Comparison of an Online and a Traditional MSSW Program: A 5-Year Study

The purpose of the current study was to compare 5 years of educational outcome data for online and face-to-face MSSW students (N=883) who graduated from University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Social Work. Students’ knowledge (comprehensive exam scores, grade point averages), skills (field evaluation scores), and perception of their graduate social work program were examined. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed significantly higher knowledge scores for face-to-face, and significantly greater skills ratings for online students. Online students possessed significantly more positive perceptions of faculty and their own preparedness for professional practice. Effect sizes for all findings were extremely small, however, and suggest that differences between online and traditional student outcomes have minor practical relevance related to student achievement. Educational and research implications are discussed.     

Marriage Delay,Time to Play? Marital Horizons and Hooking Up in College

Previous research suggests that an increasing age at first marriage has contributed to the prevalence of sexual hookups on U.S. college campuses. In this article, we use life course and marital horizons theories to analyze the influence of ideal age at first marriage on hooking up among unmarried heterosexual college students. Analyses of the Online College Social Life Survey (N = 17,981) show a positive association between ideal age at first marriage and hookups for most students, but not for students whose mothers have no post‐secondary education, Asian men, Asian women, and Latina women. Variation in ideal marriage timing does not account for gender, racial/ethnic, and class gaps in hookup participation. Results are discussed with reference to the role of sexuality in processes of stratification throughout young adulthood.     

Changes in Parenting and Youth Adjustment Across the Military Deployment Cycle

This study examined how changes in at‐home parents' mental health and parenting practices related to changes in their children's adjustment throughout the course of a service members' military deployment. Participants included at‐home parents from 114 National Guard families who were interviewed at four different occasions across the deployment cycle. The results revealed changes across the deployment cycle among the following three indicators: parental warmth, depressive symptoms, and children's externalizing behaviors. Changes in parental warmth were associated with changes in children's adjustment. Overall, these findings indicate that during parental separation, at‐home parents' responses to children have important implications for children's adjustment.     

Radical Social Work in These Contemporary Times

This article explores the educational journey of one man from leaving school in the mid-1970s, at the age of 14, through a period of chaotic drug use, and on to developing his career helping other chaotic drug users back into a “normal” life. Although focused on someone with drug dependency as part of his history, the article exposes issues that potentially underlie the experiences of many learners within working-class communities. In particular, it examines the role of formal and informal education, considers education's ability to liberate or domesticate (Freire, 1972), and examines approaches to learning that support recovery and transformation.     

Effects on students of teacher training in use of a drug education curriculum

The study reported here examines the effects of differential teacher training in use of a drug education curriculum on students' knowledge levels, problem-solving and coping skills, attitudes towards planned decision making, behavioral intentions and tobacco and alcohol use. An experimental design was used to compare the effects of exposure to teachers who had either intensive staff development, in-service training or no training. The findings indicate a statistically significant difference between groups of students on the intention to drink alcohol. Students whose teachers had intensive staff development were less likely to intend to take a drink if offered than students whose teachers had in-service or no training. Possible reasons for a lack of significant results on other variables are the confounding influences of school, classroom and teacher effects.     

The good, the bad and the delicious: the role of confectionery in British society

Food, contemporarily, has a high political and public profile in British society particularly in relation to health and health education. In this paper I explore why, despite the advice of the body technocrats, confectionery continues to occupy a prominent and pre-eminent place in the British diet. I suggest that the particular place which confectionery occupies in the system of food classification is between ‘rear’ and ‘junk’ food, and, as a ‘liminal’ foodstuff, confectionery has the symbolic power both to mediate social relationships and to confer particular sets of social meanings. These meanings are resonant of the wider moral space within which attitudes towards food in Britain are conceptually located. By exploring the ‘mythology’ of confectionery some explanation may be found as to why the much publicised warnings and advice of health educationalists and nutritionists go unheeded.     

Person, Perception, and Place: What Matters to Health and Quality of Life

Interest in understanding how characteristics associated with where people live, in addition to the characteristics of the people themselves, affect health outcomes has risen sharply in recent years. While much of the research examining this question focus on teasing apart effects of place and individual on outcomes, less attention has been paid to examining how individuals’ perceptions of where they live may provide some clues to better understanding the influence of place on outcomes. We present findings from analysis undertaken that incorporate the subjective responses of individuals, residing in three socially contrasting neighbourhoods, to their local environment. Our first question addressed whether perceptions related to neighbourhood and city of residence matter to self rated health and quality of life independent of individual characteristics, while the second question examined whether the perceptions and individual characteristics are modified by the neighbourhood socio-economic context. Our results show that perceived neighbourhood characteristics, in addition to individual sociodemographic factors, are significant correlates of self rated health and quality of life. Moreover, we show that the type of perceived neighbourhood characteristics and the magnitude of their influence on self rated health and quality of life vary depending on whether they live in high- versus low-socioeconomic status neighbourhoods.