Social work students' conception on roles within the family in Greece

The present article is based on a small-scale research that took place with third-year students in the department of social work at Technological Educational Institute of Patras. During class the students, who undertake the laboratory course ‘Social Work with Families’, were asked to discuss family roles and depict them on drawings. Analysing their drawings in a qualitative approach the findings suggest that students adopt traditional views on family issues and the family roles. Various gender stereotypes and prejudices were reflected in students' drawings and this is alarming for both social work education and practice.     

Using Work Values to Predict Post‐Retirement Work Intentions

Work values might be proximal predictors of individuals' late‐career intentions because they serve as guiding principles for the selection, evaluation, and justification of vocational behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between work values and post‐retirement work intentions. The authors investigated individual work values within the structure of 4 higher order values elaborated on by Schwartz et al. ( 2012 ). Relationships between work values and 4 types of post‐retirement work intentions were examined. Data from 1,071 employees of a German logistics company were used to test the hypotheses. The results of a structural equation model indicated that work values were differentially related to the 4 types of post‐retirement work intentions. The identified work value–work type combinations add to the literature on post‐retirement work. Practice implications for promoting positive individual and organizational outcomes are drawn from the results.     

Families' Values and Attitudes Regarding Responsibility for the Frail Elderly

Abstract

This study examines the norms and values associated with care to disabled and frail aging parents, in particular those with regard to the sharing of responsibilities for care between families and formal services, and this within three age cohorts in Quebec, Canada. It is based on a telephone interview of 1,315 people. Factor analysis yielded four factors: (1) family responsibility; (2) uncompromising family obligations; (3) acceptance of services; (4) distrust of services. Analyses of the data indicate that all three age cohorts consider that families have responsibilities for their aging family members, at the same time that they score very high on the acceptance of service scale. This article discusses these seemingly paradoxical results and their implications for aging policy.     

Legal Parenthood and Continued Parent-Child Relationships—The Moral and Experiential Aspects of Parenting

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a construct of parenting which provides criteria for differential solutions in cases of child protection, i.e., confidential adoption, adoption with contact and out-of-home placements. It is proposed that the moral aspect of parenting be central in judicial proceedings regarding the protection of the child. In addition a distinction between the moral and the experiential aspect of parenting should be made. The presentation of this construct is based on the author's assessments of parents when acting as an expert witness to the court (in Israel), in three cases in which compulsory adoption was petitioned by the state. The assessment of the moral aspect of parenting is based on the parent's own evaluation of his/her own parenthood, and the assessment of the experiential aspect is based on the parent-child relationships with a particular emphasis -on the child's responses to the parent. This construct may allow experts to tread the fine line between assessing parents and accusing them and provides a base for negotiation between parents' conceptions of their parenthood and the court's.     

Same-Sex Marriage

Abstract

In this commentary, the legal ramifications and implications of the recent ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Court allowing same-sex marriages to occur in that state are examined. The author then suggests a hypothetical scenario for what the future might look like assuming that the Massachusetts decision is not overturned by adoption of a state constitutional amendment.     

The Transition to Parenthood for Lesbian Couples

Abstract

While there is a slowly growing literature on lesbians with older children, the literature on the transition to parenthood for lesbian couples is scant. The current study examines aspects of the transition to parenthood experience for 29 lesbian couples. Specifically, this study explores aspects of couples' decision-making regarding alternative insemination (e.g., who would carry and bear the child, donor type), perceptions of social support across the transition to parenthood, and availability and use of legal safeguards (such as wills, powers of attorney, and coparent adoptions by nonbiological mothers). Future studies should explore how single lesbians manage the transition to parenthood. Research on lesbians and gay men who are pursuing parenthood through adoption is also needed.     

Sexual Minority Adolescents

Abstract

Most ethical dilemmas confronting professional school counselors (PSCs) do not involve simple solutions. Therefore, to practice ethically, PSCs need to possess and have the ability to articulate their ethical decision-making process with a clear and defendable professional explanation. Specifically, this article details the ethical decision-making process for PSCs working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) adolescents. Additionally, ethical standards and legal statutes relating to counseling LGBT adolescents, ethical decision-making processes, and implications are discussed.     

Weather Watchers: Domestic Weather Observation as a Narrative Framework for a Practice-Based Design Research Project

Domestic objects are increasingly embedded with computational features, and link to a network of other intelligent objects. These technology artifacts can use physical movement to describe the flows of data passing through our homes. Supported by Philips Design and the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre, this research project takes domestic meteorology as a narrative framework for the design of networked, data-responsive prototypes. These weather devices are scattered over existing surfaces, mantlepieces, light fittings, and windows, and use movement to describe changes in the weather. In addition to providing a context for moving objects, meteorology offers some unexpected insights into our relationship with technology, and our use of technology as an ontological tool.     

Missing value imputation method for disaster decision-making using K nearest neighbor

Due to destructiveness of natural disasters, restriction of disaster scenarios and some human causes, missing data usually occur in disaster decision-making problems. In order to estimate missing values of alternatives, this paper focuses on imputing heterogeneous attribute values of disaster based on an improved K nearest neighbor imputation (KNNI) method. Firstly, some definitions of trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (TFNs) are introduced and three types of attributes (i.e. linguistic term sets, intervals and real numbers) are converted to TFNs. Then the correlated degree model is utilized to extract related attributes to form instances that will be used in K nearest neighbor algorithm, and a novel KNNI method merging with correlated degree model is presented. Finally, an illustrative example is given to verify the proposed method and to demonstrate its feasibility and effectiveness.     

地方政府购买公益性法律服务：方式、挑战与路径选择

地方政府购买公益性法律服务既是深化服务型政府建设、转变政府职能之需要,也是贯彻落实党的十八届三中、四中、五中全会和十九大报告精神之具体体现。从实践来看,项目招标制和项目资助制业已成为地方政府购买公益性法律服务的主要方式,但是,公益性法律社团发育程度低、服务购买范围模糊、保障机制不健全,以及政府监管能力薄弱等因素日益对地方政府购买公益性法律服务构成严峻挑战。为此,建议从购买方式的选择、购买范围的界定、保障机制的夯实、法律服务社团的培育,以及政府监管能力的强化等方面入手,构建综合性的政策框架,以推动地方政府购买公益性法律服务朝着健康有序的方向发展。