A FAMILY THERAPIST RATING SCALE*

This article reports the development of a scale for evaluating family therapist skills. The scale includes ten items within each of five skill categories. All items were found to discriminate significantly between videotaped segments of effective and ineffective family therapist skills. Also all skill categories discriminated significantly between experienced and inexperienced family therapists. The interrater reliability and internal consistency of the categories were also judged to be acceptable. Suggestions are presented for uses of the scale in therapist training research.     

The impact of social networks on the occupational status of migrants

This paper postulates that there is a continuous exchange of information and knowledge between those who share the common bond of having migrated to the US. The individual components of this information exchange constitute social networks. The 2 hypotheses tested are 1) immediate social networks and people known in the US facilitate the flow of information both to new migrants and between established migrants, thus promoting upward social mobility; and 2) access to broader network ties, organization membership, extra-ethnic friendships, and familiarity with established institutions smooths the transition process, resulting in increased social position. The data used comes from a study conducted in 1982-1983 in 4 Mexican sending communities (2 rural, 2 urban), for a total of 440 migrants. Results show that migrants in every socioeconomic bracket reported access to some or all social network characteristics. There was contact with either a family member or acquaintances from the migrants' town of origin. Over 50% of migrants reported knowing many fellow townspeople. Twice as many migrants belong to a sports club as to a social or religious organization. Very few rural migrants report knowing no townspeople, while 32% of urban migrants claim no knowledge of fellow migrants from their town of origin. Urban origin migrants report more contacts with those of other ethnicity than rural migrants. Those employed in agriculture are least acquainted with social information and contacts, while those in skilled and service sectors are well acquainted with them. The results of fact and analysis show that 1) access to personal US networks results in an average 4.4 point advantage in occupational prestige scores over no access, and 2) utilizing institutional US networks combined with any cumulative US experience gives a migrant a 5 point advantage over a fellow migrant with identical experience level but no institutional network contacts. This is also true for institutional Mexican networks. Thus success or failure in migrating is partly due to migrants' societal infrastructure and the fact that available information and social networks are accessed and utilized differently by different migrants.     

Mental health, social relations, and social selection: a longitudinal analysis.

A wide body of literature documents the effect of social networks and social supports on mental health. Fewer studies, however, have examined the reciprocal effect of mental health on social relationships. This problem is examined using data from a national panel survey of adults aged 20-64. For the sample as a whole, support was found for a social selection process, since psychological distress predicted decreases in primary, but not secondary, social relationships. The extent of primary relationships also were found to be associated with subsequent distress, providing evidence that the relationship between mental health and social environment may be transactional. When examined separately by gender, males but not females were found to be vulnerable to the process of social selection, supporting the hypothesis that the expression of distress is less role-appropriate for men and therefore more likely to invite social sanctions. Social causation effects also were observed only among males.     

Ambivalences: a challenge to permanency for children

A key to determining a permanent plan for children in placement lies in determining and working with the history and relative intensity of parental ambivalence in the parent-child relationship as it is acted out in the placement experience. A study of cases in a public department disclosed not only indicators of parental ambivalence but also the reinforcement of that ambivalence by agency policy, working conditions, and lack of resources.     

Sources of drug information among adolescent students

A sample of 1023 eighth and tenth grade students in small to medium-sized central Texas school districts was assessed to determine the amount of information they receive from ten sources about six categories of drugs. The amount of information males reported receiving about each drug category was significantly greater than what females reported, and the amount of information that eighth graders reported receiving about each drug category was significantly greater than what tenth graders reported. Television was the primary source of drug information for all categories of drugs except inhalants, for which friends and television were equally important sources. Parents and printed media (magazines or newspapers) were of secondary importance, followed by friends and teachers. Adolescents were less likely to receive drug-related information from experience, siblings, church, doctors, and police. The reliance on the mass media for drug information in smaller school districts is a pattern which has been previously observed in larger urban districts. This consistency suggests that mass media approaches to drug education are likely to be as effective in rural areas and smaller towns as they are among urban adolescents. Implications for television programming are discussed.     

Peer influence and drug use among adolescents in rural areas

A sample of 1,004 eighth and tenth grade students in twenty-three small Central/East Texas communities was assessed to determine 1) their perception of the number of their friends who use drugs, 2) the amount of information they received about drugs from their friends, and 3) the connection between those perceptions and drug use. A multiple regression model which included grade, gender, the degree to which friends are perceived to use drugs and the amount of information about drugs received from friends explained 39 percent of the variance in the degree to which rural adolescents were involved in drug use. An item specific analysis of the subcomponents of these composite variables explained 44 percent of the variance in the degree to which rural adolescents were involved in drug use. This same four-factor model accurately classified over 81 percent of non-drug-users and 67 percent of users using discriminant analysis. Students who perceived a higher degree of drug use among their friends and who received more information about drugs from their friends used drugs more frequently. Lower marijuana use in these rural areas as compared to the nation, both as a peer perception and as a fact, may protect these students to a degree from broader patterns of drug use. The findings of this study support the theory that peer pressure is related to drug abuse, even in rural areas.     

THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE: The Case of the Retail Food Industry

Technological innovations result not just from advances in science, but also social system reorganization. Reorganization is problematic, as various organizations and constituents pursue their interests and causes. Expanding on previous work in the economics and sociology of innovation, three cases from the retail food industry (frozen meat, boxed beef, and scanners) illustrate the process described in a politicized-context model of innovation. Market context, political contingencies, and established social relations all influence innovations. Thus, including these factors in the politicized-context model provides better understanding of the particular paths of innovation.     

Marriage and conjugal roles in Swaziland: persistence and change

"This paper examines one set of relationships central to the Swazi household--marriage and conjugal roles--and how those relationships have changed over the last half century. Information has been analyzed on such topics as types of marriages contracted, the age at marriage, choice of spouse, attitudes towards and participation in polygyny, the nature of conjugal roles, and the question of divorce. This study has drawn upon a wide range of sources including (1) an analysis of civil records from the office of the District Commissioner in Manzini, Swaziland; (2) data collected previously by other social scientists; and (3) survey data gathered especially for this study. The study concludes that while changes have occurred, many traditional patterns of marriage and family continue to be important in contemporary Swazi society."     

Female Labor Force Participation in Urban and Rural China1

Abstract The objective of this study is to examine female labor force participation and its determinants in rural and urban China. The sociological literature has demonstrated that participation tends to increase in urban and industrialized places where women have higher levels of education and fewer children, where more workers are engaged in service pursuits, and where family structure is less traditional. With the use of data on counties and cities (N = 2,377) from the I-percent sample of the 1982 census of the People's Republic of China, it was found that female labor force participation is likely to rise in areas with increased agricultural employment, educational levels, proportion of female-headed households, and higher male-to-female sex ratios. Both the size of the service sector and the fertility rate had negligible effects on female labor force participation. Although, on average, rural places have slightly higher levels of female labor force participation, when other variables are controlled, urban places have a higher rate of female participation. In addition, the findings suggest that market factors (i.e., education) are more likely to determine the rate of female labor force participation in urban areas; whereas demographic and social factors (i.e., sex ratio and household structure) play a more important role in explaining the female labor force participation in rural counties.     

Early identification of handicapped children: a time for social work involvement.

Early identification of handicapping conditions in children greatly enhances the possibility of treatment that may limit malfunctioning. Social work has responsibility and an opportunity to become more active in early identification.