Borders, margins and bridges: Possibilities for change for marginalized young women

This paper interrogates the notion of exclusion with a particularfocus upon the experiences of young women. It focuses on thepotential that community processes hold for drawing marginalizedyoung people back into mainstream life. It considers two examplesthat were each concerned with the development of community facilities.One sought to remove young people from an inner city area, theother was intended to provide community facilities for youngpeople. Each adopted a different approach to the participationof young people and had different outcomes. The discussion exploresthe potential that public planning processes hold for encouragingthe participation of young people and for providing effectiveavenues for the diverse realities of young people to be validatedand to contribute to decision-making. The successful participationof young people in public life is a challenge, yet they arerarely encouraged to participate in defining solutions to theproblems they are identified as causing. The experiences reportedin this paper therefore offer insights into effective strategiesfor engaging young people in the resolution of community issues.     

Pathways to educational aspirations: resilience as a mediator of proximal resources and risks

Educational aspirations play an important role in educational achievement, understanding more about the factors that shape aspirations should enable educators and others who support young people to better articulate educational ambitions and then to work towards their achievement. Given this, the current paper uses a form of integrative data analysis to examine two issues. First, it identifies that a social ecological measure of resilience mediates the impact which proximal risks and resources have upon young people’s educational aspirations. Second, it establishes that the linkages between these proximal risks and resources, resilience and educational aspirations are similar for young people facing high levels of adversity and young people on more or less normative developmental pathways. The paper draws on a data collected in the first wave of the Youth Transitions Study; a longitudinal mixed-methods investigation of the factors that influence transitions to adulthood for a group of vulnerable teenagers.     

Dynamics of Ethnic and Cultural Pluralism

With the growing emphasis on professionalism and autonomy in social work practice, the importance of supervision is receiving new attention in the literature. In this paper the “functional” nature of supervision is analyzed through exploration of the emphasis in practice on the administrative and teaching aspects of supervision, and how these concepts appear to have become measures of exercising authority and control rather than promoting independence, while independence is epitomized as the essence of practice. Merton's views on the sociological perspective of functionalism are applied to the debate on authority in supervision versus autonomy in practice.     

Ranking patterns in college football's BCS selection system: How conference ties,conference tiers,and the design of BCS payouts affect voter decisions

Affiliation matrices are used to analyze ranking patterns in the 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 USA Today College Football Coaches’ Polls. Results evidence that votes received disproportionately stem from within conference. As a whole, coaches that share a conference give their own teams between 10.61% and 27.83% more of their votes than other coaches. Also, conferences that receive automatic bids to BCS bowls appear to band together in hopes of minimizing the BCS chances of teams from non-automatic-bid conferences. Non-automatic-bid conferences, however, do not band together to rally around non-automatic-bid teams vying for a BCS bid. Lastly, ranking discrepancies are greatest when teams are only marginally qualified for BCS bids. Implications for revisions to the BCS selection system are discussed.     

Closing the gap? The effectiveness of referred access family support services

This paper presents findings from a study of the effectiveness of family support services provided through two family centres run by a voluntary agency in partnership with a South Wales local authority. It evaluates the effectiveness of family support services by looking at both the family views and a number of measurable outcomes in terms of reported changes in family functioning and the well‐being of children and parents. Interventions were monitored over 6 months using a pre‐test post‐test non‐equivalent groups design, incorporating quantitative and qualitative methods. Child well‐being, family functioning and some aspects of parental well‐being (related directly to the child) did improve over the intervention period for family support service users. This improvement resulted in the family support service users ‘closing the gap’ with non‐service users (comparison group), to such an extent on some measures, as to be statistically significant. The qualitative evidence confirmed these improvements. The only area that did not improve, according to the quantitative findings, was that of parental well‐being (not related directly to the child). This includes important factors around social support networks, such as parental confidence, social interaction and social contact. The reasons for lack of improvement in these areas are discussed, emphasizing the importance of monitoring the impact of using the service and incorporating a focus on the quality of the nature of the relationship between the worker and the service user.     

Turning sexual science into news: sex research and the media.

In this article we report on the findings of a two-part project investigating contemporary issues in sexuality researchers' interaction with journalists. The goal of the project was to explore best practices and suggest curricular and training initiatives for sexuality researchers and journalists that would enhance the accurate dissemination of sexuality research results in the media. We present the results of a survey of a convenience sample of 94 sexuality researchers about their experiences and concerns regarding media coverage and a summary of the main themes that emerged from an invitational conference of sexuality researchers and journalists. In addition, we present some preliminary recommendations for training and best practices. Topics assessed include reporting accuracy; sex researchers' comfort with various topics, media, and journalists; researchers' perceptions of the purpose and content of articles; concern about the impact of media coverage; and training for sexuality researchers.     

Zig Zagging All Over Again: An Interview with Moshe Lang

Moshe Lang was one of the pioneers of family therapy in Australia. Before establishing Williams Road Family Therapy Centre — which offers a range of therapeutic, teaching and consulting services — he worked for many years at Bouverie Clinic. Moshe has been President of the Victorian Association of Family Therapists, a founder of our national conferences (he also gave the very first Opening Address) and a founder of this journal, later becoming Foundation Chairperson of the Editorial Board. He has taught in most centres in Australia and New Zealand and has published several papers characterised by thoughtfulness, humour and lucid, direct expression. For many years he has espoused the value of story telling as a medium for learning, and the importance of exposing one's work for critical appraisal. These concerns are reflected directly in two sections of this journal — Story Comer and Audio-Video Review. More recently he has co-authored with his wife Tesse a book of stories about his experiences as a therapist, entitled Corrupting The Young and Other Stories of a Family Therapist.     

Family cap provisions and changes in births and abortions

As part of welfare reform efforts in the 1990s, 23 states implemented family caps, provisions that deny or reduce cash assistance to welfare recipients who have additional births. We use birth and abortion records from 24 states to estimate effects of family caps on birth and abortion rates. We use age, marital status, and completed schooling to identify women at high risk for use of public assistance, and parity (number of previous live births) to identify those most directly affected by the family cap. In family cap states, birth rates fell more and abortion rates rose more among high-risk women with at least one previous live birth compared to similar childless women, consistent with an effect of the family cap. However, this parity-specific pattern of births and abortions also occurred in states that implemented welfare reform with no family cap. Thus, the effects of welfare reform may have differed between mothers and childless women, but there is little evidence of an independent effect of the family cap.     

“A Long Road Home” — Working with Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse From a Systemic Perspective

Working with adults who have been sexually abused in childhood can be a daunting task. The material disclosed is often overwhelming in its detail and horror and the consequences for the client are alarming. The folio wing paper offers a method for approaching the individual adult client who presents such abuse as part of their history. It provides a comprehensive set of guidelines for the practitioner both to explore and face the reality of abuse while not becoming immobilised by horror and impotence. Case examples are used to illustrate the application of the method.