Paternal participation in toddlers' pretend play

32 toddlers were videotaped in a laboratory setting while playing alone and with their fathers to understand how fathers contribute to children's early pretend play, to explore the extent to which their social play involves pretend, to describe father-child pretend play, and to examine fathers' beliefs about children's play. Children exhibited more exploratory play alone and engaged in more symbolic level play with their fathers. Sex differences were found in fathers' play behaviors and in the thematic content of play episodes. Fathers used explicit guidance with sons and implicit guidance with daughters. Father–son pairs engaged in vehicle/tool play and father–daughter pairs played domestic themes. The results suggest that the early differential socialization of boys and girls is apparent in father–toddler pretend play.     

Survival methods of young street mothers

In-depth interviews and attitude questionnaires were completed by 26 young street mothers to determine their survival methods. These young women are proud and devoted mothers who are living at a poverty level. They are feeling economic, social, health, relationships, and emotional stresses.It is recommended that these young mothers be provided an array of services coordinated in a non-traditional manner.     

Acculturation and Psychological Functioning in Asian Indian Adolescents

The objective of this exploratory study was to understand how Asian Indian immigrant families adjust to U.S. culture by examining factors that influence acculturation preferences or styles and how these styles may be associated with their children's psychological functioning, as measured by self‐esteem and academic performance. 85 U.S.‐born Asian Indian adolescents (45 girls; 40 boys) and one of their immigrant parents completed questionnaires about family demography, self‐identification, acculturation, and religiosity. Adolescents also completed a self‐perception profile. Results showed parents and adolescents had similar styles of acculturation. However, adolescents were more likely to self‐identify as ‘Indian‐American’ than were their parents. For both adolescents and their parents, integrated and assimilated acculturation styles were related to family SES, years of U.S. residence, and religiosity scores. Adolescents who had an integrated acculturation style had higher GPAs and higher scores on the self‐perception profile than did adolescents who were separated or marginalized. The findings lend tentative support for an integrated style of acculturation in promoting positive outcomes for first generation Asian Indian adolescents.     

Teaching Note—Creating an Integrative Research Learning Environment for BSW and MSW Students

ABSTRACT

Research courses are often the least popular among BSW and MSW students because the connection between social work practice and research is not always evident. This teaching note introduces the structure of the Social Work integrative Research Lab (SWiRL), which was implemented in a social work program without a doctoral program at a large public university. SWiRL offers students opportunities to engage meaningfully in a variety of social work research projects using a framework of nested mentoring. Students gain hands-on research experience while they develop confidence, leadership, and mentoring skills within this structure. The authors discuss recommendations for other social work programs that do not have doctoral education or an established research environment.     

Church suppers,pony tails and mentors: Developing a program for street kids

Increasing number of teens are leaving their homes to live on the street, and communities are often confused as to how best to provide services for them. This article describes one community's response to this and the lessons learned. The program, its development, the services and the communication with other agencies are described.This research was funded in part by grants from the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Funds.Ms. Roloff is affiliated with the program, Crosswalk.     

Attitudes of street kids toward foster care

Forty-seven kids who frequented drop-in centers in three Western cities were interviewed to determine their attitudes toward statements related to foster care. While the teams indicated that they believed foster parents care about children and want to help them, many did not want to risk foster care. The major reason for remaining on the street is their perceptions that conflict within their family cannot be resolved. These teens have chosen to develop their own family from other street people rather than risk further rejection. The need for early family intervention is stressed.     

Independent living services,adjudication status,and the social exclusion of foster youth aging out of care in the United States

Recent policy changes have increased the availability of independent living services (ILS) to foster youth aging out of care in the United States. Yet, it is possible that youth who are also involved in the juvenile justice system may have trouble accessing these services. This study uses a social exclusion framework to examine associations between independent living service receipt, adjudication status, and early adult outcomes for youth aging out of the U.S. foster care system. Outcomes and ILS receipt data for 7412 older youth from the National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) were used for this study. Chi-square tests and logistic regression models were used to explore the relationships among adjudication status, ILS, social exclusion, and social connectedness at age 19. Findings indicated that postsecondary education support and education financial services at baseline were related to a higher likelihood of being socially connected and lower likelihood of being socially excluded at age 19. Being an adjudicated delinquent and receiving special education and career services were related to a lower likelihood of being socially connected. This suggests that ILS are well-suited for youth already doing well, but may not do enough for those who struggle the most during this period.     

Knowledge Equity is Social Justice: Engaging a Practice Theory Perspective of Knowledge for Rural Transformation

Social inequities are made possible by and compounded by knowledge inequity. Accordingly, new and more vehicles are needed in which different and transformative knowledges can chart new possibilities, practices, and meanings for rural people. One way forward is to work toward an ecology of knowledges in which the need for many types of knowledge is recognized and different knowledges are respected. Drawing on case study and “photo‐voice” research with women in rural Ethiopia, this article uses a practice theory approach to explore the possibilities of knowledge dialogue among different types of knowledge and skill. Recognizing the wide spectrum of deep knowledge and skill employed in local practice, and understanding how all knowledges are rooted in social context, actors can find common ground to dialogue through methods of praxis and narrative.     

Patterns of family service needs and caregiver–child relationships among families at risk of child welfare involvement

Caregivers at risk of involvement in the child welfare system report high levels of need for multiple types of services, and their children have high levels of mental health need. Caregivers from families with more service needs, as well as unmet needs, are less likely to be engaged with child welfare services and may have diminished capacity to care for their child. This study takes a family‐centered approach by using latent class analysis to identify patterns of both caregiver and child service needs among families at risk of child welfare involvement. Using data from the LONGSCAN consortium (N = 957), we identified 4 classes of service needs among child welfare‐involved families. We then examined differences between the 4 classes based on demographics, maltreatment histories, unmet service needs, and caregiver–child relationship. The caregivers were split fairly evenly among the 4 classes: low needs, medical needs, poverty support, and high needs. There were significant differences between classes on assessed variables, with higher levels of needs associated with diminished caregiver–child relationships.     

Pubertal Timing and Adolescent Substance Initiation

We tested 3 competing hypotheses regarding the relation between pubertal timing and substance initiation in adolescence: the early timing, off-time, and stressful change hypotheses. We used longitudinal data from the Developmental Pathways Project (N = 521). Youth reported whether they had ever tried alcohol, tobacco, or marijuana at baseline, and then again at 6-, 12-, 18-, 24-, 36-, and 72-month follow-up interviews. We estimated interval censored parametric survival models and tested interactions between pubertal timing and gender and race variables. We found robust support for the early timing hypothesis, but no support for the off-time and the stressful change hypotheses.