A Screening,Brief Intervention,and Referral to Treatment Collaborative: Impact for Social Work Students

Screening brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) is a clinical intervention empirically linked to reductions in substance usage. However, less is known on how to effectively train social work students on SBIRT. This study examines the impact of a SBIRT training administered to BSW and MSW students (N=228) at the University of Oklahoma. Based on exposure to the training, our evaluation measured changes on students’ objective knowledge of how to perform SBIRT and in attitudes toward practicing with substance users. Results indicated exposure to the training was associated with robust gains across variables and across classes. Such results suggest that the proffered SBIRT training is an effective means to educate social work students on substance abuse practice.     

Quite an encumbrance? Work-related obstacles to Finnish fathers’ take-up of parental leave

ABSTRACT

An ideal of involved fatherhood has become popular in the developed countries, but even countries like Finland that have introduced an individual father’s quota to parental leave are far from gender equality in parents’ leave practices. Lack of support and negative attitudes at workplaces or pressure at work are among the obstacles to fathers’ leave take-up. The study used survey data from fathers and interviews at workplaces to explore the role of work and workplaces among the many aspects related to fathers’ possibilities of taking leave. The results showed that fathers’ income and workplace characteristics were associated with taking leave. Few fathers mentioned employers’ objection as a hinder. Father’s recent unemployment and anticipated difficulty of taking a long time off played a more important role. At workplaces, the obstacles to taking long leave were related to fathers’ ideals about a committed worker and to the nature and organizing of work. Additionally, the leave exceeding fathers’ quota might not be understood as ‘for fathers’. The spouse’s situation and fathers’ gendered perceptions about parental responsibilities were also important for leave practices. The findings suggest that policy development towards a longer father’s quota could make fathers’ care responsibilities visible also at workplaces.     

Estimation of a rare sensitive attribute for two-stage randomized response model in probability proportional to size sampling using Poisson probability distribution

This paper addresses the estimation of the mean number of individuals in the population who possess a rare sensitive attribute using Poisson distribution for the situations of (i) clustered population and (ii) stratified population with clusters are strata units. Properties of the proposed estimation procedures have been discussed when the proportion of a rare unrelated non-sensitive attribute is assumed to be known as well as unknown. Empirical studies are carried out to support the theoretical results which showed dominance over Lee et al. [Estimation of a rare sensitive attribute in probability proportional to size measures using Poisson distribution. Statistics (Ber). 2014;48(3):685–709] estimation procedures.     

“The Panhandle is Different than the Peninsula”: How Rural Colleges in Florida Implemented Education Reform

When it comes to the creation of higher education policy, state legislators are challenged with addressing the diverse academic needs of college students enrolled across a spectrum of institutions. In this paper, we explore how 203 individuals at five rural-serving colleges in Florida engaged in state-wide developmental education (DE) reform using the theoretical framework of “situated cognition.” Specifically, we ask whether the colleges implemented DE reform in unique ways that may have differed from their non-rural counterparts and what their rationale was for doing so. Our work indicates that institutional culture and capacity generated a combination of strengths and constraints in how reform played out in a rural context. In some ways, a rural-serving identity made colleges more flexible and better able to adjust their advising and curricular structures to comply with the mandates of SB 1720. But in other ways, rural-serving institutions lacked the resources necessary to adequately support students and campus personnel through this dramatic transition toward new ways of providing DE. In looking toward the passage and implementation of future education reform, we call upon policymakers to consider more deeply the design of policies to ensure they support rural and non-rural colleges alike.     

The social care needs of unaccompanied minors: the Irish experience

This article examines forms of care which can be used by social workers to best respond to unaccompanied minors (UAMs) given their complex needs and particular vulnerability combined with their agency and resilience. The vulnerabilities and agency/resilience of UAMs are examined in the context of multiple borders (cultural, political and physical) being negotiated by these young people. While it focuses on Ireland as an example of a country where care provision for UAMs has improved considerably in recent years, it draws on both the Irish and international literatures. This article critically analyses the shift from hostel to foster care provision for UAMs in Ireland and explores benefits and difficulties associated with using foster care, while also discussing the use of alternative forms of care, such as residential care. We argue that social workers must always give consideration to a range of care options, to the needs of the individual child and to both their vulnerability and their resilience/agency. This is especially true given the diversity within the population of UAMs. Given the increasing numbers of refugees entering Europe and the mix of provision for UAMs across the continent, the Irish situation may represent a useful site for examination of their care.     

Estimation in long memory time series models

A regression type estimator of the parameter d in fractionally differenced ARMA (p,q) processes is presented. The proposed estimator is shown to be mean square consistent. Its performance is compared with some of the existing estimators via a simulation study.     

学雷锋 承担社会责任

某些价值和理想是可以超越文化界线的,比如大众汽车自动变速器(大连)有限公司生活和工作所在的社区的社会责任意识。责任感已根深蒂固地存在于公司的商业及社会活动中。它是公司的核心企业价值,不仅体现在公司产品的质量标准上,而且体现在与公司生产互动的各种各样活动中。作为中国大众汽车集团全资子公司,他有着著名的德国名字,并且成为大连社区的组成部分。而且,公司在2010-2011年度履行社会责任方面获得两项殊荣,得到     

Material planning with uncertain product quality†

Traditional material requirement planning (MRP) is a system procedure to determine input quantities and ordering times to meet a specified demand in a deterministic framework. A variety of modifications to MRP have been proposed to incorporate different forms of uncertainty in production systems. In this paper, wc consider the case where the uncertainty is due to quality variations in the production process, and we develop an approach which links material planning with quality variations and control.