Stepfather involvement in social interventions made by youth protection services in stepfamilies

Despite efforts made by management and caseworkers to promote active parental participation in the protective context, fathers or other male figures are often brushed aside from intervention. This paper presents the results of qualitative research on methods used by youth protection caseworkers (n = 22) working with stepfather families. The main objective is to identify items that encourage or discourage stepfather involvement in psychosocial interventions. Results showed that certain items do not apply solely to stepfathers, but influence youth protection caseworker decision‐making from a broader perspective. Particular characteristics associated with being a stepfather significantly influence involvement practices espoused by caseworkers, notably the absence of legal status and biological connection with the mother's children.     

Agency and structure in the life-world of Aboriginal children in Central Australia

This paper offers ethnographic observations on the place of “agency” in the lives of Aboriginal children in Central Australia. The focus is on children's play and adult-child interaction in the remote community of Ernabella, the oldest settlement in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, northern South Australia. The circumstance of Aboriginal children in remote areas is introduced as a contrasting picture: on the one hand, the life of Aboriginal families is shaped by their marginalised socio-economic position and dependency on the state, which has become especially evident in the recently intensified efforts by the government to “mainstream” Aboriginal communities deemed in “social chaos” in order to regulate and thereby improve children's lives; on the other there is the social fact that children enjoy a comparatively high level of autonomy within the Aboriginal domain. The much-observed “freedom” from parental discipline, however, does not simply mean that children assert their will without regard for certain social rules. Rather, it is suggested that it is precisely the relatively low level of direct instruction and reprimand by adults that fosters children's ability to pattern their behaviour in relation to one another and to structure their social world and understandings according to the meanings that they co-create. Agency of this kind often occurs through imaginative play and spontaneously. This paper does not address policy issues directly. However, it is relevant as a background paper on Aboriginal children's lives that contributes to the understanding and recognition of existing social capacities outside institutional settings.     

Collecting experimental network data from interventions on critical links in workplace networks

This article describes and discusses challenges associated with interventionist network data gathering in organizational settings, with a special focus on dyadic interventions. While pointing out major risks of these approaches, we argue that collecting data in combination with dyadic network alteration methods can enable social network researchers to explore network mechanisms from a new angle and potentially benefit the members of the targeted social networks and the entire collectives, if certain research design and implementation principles are followed. We introduce a facilitated self-disclosure method for strengthening critical dyads in social networks in combination with longitudinal and retrospective network measurement. We assess the participants’ perceptions of the different stages of this process by qualitative interviews. The study illustrates that experimental network data collection includes some extra challenges in addition to the many challenges of observational network data collection but participants also reported practical benefits that would not be gained through observational network surveys alone. The results highlight the importance of early and continuous communication during the data collection process with all research participants, not just the management, and the benefits of sharing more of the preliminary results. The lessons learnt through this study can inform the design of experimental network data collection to prioritize the preferences of the participants and their benefits.     

Usability testing,initial implementation,and formative evaluation of an evidence-based intervention: Lessons from a demonstration project to reduce long-term foster care

The field of child welfare faces an undersupply of evidence-based interventions to address long-term foster care. The Permanency Innovations Initiative is a five-year federal demonstration project intended to generate evidence to reduce long stays in foster care for those youth who encounter the most substantial barriers to permanency. This article describes a systematic and staged approach to implementation and evaluation of a PII project that included usability testing as one of its key activities. Usability testing is an industry-derived practice which analyzes early implementation processes and evaluation procedures before they are finalized. This article describes the iterative selection, testing, and analysis of nine usability metrics that were designed to assess three important constructs of the project's initial implementation and evaluation: intervening early, obtaining consent, and engaging parents. Results showed that seven of nine metrics met a predetermined target. This study demonstrates how findings from usability testing influenced the initial implementation and formative evaluation of an evidence-supported intervention. Implications are discussed for usability testing as a quality improvement cycle that may contribute to better operationalized interventions and more reliable, valid, and replicable evidence.     

Voices of 9/11 First Responders: Patterns of Collective Resilience

The aim of the ethnographic research reported here was to increase knowledge concerning the values and social and emotional characteristics of 9/11 responders in order to benefit others in subsequent manmade disasters. The research is based on a series of in-depth interviews conducted with ground zero first responders; firefighters, police officers, fire and police chaplains, and media persons. The materials that emerged from the study indicate that psychodynamic concepts, such as post-traumatic stress, may be too individualistically formulated to take into account the significant factors that acted as the basis for the resilience of these responders.     

A Comparison of two analytic methods for the identification of neighborhoods as intervention and control sites for community-based programs

Study Objective: Interest in community as the focus of public health interventions is growing. However, choosing intervention and comparison neighborhoods when designing community based programs poses a challenge to program planners. Ideally, intervention neighborhoods should be chosen based upon risk profiles and demonstrated need for the program. Multiple sources of data that tap into neighborhood characteristics might be used to facilitate the selection of intervention and comparison neighborhoods for program implementation and evaluation.Design: We present and compare selected characteristics of two analytic methods that can be used to create perinatal risk profiles of neighborhoods within cities. For our example, we used information from several sources of routinely available data and used census tract level low birthweight as our intervention or outcome variable.Main Results: At the neighborhood level, we found average household wealth of the census tract, proportion of births to women with late or no prenatal care, proportion of teen births per census tract, per capita crime rates, proportion of housing violations, and number of community organizations as being important factors identifying neighborhoods at risk for high rates of low birthweight births. Advantages of both methods are discussed and risk profiles generated from either method can be used not only to identify high risk areas of the city for adverse perinatal outcomes but also for the identification of intervention and comparison neighborhoods for implementation of community based programs.     

Career Development and School Success in Adolescents: The Role of Career Interventions

Using longitudinal survey data, the present study examined the effect of participation on career development skills in 6 career education experiences and school success among South Korean adolescents (2,473 young men, 2,132 young women; mean age = 15.86 years). Regression analyses indicated that students who participated in career education programs in school once or twice over a 2‐year period had the highest scores in both career development skills and school success. In contrast, there was no relationship between career education, career development skills, and school success for students who participated in career education programs only once or not at all. Results support the influence of career education interventions on students' career development skills and school success. This study provides accountability information on the effectiveness of career education interventions at South Korean secondary schools. The authors offer suggestions about more effective career interventions that can be applied in South Korean high schools.     

From the Editor

The purposes of this study were to examine medication adherence in older women with coronary heart disease and to identify barriers and facilitators of medication adherence. Methods: The study used a semistructured interview guide and established measures to examine medication taking 3 months after hospital discharge. Results: Thirty-two women completed the study: 65.6% were adherent to medications, but others were less adherent and self-modified their therapy. Over half (52.1%) suffered side effects, 71.9% had experienced psychological barriers, and all had economic barriers. Facilitators included a pillbox system (85%) and discharge medication counseling (90%). Conclusion: Tailored interventions to improve adherence in older women are needed.     

The influence of behavioural heterogeneity on the population level effect of potential prophylactic human immunodeficiency virus type 1 vaccines

Theoretical results indicate that extensive coverage with low efficacy type 1 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccines could substantially reduce the incidence of HIV in developing countries. There is a non-linear relationship between effective vaccine coverage and HIV prevalence such that improved efficacy brings diminishing returns. The relative contribution of HIV-associated mortality and behavioural heterogeneity to this non-linear relationship is explored using deterministic mathematical models. If the duration of risk of acquiring HIV is long relative to the HIV incubation period then infection-associated mortality can generate the non-linear relationship. However, in its absence the same relationship results from behavioural heterogeneity. Models of HIV vaccination alongside other interventions generate qualitative results that suggest that targeted interventions lead to less redundancy in control efforts.     

A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Various Approaches to Visiting Isolated Community Elderly

Two studies were conducted evaluating the effectiveness of friendly visitor programs in increasing clients' life satisfaction. Study 1 found no difference between face-to-face visiting, phone visiting, and a no treatment control on client life satisfaction. Study 2 found a marginally significant difference in favor of a personal history approach over a companionship approach to visiting in increasing client life satisfaction. Clients' living situation (alone or with others) had no effect on changes in life satisfaction in Study 1. However, in Study 2 clients who lived with someone increased their life satisfaction more than clients who lived alone.