Social Workers’ Attitudes towards Intimate Partner Abuse in Younger vs. Older Women

Intimate partner abuse is defined as threatened or actual physical, sexual, or psychological abuse by a current or former partner. The present study examined responses of 212 social workers, who were randomly assigned one of four case vignettes describing intimate partner abuse. Vignettes varied by age of perpetrator and victim (elderly vs. young) and type of abuse (emotional vs. physical). Social workers tended to define intimate partner abuse against an elderly woman as non-abusive, in contrast to intimate partner abuse against a young woman. As a rule, social workers tended to favor therapeutic interventions more than legal interventions. However, in the case of intimate partner abuse against an elderly woman, social workers tended to prefer legal interventions. Specific training designed to help social workers to better understand their own ageist attitudes (i.e., age related discrimination) should supplement the training of social workers.     

Collectivistic and individualistic motives among kibbutz youth volunteering for community service

About one third of each age cohort of high school graduates in the Israeli kibbutz opt for a year of community service before enlistment into the military. The motives that underlie this volunteering were explored from the perspective of kibbutz youth's prolonged transition to adulthood. The analysis revealed a blend of individualistic and collectivistic orientations linked with expectations of satisfying instrumental as well as explorative and expressive needs within a context of moratorial and liminal experience. Particular combinations of motives were also found to vary by the intended field of activity during this year.Received Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Research interests in sociology of youth and sociology of kibbutz education.Received Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Research interests in sociology of schools and youth in Israel, and in the sociology of kibbutz society and education.     

Social Disadvantage and Students' Perceived Injustice in Socially Integrated Schools in Israel

In this study we explored objective and attributed explanations of perceived injustice (PI) with respect to instrumental and relational rewards among junior high school students. Despite the socially heterogeneous school and classroom setting, PI found was relatively modest and differentiated by domain. It was more effectively accounted for by cognitive ability than by socioeconomic status, while the effect of ethnic extraction was very small. PI was attributed much less to social background than to teacher and individual factors with regards to instrumental rewards, and to teacher and peer behavior concerning relational rewards. To explain these findings we have suggested the egalitarian climate of the school and its success in bringing students to comply with the meritocratic norm, the disadvantaged students' rational consideration of the positive contribution of the integrated school to their life chances, and the diminishing ethnic identification among the younger strata of the Israeli society.