Improving the quality of child welfare services: needs assessment for staff training

Competency-based needs assessment surveys can be useful in assessing worker training needs in child welfare. Worker and supervisor surveys, consisting largely of task-based ability statements, constitute the core of this approach. Additional information can also be obtained from supervisors and allied professionals. Data from a study of 276 frontline child welfare workers in Alaska and Oregon are used to illustrate the utility of this approach.     

Discerning the epidemiology of drug use among a sample of college students

Although estimates concerning the prevalence of various forms of substance abuse vary considerably, it is critical to note that even the more conservative estimates indicate a major public health problem. Furthermore, increased drug experimentation has been frequently associated with the college experience. Utilizing a slightly modified version of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Monitoring the Future Survey, the present study examined the epidemiology of self-reported drug taking behaviors (e.g., alcohol, marijuana, tranquilizers, stimulants, psychedelics, etc.) among a sample (n = 683) of students attending a major public university. Data analyses focused on the specific settings and social groupings in which drug use occurred as well as on the frequency and type(s) of drug taking behaviors. Based on the results yielded from a disjoint cluster analysis, four distinct groups of drug users were identified. These four groups then served as categories of the dependent variable in a discriminant function analysis. A general linear models procedure was employed to identify the more efficacious discriminating (i.e., independent) variables.     

The marihuana perception inventory: stage 3--the parent sample

This article reports the third step in the development of a perceptual inventory of factors associated with marihuana use. Identification of those factors, along with an analysis of demographic characteristics is designed to facilitate the formulation of drug education programs. This third phase was an administration of the inventory to sixty-parents who were also members of a community anti-drug group. Their beliefs are strong, as evidenced by their active association with the group. Factors analysis revealed a five-factor solution that utilized all thirty-four items of the inventory. Scales were again labeled Parental Limitations, Societal Issues, Inherent Predispositions, Rebelliousness, and Maturational Difficulties. Since there was a shift between parents and youths in specific items that made up the scales, it appears that drug educators will need to take parents' perceptions into account when designing programs.     

Specifying and facilitating family involvement in services to persons with developmental disabilities

This paper recognizes the important role of family involvement in services to people with developmental disabilities. The paper presents a conceptualization of involvement that was an outcome of a qualitative study of involvement from the perspective of family members themselves. The authors identify a framework of family involvement the composition of which incorporates four system levels (i.e. the individual, program/agency, community, society) and the five role opportunities for family members (i.e. treatment agent, planner, advocate, evaluator, and consultant/educator). Barriers to involvement are then delineated and the authors autline a process for promoting family involvement: 1) contracting for involvement; 2) developing a support system for involvement; and 3) monitoring and evaluating involvement.Presented at the Fourth Annual Conference of The Michigan Chapter, National Association of Social Workers, May 14, 1988. Grand Rapids Michigan.The writing of this paper was supported in part by a research stimulation grant awarded to the authors by Wayne State University. Portions of this article are included in an extensive research report in Epstein, I and Grasso, A. Editors,Research Utilization in Social Work, Wayne State Univesity Press, in Press.     

Siblings of handicapped children

There is a strong suggestion that the siblings of handicapped children are at risk psychologically. Factors which contribute to this risk, aspects of the sibling relationship, and the siblings' issues, concerns and feelings are discussed so that professionals may have a framework within which to assess and evaluate these children's needs. Case examples are given.     

Three agricultural regions of France: Three types of pluriactivity

In France, the new Common Agricultural Policy will have different regional impacts. There are three types of regions based on agricultural development. The first type is where farms are able to carry on a modernization process; the second type where farms are threatened in spite of their modernization, and the third type where farms are unable to be modernized. These three types of regions are represented in France by Picardy, Languedoc and Savoy. Each region is developing a particular form of pluriactivity in accordance with its own agricultural development. Picardy is setting up a business pluriactivity which uses agricultural resources to increase non-agricultural activities. Languedoc undergoes a rural development pluriactivity by using non-agricultural resources for its modernization. Savoy represents a rural pluriactivity of survival, in which the close combination between agricultural and non-agricultural activities permits the maintenance of rural many-faceted businesses.The three kinds of pluriactivity are very unlike. They show that, in France, agricultural development will in future be linked to rural development to a far greater extent.     

Estimation of period-specific gross migration flows from limited data: Bi-proportional adjustment approach

Two models, hierarchical in terms of input data requirements, are proposed to estimate place-to-place gross migration flows during a specified time period. In the first, the input data required are lifetime migration flows and the marginal totals of period migration, usually available from national censuses. The estimational algorithm is a ‘bi-proportional adjustment’ technique (and its variant) that assumes structural similarity between lifetime and period migration flows. The second model is designed to account for possible structural deviations in recent migratory patterns. Calibration of the procedure to replicate Indian and Korean data confirms high validity of estimation.