Mother–Adolescent and Father–Adolescent Relationships After Divorce: Relations with Emerging Adults’ Romantic Attachment

This longitudinal study examined relations between mother–child relationship quality and father support in adolescence (ages 15–19) and emerging adults’ (ages 24–28) romantic anxiety and avoidance in a sample that experienced parental divorce in childhood (n = 72). A significant interactive effect of mother–adolescent relationship quality and father support on romantic anxiety occurred. High levels of father support protected emerging adults from the negative effects of a low quality mother–adolescent relationship. These results highlight the importance of examining effects of one parental relationship in the context of the other and the role that nonresidential fathers play in influencing their offspring’s romantic attachment.     

The second sex: Women's place in polling language

Recent research suggests that gender nouns such as man, and pronouns such as he,· are not generic forms referring to humanity, but often refer exclusively to males. The use of male terms in a variety of role contexts serves to deny females identification with these contexts, and thereby stereotypes the roles of men and women. Public opinion polling, through its use of the questionnaire, represents an important social context where gender-biased phrasing can have an adverse impact on a large segment of society. A content analysis of polling questions from 1936–1973 was undertaken to ascertain their gender representation. Those questions containing gender referrants constituted ten percent of the sample. Questions were analyzed for their gender content in the areas of social, political, and economic life. The findings show a differential use of male and female terms, with the use of female gender most apparent in contexts traditionally defined as female: home and family. When females are mentioned in non-traditional contexts, they appear most often in competition with men. Male pronouns appear exclusively in contexts traditionally defined as male: work and politics. The methodological and social implications of these findings for survey research are discussed.     

Preliminary Results of a Longitudinal Study of Collegiate Alcohol Abuse

Abstract

Objective: Hookah smoking is a popular form of tobacco use on university campuses. This study documented use, attitudes, and knowledge of hookah smoking among college students. Participants: The sample included 943 university students recruited between February 2009 and January 2010. Respondents (M age = 20.02) included 376 males, 533 females, and 34 who did not report sex. Methods: An anonymous online questionnaire was completed by respondents. Results: In this sample, 42.9% of college students had tried hookah, and 40% of those individuals had used it in the past 30 days. Students perceived fewer negative consequences of hookah smoking compared with cigarette smoking. Age, sex, racial background, marijuana/cigarette use, and perceptions of side effects were significantly associated with hookah use. Conclusions: University students are misinformed regarding the health consequences of hookah smoking. Programs aimed at education, prevention, and intervention for hookah use are needed to address this growing public health concern.     

Social Work Doctoral Education in Australia: The Case for Further Development

ABSTRACT

Social work education in Australia has been based in universities since the 1940s. There are now 32 higher education providers offering social work programs across Australia. The significant growth in master’s level qualifying programs in Australia, along with recent higher education policy changes, has increased the need for social work academic faculty members with doctoral qualifications. This paper presents the findings of a scoping review of literature on social work doctoral education. Despite a growing literature on social work doctoral education in international contexts, the review found that there is a lack of Australian research and evidence on social work doctoral pedagogy, the number and diversity of doctoral students, the doctoral student experience, and doctoral graduate employment intentions and outcomes. Addressing the lack of Australian research in this area would be an important step to enabling Australian social work to address future research training and capacity needs and directions.

IMPLICATIONS

• There is a lack of research on Australian social work doctoral education and this is a neglected aspect of social work scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL) research.

• Research into social work doctoral education would provide baseline information on the number and diversity of students, doctoral student experiences, graduate outcomes, and employment intentions.

• Development of social work SOTL about doctoral education would support future research capacity and enable the advancement of social work research knowledge and skills.

     

Disentangled,decentred and democratised: Youth Studies for the global South

Youth Studies’ theories often assume universal generalisability despite rarely making the global South, or its youthful populations, ontologies, values and politics the focus of research. This paper grapples with the idea of a Youth Studies ‘for’ the global South, questioning whether theories/approaches that centre on the global North can be usefully applied in the global South, how and for what purpose. After describing two mainstream domains of Youth Studies scholarship, questioning how they may become applicable to Africa, Latin America and developing countries in Asia, we explicate the geo-politically situated nature of knowledge production. We ask how theories that originate elsewhere can be adapted and put to work in new contexts, contributing towards a Youth Studies that enhances the lives of youth on the global periphery. In Southern sites urgent material challenges dominate young people's lives, requiring theories that are able to analyse the multi-dimensional contextual constraints youth experience. Knowledges can be useful regardless of where they originate, but only when they become intentionally entangled in local realities and are adapted accordingly. We argue, however, that a Youth Studies for the global South needs to demonstrate its relevance beyond applying theories to new local sites. It should be able to say something more general about the human condition. In the current conjuncture of economic instability, we believe that contexts where youth have had to adapt, hustle and survive in precarious conditions for an extended period of time might demonstrate something unique about the human condition, but only if we make these places the focus of our research gaze. The paper concludes with suggestions to enable a Youth Studies for the global South, one which may contribute to this emerging field more effectively through intentional strategies of disentangling, decentring and ultimately democratising the field.     

The problems and prospects in the teaching of mixed methods research

There are pedagogical challenges USA students and instructors face within mixed methods classrooms. Instructors of mixed methods are often self-taught, lacking adequate training in both qualitative and quantitative approaches to research. Students are not often trained in both research approaches. These dual training gaps can result in deep pedagogical issues compromising students’ ability to fully understand mixed methods research praxis and leaving teachers feeling ill equipped to address students’ learning concerns. To tackle the myriad of challenges confronted in the mixed methods classroom requires structural changes to the current way graduate training programs in social research methods are organized and taught. Developing a team-based teaching approach to mixed methods research that provides students with instructors who have the requisite qualitative and quantitative knowledge can serve as a pedagogical model that can begin at least to address the current methods and methodological skills gap in the teaching of mixed methods research.     

Migration policy for whom? A case study of the political context of migration in Sweden

The current debate on Swedish policy for rural-urban migration involves disagreements concerning its economic and social impact on the migrant. From one point of view, rural-urban movement is seen as "economically rational": a natural, efficient adaptation of the population to a centralized economy. Migrant economic and social betterment is seen to follow from such a population movement. Another point of view questions the assumed economic and social benefits of a city movement. Instead, the policy is accused of not taking human social and economic needs into account. It argues that migration policy needs to be decentralized, allowing migrants to preserve social ties to home areas.Both viewpoints are examined from the subjective perspective of the migrant. A pattern of intensive interviews were conducted with people who have moved to Stockholm from a village north of the city as well as with others who had returned to their village after a stay in Stockholm.The case study revealed that moves were not made for economic reasons alone, but the the motivation for the structure of opportunity surrounding the move was complex. Migrants were seeking to attain differing interests, many of which were associated with life-cycle situations such as leaving school and marrying. Migration instead becomes one of several means by which individuals search for well-being and a desirable "quality of life." There is no necessary correspondence between the set of moves which will maximize labor-market efficiency and set of moves which will maximize individual satisfactions.Sharlene J. Hesse is affiliated with the Department of Sociology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02167. Requests for reprints should be directed to her.     

Long-Term Effects of a Parenting Preventive Intervention on Young Adults’ Attitudes Toward Divorce and Marriage

This study examined whether the New Beginnings Program (NBP), a parenting-focused preventive intervention designed to reduce children’s postdivorce mental health problems, affected attitudes toward divorce and marriage in young adults whose mothers had participated 15 years earlier. Participants (M = 25.6 years; 50% female; 88% White) were from 240 families that had participated in a randomized experimental trial (NBP vs. literature control). Analyses of covariance showed that program effects on both types of attitudes were moderated by gender. Males in the NBP reported more positive attitudes toward marriage and less favorable attitudes toward divorce than males in the literature control.