Mentoring At-Risk Latino Children and Their Parents: Impact on Social Skills and Problem Behaviors

The Family Mentoring Project, which provided approximately one year of mentoring for at-risk 10-year old Latino children and their parents, aimed to provide not only service but empirical evaluation of the program's impact. This University-community partnership offered individual mentoring, a group educational component for children and parents, and group social/recreational activities. A pre- and post-test analysis of 11 non-mentored and 20 mentored youth revealed positive gains on social skills for mentored children as reflected in self-ratings and mothers' ratings on the Social Skills Rating Scale (SSRS). Also based on the SSRS, mothers reported decreases in three problem behaviors for mentored children. In addition, by post-testing, the mentored children and their mothers compared very favorably with the SSRS standardized samples on both skills and problem behaviors. The findings suggest that bicultural competence may be fostered by programs that provide consistent and long-term mentoring, involve the children's families, include group educational components, and bring families and mentors together for social/recreational events.     

Emerging Patterns of Care Management: Arrangements for Older People in England

One of the key objectives of the community care legislation, implemented in the UK in 1993, was the development of care management systems. Subsequent studies based on limited samples of local authorities have indicated that there is much variation in the forms and types of arrangements being developed. This paper explores whether typologies of care management arrangements for older people can be discerned through the analysis of a series of key indicators. Data were drawn from a survey of all English local authorities, undertaken as part of the PSSRU study: Mapping and Evaluation of Care Management Arrangements for Older People and Those with Mental Health Problems. Care management arrangements were categorized using a limited number of key indicators chosen on an empirical and an a priori basis. This resulted in the formulation of six categories of care management arrangements for older people, within which approximately 80 per cent of local authorities could be included.     

Improving the Quality of Outcome Evaluation Plans

Nonprofit agencies are struggling to meet new funder demands in outcome evaluation. This study is the first of its kind to examine factors that contribute to agency progress in this area. Path analysis is used to examine chains of influence among five predictors of success as well as three control variables. Study findings indicate that agency culture, technology, management support, and involvement are key predictors of quality. Nonprofit managers who want to succeed in the new era of accountability should consider the potential impact of these factors on the quality of outcome evaluation plans in their agencies.     

Informing Debate or Fuelling Dispute? Media Communication of Reconfiguration in Scotland's Rural Maternity Care

Public reaction to the UK's ongoing health sector reform often results in dilution of policy‐makers’ goals. Public participation in health service decision‐making is advocated in policy, but precisely how to do it and what role public opinion should have in formulating reform strategy is ambiguously described. Public opinion is formed through many influences, including media reporting. This paper examines how reconfiguration at a rural maternity unit at Caithness General Hospital in Wick, Scotland, was communicated in national and local media and considers potential implications of media communication on public participation in policy decision‐making. Content analysis of arguments for and against change revealed a high level of reporting of commentators against change in regional newspapers. Qualitative analysis identified emergent themes about how maternity service reconfiguration was portrayed. These included framing opposition between management and local people, and change drivers receiving superficial coverage. Findings suggest that media portrayal of the public role in change may promote an adversarial rather than a participative stance. More finely tuned understanding of the relationship between the reporting of change and public reaction should be attained as this could affect how planned social policy evolves into actual practice.     

Beyond Assessment: Social Work Intervention in Family Court Enquiries

Most parents or carers who separate or divorce are able to makearrangements themselves about where their children will resideand how the children’s contact with the non-resident parentwill be managed. A further group of parents or carers are ableto come to agreement with the assistance of community- or court-baseddispute resolution/ mediation services. There are times, however,when disputes cannot be resolved without recourse to the courtsand, when this happens, the court will normally request thata welfare report be prepared by a CAFCASS (Children and FamilyCourt Advisory and Support Service) practitioner. While theboundary between assessment and intervention in social workis often less than clear, the commissioning of a court welfarereport in family proceedings strongly suggests an assessmentfocus and appears to carry little expectation that the practitionershould intervene in order to meet the needs of the childrenor adults involved. This article presents recent research findingsthat illustrate ways in which CAFCASS practitioners do go beyondthe assessment role expected of them in the course of the enquiriesthey undertake. Implications for policy and practice in thisarea of social work are then discussed.     

构筑中美文化交流的桥梁——记美国美中文化使者奖获得者李凯文

20年前的李凯文是名噪一时的音乐神童,尚在中央音乐学院学习的他凭着美国科蒂斯音乐学院全额免费录取通知登上了去美国的飞机,年少志扬的凯文誓要成为一代音乐大师;20年后的李凯文去年连续三个月获得由美国政府颁发的美中文化使者奖,也是获此荣誉的第一位华人。如今,他的理想是做一个承担中西方文化交流与融合的使者,并把中国文化传播给世界。     

Measuring sterility from incomplete birth histories

In this article, methods are presented for measuring the level and age pattern of sterility from incomplete birth histories, such as those that can be collected in demographic surveys of women who may not yet have reached the end of their reproductive span. The characteristics of the methods are examined in a simulation study that demonstrates that estimates based on information about fertility subsequent to a given age are more robust to variations in reproductive determinants, sample size, and sampling variation than the other measures, which include the frequently employed length of the open birth interval. In an illustrative analysis of World Fertility Survey data from sub-Saharan Africa, sterility was found to be high in Cameroon, intermediate in Lesotho and Sudan, and low in Ghana and Kenya relative to an English historical population.     

Urbanization and de-urbanization of the black population before the civil war

Pre-Civil War black urbanization is examined using data from federal census records, 1790 to 1860. The black population is found to be as urban as the white population initially, but its urbanization underwent relative decline in the last two decades before the Civil War. Foreshadowing current patterns, the northern black population was heavily concentrated in the largest cities, and the free black population was the most urban of all groups. The timing of black urban decline in the North, as well as regional and size of place differences in that decline, suggest that both competition with immigrants in major eastern seaboard cities and the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 contributed to black de-urbanization. For the South, the explanations of black urban decline proposed by Wade, Conrad and Meyer, Goldin, and Bonacich are evaluated, and Bonacich’s split labor market theory is judged to be most consistent with the demographic trends.     

Childbearing and Women's Survival: New Evidence from Rural Bangladesh

Effects of childbearing on women's mortality and the implications of family planning programs in reducing these effects are examined in a 20‐year prospective study of more than 2,000 women in Matlab, Bangladesh. Maternal mortality is defined as a death occurring in the six weeks after childbirth. But childbearing may affect women's survival beyond this brief period. Additional hypotheses considered relate to 1) cumulative exposure to childbearing, whether measured by parity or pace of childbearing, 2) age at first birth, and 3) effects beyond the reproductive ages. The results offer no support to cumulative exposure hypotheses, showing no link between parity or pace of childbearing and mortality risk. Instead, we identify an extended period of heightened mortality risk associated with each birth—the year of the birth and the two subsequent years. Family planning programs, by reducing the number of children and therefore a woman's exposure to extended maternal mortality risk, potentially increase survival. Research is needed to identify and address the specific causes of extended maternal mortality risk so that appropriate ameliorative programs may be developed.