Fighting Violence in and Around Schools

Abstract

Violence in and around schools in America is a common occurrance. Cliques, bullies and gangs that taunt “straight children” are attracting millions of followers who feel caught in a maze with no escape route. This article presents a model that may assist administrators and social workers to deal with violence in America's schools.     

Working parent friendly schools: the role of school instrumental support in work–family conflict

Instrumental support can foster or ameliorate parent experiences of work–family conflict. Based on theories relating social support to stress, a framework for considering how school support affects work–family conflict is proposed and tested. Parent experiences of instrumental support (school schedules, school service provision, and staff accessibility) and school demands on parents (volunteer and homework involvement) were investigated in relation to levels of work–family conflict. Work demands were related to both family-interference-with-work and work-interference-with family; family demands related only to time-based family-interference-with-work. Perceptions of school scheduling as supportive were related negatively to both time- and strain-based work-interference-with family, whereas perceptions of school transportation services were related to both time- and strain-based family-interference-with-work. No buffering effects of these types of support were found. Implications for how community organizations can play a role in ameliorating work–family conflict are discussed.     

The State of the Union for Persons with Disabilities in 2004

ABSTRACT

The following provides a summary of a recent poll taken by Harris and commissioned by the National Organization on Disability (NOD). A summary is offered of each question explored in the poll. The findings suggest that people with disabilities continue to be treated as second class citizens.     

The Federal GPRA Evaluation Mandate

Abstract

The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) mandates inclusion of evaluation in federal agency strategic plans, impacting human service programs receiving federal support. Recommended evaluation methods include flexible ongoing and participatory approaches. Yet social work may not be prepared to appropriately respond to the government's demands for accountability. This paper reviews GPRA and its implications for social work practice, evaluation, and research, offering response strategies. The paper suggests that the creation of a National Center for Social Work Research (S. 70/H.R. 663) could help bridge evaluation gaps, offering a centralized mechanism for monitoring evaluation activities and maximizing federal research resources.     

如何在专业技能与语文能力结合中培养学生的创新精神和创业能力

实施素质教育的核心是提高国民和广大劳动者素质,培养学生的创新精神和实践能力,基于此,探讨了中职语文培养学生创新精神和创业能力的几种方法。     

国家和政府资产负债表研究

编制国家和政府资产负债表,可以摸清家底,提高财政管理透明度;可以分析政府资产与负债的结构、比例、期限,揭示政府债务风险;可以借由资产负债表的可持续性保证经济发展的可持续性。探索编制国家资产负债表和建立权责发生制的政府综合财务报告制度,就要研究制定《政府会计准则》,加快政府会计制度的改革,严格界定资产负债表与表内项目的范围,尽快编制国家和政府资产负债表并予以公布,发挥政府资产负债表对中长期财政的预测作用,并加强对政府资产负债表的审计监督。     

Medical Muddle

Nanette Gartrell, MD, is a psychiatrist and researcher whose investigations have documented the mental health and psychological well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people over the past four decades. Nanette is the principal investigator of an ongoing longitudinal study of lesbian families in which the children were conceived by donor insemination. Now in its 27th year, this project has been cited internationally in the debates over equality in marriage, foster care, and adoption. Previously on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Francisco, Nanette is currently a Visiting Distinguished Scholar at the Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law. In 2013, Nanette received the Association of Women Psychiatrists Presidential Commendation Award for “selfless and enduring vision, leadership, wisdom, and mentorship in the fields of women's mental health, ethics, and gender research.” At the age of 63, Nanette experienced a 3 ½ month period of intractable, incapacitating dizziness for which there was never a clear diagnosis.     

A Perilous Paradox: The Contraceptive Behavior of College Students

Abstract

Currently, college students live in a social environment where contraceptive technology is highly effective, contraceptive information and methods are widely available, and premarital sexual activity is generally condoned. Paradoxically, data indicate that these students are poor contraceptive users, and that pregnancy and abortion rates among college students are surprisingly high. Since these social conditions should result in adequate contraceptive usage, other less obvious and overtly less rational factors must be influencing the behavior of this population.

The objectives of this article are to a) describe more fully the paradoxical nature of the problem of contraceptive use among college students, in part by a review of the research on collegiate contraceptive and sexual behavior; b) examine theories which have been offered to explain contraceptive behavior in college populations; and c) discuss implications of existing data and theories for the contraceptive education of young adults. This is a topic which has been relatively neglected as attention has been focused on the sexual and reproductive behavior of younger adolescents. It is also an area where professionals have failed to incorporate the implications of theory and research to the actual delivery of contraceptive health services.     

The COVID‐19 Pandemic: An Evolving Story. Professional and Personal Insights using Self and Culture as Agents of Calm and Healing after a Year of Co‐habitation with Imminent Threat

Being a cross‐cultural systemic therapist, clinical supervisor, and educator means that culture and language are central to my work. They provide a scaffold to develop deeper understanding, increased trust, and connection between myself and my supervisees, students, and clients and facilitate a process for the latter to connect to their own selves and values. Given the fear and uncertainty generated by the COVID‐19 pandemic, there exists a pervasive activation of the sympathetic nervous system in the community. In this article, I present two case studies as examples of a cross‐cultural/cross‐linguistic approach that facilitates two clients to find a place of comfort and calmness and consequently a balancing activation of the para‐sympathetic nervous system. First is a client who, due to the overwhelming pandemic chaos, suddenly exhibited a host of signs and symptoms of a functional neurological nature, which she experienced as a lack of control and disconnection from her body, her primary language, and herself. Within a trusted therapeutic relationship that draws on the culture and primary language of the therapist, the client regains connection with language and enhances her ability to communicate and connect with her body. Second is an international student who is encouraged to use her culture of origin and primary language to induce calmness, reconnect with herself, and return to the familiar as a ‘known’ collectively inclusive, comforting, and nurturing environment.     

The impact of India’s food security policy on domestic and international rice market

Food security policy making in India is at crossroads. India has emerged as a leading rice exporter. The Government of India has introduced the National Food Security Act which requires 33.6 million tons of rice per year for its public food distribution system. In this study, we modeled India’s rice market and analyzed policy implications of the long-term impact of India’s food security act on domestic and international rice market. We developed a structural economic demand and supply model for India’s rice market and further added subsidy equations to trace the consequence of National Food Security Act on domestic rice consumption and on the international market. We specifically focus on three different scenarios: subsidy as price effect, subsidy as inelastic income effect, and subsidy as elastic income effect under the broader framework of National Food Security Act. We found that at the end of the projection period (2024–2025), as a result of rice subsidy program, the consumption of rice increases significantly in the case of price effect while the inelastic income effect has no or less impact on production, consumption, and export of rice. Hence, the policy implication of our study is that if the objective of the National Food Security Act is to increase consumption then it needs to be implemented as price effect.