Evaluating the Impact of Post‐Qualifying Social Work Education

Post‐qualifying awards in social work are well established within the continuing professional development agenda for qualified social workers in the UK. The evaluation of education and training should be an integral part of this agenda because it is important to ensure that programmes continue to meet standards of delivery, are successful in meeting their aims and objectives and are making an impact on practice. However, there is a limited amount of published work on the evaluation of post‐qualifying social work education, with studies often focusing on programme delivery rather than on their impact on practice.

This paper explores evaluative work within the current post‐qualifying social work framework and discusses the results of an evaluation of the Vulnerable Adults and Community Care Practice programme, a specialist post‐qualifying social work education programme run by a UK university, as an example of an evaluation of the impact on practice. The results indicate positive evidence of impact on practice and demonstrate examples of how the programme has had a direct effect on individuals, teams, organisations and on people who use services.     

Multiple sex partners among college women and men: Sexual behaviors and sexual satisfaction revisited

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of number of lifetime sex partners on sexual behaviors, sexual attitudes, and sexual satisfaction for never‐married college women and men. An anonymous questionnaire was administered in select classes at a midwestern state university. One‐partner group (one sex partner) women, in comparison to few‐partner (two to five sex partners) and many‐partner (six or more sex partners) group women, were more likely to have been older at first intercourse and to report psychological sexual satisfaction, mastur‐batory guilt, and commitment and love as conditions for sexual intercourse. For men, one‐partner group respondents were also more likely than few‐partner and many‐partner group respondents to report older age at first intercourse, masturbatory guilt, and commitment and love as conditions for sexual intercourse. In an era in which early sexual fulfillment clashes with concerns over unsafe sexual practices, these data provide insights into the influence of multiple partner experience on the sexual behavior patterns of young adults.     

SPIRITUAL CAPITAL AND THE “GOOD LIFE”

Recent research indicates that reward level is a better predictor of marital adjustment for urban than for rural women, while some specific reward areas are better predictors for urban men. Based upon questionnaire responses from 209 young, married subjects, the present study continues this line of inquiry by examining the impact of a variety of variables, in addition to reward levels, on adjustment. Findings indicate that more factors are significantly related to adjustment for urban than for rural subjects and that they are better predictors for the urban group. Rural/urban differences exist in the relative importance of the variables in predicting adjustment, with fairness issues being more important for rural respondents. The model explains 31.8% more of the variance in adjustment for urban than for rural subjects (75.1% vs. 43.3%). Results suggest that different social psychological process may be operating in the two groups. Implications for family scholars are discussed.     

CRACKED BABIES AND THE PARTIAL BIRTH OF A NATION: MILLENNIALISM AND FETAL CITIZENSHIP

This essay explores whether fetal protection cases concerning ‘partial birth’ and ‘crack babies’ reflect an undercurrent of millennialism that characterizes anti-abortion violence. Because the dichotomized millennialist worldview of pure and impure domains easily corroborates racialist ideas that there are pure and impure races, discussions of fetal protection may also accommodate race-specific assumptions or implications. Fetuses involved in ‘partial birth’ abortions are routinely portrayed as purely innocent, whole, and intact babies worthy of the privileges of citizenship that will save them from death. But ‘crack babies’, who are explicitly presumed to be black, are routinely portrayed as impure, tainted, and polluted babies who are a liability to society and from whom the tax-paying citizenry should be saved. Viewed comparatively, these legal disputes may be seen as unwittingly reinscribing the racialist tenets of far-right groups that consider abortion to be the apocalyptic end times of white America.     

Object relations theory: Cultural and social implications for psychotherapy with individuals who are deaf

The case of Rita highlights the importance of integrating a multicultural perspective with psychodynamic theory for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. Social constructivist theory suggests that the meaning and stigma of deafness influences the parent‐child relationship as well as the numerous socialization experiences that an individual encounters. As this paper shows, the Deaf community, with its unique linguistic, cultural, and social processes, played an integral role in developing whole object relations for Rita. This case exemplifies the importance of integrating psychological, sociocultural, and linguistic components, which are essential to the development of those who are deaf.     

Identity Development in Emancipated Young Adults Following Foster Care

This qualitative study explored the experiences of 12 youth who were emancipated from state‐sponsored foster care at age 18 and attempted to establish themselves independently. The findings were analyzed through the lens of two developmental theories: separation/individuation and relational/cultural. Interview data revealed that the often‐difficult experiences of emancipating from foster care influenced an evolving sense of self. Participants identified strongly with self‐sufficiency and help‐avoidance and reported an inaccessibility of peer support. Although much of the current literature focuses on critiques of public foster care programs, this study provides insights into how youth have been personally affected by emancipation. It also contains implications for social work practice with emancipated and soon to be emancipating youth.     

The Price Effects of Family Caps on Fertility Decisions of Poor Women

ABSTRACT

Family Caps have been a popular welfare reform policy designed to discourage women on welfare from bearing additional children. It has been thought that the principal mechanism through which a Cap achieves its objective of lower birth rates is the financial pressure placed on women by the denial of cash benefits. Our study uses instrumental variables Probit modeling to directly measure the contribution that price makes to Cap impact on births. We reexamine data from the New Jersey Family Development Program (n = 8,393) experiment and find that only a very small percentage (about 2.5%) of the overall Family Cap effect reported in earlier studies can be attributed to price. Moreover, the price effect holds only for short-term Black welfare recipients. We speculate that much of the unexplained Family Cap treatment effect stems from a message of social pressure and disapproval toward welfare receipt and childbearing on welfare. We offer a possible direction for future research which would directly measure the social disapproval component.     

Parenting stress among US Army spouses during combat‐related deployments: the role of sense of coherence

The present study seeks to model the effects of parenting stress on contentment experienced by spouses of soldiers deployed to Iraq for long periods of time (n= 200). Using the ABC‐X model from family stress and resiliency theory, a path analysis determined that, in addition to parenting stress, the length of deployment and the ethnic background of the Army spouse also acted as contributing stress factors influencing not only contentment, but perception of family coping and the sense of coherence experienced by the spouse during long‐term deployments (mean = 4.6 months). The mean age of children in the home was found to have significant effect on sense of coherence in this particular sample of women. The influence of the stressors in the statistical model on life contentment was mostly ameliorated by sense of coherence (i.e. perception of comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness in daily life). In other words, spouses with higher sense of coherence experienced better contentment with their lives during deployments. The study also captures qualitative responses and provides several themes associated with daily experiences of Army spouses. Implications for both military and civilian social workers are discussed.