Postdrinking sexual perceptions and behaviors toward another person: alcohol expectancy set and gender differences

Based on research showing that alcohol expectancy and gender both play a role in sexual perceptions, we factorially crossed the apparent drinking status of yoked pairs consisting of a participant and a target person (a confederate posing as co-participant). Alcohol expectancy interacted with gender in complex ways to influence sexual perceptions. We also found behavioral effects: Men showed more erotic material to both male and female targets than women did. Men perceived the target as more sexually aroused by erotic material than women did. Men also showed more erotic material to drinking targets than to non-drinking targets. Sexual perceptions and erotica showing behavior were correlated significantly and positively. These findings are discussed in terms of implications for postdrinking heterosexual encounters.     

Postdrinking sexual perceptions and behaviors toward another person: Alcohol expectancy set and gender differences

Based on research showing that alcohol expectancy and gender both play a role in sexual perceptions, we factorially crossed the apparent drinking status of yoked pairs consisting of a participant and a target person (a confederate posing as co‐participant). Alcohol expectancy interacted with gender in complex ways to influence sexual perceptions. We also found behavioral effects: men showed more erotic material to both male and female targets than women did. Men perceived the target as more sexually aroused by erotic material than women did. Men also showed more erotic material to drinking targets than to non‐drinking targets. Sexual perceptions and erotica‐showing behavior were correlated significantly and positively. We discuss these findings in terms of implications for postdrinking heterosexual encounters.     

Tactics Young Women Use to Resist Condom Use When a Partner Wants to Use a Condom

Although there is a growing literature on men’s condom use resistance (CUR) tactics (e.g., direct requests, deception), little research exists on women’s CUR tactics. This study investigated young women’s (ages 18 to 21) self-reported use of CUR tactics since age 14 and related individual difference factors. Participants included 235 sexually active heterosexual women from a nationwide convenience survey sample who completed a newly adapted women’s version of the Condom Use Resistance Survey. Consistent with the limited previous research, women were most likely to use risk-level reassurance (37.9%) and seduction (33.2%) tactics. A higher frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption, particularly prior to sex, lower perceived risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and a history of STI diagnosis were associated with having previously used a greater number and variety of CUR tactics. This highlights the need for CUR prevention and intervention programming for women. Future research should specifically examine women’s rationale for using CUR tactics and utilize longitudinal and experimental methods to further elucidate directional and causal relationships among individual-level risk factors, CUR, and negative sexual health outcomes.     

Kinship care or upbringing by relatives? The need for ‘new’ understandings in research

This article addresses knowledge production on formal kinship foster care. In spite of growing interest in this phenomenon, little attention has been paid to how kinship care should be understood in research – as a service under child protective services or as upbringing by relatives. Each of these understandings leads to different research questions and creates guidelines for what falls into or outwith the focus of research. In kinship care research, this phenomenon has primarily been studied as a service. Research that seeks to evaluate the effect of kinship care compared to non-kinship care is used as a case to discuss the implications for the type of knowledge that researchers produce. While we acknowledge the importance of this research, we demonstrate the many challenges it involves and why this should not be the primary focus in kinship care research. On the background of these limitations, we argue in favour of approaching kinship care as upbringing by relatives – as ways in which family life can be organised and structured. This can lead to relevant knowledge that will enable us to obtain a better understanding of what kinship care is and involves.     

What's on Their Minds? The South African Child Welfare Academic Agenda from 2001 to 2010

Social work teaching and research is assumed to impact significantly on practice, readying students for employment and investigating areas relevant to practice. In South Africa, the historic divergence between the academic agenda and population needs is significant. In a context of transformation towards developmental social welfare, this paper investigates the extent to which tertiary education as well as research agendas match what South African child welfare practitioners have identified as priorities in the field. In a study examining trends and drivers in South African child welfare, it was found that the curriculum was largely being informed by the same trends that shaped practice. However, the research agenda differed markedly from the issues concerning practitioners. Also, practitioners thought that new graduates were ill-equipped to deal with practice demands in resource-poor and transforming (post-apartheid) environments. It is recommended that South African academics and practitioners ensure that child welfare curricula, academic enquiry and practice demands overlap more closely in order to better prepare novice social workers and provide leading research. With globalization and the increased need to respond to diverse populations, it becomes critical that social work education is reviewed both in the north and south to ensure its relevance for practice.     

Towards Sustainability in Australian Social Work Field Education

The educational framework of Australian social work field education has remained static over the past few decades. Emerging challenges are creating a compelling case for change. These include increasing demand for placements, declining capacity of organisations to provide placement requirements, reduction in practitioners’ incentives and capacity to support student placements and to facilitate a work integrated learning context, and an interrelated web of policies and regulations that constrain adaptation to these changes. In a critical exploration of multiple levels of regulation and policy contexts, we argue that conventional approaches to social work field education are not sustainable given significant changes to the funding arrangements for universities and within the welfare service system. To futureproof integrative learning in social work, we advocate transformation of educational culture, policies, and design toward sustainability.

IMPLICATIONS

• Supervised placements are designed to integrate practice and academic learning but their future use as the single means for achieving this integration will be unsustainable.

• Drawing on an ecological orientation enables social work educators to position sustainability as a key consideration and response to current constraints in higher education and the field.

• Focusing on sustainability across policy, practice, and regulation contexts has potential to generate transformative change that enhances our effectiveness in futureproofing the design of integrative learning in social work.

     

Trends in Employee Wage and Health Insurance Compensation for Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance (ESI) Coverage

Health insurance coverage continues to be an important benefit of employment and employer-sponsored insurance is the most prominent form of health coverage in the US. We examine trends in both employer and employee contributions to the costs of health insurance premium between 2002 and 2005 and assess these contributions relative to changes in worker wages. We do this for the US overall and for the 50 states plus the District of Columbia. We found a significant increase of 15.5% in the share of total compensation going toward health benefits (from 12.3–14.2%) for workers with individual coverage and an increase of 13.5% (from 20.6–23.4%) for workers with family coverage. Wages over this time period decreased 3.0% for workers with individual coverage and increased 0.8% for workers with family coverage.     

Sexual Orientation as a Factor in Career Development

As I reviewed the available case information on Allan, the concept of career development shaped my impressions of the client. “Career development is, for most people, a lifelong process of getting ready to choose, choosing, and typically, continuing to make choices from among the many occupations available in our society. Each person undertaking this process is influenced by a great number of factors, including family, personal values and aptitudes, and societal context” (Brown, Brooks, & Associates, 1990, p. xvii). As this statement suggests, career development is a holistic approach to counseling individuals. Each “factor” represents a piece of the puzzle that guides the individual through the process. Life-style issues (i.e., family, leisure, sexual orientation, personal values, societal context), as well as interests, work values, and skills are tightly interwoven within an individual's major or career choice.