Underexplored Aspects of Group-work Education in MSW Programs

Warnings about social group work’s diminished place within social work education date back to 1978. This article reports the findings of a national study exploring the state of group-work education in Council on Social Work Education accredited programs. Our 2014 publication compared study results with those of the 1994 Birnbaum and Auerbach publication. This article highlights additional findings regarding underexplored aspects of group-work education including concentrations/specializations in group work, social work faculty expertise and involvement in group-work associations, efforts to link students with professional group-work associations, continuing education opportunities in group work for field supervisors, online/hybrid group-work course offerings, links between institutional characteristics and group-work offerings, and faculty members’ perceptions of the state of group-work education.     

Digital skills and social media use: how Internet skills are related to different types of Facebook use among ‘digital natives’

Based on the idea that Internet use can be conceptualized in terms of depth (frequency) and width (differentiated) uses of the Web, this study explored how socio-demographic factors and digital skills are related to frequency and types of Facebook use among young adults. It used a face-to-face representative survey conducted in the three main urban areas of Chile among a sample of 18-to 29-year olds. The results found that men and more educated young people had higher levels of skills, confirming that the so-called ‘digital natives’ are not a monolithic group. They also revealed that digital skills did not predict frequency of Facebook use. Furthermore, lower educated young people tended to use Facebook more frequently. Although these results go against the long-established digital divide research, traditional digital gaps emerged when types of use were analyzed. While more educated and skillful individuals tended to use Facebook for informational and mobilizing purposes, socio-demographic factors and skills did not make a difference in Facebook use for social purposes.     

On Charlier polynomials in testing Poissonity

This article discusses applications of Charlier polynomials when checking how well classic Poisson model fits the data. We show that smooth components pertaining to the polynomials can be effectively used in preliminary analysis of data at hand and we propose and discuss some tests based on them. Our extensive simulations shed new light on power behavior of the best tests in the area.     

Can a habitat specialist survive urbanization? the case of the viscacha (Lagidium viscacia,Chinchillidae)

Urban growth is a strong driver of habitat degradation and loss. In spite of that, a surprising diversity of native species may survive in urban areas. In the La Paz, Bolivia metropolitan area and surroundings, local populations of “viscachas” (Lagidium viscacia) currently survive in small, isolated habitat patches. We assessed 13 study sites in 1999, 2003, and 2007 to document the effects of urban growth on L. viscacia habitats. Degree of disturbance at the study sites increased more between 1999 and 2003 than it did between 2003 and 2007 due to patterns of urban expansion. Using satellite imagery we determined that the urban area increased 566 ha (from 1987 to 2001) mostly due to southward urban area expansion down the valley where the best viscacha habitats were located. Occupied patch area decreased 74 % between 1999 and 2007, accompanied by significant increases in patch edge-to-area ratios. Currently L. viscacia populations in La Paz are experiencing a habitat attrition process. If a current urban expansion plan for La Paz is approved, about 75 % of the remaining habitat may be lost to urban development in a short time, compromising the future viability of this species in the metropolitan area and surroundings. Environmental regulations to control urban growth of the La Paz metropolitan area are urgently required and constitute the only hope for the survival of L. viscacia in the city.     

The effects of functional limitations on soldier common tasks

This paper describes the findings associated with the ability of an individual to perform the United States Army's Common Soldier Tasks of: "Maintaining an M16-Series Rifle" , "Protect Yourself from Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Injury or Contamination with Mission-Oriented Protective Posture (MOPP) Gear", and "Protect Yourself from Chemical and Biological (CB) Contamination Using Your Assigned Protective Mask." The analysis was conducted using data compiled from videos of a Soldier performing the given tasks at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The findings reflect the opinions of researchers in identifying potential elements, which impose abnormal, irregular, and/or extraneous effort when performing the tasks as outlined in STP-21-1-SMCT - Soldier's Manual of Common Tasks: Skill Level I.     

Service learning from the supply side: Community capacity to engage students

The rapid increase in the use of service learning raises important public policy questions about who is being served and whether partner agencies have the capacity to meet student demand for community‐based experiences. This article uses a large sample of nonprofit organizations and a comparative framework to examine the characteristics of partner agencies and the scope and nature of college student community involvement. Multivariate analysis tests these factors on a community agency's ability to engage more students, particularly service learners. The findings are generally optimistic about agency willingness to involve students, suggesting widespread community benefits from their involvement. While organizational size and capacity predict current student engagement, an agency's past experience with students and its perceptions of student benefits have the greatest impact on its willingness to take on future students.     

Comparison of the IPAQ-Short Form and accelerometry predictions of physical activity in older adults

Older adult physical activity (PA) levels obtained from the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ) and accelerometry (ACC) were compared. Mean difference scores between accumulated or bout ACC PA and the IPAQ were computed. Spearman rank-order correlations were used to assess relations between time spent in PA measured from ACC and self-reported form of the IPAQ, and percentage agreement across measures was used to classify meeting or not meeting PA recommendations. The IPAQ significantly underestimated sitting and overestimated time spent in almost all PA intensities. Group associations across measures revealed significant relations in walking, total PA, and sitting for the whole group (r = .29-.36, p < .05). Significant relationships between bout ACC and IPAQ walking (r = .28-.39, p < .05) were found. There was 40-46% agreement between measures for meeting PA recommendations. The IPAQ appears not to be a good indicator of individual older adult PA behavior but is better suited for larger population-based samples.     

Inequality in Human Development: An Empirical Assessment of 32 Countries

One of the most frequent critiques of the HDI is that is does not take into account inequality within countries in its three dimensions. In this paper, we apply a simply approach to compute the three components and the overall HDI for quintiles of the income distribution. This allows a comparison of the level in human development of the poor with the level of the non-poor within countries, but also across countries. This is an application of the method presented in Grimm et al. (World Development 36(12):2527–2546, 2008) to a sample of 21 low and middle income countries and 11 industrialized countries. In particular the inclusion of the industrialized countries, which were not included in the previous work, implies to deal with a number of additional challenges, which we outline in this paper. Our results show that inequality in human development within countries is high, both in developed and industrialized countries. In fact, the HDI of the lowest quintiles in industrialized countries is often below the HDI of the richest quintile in many middle income countries. We also find, however, a strong overall negative correlation between the level of human development and inequality in human development.     

Appraisal of Lifecolon; ``Area' Versus ``Dimension' Conceptualizations

The aim of the present work was to study the relationship between theresponses given by participants from various age groups and situations toa life appraisal questionnaire constructed from an area (work, spouse,family, friends) x dimension (acceptance, autonomy, mastery, purpose)matrix. When subjected to confirmatory factor analyses, the response datawere more supportive of an ``area' model than of a ``dimension' model. Whensubjected to an exploratory factor analysis, they revealed a seven-factorunderlying structure, which was more easily interpreted in terms of areasthan in terms of dimensions, and the effects of age and gender on thesefactors were the expected ones. When this seven-factor structure waslinked to a global measure of well-being, only factors with a clear ``area'definition could explain a significant part of the variance. These factorswere Love life, Family life, Leisure, and Occupational Life.