Social Work within a Community Discourse: Challenges for Teaching

This paper considers the continuing debate about the relationship between social work and community work. We write about our collaboration as educators, one from a social work background and the other from a community work background and discuss the challenge of teaching community work to social work students in a way that is relevant for contemporary practice, and that embraces community work principles and values. Our paper explores Ife's framework of competing discourses of human services and discusses how it has helped us to articulate our thinking and teaching practice in the Irish context. For us, the framework integrates social work and community work within a community discourse that provides a language transcending disciplinary boundaries. This approach represents a means of familiarising students with the community work process and enabling them to take action on issues of social justice. The framework represents four competing models of human service delivery: the managerial, the market, the professional and the community. We discuss how we use this conceptualisation to teach and engage students in a process of critical reflection. The paper discusses methods we use to undertake this process, and the development of our teaching practice over the last two years.     

Dating after late-life spousal loss: Does it compromise relationships with adult children?

In Widowhood in an American City (1973), Helena Lopata observed that widows struggle with new romantic relationships because their children often are resentful toward these new partners. Since the publication of Lopata's classic work, however, few studies have explored empirically the ways that widow(er)'s dating affects their relationships with children. We use prospective data from the Changing Lives of Older Couples study (CLOC) to explore: (1) the impact of bereaved spouses' dating on positive and negative aspects of parent–child relationships six and 18 months postloss; (2) the extent to which these associations are explained by preloss characteristics; and (3) the factors that moderate the association between widow(er) dating and parent–child relations. Multivariate analyses show that widowers who are interested in dating six months postloss report low levels of support and high levels of conflict with their children, yet widows report enhanced relationship quality. This pattern reflects the fact that men who are interested in dating do form new relationships, whereas women's interests are not translated into actual dating. Widowers' dating six months postloss compromises parent–child closeness among those with a history of strained parent–child relations, yet enhances closeness among those with historically good relationships. Dating takes a harsher toll on parent–daughter compared to parent–son relationships. Overall, dating threatens parent–child relationships in specific cases, yet it may also strengthen widow(er) s' parent–child bonds. We discuss the implications for the well-being of older widow(er)s and adult children.     

NORC Supportive Services Model Implementation and Community Capacity

As community residents age, service delivery systems may not be equipped to meet their changing needs. The Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC) model has emerged as a strategy to utilize existing resources and develop a comprehensive approach to maintaining older adult functional status. However, little has been written about how community capacity influences NORC implementation. A community capacity framework was used to analyze the themes that emerged from participant and service provider interviews at two diverse NORC sites. The findings revealed that perceptions of a sense of community and partnership management influenced the NORC experience for participants and providers.     

Beyond Welfare Regimes: From Empirical Typology to Conceptual Ideal types

The welfare regime concept introduced by Gøsta Esping‐Andersen in 1990 is still widely used in comparative political research, although it has been challenged extensively both on empirical and analytical grounds. Besides the fact that many empirical welfare states seem to be hybrid cases of the established welfare regime categories, the argument that welfare regimes exist not only at the country level but also at the local level and at the level of particular welfare programmes has recently gained momentum in the academic literature. In this article, it is argued that the welfare regime concept should be stripped of its historical‐geographical connotations and turned into an ideal‐typical approach. To this end, a three‐dimensional model is proposed here that allows for analyzing the attributes of welfare states, welfare regions and welfare programmes on three analytical dimensions: welfare culture, welfare institutions and socio‐structural effects.     

Transforming Retirement: New Definitions of Life After Work

This quantitative research study uses survey data of women born between 1946 and 1951 in Australia. It follows earlier work that identified the importance of transitions from work for women of the baby boomer generation. We provide important insights into the lives of women who have partially or fully retired and the changing nature of women's work and retirement. For many women, retirement is characterized by newfound freedoms, opportunities, career change, and evolving identities, yet others view retirement as a continuation of previous occupational and gendered roles and commitments. This study has important implications for retirement policies for women.     

Effect of body image on gestational weight gain in overweight and obese women

Problem or backgroundThere is little information available describing how women who are overweight or obese in pregnancy perceive their bodies, and in particular the effect of body image dissatisfaction on gestational weight gain.QuestionTo describe how women who are overweight or obese in pregnancy perceive their body, and the effect of body image on gestational weight gain.MethodsThis prospective nested cohort study evaluated self estimation of body weight, preferred body shape, dieting behavior, satisfaction with body weight and shape, and gestational weight gain in pregnant women who were overweight or obese, through self-completed questionnaire in early pregnancy in South Australia from October 2010 to February 2012.FindingsOf the 442 women who completed the questionnaire, 25.8% correctly identified their BMI, with 70.1% under-estimating and 4.1% over-estimating their BMI. Women who were obese were significantly less likely to correctly identify their BMI, as were younger women. Women who incorrectly identified their BMI were significantly more likely to have higher gestational weight gain (P < 0.001). Approximately 45% of women indicated dissatisfaction with their weight or body shape, with this being more common in women of higher parity and higher BMI. Dissatisfaction was significantly related to gestational weight gain.ConclusionWomen who report increasing dissatisfaction with their body size and shape are more likely to gain excessive weight during pregnancy. Further research should explore insights about maternal body image and diet related behaviors.