marriage & Family Review, 2016-2017

Abstract

A major concern in the social sciences is lack of replication of previous studies. An important methodological concern in the social sciences is the ability to determine effect sizes in addition to statistical significance levels. Effect sizes cannot be easily calculated in the absence of sufficient data; usually standard deviations are needed. If standard deviations are not available, how can they be estimated? Various proposals have been offered to solve this question. One solution is to divide the range (maximum–minimum) by four; a variety of more complicated solutions, based on sample size or the skew of the variable’s distribution, have been suggested (Schumm, Higgins, et al., 2017). Here, 30 cases involving the demographic variable of age, from 23 articles published in Marriage & Family Review between 2016 and 2017, are assessed to replicate the previous report of Schumm, Higgins et al. (2017). Our results indicated that both linear and power functions significantly predicted the size of standard deviations, with larger samples featuring smaller standard deviations. Aside from sample size, the best solution appears to be to divide the range by 4.5–5.0; although for very small samples (N?<?50), it is probably better to divide by 3.5–4.0 whereas for larger samples, especially those that involve higher levels of skew, it may be better to divide by 5.0 or higher. The Wan et al. (2014) estimation procedure appears to be approximately a power function of sample size. For samples up to several thousand in size, the range of divisors appears to run between 3.0 and 8.0, extremes that could be used to determine the largest or smallest possible standard deviations, respectively. Values far below 3.0 or above 8.0 may reflect typographical errors in data reports or possibly be evidence of artificially generated data, if not scientific fraud. When a variable is split into subsamples, its standard deviations should usually increase for the subsamples compared with the total sample. Similar assessments remain in progress for non-demographic variables in social sciences.     

Wie fühlt man sich in einer virtuellen Arbeitsgruppe?

Participants of a virtual seminar have been examined and compared with participants of a real-life seminar using a questionnaire by Ardelt-Gattinger and Schlögl (1998) which measures emotions as well as norms within groups. In both settings, participants scored higher on positive than on negative emotions and group norms were perceived in a similar way. A closer look at means and standard deviations reveals a high inner-group-variance for items dealing with rivalry or anger, which shows that some students were less satisfied than others. ?Free riders“ and ?drop-outs“ seemed to be responsible for feelings of insecurity and anger of the others. Participants of the virtual seminar liked their group members more and showed lower variance on that dimension than real-life participants. Intensive social contacts may have not been expected before and so afterwards they were valued higher (than they would in a real-life-setting). Participants of the virtual setting rated group conformity of medium intensity, which could be responsible for a reduced feeling of commitment or security, leading to varying intensities of involvement in the group.     

Soziale Beziehungen in virtuellen kooperativen Lernszenarien

This paper focuses first on the importance of establishing and maintaining social relationships in computer supported cooperative learning (CSCL) scenarios. Furthermore, scales to measure the degree of social relationship building in CSCL-environments (Kreijns, 2004) are introduced based on the concept on sociable CSCL environments. These scales shall measure how far it is possible to build social relationships based on virtual learning platforms. Kreijns’ work, i.e. his concept of ‘sociability’ of virtual learning environments, is compared to own research on group based learning in virtual seminars (Schmidtmann, 2005) and examined in a small empirical study.     

The career aspirations and action behaviours of Australian adolescents in out-of-home-care

We surveyed 202 adolescents who were in out-of-home care, and compared them with 202 adolescents not in care (matched for age, gender and school achievement) on career-related aspirations (occupational aspirations, educational aspirations, life barriers) and career action behaviours (career exploration, career planning). The out-of-home care adolescents reported lower occupational aspirations, less career planning, more career barriers, lower educational aspirations for themselves, lower parental aspirations, and more school engagement. Further, career exploration was lower for out-of-home care children who had higher aspirations, lower self-efficacy, parents who communicated higher aspirations, and low aspiring friends. Results are discussed in the context of providing career development and supports for out-of-home care adolescents so that their career aspirations and behaviours can mirror more normative levels.