Using Photovoice to Empower Youth and Adults to Prevent Crime

Photovoice empowers residents to use photographs to identify neighborhood concerns. Although Photovoice has been used to facilitate dialogue and action among residents to address a variety of issues, including neighborhood crime, it has not been used as part of an intervention to promote collective efficacy. This project integrated Photovoice into a crime-prevention program the goal of which was to facilitate collective efficacy, which. in turn, has been associated with lower levels of neighborhood crime and violence. Twenty-four racially diverse youth and adults participated in a crime-prevention training where Photovoice was used first to identify neighborhood characteristics that participants believed contributed to and alleviated crime, and then to develop a community project. Participants worked together to reuse a highly visible vacant lot to create an inviting neighborhood art and garden space that was open to the whole community. This process facilitated stronger social ties among neighborhood residents, as well as strategies for intervening in neighborhood problems, both of which are important components of collective efficacy.     

The Winter of the Arab Spring in the Gulf Monarchies

The Arab spring was quickly chilled in the Gulf states where monarchies proved more resilient in the face of political challenges than post-revolutionary states in North Africa and the fertile crescent. Money explains some of this resilience but so does the willingness to use the aegis of the Gulf Cooperation Council to apply deadly force against unarmed protestors in Bahrain, where severe repression of the Shiite majority continues and casts its shadow over the hopes of dissenters, young and older, for political opening in these authoritarian states.

La primavera árabe se enfrió rápidamente en los estados del golfo en donde las monarquías demostraron mayor resistencia frente a los retos políticos que los estados posrevolucionarios en África del norte y el arco fértil. El dinero explica algo sobre esta resistencia, pero también la disposición de usar el auspicio del Consejo de Cooperación del Golfo, para aplicar una fuerza mortal contra los manifestantes desarmados en Bahrein, en donde una represión severa de la mayoría chiíta continúa y proyecta una sombra sobre las esperanzas de los disidentes jóvenes y mayores, para la apertura política en estos estados autoritarios.

“阿拉伯之春”在海湾国家很快就冷却了,那里的君主政体证明比北非和新月沃地一带的后革命国家适应能力更强。在巴林,可以部分解释这种适应能力的除了财富,还有在海湾合作委员会庇护下对手无寸铁的抗议者使用致命武器的意志,在那里什叶派多数的严厉镇压在持续,并给广大反对者们对威权国家政治开放怀有的希望投下了阴影。     

Temporal Relationship of Sex Risk Behaviors and Substance Use Severity Among Men in Substance Use Treatment

Sex risk behaviors and substance use are intertwined. Many men continue to engage in high-risk sexual behaviors even when enrolled in substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. We hypothesized that changes in sex risk behaviors would coincide with changes in drug/alcohol use severity among men in SUD treatment. During an HIV risk-reduction trial, men in methadone maintenance and outpatient drug-free treatment (N = 359) completed assessments at baseline and six months after. We assessed changes in sex risk and substance use severity, using the Addiction Severity Index–Lite (ASI-Lite), controlling for treatment condition. In multinomial logistic regressions, decreased alcohol severity was significantly associated with decreases in reported sex partners, and increased alcohol severity was significantly associated with increases in reported sex partners. Increasing drug use severity was significantly associated with maintaining and initiating sex with a high-risk partner, while decreasing alcohol use severity was significantly associated with discontinuing sex under the influence. However, changes in drug/alcohol use severity were not associated with changes in unprotected sex. Substance use reductions may decrease HIV risk behaviors among male substance users. Our findings highlight the importance of integrating interventions in SUD treatment settings that address the intersection of sex risk behaviors and substance use.     

Social skills and responses in simulated contraceptive problem situations

A behavioral‐analytic assessment strategy (Goldfried & D'Zurilla, 1969) was used to construct contraceptive problem situations representative of social interaction tasks which were postulated by Byrne (1983) as antecedent to the use of birth control. This study tested the hypothesis that differences in social skills (of rights assertion and expression of positive thoughts and feelings) are related to the effectiveness of participants' role‐play responses in contraceptive problem situations. A sample of 87 students (45 females and 42 males), all active daters, served as anonymous participants. Partial correlation procedures, in which variance due to knowledge of birth control was controlled, revealed that the positive self‐expression skill related to effectiveness for both sexes in initiating conversations about contraception topics. The rights assertion skill related to ability for both sexes to inquire about and request contraceptive materials from a druggist. Although both types of social skills were expected to relate to effectiveness in discussing birth control issues with a dating partner, results were less consistent for these situations. Both conceptual and methodological limitations are discussed as well as implications for the application of social skills training in human sexuality programs.     

Becoming an Academic: Early vs. Later Professional Experiences

Abstract

This paper investigates the relevance of both formal training and current career conditions for the professional activity of an academic. We focus on the socialization of a sample of Ph.D. sociologists submitting papers for publication. Using regression procedures, we relate productivity of the training faculty, current publication pressures, sex, and year of degree to publication-related activity. We find that current publication pressures is a better predictor of professional activity than is productivity of the training faculty. In addition, sex appears to mediate professional socialization experiences.     

Understanding the Meanings Behind Adolescent Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: Are We Missing the Boat?

Despite the fact that adolescent non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has garnered a good deal of attention in the recent clinical and empirical literature, our conceptualization of this behavior continues to rely on an individualistic framework. Expanding the current theoretical model to include perspectives that focus on social context and constructed meaning is necessary, especially given the importance that the peer group and social context have for this age group. This paper proposes a theoretical framework that combines Symbolic Interactionism with Social Learning Theory in an effort to broaden our understanding of NSSI among adolescents. Implications and recommendations for social work practice are then discussed.     

Childhood Obesity Differences in Single-Father and Single-Mother Families

ABSTRACT

Prior research consistently finds that children living in two-parent families are less likely to be obese than children in single-parent families. Most of the research that explores the relationship between family structure and childhood obesity is limited in its conceptualization of family structure, however, either ignoring single-father families or bunching them in the same category as single-mother families. Research on gender and families suggests that single fathers are different from single mothers in ways that may influence a child’s risk of obesity. We use data from the kindergarten wave of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999 to explore differences in obesity rates for young children in single-father and single-mother families. Compared to single mothers, single fathers earn more and provide a slightly healthier home environment (less TV watching and more sharing of meals) but are more likely to work outside the home full-time. Children in single-father families are also more likely to be white and have fewer siblings. These differences counteract one another, resulting in similar levels of obesity in these two types of single-parent families.