Kinship Guardianship,Adoption, and Foster Care: Outcomes from a U.S. National Sample

Using data from a national longitudinal survey of children referred to child protective services (NSCAW II), this article compares behavioral, child/caregiver relationship, and school performance outcomes for children residing in kinship and nonkinship settings. Up to three waves of data were gathered for each child. The analysis sample comprises 4,202 children and 10,881 observations. Two sets of regressions were completed. One represents family living settings using child-mean centered predictors while the other does so with dummy-coded variables. An advantage of the child-mean centered predictors is that omitted variables that vary between children but that are constant within each child do not introduce bias. The regressions using dummy-coded variables evidenced, on balance, somewhat better outcomes for kinship settings than for nonkinship ones. Good outcomes in these regressions were found for kinship adoption. Results with the child-mean centered regressions were more equivocal, though perhaps still favored kinship settings. Limitations and policy recommendations conclude the article.     

Detached,Hostile, Adaptable and Liberalising: The Chameleon Qualities of the UK's Relationship with EU Social Policy

In this article, we review the EU's significance for social policies in the UK. The EU has a limited legal role or institutional capacity to directly regulate the social policies of its member states. This role is even more limited in the case of non‐eurozone countries. There are a handful of EU policy measures which have had effects on social policy in the UK. However, these effects have not changed the institutional arrangements for making, organising and delivering social policy, which remain firmly in the hands of UK governments. In consequence, a ‘Leave’ or ‘Remain’ result has relatively limited implications for social policy, except in the case of specific social groups: notably for UK and other EU nationals who have lived and worked in at least one other EU country. Other EU legislation and regulation is compatible with the current and historical policy preferences of UK governments and political parties.     

Choosing the path of austerity: how parties and policy coalitions influence welfare state retrenchment in periods of fiscal consolidation

What are the conditions under which some austerity programmes rely on substantial cuts to social spending? More specifically, do the partisan complexion and the type of government condition the extent to which austerity policies imply welfare state retrenchment? This article demonstrates that large budget consolidations tend to be associated with welfare state retrenchment. The findings support a partisan and a politico-institutionalist argument: (i) in periods of fiscal consolidation, welfare state retrenchment tends to be more pronounced under left-wing governments; (ii) since welfare state retrenchment is electorally and politically risky, it also tends to be more pronounced when pursued by a broad pro-reform coalition government. Therefore, the article shows that during budget consolidations implemented by left-wing broad coalition governments, welfare state retrenchment is greatest. Using long-run multipliers from autoregressive distributed lag models on 17 OECD countries during the 1982–2009 period, substantial support is found for these expectations.     

Devine intervention? Lessons in systemic retrenchment from Canada’s most generous welfare state

This article tackles the importance of systemic retrenchment in welfare state research by focusing on two core elements neglected in the literature: the civil service and governmental revenues. Saskatchewan has possessed key ingredients associated with generous welfare states: a dominant left-wing party, a supportive bureaucracy and important non-visible fiscal revenues. According to the comparative welfare state literature, this is also an excellent recipe for maintaining a generous welfare state amid attempts, primarily by right-wing governments, to scale it back. Yet, most social indicators in the post-Devine years demonstrate that Saskatchewan can no longer be considered a leading welfare state in Canada. Reforms to the bureaucracy and a host of financial measures resulting in a near default explain why the Devine government was successful in its efforts to disrupt the CCF/NDP social legacy despite the fact that the NDP regained power for 16 years afterwards.     

The Santa Clara County Greenbook Story: From Theory to Transformation

This article is an overview of the past 20 years, from a judicial perspective, of how a discreet selection of Greenbook recommendations were implemented in Santa Clara County, California. This historical overview shows that it is possible to take a guidebook written by national experts from many jurisdictions and tailor the intervention to a particular location with the assistance of local leadership. We applied a theoretical framework to government agency interventions and to the very real needs of families, and that process resulted in a profound transformation of practice.     

Measuring and explaining the marriage boom in the developed world

Using aggregated data from 25 developed countries over a lengthy period of time, this article presents a measure of the marriage boom observed in the twentieth century and an explanation for its causes. One of my main conclusions is that even though it basically developed after the Second World War, its origins are to be found before it. I found that, contrary to the views of some scholars, this boom was not a short-lived phenomenon, but actually lasted for 90 years on average. Using panel data analysis techniques, I am able to show that the rise in women’s education, state spending on social benefits, and larger percentages of people employed in the primary sector tended to discourage marriage. I also found a quadratic relationship between the nuptiality index and the per capita income and mortality rates.     

What’s in an MSW? Graduate education for public child welfare workers,intention, engagement,and work environment

ABSTRACT

This study employs a mixed methods analysis of exit survey data gathered from public child welfare employees at their completion of a Title IV-E funded MSW program, distinct because it was initiated during a period of major reform and permitted students to continue employment during their studies. Findings suggest that opportunities for growth and manageable levels of stress were associated with intentions to stay and engagement with the work, reflected in respondents’ positive perceptions of their roles in the work environment and their retrospective assessments of the impact of their social work education.     

A Multi-Level Conceptual Model to Examine Child Welfare Worker Turnover and Retention Decisions

There is little disagreement about the importance of a healthy stable workforce in promoting effective provision of child welfare services. This review proposes a multi-level conceptual model of child welfare workforce turnover combining traditional individual and organizational impacts with factors associated with community context. Identified gaps in the literature along with a related research agenda are reviewed. Also presented is an overview of the Florida Study of Professionals for Safe Families, a longitudinal study of new hires into the child welfare workforce across Florida, providing opportunities to address gaps and test model characteristics regarding turnover decisions and related outcomes.     

福利国家模式、职业结构与不平等原因

福特主义工业社会向后福特主义服务经济的转变，赋予各类福利国家诸多新特征。从职业分层来看，经济服务化过程中大量专业岗位的创造及其对熟练技能的需求，使得教育以及其他社会政策，越来越成为推动阶层流动的决定力量。从收入分布来看，全球化、去管制化、去工业化与老龄化、经济服务化、城市化的叠加，使得福利国家模式普遍呈现出收入极化或不平等，中产衰退的迹象也比较明显。效率公平权衡的努力，进一步加剧了福利国家模式分化。鉴于高度现代化过程中不断出现的困难和挑战，产业均衡发展，经济政策与社会政策协调，构成稳妥推进共同富裕的重要基础。     

组织间不信任与替代性武装力量：拉美国家废除军队的政治逻辑

军队是国家权力的关键指标，也是绝大多数主权国家不可或缺的有机构成，在国内政治与国际关系领域都发挥着重要作用。然而，世界上仍存在少数主动废除军队的国家。引人关注的是，这类案例大多集中在拉美地区。对于这些拉美国家为何废除军队，既有研究主要从小国视角和军政关系视角出发，认为国家规模与国家安全之关联性和去军事化改革是基本逻辑依据。然而对拉美具体案例而言，这些理论范式的解释性仍存在一定欠缺。考察哥斯达黎加和海地案例可知，组织间不信任与替代性武装力量强弱是拉美特定国家废除军队的基本政治逻辑；获得可信的武装力量支持是新政权得以巩固的必要条件。当新政府与既有军队之间出现组织间不信任时，新政府便倾向于谋求用其他武装力量来替代既有军队。同时，替代性武装力量的强弱影响着政府的替代决策。若不存在可信的替代性武装力量，或只存在弱替代性武装力量，那么废除军队并建立或扶植一些原先较弱的武装组织便成为拉美国家政府强化武装力量控制的常见选择。