Psychosocial Problems Associated With Homelessness in Sexual Minority Youths

Sexual minorities are overrepresented among homeless youths, and this is often related to reactions to their status as sexual minorities. While on the streets, they are at increased risk for victimization, substance and alcohol use, sexual risk behaviors, and mental health issues compared to homeless heterosexual youths. This article uses ecological systems theory to examine psychosocial problems associated with homelessness among sexual minority youths and reviews empirical literature examining outcomes related to homeless sexual minority youths including mental health, substance use, and sexual risk behavior. Implications for social work are discussed including practice, policy, and suggestions for future studies.     

Harm by Her Own Hand

Abstract

Recent research regarding violence among juveniles has left important questions unanswered. One question involves the effect of gender. This paper reports the results of a study examining gender differences in violent behavior. The records of 136 juveniles (m = 71; f = 65) were reviewed to test the hypothesis that sexual abuse, low levels of family support, and low levels of support from friends would predict self-directed violence more effectively among females than among males. Logistic regression models correctly classified 71% of the girls and 76.06% of the boys. The model for girls identified 79.49% (9.59% improvement) of the non-mutilators and 57.69% (16.62% improvement) of the mutilators. The model for boys predicted non-mutilation with 100% accuracy (25% improvement), but did not correctly classify any mutilators (23.61% decrease in predictive capacity). The study supported the hypothesis and has important implications for social work practice.     

慈善捐赠的法律界定

慈善捐赠是多元化的民事法律行为,是自愿、无偿、单务和不可任意撤销的捐赠。慈善捐赠的标的物种类繁多,可为有形财产,可为无形财产。捐赠财产的归属并不单一,应根据捐赠行为属性等因素进行具体分析。受赠对象既可为组织,亦可为个人,但应以捐赠人对受赠人不负有法定救助义务为限,且必须用作有益于社会或个人的事情。慈善捐赠的外延极大,因此须要进行类型化的分析。     

Social Support and College Student Contraceptive Use

The present study investigated the relative levels of four sources of perceived support for contraceptive use-mother, father, best same-sex friend, sexual partner-and motivation to comply with influence from those sources by young men and women who used or did not use effective contraception. Overall, best friend and coital partner were perceived as providing the most support, and the same-sex parent the least. However, among nonusers of effective contraception, best friend support exceeded partner support, which was seen as no greater than parental support. Only partner support was related to contraceptive use, and motivation to comply with partner was greater than for the other sources. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed.     

Child Support: The Limits of Social Policy Based on Assumptions of Knavery Extending the Pillars of Social Policy Financing to Aged Care

Julian Le Grand has argued that a key component of welfare reform involves changes in the assumptions about human behaviour which are embedded in social policies. Policy assumptions have been transformed from espousing a belief that social service providers act as well-intentioned knights and recipients as passive pawns, to a stance in which all participants are regarded as self-seeking knaves. These ideas are particularly pertinent to policy developments concerning financial obligations for children, and this paper examines these issues in relation to child support policy in New Zealand. It highlights the evident and inevitable failure of this policy to meet its primary stated aim of revenue generation. In New Zealand this failure is compounded by the creation of parallel systems for dealing with children and families, one for financial obligations and the other for care and development, which are founded on diametrically opposed assumptions about human behaviour and capabilities. This confusion is symptomatic of a wider failure in government policy towards families in New Zealand.     

Sentencing Male Sex Offenders Under the Age of 14: A Law Reform Advocacy Journey in Hong Kong

The common law presumption that a boy under the age of 14 is incapable of sexual intercourse has provoked controversial debates in Hong Kong. This article describes a 6-step advocacy journey to examine how community efforts have helped modify this law so that juvenile male sexual offenders under the age of 14 who have committed the crime of having sexual intercourse with underage females can be sentenced to receive appropriate treatment. Seven court cases provided by the magistrates’ courts in Hong Kong were used in this advocacy effort for the removal of the presumption in July 2012. Although this effort has yet to reveal signs of effectiveness, it represents greater public awareness about providing rehabilitation appropriate for juvenile sex offenders through a formal sentence. Restorative justice, as opposed to retributive or punitive justice, places an emphasis on rehabilitation of the offender and restoration of victims to a place of wholeness.     

Identifying potential cycling market segments in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania

Most travel behaviour studies that seek to promote cycling define market segments based on socio-demographics, travel mode use or attitudes. They do not address the stages of change process in travel behaviour, whereas this information can be instrumental in influencing travel behaviour change. This paper adopts the stages of change model to identify potential cycling market segments and to analyse and profile each of the market segments based on socio-economic factors, current travel behaviour, attitudes, perceptions and motivations. A survey was conducted among 620 individual regular commuters in the city of Dar-es-Salaam. On the basis of cycling behaviour attitudinal-variable statements, as developed from the stages of change model, the survey data were classified in six different segments: pre-contemplation, contemplation, prepared for action, action, maintenance and relapse. The study revealed that the different segments have different needs and are motivated by different factors suggesting that they need to be treated in different ways. These market segments can have important implications for designing cycling policies and promotional strategies that best serve the needs of each segment. The results indicate that urban policies and marketing strategies which aim to promote bicycle use may first target the contemplation, prepared for action and action segments that are most motivated to change and willing to cycle.     

Measuring Sexual Prejudice Against Gay Men and Lesbian Women: Development of the Sexual Prejudice Scale (SPS)

The presence of bias against gay men and lesbian women remains an ongoing issue, and accurate measurement is essential to targeted intervention. A validation study of a new instrument, the Sexual Prejudice Scale, is reported. Students (N = 851) from 4 different universities participated in this study. An exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted, and results of these analyses indicated a 3-factor solution (affective – valuation, stereotyping, and social equality beliefs) for each of the sex-specific scales. Evidence of validity and the results of the reliability analysis are reported. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Bored employees misbehaving: The relationship between boredom and counterproductive work behaviour

In this study, the relationships among boredom proneness, job boredom, and counterproductive work behaviour (CWB) were examined. Boredom proneness consists of several factors, which include external stimulation and internal stimulation. Given the strong relationships between both the external stimulation factor of boredom proneness (BP-ext) and anger as well as the strong relationship between trait anger and CWB, we hypothesized that examining BP-ext would help us to better understand why employees commit CWB. Five types of CWB have previously been described: abuse against others, production deviance, sabotage, withdrawal and theft. To those we added a sixth, horseplay. Using responses received from 211 participants who were recruited by email from throughout North America (112 of them matched with co-workers), we found support for our central premise. Indeed, both BP-ext and job boredom showed significant relationships with various types of CWB. The boredom proneness factor also moderated the relationship between job boredom and some types of CWB, suggesting that a better understanding of boredom is imperative for designing interventions to prevent CWB.     

Differences in Caregiver Self-Efficacy and Satisfaction Related to Sexual Abuse of Offspring

Research suggests parents of sexually abused children may experience negative perceptions of themselves and their parenting abilities following the victimization of their children, which may influence the recovery process in treatment for these families. This study assessed perceived self-efficacy and parenting satisfaction among female caregivers of sexually abused children and female caregivers whose children were not victimized. Results indicated that caregivers of child victims had significantly lower levels of perceived parenting efficacy than their counterparts. There were no significant differences found between groups with regard to parenting satisfaction. The results highlight the importance of evaluating perceived parenting competence in the treatment of nonoffending caregivers in order to facilitate optimal treatment of the child victim and all members of the family system.