Depression in the Profession: Social Workers' Experiences and Perceptions

This study reports the findings of interviews with fifty socialworkers who volunteered to describe their personal experiencesof depression in the workplace. The findings confirm the literatureon the stresses of social work and provide an account of theways in which the social workers sought to reconcile their mentalhealth needs with their role as professionals. The study suggeststhe potential for those working at all levels in social workagencies to support social workers who are experiencing depression.At a time of shortages in the profession in the UK, and of effortsto enable those with mental health problems to remain in orreturn to work, the experiences of those social workers interviewedillustrate the managerial, training and human resource imperativesto provide more supportive workplaces.     

Indicators of child well-being through a neighborhood lens

Adverse child outcomes tend to be concentrated in neighborhoods with constellations of adverse conditions and risk factors. This paper examines the challenges of developing meaningful and useful indicators of child well-being at the level of the neighborhood. Recent technological advances have made it more feasible for communities to develop neighborhood indicators, but there are a number of practical, conceptual and methodological challenges that are involved in this work. In this article, we discuss the potential usefulness of neighborhood indicators, several of the conceptual and methodological challenges and offer some illustrations of neighborhood indicators that are pertinent to the well-being of children. In addition to administrative data, we discuss indicators of child well-being rooted in both child and adult perceptions of neighborhood.     

A Response to <Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">No One Ever Asked Us</Emphasis>: A Review of Children’s Experiences in Out-of-Home Care

Recent research on children in out-of-home care has highlighted their demographic characteristics, their physical and mental health status, and case outcomes, yet the body of literature examining children’s perspectives on care is relatively limited. This review provides an overview of almost two dozen studies examining children’s experiences of care. Findings from studies involving interviews with current and former foster youth are reviewed in relation to four child welfare goals: (1) protecting children from harm; (2) fostering children’s well-being; (3) supporting children’s families; and (4) promoting permanence. Implications for improved child welfare practice are offered.     

SEMI-MECHANISTIC MODELLING IN NONLINEAR REGRESSION: A CASE STUDY

This paper discusses the use of highly parameterized semi‐mechanistic nonlinear models with particular reference to the PARJIB crop response model of Reid (2002) [Yield response to nutrient supply across a wide range of conditions 1. Model derivation. Field Crops Research 77, 161–171]. Compared to empirical linear approaches, such models promise improved generality of application but present considerable challenges for estimation. Some success has been achieved with a fitting approach that uses a Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm starting from initial values determined by a genetic algorithm. Attention must be paid, however, to correlations between parameter estimates and an approach is described to identify these based on large simulated datasets. This work illustrates the value for the scientist in exploring the correlation structure in mechanistic or semi‐mechanistic models. Such information might be used to reappraise the structure of the model itself, especially if the experimental evidence is not strong enough to allow estimation of a parameter free of assumptions about the values of others. Thus statistical modelling and analysis can complement mechanistic studies, making more explicit what is known and what is not known about the processes being modelled and guiding further research.     

REVIEWS

Spring, J. A. (2004). How can I forgive you: The courage to forgive, the freedom not to .
Germer, C. K., Siegel, R., & Fulton, P. (Ed.). (2005). Mindfulness and psychotherapy .
Atkinson, B. J. (2005). Emotional intelligence in couples therapy: Advances from neurobiology and the science of intimate relationships .
Guterman, J. T. (2006). Mastering the art of solution-focused counseling .
Harris, S., Ivey, D., & Bean, R. (2005). A practice that works: Strategies to complement your stand alone therapy practice .     

Specialized foster care and group home care: Similarities and differences in the characteristics of children in care

Until recently, foster children who presented special medical or behavioral problems were largely served in group care environments. Specialized (or “treatment”) foster care has recently been developed to serve some of these challenging children. Although growing evidence points to the special needs of children in foster care, much is still unknown about how children placed in various out-of-home care settings differ from one another. The growth of specialized foster care as an alternative placement to group care, calls for examination of how children in these settings compare on demographic, educational, health, and behavioral characteristics. A cross-sectional mailed survey was distributed to all group care and specialized foster care agencies in a large state to address topics related to children's characteristics. Comparisons point to two groups of very difficult children, with unique mental health and health needs.     

Attachment theory and research: Review of the literature

Attachment theory confirms the importance of human relationships and their consequences for individual development. Attachment research has made it clear that infants are predesigned from birth to relate to others, and that their relationships are of preeminent importance in shaping their psychic development. The expectations they have of themselves and others are slowly internalized into working models of the world. These serve as guides for future behavior. Internal working models tend to persist over time, and the history of relationships are transmitted from generation to generation. Attachment research has fostered three important changes in psychoanalytic thinking: it affirms a relational model of psychoanalysis, proposes new guidelines for work with mother-infant dyads, and it offers a new model of theory development based on testable hypotheses. Implications for clinicians are discussed.     

EXPECTATIONS OF RATIOS OF QUADRATIC FORMS IN NORMAL VARIABLES: EVALUATING SOME TOP-ORDER INVARIANT POLYNOMIALS

Chikuse's (1987) algorithm constructs top-order invariant polynomials with multiple matrix arguments. Underlying it is a set of simultaneous equations for which all integer solutions must be found. Each solution represents a component of the sum of terms which comprise the polynomial. The system of equations has a specialised structure which may be exploited to obtain a polynomial with r matrix arguments in terms of a polynomial with r-1 matrix arguments. This is demonstrated for two particular polynomials that have two matrix arguments. These results are applied to problems involving expectations of ratios of quadratic forme in normal variables; analytic as well as computable formulae are derived.     

Alignment of Family and Work Roles

This study investigated the similarity of family members and co-workers. A total of 75 human service workers each rated up to four positive and four negative family members, and four positive and four negative co-workers on six dimensions drawn from Holland's (1985) six vocational types. The results indicated that positive family members were significantly more similar to positive co-workers than were negative co-workers. Negative family members were significantly more similar to negative co-workers than were positive co-workers. These results were interpreted to support the general proposition that individuals re-enact family dramas in work, suggesting that a major way that a family drama is established in work involves casting co-workers in customary roles.