Remembering Norma (In Memory of Norma C. Lang, 1927–2012)

This tribute to Norma Lang, who died on June 26, 2012, recognizes her contributions to the field of social work and, especially, to social work with groups. Although Lang was a very private person who would not have approved of a tribute, she would have been pleased that a group effort contributed to this article. The group, dubbed the “Toronto Five” by coauthor Patricia Moffat, describes Dr. Norma C. Lang as a matriarch in the social work profession—a complex, strong, capable, and independent pillar with an incredible way of caring for us.     

Contact,the feature pool and the speech community: The emergence of Multicultural London English

In the multilingual centres of Northern Europe's major cities, new varieties of the host languages are emerging. While some analyse these ‘multiethnolects’ as youth styles, we take a variationist approach to an emerging ‘Multicultural London English’ (MLE), asking: (1) what features characterise MLE; (2) at what age(s) are they acquired; (3) is MLE vernacularised; and (4) when did MLE emerge, and what factors enabled this? We argue that innovations in the diphthongs and the quotative system are generated from the specific sociolinguistics of inner‐city London, where at least half the population is undergoing group second‐language acquisition and where high linguistic diversity leads to a heterogeneous feature pool to select from. We look for incrementation ( Labov 2001 ) in the acquisition of the features, but find this only for two ‘global’ changes, BE LIKE and goose ‐fronting, for which adolescents show the highest usage. Community‐internal factors explain the age‐related variation in the remaining features.     

Gender, Ethnicity and Vulnerability in Young Women in Local Authority Care

Correspondence to Sue Lees, University of North London, 9 Northolme Road, London N2 2VZ, UK. E-mail: S.Lees{at}unl.ac.uk Summary This paper analyses the impact of gender and ethnicity, takentogether, on the experience of being looked after away fromhome. It presents the findings from a study of young women,aged over 12, who came into care in one local authority between1990 and 1999. It reports that the over-representation of youngblack women in care is associated with the greater tendencyof African-Caribbean and mixed heritage young women to run awayfrom home rather than put up with abusive relationships; thelack of cross-generational support resulting from migrationand the effects of poverty and racism which place added strainon family relationships. The implications of these findingsfor social work practice are considered.     

Tools of the Serials Trade

Abstract

The primary purpose of information services has always been and will always be to reduce to a minimum the amount of time required by local users to obtain access to that information they need to do their work.¹     

Interviewing techniques for the Asian-American population

The cultures of racial and ethnic minorities influence many aspects of mental illness, including communication styles, symptoms, coping strategies, family and community support, and willingness to seek treatment. This article presents the effects of Asian American/Pacific Islanders' beliefs and behaviors related to mental health. Strategies to enhance the process and outcomes of the psychiatric interview with members of this populatior are addressed.     

Associations between ongoing COVID-19 lockdown and the financial and mental health experiences of Australian families

In 2020, Australia's successful COVID-19 public health restrictions comprised a national “initial lockdown” (March–May) and “ongoing lockdown” (July–November) for metropolitan Victorian residents only. We evaluated associations between ongoing lockdown and family finances and mental health. In the June and September 2020 Royal Children's Hospital National Child Health Polls, caregivers of children in Victoria and New South Wales (NSW) reported the following: job/income loss; material deprivation (inability to pay for essential items); income poverty; mental health (Kessler-6); perceived impact on caregiver/child mental health; and caregiver/child coping. Data from caregivers (N = 1207/902) in June/September were analysed using difference-in-difference modelling (NSW provided the comparator). During Victoria's ongoing lockdown, job/income loss increased by 11% (95%CI: 3%–18%); Kessler-6 poor mental health by 6% (95%CI: −0.3%–12%) and perceived negative mental health impacts by 14% for caregivers (95%CI: 6%–23%) and 12% for children (95%CI: 4%–20%). Female (vs. male) caregivers, metropolitan (vs. regional/rural) families, and families with elementary school-aged children (vs. pre-/high-school) were the most affected. The ongoing lockdown was associated with negative experiences of mental health, employment and income, but not deprivation or poverty, likely because of government income supplements introduced early in the pandemic. Future lockdowns require planned responses to outbreaks and evidence-informed financial and mental health supports.     

Evaluating the psychometrics of the SSIS SEL in a socio-economically diverse sample

The increasing interest in implementing social-emotional learning (SEL) interventions within schools calls for more reliable and valid assessment tools to measure the effectiveness of SEL programs. We investigated the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Social Skills Improvement System – Social-Emotional Learning Edition (SSIS SEL) with a group of ethnically and socio-economically diverse grade 3 students in Ontario, Canada (n = 427). The SSIS SEL is an age-normed measure used for the evaluation of interventions and prevention initiatives. Data collected included both teacher-report and student self-report measures. The factor structure proposed by the scale developers was not replicated using this smaller single grade sample. However, the study demonstrates evidence of good construct and convergent validity supporting the novel factor structure. Results from this study suggest that more research on the SSIS SEL's application in real-world intervention research programs is needed.