UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF THE MOTHER-CHILD RELATIONSHIP ON SEX WORKERS’ DECISION TO ENTER AND LEAVE THE STREETS – LESSONS FOR SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

This paper focuses on ‘streetwalkers’ and ‘street sex workers’ who are unlicensed sex workers not belonging to a brothel and subject to criminalization. They often face great stigmatization and are usually considered victims by service providers. Five Singaporean ex-streetwalkers (n = 5), who had left the streets for at least six months and were currently receiving or had previously received skills training at a social service agency, participated in this study. Using an agentic framework and social relational theory principles, this qualitative study explored the impact of streetwalkers’ relationship with their children on their decision to enter and leave the streets and reasons for their successful help-seeking experiences. Findings revealed them to be agents who actively used strategies to meet their goals and to sustain close relationships with their children. The mother–child relationship context was a key influence on their decision to enter and/or leave the streets. Social work practice implications include tailoring service delivery to tap into their agentic capacities and identity as mothers; research and training in provision of proactive social services in a non-judgmental manner to preserve the dignity of these women while meeting both their own and their children’s needs.     

Introduction: Leading Lesbians Fight Disease and Disability

This thematic issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies focuses on the ways in which lesbian leaders have dealt with disease and disability. In the articles that follow, eight prominent lesbians describe what it means to cope with serious illness and medical treatment in the context of lesbian identity and community. This introduction provides an overview of some of the themes that arose in the various articles, focusing on lesbian support systems as well as best medical practices.     

Long-Term Tetracycline Use in the Treatment of Acne Vulgaris—The Role of Routine Laboratory Monitoring

Abstract

The medical directors of 125 college health services were surveyed to determine the frequency and extent of routine laboratory monitoring of patients with acne treated with low-dose oral tetracycline. Thirty-seven percent of the practitioners in 89 health services treating acne routinely order screening tests. Thirty-five percent obtain blood counts, 24% obtain liver function tests, and 21% order both types of tests. Sixty-three percent of health service practitioners ordered no routine laboratory testing. A literature review revealed that the reported renal, hepatic, and hematopoietic side effects of tetracycline occurred in patients on high-dose intravenous therapy, in critically ill or hospitalized patients, in patients with initial renal insufficiency, or in older patients. Although idiosyncratiac reactions have occurred, no significant side effects found by routine monitoring have been reported with low-dose oral tetracycline in healthy patients. A more cost-effective approach to the use of the laboratory in tetracycline therapy of acne would be to obtain laboratory tests only on high-risk patients or on those patients who develop symptoms.     

The Doctoral Student Experience: A Preliminary Study

This paper reports data from a study of former doctoral students, examining their personal characteristics, program experiences, and later career patterns. High motivation and career change objectives characterized this group at program entrance. They felt well-served by their educational experiences, and were in highly satisfying positions that were easily obtained upon leaving the program. General themes emerging from these data were discussed in a final section that explores the characteristics of doctoral training and its implications for participants and the profession.     

About the Authors

Biography

About the Authors     

Work Characteristics and Parent‐Child Relationship Quality: The Mediating Role of Temporal Involvement

This study investigated whether the amount and nature of parent‐child time mediated the association between parental work characteristics and parent‐child relationship quality. We based hypotheses on the conflict and enrichment approaches, and we tested a path model using self‐collected data on 1,008 Dutch fathers and 929 Dutch mothers with school‐aged children. Longer working hours and less work engagement were associated with less parent‐child time and longer working hours, more restrictive organizational norms, stress, flexibility, nonstandard hours (mothers only), and work engagement increased the disturbance of parent‐child activities. Less and more disturbed parent‐child activities were, in turn, associated with a lower parent‐child relationship quality. In addition, work engagement and working hours had direct, beneficial effects on parent‐child relationship quality.     

Personal meaning in the public sphere: The standardisation and rationalisation of biodiversity data in the UK and the Netherlands

The demand for biodiversity data is increasing. Governments require standardised, objective data to underpin planning and conservation decisions. These data are produced by large numbers of (volunteer) natural historians and non-governmental organisations. This article analyses the interface between the state and the volunteer naturalists to understand the emerging patterns of information flow between them. Our results are based on research in the UK and the Netherlands. These two countries have a long history in volunteer biodiversity recording and are facing similar issues in relation to the increasing demand for standardised data. Our findings demonstrate that citizens who become involved in recording do so because they value nature and biodiversity. Recording is for them a way to enact their relationship with nature and contribute to its protection. Our findings also show that they are concerned about the increasing rationalisation in the process of data flow and about the way in which the government treats them and ‘their’ data. Our paper concludes by discussing this tension and the challenges and opportunities for biodiversity recording.     

The effect of functional circuit training on physical frailty in frail older adults: a randomized controlled trial

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether a 12-wk functional circuit-training program (FCT) could alter markers of physical frailty in a group of frail community-dwelling adults. Fifty-one individuals (31 women, 20 men), mean age (± SD) 84 (± 2.9) yr, met frailty criteria and were randomly assigned into groups (FCT = 26, control group [CG] = 25). FCT underwent a 12-wk exercise program. CG met once a week for health education meetings. Measures of physical frailty, function, strength, balance, and gait speed were assessed at Weeks 0, 12, and 36. Physical-frailty measures in FCT showed significant (p < .05) improvements relative to those in CG (Barthel Index at Weeks 0 and 36: 73.41 (± 2.35) and 77.0 (± 2.38) for the FCT and 70.79 (± 2.53) and 66.73 (± 2.73) for the CG. These data indicate that an FCT program is effective in improving measures of function and reducing physical frailty among frail older adults.