What are the Risk Factors for Antisocial Behavior Among Low‐income Youth in CapeTown?

Research in high‐income countries has identified an array of risk factors for youth antisocial behavior. However, in low‐ and middle‐income countries, despite higher prevalence of offending and antisocial behavior, there is a paucity of prospective, longitudinal evidence examining predictors. South Africa is a middle‐income country with high rates of violence and crime, and a unique social context, characterized by striking income and gender inequality, and increasing number of children orphaned by AIDS. We tested predictors of antisocial behavior at community, family, and individual levels over four years. One thousand and twenty five adolescents from poor, urban South African settlements were assessed in 2005 (50 percent female; M = 13.4 years) and followed up in 2009. The sample analyzed consisted of the 723 youth (71 percent) assessed at both time points. We employed sociodemographic questionnaires and standardized scales. Validity of our antisocial behavior measure was supported by cross‐sectional associations with well‐evidenced concomitants of youth antisocial behavior, including drug taking and truancy. Regression analysis indicated that male gender and experience of community violence, but not poverty or abuse, predicted antisocial behavior. Despite many South African youth experiencing abuse and poverty at the family level, our findings suggest that high levels of violence in communities may be a more important factor contributing to the development of antisocial behavior, particularly among males.     

Predicting Developmental Change in Healthy Eating and Regular Exercise Among Adolescents in China and the United States: The Role of Psychosocial and Behavioral Protection and Risk

This article reports a cross‐national study of developmental change in health‐enhancing behavior—healthy eating and regular exercise—among adolescents in China and the United States. The application of a conceptual framework comprising psychosocial and behavioral protective and risk factors—both proximal and distal and at both the individual and social contextual level—is shown to provide a substantial account of variation in change in those behaviors over a 2‐year interval. The explanatory account has generality across gender, the 3 grade cohorts, and most importantly, across the 2 markedly diverse societies.     

An exploratory study of family‐centred help‐giving practices in early intervention: families of young children with autism spectrum disorder

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to investigate the early intervention (EI) experiences of mothers who have a young child at risk for autism spectrum disorder. Data were collected through observations, interviews and document analyses. Results of the study suggest (i) interpersonal skills of practitioners and provisions for family choice and collaboration lead to positive experiences for mothers; (ii) asset‐based attitudes lead to family progress and competence; (iii) effective partnerships are developed through supportive provider communication techniques; and (iv) satisfaction with EI services results from practitioner responsiveness to help families access resources and facilitate child development.     

Tobacco Control and Smoking Cessation Efforts in an Inner-City African American Community

This paper describes the conceptual framework that guided the development and implementation of a large-scale, community-based health initiative to lower the prevalence of smoking in an urban African American community. This project developed culturally-sensitive approaches to reducing smoking in the community and to promoting tobacco control efforts developed and implemented by community members. A randomized clinical-trial methodology was used to test the efficacy of the culturally-sensitivey community-developed smoking cessation interventions in lowering smoking rates as compared with a self-help approach. Two theoretical models guided the intervention strategies: a macro-level model applicable to the community as a whole, and a psychological process model applicable to individuals. The community model was based on community systems theory and incorporated the Readiness for Change Model which was applied in both the individual and organizational models. In addition, culturally-sensitive data collection methods were developed to improve the reliability and validity of project data, especially in determining the smoking prevalence rates and smoking behaviors of hard-to-reach, inner-city African Americans. Since the health of individuals is related to the health of their communities, smoking cessation and tobacco control activities that are integrated into the framework of the community (Le., churches, city-council, housing developments, community organizations), and incorporate culturally-relevant and specific interventions can be effective methods for achieving behavioral and societal change.     

The World’s Mightiest Naval Station

The Korean War is often given a cursory glance, if that, in U.S. foreign relations today. This article provides all the information necessary to conduct a role-play in one class period to help students understand the events of the war. Introductory and follow-up questions are also included to stimulate discussion and to connect the events of a war over half a century ago to the events of today.     

Becoming a Social Worker: Chris' Account

Chris Murray, a young African-American male, admitted on a scholarship to a social work masters program, reflexively explores his negotiation of difference in dialogue with an Australian female social work educator twice his age. Standpoint theory and the concept of intersectionality are used to frame Chris' experiences at a private northeast US university after achieving an undergraduate degree in his southern home state. His initial access to university came through military service. Chris was interviewed by the author as part of her international study project examining social work students' experience of diversity in the classroom. The open-ended interview was designed to allow self-identity of difference. Chris ethnographically recounts to a stranger a subjectivity statement of who he is in relation to studying social work. Chris' story works the hyphen between the binary of subjectivity and objectivity through the particulars of his personal history and world-view and his expectation that I as a social work educator share his seeking of social justice. His detailing of what moved him to become a social worker and contextual complexities negotiated along the way connect to wider discourses on how agency and structure play out in lived experience in seeking social justice.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

This paper explores the emergence of the social work profession in Western Australia from beginnings in the 1920s through to 1970 when the first local graduates gained employment. The authors illustrate how WA's history both connects with and diverges from patterns of the profession's development in more populous states, througt, the use of interviews conducted with pioneering social workers These oral histories illuminate how gender, class and other markings of privilege and power framed, and were framed by, the education, practice, sites of practice and career paths of social workers in the early years. Two interacting themes identified in this research were restricted employment possibilities for social workers in the State and a lack of locally available professional education until the mining boom of the sixties. The paper concludes by listing six lessons for current practitioners: the transcendent importance of reading contexts; identifying and developing relevant sites of practice; maintaining flexible boundaries of professional practice; being able to articulate a dynamic value base to drive practice; the importance of practitioners in shaping education, and continuing practitioner reflexivity.     

Child migration

It is considered important to construct models of social work in particular settings in order to refine practice and to enhance the power position of practitioners in identifying appropriate roles and tasks in relation to other professions. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the accumulation of data about social work in association with legal aid, leading to the formulation of a model or practice in such a setting. Data is presented here in relation to three groups of personnel participating in the Caxton Street Legal Service in Brisbane: lawyer perceptions of social work roles and types of problems appropriately dealt with by social workers, similar perceptions of a group of social workers forming a roster of volunteers, and the actual roles and activities of three social work students placed at C.S.L.S. during 1980. Of major interest is the predominantly casework conciliatory nature of role perceptions and activities in the agency's declared policy. Analysis suggests that this situation is explicable partly in terms of political expediency in relation to funding aims, and partly in terms of the voluntary, part-time and fragmentary nature of the service. The need for further clarification of a practice model remains, however, if social workers are to extend their role in legal aid.