Relationships matter: the problems and prospects for social workers' relationships with young children in care

One of the key lessons learnt in the UK from the Laming Inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbié was the importance of social workers developing consistent and long-term relationships with young children in whose lives they are involved. This issue is now informing policy developments, including the proposed Social Work Practices which, based on a similar model to General Practitioner practices, aim to provide a lead professional to act as a parental figure and an advocate for every child in care. This paper begins by confirming the importance of developing relationships between social workers and young children, but questions the ability of the new policy developments to facilitate these. Drawing upon data from research involving interviews with social workers, the paper outlines the factors which hinder social workers' relationships with young children and argues that while the new proposals address some of the more surface structural and organizational factors, they do not address the deeper factors regarding attitudes, values and emotional competence which are crucial if social workers are to successfully build relationships with young children in care.     

Reducing overclaiming in needs assessment studies. An experimental comparison.

A randomized experiment investigated the effect of various instructional sets on reducing agency awareness overclaiming, that is, claiming knowledge of fictitious agencies. As predicted, respondents who were warned that the list contained fake agencies exhibited less agency awareness overclaiming than respondents who were not warned. However, providing respondents a memory retrieval strategy had no effect on agency awareness overclaiming. A multivariate model, which included demographic variables, response style variables, and knowledge variables, explained 40% of the variance of agency awareness overclaiming.     

Genetic control and evolution of acoustic signals in planthoppers (Homoptera: Delphacidae)

Acoustic signals are part of the specific mate recognition system of planthoppers. The genetic control of acoustic signal characters was studied in the planthopperRibautodelphax imitans. Artificial selection for interpulse interval in the female call revealed a large additive genetic component for this polygenic character. Other female call characters showed a correlated response. Some male call characters also appeared to be genetically correlated with the female character selected for, despite the rather different structure of male and female calls. Parent-offspring regression provided significant heritability estimates for those male call characters that also responded to artificial selection in the female call, one of which appeared to be influenced by sex-linked genes. It is argued that the differentiation of this mate recognition system in planthopper populations and species could be the result of founder effects, enabled by the genetic plasticity of the call characters and the existence of a wing length dimorphism in these animals.     

Land use conflict after the wildlife and countryside act 1981: the role of the farming and wildlife advisory group

As the conflict between agriculture and conservation in Britain continues, the farming and landowning lobby has placed increasing emphasis on the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG). This paper examines the development of FWAG as a mechanism for self-regulation through a voluntary and co-operative approach to conservation within the farming community. FWAG, until recently accorded little attention either by farmers or government, now enjoys considerable patronage, and new-found financial support from the Countryside Commission. As the National Farmers' Union (NFU) and Country Landowners' Association (CLA) seek to contain the tide of criticism of activities in the countryside FWAG, essentially a practical advisory body, has assumed a crucial ideological importance in the presentation of the farmers' traditional case of ‘stewardship’ and ‘good husbandry’. The paper concludes by stressing the dilemma facing the NFU and CLA as they seek to satisfy the wishes of their own members, government and the conservation lobby.     

A product-limit estimator for use with length-biased data

The following life-testing situation is considered. At some time in the distant past, n objects, from a population with life distribution F, were put in use; whenever an object failed, it was promptly replaced. At some time τ, long after the start of the process, a statistician starts observing the n objects in use at that time; he knows the age of each of those n objects, and observes each of them for a fixed length of time? ∞, or until failure, whichever occurs first. In the case where T is finite, some of the observations may be censored; in the case where T =∞, there is no censoring. The total life of an object in use at time ∞ is a length-biased observation from F. A nonparametric estimator of the (cumulative) hazard function is proposed, and is used to construct an estimator of F which is of the product-limit type. Strong uniform consistency results (for n → ∞) are obtained. An “Aalen-Johansen” identity, satisfied by any pair of life distributions and their (cumulative) hazard functions, is used in obtaining rate-of-convergence results.     

Revisiting histories of anti-racist thought and activism

ABSTRACT

This piece reconsiders histories of anti-racist thought and practice, including the linkages between anti-racisms and other traditions of liberatory thought. We argue that anti-racism should be understood as a strand in radical thought linking internationalism, institutional critique and street activism, in the process interfeeding with other social movements. The traditions of anti-racist thought discussed in this special issue exemplify these cross-cutting influences.     

Market Liberalisation,Vertical Integration and Price Behaviour in Tanzania's Coffee Auction

Whether market liberalisation can promote agricultural development in Africa depends on how well existing institutions can facilitate trade by private agents. This article assesses the performance of the Tanzania coffee marketing system after liberalisation and the emergence of private, vertically integrated exporters (VIEs). Increasing producer prices, declining marketing margins, and the continued provision of a useful auction for coffee that is delivered by traders who are not VIEs all suggest a degree of success for liberalisation. The presence of VIEs seems to have provided investment to reduce marketing costs, whilst a sufficient number of competing firms has limited non‐competitive behaviour in the market for coffee that is traded at the auction by non‐VIEs.     

Body Appreciation and Contraceptive Use Among College Women: A Brief Report

Research suggests that body image and sexual behaviors are related, with poor body image associated with risky behaviors and positive body image related to protective behaviors. However, few studies explore the relationships between positive body image and contraceptive use. Accordingly, the current study investigated the relationship between body appreciation and barrier and hormonal contraceptive use among college women (N = 399). Body appreciation was significantly related to male condom use and to the use of both male condoms and a hormonal contraceptive. These findings are promising as dual contraceptive use is the best way to prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).