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Journal Of Sociology And Social Welfare Vol. 46 No. 1

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

No abstract provided.

Review Of Child Welfare: An Integrative Perspective. Cathleen A. Lewandowski, Yemo Duan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Cathleen A. Lewandowski, Child Welfare: An Integrative Perspective. Oxford University Press (2019), 320 pages, $65 (paperback).

Back To Addams And Richmond: Was Social Work Really A Divided House In The Beginning?, John B. Thompson, Richard Spano, Terry L. Koenig

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social work has experienced unique tensions related to its professional identity and dual purpose of social reform and individualized treatment. Scholars have represented this dual purpose, epitomized by Jane Addams and Mary Richmond, as indicating irreconcilable differences. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the writings and speeches of Mary Richmond and Jane Addams, and, based on this inquiry, to assert that their respective approaches to social work are much more unified than often suggested. Specific themes examined include: acceptance and need for each other’s perspectives; compatibility and unity of perspectives; and their collaboration as critical for effecting social …

Measurement Of Childhood Poverty In The United States And Its Enduring Influences, Zi Yang

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper measures childhood poverty in the United States and classifies it into three degrees based on different durations – persistent poverty, chronic transient poverty, and non-chronic transient poverty – using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data and actual poverty thresholds in the United States. Then I examine the enduring influences of different types of childhood poverty on future performance, including academic achievement, income, and criminal behavior, utilizing OLS and logistic models as well as Mincer wage functions. The regression results show that childhood poverty has a negative impact on schooling years and earnings. Living in poverty increases …

Integrating Sociological And Psychological Perspectives On Collective Efficacy, Michael Gearhart

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Collective efficacy is rooted in both psychology, and sociology. Discussions of the differences between the sociological and psychological conceptualization and operationalization of collective efficacy is limited. In psychology, collective efficacy reflects a group’s belief that collective action can be successful. In sociology, collective efficacy is a theory that describes the process by which social cohesion is activated as informal social control. Mutual efficacy was designed to incorporate the psychological concept of efficacy into collective efficacy theory. In this study, I conduct a multilevel confirmatory factor analysis to study the factor structure of social cohesion, mutual efficacy, and informal social control …

Review Of Hunger In The Land Of Plenty: A Critical Look At Food Insecurity. James D. Wright, Amy Donley, And Sara Strickhouser Vega, Kaipeng Wang

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

James D. Wright, Amy Donley, and Sara Strickhouser Vega, Hunger in the Land of Plenty: A Critical Look at Food Insecurity. Lynne Rienner Publishers (2019), 183 pages, $65.00 (hardcover).

Don’T “Just Call The Social Worker”: Training In Structural Competency To Enhance Collaboration Between Healthcare Social Work And Medicine, Margaret Mary Downey, Joshua Neff, Kate Dube

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In this short paper, we argue that providing in-depth structural competency training to both social workers and physicians has the potential to promote a deeper collaboration between these two fields—to the benefit of patients as well as providers. We describe structural competency’s evolution as a pedagogical and practical framework in medicine and social work, then discuss three overlapping ways in which structural competency can enhance collaboration between physician and social work practitioners and educators. First, training in structural competency can fill gaps in both medical and social work education and training—namely a lack of curricula that consistently attend to the …

Review Of Social Work Practice And Social Welfare Policy In The United States: A History By Philip R. Popple, Ethan J. Evans

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Philip R. Popple, Social Work Practice and Social Welfare Policy in the United States: A History. Oxford University Press (2018), 392 pages,

Sexual Healing: How Racialized Black Males Use Sex To Cope With Stress, Loss And Separation, Allen Lipscomb

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

While the behaviors of Black males are widely studied and often pathologized, their internal, subjective experiences are frequently absent from contemporary research. Utilizing a qualitative research methodology, this study explores the lived experiences of Black males, focusing on sexuality as a coping strategy within the context of loss, separation and stress. A non-clinical sample of 33 Black male participants was identified using snowball and purposeful sampling via social media and word-of-mouth. The findings provide considerable insight regarding the needs of Black men navigating the vicissitudes of loss and stress. In addition, the data endorses deconstruction of the Black male masculine …

Multiplicative Advantages Of Hispanic Men Living In Hispanic Enclaves: Intersectionality In Colon Cancer Care, Keren M. Escobar, Mollie Sivaram, Kevin M. Gorey

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

We examined Hispanic enclave paradoxical effects on cancer care among socioeconomically vulnerable people in pre-Obamacare California. We conducted a secondary analysis of a historical cohort of 511 Hispanic and 1,753 non-Hispanic white people with colon cancer. Hispanic enclaves were neighborhoods where 40% or more of the residents were Hispanic, mostly first-generation Mexican American immigrants. An interaction of ethnicity, gender and Hispanic enclave status was observed such that the protective effects of living in a Hispanic enclave were larger for Hispanic men, particularly married Hispanic men, than women. Risks were also exposed among other study groups: the poor, the inadequately insured, …

Unwed Motherhood, Adoption Reunion And Stigmatized Social Identities, Karen R. March

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Abstract

Data gathered from semi-structured interviews with 33 reunited birth mothers show they had been stigmatized for their unwed motherhood and hid this identity to protect self from social censure. The public exposure created by reunion contact with their adult placed children required new ways to manage this stigma trait. The women engaged in a process of identity talk supported by their understanding of altered perceptions of female sexuality and a “no choice” discourse that drew upon historical changes in the social position of unwed mothers. This identity talk increased their self-efficacy by providing stronger control over their presentation of …

Housing Cost Burden And Maternal Stress Among Very Low Income Mothers, Kaycee L. Bills, Stacia Michelle West, Jami Hargrove

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

As the affordable housing shortage proliferates, more American households struggle with high housing cost burdens. Grounded in Belsky’s (1984) parenting stress framework, we use a weighted low-income sample from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study of mothers who rent their homes (N=388) to investigate a relationship between housing cost burden, or paying a substantial portion of income toward housing, and higher rates of reported maternal stress. Findings of the linear regression indicate that younger mothers and those paying 30% or more of their income each month toward rent have higher reported maternal stress scores. These findings are discussed with …

From The Empire State To The North Star State: Voter Engagement In The 2016 Election, Katharine M. Hill, Shannon R. Lane, Jenna Powers, Tanya Rhodes Smith

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Voter engagement has the potential to be a fundamental part of social work practice and key to the professional socialization of social work students. This article describes a classroom-based voter engagement project conducted in two undergraduate social work programs in different U.S. states with significantly different voting laws. We describe the rationale, process of implementing the project, evaluation, and review the results in the context of the 2016 election. We suggest future research that can help develop best practices and methods for implementation of voter engagement in social work practice and education in the future.

Myth Or Reality? Exploring Intergenerational Social Assistance Participation In Ontario, Canada, Tracy A. Smith-Carrier, Amber Gazso, Stephanie Baker Collins, Carrie Smith

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Is there an intergenerational causal link in social assistance (SA) participation? There is a dearth of research addressing this question, yet the discourse of ‘welfare dependency’ is hegemonic. The limited research that does attempt to tease out a causal link in intergenerational SA participation remains equivocal. Qualitative research is largely absent in welfare scholarship; research that might provide a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics underlying SA receipt. We employ an inductive qualitative analysis, using procedures from grounded theory, to understand SA participants’ experiences and perspectives on intergenerational SA usage. We find that the two causal mechanisms underlying intergenerational SA …

Review Of Combating Poverty: Quebec's Pursuit Of A Distinctive Welfare State Axel Van Den Berg, Charles Plante, Hicham Raiq, Christine Proulx, And Sam Faustmann, Jaewon Lee

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Axel Van Den Berg, Charles Plante, Hicham Raiq, Christine Proulx, and Sam Faustmann, Combating Poverty: Quebec’s Pursuit of a Distinctive Welfare State. University of Toronto Press (2017), 232 pages, $37.50 (hardcover).

Review Of The High Cost Of Good Intentions: A History Of U.S. Federal Entitlement Programs. John F. Cogan, James Midgley

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

John F. Cogan, The High Cost of Good Intentions: A History of U.S. Federal Entitlement Programs. Stanford University Press (2018), 500 pages, $45.00 (hardcover).

Review Of The Group: Seven Widowed Fathers Reimagine Life. Donald L. Rosentein And Justin M. Yopp, Anao Zhang

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Donald L. Rosenstein and Justin M. Yopp, The Group: Seven Widowed Fathers Reimagine Life. Oxford University Press (2017), 190 pages, $17.95 (hardcover).

Review Of Winners Take All: The Elite Charade Of Changing The World. Anand Giridharadas, Daniel Liechty

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Anand Giridharadas, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World. Knopf (2018), 288 pages, $26.95 (hardcover).

Crime And Mental Health Problems In Norway - A Zero-Sum Game?, Dag Leonardsen

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Through a historical overview, the author analyses the Norwegian welfare society and the limits of a social-engineering approach to social problems. While economic growth and welfare benefits expanded for many years, so did registered crime and mental problems. This paradox gives a justification for challenging established ways of thinking about social prevention policies. Since the turn of the century, crime figures have decreased while the state of mental health has worsened. The author argues that if the price of the suppression of crime is the depression of mind, then the gains are indeed pyrrhic.

Understanding Appalachian Microaggression From The Perspective Of Community College Students In Southern West Virginia, Karen T. Cummings-Lilly, Shandra S. Forrest-Bank

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The term "Appalachian" is wrongly understood to represent a single culture of rural White poverty (Keefe, 2005). This conception contains stereotypical images that obscure hardships many rural White Central Appalachians face. Similar to other oppressed minorities in the U.S., what it means to be Appalachian is a social construction based on what differs them from the White hegemony. Recent scholarship on discrimination recognizes the importance of microaggression, small insults and slights experienced frequently by people from minority groups (Sue, et. al., 2007). Microaggression may be an especially insidious mechanism in the oppression of Appalachian people, since the derogatory stereotypes …

Durkheim’S Greatest Blunder, Stephen M. Marson, J. Porter Lillis

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In describing fatalism in Suicide, Durkheim executes two blunders. The first can be categorized in errors of commission while the second should be included in errors of omission. In the error of commission area, he hypothesizes two platforms for existence of fatalistic suicide. Without employing theory-embedded data, he contends that infertility is a catalyst for fatalistic suicidal. Later, he asserts that slavery is fertile soil for fatalistic suicide. Although there is suicidal data in these two arenas, a closer inspection demonstrates that these are not characteristics of fatalistic suicide. For errors of omission, he failed to systematically observe …

Review Of Empowerment Of Women For Promoting Global Health And Quality Of Life. Snehendu B. Kar, Abbie Nelson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Snehendu B. Kar, Empowerment of Women for Promoting Global Health and Quality of Life. Oxford University Press (2018), 595 pages, $69.95 (hardcover).

Review Of Serving The Stigmatized: Working Within The Incarcerated Environment. Wesley T. Church Ii And David W. Springer, Carolyn Sutherby

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Wesley T. Church II and David W. Springer (Eds.), Serving the Stigmatized: Working Within the Incarcerated Environment. Oxford University Press (2018), 400 pages, $74.00 (hardcover).

Review Of Emergent Identities: New Sexualities, Genders And Relationships In A Digital Era. Rob Cover, Melinda Mccormick

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Rob Cover, Emergent Identities: New Sexualities, Genders and Relationships in a Digital Era. Routledge (2019), 164 pages, $42.95 (paperback).

Review Of Inside Story: How Narratives Drive Mass Harm. Lois Presser, Olivia Marie Mclaughlin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Lois Presser, Inside Story: How Narratives Drive Mass Harm. University of California Press (2018), 200 pages, $85 (hardcover), $29.95 (paperback).

Review Of Social Investment And Social Welfare: International And Critical Perspectives. James Midgley, Espen Dahl, And Amy Conley Wright, David Androff

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

James Midgley, Espen Dahl, and Amy Conley Wright (Eds.), Social Investment and Social Welfare: International and Critical Perspectives. Edward Elgar Publishing (2017), 272 pages. $135.00 (hardcover).

Social Construction, Knowledge Utilization, And The Politics Of Poverty: A Case Study Of Washington State’S General Assistance Reform, Yu-Ling Chang

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper addresses a gap in welfare reform literature by investigating the social constructions of poor people in state policymaking within the context of diminishing General Assistance (GA) after the Great Recession. Using Social Construction and Policy Design Theoryand thematic content analysis of Washington State’s legislative archives, I found that the negative constructions of GA recipients as deviants with undesired psychological and behavioral problems were associated with the reform direction toward a regulated, punitive model. These constructions, intersecting with the ideologies of personal responsibility and work ethic, contribute to the dismantling of the social safety net for the Washington’s poorest …

Journal Of Sociology And Social Welfare Vol. 46 No. 2

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

No abstract provided.

Gender, Social Networks, And Microenterprise: Differences In Network Effects On Business Performance, Seon Mi Kim

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article aims to find if female micro-entrepreneurs have different social networks that affect their business performance from males. This article uses the longitudinal Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamic (PSED) II data set (2005-2011) in the U.S. The key finding is that even in cases where female micro-entrepreneurs gained the same number of weak ties and resources from their networks as their male counterparts, their weak ties and gained resources did not help them to improve their business performance unlike their male counterparts. Implications for Microenterprise Development Programs and future studies are informed.

Are U.S. Congregations Patching The Social Safety Net? Trends From 1998 To 2012, Emily Warren, Melody Waring, Dan Meyer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

As social services become increasingly privatized amid a federal policy environment that provides a means-tested, temporary social safety net, there is potential for a larger contribution by congregations as social service providers. Using data from a nationally representative sample of religious congregations collected in 1998, 2006, and 2012, we examine whether congregations have increased service activity over time, and whether provision varies by the congregation’s community-level context. We find that post-Great Recession, congregations are more likely to engage in broad social services and in “core” services that address basic economic needs. Congregations in high-poverty neighborhoods were less likely to provide …