The social ecology of the Columbine High School shootings

The Columbine High School shooting in 1999 prompted school officials and policy-makers to create and implement programs and policies that would prevent violence in school and ensure school safety. Ten years have passed since the Columbine shooting; however, debates concerning risk factors for the shootings continue to ensue. The focus of this article is to examine the Columbine school shootings within the context of Bronfenbrenner's (1994) ecological systems analysis. We examine the most commonly identified risk factors, which operate within five systems levels: chrono-, macro-, exo-, meso-, and microsystems, and draw implications for school-based practice and policy.     

Childhood Predictors of an At-Risk Transition into Early Adulthood Among African American and Caucasian Males

Early adulthood represents a period of transition that is marked by change and exploration. For some, this transition is uncomplicated, yet for others, it is problematic. While many studies have explored factors that predict adjustment in childhood and adolescence, substantially less is known about childhood factors that predict adjustment during the transition into adulthood. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether childhood factors that predict adult adjustment differ between African American and Caucasian males. Accordingly, the current study examined childhood predictors of early adult (age 19–20) adjustment in a community sample of 397 African American and Caucasian males. Findings indicated that African American and Caucasian males who experienced high levels of peer delinquency, depressive symptoms, and conflicted parent–child communication in childhood were more likely to experience adjustment issues in early adulthood. For African American males, low academic achievement was important for predicting adult adjustment, while low organization involvement uniquely predicted adult adjustment for Caucasian males.     

Double jeopardy: the link between child abuse and maternal depression in child and family social work

The link between child care and mental health problems in social work clients has begun to attract some attention. Despite some review articles, research is, as yet, at a very early stage of development. Maternal depression and child care problems in particular appear likely to be closely associated. This paper focuses on the link between maternal depression and the most severe of child care problems: child abuse. The paper shows a significant relationship between maternal depression and child abuse. It explores this relationship by distinguishing three groups: families where no abuse had occurred (non abuse families), families where abuse had occurred but where the mother was not depressed (non depressed-abuse group) and families where both child abuse and maternal depression were present (depressed-abuse group). The depressed-abuse group are shown to be considerably worse off than both the other groups for a range of measures, including indices of deprivation and range and severity of social problems. The depressed-abuse group were also more chronic users of services and consumed far more resources than the other two groups. Remarkably, there were few differences between the non abuse group and the non depressed abuse group in nature and severity of problems and intervention. Depression in mothers, then, provides the major distinction between families where abuse was an issue compared with families where abuse was not present. Such families are characterized not simply by maternal depression and child abuse, but frequently by abuse of the mother herself, who is often socially isolated. These findings are of major importance for child care practice, indicating that working with the mother's depression and the social conditions that provide its backdrop, are a major aspect of social work practice.     

Knowing that you mimic me: the link between mimicry,awareness and liking

Mimicry pays off for a mimicker, and that mimickees are not aware of being influenced by mimicry. In this study, we investigated the link between mimicry, awareness and liking using a 2 (mimicry: yes/no) × 4 (awareness manipulation) experimental design. We found a main effect of mimicry (the confederate was liked more in the mimicry condition) and an interaction between mimicry and awareness. Awareness manipulation had a limited effect on the association between mimicry and liking. Providing participants with little or no information about mimicry (information not including any remarks about its consequences) had an effect on the association between mimicry and liking. However, when participants were informed about the interpersonal consequences of mimicry, mimicry did not influence liking.     

Pathological Gambling and Couple: Towards an Integrative Systemic Model

This article is a critical literature review of pathological gambling focused in the family factors, particularly in the couple dynamics. Its main goal is to develop an explicative integrative systemic model of pathological gambling, based in these couple dynamics. To achieve that aim, a bibliography search was made, using on-line data bases (e.g., EBSCO Host) and recognized books in pathological gambling subject, as well as in the systemic approach in general. This process privileged the recent works (about 70 % of the reviewed literature was published in the last decade), however, also considered some classic works (the oldest one dates back to 1970). The guiding focus of this literature search evolves according to the following steps: (1) search of general comprehension of pathological gambling (19 references), (2) search specification to the subject “pathological gambling and family” (24 references), (3) search specification to the subject “pathological gambling and couple”(11 references), (4) search of systemic information which integrates the evidence resulted in the previous steps (4 references). The developed model is constituted by different levels of systemic complexity (social context, family of origin, couple and individual) and explains the problem as a signal of perturbation in the marital subsystem vital functions (e.g., power and control) though the regularities of marital dynamics of pathological gamblers. Furthermore, it gives theoretical evidence of the systemic familiar intervention in the pathological gambling.     

Wood, management and dust: analysis of the Context of Production of Goods and Services (CPGS) of an academic woodwork

The CGPS of the woodwork of a public university was observed and analyzed. Apart from what is usual in the field of Ergonomics' studies, it is an academic context, where there is not a direct implication of profit, productivity and clientele. The group tried to sever negative and broadcasted opinions about the place by analyzing it from a different point of view. This work was considered relevant, since it is related to neglect of education and citizenship. For this case study, it was used the Ergonomics Analysis of Work with all workers at the woodwork. The instruments were documental analysis, free observation with photographic register, semi-structured interview with the workers and survey Pontos de Verica??o Ergon?mica. The results are presented by the perspective of work conditions, work organization and social-professional work relationship. The present study brought several contributions, such as the complementation of the theory and a new perspective of the analyzed context, o bserved now by the worker's point of view. As a result of the analysis, it was questioned about citizenship and the neglect with the public good, even though the relevant social role that this academic institution plays. In conclusion, the group suggests some proposals that modify positively the CGPS of this academic woodwork.     

Biomechanical strain of goldsmiths

The work of the goldsmiths consists in the manufacture of jewelry. The piece, be it an earring, bracelet or necklace, is hand-assembled. This task requires precision, skill, kindness and patience. In this work, we make use of tools such as cuticle clippers and rounded tip, beads or precious stones and also pieces of metal. This type of activity requires a biomechanical stress of hands and wrists. In order to quantify the biomechanical stress, we performed a case study to measure the movements performed by an assembly of pieces of jewelry. As method for research, filming was done during assembly of parts to a paste, using a Nikon digital camera, for 1 (one) hour. The film was edited by Kinovea software, and the task was divided into cycles, each cycle corresponds to a complete object. In one cycle, there are four two movements of supination and pronation movements of the forearm. The cycle lasts approximately sixteen seconds, totaling 1800 cycles in eight hours. Despite the effort required of the wrists, the activity shows no complaints from the employees, but this fact does not mischaracterizes the ability of employees to acquire repetitive strain injuries and work-related musculoskeletal disorders.     

Ergonomic analysis of the use of open-plan offices in Brazilian public sector offices

The open-plan office is a layout used in government offices in Brazil aimed at saving on space occupied and integrating employees. However, the design of these work-stations must follow the characteristics of tasks and their interrelationships, since adverse physical and organizational conditions may have a negative impact on work productivity. From this perspective, this study sought to identify, from the viewpoint of the ergonomics of the built environment, the adequacy of the open-plan government offices for financial auditing accounts and analyzing documents. Use was made of the Ergonomic Methodology for Evaluating the Built Environment--MEAC (in Portuguese) which systematically analyzes the physical space, by using a mix of physical-spatial assessments and tools for identifying how the environment is perceived. The MEAC was employed in three analytical phases of the physical aspects, namely: an analytical phase of the user's perception; a diagnostic phase; and a final phase of propositions.     

Union organizing expenditures: Determinants and their implications for union growth

This paper explores some implications of the economics of union organizing. Following the literature, it is argued that the economic costs and benefits of organizing are systematically related to the proportion of the union’s jurisdiction already organized. Evidence is presented that unions do allocate a smaller proportion of their budgets to organizing when a greater proportion of their jurisdiction is already organized. Total union organizing expenditures, however, are found to increase over a broad range as the percentage organized increases. The supply of union-organizing services to unorganized workers apparently only declines at relatively high levels of union penetration. These critical levels of unionization have been attained only by a few U.S. labor organizations.