Client and program factors associated with dropout from court mandated drug treatment

To examine why court mandated offenders dropout of drug treatment and to compare their characteristics, treatment experiences, perceptions, and outcomes with treatment completers, we analyzed self-reported and administrative data on 542 dropouts (59%) and 384 completers (41%) assessed for Proposition 36 treatment by thirty sites in five California counties during 2004. At intake, dropouts had lengthier criminal histories, lower treatment motivation, more severe employment and psychiatric problems, and more were using drugs, especially heroin. Relatively fewer dropouts received residential treatment and their retention was much shorter. A similar proportion of dropouts received services as completers and the mean number of services received per day by dropouts was generally more, especially to address psychiatric problems, during the first three months of treatment. The most commonly offender-reported reasons for dropout included low treatment motivation (46.2%) and the difficulty of the Proposition 36 program (20.0%). Consequences for dropout included incarceration (25.3%) and permission to try treatment again (24.0%). Several factors predicting drug treatment dropout were identified. Both groups demonstrated improved functioning at one-year follow-up, but fewer dropouts had a successful outcome (34.5% vs. 59.1%) and their recidivism rate was significantly higher (62.9% vs. 28.9%) even after controlling for baseline differences. Understanding factors associated with drug treatment dropout can aid efforts to improve completion rates, outcomes, and overall effectiveness of California's Proposition 36 program. Findings may also aid a broader audience of researchers and policy analysts who are charged with designing and evaluating criminal-justice diversion programs for treating drug-addicted offenders.     

Impact of T-ACASI on Survey Measurements of Subjective Phenomena

Numerous studies have shown that audio-computer-assisted self-interviewing (audio-CASI) and telephone audio-CASI (T-ACASI) technologies yield increased reporting of sensitive and stigmatized objective phenomena such as sexual and drug use behaviors. Little attention has been given, however, to the impact of these technologies on the measurement of subjective phenomena (attitudes, opinions, feelings, etc.). This article reports results for the seven subjective measurements included in the National STD and Behavior Measurement Experiment (NSBME). NSBME drew probability samples of USA and Baltimore adults (Ns = 1,543 and 744, respectively) and randomized these respondents to be interviewed by T-ACASI or telephone interviewer-administered questioning (T-IAQ). Response distributions for all subjective measurements obtained by T-ACASI diverge from those obtained by human telephone interviewers. For six of our seven ordinal-scaled measurements, this divergence involved shifting responses directionally along the ordinal scale, as opposed to a nondirectional redistribution among response categories. When interviewed by T-ACASI, respondents were more supportive of traditional gender roles and corporal punishment, less supportive of integrated neighborhoods and same-gender sex, and more likely to agree that occasional marijuana use is harmless and to describe themselves as attractive. The majority of these results suggest that telephone survey respondents may provide more "tolerant" and "socially liberal" responses to human interviewers than to a T-ACASI computer. Similarly, although the evidence is not entirely consistent, the impact of T-ACASI appears to increase with the social vulnerability of the population surveyed.     

“There Ain’t No Bond in Town Like There Used to Be”: The Destruction of Social Capital in the West Virginia Coalfields1

There is a paucity of research focusing on the circumstances that cause or contribute to a decline in social capital within communities. Furthermore, relatively few researchers employ qualitative methods in their studies of social capital, despite the multidimensional and many‐layered nature of this concept, characteristics that make social capital well suited for qualitative analysis. To address these two gaps in social capital research, I explore the mechanisms that have led to a depletion of social capital in the southern coal‐producing region of West Virginia. I examine whether the coal industry, which has caused bitter conflicts among residents over environmental degradation and union loyalties, has also undermined social capital in the region. My principal data include 40 semi‐structured, face‐to‐face interviews with randomly selected individuals in a coal‐mining town and a demographically similar non‐coal‐mining town in West Virginia. I analyze the experiences of residents in each town, assessing the qualitative differences in community and personal life associated with social capital. I find that the loss of social capital in the coal‐mining community has arisen through a combination of depopulation and the community‐wide conflict that arose when an anti‐union coal company bought out the union coal mine at which many in the community worked, challenging the union identity so engrained in this region.     

Racializing the "Social Development" State: Investing in Children in Aotearoa/New Zealand

This paper focuses on the claim that the child is emerging asa key figure of social governance. International studies suggestthat as liberal welfare states increasingly draw on social investmentdiscourse, the child—particularly the child-as-worker-in-becoming—hasemerged as an iconic figure. This has resulted in the childbecoming the central subject of social policies and programsand the focus of new spending priorities. In Aotearoa/New Zealand,however, the figure of the child is much less prominent thanelsewhere. Moreover, in the policies and programs of the NewZealand "social development" state, the child is often racializedby virtue of its location within specific family groupings andgeographical communities. In turn, this has implications forthe positioning of women. As we show, the child/mother who standsto benefit from the "investments" of social development in Aotearoa/NewZealand is actually more likely to be a Pkeh child/mother, whereasthe child/mother requiring continued programmatic interventionis more likely to be Mori or Pacific. This finding points tothe need for feminist scholars to examine further the complexinterpenetration of gender and race/ethnicity in the shapingof contemporary socio-political landscapes.     

An evaluation of the effectiveness of cluster development in the Town of Southampton,New York

Clustering new development, and as a result retaining protected open space, has been a simultaneously much touted and much maligned planning tool. Its relative merits as a tool to preserve farmland, open space and rural character have been debated for the past 40 years. To place this debate in context, this study presents a detailed, on the ground analysis of the physical and spatial results of 20 years of the Town of Southampton, New York's cluster ordinance. The analysis finds that although the tool was surprisingly effective in maintaining land in farming, the effects on visual quality were much less successful.     

De‐Romanticizing Black Intergenerational Support: The Questionable Expectations of Welfare Reform

Past research suggests that despite the substantial strengths of Black kin networks, they are not always up to the task of supporting young mothers. This study is an analysis of potential barriers to women‐centered kin support for present‐day urban Black teen mothers and possible implications for kin support mandates specified in the 1996 federal welfare reforms. In‐depth interviews with African American midlife women, who themselves were teen mothers, shed light on their attitudes and perceptions about Black kinship systems and teen childbearing. Study results suggest that these women perceive governmental intervention, age‐condensation among urban Black families, and urban “underclass” culture to have undermined traditional Black intergenerational support.     

Remarriage,Cohabitation, and Changes in Mothering Behavior

We used data from two waves of the National Survey of Families and Household to investigate changes in mothering behavior associated with remarriage or cohabitation by single mothers. We considered three dimensions of mothering: (a) time and supervision, (b) harsh discipline, and (c) relationship quality. Mothers and children agreed that mothers who remained in new partnerships used harsh discipline less frequently than mothers who remained single or whose new partnership had ended by the second interview. Mothers reported less supervision if they had experienced a disrupted partnership, whereas children reported less supervision if their mothers remained in a new partnership at the second interview. Children but not mothers reported better relationships with mothers in partnerships at the second interview, compared with children whose mothers remained single or whose new partnership had ended. Only a small part of the differences in harsh discipline, and none of the other observed differences, could be explained by maternal or family characteristics or by mothering behavior and relationships in the first interview. Although cohabiting partnerships were more likely to end than were marriages, we found no differences in effects of cohabiting or marital partnerships, net of their status at the second interview.     

Managing money, managing coupledom: a critical examination of cohabitants' money management practices

This article focuses on the use of independent money management by a small number of cohabitants living in New Zealand. This style of money management seems to be popular with cohabitants and is likely to become increasingly significant as the number of couples who cohabit continues to grow in Western countries such as New Zealand. Yet it has received sparse attention within the literature on domestic monies. This literature has noted that money management practices operate either to diminish or to exacerbate inequalities between women and men, most noticeably in the realm of decision‐making and personal spending money. Independent money management is pursued in order to achieve equality and autonomy, thereby overcoming some of the difficulties identified in other forms of money management. However, it is argued that equality and autonomy exist in tension with each other. In certain relational settings, adherence to the goal of autonomy leads to the emergence of inequalities and the continued exercise of power within heterosexual relationships.     

Using Foucault's “Disciplinary Power” and “Resistance” in Cross-Cultural Psychotherapy

Foucault's conceptualization of power relations provides a theoretical framework for cross-cultural psychotherapy reimbursed by a managed health insurance plan. Utilizing extensive case material from psychotherapy with a White therapist and an African American adolescent, the paper discusses how clinical social workers can operate within, but not be completely of dominant power structures. Applications are also made to supervision, education, and administration.