A Cost–Benefit Analysis of a Family Systems Intervention for Managing Pediatric Chronic Illness

Despite recent increases of psychosocial programs for pediatric chronic illness, few studies have explored their economic benefits. This study investigated the costs–benefits of a family systems‐based, psychosocial intervention for pediatric chronic illness (MEND: Mastering Each New Direction). A quasi‐prospective study compared the 12‐month pre–post direct and indirect costs of 20 families. The total cost for program was estimated to $5,320. Families incurred $15,249 less in direct and $15,627 less in indirect costs after MEND. On average, medical expenses reduced by 86% in direct and indirect costs, for a cost–benefit ratio of 0.17. Therefore, for every dollar spent on the program, families and their third payers saved approximately $5.74. Implications for healthcare policy and reimbursements are discussed.     

Ideas in Action: Teaching Qualitative Analytic Methods in Social Work Research through the Analysis of Song Lyrics

This article describes the innovative use of a pop culture source-song lyrics to augment the teaching of qualitative methods in social work research. The use of pop culture sources as learning tools in the MSW curriculum has the potential to enhance the learning experience for students. These techniques have not been applied in the content of MSW research classes. This approach could be advantageous over other typical data sources because it is more accessible to students while also being reflective of a collective identity of people in society. Future work should assess student and educator responses to this pedagogical approach.     

Home and school influences on the behavioral and academic outcomes of low-income children of color

Framed within contextual systems model, this study examines how home and school operate together to shape behavioral and academic outcomes for 544 low-income African American (56%) and Latino/a (44%) elementary school-aged children (mean age?=?7.88 years, SD?=?1.46, 50% male). Using data from Welfare, Children, & Families Study: A Three City Study and multiple group path analysis, we found that for children in kindergarten through third grade, the adequacy of the home resources was positively related to applied problem scores (e.g. math literacy) and negatively associated with externalizing behavior. For fourth- to sixth-graders, the adequacy of classroom resources was negatively associated with applied problem scores. For both age groups positive teacher–child relational quality was also a positive predictor of externalizing behavior. Results revealed that barriers to parental involvement in school were a negative predictor of applied problem scores for low-income children in early and later elementary school. Implications for policy and practice aimed at strengthening opportunities for children and families from marginalized communities are discussed.     

Standing up to complexity: researching moral panics in social work

Moral panics are central to social work policy and practice. Voluntary agencies and statutory bodies (including governments) create and sustain moral panics in order to raise awareness of, and win support for, their own understandings of social issues and problems. This is not a neutral enterprise; on the contrary, moral panics often have consequences that are negative, whether intended or unintended. Far from leading to greater social justice and a more equal society, they may reinforce stereotypes and lead to fearful, risk-averse practice. This paper discusses one such moral panic in 2013 that centred on the story of ‘Maria’, a Bulgarian Roma child living in Greece. The paper explores the meaning and use of the concept of moral panic before unpacking this case-study example in more detail. We argue that the moral panic over ‘Maria’ has much to tell us about ideas of welfare and protection, institutional racism and children and childhood, as well as the connections between ‘private troubles’ and ‘public issues’. We conclude that social work as a profession must stand up to complexity, and in doing so, be aware of its own role in relation to moral panics.     

Towards a sociology of risk work: A narrative review and synthesis

In this article, we define the concept of “risk work,” which aims to make visible working practices to assess or manage risk, in order to subject these practices to sociological critique. This article reviews and synthesizes existing published literature to identify components of risk work: (a) translating risk into different contexts, (b) minimizing risks in practice, and (c) caring in the context of risk. We argue that these three components of risk work raise important tensions for workers that have been inadequately explored in the literature to date. We propose that future research should additionally focus on practitioner subjectivity and identity in risk work. In addition, we argue that comparative research—across type of risk and different contexts—and methodological and theoretical diversity would enhance this emerging field of research.     

Death by survey: Estimating adult mortality without selection bias from sibling survival data

The widely used methods for estimating adult mortality rates from sample survey responses about the survival of siblings, parents, spouses, and others depend crucially on an assumption that, as we demonstrate, does not hold in real data. We show that when this assumption is violated so that the mortality rate varies with sibship size, mortality estimates can be massively biased. By using insights from work on the statistical analysis of selection bias, survey weighting, and extrapolation problems, we propose a new and relatively simple method of recovering the mortality rate with both greatly reduced potential for bias and increased clarity about the source of necessary assumptions.     

Master Production Rescheduling Policy in Capacity-Constrained Just-In-Time Make-To-Stock Environments

This paper describes a simulation experiment to evaluate the relative effectiveness of rescheduling policies in capacity-constrained, just-in-time (JIT) make-to-stock production environments. Three performance measures were analyzed: average finished goods inventory, total units of sales lost, and a measure of schedule instability. Among the three loading methods we studied (level loading, front loading, and back loading), none was superior across all three performance measures. Level loading was the most robust, while back loading had an interaction effect with forecasting model and capacity level. Time fence scenario was found not to be as significant a factor in system performance as reported by previous research. Once an acceptable time fence scenario is selected, attempts to optimize this factor do not appear to offer significant improvement. It was found that higher demand variation, larger forecast errors, and tight capacity lead to the degradation of system performance. Judicious use of slack capacity helps a system to incorporate the periodic schedule changes typical of JIT systems.     

Income Inequality across the Rural-Urban Continuum in the United States, 1970–2016*

The growth in macro-level income inequality in the United States is well established, but less is known about patterns of inequality at subnational scales and how they vary between and within rural and urban localities. Using data from the Decennial Census and American Community Survey, we produce estimates of within-county income inequality from 1970 to 2016 and analyze differences in inequality levels, the persistence of high (low) inequality, and populations' exposure to high (low) inequality across the rural-urban continuum. We find that income inequality has historically been higher in non-metropolitan than metropolitan counties, but inequality levels converged by 2016 due to growing inequality in metropolitan counties. Additionally, levels of inequality were generally persistent within counties over time, except that counties characterized by low inequality in 1970 were unlikely to remain as such in 2016. Third, non-trivial shares of the metropolitan population resided in low-inequality contexts in 1970, but virtually none of the U.S. population resided in such places by 2016. Residence in high-inequality counties is normative in rural and urban America. This statistical analysis provides an updated portrait of income inequality across the rural-urban continuum, and should spur additional research on stratification in rural America during an era of growing inequality.     

Disruption and the theory of the interaction order

Micro-sociological theory has traditionally stressed interactional pressures towards alignment: actors’ attempts to co-construct a shared definition of the situation. We argue that this model provides an insufficient account of the coordination of action and of the emergence of intersubjectivity among actors. To complement the focus on alignment, we develop a theory of disruption—a perceived misalignment of the dramaturgical structure of interaction in coordinating expected lines of action. We develop a theory of the interaction order that takes the interplay between interactional alignment and disruption as a foundational challenge both for sociology and for actors in their everyday lives. We focus on the practical ways in which actors negotiate both interactional breaches and wider relational ruptures, and how they differentiate between disruptions-of relations and disruptions-for them. By doing so, we connect the interaction order to a wider relational order, providing a bridge between micro-level interactionism and the sociology of culture.

     

Reconciling care and justice in contesting social harm through performance and arts practice with looked after children and care leavers

The proportion of young people taken into the care of the state has increased recently and there is evidence that this social group suffer negative long‐term outcomes that might be conceptualised by the emergent criminological category of ‘social harm’. Debates in social work around an ethics of care and justice offer different ways of thinking about responding to social harm. This paper reports findings from an innovative arts‐based intervention with Looked After Children and young people and concludes that holding these competing value sets in creative tension is central to the success of the programme in helping young people to cope with and contest social harm.