Hier ist dort – Coaching auf dem Weg in virtuelle Beratungswelten

When it comes to Online Coaching in its different forms, there is now an increasing number of publications to describe possible fields of application, concepts and prerequisites. In contrast to that, the following article focuses on the coach-client encounter, and how it changes in virtual coaching formats as opposed to face-to-face coaching. The article presents ideas on how big a role changes in sensory and communicative aspects might play, and reflects upon the consequences these changes imply.     

Enhancing the validity of foster care follow-up studies through multiple alumni location strategies

While family-based placement prevention services, family reunification programs, subsidized guardianship, and aggressive adoption programs are reducing the numbers of children spending long periods of time in substitute care, a significant number of America's children will come of age in foster care. Agencies and policymakers should use research and evaluation to assess the effectiveness of foster care in nurturing healthy adults and to explore ways to improve services. Outcome studies that have focused on locating and interviewing young or middle-aged adults emancipated from foster care have been hampered by modest response rates, limiting the field's ability to evaluate the efficacy of foster care programs. This article describes a set of strategies that were used to achieve higher response rates in two recent follow-up studies.     

Testing the Personal Wellbeing Index on 12–16?Year-Old Adolescents in 3 Different Countries with 2 New Items

The 7-item adult version of the Personal Wellbeing scale (Cummins et al. Social Indic Res 64:159?C190, 2003) was administered to two samples of adolescents aged 12?C16 in Brazil (N?=?1,588) and Spain (N?=?2,900), and to a sample of adolescents aged 14?C16 in Chile (N?=?843). The results obtained were analyzed to determine its psychometric characteristics when used with adolescents in the three different countries and to check whether two additional items would improve its qualities. Results reveal that the new PWI-9 version worked well with the adolescents in the three countries, improving some of the qualities of the PWI-7. One of the added items, satisfaction with oneself, appears to be a major contributor to unique explained variance when regressed on the single-item of overall life satisfaction (OLS). The model we present using structural equations shows good fit statistics for the factor structure, with both 7 and 9 items. Separate in-country analyses demonstrate that cultural context has a strong influence on correlations and saturations between the studied variables and also on the explained variance. Probably related to this fact, the Model fit structure is good in Brazil (with a low PWI variance accounted for by its predictors) and Spain (medium), but rather modest in Chile, where data show a high proportion of the PWI variance accounted for by its predictors. However, a multi-group factor analysis among the three countries restricting saturations to 1 in each country in order to make data comparable across countries still show a good fit of the proposed model for both PWI-7 and PWI-9.     

Prediction of future low levels of sickness absence among young persons sick listed with back, neck, or shoulder diagnoses

In recent years sickness absence has increased in most Western countries. Risk factors for sickness absence and disability pension have been emphasised in studies, while focus on factors predicting low sickness absence is very rare. This paper is an attempt to apply such a perspective in an 11-year prospective cohort study of young persons n = 213) who in 1985 were sick listed > or = 28 days with back, neck, or shoulder diagnoses. Having had no sick-leave spells > 14 days in 1992-1996 was used as the outcome measure. Sixty-nine persons (34%) had no such spells, with an unexpected similar proportion of men and women. Data on prior sick leave and demographic variables were analysed using univariate and multiple logistic regression. Factors that predicted low sickness absence were having prior low sickness absence, being a white-collar worker, and being married. We concluded that individuals with a history of low sickness absence have an increased odds for remaining in the work force after a single long sick-leave spell, and might need less attention in rehabilitation compared to persons with a history of high sickness absence. Focusing on low sickness absence led to different results than those discussed in previous studies on risk factors for disability pension.     

The significance of feminist infrastructure: #MeToo in the construction industry and the green industry in Sweden

To better understand the interplay between digital activism and feminist infrastructure, this study investigates #MeToo activism in the Swedish construction industry and green industry. Both are industries in transition characterized by a dissonance between formal incentives, that encourage women and others to work in environments previously dominated by white men, and the informal power structures hosting a toxic masculinity. Based on media texts and interviews with key persons from the industries, the article situates #MeToo in a local context and shows how it was embedded in a supportive social, cultural, and technical infrastructure. In both industries, at the time of #MeToo this feminist infrastructure was already in place consisting of: an awareness of the problem of sexual harassment and abuse, knowledge of feminist explanatory models, established feminist online networks, and a supportive feminist culture, which together with widespread digital and feminist literacy became instrumental in the organization of the movement. Social media connected activists and created a critical mass by supporting the uniting of conflicting identity positions around shared differences. The established feminist infrastructure meant that the #MeToo activism, by articulating a widespread affective dissonance, pushed open doors that were already half open and forced them wide. This can explain some of the movement's success in Sweden.     

How and Why Do Social and Sustainable Initiatives Scale? A Systematic Review of the Literature on Social Entrepreneurship and Grassroots Innovation

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Social and sustainable initiatives generally start small and need to scale to create substantial impact. Our systematic...     

Nonresident father support and reunification outcomes for children in foster care

Over the past decade an interest in fathers and their contributions to family stability and children's healthy development has heightened the attention paid within the child welfare field to identifying, locating, and involving fathers. The article presents findings from analyses of data on nonresident fathers and child welfare case outcomes for foster children. Using data available from a telephone survey of child welfare caseworkers, together with administrative data on case outcomes, a positive association between nonresident father support and reunification outcomes for foster children is shown. The sample of foster children with nonresident fathers who provided financial support, nonfinancial support, or both types of supports, were far more likely to experience a reunification outcome than children whose fathers did not provide these supports. The findings demonstrate associations between support and reunification but cannot demonstrate causality given the cross-sectional nature of the dataset. More research is needed to better understand the nature of nonresident father support in the lives of foster children, and the quantity and quality of interactions between mothers, nonresident fathers, and their children.     

Family Flexibility in Response to Economic Conditions: Fathers' Involvement in Child‐Care Tasks

Recession‐related increases in men's child care are well documented, but supporting evidence describes the last several decades of the 20th century. Changes in family life and in the association between families' economic conditions and the macro economy provide reason to question the continued existence of a “recession effect.” This article evaluates the frequency of married and cohabiting fathers' engagement in the day‐to‐day tasks of child care during the so‐called Great Recession, using data from male respondents to the 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth. Results indicated an increase in men's frequency of engagement in physical care and feeding, starting in 2008 and continuing into 2010. The share of men engaged in daily play fell sharply at the recession's onset but rebounded in subsequent years. These results suggest that, even with a narrowing of the gendered division of domestic labor, room remains for families to respond flexibly to economic shifts.     

No finish line: How formalization of academic assessment can undermine clarity and increase secrecy

This article analyses how formalization of promotion criteria and procedures influences clarity and transparency of academic assessment. Based on a longitudinal, structural micro‐study of a new tenure track system in a Swedish higher education institution, we find that inequality was reproduced through the choice of explicitly gendered metrics across all areas of assessment (research, teaching and service). We further demonstrate how the formalization of a ‘good enough’ standard, in addition to a standard of ‘excellence’, reinforced the scope for interpretational flexibility among assessors. This combination of explicitly gendered metrics and dual standards of performance gave gatekeepers broader discretion in hiding or communicating failure, with gendering effects. Finally, we conclude that the choices made about how to formalize assessment work placed a small group of senior academics firmly behind closed doors, thus ensuring that gatekeepers’ discretion and power were entrenched rather than restricted by formalization.