The return to the veil: Individual autonomy vs. social esteem

Social status is a multidimensional concept in which individual autonomy and societal esteem may exert contrary pulls. We apply this distinction between autonomy and esteem to studies of Egyptian women who have taken up the veil. Wearing the veil is seen as a coping strategy women use to gain or maintain societal esteemand a small measure of autonomy in a patriarchal society in which opportunities for autonomy are increasingly limited. As conservative movements gain strength in a range of social settings, this theoretical distinction and case analysis assume broader sociological significance.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Eastern Sociological Society meetings, Boston, March 1990.     

Postponement of health care by widowed,divorced, and never-married older men

This longitudinal research investigated the relationship between marital status and postponement of health care, reasons for postponement of treatment, factors associated with delaying care, and changes in health care behavior over a decade among 375 unmarried older men.Almost 30% of the men had not sought care when their health warranted it. Postponement of care was not associated with marital status although reasons for foregoing care were related to marital status. Discriminant analyses indicated the importance of financial distress to postponing care. The models were more effective in discriminating health care decisions of the formerly married than of the never married.Pat M. Keith is Professor of Sociology at Iowa State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at St. Louis University. Her current research interests are in the areas of gender roles in later life and rural-urban differences in the elderly.Address reprint requests to the author at Iowa State University, Department of Sociology, Ames, IA 50011.     

When a family member has an intellectual handicap

Oral histories of ten close relatives of people over the age of 50 defined as intellectually handicapped have been collected as part of the New Zealand Ageing and Intellectual Handicap study. Many of the individuals with intellectual handicap were institutionalized from an early age; some had little or no contact with family members for a very long time; others lived continuously at home. The qualitative data record over 50 years' experience of having a family member with intellectual handicap, from early childhood through to middle or old age, and outline concerns about deinstitutionalisation and the future. It is concluded that families cannot go it alone and that the full participation of people with disabilities in community life and culture depends on well-resourced public policies and programmes of inclusion.     

Short Notices

Allen G. Debus (ed.), Medicine in Seventeenth Century England. A Symposium Held at UCLA in Honor of C. D. O'Malley (1974), xiii+485 (University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, £8.50).

R. Quinault and J. Stevenson (eds.), Popular Protest and Public Order (1974), 242 (Allen and Unwin, £5.25).

Michael S. Cross (ed.), The Workingman in the Nineteenth Century (1975), xii+316 (Oxford University Press, Toronto, paperback £3.80).

Charles Rearick, Beyond the Enlightenment. Historians and Folklore in Nineteenth‐Century France (1974), xiv+206 (Indiana University Press, Bloomington, £3.65).

Malcolm I. Thomis, The Town Labourer and the Industrial Revolution (1974), vi + 247 (Batsford, £4.00, paperback £2.00).

John Woodward, To Do The Sick No Harm. A Study of the British Voluntary Hospital System to 1875 (1974), xii + 221 (Routledge & Kegan Paul, £5.50).

Alison Ravetz, Model Estate: Planned Housing at Quarry Hill, Leeds (1974), xvi + 251 (Croom Helm, £5.50).

Sergio Columbeanu, Granges exploitations domaniales en Valachie au XVIIIe siècle (Wallachian great estates in the eighteenth century) (1974), 199 (Editura Acadcmiei Republicii Socialiste Romania, Buearest, paperback Lei 8.75).     

A minimum cost exponential cusum test

A minimum cost CUSUM test for an event rate increase when inter-event times are exponentially distributed is presented. Optimal values of the test decision parameters, h and k, are developed from a renewal reward model of the event cycle by combining a non-linear optimization technique with an exact method for determining exponential average run lengths. Test robustness for event cycle parameter estimates and departures from the assumption of exponentially distributed inter-event times are discussed in the context of an injury monitoring scenario. Robustness to positively serially correlated observations emanating from EAR(1) and EMA(1) processes is also examined.     

The Pet Connection: An Attachment Perspective

Using the ethological-evolutionary framework of attachment, and including how the theory has been updated and expanded by findings from attachment-based research, neuroscience and animal studies, this paper proposes that a relationship with a family pet, especially a dog or cat, reflects certain dynamics of attachment which may account for the sense of comfort and connection they provide to individuals at all stages of the life cycle. There is now convincing scientific evidence that companion animals have positive effects on psychological and physical well-being, helping shape how people regulate their emotions, deal with stress or trauma, and relate to others. Discussion considers the implications of these benefits for social work, in particular for policy, prevention, and psychotherapy. An illustration of treatment for pet loss, as well as a framework for promoting attachment in pets adopted from rescue shelters, is also presented. It is recommended that both social work professionals and social work students be educated about the human-animal bond and the significance of pets to so many of our clients.     

Using child abuse inquiries in child protection education and training

In this article the two authors describe and analyse their experiences of using child abuse inquiries in child protection education with pre-qualifying social work students, over a period of 10 years. The article addresses a range of issues, including the effects of changes in child protection policy and practice; changes in social work education; the cumulative effects of the number of inquiry reports over the past 25 years; use of particular inquiry reports to discuss issues of oppression; the importance of sensitivity to the processes of such teaching and the emotional impact on social work students. The authors, one woman and one man, are both white and in their middle years. Prior to teaching social work, both were in child care and child protection practice for many years. One author's experience of sexist oppression informs particular aspects of the content of this teaching (see article) and both authors' experiences of endeavouring to be aware of, and sensitive to, the needs of social work students as individuals and as groups, has led them to take a particular approach when using child abuse inquiry reports in educating social workers in the complex and contested field of child protection practice.     

Adult learning styles: Implications for practice teaching in social work

This paper focuses on the current aspiration to further the process of continuing professional development in social work. It contends that knowledge from the field of adult learning theory may be helpful in sign-posting some tangible ways forward here. The particular emphasis is on critically assessing the usefulness of identifying learning styles as indicators of preferred ways of learning. Knowledge of learning styles is explored as one way of promoting students' learning on practice placements. A small-scale qualitative research study with a group of practice teachers and their students is presented as a vehicle for exploring this new terrain in social work. The findings of this research build on key themes identified by the current literature in this area. The author's findings suggest that information about learning styles has direct practical application in the social work practice teaching arena. The data points to the potential value of using such information to guide students' learning on practice placements and has relevance to considerations of their continuing professional development. Suggestions are put forward to highlight how practice teaching and Diploma in Social Work programmes could facilitate this process. The paper stresses the over-riding need to view students as actors in a broader social context, however, and highlights how information regarding learning styles needs to be utilised in this context.