Teaching research in practice courses

Students of social work and related professions are often resistant to study research. Efforts to resolve this problem have focused on making research courses more experiential and developing a 'user friendly' curricula. This article presents an experimental strategy used in one American school of social work to teach research-related content within the context of a practice course. Students' and teachers' evaluations indicate that this may be useful to enable students to acquire tools with which to use and conduct research.     

The challenge of post qualifying child care award teaching: reflexivity and the role of books and biscuits

Based on an ethnographic study, this paper seeks to examine some of the challenges presented by the delivery of the post‐qualifying child care award in one particular geographical area. This exploration will be placed within the context of the dynamics of ‘reflexivity’ and the different types of knowledge that are required for practice, and will draw on both attachment theory and an understanding of unconscious processes in organisations. Aspects of the teaching experience will be described together with an analysis of some of the dynamics that were generated. Barriers to the absorption of material will be considered and evidence will be presented of the institutionalised attack on thinking, reflection and systematic analysis that has taken place in child care social work over the last decade. It will be argued that unless organisational defences against knowledge and understanding are addressed and thinking space made for candidates to engage in such training, its aims will be sabotaged and child social workers will continue to feel undervalued and ill equipped to deal with the increasing complexity of their work.     

女性社会地位与总和生育率

在审视现有衡量女性社会地位的指标体系并用主成分分析法构建出新的指标体系的基础上,依据联合国人类发展报告中提供的数据,对全世界36个具有代表性的国家的女性社会地位与总和生育率的关系进行了研究分析,对最不发达国家进行了补充性分析。研究表明:一个国家女性的社会地位越高,总和生育率越低;一个国家的妇幼医疗保障水平对该国生育率的变动有着特殊重要的意义。     

“关怀伦理”视阈下和谐师生关系的构建

"教育亲情疏离"是目前高校普遍存在的现象."关怀伦理学"则有助于改善和提升师生关系的品质,促进二者的亲近和谐.文章从教师、学生、学校三个教育实践层面上提出构建亲近和谐师生关系的设想,以期促进高等教育事业健康发展.     

孝文化的文献综述与孝观念的调查

随着社会经济发展和人口老龄化,高龄老人的成年子女照顾者成为老年人照顾领域备受关注的群体。笔者通过对2006年深圳高龄老人成年子女照顾者的调查数据分析发现,尽管我国面临着经济和社会的转型,遵从孝道规范对成年子女照顾老年父母的日常生活有巨大的影响作用,而男性和女性在对待孝道观念存在一些差异。     

Early Childhood Developmental and Nutritional Training for Foster Parents

This exploratory study examined the effectiveness of a foster parent nutrition training program. Conducted in collaboration between Woman, Infants and Children (WIC) and a state foster care licensing agency, the study involved providing an intensive training to 11 self-selected foster parents. The participants completed pre-tests and post-tests related to their level of knowledge and comfort in the area of infant nutritional needs. Paired t-tests detected significant differences before and after the intervention, with participants reporting improved knowledge and understanding. While the sample was small and voluntary, the authors feel these pilot results merit further attention in the areas of practice and research.     

Work and Care Strategies of European Families: Similarities or National Differences?

This paper examines the work and care strategies chosen by full‐time working families with children in Finland, Italy, Portugal and the UK. It asks whether European families in different countries, facing the same problems of balancing employment and childcare responsibilities, respond to their situations in similar ways. An increase in dual‐earner families where both parents work full‐time represents a general employment trend in today's Europe. Also, within families with children, such employment patterns are now more common than they were previously. National differences may therefore not any longer be as marked as often indicated by country‐based surveys. The qualitative data from the SOCCARE Project offer a way to examine this issue. The focal point of the paper is to make a comparative analysis of couples in similar work and care situations. Using their working hours as the common denominator, this paper analyses their daily childcare arrangements and how these are impacted by gender roles, working schedules, flexibility of workplace, income levels, parents’ educational background and availability of care facilities. The paper concludes that European families’ work and care strategies have many similarities whereby national differences may not be as marked as often indicated by contemporary research.     

Trends in inequality in infant mortality in the north of England, 1921–1973, and their association with urban and social structure

Summary.  The paper analyses a time series of infant mortality rates in the north of England from 1921 to the early 1970s at a spatial scale that is more disaggregated than in previous studies of infant mortality trends in this period. The paper describes regression methods to obtain mortality gradients over socioeconomic indicators from the censuses of 1931, 1951, 1961 and 1971 and to assess whether there is any evidence for widening spatial inequalities in infant mortality outcomes against a background of an overall reduction in the infant mortality rate. Changes in the degree of inequality are also formally assessed by inequality measures such as the Gini and Theil indices, for which sampling densities are obtained and significant changes assessed. The analysis concerns a relatively infrequent outcome (especially towards the end of the period that is considered) and a high proportion of districts with small populations, so necessitating the use of appropriate methods for deriving indices of inequality and for regression modelling.     

A Group Approach to Fostering Self-Cohesion and Developmental Progression in Female Adolescent Group Home Residents

In this project, the applicability of David Wexler's (1991a,b) multi-model Program for Innovative Self Management (PRISM) to adolescent girls in group home placement was explored. The model is based on self-psychological and developmental theory. Originally developed for use in adolescent inpatient settings, PRISM utilizes cognitive-behavioral and relaxation techniques to equip the acting out adolescents with skills to better manage a wide array of emotions and behaviors. A modified version of PRISM was conducted in a group psychotherapeutic format with eighteen residents of two group homes, ages 14 to 18. The study reflected that the participants embraced the model and applied the skills with encouraging results. Recommendations for future research in this area are presented.     

Kinship care for children in the UK: messages from research,lessons for policy and practice1

This article presents a comprehensive overview of kinship care, or as it is also known, family and friends care, paying particular attention to the UK child welfare, legal, policy/practice contexts. The aim of the article is to raise awareness, and provide information, about a hitherto largely invisible, yet expanding placement option being widely used in child welfare systems in the UK, in Europe and elsewhere. The article places kinship care within a UK and European child welfare legal context, including the European Convention on Human Rights 1998 [Articles 8 and 14] and European kinship care developments are also highlighted. It contains the main findings of a kinship care research study conducted by the author, based on interviews with children and young people living with kinship carers, as well as with the kinship carers. Following an examination of theoretical and policy issues, the article examines ways forward for developing and supporting kinship care. In the final section, and based on the research findings and literature review, a new paradigm for child welfare is introduced. It is argued that this new paradigm is necessary in order for kinship care practice and policy to develop within a supported and sustainable family support framework.