Challenges in Rural Social Work Practice: When Support Groups Contain Your Neighbors,Church Members,and the PTA

Rural social work occurs in unique practice environments with challenges and rare opportunities. Strong social ties, commonly found in rural communities and often missing in urban areas, can serve as sources of resilience for group members facing adverse life circumstances. Therapeutic formal and informal support groups, bolstered by this support and led by social workers in rural communities, can face numerous challenges due to locale, lack of transportation, and potential worker burnout. This article highlights ethical considerations rooted in a theme of rural group work while providing helpful hints based on the IASWG Standards for Social Work Practice with Groups.     

Coverage with k-transmitters in the presence of obstacles

For a fixed integer k≥0, a k-transmitter is an omnidirectional wireless transmitter with an infinite broadcast range that is able to penetrate up to k “walls”, represented as line segments in the plane. We develop lower and upper bounds for the number of k-transmitters that are necessary and sufficient to cover a given collection of line segments, polygonal chains and polygons.     

Economic Restructuring and Changing Prevalence of Female-headed Families in America1

Abstract Industrial restructuring has altered economic circumstances in the U.S., but the influences of these changes on family structure are not clear. This study examines whether industrial restructuring influences female headship and whether these effects differ in nonmetro and metro counties. Results based on data from the 1980 and 1990 U.S. Census of Population and Housing Summary Tape Files indicate several conclusions. First, female headed households increased more rapidly in nonmetro than metro counties from 1980 to 1990, although there was a great deal of variation across counties. Second, industrial restructuring contributed to change in female headship in nonmetro and metro counties, and changes in various industries had differing effects on female headship. Third, overall gains in women's employment in a county had no influence on formation of female headed households, gains in men's employment deterred female headship, and gains for women in specific industries tended to slow formation of these households. Fourth, controlling for changes in median income and part-time work did little to reduce the industry-specific influences on change in female headship. The results suggest that linkages between industrial restructuring and family structure do exist, although the models are less able to explain changes in female headship in nonmetro than in metro counties.     

On the narrative vs non-narrative functions of reported speech: A socio-pragmatic study

Reported utterances have often been analyzed with regard to their narrative function. While it is true that this narrative function applies to a large group of cases, we have observed that reported speech can fulfil other functions, which are incompatible with the properties of a narrative utterance. This study, based on spontaneous discourse, will focus on the non-narrative functions of reported speech, that is, the appreciative, the support and the authority functions. We will first define the semantico-pragmatic properties of these functions of reported speech, on the basis of examples that are univocal in their contexts. Next, we will turn to examples more complex, in which there seems to be a conflict between functions considered to be incompatible. Finally, we will present the results of a distributional analysis, relating the functions of reported speech to linguistic and extralinguistic factors. The results will lead us to propose hypotheses concerning the strategic diversification of discourse behaviours by speakers.     

The Evaluation of a Stress Management Program for Middle School Adolescents

A pretest posttest control group design was employed to determine the effectiveness of a ten-week stress management program for middle school adolescents. Thirty-six adolescents participated in the experimental groups and 18 served as controls. The experimental subjects, in contrast to controls, reported a significant increase in the use of cognitive control coping strategies, in the effectiveness of adaptive coping strategies, and in the ratio of the use of adaptive relative to maladaptive coping strategies. The adolescents in the experimental group reported a significantly lower degree of stress than those in the control group. A 67.5 percent reduction in muscle tension following the use of relaxation procedures was reported by the experimental group members. The program appears to have been successful in developing stress management skills in two major areas emphasized in the intervention, cognitive control coping strategies and relaxation methods.     

A Preliminary Analysis of Associations Among Ethnic–Racial Socialization,Ethnic Discrimination,and Ethnic Identity Among Urban Sixth Graders

Drawing from cultural ecological models of adolescent development, the present research investigates how early adolescents received ethnic–racial socialization from parents as well as how experiences of ethnic and racial discrimination are associated with their ethnic identity (i.e., centrality, private regard, and public regard). Data for this study were drawn from a multimethod study of ethnically and socioeconomically diverse early adolescents in three mid‐ to high‐achieving schools in New York City. After accounting for the influences of race/ethnicity, social class, gender, immigrant status, and self‐esteem, parental ethnic–racial socialization was associated with higher levels of ethnic centrality (i.e., the extent to which youth identify themselves in terms of their group), more positive private regard (i.e., feelings about one's own ethnic group), and public regard (i.e., perceptions of other people's perceptions of their ethnic group). Ethnic discrimination from adults at school and from peers was associated with more negative perceptions of one's ethnic group (i.e., public regard). In addition, the association of ethnic–racial parent socialization and ethnic identity beliefs was stronger for those who reported higher levels of adult discrimination. Results highlight key ways in which ethnic identity may be shaped by the social ecologies in which adolescents are embedded.