Supporting Traditional African Mediators Project (STAMP) for Family Violence

Supporting Traditional African Mediators Project (STAMP) is a program that has been working with African/Australian community leaders to prevent family violence. This program has been carefully developed through building long‐term relationships, transparency and openness with an emphasis on navigating the intersection of cultures in order to enhance understanding and collaboration around family violence prevention. The training program has successfully engaged both men and women and enhanced participation, cross cultural learning and positive outcomes by creating an open and safe environment. The paper highlights the knowledge gained by participants and project workers and explores the challenges experienced by people who emigrate from other countries when responding to family conflict in an Australian context. It introduces the formation of a support group Marula that has added value and support to Traditional African Mediators in their work to address family violence within their communities.     

Attitudes,Knowledge, and Behavior before and after an Undergraduate Health and Lifestyle Course

Abstract

“Marital and Family Therapy for Troubled Physicians and Their Families: A Bridge over Troubled Waters,” Ira D. Glick, et al. Because individual therapy for troubled physicians has been notoriously difficult and often ineffective, we report our experience using a treatment—marital therapy—newly applied to such problems in the medical community. The sample involved 13 male physicians and their spouses with emotional difficulties in themselves and/or their relationships. After marital treatment, there was substantial improvement in more than 92% (12/13) of the physicians, their spouses, and/or their marital relationships. (Journal of the American Medical Association 1984;251:1855–1858.)     

The Classification,Intercorrelation, and Dynamic Nature of MSW Student Practice Preferences

Data was collected biannually (1992-98) from a complete population of students entering and exiting accredited graduate programs of social work in California (N=5,793). Findings suggest that practice interests and career aspirations of MSW students are more diverse and dynamic in nature than the debate in the literature on social work’s mission would lead readers to believe. Although the proportion of all students most interested in each of the seven practice areas studied does not change throughout graduate studies, there is tremendous movement among individual students with respect to practice preferences during the course of their education.     

A further exploration of the uncertainty effect

Individual valuation of a binary lottery at values less than the lottery’s worst outcome has been designated as the “uncertainty effect”. Our paper aims to explore the boundary conditions of the uncertainty effect by investigating a plausible underlying process and proposing two possible methods. First, we examine how providing an exogenous evaluation opportunity prior to judging the value of the lottery affects individuals’ judgments, and find that first valuing the worst outcome and then the lottery eliminates the uncertainty effect. Second, we explore whether introducing additional cognitive load dampens how far decision makers correct their initial evaluations, and find that additional cognitive load is able to eliminate the uncertainty effect.     

Evidence of Empowerment in Resident Council Groups: An Examination of Two Leadership Models in Assisted Living

Individuals living in long-term care facilities and the professionals working with them are seeking methods to enhance resident choice and self-direction in personal care and internal community planning. This article presents findings from a study examining the incidence of empowerment opportunities in two resident council groups in assisted living facilities; one group used a resident leadership model and the other used an administrative leadership model by residents' choice. Results indicate that even with health and mental health challenges, residents were able to exercise choice in complicated situations under both leadership models, suggesting that resident council groups are a beneficial empowerment strategy.     

THE ART OF BEING CRENTE: THE BANIWA PROTESTANT ETHIC AND THE SPIRIT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The central objectives of this article are to describe and analyze the Baniwa Art Project, a sustainable development project based on intensive production and commercialization of basketwork, which the Baniwa Indians of the Northwest Amazon (population approximately 12,000), with the assessment of the SocioEnvironmental Institute (ISA), a major NGO in Brazil, launched in the late 1990s. The goals of this project were to enhance the value of the Baniwa basket-making tradition, increase production within the limits of the sustainable use of natural resources, generate income for indigenous producers and their political associations, and train indigenous leadership in the skills of business management. This very successful project was initiated shortly after the creation of the Indigenous Organization of the Içana River Basin (OIBI) and essentially involves 16 of the more than 100 Baniwa communities of the Içana River and its tributaries in Brazil. This article reflects on how young Baniwa evangelical political leaders, with the support of the NGO, promoted the rise of individualism, as well as the introduction of Western values of economic and political success. This generated conflicts with more “traditional” values and practices of egalitarianism producing an increase of witchcraft accusations. The case of a young Baniwa leader who coordinated both the political association and the Art Project illustrates extremely well the sorts of grave conflicts that emerged. This article will also reflect on modifications in human/spirit relations following the introduction of evangelicalism and sustainable development projects. For this, I shall cite extensively from a recent interview I conducted with a Baniwa political leader regarding his perceptions of the relations between evangelicalism, the political movement, and the meanings for the Indians of the notion of “sustainable development.”     

Using Activity Theory to Understand Entrepreneurial Opportunity

Entrepreneurship is often described as the ability to recognize and exploit opportunities. Identifying opportunities is intentional and idiosyncratic insofar as they are recognized as opportunities is a novel and conscious event (otherwise the entrepreneur would be doing nothing new). Yet opportunities also have to be recognized by others as ones that are worthy of being recognized and pursued; the opportunity is a socially embedded construct. Thus opportunity recognition and pursuit can be understood as the skillful integration of prevailing and emerging objects and relations of business activity typically articulated through collaborative enterprise. To expand on this view I use an activity theory perspective that shows how the potentially transformative character of entrepreneurial opportunities unfurls from within the historical and cultural reproduction of collective activities. I note, however, different emphases within current takes on activity theory, notably between subjective perspectives and open-design perspectives. In discussing these theoretical differences using existing entrepreneurial studies, as well as selected data from a study of 90 entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom, I suggest a possible reconciliation. I conclude by suggesting that where activity theory promotes a rich and nuanced understanding of the socially embedded nature of entrepreneurial opportunities, entrepreneurial studies can also contribute to a nuanced development of activity theory insofar as the entrepreneurial object of activity (opportunity recognition and its pursuit through creating a business) has what I identify as an aesthetic as well as pragmatic logic.     

Conduct Problems in Adopted and Non-Adopted Adolescents and Adoption Satisfaction as a Protective Factor

The present study compared the level of conduct problems at age 17 in a large nonclinical sample of adopted participants placed in infancy and children in non-adoptive families matched to the adoptive families on demographic characteristics. Higher levels of adolescent and parent adoption satisfaction were associated with lower levels of conduct problems. Gender by adoption status interactions were not significant. However, female adopted participants had higher levels of conduct problems than female non-adopted participants, whereas male adopted and non-adopted participants had similar levels of conduct problems. In the overall sample, differences between adopted and matched control participants on all conduct problem measures were nonsignificant.     

Five-Year Follow-Up Study of the Qualitative Experiences of Youth in an Afterschool Arts Program in Low-Income Communities

ABSTRACT

Semistructured follow-up interviews were conducted with 32 Canadian youth ages 14 to 20 years old; 5 years prior, these youth had participated in a structured arts program. Given that little is known about the long-term effects of afterschool arts-based programs, interviews took a qualitative approach to delineate adolescents’ experiences with the program and their subsequent development. The findings from the qualitative interviews suggest that skill acquisition, positive staff-youth relationships, development of team building, positive peer relationships, a sense of belonging, and program flexibility were pertinent to sustained positive youth development 5 years following program completion. This article discusses the importance of follow-up studies and implications for future research and practice.