Volunteerism Among Social Work Students During Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

Abstract

This study examined volunteer activities and predictors of volunteerism among graduate and undergraduate social work students (N = 416) from four universities in the Gulf Coast area following hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The convenience sample drawn from all social work students at these universities included 89% females, and 52% of the students were in a master's level program. Sixty-one percent of the respondents were African American and 31% were non-Hispanic white. The majority of students volunteered (97%) despite experiencing a range of hurricane-related stressors. Multivariate analyses yielded a regression model that best predicted heightened volunteerism, which included age, school site, previous volunteer experience, hurricane-related stressors, altruism, and increased commitment to social work values (R ² = .35). The strongest predictors of volunteerism were stressor, increased commitment to social work values, and altruism (betas = .30, .26, and .21 respectively). The findings are consistent with previous research on volunteering in times of disaster and with current thinking about posttraumatic growth .     

Prevalence of Industry Support and its Relationship to Research Integrity

Most U.S. clinical trials are funded by industry. Opportunities exist for sponsors to influence research in ways that jeopardize research objectivity. The purpose of this study was to survey U.S. medical school faculty to assess financial arrangements between investigators and industry to learn about investigators' first hand knowledge of the effects of industry sponsorship on research.

Here we show first-hand knowledge that compromises occurred in: research participants' well-being (9%), research initiatives (35%), publication of results (28%), interpretation of research data (25%), and scientific advancement (20%) because of industry support. Financial relationships with industry were prevalent and considered important to conducting respondents' research.     

Pornography,erotica, and attitudes toward women: The effects of repeated exposure

It is a widespread belief that pornography causes negative attitudes toward women, but tests of this belief are contradictory. A large body of research has studied the effect of violent pornography on behavior, but the effects of erotica and violence have often been confounded. Thus, the relationship between pornography and attitudes toward women was assessed in two correlational studies, and the effect of (nonviolent) erotica on attitudes towards women was tested experimentally. The dependent measure was the score on a questionnaire measuring attitudes toward women and women's issues. The questionnaire possessed high reliability; factor analysis indicated a single general factor. Participants included 184 psychology students and 20 patrons at an “adult” theater. Multiple linear regressions indicated that hours of viewing pornography was not a reliable predictor of attitudes toward women in either sample. Patrons of the adult theater, who viewed more pornography, had more favorable attitudes toward women than male or female college students. In Study 3, 75 students were randomly assigned to watch four hours of erotica or four hours of psychology films over five consecutive days. Power analysis indicated a strong test. Manipulation checks showed a difference in students’ perception of the erotic nature of the videos, but attitudes toward women were not influenced by type of video.     

“I Wouldn't Wish It on My Worst Enemy”: Western Australian Fathers’ Perspectives on Their Marital Separation Experiences

Marital separation is a complex and emotionally painful life experience, especially in instances where children are involved. This exemplar study investigated the separation experiences of fathers. Its findings suggest that many separating fathers are at an emotional disadvantage during separation, not only grieving the loss of their former marital relationship, but also their simultaneous loss of contact with their child/ren, their fathering role, and their former family routine. It is posited that separated fathers’ late start in the grieving process may put them at a psychoemotional disadvantage at the very time they are dealing with the complexities of formalizing their child contact arrangements. If future studies support this premise, then these findings will have equity implications for contact arrangement hearings.     

Race of the Future: Mixing of Colors in the United States Leading to One Race?

This article examines the impacts of the race of the future theory on the U.S. population. By and large, the theory posits that the mixing of different races—due to the process of miscegenation, especially in marriage, cohabitation, or sexual relations—will blend all races, so much so that, in the future, the end result of this mixing will be a panracial formation (i.e., one race). In this analysis, the authors attempt to determine whether the mixing of colors currently happening in the United States will lead to one race and what the race of the future in the United States will “look” like. One of the major conclusions is that, although the possibility of the existence of the race of the future has yet to be established, the degree of multiraciality in the U.S. population is rapidly growing (based on data and statistics from the U.S. Bureau of the Census).     

Paradigm wars: Some thoughts on a personal and public trajectory

It is often said that research methods are a matter of rational choice: it is the research question, or problem, which ought to dictate the method to be used. This may be true to some extent, but there are other more powerful reasons why social scientists choose the research methods they do. Underlying philosophies of social science and long-held and much cherished tenets about epistemology are prime among these. Moreover, such an interplay between epistemological position and methodological decision is enormously affected by social context. We pay attention to what other social scientists are doing, to fashions in both methodology and topic - the things it is considered proper for social scientists to study; we are affected by research funding and publishing opportunities, by the material resources available to support our work, by intraprofessional rivalries and difference, and by politics - both in its commonly understood sense and as applied to power relations between academics and those who take part in research. Apart from what we do, there is the whole issue of how others construct our work. And this is only some of what goes on. In short, it is a very complicated business.