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.     

Divorced mothers' self‐perception of their divorce‐related communication with their children

This is a qualitative study of divorce‐related communication between mothers and children, as recounted by 20 Jewish Israeli mothers. We adopt the communication privacy management theory, focusing on mothers' subjective experiences of communication, their management of dialectic tension between concealment and disclosure – namely, not only what mothers choose to disclose to and hide from their children, but also the feelings, concerns and perceptions that drove their communication. The mothers' reports convey the challenges and dilemmas they faced when communicating with their children about their divorce and its repercussions; the main one being their obligation to maintain a good father image and their wish to preserve a strong maternal figure. The ‘child's well‐being’ was the dominant criterion in the mothers' decision to reveal or conceal divorce‐related information. Clinical suggestions are made.     

The Effects of Resources, Decision Making, and Decision Implementing on Perceived Family Well-Being in Adjusting to an Economic Stressor

This article examines the relationships of personal resources, decision-making, and decision-implementing behaviors that were measured in time one with perceived family well-being that was measured one year later. The sample included 323 farm men and women who had experienced the same economic stressor event. A structural equation model was posited based upon the theoretical frameworks of family resource management. The results indicated the theoretical model fit the data well for both men and women. LISREL analyses revealed strong positive relationships among perceived financial and emotional resources, decision making, and perceived family well-being. A positive relationship was found between decision making and decision implementing, but no relationship was found between decision implementing and perceived family well-being. Gender differences were present only in the measurement model among the indicators of decision implementing and family well-being.     

A General Theory for Perceptual Indicators of Family Life Quality

The paper presents Foa and Foa's Resource Theory (1974) that was used to develop a self-report, multidimensional measure of family well-being, an indicator of family life quality. Facet theory methods of sentence mapping provided an explicit way to explain how theoretical constructs were translated to operational measures, and a rationale for the use of multidimensional scaling analysis to verify the circular structure of resource classes proposed by the theory. Results of the analyses confirmed the theoretical propositions for a sample of 560 adults and indicated a better fit of the data for women's, compared to the men's model.     

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.     

Euthanasia: Israeli Social Workers' Experiences, Attitudes and Meanings

Correspondence to Dr Ronit D. Leichtentritt, Bob Shapell School of Social Work, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. E-mail: ronitl{at}post.tau.ac.il Summary Sixteen social workers in Israel were interviewed about theirexperiences with and attitudes towards various forms of euthanasia,as well as the meanings they ascribe to them. Using phenomenologicalanalysis, seven themes were identified, emphasizing individual,interpersonal, organizational, social and therapeutic considerations,and suggesting a holistic and integrative structure of the phenomenon.The themes were arrived at by identifying distinctions and similaritiesbetween different forms of euthanasia. Two themes suggestingsimilarities were revealed: ‘diminishing the value oflife’ and ‘a call for help’. Three themeswere found to distinguish between passive euthanasia (withholdingand withdrawing life-sustaining treatment) and active forms(active euthanasia and assisted suicide): ‘legality’,‘social acceptance’ and ‘concern for the sickand dying’. The last two themes distinguished betweenwithholding treatment and assisted suicide, on the one hand,and withdrawing treatment and active euthanasia, on the other:‘the involvement of others as executor’ and ‘thepublicity of the act’. Further research and training isrequired to better inform social workers in this ethical area.Given their unique position, social workers should activelyparticipate in legal, social and therapeutic discussions concerningend-of-life decisions, for the benefit of clients, their familiesand health-care providers.