Providing Foster Care for Adolescents: Barriers and Opportunities

This study used quantitative and qualitative data from a larger research project regarding foster parent experiences to examine the characteristics that predict a parent’s willingness to foster an adolescent. Data collected from closed- and open-ended items related to reasons for not fostering a teen were also analyzed. Findings suggest parents who are older and were a foster child themselves, increased the likelihood they would foster a teen. When discussing reasons for not fostering an adolescent, parents identified fears of problem behaviors and concerns about negative impact on other children; findings that were corroborated in responses to the open-ended comments.     

what became of ‘frontline feminism’? a retro-perspective on post-conflict Belfast

A feminist stock-taking on ‘post-conflict’, this paper revisits a study made by the author in 1996–1997, when the women’s community sector was a lively actor in the processes leading to the Good Friday Peace Agreement of 1998. Refusing to observe sectarian conflict lines, women’s centres were re-writing official ‘community development’ policy as community empowerment and political challenge. The author draws on new interviews conducted in 2012 with feminist community activists of that earlier period of ‘frontline feminism’, associated with the Belfast Women’s Support Network. The women reveal how continuing poverty, discrimination, violence and unhealed trauma still characterise working-class life in the post-conflict period, and impede the integration of Protestant and Catholic communities. Official provisions for gender equality have been interpreted in gender-neutral ways, and in some cases turned against women. The demilitarisation of masculinity has been painfully slow. The women’s community sector has experienced a loss of political drive as women’s centres have become service providers, dependent on state funding. Feminism is renewing itself, but in fresh forms with different priorities. Will it recover a voice that ‘speaks truth to power’?     

A model for using time out as an intervention technique with families

Using time out to interrupt escalating conflict is an important first step in treating couples and families where physical and emotional abuse is present. Since a time out failure can jeopardize further treatment, developing effective methods for using time out is a therapeutic priority. By interpreting the family's failed attempts as skill deficits, their efforts can be reframed to facilitate their acceptance of new time out methods. These methods are integrated into a model which outlines six hierarchical levels of supplemental control needed to inhibit destructive behavior. The model provides guidelines and establishes incentives for developing a time out strategy appropriate to the family's current level of control. It is designed to guide therapists in helping families strengthen their skills and choose an alternative time out strategy when an initial method fails.     

Crime and safety-related concerns in a small community

This research utilizes social context and personal characteristics as determinants of both perceptions and satisfaction with safety in the local neighborhood. Using survey data obtained from residents of a small town, this analysis examines the impact of satisfaction with the environment, victimization, and social integration on attitudes concerning safety. Consistent with past research, results indicate that victimization and satisfaction with the local area are both significant predictors of perceptions of safety. They also share a significant relationship with satisfaction with safety. Two indicators of social integration yielded differing results. Participation in local organizations and associations played a more significant role in attitudes concerning safety than did the number of friends a respondent has in the neighborhood. When controlling for personal characteristics, participation in organizations was a more significant predictor of perceptions of safety than of satisfaction with safety. This project was funded by Midway College and a grant from the Association of American Colleges to the University of Louisville. An earlier version of this research was presented to the American Sociological Association. The authors would like to acknowledge the suggestions of Susan Bennett.