Social Work Commons^™

Social Network Analysis: A New Tool For Understanding Individual And Family Functioning, Jane H. Pfouts, Ellen J. Safier

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

During the last decade, social work, along with the other helping professions, has moved toward conceptualizing practice within a social systems framework. Intrapsychic variables are still important but, increasingly, the emphasis is on the clients' intimate social network as both cause and solution of a wide range of social problems. It is now widely believed that clients' well-being is enhanced when system functioning is enhanced (Gitterman and Germain, 1976).

Most of what social workers know about social systems theory comes from the sociological literature, particularly the social action system of Talcott Parsons. Although this orientation has great heuristic value for …

Like Other Women: Perspectives Of Mothers With Physical Disabilities, Susan Shaul, Pamela Dowling, Bernice F. Laden

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article is based on interviews with ten women, ranging in age from 19 to 45 and living in the Puget Sound area of Washington State. Their disabilities are neurmuscular or musculoskeletal and include spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, post-polio and spina bifida. Their children range in age from 11 months to adulthood. The article focuses on specific issues and concerns regarding early childhood ranagement, and includes some discussion of pre-natal and cbstetrical care. Cann misconceptions concerning motherhood and disability are also discussed. men with disabilities also have special concerns as parents. Although their concerns are not addressed in this …

Assessment Of Needs Of Adolescent Mothers In Washington County, John L. Arnold

Dissertations and Theses

This needs assessment was conducted by 11 graduate students and their advisor from the Portland State University Graduate School of Social Work. The purpose was to determine the needs of adolescent mothers in Washington County and report the findings to the Washington County Task Force on Adolescent Pregnancy. Data for this needs assessment was compiled from three sources: social indicators (data), service providers, and target population responses.

Interviews were conducted with 34 service providers to determine the availability of services to the population. Questionnaires were distributed and 29 adolescent mothers responded regarding their perceived needs and services. The information in …

The Changing Family And Family Policy, Ronald J. Mancoske

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The concern for the loss of family functions ii, the process of social change has led some to call for a family policy to support the family to cope with stress in meeting its basic functions. Change in functioning of the family is inclusive of various spheres: economic, status giving, educational, religious, recreational, protective and affectional. These changes are seen as indicative of the decline in the family. This view is moderated by the spectrum of change in the family interactions. Support for family policy is essential though it can not be developed on the idea of the perilous decline …

Making It Legal: A Comparison Of Previously Cohabiting And Engaged Newlyweds, Ingrid Moeller, Basil J. Sherlock

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In view of the recent emergence of cohabitation as an alternative form of courtship, it is important to determine its possible effects on the subsequent marital union. Are the premarital experiences, marital goals, patterns of marital power and levels of conflict discernably different for those who have lived together before marriage? Comparing cohabitors with noncohabitors , we attempted to pursue this question in a sample of 139 recently married, nonparental, college matriculating, young adults using a lengthy focused interview.

Largely due to parental pressures "to make it legal", both cohabitors and noncohabitors moved towards matrimony with equal speed, marrying at …

Historic Trends In The Delivery Of Services To Teenage Parents, Nancy Aries

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper will examine the political, social, and economic factors which underlie the transition in services from unwed mothers to teenage parents over the past 15 years. The experience of agencies in the Boston area serves as the basis for this case study. Data have been collected from open-ended interviews with key service providers who have developed and implemented policy related to adolescent parents.

The findings indicate that, prior to 1960, agencies were responding to what was perceived as individual problems or circumstances. Illegitimacy was thought to be an unconscious attempt by white middle class women to fulfill psychological needs. …

A Study Of The Crisis Nature Of The Preparenthood Period And Implications For Preventative Social Work Practice, Julie Jean Colton

Dissertations and Theses

This study addresses the preparenthood period of family life, that period from conception to six weeks after the infant is born. This period was of great interest because in nine years of social work practice I have recognized that families resist change after their particular family system process, even destructive process, is established. I also believe that the order, or disorder, of society depends upon the order of the institution of the family. Other institutions of society depend upon the family for their existence.

Salem Teen Mother Program: A Follow-Up Study, Frances L. Barton

Dissertations and Theses

Society has, historically, reacted to teenage pregnancies with a mixture of embarrassment, apathy and neglect. It wasn't until the 1960's that an attempt was made to design and implement programs to meet the needs of pregnant adolescents. An example of such a program is the Salem Teen Mother Program. This program was begun in 1966 and is affiliated with the local YWCA. If offers a comprehensive program to approximately 150 students each year. The services it offers include day care, social services and counseling, education, health services, parenting skills and employment counseling.

The following chapters include a literature review which …

Planning For A National Social Policy For The Family, John T. Pardeck

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The American family performs two important functions for family members - providing physical care and socialization, and meeting psychological needs. Current family trends suggest that the American family may be having difficulty in carrying out these basic functions. Since the United States lacks a comprehensive family policy, it is argued that a national social policy should be created to better support the American family. A social policy is presented which would assist the American family in performing its basic functions. A suggested strategy for implementation of this family social policy has also been developed.

The Social Construction Of Ages And The Ideology Of Stages, Victoria Fries Rader

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

It is the thesis of this paper that the images and beliefs about any age group in a society indicate the kind of social order prevailing in a particular time and place. This paper critically analyses the developmental life cycle model from a sociology of knowledge perspective. It is argued that life's major activities and individuals' basic needs have increasingly become compartmentalized according to chronological age in modern Western society. This separation of basic activities and needs into specialized age roles is explained and legitimated by a popular belief in a model of inherent progressive life "stages", a model largely …

Dorothy Gardner Jones Papers - Accession 192, Dorothy Gardner Jones

Manuscript Collection

The Dorothy Gardner Jones Papers consist of correspondence, reports, program notes, clippings, memoranda, and other records, mainly relating to Jones’ work as a Winthrop faculty member and involvement with professional organizations and social service groups in the Rock Hill, South Carolina area.

Age, Race, Life Conditions, Use Of Social Welfare Services And The Morale Of The Elderly, Mary L. Waring, Jordan I. Kosberg

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Although concerned professionals such as Kutner (1956), Cumming (1961), and Lawton (1972), have made strong beginnings in researching the psychological functioning of the elderly, only a few have explored the social and medical conditions of the aged, and especially their use of social welfare services, as these relate to a sense of well-being. Streib (1956) and Maddox (1968) were among the first to relate life-long patterning of social activity to later social activity and life satisfaction. Carp (1966), in a controlled study of housing, reported that housing did not affect the morale of low and middle income elderly. Lawton and …

Administrative Thinking On Youth And Youth Programs, John F. Longres, Norman Wyers

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Administrators have a lot of influence over the nature of youth programs. Because of this, their thinking on the causes of delinquency, the nature of ideal youth programs, and the role of youth workers were tapped. In the past, people in the field of delinquency have been accused of assuming an individual, personal problem or deficiency point of view. This study of administrators in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area suggests that, while some evidence for a more social structural understanding exists, in general the individual problem perspective prevails. An explanation for the persistence of a personal problem perspective is advanced …

Parental Perceptions Of Behavioral Changes In Children Following Divorce, Kenneth W. Bork

Dissertations and Theses

This research was undertaken primarily to describe the parental perceptions of the effects of divorce upon the children age eighteen or younger of the first married couples filing for divorce in Clackamas County, Oregon during 1975.

The Resilience Of The Child As A Factor In Successful Adjustment To Permanent Placement, Lani Maureen Mcdonald

Dissertations and Theses

This study explores the hypothesis that constitutional factors were significant in mediating their successful adjustment. The adjustment of children who in the past would have been viewed as permanently scarred and unable to adjust has provided researchers with an idiosyncratic situation that has also been found in other studies: children have adjusted despite odds against it and children considered to have incurred minimal trauma have had difficulty adjusting.

Parity, Family Size Preference And The "Value Stretch", Virginia Aldige Hiday, Steven Polgar

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A two-wave survey of women in their reproductive years living in poverty areas of New York City is used to investigate family size preferences among the poor. The hypotheses that parity affects family size preference and that current parity affects future parity are supported. Implications for future trends in family size preference and for family planning programs are discussed.

The Relationship Between Social Isolation And Child Abuse: A Critical Literature Review, Ann A. Pederson

Dissertations and Theses

This review began with an interest in treatment of child abuse and in how a study of social isolation might lend direction to treatment of abusing families. The literature leads one to believe that social isolation is somehow involved, but that the process is far from clear. The intent of this review is to synthesize the findings available on the relationship between social isolation and child abuse, to encourage further thought on how the concept of social isolation can be refined and operationalized, and to discuss the implications of that relationship for treatment and prevention of physical abuse. The information …

A Study Of The Incidence Of Divorce, Religious Conflict, And Need And Potential Utilization Of Marital/Family Services Among Seventh-Day Adventist Couples In The North Pacific Union Conference, Fern M. Ringering

Dissertations and Theses

The following study is designed to look at one religious group and assess some of the social service needs as seen by the study participants.

Since social services cover such a broad spectrum, it was decided to limit the study to marital counseling needs and related issues as seen by individual church members.

A Study Of Partner Attitudes Related To Male Involvement In Contraception At Planned Parenthood, Portland, Oregon, Patricia Long Burnet, Rhonda Lee Jack, Kathleen Margaret Leeson

Dissertations and Theses

In spite of the relative ease of accessibility to reliable contraception, unplanned pregnancy continues to be a major social problem for both society and for those individuals personally involved. The growing furor over adolescent unplanned pregnancy has not only led to arguments over abortions on legal, financial, and moral levels but has resulted in studies pertaining to non-use of birth control among all ages. Contraceptives are not being used as widely and effectively as they could be.

The primary goal of this research is to explore the male's role (or lack of it) in family planning. A further goal is …

Attitudes Toward Abortion: A Comparative Analysis Of Correlates For 1973 And 1975, Theodore C. Wagenaar, Ingeborg W. Knol

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper contains an analysis of both the level of support for abortion and the correlates of such support for both 1973 and 1975, as indicated by National Opinion Research Center data. In comparison to previous research, which focused primarily on bivariate analyses of demographic variables, we examine the role of demographic and other variables (such as work status, unemployment history, receipt of government aid, and belief in an afterlife) at both the bivariate and multivariate levels of analysis. The result indicates an abatement of the previously increasing level of support; this datum plus the increase in persons responding "don't …

Work Incentive Policies: An Evaluation Of Their Effects On Welfare Women's Choice, Jacqueline Ballou

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

It is argued here that Work Incentive Policies treat the symptoms rather than the basic causes of poverty with high costs to society. The writer's own experience with WIN participants as well as attitudinal surveys has suggested that there is a very high motivation to work among welfare mothers, however, the low-wage jobs available to them are not very competitive with benefits available through AFDC with its various in-kind programs such as Medicaid and day care. As Sawhill (1976) notes, the combined benefit-loss rates associated with work incentive programs remain high, as budgetary constraints associated with raising net welfare- wage …

The Women's Liberation Movement And Its Various Impacts On American Men, Arthur B. Shostak

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Writing in 1974 about women and athletics 26 years ahead in the year 2000 journalist Lucinda Franks foresees a sexist backlash she tags the "New Male Chauvinist Movement." It all begins with a rebirth of the Age of Reason which, after 1980, includes a new celebration of the humanizing potentialities of sport and games. Women, as prime agents of this pivotal cultural reform, will have advanced so fast and so far in competitive and non-competitive athletics that "the Total Human has been born" and " the average body is no longer just a neglected dormitory for the mind." There is …

A Descriptive Study Of Some Problems Of Widows In Portland, Oregon, Kathleen Marsha Davis, Gail Petchesky

Dissertations and Theses

Widowhood is an inevitable phase of the life cycle for three out of every four married women. It is apparent by the lack of research about widowhood that it has been neglected as a developmental phase in the life cycle. Presently there are ten million widows in this country and their numbers are increasing each year. It is appalling that with a population this large, little attention has been directed towards research about widowhood. Other than recognizing that the widow may have financial problems for which Social Security provides assistance, few people realize what it means to be widowed. For …

The Interests Of Children And The Interests Of The State: Rethinking The Conflict Between Child Welfare Policy And Foster Care Practice , A. Pare, J. Torczyner

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The social welfare literature -- whether embodied in the ideology of the profession, claimed in its social policy, substantiated through empirical research, or espoused in practice -- suggests that children should not be removed from their natural hones as a solution to economic woes or to the unavailability of social support services. This apparent convergence of ideology, policy and practice -- buttressed by social values which recognize the importance of family life -- would suggest that few children, if any, would enter foster care because of inadequate income or the absence of social services. Yet, in 1977, between one quarter …

An Investigation Of The Combined Effect Of Agency Support And Professional Social Workers' Training On The Type Of Family Therapy Practiced By Agency-Based Social Workers, Betsy Marsh Mccartor, Margaret Labby

Dissertations and Theses

All persons are born into some form of family unit. The traditional family is a unit of people who live together over periods of time and have ties of marriage and kinship. Even if that unit is separated, as in death or adoption, qualities of one's personhood are closely connected with forebears and parents. Whether for good or bad, the family profoundly affects the individual.

The family is an important unit. Many stresses impinge upon it. The church and extended family are less influential on the family today. The school is less influential. Where does the family turn for support? …

The Family - 100 Years Of Neglect, Frank J. Montemuro

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The following address was made at an All-Day Institute convened by the Family Court Division of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in conjunction with the Family Institute of Philadelphia to explore issues and new responsibilities faced by public and private agencies dealing with the myriad changes in family life in this last decade of social upheaval.

Upward Mobility Potential Attitudes Toward Mental Illness And Working-Class Youth, Gary Rosenberg, Honey A. Mendelson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The investigators were interested in assessing the relationship between upward mobility potential and attitudes toward mental illness. For the 147 male adolescents studied, it was hypothesized that those working-class youth who demonstrated a high predictability of future upward social mobility would score more liberally on the five factors of the Opinions about Mental Illness Scale than those working-class youth who demonstrated a low predictability of future upward social mobility. Through the use of the aforementioned scale, the Otis Quick Scoring Mental Ability Test and Zero Order Correlations, the hypothesized relationship was confirmed; i.e., the upwardly mobile group was significantly more …

Social Research On Housing In The United States: Directions And Themes, Shirley S. Angrist

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

I shall present a selective overview of recent themes and directions in social research on housing in the U.S. I narrowed the topic by focusing on research centering on the family and on neighborhood. These topics offer ways to concentrate on "social" research and to narrow a rather broad topic.

My meaning of "social" research encompasses work not only by sociologists. It also includes the separate or collaborative work of other disciplines, especially psychology, anthropology, social psychology, architecture and urban planning. Research on housing has from its Post-World War II flowering been an interdisciplinary enterprise. And it continues to be …

Therapists Or Helpers? Notes On A Youth-Type Free Clinic, Michael W. Agopian, Robert W. Dellinger, Gilbert Geis

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper builds upon a helpful typology of free clinics that divides then into four major kinds - the street, neighborhood, youth, and sponsored. While the typology tends to weave among characteristics of clientele, locale, and source of support in setting up its units, it nonetheless has the advantage of being based on an empirical assessment of the major forms of clinic operations through the country. Youth clinics - the type that particularly concerns us here - are defined as "generally organized by adults, service clubs, or official boards... because of their concern about drug use among high school students." …

Maturity Of Adolescent Unwed Mothers, Sarah L. Claiborne

Dissertations and Theses

Adolescence traditionally has been recognized and accepted as a period of exploration of an occasional rebellion against the adult world. Explorations are viewed by behavioral scientists as a quest for identity expansion, and as such, a necessary phase for attaining maturity. Several tasks have been identified which each adolescent must complete if he is to reach maturity. For the present these tasks can be summarized as character formation, attainment of sexual identity, establishment of mature relationships and emancipation from parental control.

Society's attitude towards the rebellion and exploitation of youth is mixed. This confusion seems related to a general breakdown …