Social Work Commons^™

U.S. Immigration Policy And Immigrant Children's Well-Being: The Impact Of Policy Shifts, David K. Androff, Cecilia Ayon, David Becerra, Maria Gurrola, Lorraine Salas, Judy Krysik, Karen Gerdes, Elizabeth Segal

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

America is built upon a history of immigration; yet current immigration policy and anti-immigrant sentiment negatively affect the vulnerable population of immigrant families and children. Immigrant children face many problems, including economic insecurity, barriers to education, poor health outcomes, the arrest and deportation of family members, discrimination, and trauma and harm to their communities. These areas of immigrant children's economic and material well-being are examined in light of restrictive and punitive immigration policies at the federal and local level. Implications for social policy reform, such as decriminalization, are discussed.

Analyzing The Poverty Reduction Effectiveness Of The Canadian Provinces: Do Political Parties Matter?, Robert D. Weaver, Nazim Habivov, Lida Fan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The implementation of the Canada Health and Social Transfer in 1996 marked a new era for the Canadian welfare state, as greater discretion in the area of social welfare policy and programming was granted to the provinces. In this study, the authors analyzed nationally representative data to determine if the governing provincial parties, characterized by distinct ideological and party platform positions, differed in regards to their poverty reduction effectiveness during 1996-2005. The authors' analysis yielded no differences between the governing provincial parties in terms of their poverty reduction effectiveness. The study's implications for future research, including research on subnational variation …

The Differentiated Impact Of Bridging And Bonding Social Capital On Economic Well-Being: An Individual Level Perspective, Saijun Zhang, Steven. G. Anderson, Min Zhan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social capital refers to trust, norms, and social networks. One of the most important features of social capital is its claimed capacity of promoting economic well-being. Theorists have assumed that any such effects vary according to the nature of different types of social capital. Using longitudinal data from a nationally representative dataset, this study investigates the differentiated effects of individual bonding and bridging social capital on subsequent personal income and income-to-needs ratios. The analyses demonstrate that bridging capital, indicated by involvement in various voluntary organizations, has small but significant effects on future economic wellbeing. However, bonding capital, indicated by connections …

Inabel Burns Lindsay: Social Work Pioneer Contributor To Practice And Education Through A Socio-Cultural Perspective, Annie Woodley Brown, Ruby Morton Gourdine, Sandra Edmonds Crewe

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Dr. Inabel Burns Lindsay (1900-1983), founding dean of the Howard University School of Social Work, was an early proponent for the consideration of race and culture in social work education and practice with racial and ethnic minorities. Using primary and secondary data sources, the authors trace the evolution of Dr. Lindsay's thinking on the role of race, class, gender and ethnicity in the helping process and finally her development of a socio-cultural perspective. Particular attention is given to her persistent efforts to disseminate this information and incorporate it into the curriculum of the Howard University School of Social Work decades …

Review Of The Uses Of Pessimism: A Review Essay. The Uses Of Pessimism And The Danger Of False Hope. Roger Scruton. Reviewed By Paul Adams., Paul Adams

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The Uses of Pessimism: A Review Essay Scruton, R. (2010). The Uses of Pessimism and the Danger of False Hope. New York: Oxford University Press, $29.95 (hardcover).

Review Of A Dream Deferred: How Social Work Lost Its Way And What Can Be Done. David Stoesz, Howard Jacob Karger, And Terry Carrilio. Reviewed By Michael Reisch., Michael Reisch

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of David Stoesz, Howard Jacob Karger, and Terry Carrilio, A Dream Deferred: How Social Work Lost its Way and What Can Be Done (2010), New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. $39.95 (hardcover).

Review Of The New Jim Crow In The Age Of Colorblindness. Michelle Alexander. Reviewed By Marguerite G. Rosenthal., Marguerite G. Rosenthal

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow in the Age of Colorblindness (2010). New York & London: The New Press. $27.95 (hardcover).

Review Of Myth Of The Social Volcano: Perceptions Of Inequality And Distributive Injustice In Contemporary China. Martin King Whyte. Reviewed By Richard Levy., Richard Levy

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Martin King Whyte, Myth of the Social Volcano: Perceptions of Inequality and Distributive Injustice in Contemporary China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, (2010). $27.95 (paperback).

Review Of Contesting Development: Critical Struggles For Social Change. Philip Mcmichael, Ed. Reviewed By Andrew Gibbs., Andrew Gibbs

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Contesting Development: Critical Struggles for Social Change. Philip McMichael, Ed. Reviewed by Andrew Gibbs.

Review Of Economic Sociology: A Systematic Inquiry. Alejandro Portes. Reviewed By Eric Cheney., Eric Cheney

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Alejandro Portes, Economic Sociology: A Systematic Inquiry, Princeton University Press, (2010). $27.95 (paperback).

Inquiry, Innovation, & Impact: Report To The Community, Center For Social Development

Center for Social Development Research

Inquiry, Innovation, & Impact: Report to the Community

Stretching The Paradigm: Crisis As A Problem In Mental Health Research, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Crisis intervention is an established paradigm of community mental health theory and practice in which the nature and circumstances of crises are assumed to be well understood and the subject of established research findings and theory. Review of existing crisis research literature fails to support such assumptions. There is, in fact, little current evidence available on the nature and circumstances of mental health crises, despite the importance of crisis intervention in contemporary practice. This paper presents descriptive findings of a study of the frequency, duration and severity of mental health crises, based on analysis of more than 500 crisis incidents …

Closing The Wealth Gap: Promoting Change By Working Together, Jennifer Heffern, Aja Riley

Center for Social Development Research

Closing the Wealth Gap: Promoting Change by Working Together

The Age Old Question, Which Comes First? A Simultaneous Test Of Children's Savings And Children's College-Bound Identity, William Elliott Iii, Eun Hee Choi, Mesmin Destin, Kevin H. Kim

Center for Social Development Research

This study has three goals: (1) to provide an extensive review of research on the assets/expectation relationship, (2) to provide a conceptual framework for how children’s savings effects children’s college-bound identity (children’s college expectations are a proxy for children’s college-bound identity), and (3) to conduct a simultaneous test of whether owning a savings account leads to college-bound identity or college-bound identity lead to owning a savings account using path analytic technique with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Our review reveals asset researchers theorize about college-bound identity in two distinct but compatible ways: college-bound identity as a “linking mechanism," and college-bound identity …

Whose Space? Whose Rules? Social Challenges In Mixed-Income Developments, Mark L. Joseph

Faculty Scholarship

Mixed-income developments are being built in Chicago and across the country as a strategy to help address poverty and rebuild communities in the inner city. Tese eforts seek to attract higher-income residents to the sites of former public housing developments and integrate low-income residents back into them in contexts of greater safety, stability, opportunity, and order. Such eforts are not without challenges, however. Based on feldwork conducted between 2007 and 2009, this brief focuses in particular on the challenges raised in negotiating the uses and expectations of space in three mixed-income developments that are part of Chicago’s Plan for Transformation: …

International Volunteerism In Asia, Caroline Brassard

Center for Social Development Research

This article discusses the implications of key findings from Emerging Perspectives on International Volunteerism in Asia, the first comprehensive study on international volunteerism on the continent. Among those findings is the documentation of a growing trend toward “Asia-to-Asia” volunteer placements and of the trend’s benefits, both for organizations that send volunteers and for those that host them. The article also discusses challenges identified in the report.

"We Try To Create The World That We Want": Intentional Communities Forging Livable Lives In St. Louis, Joshua Lockyer, Peter Benson, Daniel Burton, Leeann Felder, Danielle Hayes, Erica Jackey, Alysa Lerman

Center for Social Development Research

This paper analyzes ethnographic research conducted in five intentional communities in the St. Louis region. Intentional communities have long been formed and entered into by people seeking to create more ideal, more livable lives. Our research focused on the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the members of the five communities, the motivations of members for joining, and the benefits and shortcomings they experience. In reporting these findings we summarize common themes that help us to better understand why people join intentional communities, how those communities work, and the values and goals that underpin conceptions of quality of life there. We …

Survey Response In A Statewide Social Experiment: Differences In Being Located And Collaborating By Race And Hispanic Origin, Yunju Nam, Lisa Reyes Mason, Youngmi Kim, Margaret Clancy, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

This study examines whether and how survey response differs by race and Hispanic origin, using data from birth certificates and survey administrative data from a large-scale statewide experiment. The sample consists of mothers of infants selected from Oklahoma birth certificates using a stratified random sampling method (N=7,11). This study uses Heckman probit analysis to consider two stages of survey response: (1) being located by the survey team and (2) completing a questionnaire through collaboration with the survey team. Analysis results show that African Americans, American Indians, and Hispanics are significantly less likely to be located during the study recruitment than …

Ten Year Trends (1992 To 2002) In Sociodemographic Predictors And Indicators Of Alcohol Abuse And Dependence Among Whites, Blacks, And Hispanics In The U.S, Raul Caetano, Jonali Baruah, Karen G. Chartier

Social Work Publications

Background

The objective of this paper is to examine 10-year trends (1992–2002) in the number and type of indicators of DSM-IV abuse and dependence among Whites, Blacks and Hispanics in the U.S.

Methods

Data are from the 1991–1992 National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey (NLAES; n = 42,862) and the 2001–2002 National Epidemiologic Study on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC; n = 43,093). Both surveys used multistage cluster sample procedures to select respondents 18 years of age and older from the U.S. household population.

Results

Increases in the prevalence of alcohol abuse between 1992 and 2002seem associated to a rise in …

American Indian And Alaska Native Grandfamilies: The Impact On Child Development, Suzanne Cross, Angelique Day, Patricia Farrell

Social Work Faculty Publications

Traditionally, grandparents and other family members have assumed integral roles in raising children within American Indian/Alaska Native communities. The existence of an extensive support system assisted parents in passing on to their children the knowledge of customs, culture, and language essential to community survival and well-being. An increasing number of children are now being raised in “grandfamilies,” a type of family constellation where grandparents take on the role of sole or primary caregiver for their grandchildren under eighteen years of age.