Measuring Attitudes About Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: The ATT-IPV Scale

In lower-income settings, women more often than men justify intimate partner violence (IPV). Yet, the role of measurement invariance across gender is unstudied. We developed the ATT-IPV scale to measure attitudes about physical violence against wives in 1,055 married men and women ages 18–50 in My Hao district, Vietnam. Across 10 items about transgressions of the wife, women more often than men agreed that a man had good reason to hit his wife (3 % to 92 %; 0 % to 67 %). In random split-half samples, one-factor exploratory factor analysis (EFA) (N ₁ = 527) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (N ₂ = 528) models for nine items with sufficient variability had significant loadings (0.575–0.883; 0.502–0.897) and good fit (RMSEA = 0.068, 0.048; CFI = 0.951, 0.978, TLI = 0.935, 0.970). Three items had significant uniform differential item functioning (DIF) by gender, and adjustment for DIF revealed that measurement noninvariance was partially masking men’s lower propensity than women to justify IPV. A CFA model for the six items without DIF had excellent fit (RMSEA = 0.019, CFI = 0.994, TLI = 0.991) and an attitudinal gender gap similar to the DIF-adjusted nine-item model, suggesting that the six-item scale reliably measures attitudes about IPV across gender. Researchers should validate the scale in urban Vietnam and elsewhere and decompose DIF-adjusted gender attitudinal gaps.     

The Sole Parent Family: Family and Support Networks

This paper reports on a research project that focused on the experiences of ten sole parents and their support networks. Results indicate that they relied both on informal support networks and welfare organizations in the initial period of sole parenthood but that this reliance waned over time. Participants accessed church groups, cancer support groups, governmental agencies, financial institutions, and counselling services. After the initial use of support networks, many of them became involved in recreational activities that they had not participated in during the course of their marriage. They emphasized the importance of friends who were influential in assisting them to cope with the initial stresses of sole parenting. Most were critical and disillusioned about the level and type of assistance from the extended family and the emotionally charged responses to their situation. They were also critical of Government services and felt stigmatised by the treatment they received.     

Social Security in the 1980s

In the evolution of social security policy over the past decade, a number of themes stand out: improving work incentives; reducing expenditure and civil servant numbers; simplification; targeting help on those in greatest need; the promotion of self-reliance and independence; tackling fraud and "abuse". Although not all exclusive to the Thatcher Government, they reflect to a great extent its wider ideological and economic preoccupations. This article examines how the Government's contradictory goals for social security were translated into specific policies, the extent to which their ideological thrust was tempered in practice, and the ambivalent attitudes towards "the poor" revealed in the interplay between ideology and pragmatic politics.     

Exploring Epistemologies: Social Work Action as a Reflection of Philosophical Assumptions

Abstract

Using Habermas' (1971) Grand Theory and Schaefer's (1979) notion of Theory as Fiction, two major philosophical assumptions that undergird the literature, practice and teaching of social work are reviewed. Empiricism dominates social work theory and aims at technical control. Existentialism has been an important but marginal voice and attempts to explain subjective meaning. Two newer theoretical positions also are introduced: Critical theory, which considers humanity's ability to reflect on history to be an agent of societal change; and deconstruction, which questions the validity of any structure. The article concludes with a consideration of the implications of using each position as a context for teaching.     

Ethnic and Marital Differences in Family Structure,Risk Behaviors,and Service Requests Among Young Minority Fathers

The purpose of this study was to examine ethnic and marital status differences in family structure, risk behaviors and service requests among African American and Hispanic adolescent fathers participating in a community-based fatherhood program. Demographic factors, risk behaviors, and service requests were gathered at program entry. The results indicated that each group demonstrated distinct patterns associated with family structure, sexual risk behaviors, substance use, and criminal behavior. In comparison to African American fathers, Hispanic fathers were younger and were more likely to be married and present at the delivery of their child. African American fathers reported having more children than Hispanic fathers. Disparities in school-related measures were also found, with African American fathers having higher high school graduation rates than Hispanic fathers. The impact of marriage on risk behaviors had mixed results. Services requests were similar for both groups. The finding that different ethnic groups have specific patterns of risk behaviors highlights the importance of considering the ethnic composition of a population when developing future research and interventions.     

Gay Dads: Transitions to Adoptive Fatherhood by Abbie E. Goldberg

Abstract

PATTY'S JOURNEY FROM ORPHANAGE TO ADOPTION AND REUNION. Norling, Donna Scott. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996, 208pp., Hardcover ISBN 0-8166-2866-1, $17.95 cloth. Reviewed by Karen Schmid.

KINSHIP WITH STRANGERS: ADOPTION AND INTERPRETATIONS OF KINSHIP IN AMERICAN CULTURE. Modell, Judith S. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994, 286 pp., Hardcover ISBN 0-520-08118-8, $35.00 cloth. Reviewed by Karen Schmid.     

Research ethics committees: values and power in higher education

The rise of research governance structures in universities has created huge disquiet amongst academic researchers. The unquestioning adoption of a medical model of ethical review based upon positivist methodological assumptions has created for many a mismatch between their own ongoing ethical research practice and the process of obtaining clearance from Research Ethics Committees (REC). This paper examines the issues that have contributed to dissatisfaction with the ethical review model that is prevalent within the modern university. Using examples from the authors’ own experiences, the dynamics of values, interests and power in research governance is examined from multiple perspectives including that of REC member and applicant; lecturer/student supervisor; researcher; and university administrator. The paper reveals a rift between the values and objectives of the key players in research governance within the modern university and concludes by asking whether differences can be resolved so that a collaborative approach to ethical review may be incorporated into a renewed academic research culture. It is suggested that the alternative is increasing alienation from anything to do with ‘ethics’, with potentially serious consequences for the ethical standards of social research.