Family problem solving: A case study

Abstract

Working with the families of young offenders may often be the best method of helping those young offenders to change. Sometimes, however, social workers and others who work with young offenders are reluctant to work with family groups because they may feel that they lack skills in family counselling. This article presents a case study which illustrates a family counselling intervention. The case study uses Family Problem Solving, a method which involves the adaptation of mainstream social work skills to work with families. It is anticipated that the article might be of interest to social workers who work with families but who feel apprehensive about counselling family groups.     

'I know I signed something': older people,families and social workers' understanding of the legal aspects of entry to residential care

This purpose of this paper is to report findings that older people are legally vulnerable when entering an aged care facility, that social workers lack knowledge of the legal aspects of this move and do not necessarily view this information as core to their practice. The structure of social work services mirror the disjuncture older people and their families experience at this time and this may, in part, explain social work's lack of attention to these issues. Although many social workers are in contact with older people, the profession in Australia has been slow to develop a knowledge base to support effective practice with this group.     

Exploring the Potential of Social Network Analysis in Asset-based Community Development Practice and Research

Abstract

Strengths-based practice appears to be a popular approach to social work practice. Increasingly, it has become the approach of choice in community work, with the “asset-based community development” model being utilised both in Australia and internationally. However, asset-based community development has been criticised for its lack of an evidence base, lack of theoretical depth, and its lack of consideration of the macro level causes of disempowerment. While concepts of networks are central to asset-based community development, social network theory and analysis have rarely been utilised in a comprehensive manner in asset-based community development practice or research. This article contends that asset-based community development practice can benefit from the integration of key concepts from social network theory. Similarly, it is proposed that social network analysis holds promise as an appropriate methodology in terms of understanding the efficacy of asset-based community development projects.     

Institutional processes of organizational culture

Queries into the creation of collective meaning through social processes arise in both organization culture and institutional theory. This paper applies DiMaggio and Powell’s (1983 DiMaggio, P.J. and Powell, W.W. 1983. The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48: 147–60. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) three isomorphic processes (mimetic, normative and coercive) from institutional theory to re‐think how structural and dynamic aspects of culture become nested, taken‐for‐granted and transmitted. We consider both acquiescence and resistance to isomorphic pressures in an effort to understand cultural persistence and transmission, forms of resistance to culture, change, the role of sub‐cultures and power usage through Oliver’s (1992 Oliver, C. 1992. The antecedents of de‐institutionalization. Organization Studies, 13: 563–88. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) de‐institutionalization thesis. Our purpose in applying isomorphic processes to organizational culture is to offer another layer of understanding enhanced by the growing body of research in institutional theory, bridge one division between micro and macro theory and provide some suggestions for future research.     

Using Student Task Groups to Teach Group Process and Development

This article discusses an experiential assignment used in a group work course. Student groups meet throughout the semester with the task of developing a major group presentation. The assignment has the dual purpose of increasing student knowledge of diverse group approaches and providing opportunities to experience, identify, and apply group work concepts to their small-group experiences. The article uses excerpts from students' discussions about their group experiences to demonstrate the effectiveness of the assignment. Three primary themes are explored: (1) group development and emerging norms and roles, (2) issues of leadership, and (3) the role of conflict in the groups.     

Client retention in residential drug treatment for Latinos

Client drop out from treatment is of great concern to the substance abuse field. Completion rates across modalities vary from low to moderate, not ideal since length of stay has been positively and consistently associated with better client outcomes. The study explored whether client characteristics shown to be related to retention were associated with treatment completion and treatment duration for a sample of 164 Latino substance users who entered a culturally focused residential program. In-person client interviews were conducted within a week of program admission. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine research questions. Clients most likely to drop out had self-reported co-occurring psychiatric diagnoses; they were 81% less likely to complete the program, suggesting that clients with mental health problems have a more difficult time remaining in residential treatment. Clients using drugs in the three months prior to entry were three and a half times more likely to be in the shorter stay group, and clients who lived in institutions prior to program entry were three times more likely to be in the longer-stay group. Factors contributing to drop out for this Latino sample were similar to those identified in the literature for non-Latino samples. Methods for addressing the needs of clients with co-occurring disorders are discussed.     

Income and fertility: The elusive relationship

This paper uses longitudinal data for 1962–1977 to examine the relationship of husband’s income to 1962 expected fertility, to final parity, and to the discrepancy between initial expectations and final parity, separately for four groups of women who in 1962 either had just given birth to a first, second, or fourth child or had just been married. Although economic reasons frequently were cited in 1977 for downward revisions in family size goals, husband’s income was not positively related to fertility in three of the four parity groups. For the merged sample, excluding women with unwanted births, husband’s income showed a small positive relationship to completed fertility.     

How does POSSLQ measure up? Historical estimates of cohabitation

We use March Current Population Survey (CPS) data from 1977 to 1997 to produce a new historical series of indirect cohabitation prevalence estimates. We compare our new estimates with those produced by the traditional method and evaluate the new estimates. We then compare the indirect estimates with the new direct estimates to investigate whether biases exist in the indirect estimates. Our findings indicate that the traditional indirect method of estimating cohabitation prevalence underestimates cohabitors in different subpopulations, especially among those with children. We also find that the new indirect measure produces relatively unbiased estimates of cohabitors' characteristics.     

A Facet Theory Approach to Examining Overall and Life Facet Satisfaction Relationships

Multiple Discrepancies Theory – MDT – (Michalos, 1985)has been established as a leading theory of lifesatisfaction, on the basis of which numerous studieson satisfaction have been designed. Previous researchexamining overall and life facet satisfactionrelationships combined various approaches tounderstanding the interrelationships between thevariables by which individuals measure theirsatisfaction in life. Recently, Lance, Mallard andMichalos (1995) extended the scope of study byexamining the theoretical relationship between overalllife satisfaction (OLS) and satisfaction in variouslife facets (life facet satisfaction – LFS) among1,354 US college students. The present study extendsMDT one step further by applying a Facet Theory (FT)statistical approach to our understanding of the sameset of data. In this way a holistic model emerges,presenting not only the relationship between OLS andLFS, but also the interrelationships between and amongeach and every facet. Results of this analysis arepresented through the correlation matrix and SmallestSpace Analysis (SSA) diagrams. These results arecompared to Levy and Guttmans (1975) figures in theirstudy on the structure of well-being; although the twostudies examined different populations and askeddifferent questions, the final structural organizationof the data is strikingly similar.     

Combining Happines’s and Suffering in a Retrospective View of Anchor Periods in Life: A Differential Approach to Subjective Well-Being

The intersection of dimensions of subjective well-being (SWB) generates SWB types. We delineated SWB types by cross-tabulating happiness and suffering ratings that participants attributed to outstandingly meaningful periods in their life referred to as anchor periods. A sample of 499 older Israelis (age 58–94) was queried about two positive periods (the happiest, the most important) and two negative periods (the most miserable, the most difficult). A variety of variables discriminated between the more frequent congruous types of Happy (high happiness and low suffering) and Unhappy (low happiness and high suffering), but also presented the incongruous types of Inflated (high happiness and high suffering) and Deflated (low happiness and low suffering) as discriminable. Thus, women were more likely to be Inflated whereas men were more likely to be Deflated; low education related more to Happy in the happiest period and to Unhappy in the negative periods; present life satisfaction related more to Happy than to Unhappy in the positive, but not in the negative, periods; and Holocaust survivors were more likely to be Deflated and Unhappy in the negative, but not in the positive, periods. The study supported a differential perspective on SWB within people’s narratives of their lives. An erratum to this article is available at .