Establishing a Parenting Program for Fathers in Substance Abuse Treatment

This paper describes a systemic, trauma and attachment model for a parenting program for fathers in residential substance abuse treatment. It emphasises the complex nature of delivering parenting programs in this context and the importance of going beyond simple linear principles of reward and punishment, upon which many other parenting programs are predicated.     

Services to prevent child placing-out for cocaine-affected and non-affected families

This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of the'In-Home Family Care' programme of Children's Home Society of California in Alameda County, particularly regarding the emphasis and impact of services for cocaine-affected families. The family characteristics, problems addressed and service provision in cases served over a 3-year period were assessed in terms of their relation to placement outcome for cocaine-affected and non-affected families. This evaluation found that, despite serious and often chronic problems among cocaine-affected families, their child removal rate was no higher than that for non-affected families. Implications for risk assessment and placement decisions are discussed.     

School context and American Indian substance use

The present study extends prior research exploring the role of school contextual factors in predicting individual adolescent substance use by examining how a school’s racial composition is associated with American Indian adolescent tobacco and marijuana use. Using a subsample of 523 American Indian students from the restricted use Add Health data, we consider both individual and school contextual factors across 99 schools. Our results suggest that a school’s racial composition is associated with individual tobacco and marijuana use among American Indian youth, but in different ways depending upon the substance. Our findings illustrate the importance of extending research on the correlates of substance use for racial and ethnic minorities beyond studies examining African-Americans and/or Hispanics.     

Parents Beyond Borders: A Social Group Work Curriculum for Supporting Immigrant Parents and Building Solidarity

Parents Beyond Borders, a curriculum first implemented in 2008 as part of The Center for Family Life's ParentShip Program, encourages group members to create a shared narrative about their traumatic immigration experiences. The result is twofold. First, immigrant parents gain a more assertive and poignant voice to communicate with family and others in their lives when sharing their family's acculturation experience. Second, because social group work promotes recognition of collective trauma due to the community's experience of marginalization, it improves members' group self-concept and empowers them to take action and advocate for themselves.     

Change in intergenerational economic mobility in Norway: conventional versus joint classifications of economic origin

Studies of mobility within both sociology and economics most commonly use a conventional classification of social or economic origin, based on the position of the father only. The questions raised in the paper is whether there has been a trend towards more economic mobility, and whether conclusions about change based on a joint classification of both mother and father differ from those based on conventional classifications. These questions are addressed on the basis of register data on the earnings of the total Norwegian population of mothers, fathers and children from 1967 and onwards. The analyses focus on the earnings of the cohorts born between 1955 and 1970, and their earnings at the age of 34–35. The results do not support the argument in previous research that intergenerational economic mobility has increased in Norway. Moreover, the results based on a conventional approach differ from those based on a joint classification including the earnings of both mother and father. Using the latter approach there is no indication of a trend towards greater openness.     

How choice proliferation affects revealed preferences

Theory and Decision - Whereas the literature on choice overload has shown that people tend to defer their choice or experience less satisfaction under choice proliferation, this paper aims to test...     

Mad, Bad, or Reasonable? Newspaper Portrayals of the Battered Woman Who Kills

A heated debate about battered women who kill abusive male partners started in the 1970s. In this study, we tracked the public discourse on battered women who kill by coding 250 newspaper articles published between 1978 and 2002. Using four typifying models, we found that leading explanations for why battered women kill medicalized then criminalized their actions; they were mad then bad. We also found that reporters used quotes from claims makers supporting conventional or medical typifications of battered women to a much greater degree than statements from alternative, feminist sources. In conclusion, simplified, sensational and conventional understandings of crime causation drove the social construction of “the battered woman who kills”. She may be mad or bad, but rarely has she been portrayed as reasonable. Suggestions for promoting feminist narrative in the media are also provided.