Assessing low‐income African‐American pre‐schoolers' behaviour problems in relationship to community violence,inter‐partner conflict,parenting, informal social support and social skills

This study examined the relations among community violence exposure, inter‐partner conflict and informal social support and the behaviour problems of pre‐schoolers, and explored how mothers' parenting skills and children's social skills may mediate the child outcomes associated with such exposure. Participants were 185 African‐American mothers and female caregivers of Head Start children who completed study measures in a structured interview. Path analyses revealed that greater inter‐partner conflict was associated with more internalizing and externalizing child behaviour problems. Positive parenting was associated with fewer internalizing and externalizing behaviours. Higher levels of child social skills were associated with fewer internalizing and externalizing behaviour problems. Child social skills fully mediated the relationship between community violence and externalizing behaviours as well as between informal support and externalizing behaviours. Social skills partially mediated the relationships between positive parenting and externalizing behaviours. No mediating effect was found on the relationships between inter‐partner conflict and child behaviour problems. Implications of the findings for intervention and future research are discussed.     

Career Issues and Concerns for Persons Living With HIV/AIDS

As the perception of HIV/AIDS continues to shift from a terminal illness to a manageable disease, persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) are able to reenter the workforce or remain in their current jobs for a longer period of time. Although this change is positive, it also raises many career concerns for PLWHAs. Using an ecological approach and the theory of work adjustment (Lofquist & Dawis, 1969, 1991), the authors provide suggestions for working with PLWHAs on career‐related issues. A case vignette is presented to demonstrate how this approach may be applied.     

Life expectancy as a constructed belief: Evidence of a live-to or die-by framing effect

Life expectations are essential inputs for many important personal decisions. We propose that longevity beliefs are responses constructed at the time of judgment, subject to irrelevant task and context factors, and leading to predictable biases. Specifically, we examine whether life expectancy is affected by the framing of expectations questions as either live-to or die-by, as well as by factors that actually affect longevity such as age, gender, and self-reported health. We find that individuals in a live-to frame report significantly higher chances of being alive at ages 55 through 95 than people in a corresponding die-by frame. Estimated mean life expectancies across three studies and 2300 respondents were 7.38 to 9.17 years longer when solicited in a live-to frame. We are additionally able to show how this framing works on a process level and how it affects preference for life annuities. Implications for models of financial decision making are discussed.     

Attitudes,Perceptions and Concerns of Student Social Workers: First Two Years of a Longitudinal Study

A longitudinal study was initiated by the authors in September 2001 to monitor the changing attitudes, perceptions, concerns and experiences of 32 social work students during their two‐year MSW training at University College Dublin, subsequently following the students into their first three years of practice. This paper reports on the findings from the first two years of the study, exploring how much the attitudes of the respondents changed towards different areas of social work practice while they were full‐time students. Both quantitative and qualitative data have been collected by means of mixed method questionnaires, taken at four points over a two‐year period, and a focus group. Issues examined included the students' changing perceptions of stress, job satisfaction and levels of expertise in different areas of social work practice. The study also monitored their willingness to work in specific areas of social work after graduation. Statistical analysis revealed that students consistently rated social work in the areas of child protection and welfare as requiring high levels of expertise, but they associated the area with higher levels of perceived stress and lower levels of job satisfaction. These attitudes remain relatively stable throughout their two‐year professional training. However, the study revealed greater changes in the students' willingness to work in different areas. For example, specialist family services such as fostering and child/adolescent became more popular choices for future work settings. This change was noted to have occurred between the start and end of the course. Also noteworthy was that general medical, probation and welfare showed the most negative change.     

Building Social Inclusion for Rural Older People Using Information and Communication Technologies: Perspectives of Rural Practitioners

Abstract

The literature identifies rural, older people as at risk of social exclusion, as a result of rural disadvantage. In this context, improved access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) has potential to build social inclusion, yet current evidence shows that rural, older people are the lowest current users of technology. This paper draws on the practice and local knowledge of rural practitioners from one Victorian region in order to explore: (a) the practice issues associated with ICT use among rural, older people; and (b) the characteristics of effective practice models in the rural, social work context. An analysis of findings highlights the need to respond to the diverse skills, needs, and learning styles of older people, to demonstrate the benefits of ICTs, involve users, and build confidence. Major barriers include poor ICT usage by many rural agencies and low practitioner capacity, as well as access and resources.     

Pathways to Adolescent Political Participation across Race and Ethnicity

This study assesses impacts of racial/ethnic identification on adolescent civic development to inform interventions to counter civic disconnect on the part of ethnic minority youths. Analyses of 4 years of national Monitoring the Future data find that Black and Latino adolescents hold negative political attitudes and low rates of political behavior. Structural equation models find dissimilarities in paths between political attitudes and behaviors for White, Black, Latino, and Asian adolescents. Findings suggest that political attitudes may operate as precursors to political behavior in different ways across races/ethnicities. Implications for civic interventions and future minority youth civic development research are discussed.     

Chick Non-Fic

This paper identifies a new variant of chick lit, a non-fiction variety derived from contemporary memoir that could be called “chick non-fic.” An emerging group of young women writers is capitalizing on the essential comedic nature of chick lit, but, rather than producing fictional texts, has taken the genre in the direction of creative non-fiction. Chelsea Handler, Tina Fey, Sarah Silverman, Samantha Bee, and Olivia Munn—all young(ish), female comedians with loyal fan followings—have each penned memoirs that adopt literary conventions of chick-lit novels and invoke the same post-feminist or third-wave feminist concerns. Their texts embroider on the established conventions of two genres—chick-lit fiction and the memoir—to produce a provocative new variant.