Reflecting on partdime private practice: Is it worth it?

Abstract

Gradual, but not so subtle, changes in Australia's political and welfare cultures have meant that over the past I0 years social workers have been showing a greater interest in private practice as a legitimate aspect of the profession. This paper presents some of the major practical considerations required for a part-time practice to be successfully initiated and maintained. The author uses her own experience as an example and explores the personal, professional and commercial decisions she has made in such a practice over the past 16 years.     

Knowledge Structures, Social Information Processing, and Children's Aggressive Behavior

Although a multitude of factors may be involved in the development of children's violent behavior, the actual aggressive act is preceded by a decision-making process that serves as the proximal control mechanism. The primary goal of this longitudinal study was to understand the nature of this proximal control mechanism involved in children's aggressive acts by focusing on two aspects of social cognitions: social information processing and stored knowledge (i.e., internal knowledge structures that are the latent memories of past events). It was hypothesized that: (1) children with hostile knowledge structures will display more biased patterns of aggressive social information processing than children whose knowledge structures are less hostile and negative; (2) children who display hostile knowledge structures will behave in chronically aggressive ways; and (3) the development of hostile knowledge structures and hostile patterns of social information processing contribute to the stability of aggressive behavior and thus partially mediate the relation between early and later aggressive behavior. 585 boys and girls (19% African-American) were followed from kindergarten through eighth grade. Results from this investigation support the hypotheses and are discussed in terms of the significance of the inclusion of knowledge structures in our theories of the mental processes involved in children's violent behaviour.     

Worksite accommodations for manufacturing employees in a pipe fabrication facility

Through the use of professional experience and case studies, this article will examine the occurrence of injuries and work site accommodations for employees in a pipe fabrication facility. Specific means early injury intervention and environment or ergonomic controls can benefit both worker and employer regarding return-to-work transition will be discussed. Three case studies will be cited to specifically describe means a condition of events may contribute to a successful return-to-work outcome.     

Do Expectations Make the Difference? A Look at the Effect of Educational Expectations and Academic Performance on Enrollment in Post-Secondary Education

Despite the belief that education is the great equalizer in American society, previous research has shown that the promises of educational accomplishments have not extended equally across racial/ethnic groups as minorities are less likely to matriculate to post-secondary education. Using data from the second follow-up and base year of the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, we examine the impact of GPA and students’ expectations on the probability of post-secondary enrollment. Specifically, we assess the impact of low achievement on the probability of post-secondary enrollment across racial/ethnic groups. We find that low achievement acts as less of a barrier to post-secondary enrollment for minority students compared with their non-Hispanic white counterparts. Moreover, students with high expectations and low achievement experienced higher probabilities of post-secondary enrollment than students with low expectations and high achievement. Given that minority students are said to have higher expectations, we examine whether the interaction of expectations and achievement varies across racial/ethnic groups. While we did not uncover racial/ethnic differences for low-achieving students with high expectations, our findings suggest that expectations help propel all low-achieving students with high expectations into post-secondary enrollment. This study moves beyond the traditional black/white differences by including a number of racial/ethnic groups.     

Of patients & horses. Equine-facilitated psychotherapy

1. Horses, just by their large, gentle presence, put people therapeutically in touch with the vitality of being alive. 2. People who ordinarily shun physical and emotional closeness often can accept closeness from a horse and through therapy can transfer these skills to their daily lives. 3. The behavior of a sensitive horse display the rider's emotions to the therapist and provides a vehicle the therapist can use to teach the patient coping skills. 4. Therapists with an interest in horses can learn more about how to become involved in an equine-facilitated psychotherapy practice through the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association.     

Gambling Accessibility: A Scale to Measure Gambler Preferences

Geographic closeness of gambling venues is not the only aspect of accessibility likely to affect gambling frequency. Perceived accessibility of gambling venues may include other features such as convenience (e.g., opening hours) or “atmosphere”. The aim of the current study was to develop a multidimensional measure of gamblers’ perceptions of accessibility, and present evidence for its reliability and validity. We surveyed 303 gamblers with 43 items developed to measure different dimensions of accessibility. Factor analysis of the items produced a two factor solution. The first, Social Accessibility related to the level at which gambling venues were enjoyed because they were social places, provided varying entertainment options and had a pleasant atmosphere. The second factor, Accessible Retreat related to the degree to which venues were enjoyed because they were geographically and temporally available and provided a familiar and anonymous retreat with few interruptions or distractions. Both factors, developed as reliable subscales of the new Gambling Access Scale, demonstrated construct validity through their correlations with other gambling-related measures. Social Accessibility was moderately related to gambling frequency and amount spent, but not to problem gambling, while, as hypothesised, Accessible Retreat was associated with stronger urges to gamble and gambling problems.     

Locating social service centres using interactive graphics

The paper explores the feasibility of using interactive graphic based solution procedures in location problems with discrete choices. It compares solutions generated through interactive graphics with those generated through optimization for a problem context where service centres had to be located in rural India. The comparison demonstrates the feasibility of generating near optimal solutions for problems with a certain dimensionality. Broad features of the graphic software are described. The paper also highlights other advantages and limitations of the interactive graphic procedure.     

Friendship Quality,Peer Group Affiliation,and Peer Antisocial Behavior as Moderators of the Link Between Negative Parenting and Adolescent Externalizing Behavior

Quality of peer relationships and perceived peer antisocial behavior were examined as moderators of the link between negative parenting and externalizing behavior problems in school from middle childhood to early adolescence. Data on negative parenting (i.e., unilateral parental decision making, low supervision and awareness, and harsh discipline) were collected from 362 parents in the summer preceding the adolescents' entry into Grade 6. Adolescent reports of positive peer relationships and peer antisocial behavior were assessed in the winter of Grade 7. The outcome measure was teacher report of adolescent externalizing behavior in the spring of Grade 7, controlling for externalizing behavior in Grade 5. High levels of friendship quality and peer group affiliation attenuated the association between unilateral parental decision making and adolescent externalizing behavior in school; this was particularly true when adolescents associated with peers perceived to be low in antisocial behavior. In addition, having low‐quality peer relationships and having peers perceived to be highly antisocial further amplified the association between unilateral parental decision making and adolescent externalizing behavior problems. Finally, high levels of friend and peer group antisocial behavior exacerbated the predictiveness of harsh discipline for adolescents' externalizing behavior.