Cultural sensitivity treatment and research issues with black adolescent drug users

Adolescent drug abuse is one of the nations' leading social problems. Secondary intervention programs have rarely designed treatments to address specific issues pertinent to the black adolescent drug user. Among these special issues is cultural sensitivity in clinical practice and research. A review of the research literature revealed no empirical work that has been conducted in the area of cultural sensitivity as it relates to black male adolescent substance abusers.The author proposes methodological considerations as applied to four phases of treatment: assessment, planning intervention, implementation, and termination and gives suggestions for how culturally sensitive therapeutic intervention can be conducted with chemically dependent adolescent black males.     

The Family Interaction Test A Preliminary Study of a Method for Interpreting Narratives about the Family

The Family Interaction Test is a narrative projective method designed to elicit children's perceptions of family life and patterns of interaction by way of stories around particular themes and events. Drawing on a post-modern interpretive approach, the paper proposes that traditional psychometric research methodologies underpinned by the logico-empirical paradigm are inappropriate in the study of narrative meaning. It is argued that practitioners, rather than seeing themselves as separate from the story teller and thus objectifying the ‘true’ meaning of the narratives, can instead enter into a discourse with the story teller as a way of testing hypotheses and thus establish the verisimilitude of story meanings. The results of a preliminary clinical study using this methodology with the Family Interaction Test are presented and discussed.     

Enhancing Social Work Practice with Ethnic Minority Youth

Social workers have the task of addressing issues that are unique to ethnic minority youth in clinical practice; however, they may be ill equipped to begin practice with these youth due to a lack of specificity within generalist curricula. Using African-American youth as an example, the paper provides evidence that there are critical areas of development and functioning that diverge from the generalist perspective. Social workers are provided with strategies to fill gaps in their knowledge of ethnic-minority youth to enhance their direct practice with this population.     

Violence against women with physical disabilities

This study explored risk factors for violence among a sample of adult women with physical disabilities. Fifty-six percent (100) of the 177 women participating in the study indicated a positive history of abuse. Of the women who reported abuse, most reported multiple abuse situations and abusers who were typically their male partners. In addition, only a small proportion of women sought and received adequate help. Women who indicated that they did not seek help were asked why this was the case. Their responses included: feeling that they could handle it themselves, having other sources of support available, being unaware of where to go, feeling embarrassed, feeling guilty about being a burden or that it was their fault, fear that abuser would come after them, fear of not being believed, and, to a lesser extent, concern that the shelter would lack appropriate accommodations. These findings highlight the importance of intervention strategies including advocacy activities for women with disabilities, activities with schools, activities to deter and prevent partner and caregiver violence, community awareness activities, and dissemination activities.     

Coital debut: the role of religiosity and sex attitudes in the Add Health Survey

Recent reviews suggest that religiosity is associated with the delay of adolescent coital debut (Rostosky, Wilcox, Wright, Randall, in press; Wilcox, Rostosky, Randall, Wright, 2001). Few studies, however, have examined this association using longitudinal data to test theoretically driven models. We analyzed data from 3,691 adolescents (ages 15-21), testing the hypothesis that adolescent religiosity and sex attitudes (at Wave 1) predict later coital debut (at Wave 2) and that these predictive relationships vary by gender. Findings indicated that beyond demographic factors and number of romantic partners, religiosity reduced the likelihood of coital debut for both males and females. After accounting for the effects of religiosity, anticipation of negative emotions after coital debut (sex attitude factor 1) further reduced its likelihood for females and males. Finally, adolescent girls - but not boys - who anticipated positive emotions following sexual intercourse (sex attitude factor 2) were more likely to debut. While virginity pledge status was associated with coital debut for boys and girls, more conservative beliefs about sex appeared to mediate its effect. Finally, a significant interaction between race and religiosity indicated that African American adolescent males who had either signed a virginity pledge or were more religious were significantly more likely to debut than both White non-Hispanic males and African American males who were less religious and/or who had not signed a pledge. The implications of these results for adolescent pregnancy prevention programming are discussed.     

Beyond the logic of pessimism: A personal portrait of Bertha Capen Reynolds

Bertha Reynolds, one of the early contributiors to the clinical and political heritage of social work, is presented here from a personal perspective. Noted for her courage, vision, perceptiveness, and-above all-deep caring for humanity, Bertha was also a person who never felt she was anybody. In this article a view of the personal and professional Bertha Reynolds is presented. Questions are then raised about the relevance of Reynolds' thinking to modern times.     

Public Reliance on Risk Communication Channels in the Wake of a Cryptosporidium Outbreak

In the spring of 1993, about 39% of Milwaukee-area residents suffered through a nationally publicized illness brought about by cryptosporidium, a parasite that had infested the metropolitan drinking water supply. Our study, based on a telephone survey of 610 local adult residents, indicates that worry about becoming ill in the future with cryptosporidiosis relates more strongly and consistently to public reliance on, and use of, media for cryptosporidium information than do a range of risk perception and experience variables. We propose that more studies should take an audience-centered approach to understanding risk communication.     

Opening Space for Alternative Images and Narratives of Midlife Women

Using a narrative, social constructivist perspective, qualitative findings from a research project on women's midlife experience are reported and the culturally dominant discourse of a woman's midlife experience is discussed. The research indicates that the self-narratives of women who are satisfied with their lives at midlife deviate significantly from the culturally dominant narrative of midlife. The alternative, more individuated self-narratives of five women who reported the highest degree of midlife satisfaction for seventeen major areas of their lives are presented. A clinical case is then discussed which examines therapy with a midlife client which was guided, in part, by the research findings.     

Understanding sources and types of social capital in Peru

Social capital is broadly defined as the ‘value’of social relationships. A substantial amount of work has beenconducted into the role of social capital, but little of ithas focused on Latin America and Peru in particular. Standardtools are often used to measure social capital in differentcultural settings. We argue that while there are common themes,the exact nature of social capital is dependent upon the specificnorms of behaviour, networks and organizations that characterizea given setting. Social capital is a multidimensional and culturallyspecific concept. The contribution that different organizationsand networks make to different aspects of social capital variesby setting (rural/urban), person involved (male/female), andover time, highlighting the need for culturally sensitive measures.Two approaches are used to describe the characteristics of socialcapital in Peru: a literature review of research on social capitalin Peru, and qualitative in-depth interviews with twenty respondentsfrom one rural and two urban areas of Peru.