Evaluation of the RAINN National Sexual Assault Online Hotline

ABSTRACT

This article describes the evaluation of rainn National Sexual Assault Online Hotline, a new model for delivery of rape and sexual assault crisis services through a secure, confidential chat-based online hotline. Outcome data from 623 visitors and 54 volunteers for the first 11 months of the program are presented. The results indicate that the model is viable and useful for approximately 80 percent of visitors, and volunteers are satisfied with the program. Recommendations for program development and further research are presented.     

Differential fertility in Puerto Rico

In spite of high overall fertility Puerto Rico exhibits fertility differentials resembling those in areas where birth rates are low. The fertility of whites exceeds that of non-whites, educational standards influence child-bearing and there is a rural urban differential of long standing. These differences are documented in the paper and their implication for future population development in Puerto Rico is discussed     

Geriatric Enrichment in Social Work Education: Lessons Learned from the GeroRich Projects

The Geriatric Enrichment in Social Work Education (GeroRich) initiative was a critical step in addressing the national shortage of social workers interested in gerontological practice. Sixty-seven social work programs participated in the 3-year GeroRich project designed to infuse gerontological content into the BSW and MSW curriculum. This study analyzed the lessons learned by participating institutions about the curriculum enrichment effort. Five themes emerged from the qualitative analysis of GeroRich final reports: (a) obtaining faculty buy-in and faculty development, (b) increasing student interest and engagement, (c) developing community partners, (d) developing interdisciplinary linkages, and (e) facilitating institutional commitment and sustainability. The findings from this study provide valuable information on the implementation of curricular enrichment efforts in gerontology that can benefit social work and other health care disciplines.     

Getting that Certain Feeling: The Role of Emotions in the Meaning,Construction and Enactment of Doctor Managers' Identities

Although identity research in organizations has increased in recent years, none of the current perspectives has examined the role of emotion for understanding how individuals construct and enact professional identity. In this paper we examine how emotions affect the development, conduct and meanings of professional identity among a sample of 20 doctor managers from two Spanish hospitals. While not excluding other approaches, we found that a social identity approach was especially useful. The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, our results provide new insights about how, in a work setting, emotions prioritize awareness of identity issues that need attention. Second, we discuss the role of emotions for understanding complex role identities by reference to the enactment of different sides of doctor managers' identities. Third, we show how our analysis of the findings may be used to embellish the social identity approach.     

Security Abeyance: Coping with the Erosion of Job Conditions and Treatment

The construct of security abeyance is proposed to explain how general insecurity might commonly arise during organizational restructuring. Security abeyance refers to feelings of general insecurity that emerge in work settings where there is an absence of information about the meaning and intention of organizational change. The value of the abeyance construct is explored using a study of change in the air traffic sector. For security abeyance to emerge, unreadable management actions needed to be also accompanied by confusions about the worker's organizational value. In the face of an enduring frustration of meaning, initial, neutral attempts at sensemaking gave way to more proactive efforts to provoke management into clarifying workers' futures. Resolution of the abeyance predicament was found to require workers to let go of attempts to evaluate their current, personal worth to the organization and to extensively re-evaluate their long-term relationship with management. However, the emergence of highly distrustful worker constructions of management did not affect other, established organizational attachments. The case for developing security abeyance research is made.     

JOINING FOR CHANGE: AN INTERVENTION OF STATE CHANGE OR AN INTERACTION OF UNFORESEEN CONSEQUENCES?

This article is in response to Laurie Charlés' (this issue) research article on hostage negotiation. It is suggested that her article provides an opportunity for family therapists to reexamine our own taken-for-granted clinical practices, particularly the practice of joining to achieve rapport. Rapport is considered from the two perspectives of either being an experience of the individual (state trait) or as a dynamic process that is relationally accomplished with unpredictable consequences for both participants. Implications for practice and training are presented.     

On the Arrow and Wilson impossibility theorems

A social welfare function is Arrovian if it is transitive-valued and satisfies IIA. We examine the logical relation between the statements (A) If f is Arrovian with domain 𝒫 then it is dictatorial if it satisfies the Pareto criterion and (W) If f is Arrovian with domain 𝒫 then it is dictatorial or inversely dictatorial if it is non-null and satisfies non-imposition. We exhibit a class of domains on which W implies A and another on which A implies W. We also present examples of domains on which one of the statements is true and the other is false. Received: 23 October 2001/Accepted: 19 March 2002 We thank our two referees for their suggestions for improving the exposition.     

A NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR TEACHING/LEARNING MARITAL AND FAMILY THERAPY

A computer technology known as Group Support Systems (GSS) was pilot tested in a doctoral marital and family therapy (MFT) course to explore its usefulness in teaching/learning marital and family therapy. GSS allowed participants to combine face-to-face interaction with dialogue structured by GSS on personal computers. Through linked computers, each participant contributed to group discussions both simultaneously and anonymously. GSS was used to discuss a videotape, to conduct two role plays, and to write this paper. GSS was found to improve brain-storming, enhance collaboration, reduce hierarchical status among participants, increase self-reflection, create a trusting environment, and promote group-supported active learning. Recommendations for further MFT teaching, research, and application of GSS are presented.