A call for greater attention to the role of employers in developing,transforming, and implementing family policies

The authors contend that employer-initiated workplace policies should be considered as part of the patchwork that constitutes U.S. family policy. To provide a background, historical evidence of employer-initiated policies intentionally used as family policies is summarized. The view is then explicated that failure to take economic conditions and workplace policies into account may lead to faulty conclusions about the reasons for major changes in family life. The current status of selected employer-initiated workplace policies and recent trends is summarized. Next, some of the dilemmas inherent in considering connections between government- and employer-initiated policies are identified. Finally, suggestions for future directions are offered. The article should be considered with the following caveat in mind: the focus is exclusively on the influence of policies on families, but families are not merely reactive. She received her Ph.D. and M.B.A. from The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests center on relationships between jobs and family life, with emphasis on work-family relationships in small businesses, and on adult workers as developing individuals. Her research interests focus on the intersection of social problems and family problems, including families and work, coping with unemployment, and adult children as caregivers of dependent parents. She received her Ph.D. from Purdue University.     

Strengths First: An Empowering Case Management Model for Multiethnic Sexual Minority Youth

This article (1) describes the development of a strengths-based case management (SBCM) model for multiethnic sexual minority youths; (2) provides a profile of participant risks and strengths; and (3) discusses critical considerations for implementation with this population. Participants (N = 162) reported complex risks such as family rejection as well as personal strengths. SBCM is a promising intervention that provides opportunities to bridge the unique gaps in service for this vulnerable population. Strategies to incorporate strengths into program assessments and address issues such as family engagement and service delivery challenges are offered.     

That is What a Feminist Looks Like: Identification and Exploration of the Factors Underlying the Concept of Feminism and Predicting the Endorsement of Traditional Gender Roles

Gender Issues - The present studies identified the underlying attitudinal factor structure of the concept of feminism, providing a measure of what it means to be a feminist, and explored the...     

Promoting Self-Efficacy and Self-Esteem for Multiethnic Sexual Minority Youth: An Evidence-Informed Intervention

ABSTRACT

Sexual minority youth face multiple challenges, yet research regarding evidence-informed practice strategies for this population is limited. This study describes the pilot efforts of Strengths First, the first strengths-based intervention created specifically to promote self-esteem and self-efficacy among multiethnic sexual minority youth. A pretest–posttest design was used to gather preliminary data from program participants (n = 162) about the potential effectiveness of the program during a 2-year period that ranged from the inception of the program in June 2008 to September 2010. Significant increases in self-esteem and self-efficacy were found. Implications for social service research and practice are discussed.     

Family Ties and Young Fathers' Engagement in Cape Town,South Africa

Young South African fathers are often engaged in their children's lives even if they do not live together. Using longitudinal data on children (n = 1,209) from the Cape Town area, the authors show that although only 26% of young fathers live with their children, 66% of nonresidential fathers maintain regular contact, and 61% provide financial support. The father–child relationship, however, is embedded in broader family ties. The type of father–mother relationship is strongly associated with whether fathers coreside with their children but not with fathers' contact with nonresidential children. Close mother and maternal grandmother bonds reduce the likelihood that fathers live with their children, whereas close ties between fathers and paternal grandmothers increase the chance that fathers visit nonresidential children. Family ties do not affect fathers' financial contributions, which are driven by men's current economic situation. These findings illustrate that father–child relationships are best understood in the context of interacting family systems.     

Conformists & mavericks: introducing IT-enabled plurilingual pedagogy informed by the CEFR in high school French immersion

This exploratory case study investigates pathways taken by a Canadian French immersion high school teacher invested in pedagogical change. To fairly evaluate the successfulness of her attempt to effect change, Cummins’ ‘framework of coercive and collaborative relations of power manifested in macro- and micro-interactions’ was employed. Its use shed light on the structural adaptations needed for the innovation she was attempting to introduce to succeed. The teacher wanted to introduce plurilingual pedagogy informed by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) into a French-medium content-based course by drawing on student ease with using technology such as i-Movie. The findings gained through an analysis of classroom-based observation, interviews, documents and artefacts suggest the structural challenges she faced led her to make decisions at odds with her beliefs and goal of implementing innovative pedagogy (she modified a key aspect of a social justice task). They further suggest a mismatch between what she anticipated student reactions to the innovation would be as compared to their actual reactions. Students welcomed the chance to draw on their out-of-school digital knowledge to reflect their (linguistic) identity through their work, suggesting IT-enabled plurilingual pedagogy informed by the CEFR merits further exploration.     

A framework for providing telecommuting as a reasonable accommodation: some considerations on a comparative case study

Telecommuting, whether full time, part time, or over short periods when the need arises, can be an important accommodation for employees with disabilities. Indeed, telecommuting may be the only form of accommodation that offers employees whose disabilities fluctuate a means to stay consistently and gainfully employed. This article describes one employer's experience in considering a request for telecommuting as a reasonable accommodation for a particular employee. Drawing on real-life examples, both positive and negative, this article provides a win/win framework for decision-making that can help employers evaluate the use of telecommuting as a possible accommodation and facilitates open and ongoing communication between employer and employee.     

The role of leadership in shared mental model convergence and team performance improvement: An agent-based computational model

Research in shared mental models has immeasurably aided our understanding of effective teamwork and taskwork. However, little research has focused on the role that leaders play, if any, in influencing, developing and/or fostering shared mental models and thereby improving team performance. We developed an agent-based computational model based on McComb's theory of three-phase mental model development, where agents repeatedly share individual opinions (orientation phase), evaluate and respond to the opinions expressed by others (differentiation phase), and modify their understanding of the team based on the responses (integration phase). Leadership and team properties are represented in three experimental parameters: social network structure, heterogeneity of agents' domains of expertise, and level of their mutual interest. Participative leadership is represented by a fully connected network, while Leader–Member eXchange (LMX) is represented by a fully connected network of in-group members and several out-group members connected only to the leader. Our simulation results show that, in general, participative leadership promotes mental model convergence better than LMX. In the meantime, the team performance improvement is achieved by participative leadership only when members have both heterogeneous domains of expertise and strong mutual interest. In all other conditions, participative leadership causes the worst degradation of team performance through team development processes, while LMX is the best to minimize such team degradation. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided.