Making it on the Outside: Understanding Barriers to Women’s Post‐Incarceration Reintegration

The increasing rate of imprisonment in the United States over the past few decades resulted in record numbers of individuals reentering society upon release. As men and women exit through prison gates, they encounter a range of obstacles that complicate their efforts to “make it” on the outside. Given the gendered impact of recent punitive prison policies, this essay focuses on women and traces their steps as they navigate the many complex, interrelated, and competing obstacles to successful reintegration post‐incarceration. In particular, this essay describes how many barriers, and women’s reentry experience more broadly, are shaped by gender, race, and class. Further, drawing on the feminist pathways perspective, we examine women’s reentry in light of their pathways into offending focusing, in particular, on their victimization history.     

Father Involvement and Children's Early Learning: A Critical Review of Published Empirical Work from the Past 15 Years

ABSTRACT

Parent involvement research predominantly focuses on the involvement of mothers in children's educational experiences, and rarely speaks to the role of the “other” parent – fathers. Yet, there is building interest in the role that fathers play in children's development, and how this role may be especially salient during early childhood and the transition into formal schooling. This review critically evaluates father involvement literature from 1990 to 2005 within this early childhood population. In particular, it provides systematic evidence that to some degree researchers have been responsive to recent critiques, and lays out a path of sampling, methodological and conceptual challenges still left to be tackled.     

The Relationship Between Spiritual Well-Being and Health-Related Quality of Life in College Students

Abstract

Objective: This study investigated the relationship between spiritual well-being (SWB) and various aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQL) of college students. Participants and Methods: Two hundred twenty-five participants were surveyed during October 2010 to assess SWB and HRQL using the Spiritual Well-Being Scale and questions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's scale for HRQL, respectively. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses tested the relationship between SWB and multiple measures of HRQL while controlling for sex, age, and race. Results: Participants who reported higher SWB scores were more likely to participate in religious-type activities and report better HRQL compared with students who reported a moderate sense of SWB. Jointly, SWB and participation in religious activities explained 18% of the variance in HQRL in this sample. Conclusions: SWB made a significant contribution to HRQL in a sample of college students. Such a relationship should be considered by campus health program planners to improve the quality of life of young adults.     

The Dual-Factor Model of Mental Health: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study of School-Related Outcomes

The Dual-Factor Model of Mental Health, proposed by Greenspoon and Sasklofske (Soc Indic Res 54:81–108, 2001), suggested that student mental health should be assessed on a dimension of psychopathology as well as a dimension of subjective well-being (SWB). Greenspoon and Sasklofske (Soc Indic Res 54:81–108, 2001) argued that measuring both psychopathology and SWB allow mental health professionals to have a more complete understanding of the child’s psychological health. The present exploratory study provided a further evaluation of the usefulness of the Dual-Factor model in understanding adolescents’ SWB using both person-centered and variable-centered analyses. Using person-centered analyses, we explored whether group membership revealed differential changes in middle school students’ GPAs as well as emotional, cognitive, and behavioral engagement across a 5-month time period. Furthermore, we used variable-centered analyses to examine whether middle school students’ levels of SWB at Time 1 predicted changes in our criterion variables. Specifically, we assessed whether SWB at Time 1 predicted student school engagement and GPA at Time 2 above and beyond their levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviors at Time 1, levels of student engagement and grades at Time 1, and demographic variables. Results of the person-centered analyses found statistically significant differences across the four groups identified in the Dual-Factor Model for emotional, cognitive and behavioral engagement as well as GPA. The results from the variable-centered analyses suggest subjective well-being to be a significant predictor of emotional, cognitive and behavioral engagement beyond measures of psychopathology. These results provide additional support for use of the Dual-Factor Model.     

Behavioral Mimicry and Interaction Expectations Influence Affect in Interracial Interactions

Journal of Nonverbal Behavior - The current research tested how expectations and mimicry in an interracial interaction influence positive and negative affect. Existing research suggests that...     

Fostering global dialogue: Conceptualisations of children's rights to participation and protection

The children's rights and child protection sectors are at a critical juncture: will they evolve to reflect and respond to changing conceptualisations in the 21st century or will they continue to reproduce 19th- and 20th-century preoccupations with saving child victims? Informed by systematic reviews of the English- and Latin American academic literature in Spanish and Portuguese and key informant interviews with international stakeholders, this paper fosters global dialogue with some Global South and Global North perspectives about the interconnections of children's rights. It explores current conceptualisations of child participation and protection, and concludes that children's rights will only progress after recognition of limitations inherent to current conceptualisations.     

Improving Graduation Rates in Drug Court Through Employment and Schooling Opportunities and Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT)

ABSTRACT

Drug courts have been a key part of the criminal justice system since 1989, and this study contributes to the existing body of research by identifying which participants (n = 248) were most likely to graduate from a drug court in Indiana (United States). Three variables emerged as significant predictors of graduation. First, participants who were employed or were students at the time of admission were nearly 2.5 times more likely to graduate than participants who were not. Second, participants who were using opiates as their primary drug of choice were over 80% less likely to graduate than participants who were using non-opiates as their primary drug of choice. Third, participants who had violations in the first 30 days of the program were nearly 50% less likely to graduate than participants who did not violate in the first 30 days. Offering medication-assisted treatment (MAT), such as methadone, Suboxone, or Vivitrol, to participants who have an opiate use disorder may improve graduation rates for this population. Additionally, graduation rates may also improve by offering more resources to assist participants in gaining and maintaining employment or schooling, and this seems to be especially important within the first month of the program.     

Gender Differences in Emotion Expression in Low-Income Adolescents Under Stress

Gender roles in mainstream US culture suggest that girls express more happiness, sadness, anxiety, and shame/embarrassment than boys, while boys express more anger and externalizing emotions, such as contempt. However, gender roles and emotion expression may be different in low-income and ethnically diverse families, as children and parents are often faced with greater environmental stressors and may have different gender expectations. This study examined gender differences in emotion expression in low-income adolescents, an understudied population. One hundred and seventy nine adolescents (aged 14–17) participated in the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Trained coders rated adolescents’ expressions of happiness, sadness, anxiety, shame/embarrassment, anger, and contempt during the TSST using a micro-analytic coding system. Analyses showed that, consistent with gender roles, girls expressed higher levels of happiness and shame than boys; however, contrary to traditional gender roles, girls showed higher levels of contempt than boys. Also, in contrast to cultural stereotypes, there were no differences in anger between boys and girls. Findings suggest gender-role inconsistent displays of externalizing emotions in low-income adolescents under acute stress, and may reflect different emotion socialization experiences in this group.     

The place of research in social work education

Summary This paper argues for a stronger emphasis on research in socialwork education and the recognition of a triangular and dynamicrelationship between social work research, education and practice.The focus here is on the particular relationship between thefirst two of this triad. The paper locates the discussion inan examination of the literature on the nature of knowledgeand ideas about professional education, and proceeds to a considerationof the place of research in disciplinary development. This includesa brief mention of changing paradigms reflected in social workresearch in the past century. Empirical data from research carriedout in the mid-1990s is used to illustrate the place of researchin social work education currently, and to support the argumentthat social work educators have responsibility for knowledgecreation (through research), as well as using research in theirteaching, and in devising curricula which develop knowledgeabout and skills in research among social workers at differentstages of training. Developing the research and knowledge baseis seen as an essential role for social work academics, in theface of uncertainties about future directions for professionaltraining and the complexity of the task for which social workersare being educated.