Assessing child abuse: the TRIADS checklist

Although all types of abuse injure children, psychological abuse is most elusive and damaging on many levels, particularly levels of attachment, affective development, and the evolution of empathetic capacities that allow a child to receive and transmit, in an appropriate manner, emotional information between people. Some think that this type of psychological abuse coupled with neglect and perhaps early physical abuse impairs the child's total capacity to respond emotionally (Brothers, 1989). Essentially, empathy is a matter of a complex informational processing activity. Alexithymia, an inability to perceive the emotions of others, has been linked in primate studies to deprivation (Sackette, 1966). This awareness of the impact of environmental factors on the development of critical emotional and ultimately interpersonal regulating mechanisms underscores the need to attend to all aspects of child abuse.     

Elderly migration and its implications for service provision in rural communities: an Ontario perspective

Following a discussion of the role of migration in the aging of rural populations and of consequent implications for service provision in rural communities, a case study featuring demographic and service use data for Grey County, Ontario, is presented. Cohort Survival Analysis of census data for the period 1971–1986 indicates a consistent net in-migration of elderly into the county and a complex but predictable pattern of elderly relocation from townships to villages and towns within Grey. The demographic analysis is complemented and extended by the examination of survey data on the residential history and service use of a sample of elderly residents drawn from two communities in Grey County. The survey results provide valuable clues for the interpretation of the demographic analysis and reveal residential history to be a potentially important pre-condition of dependence on formal services intended for the maintenance of elderly persons in the community. The paper concludes with a discussion of the need for local analysis of migration impacts and of the relationship between such impacts and longstanding problems of rural service provision.     

Religiosity as a mediator of caregiver well-being: does ethnicity make a difference?

This study used an adaptation of the stress and appraisal model to examine the mediating effects of religiosity on caregiving strain and gain with an ethnically diverse sample of 384 Alzheimer's disease caregivers. While the regression analysis indicated that religiosity did not mediate the stress of providing care for the entire sample, there were significant differences in the use of religiosity depending on the ethnicity (African American, Hispanic, and White non-Hispanic) of the caregiver, as well as significant differences between the three cohorts in the levels of caregiving strain (depression) and gain (self-acceptance). Implications for the use of religiosity as a protective factor for AD caregivers are discussed.     

Family group conferences: evidence,outcomes and future research

This is the second article of a two‐part review of the literature relating to family group conferences (FGCs); it explores outcomes and challenges in implementing FGCs. The complex data relating to outcomes, drawing on a range of national contexts, is presented. The challenges of researching outcomes and the role of longitudinal and randomized, controlled trials are considered. The article concludes with a discussion of the implementation of FGC policy and practice in the contemporary context.     

Redesigning the curriculum for Social Work Education: complexity,conformity, chaos,creativity, collaboration?

Across the UK social work programmes in universities have been re‐designed for the introduction of the new degree. Despite its importance, the nature and process of curriculum design for social work is not well understood, and the research‐base is thin. With more detailed content requirements there is a potential danger of increasing conformity. The wider literature on curriculum design in higher education identifies different paradigms to conceptualise curriculum design, and has recently focussed on the extent to which creativity can be engendered within a highly complex context. Starting with these concepts, this paper analyses the issues for curriculum design in social work. Given the new academic and professional requirements, the interplay of practice and university‐based learning, and the engagement with multiple stakeholders, it is argued that this entails a level of complexity greater than that for many other disciplines. The value of complexity theory as a framework to understand the processes involved is discussed. The constraints arising from the short time frame available to re‐design the curriculum are discussed, with the danger of chaotic transition. It is argued that curriculum design for social work should be better understood, through research and debate, so that all participants may be better able to contribute through collaboration.     

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder–specific stimulant misuse,mood, anxiety,and stress in college-age women at high risk for or with eating disorders

ABSTRACT

Objective: To examine the misuse of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-specific stimulants in a college population at high risk for or with clinical or subclinical eating disorders. Participants: Four hundred forty-eight college-age women aged 18–25 at high risk for or with a clinical or subclinical eating disorder. Methods: Participants completed assessments of stimulant misuse and psychopathology from September 2009 to June 2010. Results: Greater eating disorder pathology, objective binge eating, purging, eating disorder–related clinical impairment, depressive symptoms, perceived stress, and trait anxiety were associated with an increased likelihood of stimulant misuse. Subjective binge eating, excessive exercise, and dietary restraint were not associated with stimulant misuse. Conclusions: ADHD-specific stimulant misuse is associated with eating disorder and comorbid pathology among individuals at high risk for or with clinical or subclinical eating disorders. Screening for stimulant misuse and eating disorder pathology may improve identification of college-age women who may be engaging in maladaptive behaviors and inform prevention efforts.     

A Model for Enhancing Individual and Organisational Learning of ‘Emotional Intelligence’: The Drama and Winner's Triangles

The author describes a model that can enhance professional learning and awareness, assisting appropriate responsibility‐taking in interactions. It has been effectively applied over 10 years with managers and practitioners in public sector settings across social work, health, education and housing, and more recently also in the private sector. The model is first explained in the context of family relationships to facilitate generalisability. Applications in social work management and practice roles are described. They are seen to demonstrate greater effectiveness, personally and professionally, within the context of day to day challenges. The result is to assist collaborative and organisational learning in behaviours similar to those associated with the language of emotional intelligence.     

Naming Your Child in a Same‐Sex Parenting Situation: Identity of the Child,Parental Status,and Kinship Ties

In Quebec, since the adoption in 2002 of the Act instituting civil unions and establishing new rules of filiation, same sex partners can be officially recognized as the parents of a child. They are invested with all the rights and obligations related to parentage and parental authority, including naming. From a qualitative analysis of interviews realized in 2014 in Quebec with 18 mothers and fathers in lesbian and gay couple relationships, this article examines the nomination processes of children born from gay or lesbian couples in terms of the modalities of entry into parenthood (biological, social, adoptive). Beyond innovations and specificities related to means of family formation where filiation is only partially or not at all rooted in biology and their categorization as same‐sex families, the name passed to the child is often considered by those parents as a means to consolidate “social” parental statuses and fraternal links.     

“Fracking democracy”: Issue management and locus of policy decision-making in the Marcellus Shale gas drilling debate

This study examined a two-year period in which natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania expanded rapidly, as did public policy proposals meant to deal with the myriad legal, economic, and environmental issues that accompanied this growth. Focusing on the use of legitimacy strategies during the critical phase of the issue of hydraulic fracturing, the study examined how activists and energy industry advocates argued that different levels of government policy making – local, state, and federal – should be the locus of policy decisions. Both the “fractivists” and the energy industry sought to legitimize state-level legislators and regulators. Activists viewed federal-level intervention as legitimate leverage for their work in the state, while the energy industry saw federal regulators as redundant and restrictive. Finally, while both sides viewed local authorities as legitimate actors, the energy industry sought to limit their ability to act against the development of new wells.