Young Male Street Workers: Life Histories and Current Experiences

The current study aims to reveal the experiences of young malestreet prostitutes in Israel, providing a stage for the voiceof this marginal group to be heard, as we believe youth workersneed to know more about these young people’s lives beforewe can offer meaningful responses. The study was guided by twomain questions: (1) What accounts do young men who work as prostitutesprovide for their involvement in the sex industry? and (2) Whatare their experiences as young males engaged in prostitution?Using the life story interview and thematic analysis, four mainthemes were revealed: (a) a life-long path to prostitution;(b) entering prostitution; (c) interpersonal encounters whileengaging in prostitution; and (d) the consequences of workingin prostitution. The results highlight the lack of meaningfulinterpersonal relationships in the lives of these young men.Practical recommendations are made to better inform youth workersassisting this high-risk population.     

Structural Analyses Of The Quality Of Life Of Children At Risk

Quality of life (QOL) is usually assessed in terms of levels. This paper, in contrast, examines the structure of the quality of life of its subjects: two groups of children at risk, children who were kept at home and those who were removed from home. The social workers who made the decisions were asked to assess the children’s quality of life using Shye’s Systemic Quality of Life Model. The study’s main finding is that the QOL structure of the two groups of children differs both from the theoretical “ideal” (or “healthy” structure) and from each other. The QOL structure of the children who were kept at home was closer to the ideal than that of the children who were removed. The difference from the ideal in both groups is consistent with the fact that both groups of children at risk, whose QOL is compromised by definition. The greater proximity to the “ideal” of the QOL structure of the children who were kept at home suggests that the social workers who made the decisions viewed these children as having a healthier QOL than the children who were removed from home.     

Comparative well being of Israeli youngsters in residential care with and without siblings

This paper presents the findings of a study comparing the well being and self-esteem of young adolescents (age 12-14) who were placed together with their siblings in residential facilities (intact care) in Israel and of youngsters who were placed without their siblings (separate care). The study examines the contribution of sibling relations, frequency of the meetings between the siblings, parental favoritism, age rank, time in care, self-esteem and perception of parents' economic status to the well being of the youngsters in the two groups. The findings show that the youngsters in intact care (N = 91) reported greater well being than those in separate care (N = 103), but have no other significant differences. Greater self-esteem and sibling closeness improved the well being of both groups of youngsters, but the other predictor variables functioned differently in the two groups. Greater frequency of meetings improved the well being only of the youngsters in intact care, while the other variables examined improved the well being only of those in separate care. Moreover, the examined variables accounted for a greater proportion of the variance in the youngsters' well being when the sibling was absent than when he or she was present. Practical implications are suggested.     

Adolescent and Young Adult Male-to-Female Transsexuals: Pathways to Prostitution

Correspondence to Dr Ronit D. Leichtentritt or Dr Bilha Davidson Arad, Bob Shapell School of Social Work, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel. E-mail: ronitl{at}post.tau.ac.il Summary The current study aims to reveal the experiences of young male-to-femaletranssexuals who work as prostitutes in Israel, providing astage where the voice of this marginal group may be heard, aswe believe social workers need to know more about the realityof these young people’s lives before they can offer meaningfulresponses. The study was guided by two main questions: (1) Whataccounts do young male-to-female transsexuals who work as prostitutesprovide for their involvement in the sex industry? and (2) Whatare their experiences as young transsexuals engaged in prostitution?Using the life story interview and thematic analysis, two mainthemes were revealed: (a) what I ran away from or was thrownout of; and (b) why I became a prostitute, how I became professionalizedand why I continue to work as one. The first theme focuses ontranssexualism; the second on prostitution. Yet, these two themesare intertwined: from the respondents’ perspective, prostitutionis a price you must be willing to pay if you want to achievegender transformation at the beginning of the twenty-first centuryin Israel. Practical implications and further research are recommendedto better inform social workers assisting this high-risk population.     

Alternative Models for Antecedents and Outcomes of Work Centrality and Job Satisfaction of High-Tech Personnel

Alternative causal models were developed,relating Work Centrality and Job Satisfaction toantecedents and outcomes. The antecedents examined weredemographics and need for achievement, and the outcomes included performance, wages, organizationalcommitment, and career planning. The models were testedusing data of Israeli high-tech personnel. Resultsindicated that organizational commitment, careerplanning, and wages were significantly affected by workcentrality, while performance was positively butnonsignificantly related to it. While all models provedto be acceptable, the best model posited JobSatisfaction as an antecedent rather than an outcome of WorkCentrality. It also revealed the importance ofdemographics for outcomes. Implications arediscussed.     

Victimization of Juveniles in Out-of-Home Placement: Juvenile Correctional Facilities

The purpose of this study was to draw a picture of the violenceand abuse experienced by youngsters in juvenile correctionalfacilities in Israel. Residents of three types of correctionalfacilities (closed, diagnostic and hostels) for girls and boysindicated whether or not they had personal experiences of eighttypes of victimization by peers and four types of victimizationby staff. The findings showed that all the investigated typesof violence and abuse were present in all three types of correctionalfacilities, though ‘low-level’ acts of violencewere more prevalent than ‘severe’ violence. At thesame time, the findings also pointed to a different pictureof violence and abuse in each type of facility and for eachgender. The findings highlighted the problem of violence andabuse by peers and staff in correctional facilities for juveniles.At the same time, the differential pictures obtained suggestedthat intervention programmes must have both a general componentand a component tailored to the facilities in which they arecarried out.     

Professional judgements and decisions on placement in foster care and reunification in Portugal

This study aims to analyse professional judgements and decisions made in the Portuguese child care system in face of a case vignette of child maltreatment. Using the approach proposed by Benbenishty et al. [(2015). Decision making in child protection: An international comparative study on maltreatment substantiation, risk assessment and interventions recommendations, and the role of professionals’ child welfare attitudes. Child Abuse & Neglect, 49, 63–75. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2015.03.015], we assessed the decisions of professionals, such as to place the child in foster care or reunify her with her family, on the basis of a series of judgements (e.g. substantiation of alleged abuse and neglect, risk assessments) that are influenced by the characteristics of the case, the decision-making context, and mother's and child's wishes. We conclude that there are different approaches to the case based on different professionals' attitudes that can be classified in two groups: one more pro-removal and the other anti-removal. These groups presented different risk assessments and intervention recommendations, and their decisions where significantly influenced by the mother's and child's wishes. Furthermore, we have done comparisons with studies made in other countries, concluding that the country context can be an important factor that leads to different outcomes. Implications for both practice and research are presented.     

The Use of the Shye's Systemic Quality Life Model in the Examination of Child Protection Officers Decision

The paper presents the results of a systematicstudy of the factors that child protectionofficers consider in their decisions of whetheror not to remove children at risk from theirhomes. A sample of 194 child protectionofficers in Israel completed a questionnaireconstructed on the basis of Shye's SystemicQuality of Life Model (1979, 1985), which tapsthe psychological, physical, social, andcultural dimensions of the quality of life.Questions were answered on 368 children fairlyevenly divided between those they decided toremove from home and those they decided to keepat home. The findings show 85% of the decisions werecorrectly classified on the basis of the model,and show close associations between the qualityof life dimensions and the decisions. Theworkers evaluated both the current quality oflife and their parents' enabling good qualityof life as higher among the children whom theyrecommended keeping at home than among thosethey recommended removing. Similarly, theypredicted that the children they recommendedremain would have a higher quality of life athome in the future than those they recommendedbe removed. The psychological dimension of thequality of life contributed more to thedecision than the physical, and these more thanthe social and cultural.