Social Work, Asset-based Welfare and the Child Trust Fund

Asset-based welfare represents a new departure in British incomemaintenance policy and the Child Trust Fund is its most importantcontemporary example. This Research Note explores the claimsmade for asset-based welfare in general and for the Child TrustFund in particular. It sets out the results of an investigationinto the views of young people into potential uses which individualsmight make of the Fund. It then suggests a series of reasonswhy social workers ought to take a particular interest in thedevelopment of asset-based welfare policies and the benefitswhich might flow from them.     

Using Standardized Clients to Train Social Workers in Intimate Partner Violence Assessment

Evidence-based assessment in intimate partner violence (IPV) is critical to the accurate understanding of risk and to the development of interventions that increase safety. In this study standardized clients (actors) were used to train Army civilian social workers in evidence-based assessment of IPV and in the evaluation of the curriculum's effectiveness. Participation in this training curriculum increased the following: the participants' knowledge about the empirical basis for content areas explored in IPV assessment, their exploration of content critical to an IPV assessment interview, and their interviewing process skills. The results support the effectiveness of using standardized clients in IPV assessment training and evaluation.     

Patterns of Field Learning Activities and Their Relation to Learning Outcome

Field practicum is an active learning process. This study explores the different learning stages or processes students experience during their field practicum. First-year master's of social work students in field practica were asked how much they had engaged in educational learning activities such as observation, working independently, process recordings, and conceptual linkage activities for their practice. Forty-eight students completed a questionnaire three times over the first-year field practicum. The results showed that observation and process recording decreased over the time points. However, most of the participatory activities and conceptual linkage activities increased. Conceptual linkage activities were more strongly related to learning outcomes than observational or participatory activities. The discussion includes suggestions for enhancing student learning over the course of the field practicum.     

Letter to the Editor: Respecting Multiple Epistemologies in Social Work

This article is an invited response to “Toward a Learning Environment That Supports Diversity and Difference: A Response to Dessel, Bolen, and Shep - ardson,” by David R. Hodge (Journal of Social Work Education, 47(2), pp. 235-251).     

Managerial Control and Strategy in Nonprofit Organizations: Doing the Right Things for the Wrong Reasons?

This article presents the second stage of a study that engages with the debate that has occurred within the nonprofit literature about the propensity and relative merits of nonprofit organizations adopting for‐profit approaches to management. Specifically, this qualitative investigation examines the ways in which nonprofit organizations use management control when implementing their chosen strategies. Although this topic has been the subject of considerable attention in the management accounting research, it has rarely been explored within a nonprofit context. This is surprising not only because of the considerable social and economic impact of this sector, but also because of the apparent trend toward sectoral convergence in many structural and processual respects, including strategic behaviors and approaches to control. Based on interviews with CEOs and senior executives in thirty‐two Australian nonprofit organizations, we find that the relationship between strategy and control in nonprofit organizations is similar to that in for‐profit organizations, but quite different reasons underlie nonprofit organizations' exercising of management control.     

African American Stepfather–Stepchild Relationships,Marital Quality,and Mental Health

ABSTRACT

This study examined associations between stepfather–stepchild relationship quality, stepfathers’ depressive symptoms, and two aspects of marriage: marital quality and positive marital interactions. Marital quality was assessed in terms of commitment, trust, passionate and friendship-based love, and happiness. Marital interactions were assessed in terms of intimacy, shared activities, and verbal communication. Using data collected from 149 recently married African American stepfathers, structural equation modeling revealed that when stepfathers reported more positive relationships with their stepchildren, they also reported more positive marital quality and a higher frequency of positive marital interactions (relationship-solidifying activities), and that, in turn, was associated with stepfathers experiencing fewer depressive symptoms.