Self-Concept,Attitudes Toward Career Counseling,and Work Readiness of Malaysian Vocational Students

The authors examined the relationship between self-concept, attitudes toward career counseling, and work readiness among 574 Malaysian vocational students. Attitudes toward career counseling have been studied in Western cultures; however, little is known about how career counseling is perceived in Eastern cultures. Attitudes toward career counseling were examined as a potential mediator of the relationship between self-concept and work readiness. The authors applied structural equation modeling to explain these relationships. Value of career counseling was found to significantly mediate the link between self-concept and work readiness. Results supported a direct relationship between positive self-concept and work readiness skills. This may be due, in part, to a heightened value of career counseling among vocational students that increases career awareness and thus enhances work readiness. Future research could include samples with more female participants and additional constructs, such as self-efficacy and career adaptability.     

Mixed marriage among immigrants and their descendants in the United Kingdom: Analysis of longitudinal data with missing information

This study investigates the formation of endogamous and exogamous marriages among immigrants and their descendants in the United Kingdom. We apply event history analysis to data from the Understanding Society study and use multiple imputation to determine the type of marriage for individuals with missing information on the origin of their spouse. The analysis shows, first, significant differences among immigrants and their descendants in the likelihood of marrying within and outside their ethnic groups. While immigrants from European countries have relatively high exogamous marriage rates, South Asians exhibit a high likelihood of marrying a partner from their own ethnic group; Caribbean people hold an intermediate position. Second, the descendants of immigrants have lower endogamous and higher exogamous marriage rates than their parents; however, for some ethnic groups, particularly South Asians, the differences across generations are small, suggesting that changes in marriage patterns have been slower than expected.     

Verbal Communication about Sex in Marriage: Patterns of Language Use and Its Connection with Relational Outcomes

This study examined the vocabulary husbands and wives use for talking to each other about sex, and connections between language use and relational qualities. Married people (n?=?293) responded to a questionnaire about their use of common sex-related terms and about several characteristics of their marriage: sexual communication satisfaction, relational satisfaction, and relational closeness. Cluster analysis based on reported use revealed that sexual terms fell into clusters characterized as clinical terms, slang, or standard English. Results showed an association between use of sexual terms, particularly slang terms, and both satisfaction and closeness. This connection was stronger for women than for men. The findings offer insight into sexual talk and marital relationships.     

Elementary ELA/Social Studies Integration: Challenges and Limitations

Adding instructional time and holding teachers accountable for teaching social studies are touted as practical, logical steps toward reforming the age-old tradition of marginalization. This qualitative case study of an urban elementary school, examines how nine teachers and one administrator enacted district reforms that added 45 minutes to the instructional day and implemented a series of formative and summative assessments. Each participant was treated as a particular case and a within-case analysis was used. Through classroom observations, interviews, time journals, and official school documents, I describe underlying perceptions and priorities that were barriers to any positive impact time or testing might have afforded social studies. Findings suggest that scheduled or mandated ELA/social studies integration does not always materialize and there are reasons for this gap.     

Assessing Family Problems: An Evaluation of Key Elements of the Children’s Review Schedule

The importance of providing consistent methods for the assessment of need for practice and research in child and family social work has been accepted for some considerable time. One feature identified by key stakeholders, such as Directors of Children’s and Social Services, is the need for rigour in the development of such instruments. This paper reports on an evaluation of the Children’s Review Schedule, an instrument developed in collaboration with one Children’s Department. It focuses on a key aspect of the assessment of need: the measurement of the nature, range and severity of family problems.     

Aeromobilities’ extra-sectoral costs: a methodological reorientation

ABSTRACT

For over a decade, scholars have graced a number of aeromobilities’ socio-cultural dimensions, from being in an airport to commanding an aeroplane. Yet, while this work has heightened appreciations of the political nature of aerial worlds, the propensity has been to focus on the immediate arrangements and politics related to flight. Using civil aviation as an example, this article offers a methodological reorientation and conceptual rethink of how aeromobilities’ (re)production invokes far-reaching political economies in excess of the core activity of aerial conveyances. It seeks to open up worldly webs of iniquitous movements and relations that make aerial life – rather than flying per se – possible in the first place. Interspersing a selection of our research with extant literature, reports and statistics, the article outlines, in coincidence with our earlier findings, two ways in which civil aviation has thus incurred extensive extra-sectoral costs: the material mobilisation of resources for air infrastructures, and the mobilisation of populations and labour for aeromobile development. The discussion aims ultimately to promote a more nuanced understanding of the constituents, and costs, of moving in the present age.     

Indicators of family resilience after the death of a child

The aim of this study was to identify and describe resilience qualities in families after losing a child. Questionnaires, including an open-ended question, were utilized to collect data independently from the parents and siblings of the deceased in 89 Belgian families. The results indicate that family strengths in general, and commitment to the family in particular, helped the families' adaptation after the loss. In addition, the adaptation process after the loss was aided if the family members viewed the crisis as a challenge. Both the siblings and the parents indicated that the extent to which a family experienced support from the community was directly related to family adaptation after the loss. Redefining the situation and utilizing social support from friends and family were underlined as effective family coping strategies. The findings could be used in interventions to promote family resilience, thereby affirming the reparative potential of families.     

Race and Gender Concordance: Strategy to Reduce Healthcare Disparities or Red Herring? Evidence from a Qualitative Study

Healthcare treatment differences persist for African Americans even after controlling for socioeconomic status (van Ryn and Burke 2000). Although blacks represent a sizable percentage of the middle class, most disparities research does not address class heterogeneity. Furthermore, research indicates patient–provider race concordance may mitigate racial disparities in health care (Laveist and Neru-jeter in J Health Soc Behav 43(3):296–306, 2002; IOM in Unequal treatment: confronting racial and ethnic disparities in health care. National Academies Press, Washington, 2002). This study explores race and gender preference for black middle-class women in healthcare settings. The study uses in-depth interviews and focus groups to explore the experiences of thirty African American women between 38 and 67 in a large urban area. The majority of respondents expressed a strong preference for a female OB/GYN (of any race) while 9 preferred a female primary care provider (of any race). Although the women did not express an explicit race preference, they had a strong affinity for black female providers. Importantly, respondents complicated the idea of provider-level race preference by noting that other site-level factors like wait times and the site’s racial composition affected their racial preferences. Although increasing racial diversity among providers is generally positive, respondents suggest that alone will not ameliorate racial disparities. The complexities of the healthcare encounter, including time pressure, clinical uncertainty, and the patient’s desire for expertise regardless of race or gender, all impinge on respondents’ race preferences. Lastly, women noted that site-level factors may be conflated with the race of provider such that having a black provider does not necessarily lead to better care or protect women from discrimination or bias.     

The Indian Ocean travels of Sheikh Yusuf and Imam Ali Ali: literary representations in Ishtiyaq Shukri’s The Silent Minaret and Achmat Dangor’s Bitter Fruit

This article investigates the narrative function of prominent Muslim travellers (both historical and fictional) across the Indian Ocean to South Africa in the seventeenth and nineteenth century respectively. Ishtiyaq Shukri, author of The Silent Minaret, juxtaposes the figure of Sheikh Yusuf with the protagonist Issa Shamsuddin of the narrative present to critique contemporary politics, both in post-apartheid South Africa and in the global North and its ‘war on terror’. Similarly, Achmat Dangor’s novel Bitter Fruit sheds light on the difficult choices faced by the main protagonist, Michael Ali, by drawing on the migration narrative of the Sufi Imam Ali Ali from India to South Africa in the 1890s. Both authors highlight the continuous history of imperial pursuits in the Indian Ocean world and their devastating effects in the past and the narrative present.     

Social Work Students' Research-Related Anxiety and Self-Efficacy: Research Instructors' Perceptions and Teaching Innovations

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine social work research instructors' perceptions of research-related anxiety and research confidence among social work students, and teaching strategies to identify and manage anxiety. A national web-based survey of 186 BSW and MSW social work research instructors was conducted. Many BSW (70%) and MSW (61%) research instructors reported that they used specific activities or approaches to assess or impact upon student anxiety. Qualitative analysis results suggested a teaching model for social work research instructors designed to reduce students' research-related anxiety, including by enhancing their research confidence. Strategies that instructors can use include creating a supportive class climate, providing activities that are emotion-, cognitive-, and action-focused as well as the use of strategic timing. These findings can be used to guide social work research instructors' facilitation of students' attainment of research competencies and help further students' research–practice integration.