Oppression and Barriers to Service for Black,Lesbian Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

This narrative study identified service barriers from the perspectives of 16 Black lesbian survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). Qualitative analysis revealed diverse interrelated barriers similar to those identified by service providers in a previous study by the authors, including societal barriers such as heterosexism, and institutional barriers such as ambiguous policy. Results indicate that the theory of intersectionality is best poised to frame an investigation of the complex barriers encountered by these survivors. Results also demonstrate that although these women desire to receive services, current inequities prevent them from accessing support and further endanger, victimize, and isolate them. Strategies for improving services and reaching culturally diverse survivors are also discussed.     

The Influence of Perceived Supervisor Listening Behavior on Employee Commitment

This study seeks to examine the influence of perceived supervisor listening on employee commitment in an organization. Research suggests that in today's organizations managers spend the largest percentage of their time listening, followed by speaking, reading, and writing. Although training addresses speaking and public presentations, interpreting technical reports, and instruction in technical writing, little has been done to either research or train listening skills.

Listening research has primarily focused on listening measurements and assessment (see Rhodes, Watson & Barker, 1990), and identification of specific behaviors associated with listening (see Lobdell & Gluc, 1990). Few studies have examined listening in the organizational setting (see Husband, Cooper, & Monsour, 1988; Husband, Schenck, & Cooper, 1988). A study by Husband, Cooper, and Monsour (1988), explored the initial question of supervisor's perceptions of their own listening behaviors in organizations. Further research by Husband, Schenck, and Cooper (1988) suggests that the subordinate's perception of supervisory listening may be different than the supervisor's actual listening behavior or the supervisor's perception of their own listening behavior. They found that subordinates did not feel at ease when communicating with their supervisors, and that the subordinates perceived that their supervisors were unwilling to listen to them.

As Husband, et al. (1988) suggests, there could be many starting points at which to address organizational listening. Based on some of the findings in their research, supervisor-subordinate listening seems to offer a logical beginning. The supervisor-subordinate relationship represents an essential link in the organizational structure (see Jablin, 1979). Given their argument, if subordinates differ in their perceptions of supervisory listening behavior, and perceive their supervisor's listening negatively, there may be a direct influence on their commitment to their jobs or the organization as a whole. This study attempts to determine the influence of perceived supervisor listening on employee commitment to the organization.

The respondents were 225 occupational employees and 53 managerial employees in a large southwestern utility company. The survey was a 69 item organizational listening questionnaire developed by Arnold (1989). The questionnaire was broken down into four dimensions: (1) feelings about the organization, (2) perception of relationship with supervisor, (3) perception of own communication behavior, and (4) organizational listening behaviors.     

The Intersection of Social Process and Social Structure Theories to Address Juvenile Crime: Toward a Collaborative Intervention Model

Juvenile crime has long been a pervasive social problem and the target of various intervention efforts. These efforts are ultimately orchestrated by the theoretical lens through which juvenile crime is viewed. This article illustrates the utility of examining theoretical perspectives to inform interventions by presenting a critical analysis and proposed synthesis of two major theories in this area; social learning theory and social disorganization theory. Results of this analysis suggest that both be considered and merged in developing potential solutions. Removing professional silos and developing interdisciplinary approaches aimed at improving outcomes for youth, their families, and communities are critical.     

Using an Online Support Site to Extend the Learning to a Graduate Field Practicum in the United States

An online support site was constructed for graduate social work students at San Diego State University in California during their first‐year field practicum. A study was conducted to explore and describe the attitudes of these students toward the usefulness of the site's online features. Students participated in the site through the Blackboard Software Platform by adding discussion threads to asynchronous forums on an online discussion board, receiving information through online announcements, accessing field‐related materials through the site, and engaging in an online network. The most useful forum was related to the learning plan that students were required to complete in planning and organizing their field practicum experience. Students reported that the most useful feature of the site was the ability to access timely information through the online announcements from the Field Education Program.     

Outcharming crime in (D)urban space

This paper is an inquiry into the uses of space and emotions in the governance of urban dangers. Cities have always been affective assemblages, yet the role of both space and affect in the control of urban crime has dramatically changed over the century. What defines spatial urban management today, in Africa and elsewhere, are not the prohibitive, moralising or forcefully exclusionary techniques of the past; instead, the powers of seduction and atmosphere have gained pride of place and given rise to a regime of spatial management through flirty surfaces. Crime, according to security strategists and city makers in the South African city of Durban, can be literally charmed out from particular bubbles of governance. Urban practitioners do not search for the root causes of violent crime somewhere deep in the history of society, but rather in space itself, right at the city's surface. While part of a worldwide trend, this recent fascination with the charming aspects of space has a particularly strong South African dramatic. Governing through handsome space in South Africa is not simply a creation of beautiful illusions against the reality of pervasive violence, but a constant endeavour to re‐draw a troubled spatial history.     

A Cognitive–Social Model of Fertility Intentions

We examine the use and value of fertility intentions against the backdrop of theory and research in the cognitive and social sciences. First, we draw on recent brain and cognition research to contextualize fertility intentions within a broader set of conscious and unconscious mechanisms that contribute to mental function. Next, we integrate this research with social theory. Our conceptualizations suggest that people do not necessarily have fertility intentions; they form them only when prompted by specific situations. Intention formation draws on the current situation and on schemas of childbearing and parenthood learned through previous experience, imbued by affect, and organized by self‐representation. Using this conceptualization, we review apparently discordant knowledge about the value of fertility intentions in predicting fertility. Our analysis extends and deepens existing explanations for the weak predictive validity of fertility intentions at the individual level and provides a social‐cognitive explanation for why intentions predict as well as they do. When focusing on the predictive power of intentions at the aggregate level, our conceptualizations lead us to focus on how social structures frustrate or facilitate intentions and how the structural environment contributes to the formation of reported intentions in the first place. Our analysis suggests that existing measures of fertility intentions are useful but to varying extents and in many cases despite their failure to capture what they seek to measure.     

The profile of women who consult midwives in Australia

BackgroundThere is no Australian data on the characteristics of women who consult with midwives.AimTo determine the profile of women who consult midwives in Australia.MethodsThis cross-sectional research was conducted as part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH). Participants were the younger (31–36 years) cohort of the ALSWH who completed a survey in 2009, and indicated that they were currently pregnant (n = 801). The main outcome measure was consultation with a midwife.FindingsOf the 801 women who indicated that they were currently pregnant at the time of the survey, 19%, 42%, and 70% of women in the first, second and third trimesters respectively had consulted with a midwife. Women were more likely to consult a midwife if they: also consulted with a hospital doctor (OR = 2.70, 95% CI: 1.66, 4.40); also consulted with a complementary and alternative medicine practitioner (OR = 1.94, 95% CI: 1.25, 3.03); were depressed (OR = 1.84, 95% CI: 1.03, 3.28); constipated (OR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.04, 3.13); or had been diagnosed or treated for hypertension during pregnancy (OR = 2.78, 95% CI: 1.27, 6.09). Women were less likely (OR = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.21, 0.56) to consult with a midwife if they had private health insurance.ConclusionWomen were more likely to consult with midwives in conjunction with consultations with hospital doctors or complementary and alternative medicine practitioners. Women with private health insurance were less likely to consult midwives. More research is necessary to determine the implications of the lack of midwifery care for these women.     

From Beatles Fans to Beat Groups

While much is written about the cultural influence of the vocalist-driven girl groups and female singers of the early-to-mid-1960s, an air of mystery continues to shroud this era's all-girl rock bands—in the UK, US, and worldwide—that performed, recorded, and often wrote their own material. Influenced by the Beatles and the British beat boom that followed, these bands are an important missing link in rock music history, as they epitomize a less overtly gendered, if short-lived, period of the genre. In an era between Betty Friedan's 1963 Feminine Mystique and the changes to come with 1970s second-wave feminism, a handful of musically minded young women were determined to transform their Beatles fandom in order to become co-creators of what was not yet a resolutely masculinist music scene.