Sexual at-risk behaviors of sexually abused adolescent girls

The present study investigated sexual at-risk behaviors of sexually abused adolescent girls. Variables of interest were presence of consensual sexual activity, age at first consensual intercourse, number of sexual partners, condom use, and pregnancies. Participants were 125 sexually abused adolescent girls aged 12 to 17 years. Results showed that severity of sexual abuse (e.g., penetration, multiple perpetrators, physical coercion, multiple incidents of abuse) was related to a greater number of sexual at-risk behaviors. For instance, adolescents with a history of sexual abuse involving penetration were 13 times as likely to have been pregnant. Although family characteristics were significantly associated with being sexually active, their effect proved non-significant in the final hierarchical regression. Regression analyses clearly showed that the likelihood of engaging in sexual at-risk behaviors increased as a function of the number of severity factors.     

Accurate probabilities for the sign test

Limitations in currently available methods for producing significance probabilities for the sign test are discussed. Two simple modifications to the continuity corrected normal approximation are derived and presented in a simple form. These modifications are shown to markedly reduce the relative error in approximating exact probabilities. The relative simplicity of these modifications and the importance of accurate p values suggest that one or both modifications could be useful improvements.     

The Impact of Poverty on Children and Young People’s Use of Services

This article describes a qualitative study exploring the impact of poverty on children’s access to and use of services, which took a comparative approach to gather the views of children from more and less affluent households. Findings suggest affordability and related factors including limited mobility constrained service use for less affluent children, resulting in cumulative missed opportunities. However, extended family, friends and agencies facilitated service access, mitigating the impact of poverty on service use to some extent. Research implications include the importance of listening to and taking account of the views of children from lower income families in service planning.     

Participatory Practices in Organizations

The literature on participatory practices in organizations has been less coherent and more limited to subspecialties than the literature on bureaucracy in organizations – despite a number of celebrated studies of participation in 20th century American sociology. Due to the practical nature of participatory reforms and the ambiguity of participation as a concept, attempts to review participatory knowledge have a tendency to focus on refining definitions and clarifying frameworks within subfields. This article instead provides a broad thematic overview of three different types of research on participation in organizations, all critical to an understanding of today's dramatic expansion of participatory practices across a variety of organizations. Classic research studied participation as dynamic and central to organizational legitimacy. Institutional design research has focused on participation as a stand‐alone governance reform with promising empowerment potential, but mixed results in domains such as health care, environmental politics, and urban planning. Finally, recent research seeks to place participatory practices in the context of shifting relationships between authority, voice, and inequality in the contemporary era. The article concludes with suggestions for building on all three categories of research by exploring what is old and new in the 21st century's changing participatory landscape.     

Using a peer action learning approach in the implementation of communication and information technology in social work education

This paper reports on a peer group learning process developed within a School of Social Work to facilitate the implementation of intra-net sites to support all modules provided on a Masters Diploma in Social Work course. Based on principles of action learning, an exposition of the approach taken illuminates the value of using collective peer learning among a team of educators, especially when implementing teaching and learning methodologies which are relatively new and unfamiliar. Within the context of this demonstration, the importance of ongoing critical reflection about the use of C&IT resources to enhance learning and teaching is highlighted. The paper ends with a commentary on how learning from this process has enabled participants to become more advanced users of C&IT--advanced, not just in terms of the technical competence required to provide C&IT resources but also in terms of their ability to reflect critically on the pedagogical concerns. Possibilities for continuation and transferability of the learning process within social work education are considered.