The place of “think family” approaches in child and family social work: Messages from a process evaluation of an English pathfinder service

Findings are reported from a process study of an English multi-disciplinary team working with families with long standing and complex problems. The approaches and methods of the team are described and placed in the context of UK policy developments and of UK and USA research on professional practice with families facing multiple difficulties. Basic data are provided on all families referred in the first year and analysed with respect to the first 100 completed cases. A broadly ethnographic research approach is used for the observational study of the team interactions and decision-making on individual cases. For a one-third sub-sample of 33 cases, process and interim outcome data are analysed from information systematically extracted from case records. These are complemented by qualitative data from interviews with managers and caseworkers and by observation of ‘team around the family’ and professionals' meetings. The researchers conclude that the service succeeds in engaging a majority of the referred families who have been hard to reach or hard to change in the past and whose children are either ‘on the edge of care’ or likely to be significantly harmed without the provision of an intensive service. The researchers concluded that improvements were made in the life chances of children in 75% of the families. Aspects of the service identified as associated with more positive outcomes are: the allocation of two key workers (one for the child/ren and one for the parent/s); the centrality of relationship-based practice and flexibility of the approach rather than strict adherence to any particular practice model; the fact that the service is firmly embedded within the statutory children's services department, allowing for continuity of relationships with team around the family members when the intensive service ends; and flexibility about case duration and intensity.     

Backing Australia's Future: Teaching and Learning in Social Work

Abstract

It is universally expected that universities will strive for quality in teaching and learning. Over the past 25 years, massive changes to higher education have impacted on these institutions. We now have a mass higher education system, a knowledge-based economy, increased technology, and the internationalization of education accompanied by increased student enrolments and political expectations of enhanced graduate outcome measures. These changes pose challenges to developing, updating, and improving the quality of teaching and learning. This new policy environment confronts social work educators as they determine how best to deliver quality professional education. The present paper discusses the concepts underpinning the Australian government's paper Our Universities: Backing Australia's Future as a background to exploring the tensions arising in current professional expectations and criteria for social work programs as they make the transition from old to new paradigms in classroom teaching and field education.     

Thinking about difference in student supervision

Abstract

Over the past decade, educators have given greater recognition to the influence of race and culture on practice and policy. Whilst educators are now including specific courses that take account of diversity, scant attention has been paid to how these issues may be addressed in student supervision. This article reports on a qualitative study examining how three experienced supervisors addressed difference in student supervision. Supervisory approaches were compared examining the supervisors' goals, focus, supervisory strategies, theoretical orientation, contribution made to student learning and the limitation of their particular approach. These findings emphasise the complexity of addressing difference in supervision, and suggest that some additional issues to address in supervision.     

Alcohol Misuse Among Older Adult Public Housing Residents

Low-income older adults living in public housing are at heightened risk for substance misuse. This study identified the prevalence of alcohol misuse among older public housing residents (n?=?187) and explored predictors of problem drinking. Including weekly drinking levels and binge drinking, 23% of the sample engaged in problem drinking behaviors. Logistic regression analysis revealed that race, gender, employment status, years smoking, and illegal drug use were significant predictors of problem drinking. No residents were receiving substance abuse treatment. As the number of older adults increase, training social workers to assess and treat alcohol misuse in older adults is critical.     

No longer invisible: gay and lesbian Jews build a movement

The organized movement of lesbian and gay Jews took root in the mid-1970s when groups of Jewish homosexuals in the United States, England, and Israel began gathering for religious, educational, and social purposes. After centuries of denial, the Jewish community was faced with the reality of this increasingly visible and vocal minority. By 1989, nearly 30 groups of Jewish gay men and women throughout the world were part of the World Congress of Gay and Lesbian Jewish Organizations, an international body devoted to community education about homophobia and support for both member and newly emerging gay Jewish groups.     

A two-study investigation of item wording effects on leader–follower convergence in descriptions of the leader–member exchange (LMX) relationship

The leader–member exchange (LMX) theory of leadership focuses on the quality of relationships built between leaders and subordinates; LMX measures are designed to assess the quality of these relationships. Since the leader and subordinate are jointly embedded in the relationship, it is reasonable to assume that their ratings of their relationship will converge to some reasonable extent. However, leader–member convergence on the most widely used measures, the LMX-7 and SLMX-7 scales, has historically been low. To address this, we conduct two studies to investigate whether item wording and content might be a cause of poor LMX convergence. The obtained results support the conclusion that the wording and content of these measures are, in fact, introducing attributional and social desirability biases into the rating process and causing some of the poor LMX convergence that is commonly seen. Implications for extant and future LMX research are discussed.     

Racial Barrier Socialization and the Well‐Being of African American Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Mother–Adolescent Relationship Quality

Racial socialization has been suggested as an important factor in helping African American adolescents cope effectively with racism and discrimination. Although multiple studies have reported a positive link between racial pride socialization and psychological adjustment among African American youth, assessments of the association between adolescent adjustment and another dimension of racial socialization—racial barrier socialization—have yielded inconsistent findings. Using a sample of 190 African American adolescents, the present study focuses on the quality of mother–adolescent relationships as an indicator of affective context, and examines its moderating influence on the association between racial barrier socialization and adolescent adjustment. Regression analyses indicated that the link between racial barrier socialization and adolescent adjustment is moderated by mother–adolescent relationship quality. However, these associations varied by gender.     

Being the “Go-To Guy”: Fatherhood,Masculinity, and the Organization of Work in Silicon Valley

Based upon in-depth interviews with fathers who are employed as knowledge workers in Silicon Valley, this article argues that a newly constituted masculinity has emerged that coincides with the new way work is organized in the new economy. The article examines the relationship among this gendered subjectivity, processes of labor control, and fathering. It finds that the new masculinity functions as a key mechanism of control in high-tech workplaces that rely on identity-based forms of control and that the enactment of this new masculinity impacts the way fathers think about, experience, and manage their work and family lives.     

The perceptions of hospital social workers in Saudi Arabia regarding the organisational factors that impact on their role

The perceptions of ten social workers regarding their practice within the organisational context of Saudi hospitals were examined using semi-structured interviews. A qualitative analysis employing a thematic approach informed by grounded theory was undertaken and produced the two broad interrelated themes – organisational structure and management processes – which highlighted an overarching concern of an 'us and them' division between social workers and management. The discussion shows how solutions to the perceived difficulties of social workers in hospital settings require a consideration of how partnership between practitioners and management personnel may be enhanced.     

IT'S WHAT YOU SAY,NOT WHAT YOU PAY: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF MANAGER‐EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIPS IN OVERCOMING COORDINATION FAILURE

We study manager‐employee interactions in experiments set in a corporate environment where payoffs depend on employees coordinating at high effort levels; the underlying game being played repeatedly by employees is a weak‐link game. In the absence of managerial intervention subjects invariably slip into coordination failure. To overcome a history of coordination failure, managers have two instruments at their disposal: increasing employees' financial incentives to coordinate and communication with employees. Synthesizing methods drawn from psychology and economics, we quantify the impact of specific types of communication on workers' effort levels and manager's profits. This methodology allows us to rigorously compare the efficacy of communication and direct incentives in an environment where both are available. We find that communication is a more effective tool than incentive changes for leading organizations out of performance traps. Examining the content of managers' communication, the most effective communication strategy is quite simple: specifically request a high effort, point out the mutual benefits of high effort, and imply that employees are being paid well. (JEL: C92, D23, J31, L23, M52)