Maternal Functioning, Time, and Money: The World of Work and Welfare

Numerous studies have assessed families' employment and financial stability following welfare reform. Yet little research has addressed whether welfare and work transitions are linked with other changes in family functioning. Using a representative sample of approximately 2,000 low-income urban families from the Three-City Study, analyses assessed whether mothers' welfare and employment experiences over a two-year period following welfare reform were related to changes in family well-being. Lagged regression models controlling for family characteristics and earlier levels of functioning found that moving into employment and stable employment (of 30 hours or more per week) were linked to substantial increases in income and improvements in mothers' psychological well-being. Movements into employment also were associated with declines in financial strain and food insecurity. Sustained or initiated welfare receipt was related to relative declines in income, physical health, and psychological well-being, but also to improved access to medical care. In contrast, mothers' welfare and work experiences showed very limited relations to changes in the quality of parenting or of children's home environments. These patterns were similar for families with young children and those with adolescent children. Results suggest that parenting behaviors are more resistant to change than are maternal emotional and economic functioning.     

Who constructed post-industrial society? An informal account of a paradigm shift at Columbia,pre-daniel bell

The American Sociologist - Columbia sociologists from the 1940s to 1970s probed core elements of post-industrial society. Lazarsfeld, Merton, and their colleagues conducted many detailed studies...     

An analysis of variables affecting length of stay in foster care

The purpose of this paper was to find out whether the relationship between type of contact with agency and/or child in foster care and average number of contacts over time makes any difference in length of stay in foster care. Four types of contacts were examined: Family—Agency, Family Initiated—Agency, Social Worker—Initiated, and Family—Child. Results indicated that there were critical numbers for each contact type found to be statistically significant that would tend to reduce the length of the child's stay in foster care. The importance of contact during the first month of placement was emphasized.     

The Use of Multiple Family Marathon as a Teaching Device

This paper discusses the rationale and methods for using a multiple family marathon as a teaching device in the context of an intensive group-supervision family therapy training program conducted by the authors. Procedures used in the marathon are described, as well as how the concept stimulates increased focus on issues common to family therapy and broadens the experience of the students. The effects of the marathon on the students' views of their therapy families and of themselves as family therapists are explored.     

Achieving the vision of deinstitutionalization: A role for foster care?

This paper addresses the potential of specialized foster care for deinstitutionalizing young people. We review studies of factors related to recruitment and placement stability. In discussing these respective factors we argue for a more empirically oriented approach to program planning and development. We suggest a strong focus upon systematic study of selection, payment, professional status, training, and relief levels in order to document optimal placement stability in expanding the use of specialized foster care.     

Symbolic victory and political reality in the southern textile industry: The meaning of the J. P. Stevens settlement for southern labor relations

In October, 1980, J. P. Stevens & Company ended a long, bitter labor-management battle by signing a contract with the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU). Labor hailed the victory as its long-delayed break-through for workers in the traditionally nonunion, low-wage industries of the South. This paper assesses the importance of the Stevens/ACTWU settlement for Stevens, the textile industry, and the changing Southern economy. When the ACTWU victory is examined in this light, it becomes clear that the impact of the settlement is far more limited than is generally believed.     

Mirroring and autonomy: The dual tasks of mothers

Theexperience of being a mother, of being the developmental partner for the pre-oedipal child, is complex and demanding. A woman must learn to balance her own needs and identity as a person with the child's need for appropriate merging and distancing. The child's own developmental push requires a constant shifting in the mother's balance between herself and the child. This article explores some of the factors involved in the mother's experience of her dual task, and some of the ways in which the mother's development as a person is reciprocally related to her child's developmental demands.She is in private practice and also a research consultant. Ms. Walter is in private practice and a consultant, Family Service of Montgomery County.     

Organisation structure,management style and company performance

This paper examines the relationship between organisation structure and management style and their influence on organisational effectiveness measured in both ‘human’ and financial terms. Account has also been taken of related contextual factors such as differences in task, size and environment of a company. Using information collected from a sample of fifty small and medium size printing and building firms the authors have elaborated a conceptual model involving the independent attributes; integration, control, task orientation and people orientation. The validity of this model has been operationally tested and examined against the background of evidence reported by other research workers on the contextual determinants of organisational structure and management style. Substantially different patterns of association between ‘organisation’ and ‘style’ and company performance are found for the two industries and an important outcome of the research has been to produce further evidence in favour of the contingency theory of organisation. The paper concludes with some implications for management practice and organisational design.     

Family Therapy for Chronic Childhood Asthma†

Family therapy has been increasingly advocated in the management of chronic severe childhood asthma. At the Adelaide Children's Hospital we are currently engaged in a trial of family therapy in chronic childhood asthma. Effectiveness of family therapy is judged with a twelve-month follow-up on reduction of symptoms, drug use, emergency physician visits and hospital admissions and on improvement in school attendance and social and family functioning compared to the previous two years experience of the treated patients and compared to a cohort of untreated patients Of similar severity. We are particularly interested in studying different patterns of conflict detouring (child centredness, triangulation and fixed coalition) and the different therapeutic strategies required.