An Analysis of Student Satisfaction: Full-Time vs. Part-Time Students

This paper examines how full-time or part-time status affects students’ level of satisfaction with their degree programs. For our analysis, we obtained data from a survey of graduate students. The survey was conducted at a public university in Spain from 2001 to 2004. The decision to undertake paid employment while studying emerges as one of the key determinants of student satisfaction. In particular, our findings indicate that students who hold a part-time job while studying are more likely to express less satisfaction with their college experience.     

Social Work and Complex Care Systems: The Case of People Hospitalised with a Disability

Health and hospital system reforms prioritise efficiency. However, initiatives can impact on people with new or existing disabilities who require time to maximise functional independence. With greater demands for shorter hospital stays social workers face increasing pressure to facilitate discharge. This paper reports findings from research identifying factors contributing to extended stays for adults with disabilities. We sought to better understand patient characteristics and discharge planning challenges by analysing a clinical dataset of 80 patients and qualitative interviews with five experienced hospital social workers. Three key factors are identified: issues around rehabilitation services; assessment and planning for community care; and availability of and access to discharge options. Strategies to reduce length of stay are reported. We argue that building collaborative partnerships and working across multiple, complex systems and disciplines are vital to ensure these patients access appropriate community-based resources within the current health reform environment.     

Apron strings of working mothers: Maternal employment and housework in cross-national perspective

This paper asks whether maternal employment has a lasting influence on the division of household labor for married women and men. Employing multi-level models with 2002 ISSP survey data for 31 countries, we test the lagged accommodation hypothesis that a long societal history of maternal employment contributes to more egalitarian household arrangements. Our results find that living in a country with a legacy of high maternal employment is positively associated with housework task-sharing, even controlling for the personal socialization experience of growing up with a mother who worked for pay. In formerly socialist countries, however, there is less gender parity in housework than predicted by the high historical level of maternal employment.     

Doubling up when times are tough: A study of obligations to share a home in response to economic hardship

This study uses a factorial vignette design embedded in an Internet survey to investigate attitudes toward an adult child and parent living together in response to economic hardship. Over half of Americans said the desirability of intergenerational co-residence depends on particularistic aspects of the family, notably the quality of family relationships. Support for co-residence is greatest when the adult child is single rather than partnered. Support is weaker if the adult child is cohabiting rather than married to the partner, although groups with greater exposure to cohabitation make less of a distinction between cohabitation and marriage. Presence of a grandchild does not affect views about co-residence. There is more support for sharing a home when a mother needs a place to live than when the adult child does. Responses to open-ended questions show that individuals invoke both universalistic family obligations and particularistic qualities of family relationships to explain their attitudes.     

Dynamic factor structure of team performances in Liga MX

Team performance of the Mexican Football League (Liga MX), measured as the percentage of the total points obtained during each short tournament, is analyzed using Dynamic Factor Models (DFMs). The estimation of the common components is carried out with Principal Components and the stochastic nature of the DFM is studied through Panel Analysis of Non-stationarity in Idiosyncratic and Common Components. The results reveal that there are two common factors, one being possibly non-stationary. These factors show an interesting dynamic behavior in the league and allow to split the teams into two groups, namely, top competitors and emerging or relegated teams. Some discussion is given in this direction.     

Human Rights Matter

This article serves as a response to all those who commented on my original essay “Human Rights: What the United States Might Learn from the Rest of the World and, Yes, from American Sociology.”     

What do we call post-apartheid?

In this paper, the author examines the different uses and meanings of the usual expression “post-apartheid.” It has been used extensively in the social sciences, political discourse and the media since the mid-1980s. But what does it refer to, and has it always meant the same thing over the last 20 years? To answer that question, the author reviews the different ways she has used the notion in her research into workers’ forms of thinking and political subjectivities in South Africa since 1996. She distinguishes between its use as a chronological marker, an academic concept open to various problematics and epistemological decisions and a notion used by interviewees under various acceptations. She concentrates more specifically on the sequential implications of the adverb “post” in her work and argues that there have been political sequences in what she (with others) has named “post-apartheid.” She concludes that she intends to stop using this term in order to concentrate on identifying the current political sequence in South Africa.     

Caught in the Cross Fire: Children’s Right to Education During Conflict — The Case of Nepal 1996–2006

The article focuses on the impact on children, schools and education during the 10 year conflict in Nepal and raises questions for further research on schooling in the post‐conflict era. The article is based on research undertaken as part of a British Council funded Higher Education Link. Focus group discussions and interviews were conducted with school children, parents, teachers and community leaders between 2004 and 2006 and draws on informal discussions and observations with NGOs and teachers in the post‐conflict period, including NGOs visual methods to enable children’s voices to be heard in the peace process.     

Assessment of social work students: Standpoint and strong objectivity

The aim of this paper is to consider epistemological issues relating to the assessment of social work students. It will review the development of social work education and in particular the changes that have occurred in assessing the practice of social work students in England and Wales. It explores models of practice assessment. Factors relating to maintaining professional standards, whilst taking into consideration issues of justice, are addressed. It explores the potential benefits of using a second opinion in the assessment of marginal or failing students on practice placement. Assessment is linked to how students may perform as qualified practitioners; this raises issues related both to the nature of objectivity, and standpoint in assessment.