NCWWI Traineeships: A National Cross-Site Evaluation of Child Welfare Stipend Programs for Ethnically Diverse Students

The task of recruiting and retaining ethnically diverse, qualified, and committed social workers in child welfare is challenging. Federal funding supporting BSW and MSW education has been a catalyst for university–agency partnerships across the country. An important goal of these partnerships is to prepare social work students with the knowledge, skills, and competencies for effective child welfare practice. The National Child Welfare Workforce Institute’s innovative child welfare traineeships program prepares students from 12 social work programs around the country. This study focused on diversity, competency attainment, and readiness for the job. Results showed that programs recruited ethnically diverse students, and after receiving child welfare–specific content and hands-on experiences in the field, students felt competent and prepared for child welfare work.     

Labor’s love lost? Changes in the U.S. environment and declining private sector unionism

Conclusion Changes in the demographics of the work force and structural changes in the economy have played a key role in declining union membership over time. Since these trends are anticipated to continue into the future, union attempts to stem the decline must accept these changes as given and adapt in ways that allow membership to grow even as these shifts occur. Such a fundamental reorientation of priorities will be difficult, but some signs suggest that unions may be taking preliminary steps in this direction. Such change is vital to unions’ survival, both as a social movement and as a political institution. Edward Potter is president of the Employment Policy Foundation and co-author of Keeping America Competitive: Employment Policy for the 21^st Century (1995). He gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Anita Hattiangadi, an EPF senior economist, in the preparation of this paper.     

Dynamic Asymmetries in U.S. Unemployment

We examine dynamic asymmetries in U.S. unemployment using nonlinear time series models and Bayesian methods. We find strong statistical evidence in favor of a two-regime threshold auto-regressive model. Empirical results indicate that, once we take into account both parameter and model uncertainty, there are economically interesting asymmetries in the unemployment rate. One finding of particular interest is that shocks that lower the unemployment rate tend to have a smaller effect than shocks that raise the unemployment rate. This finding is consistent with unemployment rises being sudden and falls gradual.     

After Breast Cancer: Sexual Functioning of Sexual Minority Survivors

Research on sexual difficulties after cancer has neglected sexual minority women (SMW); for example, lesbian and bisexual women. Clinicians treating these women are therefore at a disadvantage as they lack information about sexual problems in this population. This study tested the hypothesis that SMW with breast cancer have poorer sexual function than SMW without breast cancer, distinguishing partnered from unpartnered women. Using convenience sample recruitment, we conducted a case-control study to compare survivors of breast cancers who are SMW, in other words, cases to controls, that is, SMW without cancer. Anonymous survey data were collected from 85 cases after they had completed active cancer treatment and 85 age- and partner-status matched controls with no history of any cancer. Participants' self-reported sexual frequency and sexual function measured by the Female Sexual Function Index were evaluated. Cases and controls did not differ in risk of sexual dysfunction or the level of overall sexual functioning; however, cases had lower sexual frequency and scored lower on desire and ability to reach orgasm, and higher on pain compared to controls. Results inform clinicians about sexual minority survivors' sexual domains affected by cancer. When discussing sexual problems and therapeutic options, sexual orientation should be ascertained.     

Child support wage withholding and father–child contact: parental bargaining and salience effects

Past research on child support finds that father–child contact increases as support payments increase. Enforcement policies such as wage withholding also may affect father–child contact even when the amount of support paid is not affected if they change bargaining power between parents or the salience of fathers’ child support obligations. I develop a model of the salience of child support obligations which predicts that introduction of automatic withholding will reduce contact between noncustodial parents and children independent of payment amount. I then examine whether paying child support via wage withholding affects fathers’ frequency of contact with their children and their provision of in-kind support using instrumental variables and bounded OLS techniques for selection on unobservables. Withholding appears to decrease father–child contact. Withholding effects do not occur when payments are made to government agencies or courts but are present when payments go directly to the mother, consistent with bargaining models. More frequent payment schedules are associated with more contact, consistent with salience effects.     

American Juvenile Justice: Recent Trends and Issues in Youth Offending

Trends in juvenile offending in the United States since the 1970s are reviewed. Serious youth violence, co-occurring mental health and substance abuse problems among offenders, female delinquency, and other issues currently confronting the American juvenile justice system are examined. Policy considerations associated with recent trends in juvenile offending among American youth are identified.