Developmental Patterns of Social Trust Between Early and Late Adolescence: Age and School Climate Effects

Social trust (i.e., belief that people are generally fair and trustworthy) is important to the functioning of democracies, and trend studies show it has declined. We test hypotheses concerning the development of these beliefs in adolescence. Based on surveys of 1,535 adolescents collected over 2 years, we find that middle and late adolescents had significantly lower levels of trust than early adolescents and that these beliefs became more stable and less related to interpersonal trust between early and late adolescence. Results of multiple group structural equation models revealed that, regardless of age, adolescents' reports that a strong sense of student solidarity characterized their school significantly increased social trust at T2, controlling for levels at T1, and opportunities to exchange perspectives with fellow students increased social trust at T2 indirectly, through feelings of student solidarity. The study points to the role of schools in nurturing the democratic dispositions of younger generations.     

Suitability for practice guidelines for students: A survey of Canadian social work programmes

This paper reports on the development of a 'suitability for practice' policy in a large Canadian school of social work. Pertinent gatekeeping issues are reviewed and the results of a survey on suitability polices in Canadian social work schools are presented. The paper concludes with a discussion of the University of Calgary's Faculty of Social Work Suitability Policy. This policy integrates current research on gatekeeping, the results of the Canadian schools survey and input from primary stakeholders: the students, faculty members, the professional association and the community.     

Workfare's Cousin: Exploring a Labour‐force Enhancement Experiment in Cape Breton*

Bien que les Néo‐Ecossais n'aient pas encore été soumis au type de réformes d'aide sociale édictées dans d'autres provinces, certains programmes visant à promouvoir la participation de la main‐d'?uvre par les bénéficiaires de paiements de transfert gouvernementaux ont récemment été mis en place à l'île du Cap‐Breton, la région de la province la plus marginale sur le plan économique. Cet article étudie la structure de l'un de ces programmes, parrainé par le gouvernement fédéral. L'analyse présentée ici avance l'idée que, en dépit du discours public officiel, la conception du programme n'apporte que peu d'avantages à la collectivité locale et à ses citoyens le plus dans le besoin, mais véhicule des avantages idéologiques importants pour l'état. Même si le programme ne peut être appelé un programme de travail obligatoire, au sens strict de l'expression, il reflète la même idéologie néo‐libérale que celle qui a inspiré des réformes sociales plus draconiennes. Though Nova Scotians have not yet been subjected to the type of provincial welfare “reforms” enacted in other provinces, some programs aimed at promoting work‐force participation by recipients of government transfer payments have recently been introduced to Cape Breton, the province's most economically marginal region. This paper examines the structure of one such program, sponsored by the federal government. The analysis presented here suggests that, despite public rhetoric, the program's design delivers limited benefits to the local community and to its neediest citizens, but carries major ideological benefits for the state. While the program cannot be called workfare, in the strict sense of the term, it does reflect the same neo‐liberal ideology that has inspired more Draconian social reforms.     

Community Service and Adolescents' Social Capital

In two studies of 5th–12th graders (n = 2,371; n = 999), we compare four groups based on engagement patterns in community service (CS) and/or extracurricular activities (EC). In both studies, adolescents who engaged in BOTH CS (whether mandated or voluntary) and EC had the highest reports of bonding and bridging social capital, intergenerational harmony, and social support whereas those who did NEITHER had the lowest. For most outcomes, adolescents engaged only in CS had higher reports than peers engaged only in EC. Content analyses of what adolescents learned in CS suggest its potential for broadening their awareness of fellow members of their communities, their mutual obligations, and collective capacities.     

A nonparametric procedure for the analysis of balanced crossover designs

The authors propose nonparametric tests for the hypothesis of no direct treatment effects, as well as for the hypothesis of no carryover effects, for balanced crossover designs in which the number of treatments equals the number of periods p, where p ≥ 3. They suppose that the design consists of n replications of balanced crossover designs, each formed by m Latin squares of order p. Their tests are permutation tests which are based on the n vectors of least squares estimators of the parameters of interest obtained from the n replications of the experiment. They obtain both the exact and limiting distribution of the test statistics, and they show that the tests have, asymptotically, the same power as the F‐ratio test.     

Social Class and Adolescents' Beliefs about Justice in Different Social Orders

We report on the justice beliefs of 4508 adolescents from 4 security societies in transition to market economies (i.e., Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Russia) and from 2 opportunity societies (Australia and the United States). Using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), justice beliefs were examined as a function of type of society, social class, and gender. In the security societies, working-class teens wanted the state and schools to provide a safety net, while middle-class teens preferred that schools promote student autonomy and competition but also reported the most negative school climates of any group. In the opportunity societies, working-class youth believed success was based on individual merit, while middle class youth expressed more doubt about this connection .     

Thirty‐Year Trends in U.S. Adolescents' Civic Engagement: A Story of Changing Participation and Educational Differences

Using annual cross‐sectional data from Monitoring the Future, the present study examined trends in high school seniors' current and anticipated civic participation and beliefs over a 30‐year period. We examined overall trends and patterns based on youths' post‐high school educational plans. Findings point to declines in recent cohorts' involvement in conventional and alternative forms of engagement but greater involvement in community service. Regardless of period, the majority of youth said they intended to vote when eligible, but few expressed trust in the government or elected officials. All civic indicators showed significant differences based on youths' college aspirations: Youth who planned to graduate from a 4‐year college were more civically inclined than their peers with 2‐year or no college plans.