The evidence base for social support interventions in child and family practice: Emerging issues for research and practice

This paper examines the evidence base for interventions which seek to enhance social support resources for families with children at risk of adverse developmental outcomes. Substantive and methodological issues related to the implementation of social support interventions are discussed and a research agenda for the development, testing and evaluation of such interventions is presented.     

Understanding How Case Managers Use ‘Sabotage’ as a Frame for Clinically Difficult Situations

Case managers are among the direct service providers responsible for engaging people with severe mental illnesses. Understanding how they interpret and respond to clinically difficult situations can inform ways to intervene and reduce service disengagement. This qualitative study explored clinically difficult situations when case managers invoked the term ??sabotage??. Interviews were conducted with 21 case managers and analyzed by co-coders focusing on how case managers used the term sabotage to describe service user behavior. Themes that emerged were attributing sabotage to; fear of success, fear of attaining what you desire, avoidance of responsibility and change, and a lack of structured support. Drawing on the concepts of clinical case management and mental health recovery, we consider implications for the training and supervision of case managers and how services are structured.     

Total and forcing total edge-to-vertex monophonic number of a graph

For a connected graph \(G = \left( V,E\right) \), a set \(S\subseteq E(G)\) is called a total edge-to-vertex monophonic set of a connected graph G if the subgraph induced by S has no isolated edges. The total edge-to-vertex monophonic number \(m_{tev}(G)\) of G is the minimum cardinality of its total edge-to-vertex monophonic set of G. The total edge-to-vertex monophonic number of certain classes of graphs is determined and some of its general properties are studied. Connected graphs of size \(q \ge 3 \) with total edge-to-vertex monophonic number q is characterized. It is shown that for positive integers \(r_{m},d_{m}\) and \(l\ge 4\) with \(r_{m}< d_{m} \le 2 r_{m}\), there exists a connected graph G with \(\textit{rad}_ {m} G = r_{m}\), \(\textit{diam}_ {m} G = d_{m}\) and \(m_{tev}(G) = l\) and also shown that for every integers a and b with \(2 \le a \le b\), there exists a connected graph G such that \( m_{ev}\left( G\right) = b\) and \(m_{tev}(G) = a + b\). A forcing subset for S of minimum cardinality is a minimum forcing subset of S. The forcing total edge-to-vertex monophonic number of S, denoted by \(f_{tev}(S)\) is the cardinality of a minimum forcing subset of S. The forcing total edge-to-vertex monophonic number of G, denoted by \(f_{tev}(G) = \textit{min}\{f_{tev}(S)\}\), where the minimum is taken over all total edge-to-vertex monophonic set S in G. The forcing total edge-to-vertex monophonic number of certain classes of graphs are determined and some of its general properties are studied. It is shown that for every integers a and b with \(0 \le a \le b\) and \(b \ge 2\), there exists a connected graph G such that \(f_{tev}(G) = a\) and \( m _{tev}(G) = b\), where \( f _{tev}(G)\) is the forcing total edge-to-vertex monophonic number of G.     

“With Whom no White Scholar can Compare”: Academic Interpretations of the Relationship between W.E.B. Du Bois and Max Weber

Max Weber (1864–1920) is considered one of the canonical founders of sociology, while W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963), author of The Philadelphia Negro (1899), The Souls of Black Folk (1903), and Black Reconstruction (1935), has only recently been included in the sociological canon. We provide a historical review of what we know of their relationship in order to first ask, what did Du Bois say about Weber, and second, what did Weber say about Du Bois? We then analyze the extant scholarly discourse of published English-language academic journal articles that substantively mention both Weber and Du Bois in order to address a third question: what did other scholars say about their relationship? We provide an analysis of the variation of scholars’ perceptions on the relationship between Du Bois and Weber to illumine the dominant assumptions about founding figures and the origin story of American sociology writ large. We argue that three mechanisms of white group interests configured the marginalization of Du Bois from both mainstream and sub-disciplinary sociological theory: (1) reduction or “knowing that we do no know and not caring to know” (when knowledge is perceived as irrelevant to white group interests), (2) deportation or “not wanting to know” (when knowledge is systematically exiled), and (3) appropriation or “not knowing that we do not know”) (when dominant knowledge usurps or assimilates challenges to that knowledge).     

Die Finanzialisierung von Unternehmen

Since the 1990s the financialization of the enterprise is an increasingly important aspect of capitalist development also in Germany. However, more recently a growing number of scholars point at a problematic conceptual stretching of financialization. The term has been defined too differently and ambiguously and has not been distinguished sufficiently from seemingly similar concepts. Financialization has been prematurely identified with a set of fixed effects often condensed to stagist concepts of capitalist development. When analyzing effects financialization has been regarded in isolation without considering interaction effects with other structurations of fields and hence the multi-referentiality of the enterprise. In order to overcome these shortcomings the article proposes a concept for the analysis of firm level financialization which draws on a more general sociological concept of field structuration and dynamics in which the “multi-referential enterprise” operates. Based on this concept the article analyses episodes of financialization in Germany showing its dynamics and limits. Financialization of enterprises proves to be structurally limited, institutionally contested, and unfolds its effects in deferent actor constellations at firm level due to its multiple and contradictory embeddedness.     

Revisiting gendered assumptions of practitioner power: An exploratory study examining the role of social media expertise

The purpose of this exploratory study was to expand upon previous literatures in public relations power, and fill the need for more scholarship regarding practitioners’ perceptions of social media work, power, and gender. Findings from a survey of PRSA members showed that there is a gendered difference in power perception between males and females regardless of their PR roles or level of experience, but social media expertise was perceived equally between both genders. We argue that while social media expertise may serve to reduce a gendered power divide in public relations, continued critical exploration of social media and gender inequality is necessary.     

Implementing School Based Youth Courts in a Rural Context: The Impact on Students’ Perceptions of School Climate,Individual Functioning,and Interpersonal Relationships

The Youth Court in Schools Project was implemented in two low-income, violent, racially/ethnically diverse rural counties. This study examined if the presence of Youth Court impacted students’ perceptions of school danger, individual functioning, and interpersonal relationships. Data were gathered from 3454 youth; following multiple imputation, data were analyzed using paired samples t tests. Results indicated that perceptions of school danger increased significantly and self-esteem decreased significantly in the control schools pretest to posttest. Violent behavior, anxiety, friend rejection, and bullying victimization decreased significantly in the Youth Court intervention schools pretest to posttest, but did not change significantly in the control schools. Findings provide preliminary evidence that Youth Court is an effective way of improving school climate, individual functioning, and interpersonal relationships.     

Precarity and structural racism in Black youth encounters with police

Youth experience increased surveillance by and involuntary contact with police officers compared with other age groups. Studies that explore the experiences of youth during these encounters are scant and focus on youth with criminal histories. This research aims to explore the experiences of college-attending youth between 18 and 24 years old in two southern states. The study was designed and conducted according to the tenets of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Twelve Black youth were recruited and interviewed between April 2015 and April 2016. Three superordinate themes (and subthemes) were identified: (1) negative feelings towards the police; (2) precarity of police encounters (subthemes: police as a threat to welfare; it could be me; steps to follow during police encounters; behavior is irrelevant) and; (3) police response is part of structural racism (subthemes: racism is everywhere; media contributes to racism). The importance of these findings for social work practice and research will be discussed.