Amassing rural power in the fight against fracking in Maryland: A report from the field

ABSTRACT

Social workers can mobilize vulnerable populations to shape policy decisions about industrial practices that could have adverse impacts on their wellbeing. One such practice is hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” to extract oil and natural gas from shale rock deposits. There is scant social work literature on mobilizing opposition to fracking despite a proliferation of literature from other disciplines. This article documents the campaign in Maryland that led to the adoption of the first legislative ban on fracking in a U.S. state with shale gas reserves, using social movement theory to identify factors that led to this successful outcome.     

Is Sexual Abuse a Unique Predictor of Sexual Risk Behaviors,Pregnancy, and Motherhood in Adolescence?

This study tested sexual abuse as a unique predictor of subsequent adolescent sexual behaviors, pregnancy, and motherhood when in company with other types of maltreatment (physical abuse, neglect) and alternative behavioral, family, and contextual risk factors in a prospective, longitudinal study of maltreated (n = 275) and comparison (n = 239) nulliparous females aged 14–19 years old assessed annually through 19 years old. Hierarchical regression was used to disentangle risk factors that account for the associations of maltreatment type on risky sexual behaviors at 19 years old, adolescent pregnancy, and adolescent motherhood. Findings indicate that sexual and physical abuse remain significant predictors of risky sexual behaviors, and that sexual abuse remains a significant predictor of adolescent motherhood when alternative explanatory variables are controlled.     

Using the Constructs Multifinality,Work Hope,and Possible Selves With Urban Minority Youth

This article describes and highlights the potential contributions that the constructs multifinality, work hope, and possible selves make for designing career counseling interventions and for better understanding possible career‐related factors associated with academic engagement and achievement among urban minority youth. Multifinality may serve as a superordinate orientation because it conceptualizes development as discontinuous and relatively plastic, allowing for youth deemed at risk to follow more hopeful pathways. Work hope and possible selves emphasize the utility of providing urban minority youth with space to answer questions related to what they might achieve and do in the future and who they might become. Together, multifinality, work hope, and possible selves provide a hopeful conceptual framework for career researchers and practitioners.     

Do Reports of Age and Circumstances of First Intercourse Differ in a Birth Cohort When Asked Seventeen Years Apart?

Conclusions about temporal changes in age and circumstances of first intercourse are generally derived from retrospective reports by people of various ages in cross-sectional studies, with an inherent assumption of no bias stemming from time since the event. We examined this assumption through repeated questions on age and circumstances of first heterosexual intercourse (FHI) at ages 21 and 38 in a birth cohort. Despite considerable movement in individual reports, there was no bias in reported age of FHI. However, a greater proportion of both men and women stated at the later assessment both partners had been equally willing (versus persuading or persuaded). The distribution of current views of the appropriateness of the timing did not differ markedly between assessments, although there were many individual changes. Reports of contraceptive usage were similar at the two assessments for men but differed among women, mainly through more reporting that they could not remember. These findings imply that among cohorts born in the 1970s, there is no bias in reports of age of FHI many years after the event, and views on the appropriateness of timing persist. However, time biases reports in favor of a more mutual willingness.     

The effects of job displacement on job quality: Findings from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study

This study examines the extent to which job displacement divides the career experiences for a cohort of workers. Previous studies of job displacement find nontrivial economic losses for displaced workers, but the effects of displacement on “non-economic” properties of jobs have been largely overlooked. Results using the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study indicate that workers who were displaced have lower levels of occupational status, job authority, and employer-offered pension and health insurance than they would have had had they not been displaced. Difference-in-differences estimates, which control for temporally-invariant unobserved heterogeneity, are generally larger than cross-sectional estimates; still, there is a close correspondence of estimates across a range of methodological approaches attesting to the robustness of the estimates in the face of various technical assumptions and model specifications. Effects of displacement on job quality also exhibit conditioning by gender, education, occupation, and industry: while less educated, blue collar and manufacturing workers experience significant losses for employer-offered benefits, more educated, upper white collar and non-manufacturing workers experience significant losses for occupational status, job autonomy, and job authority.     

THE EFFECT OF THE FOOD STAMP PROGRAM ON NUTRIENT INTAKE

Receipt of food stamps is often observed to be positively correlated with intake of nutrients. However, this observed fact could be the result of self-selection into the food stamp program by those individuals who are more interested in maintaining good nutrition. We observe that, controlling for participation in the food stamp program, nutrition is negatively affected by food stamp income for a sample of elderly people. However, we find that the levels of nutrients do not decrease enough to cause individuals to fall below the Recommended Dietary Allowance.     

SOLUTION-FOCUSED THERAPY IN A PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL

This paper presents the authors' use of solution-focused brief therpay in an adult inpatient psychiatric hospital setting. we suggest that a theoretical inteeegration of the medical model and the solution-focused approach provides a useful treatment modality. We discuss implementation of the model, emphasizing assessment, treatment milieu, the role of staff, therapy, and discharge issues. We also describe the model's usefulness for training and supervision and offer recommendations for future research.     

Home-to-Job Spillover for Generation X,Boomers, and Matures: A Comparison

Home-to-job spillover, a source of stress for employed men and women, can be exacerbated by factors that deplete personal time and energy. Household responsibilities and caring for children or the elderly are stressors that may differentially impact employed adults based on lifecycle stage. The present study identified time, satisfaction, and demographic variables significantly associated with negative home-to-job spillover for three generational groups: generation Xer’s, boomers, and matures. Matures spent significantly more time caring for the elderly whereas boomers and generation Xer’s spent more time caring for children. Significantly more boomers reported home-to-job spillover, and there were more predictors of spillover for this group than for members of the younger or older generations. An erratum to this article can be found at .