Children's family circumstances: recent trends in Great Britain

Recent trends in family formation and dissolution have led to an increase in the diversity of types of family in which children live and to children experiencing more disruptions and changes throughout their childhood years. Our estimates suggest that only about one half of all children can now expect to spend their entire childhood living with their married, natural parents. For policy concerning the welfare of children, it is important to recognize the large proportion of children who will experience family disruption or the likelihood of transition between family types at some point in their childhood.Les tendances récentes de formation et dissolution des familles ont conduit à un accroissement de la diversité des types de familles dans lesquelles vivent les enfants. Tout au long de leurs années d'enfance ils connaissent également beaucoup plus de ruptures et de changements. Nos estimations suggèrent que seulement la moitié environ de tous les enfants peuvent maintenant compter passer l'ensemble de leurs années d'enfance avec leurs parents mariés ou cohabitants. Pour les politiques de protection infantile il est important de reconnaître la forte proportion d'enfants qui expérimenteront à l'avenir des ruptures familiales, ou la vraisemblance de transition entre divers types de familles à certains moments de leur enfance.     

Long-term effects of teaching behavioral strategies for managing persistent auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia

1. Attendance at a 10-week class designed to teach behavioral management strategies to people with schizophrenia was effective in reducing some of the negative characteristics of auditory hallucinations for 12 months and in reducing anxiety for 9 months after completion of the class. 2. The sustained improvement experienced by class participants was characterized by their voices being less frequent and more mumbled and the participants feeling more in control, less distractible, and less anxious. 3. Participants recommended that other mental health consumers take similar classes to learn how to better manage their voices. 4. Monthly support groups may help participants maintain gains lost during the follow-up period.     

Gender, partner violence, and perceived family functioning among a sample of Vietnam veterans

This study examined partner violence and perceived family functioning among a sample of 298 male veterans and their female partners. Partner violent men were higher than partner violent women on measures of partner violence severity, although differences did not reach statistical significance. Among couples experiencing unidirectional violence, female victims of partner violence reported significantly poorer family functioning than male victims of partner violence. Data appear to suggest that the effects of male-perpetrated partner violence on perceived family functioning may be larger than that of female-perpetrated partner violence.     

Bringing the community in: partnerships for aging enrichment

Aging enrichment of undergraduate social work curricula ensures that program graduates will be prepared to practice with older adults. This article reports the results of focus group research that was designed to engage social workers from community agencies serving older adults in preparing students to become "aging-savvy" social workers. The workers highlighted the importance of wide-ranging exposure to older adults, the changing needs of older adults, and the importance of increasing students' comfort with self-determination. These findings informed the program's ongoing curricular transformation process through the incorporation of new assignments that enabled increased contact with older adults in a variety of settings.     

Limousine Liberals and Corporate Conservatives: The Financial Constituencies of the Democratic and Republican Parties*

Objective. This study examines the backgrounds, political attitudes, issue preferences, and political participation of congressional donors who contribute $200 or more to congressional campaigns. Methods. We use a nationwide survey of more than 1,000 donors and analyze differences among these individuals using cluster analysis. Results. Although these significant donors are economic elites, we find they are not monolithic in their political views and attitudes. There are significant cleavages in the donor pool across and within the two major parties on various political issues and involvement in different political organizations. Perhaps most important, we find that the most active donors hold the most ideologically extreme political views. Conclusions. The results suggest that the sharp cross‐party differences and the meaningful variations within party coalitions, combined with the greater activity of more ideologically extreme donors, contribute to and reflect party polarization.