Effect of Brief Staff‐Assisted Career Service Delivery on Drop‐In Clients

Brief staff‐assisted career counseling services based on cognitive information processing theory were evaluated using 138 drop‐in clients who completed pre‐ and postintervention self‐report measures of knowledge about next steps, confidence in making next steps, and anxiety about career concerns. Significant changes occurred in each dimension and were significantly associated with the quality of career adviser interaction. Participants rated the experience as highly positive. Decreases in anxiety about career concerns were unrelated to the intervention. Implications include that a brief service delivery model yields positive outcomes for many clients but requires adjustments in organizational culture, physical environment, practitioner approaches, and client expectations. Future research should examine relational variables related to decreased anxiety with a brief service delivery model, the degree to which this approach works with specific career needs, and client attributes leading to successful versus unsuccessful outcomes with this model.     

Greedy Spouse,Needy Parent: The Marital Dynamics of Gay,Lesbian, and Heterosexual Intergenerational Caregivers

It is well established that married heterosexual women do more intergenerational caregiving for aging parents and parents‐in‐law than married heterosexual men do. However, gay men and lesbian women's recent access to marriage presents new questions about the gendered marital dynamics of intergenerational caregiving. We use dyadic data with gay, lesbian, and heterosexual spouses to examine the marital dynamics of intergenerational caregivers. Results show that gay and lesbian spouses provided intensive time and emotional support for an intergenerational caregiver. In contrast, heterosexual women described their intergenerational caregiving as rarely supported and at times even undermined by their spouse. Dyadic data on heterosexual men corroborate women's accounts; heterosexual men rarely reported providing intergenerational caregiving, and thus heterosexual women rarely described providing spousal support. These findings provide new insight into the intermingled roles of “greedy” marriages and “needy” parents, wherein marital negotiations around caregiving vary by gender for gay, lesbian, and heterosexual marital dyads.     

Life Span Extension in Humans Is Self‐Reinforcing: A General Theory of Longevity

This article proposes that longevity is not merely the result of an absence of mortality but a self‐reinforcing and positively selected life‐history trait in social species. It argues that a small increase in longevity is amplified as (1) reductions in mortality at young ages increase natural selection for mechanisms of maintenance and repair at all older ages as well as increasing the potential for intergenerational transfers; (2) intergenera‐tional transfers of resources from old to young increase fitness (e.g., through improved health, skill, and competitive ability) of the young and thus favor the presence of older individuals in a population; and (3) the division of labor increases both efficiency and innovation at all levels, resulting in increased resources that can be reinvested. This theory is framed around the longevity‐oriented question posed two decades ago by the ger‐ontologist George Sacher, “Why do we live as long as we do?,” rather than the more prevalent question today, “Why do we grow old?” The article describes the foundational principles and the main phases of a model for the evolution of longevity mediated through social organization, and applies the concept specifically to human populations.     

Antecedents and Consequences of Faculty Women’s Academic–Parental Role Balancing

This paper examines antecedents and consequences of faculty women’s academic–parental role balancing, defined as the process of experiencing greater interrole facilitation/enhancement than interrole conflict/depletion. It is posited that childcare responsibilities affect the career–family challenges academic women face, i.e., dueling tenure and biological clocks, reduced mobility for faculty women with children, and the illusion that a flexible academic schedule permits one to perform all the responsibilities of a full-time academic and a full-time parent. The paper presents a theoretical model of factors that serve either to contribute to or complicate academic–parental role balancing. Propositions about the relationships between these antecedents and role balancing, and between role balancing and its consequences, are identified. Practical implications of academic–parental role balancing are also considered.

The Uneconomic Growth of Computing

A variety of models have been posited to account for the diffusion of computing technologies; the most widely accepted of these posits the cost-effectiveness of computing as the key inducement to investment in the technology. Alternative models stress less strictly rational considerations. These models have strikingly different implications for the repercussions of computing on staffing and efficiency in organizations. Other researchers have studied these relationships through cross-sectional analysis of aggregate data, without conclusive result. The panel study presented here pursues these relationships over time within 82 private-sector organizations. The analyses presented here do not support expectations that computerization reduces staffing or increases cost-effectiveness of operations.     

INTIMATE JUSTICE: CONFRONTING ISSUES OF ACCOUNTABILITY, RESPECT, AND FREEDOM IN TREATMENT FOR ABUSE AND VIOLENCE

Intimate justice theory is a set of nine interrelated concepts that describe the ethical dimensions of equality, fairness, and care in ongoing partnerships. Understanding ethical dimensions involves examining internalized beliefs and behavior in terms of their motivation and impact on the partner, particularly as they empower, disempower, or abuse power. The concepts of intimate justice theory are applied to confront disempowerment and abuses of power, to challenge internalized beliefs about how one should treat one's partner, to explore how internalized beliefs were developed through experiences in the family of origin, and to develop an awareness of the linkages between intimate partner abuse and social injustice. This article demonstrates how therapists can utilize three of the concepts-accountability, respect, and freedom-to structure the opening phase of treatment for abuse and violence. The primary focus of the opening phase is on establishing accountability for change in the abusive man and protecting the safety of the injured partner. This involves challenging the abuser's sense of entitlement and working to rethink what respect is and restoring freedom to his partner. The discussion incorporates the findings of an exploratory, qualitative study that investigated the experiences of 30 abusive men and their partners who were clients in a university-based counseling clinic. The article elaborates six interventions that can be utilized in clinical settings to structure treatment with abusive men.     

HOMOGAMY AMONG DATING, COHABITING, AND MARRIED COUPLES

The winnowing hypothesis posits that transitions from dating to cohabiting to marital unions are marked by increasing selectivity in the mate selection or matching process. In this paper, we provide comparative estimates of educational, racial, and religious homogamy and heterogamy along a continuum of commitment: sexually intimate dating couples, cohabiting couples, and married couples. Log-linear models, fitted to cross-classified data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, provide only partial support for the winnowing hypothesis. On the one hand, homogamy with respect to race and religion increases slightly as relationships progress from dating to cohabitation to marriage. On the other hand, each relationship–dating, cohabiting, and married–is marked by substantial homogamy, at least for the traits considered here. And, in the absence of homogamy, each couple type reveals quite similar patterns of educational heterogamy or intermarriage, although upward mobility through partnering is less evident among cohabitors. Overall, however, the rather stringent sorting criteria that men and women use in selecting a marital partner, which manifests itself in marital homogamy, is also used in dating and cohabiting relationships.     

BUSY PLACES AND BROKEN WINDOWS? Toward Defining the Role of Physical Structure and Process in Community Crime Models

Borrowing from the systemic model of social disorganization theory as well as from theories of human ecology and urban geography, we examine the effects of land use on community rates of violence and burglary. We posit that community crime is differentially affected by distinct nonresidential physical spaces in a neighborhood—distinct in terms of whether they are adult-centered, "business-oriented" public spaces versus spaces that are public yet still "resident centered," especially toward community youth (e.g., educational and recreational spaces). We examine potential main, mediating, and moderating effects of neighborhood social structure, resident-centered versus business-oriented public land use, and neighborhood-level processes, including neighboring and physical incivility, using data from 100 Seattle census tracts. Results suggest that the effects of schools on community violence are largely direct, while the effect of business places on violent crime is mediated substantially, but not completely, by physical disorder. In contrast, the effect of playgrounds on violence is moderated by residential instability. Regarding burglary, presence of schools is nonsignificant. Presence of businesses increases burglary, though the effect is partially mediated again by physical disorder. The effect of businesses is also moderated by residential (in)stability. Presence of playgrounds increases burglary risk regardless of neighborhood social-structural characteristics.     

Preparing Social Work Students for Rural Child Welfare Practice: Emerging Curriculum Competencies

Multiple issues that are unique to child welfare social work practice in rural areas markedly affect workforce recruitment and retention, yet little attention is given to the proficiencies needed to equip emerging social workers for this growing area of the field. Curriculum content is needed that provides students with the opportunity to master the skills needed to thrive as child welfare social workers in rural areas. Using an evidence-based practice critical thinking model as a guide, a systematic review of literature and documents addresses many of the competencies needed to prepare social work students for child welfare practice in rural areas. These competencies are identified. Suggestions for integration into the social work curriculum are offered.