Linking research,theory and practice in personal and professional development: Gender and sexuality issues in social work education

It is important for social work students to learn how to articulate and develop their own personal theories for practice. It is also important for them to learn how to handle their own personal issues (which they often find difficult and prefer to avoid); and to incorporate them into their theories. In this paper we will explore some of the links between research, practice and theory by considering gender and sexuality issues in social work education. We offer some suggestions on introducing these issues to social work students in such a way that the development of personal social work theories is encouraged. Using examples from our current teaching practice about child abuse, bullying and domestic violence, it will be argued that the importance of theory for understanding and applying research, as well as for addressing difficult personal issues, has been seriously undervalued in social work education.     

Work and family roles: Contemporary women in Indonesia

The question of how women in contemporary Indonesia integrate their work and family roles is addressed. Pertinent literature is reviewed and personal observations about this topic are shared. Theoretical framework is provided by Janet Chafetz who has developed a theory of sex stratification. It is concluded that family‐work role integration is probably easier to achieve in Indonesia than in the United States because there may be less sex stratification, with males having the most advantage, in Indonesia. Specifically, the degree of gender differentiation and degree of occupational segregation by sex appear to be less in Indonesia than in the United States. Moreover, the concepts of masculinity and femininity are rarely used to distinguish attitudes and behavior of the sexes. Ideological support for sex stratification is unclear. As Indonesia develops economically, it will probably become more stratified by sex which will negatively affect the current ease of family‐work role integration of mothers.     

Enhancing Social Work Students’ Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding Substance-Using Clients Through SBIRT Training

ABSTRACT

Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is an evidence-based protocol that addresses both moderate-risk and high-risk substance use problems for individuals. In an urban college’s master’s and bachelor’s social work programs with 218 students, SBIRT training was introduced into core course curricula, with many students subsequently using SBIRT in their field placements. Evaluation of the initiative demonstrated increases in the students’ knowledge and favorable attitudes regarding working with substance using clients. Students’ ratings of the usefulness and effectiveness of SBIRT were high. In response to studies indicating the lack of preparedness of graduating social work students to work with substance users, this study demonstrated the effectiveness of SBIRT training to educate students to work with this population.     

An Ecological Approach to Understanding Youth Violence: The Mediating Role of Substance Use

The authors tested an ecological model that posits mediating variables (substance use and mental health) in the association between ecological factors (family closeness, school closeness, and peer closeness) and youth violence in a sample of 4,783 adolescents. Models including substance use present significantly less total effect between ecological factors and youth violence than do models without substance use. Additional probing of significant mediation effect using the Sobel test was performed and suggested that substance use did function as a mediator in the hypothesized path. Considerations of adolescent violence should recognize the possible role of ecological factors and how their influence may vary by substance use.     

Changes in self-efficacy and readiness for smoking cessation among women with high school or less education

The most common theory of smoking cessation postulates that readiness to quit begins with changes in attitudes that move the smoker toward behavioral change and eventual cessation. However, trends in smoking indicate that many who currently smoke are not ready to quit. Hence, strategies that both enhance readiness and focus on quitting are likely to be most effective. We hypothesize that an intervention addressed to motivating behavior change will enhance readiness to change, which will in turn increase the smokers self-efficacy regarding further change. A smoking cessation intervention that combined a self-help booklet and televised segments was developed to address these issues in a population of women smokers with high school or less education. Readiness to quit was measured prior to the intervention, immediately following the intervention, and again at six and 12 months after intervention. The results indicate that the intervention had its effects on readiness to quit, which in turn affected self-efficacy, which further enhanced readiness to quit. These findings indicate that interventions aimed at this group of smokers may need to provide achievable objectives that focus on preparing the smoker to quit as well as promote cessation.     

A Comparison of Men in Typically Male and Typically Female Operative Occupations

The authors use data from the General Social Surveys conducted from 1972 to 1985 to examine those personal and family characteristics which best discriminate men in typically male machine operative occupations from men in typically female machine operative occupations. Of the twelve personal and family characteristics considered, nine variables are found to discriminate between these two groups. The findings suggest that personal and family characteristics may shape occupational destinations for men in semi-skilled occupations.     

Measurement of changes: What criteria do we adopt?

Many changes in industrial working methods are now under discussion which are not easily evaluated and management is concerned about the probable return from investing in these methods. It is proposed that, whilst it is clear that improving work performance is a benefit, it is also of benefit to achieve changes in attitudes which correlate more closely with the objectives and state of the enterprise. Increased agreement in this respect is stated to lead to increased stability for the production process as there is less likelihood of disruption of output due to inappropriate decisions and actions. Since the loss due to various forms of interruption in output can be assessed it is described how the benefit of attitude change might thus be measured. A model for the relationships relevant to ergonomic and behavioural science changes in industry is given and its potential is illustrated by examples.