Margaret Morgan's Story: A Threshold between Slavery and Freedom, 1820–1842

This article goes beyond previous interpretations of the Prigg v. Pennsylvania opinion by focusing on the historical circumstances and lived experiences of Margaret Morgan and her family and other African Americans who lived along the Mason–Dixon line. By examining the ambiguity of slavery and freedom as revealed in Margaret Morgan's status in Maryland and in Pennsylvania, as well as looking closely at the development of case law in both states, this article also provides a thorough understanding of the issues in the Prigg case.     

Facilitating Stepfamily Education for Latinos

Relationship education programs can serve as a resource to families in developing and maintaining strong familial relationships, particularly for underserved populations. This qualitative study focuses on effective strategies, used by 14 facilitators, to teach Latino participants attending Smart Steps: Embrace the Journey stepfamily education courses in a western state. Results indicated two major themes regarding culturally appropriate strategies. The first dealt with classroom management and the approach of the facilitators, which included three subthemes: encouraging class discussion and sharing, applying cultural understanding, and recognizing the importance of the parent–child relationship. The second major theme addressed modifications to the program curriculum.     

Changes in the quality and regulation of social work education: Confronting the dilemmas of workforce planning and competing qualifications frameworks

The Modernising Social Services agenda seeks to raise the quality of service outcomes through regulation. Because attaining quality outcomes for service users is related to better training of providers, a parallel modernising agenda seeks to raise the quality of education and training through regulation. With the demise of the CCETSW, responsibility for regulating social work education is under debate. Workforce planning is a critical issue, as are trends towards separate qualifications, genericism, and specialism. Two agencies, the QAA (Quality Assurance Agency, responsible for higher education qualification frameworks) and the QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Agency, responsible for work-based qualification frameworks) have established their separate qualifications frameworks, but have not worked out the transferability and equivalence of educational and work-based awards across the separate frameworks. Until consonance is established, a seamless ladder of progression from work-based social care awards to educationally based social work awards is not possible, thereby limiting workers' expertise and career opportunities. This paper argues that change must involve reconciling separate frameworks and resolving issues of transferability, specialism, and genericism. Social work education's partnerships between universities and employers provide lessons for bridging the divide between work-based and educational awards. Women, part-time workers, ethnic minorities, and people with a disability will benefit from accessible transparent frameworks.     

A Multi‐Program Collaboration in Field Education

This paper describes the development of a US‐based field education collaboration among three social work programs that includes: field instructor orientation, continuing education for field instructors, an advisory board, a joint website and database, a field instructor manual and selected joint forms. Benefits, challenges, considerations and strategies will be offered for programs that wish to embark on similar projects.     

Psychological Distress and Related Factors in Female College Students

Abstract

Objective: This study assessed the psychological distress in Spanish college women and analyzed it in relation to sociodemographic and academic factors. Participants and Methods: The authors selected a stratified random sampling of 1,043 college women (average age of 22.2 years). Sociodemographic and academic information were collected, and psychological distress was assessed with the Symptom Checklist-90–Revised. Results: This sample of college women scored the highest on the depression dimension and the lowest on the phobic anxiety dimension. The sample scored higher than women of the general population on the dimensions of obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, paranoid ideation, psychoticism, and on the Global Severity Index. Scores in the sample significantly differed based on age, relationship status, financial independence, year of study, and area of study. Conclusion: The results indicated an elevated level of psychological distress among college women, and therefore college health services need to devote more attention to their mental health.     

Understanding stress as an impediment to academic performance

Abstract

Objectives: Stress is the most commonly reported impediment to academic performance among college students. The objectives of this study were to examine the accuracy of these perceptions, identify demographic and psychosocial factors that distinguished among students who differed in perceptions of how stress affected their performance, and assess the relations between these factors and grade point average (GPA). Participants: Undergraduate students (N?=?8,997) from 20 Midwestern schools. Methods: Participants completed online surveys during February–March 2015 that assessed perceived impediments to academic performance, cumulative GPA, demographic information, and psychosocial factors. Results: Students who reported that stress affected their performance had lower GPAs, and reported more stress and lower coping self-efficacy, resilience, and social support. Male, heterosexual, and ethnic-minority students were less likely to report having stress (but did not have higher GPAs). Conclusion: Stress reduction interventions should target psychosocial factors related to perceiving stress as an impediment and to poorer performance.     

JUST SAY NO

This essay reviews the new Negativland multimedia CD and DVD project No Business, examining how sonic landscapes are created out of plundering popular culture forms. No Business explores the contradictions between proprietary cultural forms and fair use practices, arguing for a notion of creative reappropriation for transformative use.     

Work–life Balance: Is it Now a Problem for Management?

In Western Australia (WA) there is substantial interest by public sector management in work–life balance (WLB) as a strategy to address labour supply problems. This article considers whether the positioning of WLB as a problem for management provides the opportunity for change resulting in an improved quality of working life in the public sector. We report on the implementation of WLB policies in four WA public sector agencies and conclude that managers are ‘managing’ WLB in a limited way, and largely in an individualized manner, at a level that does not disrupt the usual way of organizing work and employment. For many managers, employees' requests to access WLB policies are perceived as being in conflict with operational goals. The findings highlight the inadequacy of much of the WLB discourse that obscures the tension between, on the one hand, the imperative for managers to implement WLB more effectively and, on the other, organizational practices and the broader social, political and economic context in which management and the organization are located.