Supervision evaluation and legislation - a case study

Social work has always played a dominant role in shaping child welfare and child protection policy throughout the world. At the beginning of the twentieth century Hungary created one of the first and best laws for child protection. Since that time society, social work, and the political climate have changed significantly. The research discussed in this paper tries to show the implication of current political and ideological trends for social welfare of the children via social work methods. During the period of so-called socialism in Hungary, state care was the dominant form of child protection. After the transition to democracy new forms of child protection - including the provision of services by NGOs - became available. One such agency is the Child Protection Foundation that provides 'substitute' or 'deputy' parents (and social work) for families who are temporarily unable to care for their children. The agency's child welfare social worker needs specialized knowledge and skills relevant to the population and their problems. The knowledge base was developed and strengthened by supervision. A programme evaluation showed that out of 25 families more than 95% could care for the child at home after three years in the programme. Implications of the results of the new child protection law of 1997 are discussed. Auf der ganzen Welt hat die Soziale Arbeit sowohl bei der Ausgestaltung wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Politiken und Angebore für Kinder als auch in Bereich des Kinderschutzes schon imer eine dominante Rolle gespielt. Zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhundets wurde in Ungarn eines der ersten und auch besten Kinderschutzgesetze geschaffen. Seit dieser Zeit haben sich die Gesellschaft, die Soziale Arbeit und auch das politische Klima entscheidend verändert. Die in diesem Aufsatz diskutierten Forschungsergebnisse veruschen die Implikationen der gegenwärtigen politischen und ideologischen Trends für die Wohlfahrtspolitik und -angebote für Kinder im Rahmen sozialarbeiterischer Mothoden und Strategien aufzuzeigen. In der Phase des sog. Sozialismus stellte die staatliche form der Fürsorge die vorherrschende Weise des Kinderschutzes in Ungarn dar. Nach dem Übergang zur Demokratie wurden neue Formen des Kindersschutzes, einschließlich der Beretistellung von Diensten durch Nicht-Regierungsorganisationene verfügbar. Eine solche Einrichtung ist die Stiftung Kinderschutz, die 'Ersatz-' oder 'stellvertretende Eltern' (und auch soziale Arbeit) für solche Familien zur Verfügung stellt, die zeitweilig nicht für ihre Kinder zu sorgen in der Lage sind. Im Hinblick auf die Population und ihre Problemlagen benötigen die Sozialarbeiter dieser Einrichtung sowohl relevantes Spezialwissen wie auch Handlungskompetenzen. Die Wissenbasis wurde vermittels Supervision entwickelt und konsolidiert. Eine Evaluation des Programmes hat gezeigt, daß durch die Teilnahme am Programm über einen Zeitraum von drei Jahren 95% der Familien in der Lage waren, zuhause für ihr Kind zu sorgen. Abschließend werden die Implikationen des neuen Kinderschutzgesetzes von 1997 diskutiert. El trabajo social siempre ha jugado en todo el mundo un papel dominante en la configuración de las politicas de bienestar y de protección de infancia. Desde entonces la sociedad, el trabajo social y el clima politico han cambiado de forma significativa. Le investigación presentada en este articulo intenta mostrarla implicación de las actuales tendencias politicas e ideológicas sobre el bienestar social de la infancia a través de los métodos de trabajo social. Durante el periodo del ilamado socialismo en Hungria, la intervención del estado fue la forma predominante de protección social. Después de la transición hacia la democracia se dispuso de nuevas formas de protección a la infancia - incluyendo los servicios ofrecidos por ONG -. Una de estas agencias es la Fundación para la Protección de la Infancia, que provee de padres 'sustitutos' y servicios de trabajo social para las familias que temporalmente no pueden hacerse cargo de sus hijos. El trabajador social del ámbito de la infancia en la agencia necesita unas destrezas y conocimientos especificos aplicables a esta población y sus problemas. Estos conocimientos son desarrollados y fortalecidos a través de la supervision. Una evaluación de programa mostró que, en un grupo de 25 familias, el 95% pudo hacerse cargo personalmente de sus hijos después de tres años en el programa. Se analizan las implicaciones de los resultados de la nueva ley de protección a la infancia de 1997. Le travail social a tougjours joué un rôle dominant dans la formation des politiques de protection de l'enfance à travers le monde. Au début du siècle, c'est en Hongrie que fut créée l'une des premières et des meilleures lois de protection de l'enfance. La recherche décrite dans cet article concerne l'impact des courants politiques et idéologiques actuels sur la protection de l'enfance à travers les méthodes de travail social. Durant la période de soi-disant socialisme en Hongrie, la protection de l'enfance était prise en charge par l'Etat. Après la transition vers la démocratie, de nouvelles formes de protection de l'enfance - y compris les services dispensés par les ONG - sont devenues disponibles. La Fondation pour la Protection de l'Enfance est un organisme de ce type; elle propose, paralellement au travail social, des parents 'de substitution' ou 'délégués' pour les familes qui sont temporairement incapables de prendre soin de leurs enfants. Les travailleurs sociaux de cet organisme ont besoin de connaissances spécialisées et de savoir-faire se rapportant à cette population et à ses problèmes. Les connaissances de base ont été développées et renforcées par le suivi. Un programme d'évaluation a prouvé que sur 25 families, 95% pouvaient s'occuper de ses enfants à la maison après 3 années de ce programme. Les conséquences des résultats de la nouvelle loi de protection de l'enfance sont débattues.     

Social,Economic and Demographic Consequences of Migration on Kerala

Migration has been the single most dynamic factor in the otherwise dreary development scenario of Kerala during the last quarter of the last century. It has contributed more to poverty alleviation and reduction in unemployment in Kerala than any other factor. As a result of migration, the proportion of the population below the poverty line has declined by 12 per cent. The number of unemployed persons – estimated to be only about 13 lakhs in 1998 compared with 37 lakhs reported by the Kerala Employment Exchanges – has declined by over 30 per cent. Migration has caused nearly a million married women in Kerala to live away from their husbands. Most of these so‐called “Gulf wives” experienced extreme loneliness to begin with, and were burdened with added family responsibilities to which they had not been accustomed when their husbands were with them. But over a period, and with a helping hand from abroad over the ISD, most came out of their early gloom. Their gain in autonomy, status, management skills and experience in dealing with the world outside their homes were developed the hard way and would remain with them for the rest of their lives for the benefit of their families and society. In the long run, the transformation of these million women will have contributed more to the development of Kerala society than all the temporary euphoria created by remittances and modern gadgetry. Kerala is dependent on migration for employment, subsistence, housing, household amenities, institution building, and many other developmental activities. The danger is that migration could cease, as shown by the Kuwait war of 1993, and repercussions could be disastrous for the State. Understanding migration trends and instituting policies to maintain the flow of migration is more important today than at any time in the past. Kerala workers seem to be losing out in international competition for jobs in the Gulf market. Corrective policies are needed urgently to raise their competitive edge over workers in competing countries in South and South‐East Asia. Like any other industry, migration from Kerala needs periodic technological upgrading of workers. Otherwise, there is a danger that the State might lose the Gulf market permanently. The crux of the problem is Kerala workers' inability to compete with expatriates from other South and South‐East Asian countries. The solution lies in equipping workers with better general education and job training. This study suggests a twofold approach. In the short run, the need is to improve the job skills of prospective emigrant workers. This could be achieved through ad hoc training programmes focussed on the job market in Gulf countries. In the long run, the need is to restructure the educational system, taking into consideration the future demand of workers not only in Kerala but also in potential destination countries all over the world, including the US and other developed countries. Kerala emigrants need not always be construction workers in the Gulf countries; they could also be software engineers in developed countries.     

Developmental Correlates of Family Size: A Report from the National Child Development Study

Summary This paper presents findings from tbe National Child DevelopmentStudy which examine the relationship between size of familyand school attainment, adjustment and height at the age of eleven.This relationship is shown to be a strong one, and alternativeexplanations for its existence are considered     

Rank tests in the two-sample scale problem with unequal and unknown locations

The two-sample scale problem is studied in the case of unequal and unknown location parameters. The method proposed is based on the idea of Moses (1963) and it is distribution-free. The two samples are separated into random subgroups of the same sizek. It is proposed to choosek=4 and to apply the Wilconxon test or the Savage test to the ranges or sample variances of the subgroups. The asymptotic power functions of the tests are compared. For small and moderate sample sizes simulations are carried out. Relations to some other procedures, especially to the method of Compagnone and Denker (1996) are briefly discussed.     

The Joint Effects of Offender Race/Ethnicity and Sex on Sentence Length Decisions in Federal Courts

The current study examined the main and interactive effects of offender race/ethnicity and sex on sentence length decisions for drug offenders convicted in three federal courts located in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska. The additive model showed that females received shorter prison sentences than similarly situated male offenders, but there were no differences between white offenders and minority offenders. However, when the data were partitioned by sex, black males were found to receive lengthier prison terms than white males. There were no differences between white males and Hispanic males, and white females were treated no differently than either black or Hispanic females. Moreover, when the data were partitioned by race/ethnicity, white females were treated no differently than white males. However, black females received shorter sentences than black males and Hispanic females received shorter sentences than Hispanic males. Further analyses showed that black and Hispanic males also received longer sentences than white females and that black males received longer sentences than all other offenders (with the exception of Hispanic male offenders). These findings mesh with those gleaned from other sentencing studies, although they are at odds with theoretical notions that leniency at the sentencing stage is reserved only for white women.     

Faktoren der Veränderung des Selbst bei computervermittelter Kommunikation

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) influences the users’ self. Different expectations are currently made towards how the self may arise in an ‘a-social’ setting during the use of modern “Information” and communication technologies. Some of these discourses even observe a new potential for self-constructions. The conceptual frame of the paper is delivered by the combination of different social scientific approaches coming from Social Psychology, Sociology and Communications Studies. Based upon a series of experiments the paper investigates how the social self develops in CMC. Overall the self is moderated by the characteristics of the channel, by psycho-social and finally by socialisation variables. The influence of the channel is marked by immediate effects of certain cues. The psycho-social variable is the individual versus joint usage of CMC. The sociological dimension is the familiarity with CMC. Finally a model is discussed that introduces the prototypical character of CMC for the development of the self in further forms of mediated interpersonal communication.     

Evaluating the Simplified Conjoint Expected Risk Model: Comparing the Use of Objective and Subjective Information

The simplified Conjoint Expected Risk (CER) model by Holtgrave and Weber posits that perceived risk is a linear combination of the subjective judgments of the probabilities of harm, benefit, and status quo, and the expected harm and benefit of an activity. It modifies Luce and Weber's original CER model—that uses objective information to evaluate financial gambles—to accommodate activities such as health/technology activities where values of the model variables are subjective. If the simplified model is a valid modification of the original model, its performance should not be sensitive to the use of subjective information. However, because people may evaluate information differently when objective information is provided to them than when they generate information on their own, the performance of the simplified CER model may not be robust to the source of model-variable information. We compared the use of objective and subjective information, and results indicate that the estimates of the simplified CER model parameters and the proportion of variance in risk judgments accounted for by the model are similar under these two conditions. Thus, the simplified CER model is viable with activities for which harm and benefit information is subjective.     

The relationship between employer‐provided training and the retention of older workers: Evidence from Germany

A substantial portion of Germany's workforce will soon retire, making it difficult for businesses to meet their human capital needs; training older workers may help to manage this demographic transition. The authors therefore examine the relationships between employer‐provided training programmes, wages and retirement among older workers. They find that when establishments offer special training programmes targeted at these workers, women – especially low‐paid women – are less likely to retire, possibly because of consequent wage growth. Their results suggest that such targeted training can indeed play an important role in retaining low‐wage older women and advancing their careers.     

Prosoziales Arbeitsverhalten: Entwicklung und Überprüfung eines Messinstruments zur Erfassung des freiwilligen Arbeitsengagements

A German version of the Organizational Citizenship Behavior Questionnaire (GOCBQ) is developed and tested. Study 1 was conducted with 150 students working together in 39 project groups. The results show that the internal consistency and test-retest-reliability of the GOCBQ are good. Moreover, the GOCBQ measures a general altruism orientation which can be interpreted as a stable trait. The GOCBQ does neither correlate substantially with demographical variables nor with extroversion or neuroticism. Instead, substantial correlations are registered with mood and group atmosphere. In study 2 results from study 1 were cross-validated with data from 128 voluntary and professional helpers, in study 3 with data from 43 professionals. Implications for future research and applications in working life are discussed.     

Exact moments of the symmetric cubic assignment statistic

Hubert (1987Assignment Methods in Combinatorial Data Analysis) presented a class of permutation, or random assignment, techniques for assessing correspondence between general k-dimensional proximity measures on a set of “objects.” A major problem in higher-order assignment models is the prohibitive level of computation that is required. We present the first three exact moments of a test statistic for the symmetric cubic assignment model. Efficient computational formulas for the first three moments have been derived, thereby permitting approximation of the permutation distribution using well-known methods.