Practising Observation in Shadowing: Curriculum Innovation and Learning Outcomes in the BA Social Work

One of the requirements of the curriculum of the new BA Social Work is that students shadow the work of practitioners before they undertake supervised practice. Shadowing provides an opportunity to observe social workers in different agencies and to learn from the experience of being in the observer role. This article focuses on the observational learning which is part of the shadowing experience. It discusses an observation curriculum designed for a new student group at an early stage in the programme. Using feedback from student assessments on the Sussex/Brighton BA, the course structure and learning outcomes are described and analysed. From initial evaluations it is argued that observation in shadowing provides an important introduction to key aspects of professional learning such as anti‐oppressive practice and communication skills.     

Policy responses to low fertility and its consequences: A global survey

Fertility at or below replacement level now characterizes 64 countries with populations totalling 44 per cent of that of the world. Many of these countries have total fertility rates below 1.5 and some have recorded below-replacement fertility for decades. It appears likely that some countries will eventually adopt policies aimed at raising fertility. Accordingly, the paper examines the effect of past policies of this type, and briefly looks to the future.     

Preface

Being raised by a single mother is one factor that has been suggested as contributing to the plight of African American males. Yet few studies have focused specifically on African American single mothers' experiences with raising sons. This qualitative study explored the following questions: (1) What are the experiences of African American single mothers in the raising of their sons? (2) What coping strategies do African American single mothers use in the raising of their sons? Two rounds of unstructured open-ended interviews were conducted with 11 African American single mothers of at least one son. Implications for family therapy based on the interviews are presented.     

Taking Your Place: A Summer Program to Encourage Nontraditional Career Choices for Adolescent Girls

A 2-week summer program for adolescent girls featuring awareness of nontraditional career choices was provided via a cooperative plan from a public school system, a community college, and a university. The program included 80 hours of activities: business and industry visitations, technical and trade shop “hands-on” activities as well as self-concept building experiences. Upon completion, a majority of the participants reported confidence in learning about and choosing an occupation, and clearer ideas about possible occupations for themselves. Implications of these results for career development practices and research are described.     

The Professionalisation of Child Care Work in Ireland: An Unlikely Development?

Child care work has developed separately from social work in Ireland and is seen as a predominantly female role. This article sets this analysis in the context of Irish Society and traditions and argues for a higher status for childcare workers. Readers in other countries will find many parallels especially as regards the relationship between the status of child care work and the status of women.     

Research note: Women's experience of the mother role

Despite the feminist critique of the assumptions implicit in the ideology of motherhood, relatively little empirical work has been done on women's own experience of this role. This research note uses data from a small scale intensive study of 51 married or cohabiting mothers aged 20-42 years old, whose oldest child was 15 years old, and who were randomly selected from medical records in a lower middle class area of North London. Building on Boulton's (1983) conceptualization, it differentiates between three aspects of this role (namely their commitment to it; its perceived identity enhancing/ destructive character and the positive/negative quality of their interaction with their children). These women's experience of the mother role was then assessed on these dimensions - using rating scales and anchoring examples (which are illustrated here). This research note suggests that even within this relatively homogenous lower middle/upper working class sample, the experience of motherhood was extremely varied: with less than half of the sample experiencing it positively at all three levels. An attempt is made to explain this variation.     

Attachment theory: Application to clinical practice with adults

An application of attachment theory to clinical practice with adults is based on psychoanalytic-object relations theory, expanding and emphasizing the influence of affectional bonds with others. The role of the therapist is to provide the conditions in which to explore current and past experiences, especially those related to attachment, separation and loss, helping patients reappraise and reconstruct their inner representations of attachment relationships with others.     

A Review and Proposal for a New Measure of Poll Accuracy

This article proposes a new measure of the predictive accuracy(A) of election polls that permits examination of both accuracyand bias, and it applies the new measure to summarize the resultsof a number of preelection polls. We first briefly review pastmeasures of accuracy, then introduce the new measure. Afterthe new measure is described, the general strategy is to applyit to three presidential elections (1948, 1996, and 2000) andto compare the results derived from it to the results obtainedwith the Mosteller measures. Then, the new measure is appliedto the results of 548 state polls from gubernatorial and senatorialraces in the 2002 elections to illustrate its application toa large body of preelection polls conducted in "off-year" raceswith different outcomes. We believe that this new measure willbe useful as a summary measure of accuracy in election forecasts.It is easily computed and summarized, and it can be used asa dependent variable in multivariate statistical analyses ofthe nature and extent of biases that affect election forecastsand to identify their potential sources. It is comparable acrosselections with different outcomes and among polls that varyin their treatment or numbers of undecided voters.     

Examining the impact of gender, race/ethnicity, and family factors on mental health issues in a sample of court-involved youth

Faced with anywhere between one half and two thirds of its youth having a diagnosable mental illness, the identification and treatment of mental health concerns is a critically important endeavor for professionals working with youth who have contact with the juvenile justice system. In addition, the literature suggests that factors related to both the family and to the gender of the adolescent must be incorporated into any approach to assessment and intervention within this special population. Further, prior work that has documented the interaction of gender and family issues with adolescent race/ethnicity warrants further empirical attention, as does the intermediary role that the family may play in the development of both internalizing and externalizing behaviors. The present study extends this literature by examining factors related to gender, race/ethnicity, family factors, and mental health issues in a sample of 2,549 Caucasian and African American youth coming to the attention of juvenile courts. Multivariate analysis of variance results indicated significant main effects for gender and race/ethnicity, as well as a significant gender x race/ethnicity interaction for the family and externalizing variables. A multiple group structural equation modeling procedure was employed in order to test the hypothesis that family environment mediates the relationship between gender and mental health problems, as well as to test for potential differences in these relationships as a function of race/ethnicity. Results indicated support for the mediation model in the sample of African American youth but not in the sample of Caucasian youth.