Compassion Satisfaction Among Social Work Practitioners: The Role of Work–Life Balance

Abstract

Previous research has established that social work practitioners are especially vulnerable to work-related psychological distress and burnout due to the high-stress nature of the profession, yet less research has focused on examining factors are associated with social worker retention. Emerging research on compassion satisfaction suggests that this factor could mitigate professional burnout, yet there is a gap in research focusing explicitly on examining compassion satisfaction among social workers. To address this gap in knowledge, this quantitative study collected survey data on practicing social workers who were alumni from a large southeastern university (n?=?120) to examine individual and organizational factors associated with compassion satisfaction. Multiple regression analyses revealed that higher levels of emotional intelligence, perceived work autonomy, and perceived work–life balance were associated with an increase in compassion satisfaction among experienced, licensed social work practitioners. Findings have implications for how social work employers can promote compassion satisfaction through cultivating emotional intelligence among practitioners, allowing social workers autonomy in decision making, and providing supportive work environments. Recommended directions for future research include longitudinal studies with large sample sizes that expound research on compassion satisfaction by examining the role of additional factors, such as client population, job role characteristics, and supervisor support.     

A Social Cognitive Framework for Career Choice Counseling

This article extends social cognitive career theory by suggesting how several of its major hypotheses can be applied to counseling persons with career choice difficulties. Several theory-derived counseling strategies are described that can be used to assist clients in developing a broad array of career options, analyzing and overcoming barriers to career choice, and counteracting choice-limiting self-efficacy beliefs. Each strategy is illustrated with a case example. Future research needs related to the counseling model are discussed.     

Developmentally disabled children can be adopted

People have often thought that developmentally disabled children were hard to place and poor risks in adoption. However, this research shows that a large number of children of all ages and disabilities were placed for adoption with few disruptions. In light of these findings, agencies may well put more effort into identifying developmentally disabled children as suitable candidates for adoption services.     

Popular epidemiology and toxic waste contamination: lay and professional ways of knowing.

Building on a detailed study of the Woburn, Massachusetts, childhood leukemia cluster, this paper examines lay and professional ways of knowing about environmental health risks. Of particular interest are differences between lay and professional groups' definitions of data quality, methods of analysis, traditionally accepted levels of measurement and statistical significance, and relations between scientific method and public policy. This paper conceptualizes the hazard-detection and solution-seeking activities of Love Canal, Woburn, and other communities as popular epidemiology: the process by which lay persons gather data and direct and marshal the knowledge and resources of experts in order to understand the epidemiology of disease, treat existing and prevent future disease, and remove the responsible environmental contaminants. Based on different needs, goals, and methods, laypeople and professionals have conflicting perspectives on how to investigate and interpret environmental health data.     

Artificial Experiments on Society: Comte, G.C. Lewis and Mill

The success of the experimental physical sciences in mid-Victorian Britain brought to prominence the question whether artificial social experiments—as distinct from those offered by the ordinary course of social life—were feasible. Influenced in part by Comte's writings, such authoritative figures as J.S. Mill and C.G. Lewis argued that social issues were not subject to experimental investigation. Their arguments are examined here in order to raise, for further discussion, the problem why social experimentation in general was so often firmly resisted during the period.     

Social Cognitive Approach to Career Development: An Overview

This article provides an overview of a social cognitive framework for understanding career interest, choice, and performance processes. Derived primarily from Bandura's (1986) general social cognitive theory, the framework features several variables (self-efficacy, outcome expectations, personal goals) through which people help to guide their own career development. It also includes a discussion of how these variables interrelate with other aspects of persons (e.g., gender) and their environments (e.g., supports, barriers) within the process of career development. The framework is intended as a base both for unifying existing career theories and for conceptualizing developmental and remedial career interventions.     

The Social Networks of Leaders in More and Less Viable Rural Communities1

Abstract The relationship between the social networks of leaders and community viability is examined in a comparative study of leaders (N = 75) in five rural communities (population range, 1,000 to 2,500). The analysis looks at leaders' connections to organizations outside of their communities and at different kinds of linkages between leaders within their respective communities. Leaders in more and less viable communities do not differ much in characteristics such as age, education, and occupations, but the presence of women in leadership positions is associated with community viability. In addition, there is some support for the expectation that leaders in more viable communities are more likely to have formal linkages to statewide and national networks. The most important finding, however, is that the way in which leaders relate to each other in instrumental tasks within their respective communities is associated with community viability.     

Post‐Socialist Restructuring and Population Redistribution in Hungary*

Abstract This research focuses on pathways by which national level macro‐social transformations are transmitted to local communities. Our case is Hungary where we examine the relationship between post‐socialist economic restructuring, widespread industrial dislocations, and urban‐rural migration. Using secondary data from the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) and survey data from a study of 49 villages in 4 distinct rural regions, we demonstrate that post‐socialist population deconcentration involved both suburbanization and net movement to villages, especially villages that are located relatively close to cities. Contrary to our expectations, movement to villages was from nearby settlements, not from large industrial centers. Moreover, migrants to villages were substantially better off than longer term village residents in terms of their human capital and attachment to the labor force. Consequently, post‐socialist population deconcentration is not contributing to rural poverty as feared by some scholars.