'It's good to talk': The focus group and the sociological imagination

This paper argues that the critical social scientist can employ the focus group – group discussions focused by a facilitator around a particular topic or area of experience – to recast radically both the social relations and the object of the research process. I explore the potential of the focus group to cultivate the sociological imagination in both the facilitating social scientist and the participants: in Bhaskarian terms, a 'transformtional act', raising consciousness and empowering participants, rupturing rather than reproducing underlying relations of exploitation and domination. The hitherto dominant forms of focus group research are criticised as being embedded in the epistemological and methodological assumptions of positivism, behaviourism and empiricism, and in social relations which service power. The qualities of the focus group which have attracted the marketer and advertiser – access to the experiential knowledge, opinions and world-view of the participants, in a context of synergic interaction – are examined. The paper argues for an alternative, radical use of focus groups, based on the new politics of knowledge associated with movements of social resistance. The relationship between this radical conception of focus groups and both Habermas's theory of communicative action and Bhaskar's critical realism is discussed and examples of the potential for focus groups to democratise governance and service provision are offered.     

Class struggle in campaign finance? Political action committee contributions in the 1984 elections

Pluralist and class-based theories offer alternative hypotheses about the political behavior of organized interests in the United States. Using network methods and data on political action committees' (PAC) contributions to congressional candidates in the 1984 elections, we identify interest groups with politically similar behavior in an attempt to assess these perspectives concerning elites in the United States. The analysis includes corporate, labor, membership association, and nonconnected PACs. Counter to pluralist expectations, we find just two large groups—one primarily business oriented and the other primarily labor/public-interest oriented. Our findings thus support a class-based interpretation of the nature of organized interests. These findings are framed in terms of the meaning of unity and fragmentation.     

A comparison of two programmes for victims of child sexual abuse: a treatment outcome study

This study aimed to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of individual therapy and combined individual and group therapy in the treatment of the psychological sequelae of child sexual abuse. The Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL), the Youth Self Report form (YSR), the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC) were administered before treatment and 6 months later to a group of 20 young people who participated in individual therapy (IT) programmes and to a group of 18 young people who participated in programmes that involved combined individual and group therapy (IGT). For both types of programmes, statistically significant improvement occurred on the following scales: the total problems, internalizing problems, externalizing problems, withdrawn, somatic complaints, anxious/depressed, social problems, attention problems and aggressive behaviour problems CBCL scales; the total depression, interpersonal problems and anhedonia CDI scales; and the depression and anger TSCC scales. The only scale for which one therapy programme led to greater improvement than another was the CDI ineffectiveness scale. The IGT programme led to a reduction in the mean CDI ineffectiveness score, whereas a slight increase in the mean ineffectiveness score occurred in the IT group. There were no significant differences in the rates of clinically significant improvement associated with the two treatments and no major differences between cases who improved and those that did not improve over the course of therapy. From this study, it may be concluded that after 6 months, individual therapy and combined individual and group therapy were equally effective in the treatment of the psychological sequelae of child sexual abuse. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parents Whose Children with Learning Disabilities and Challenging Behaviour Attend 52-week Residential Schools: Their Perceptions of Services Received and Expectations of the Future

This paper reports the findings of a survey of parents whosechildren attended 52-week residential schools. Seventy-threeparents completed a postal questionnaire which asked questionsabout three main areas: support and services received priorto their child’s entry into residential education; perceptionsof the quality of care and education provided by residentialschools; and concerns for their child’s future care andwelfare. Telephone interviews were conducted with 14 parents,to obtain additional information on the topics addressed bythe questionnaire. Parents were critical of services and supportreceived prior to their child’s entry into residentialeducation and reported high rates of exclusion from local services.Residential schools were generally perceived as providing agood quality of service, though considerable concern was expressedabout their geographical distance from the family home, andthis had a significant impact on the frequency of visits. Parentsexpressed high levels of concern about the future care and supportneeds of their children. Further research is required to understandthe relationship between the availability and quality of localservices and the need for 52-week residential schools. The impactof distant residential education on parent–child relationshipsand on future demand for residential care is considered.     

A NEW FAMILY OF NON-NEGATIVE DISTRIBUTIONS

We introduce a new, flexible family of distributions for non‐negative data, defined by means of a quantile function. We describe some properties of this family, and discuss several methods for estimating the parameters. The distribution is applied to an example from environmental engineering.     

Multilevel Factors Influencing Maternal Stress During the First Three Years

This prospective study applies family stress theory to the influence of personal, child, and familial factors on a mother's parenting stress during the first 3 years of her infant's life. Participants included 134 mothers and their infants at ages 1, 6, 15, 24, and 36 months from one site of a multisite, longitudinal study. Mother's personality was most predictive of parenting stress cross‐sectionally and longitudinally. Intimacy with partner reduced parenting stress early in the infant's life and at 36 months, whereas general social support was more important in the second year. Child temperament was influential at 1 and 36 months. Counterintuitively, mothers who were more satisfied with work or school choices were more likely to be chronically stressed. Implications are discussed.     

Principles and Practice in the Permanent Placement of Older Children

SUMMARY: This questionnaire and interview-based survey of a sample of principal adoption and fostering officers in English social services departments was designed to explore current viewpoints about policy implementation and practice in the permanent family placement of older children. Variations and commonalities of opinion are described in relation to topics such as recruitment policy, contact with birth parents, race matching and post adoption support The reaction of the agencies to new proposals will be important in the consultation process which is to follow the recent Government White Paper on Adoption     

FURTHER VALIDATION OF THE FAMILY OF ORIGIN SCALE: A FACTOR ANALYSIS*

The present study attempted to describe the factor structure of the Family of Origin Scale (FOS) and to determine if this structure is congruent with that proposed by the test authors. The study also sought to evaluate the research merit of the FOS. Two factor analyses based upon college student responses to the FOS yielded similar factor structure and identified a salient factor which is common to other factor analyses of scales measuring perceived family environments. Discrimination studies suggest that the FOS differentiates between college students and other distinctive groups. It was concluded that, although the FOS measures dimensions that differ somewhat from those hypothesized by the test authors, it has potential valve in applied research.