New social intervention technologies as a challenge in social work: IFSW Europe perspective

ABSTRACT

This study aims at analyzing the degree of training, use, and practice of the new technologies among the social work professionals in their work environment and at finding out their main reluctance or reservations to a more intensive use of ICTs in the performance of their tasks. For this purpose, a structured and closed questionnaire has been sent to the chairpeople of the professional organizations’ members of the International Federation of Social Workers Europe (IFSW Europe), which also includes Turkey and Israel. The reason for this choice lies in the fact that the representatives for the professional organizations have a privileged view on the situation of the profession from a global perspective and are the key informants on the current situation surrounding the social workers. This study allows us to know, among other results, that the success of ICTs among the professionals will depend on their ability to adapt to the specific professional nature of the social worker in the intervention domain. However, the uncertainty regarding the security of the personal data treatment, regarding the increase of the non included or paid work hours, and also, regarding the increase of professional stress are key factors explaining the reluctance of some professionals to a more intensive use of ICTs.     

Building protest online: engagement with the digitally networked #not1more protest campaign on Twitter

This article examines engagement with digitally networked, politically contentious actions. Maintaining engagement over time is a key challenge for social movements attempting to network digitally. This article argues that proximity serves as a condition to address this challenge, because it configures the personal networks upon which transmission depends. This is a paradox of digital activism: it has the capacity to transcend barriers; however, proximity is essential for sustaining relations over time. Examining Twitter data from the #not1more protest campaign against immigrant deportations in the United States, quantitative and social network analyses show a differentiated development of engagement, which results in a particular geographical configuration with the following attributes. First, there is a robust and connected backbone of core organizers and activists located in particular major cities. Second, local groups engage with the campaign with direct actions in other cities. Third, a large and transitory contingent of geographically dispersed users direct attention to the campaign. We conclude by elaborating how this geographically differentiated configuration helps to sustain engagement with digitally networked action.     

Trait Mindfulness,Problem-Gambling Severity,Altered State of Awareness and Urge to Gamble in Poker-Machine Gamblers

In Australia, poker-machine gamblers represent a disproportionate number of problem gamblers. To cultivate a greater understanding of the psychological mechanisms involved in poker-machine gambling, a repeated measures cue-reactivity protocol was administered. A community sample of 38 poker-machine gamblers was assessed for problem-gambling severity and trait mindfulness. Participants were also assessed regarding altered state of awareness (ASA) and urge to gamble at baseline, following a neutral cue, and following a gambling cue. Results indicated that: (a) urge to gamble significantly increased from neutral cue to gambling cue, while controlling for baseline urge; (b) cue-reactive ASA did not significantly mediate the relationship between problem-gambling severity and cue-reactive urge (from neutral cue to gambling cue); (c) trait mindfulness was significantly negatively associated with both problem-gambling severity and cue-reactive urge (i.e., from neutral cue to gambling cue, while controlling for baseline urge); and (d) trait mindfulness did not significantly moderate the effect of problem-gambling severity on cue-reactive urge (from neutral cue to gambling cue). This is the first study to demonstrate a negative association between trait mindfulness and cue-reactive urge to gamble in a population of poker-machine gamblers. Thus, this association merits further evaluation both in relation to poker-machine gambling and other gambling modalities.     

Effects of biodiversity and environment-related attitude on perception of urban green space

Green space in cities contributes to the quality of life for city dwellers, e.g., by increasing the opportunity for recreation. However, perception of urban green space is influenced by multiple factors. We investigated effects of biodiversity and environment-related attitudes on visual and auditory perceptions of urban green space. Field measurements of biodiversity were conducted in six sites across an urban gradient in Gothenburg, Sweden, and three categories of biodiversity—high, medium, low—were established. Households were sent a survey on aesthetic perception of urban green space, sound perception and the importance of trees and plants for the perception of bird species. Each respondent focused on the site that was located nearby. The environment-related attitudes comprised “Nature-oriented” and “Urban-oriented” persons and were based on participants’ own attitude estimations. It was shown that participants’ “subjective” aesthetic and sound-related perception of urban greenery were in line with the “objectively” measured subdivisions of high, medium and low biodiversity. So also were their estimations of the importance of trees and plants for perception of bird species in urban greenery, although differing only between high and medium/low biodiversity conditions. Persons rating themselves as highly nature-oriented were shown to give higher scores to urban green space aesthetics and to value greenery-related sounds higher, and to attach greater importance to trees and plants in their perception of bird species in urban greenery, than less nature-oriented persons. Highly urban-oriented persons compared to less urban-oriented persons did the same, but only regarding urban greenery-related aesthetics and sounds of nature. We conclude that environment-related attitudes influence perceptions of green space. Moreover, our findings support the idea that biodiversity per se also influences perceptions; people value green space significantly more with high than with low measured biodiversity. Urban planning needs to provide city inhabitants with green spaces that are species-rich, lush, varied and rich with natural sounds.     

Parental Modeling and Deidentification in Romantic Relationships Among Mexican‐Origin Youth

This study investigated youth's modeling of and deidentification from parents in romantic relationships using two phases of data from adolescent siblings, mothers, and fathers in 246 Mexican‐origin families. Each parent reported his and her marital satisfaction and conflict, and youth reported on parent–adolescent warmth and conflict at Time 1. Youth's reports of modeling of and deidentification from their mothers and fathers and three romantic relationship outcomes were assessed at Time 2. Findings revealed that higher parental marital satisfaction, lower marital conflict, and higher warmth and lower conflict in parent–adolescent relationships were associated with more modeling and less deidentification from parents. Moreover, higher deidentification was linked to a greater likelihood of youth being involved in a romantic relationship and cohabitation, whereas more modeling was linked to a lower likelihood of cohabitation and older age of first sex. Discussion underscores the importance of assessing parental modeling and deidentification and understanding correlates of these processes.     

A weighted bootstrap approximation for comparing the error distributions in nonparametric regression

Several procedures have been proposed for testing the equality of error distributions in two or more nonparametric regression models. Here we deal with methods based on comparing estimators of the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the errors in each population to an estimator of the common CDF under the null hypothesis. The null distribution of the associated test statistics has been approximated by means of a smooth bootstrap (SB) estimator. This paper proposes to approximate their null distribution through a weighted bootstrap. It is shown that it produces a consistent estimator. The finite sample performance of this approximation is assessed by means of a simulation study, where it is also compared to the SB. This study reveals that, from a computational point of view, the proposed approximation is more efficient than the one provided by the SB.     

How leader humility helps teams to be humbler,psychologically stronger,and more effective: A moderated mediation model

We hypothesize that (a) the level of humility expressed by leaders predicts team performance through, serially, team humility and team PsyCap, and (b) the strength (i.e., consensus within the team) of the leader humility, team humility and team PsyCap moderates the paths of that hypothesized model. A sample comprising 82 teams (82 leaders; 332 team members) was collected. Team members reported leader humility, team humility and team PsyCap. Leaders reported team performance. To handle the risks of common method bias, each mediating path of the hypothesized model is based on data from two different subsamples within each team. Our model's most novel theoretical contribution is the (moderated mediated) connection between leader humility, collective humility, and team PsyCap, and this was consistently supported in our data. Our inconsistent findings dealing with the relationship between team PsyCap and performance is well established in the literature and our results in both sub-samples were in the theorized direction. The study contributes to understand why, how and when humble leaders are more effective.     

Connecting through chaos: escape behaviour among sex-working adolescents in Aotearoa New Zealand

Underage sex work (USW) has been shown to adversely affect adolescents’ physical and psychological wellbeing; however, little is known about the lives of sex-working adolescents or their needs for services. This study involved semi-structured interviews with eight adolescents who began sex work between the ages of 12 and 16. It was found that caregivers’ characteristics, attachment disruption and early trauma intersected with participants’ wider social environments, specifically with their peer relationships and limited access to services, to create a culture of chaos and avoidant coping. These combined factors constitute significant barriers to service access, and require considered navigation of relational and environmental barriers as well as appropriate management of psychological distress and trauma symptoms to enable effective engagement with services.     

Child and Household Deprivation: A Relationship Beyond Household Socio-demographic Characteristics

This paper aims to contribute to the literature on poverty and social exclusion by analysing the type of deprivation of the household where the child lives and the level of deprivation that child experiences. Using the EU-SILC 2009 module on deprivation for Spain, we find that the level of child deprivation varies among household types, that is, even after controlling for the socio-economic characteristics of the household and parents, the lack of certain items at the household level induces a more intense child deprivation. Therefore, we can conclude that there exists an association between child deprivation and the household deprivation profile that surpasses the socio-demographic characteristics of the household and parents.