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Hopson, Laura M.; Schiller, Kathryn S.; Lawson, Hal A.
doi: 10.1093/swr/svu017pmid: N/A
This article presents an exploratory study that examined the effects of school climate; students' perceptions of supports; and behavioral norms in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods on student behavior and grades. The authors conducted a multilevel analysis of secondary data collected from 13,068 predominantly low-income middle school students across 43 school sites. The analysis was informed by ecological theory and a risk and resilience perspective. The findings of the study indicated that students tend to have better grades and to behave better in the context of more supportive relationships and norms promoting safe, prosocial behavior. However, even the students attending the safest schools have disparities in grades that correlate with their perceptions of neighborhood support. In these schools, students who report more support from neighbors have significantly better grades than those who report less support. The findings suggest that research needs to more closely examine the potentially unique relationships between key school climate conditions, behavioral norms, and social supports for higher-risk youths, such as those from low-income families.
Loke, Stephen W.; Lowe, Patricia
doi: 10.1093/swr/svu025pmid: N/A
The transition from elementary to middle or junior high school is an important milestone, and during this time some students experience anxiety in their peer, teacher, and parent relationships. The present article discusses a pilot study conducted by the authors to develop and validate the Interpersonal School Transition Anxiety Scale (I-STAS), a new measure that assesses anxiety about interpersonal relationships during the school transition period. The results of exploratory factor analysis performed on the responses of 245 students indicated that a three-factor (peer, teacher, and parent relationships) structure provided the best solution for the I-STAS. The results also indicated that the I-STAS scores had adequate internal consistency reliability and test score stability. Furthermore, evidence for convergent and discriminant validity of the I-STAS scores was found. Following additional research, school social workers can begin using the I-STAS to assess interpersonal anxieties that students may experience during their school transition and formulate interventions tailored to their student body's particular needs.
Weaver, Addie; Gjesfjeld, Christopher
doi: 10.1093/swr/svu023pmid: N/A
This study simultaneously examined the association between demographic and economic factors, perceived access to care, and health beliefs, and the use of four recommended preventive health care services: (1) mammograms, (2) sigmoidoscopies or colonoscopies, (3) pap tests, and (4) cholesterol checks, among a sample of 3,251 women living in the rural southeastern United States. Multivariate logistic regression confirmed factors consistently found to affect usage, including age, race, having a usual source of care, and insurance status, but did not support previous research suggesting that distance to care is associated with obtaining preventive services. Findings revealed that, in general, perceived access to care was not associated with services use, whereas health beliefs were associated with obtaining preventive care and require further study. These analyses also suggest that factors associated with utilization vary by type of service. Understanding the complex factors affecting preventive services use for women living in the rural southeastern United States has important implications for health social workers facilitating health promotion and education initiatives to encourage utilization among this population.
doi: 10.1093/swr/svu024pmid: N/A
Recent attention has been given to role-based professional identity dysfunction. Social workers may be particularly vulnerable to develop their identity or sense of self around the role of a caregiver and experience distress as a result. The authors used a sample of 213 social workers to test a hypothesized curvilinear relationship between their caregiver role identity and distress based on the control theory perspective of identity process and the conservation of resources perspective of stress. Furthermore, they tested self-esteem and social support as moderators in this curvilinear relationship. Results show that distress increases exponentially as the caregiver identity level increases. In addition, self-esteem (as an internal resource) and social support (as an external resource) both buffer the impact of caregiver role identity on distress. The authors describe the theoretical contributions to the areas of work role identity and stress, as well as the practical implications for social workers, managers, and educators.
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