Workfare Work: The Impact of Workfare on the Worker/Client Relationship

This article details the American experience of welfare reform, and specifically its experience instituting workfare programs for participants. In the United States, the term "welfare" is most commonly used to refer to the program for single mothers and their families, formerly called Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and now, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). In 1996, politicians "ended welfare as we know it" by fundamentally changing this program with the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA). The principal focus of the 1996 reform is mandatory work requirements enforced by sanctions and strict time limits on welfare receipt. While PRWORA's emphasis on work is not new, the difference is its significant ideological and policy commitment to employment, enforced by time limits. When welfare reform was enacted, some of its proponents recognized that welfare offices would have to change in order to develop individualized workfare plans, monitor progress, and impose sanctions. The "culture" of welfare offices had to be changed from being solely concerned with eligibility and compliance to individual, intensive casework. In this article, I will discuss how implementing workfare programs have influenced the relationship between clients and their workers at the welfare office. I start by describing the burdens faced by offices even before the enactment of welfare reform. Local welfare offices were expected to run programs that emphasized compliance and eligibility at the same time as workfare programs, which require intensive, personal case management. The next section of the paper will focus on strategies welfare offices and workers use to navigate these contradictory expectations. Lastly, I will present information on how clients react to workfare programs and some reasons they acquiesce to workfare contracts despite their unmet needs. I conclude with recommendations of how to make workfare truly work for welfare clients.

Mothering Children or Soldiers: Advancing Paradigms of the Women's Movement in Former Yugoslavia

The transition of political power in former Yugoslavia and the wars that followed have led to the country's reassessment of the proper role of women in society, culture, nation, and family. Advocates of a new vision of nationalist womanhood assert that the continued existence of the entire country depends solely on women carrying out their reproductive and nurturing roles. This new envisioning clearly serves a political purpose, solely at the expense of the women's movement that has made significant strides in this nation. It is the purpose of this article to provide a brief historical overview of the development of the new idealized "mother of the nation" from a strengths-based social work perspective.

The Care and Shelter of Children and Adolescents in Brazil: Expressions of Social Issues

The future of Brazilian children who have the protection offered by familial bonds is threatened by social inequities that force them to seek shelter and grow up in shelters. According to the Institute of Applied Economic Research, an estimated 20,000 children and adolescents are served by institutions. The majority of these children are afro-descendent males between the ages of seven and fifteen years old. Of those researched, 87.6% have families (58.2% receive visits from their families, 22.7% are rarely visited by their families and 5.8 are legally prohibited from contacting or being by their families). The percentage of children and adolescents “without families” or with “missing families” is 11.3%. There is no information available for 2% of the children and adolescents residing in shelters. The principle factors that necessitate the placement of Brazilian children in institutions that provide care and shelter include poverty (including children forced to work, sell drugs or beg, for example); domestic violence; chemical dependence of parents or guardians; homelessness; death or parents or guardian; imprisonment of their parents; and sexual abuse committed by their parents or guardians. The issue of abandoned children and adolescents and their care and shelter in the Brazilian context expresses a perverse violation of Child and Adolescent Rights.

Landscapes of Education and the New Role of Social Work International Models of How to Combine Formal, Non-formal and Informal Education

Landscapes of education are a new topic within the debate about adequate and just education and human development for everybody. In particular, children and youths from social classes affected by poverty, a lack of prospects or minimal schooling are a focal group that should be offered new approaches and opportunities of cognitive and social development by way of these landscapes of education. It has become apparent that the traditional school alone does not suffice to meet this need. There is no doubt that competency-based orientation and employability are core areas with the help of which the generation now growing up will manage the start of its professional career. In addition and by no means less important, the development involves individual, social, cultural and societal perspectives that can be combined under the term of human development. In this context, the Capability Approach elaborated by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum has developed a more extensive concept of human development and related it to empirical instruments. Using the analytic concept of individual capabilities and societal opportunities they shaped a socio-political formula that should be adapted in particular to modern social work. Moreover, the Capability Approach offers a critical foil with regard to further development and revision of institutionalised approaches in education and human development.

Development of Values after Compulsory School: Work comes first, then family

During school-to-work transition, adolescents develop values and prioritize what is im-portant in their life. Values are concepts or beliefs about desirable states or behaviors that guide the selection or evaluation of behavior and events, and are ordered by their relative importance (Schwartz & Bilsky, 1987). Stressing the important role of values, career re-search has intensively studied the effect of values on educational decisions and early career development (e.g. Eccles, 2005; Hirschi, 2010; Rimann, Udris, & Weiss, 2000). Few re-searchers, however, have investigated so far how values develop in the early career phase and how value trajectories are influenced by individual characteristics. Values can be oriented towards specific life domains, such as work or family. Work values include intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of work (e.g., self-development, cooperation with others, income) (George & Jones, 1997). Family values include the importance of partner-ship, the creation of an own family and having children (Mayer, Kuramschew, & Trommsdroff, 2009). Research indicates that work values change considerably during early career development (Johnson, 2001; Lindsay & Knox, 1984). Individual differences in work values and value trajectories are found e.g., in relation to gender (Duffy & Sedlacek, 2007), parental background (Loughlin & Barling, 2001), personality (Lowry et al., 2012), educa-tion (Battle, 2003), and the anticipated timing of school-to-work transition (Porfeli, 2007). In contrast to work values, research on family value trajectories is rare and knowledge about the development during the school-to-work transition and early career development is lack-ing. This paper aims at filling this research gap. Focusing on family values and intrinsic work values and we expect a) family and work val-ues to change between ages 16 and 25, and b) that initial levels of family and work values as well as value change to be predicted by gender, reading literacy, ambition, and expected du-ration of education. Method. Using data from 2620 young adults (59.5% females), who participated in the Swiss longitudinal study TREE, latent growth modeling was employed to estimate the initial level and growth rate per year for work and family values. Analyses are based on TREE-waves 1 (year 2001, first year after compulsory school) to 8 (year 2010). Variables in the models included family values and intrinsic work values, gender, reading literacy, ambition and ex-pected duration of education. Language region was included as control variable. Results. Family values did not change significantly over the first four years after leaving compulsory school (mean slope = -.03, p =.36). They increased, however, significantly five years after compulsory school (mean slope = .13, p >.001). Intercept (.23, p < .001), first slope (.02, p < .001), and second slope (.01, p < .001) showed significant variance. Initial levels were higher for men and those with higher ambitions. Increases were found to be steeper for males as well as for participants with lower educational duration expectations and reading skills. Intrinsic work values increased over the first four years (mean slope =.03, p <.05) and showed a tendency to decrease in the years five to ten (mean slope = -.01, p < .10). Intercept (.21, p < .001), first slope (.01, p < .001), and second slope (.01, p < .001) showed signifi-cant variance, meaning that there are individual differences in initial levels and growth rates. Initial levels were higher for females, and those with higher ambitions, expecting longer educational pathways, and having lower reading skills. Growth rates were lower for the first phase and steeper for the second phase for males compared to females. Discussion. In general, results showed different patterns of work and family value trajecto-ries, and different individual factors related to initial levels and development after compul-sory school. Developments seem to fit to major life and career roles: in the first years after compulsory school young adults may be engaged to become established in one's job; later on, raising a family becomes more important. That we found significant gender differences in work and family trajectories may reflect attempts to overcome traditional roles, as over-all, women increase in work values and men increase in family values, resulting in an over-all trend to converge.

Translating Rhetoric to Reality: The Future of Family and Children's Services

These remarks were first prepared by the author for the inauguration of the Marion Elizabeth Blue Endowed Professorship in Children and Families at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. They were delivered on October 5, 1999, and originally appeared as a monograph published by the University of Michigan School of Social Work in December 1999. They are reprinted here by permission.

Individual, Family, and Neighborhood Characteristics and Children's Food Insecurity

A growing body of work documents the influence of neighborhood environments on child health and well-being. Food insecurity is likely linked to neighborhood characteristics via mechanisms of social disadvantage, including access to and availability of healthy foods and the social cohesion of neighbors. In this paper, we utilize restricted, geo-coded data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, which allows us to link individual children with their neighborhood's census characteristics, to assess how the neighborhoods of food secure and food insecure children differ at both the kindergarten level and in third grade. The average food insecure child lives in a neighborhood with a higher proportion of black and Hispanic residents, a higher proportion of residents living in poverty, and a higher proportion of foreign-born and linguistically isolated residents. After accounting for individual and household-level characteristics, children living in neighborhoods with a high proportion of Hispanic and foreign-born residents have a significantly increased risk of food insecurity compared to children living in neighborhoods which are predominantly white and have high socioeconomic status. We argue that interventions which take neighborhood context into account may be most efficacious for curbing child food insecurity.

An ethnographic study of home remedy use for African-American children

Background and significance. The use of herbs and other remedies by adult and elderly African-Americans has been documented. However, little is understood regarding the use of herbs for African-American children. The purpose of this study was to document and describe the historical and present day uses of herbal and other remedies, specifically for the health and illness of African-American children. This information will provide health care providers with a better understanding of their African-American patients. This information may also contribute to the emerging appreciation of indigenous uses of phytotherapeutics. ^ Methods. A focused ethnographic approach was used to describe the cultural context, including the beliefs, values, customs, and behaviors of a particular culture. The use of intensive fieldwork, including participant observation, audiotaped formal interviews, photographs, and specimen collection of plants helped to describe herb use in this population. Information on the growing, harvesting, preparation, and storage of these plant remedies, as well as the amount and dosage of these compounds was collected in a typology. Detailed information was gathered to discern how, when, and under what conditions these remedies were used and their expected results. Further data collection focused on the history of herbal use, and explanations for how and why informants thought the herbs work. ^ Setting and participants. The setting for this study was in East Texas and field work extended over the period of one year. Thirty African-Americans, age 38 to 98, were interviewed for the study. The African-American population in this area has been relatively stable, with roots dating back prior to the reconstruction period, which allowed excellent historical information. Informants were chosen by a nominated sampling technique starting with two key informants knowledgeable about the use of home remedies for children. ^ Findings. The findings of this study suggest that African-American children in East Texas have a long history of receiving herbs and home remedies for health promotion and illness. Data further suggests that there is a strong connection between spirituality and the health beliefs and practices of this community. This spiritual component underlies the accuracy of oral recall for remedies that have been used over many generations and the use of natural folk remedies. A typology of the herbal remedies was developed with folk and Latin name, herb place of origin, known scientific properties, and informant folk usage and dosage information. ^

Place of Work and Place of Residence: Informal Hiring Networks and Labor Market Outcomes

We use a novel dataset and research design to empirically detect the effect of social interactions among neighbors on labor market outcomes. Specifically, using Census data that characterize residential and employment locations down to the city block, we examine whether individuals residing in the same block are more likely to work together than individuals in nearby but not identical blocks. We find significant evidence of social interactions operating at the block level: residing on the same versus nearby blocks increases the probability of working together by over 33 percent. The results also indicate that this referral effect is stronger when individuals are similar in sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., both have children of similar ages) and when at least one individual is well attached to the labor market. These findings are robust across various specifications intended to address concerns related to sorting and reverse causation. Further, having determined the characteristics of a pair of individuals that lead to an especially strong referral effect, we provide evidence that the increased availability of neighborhood referrals has a significant impact on a wide range of labor market outcomes including employment and wages.

Self-injury in a residential treatment population of children and adolescents

Objectives. The aim of this study was to describe the relationship between child-abuse and self-injury among children and adolescents living in a residential treatment center in a large urban area. ^ Methods. A retrospective study was conducted through a chart review of the residents who were placed at the center from 2003-2006. A total of 35 cases (with at least one documented incident of self-injury during placement at the residential treatment center) were age/gender matched with 35 controls (without at least one documented incident of self-injury during placement at the residential treatment center). ^ Results. In this study, the case subjects were far more likely to be victims of sexual abuse than were the controls (74.3% vs. 25.7%, respectively). Self-harm was found to be 9.5 times as frequent in the group that was exposed to sexual abuse in the source population (OR = 9.500 with a 95% CI = 2.292, 84.111). The difference was statistically significant (McNemar's test, x2 = 12.190 with 1 df. The two-tailed P value equals 0.0005). ^ Conclusion. These findings suggest that school-age and early-adolescent children who have a history of sexual abuse may engage in a variety of self-harming behaviors. Clinicians should consider a history of sexual abuse when working with self-harming children. ^

Systematic review of interventions designed to reduce screen time in children and adolescents

This descriptive systematic review describes intervention trials for children and youth that targeted screen time (ST) as a way to prevent or control obesity and measured ST, and at least one of the following: physical activity, dietary intake, and adiposity. Both “hands-on” (e.g., video games) and “hands free” (e.g., television viewing) ST were included. Published, completed intervention trials (k=12), not-yet-published, completed trials (k=6), and in-progress trials (k=11) were identified through searches of electronic databases, including trial registries and bibliographies of eligible study reports. Study characteristics of the 29 identified trials were coded and presented in evidence tables. Considerable attention was paid to the type of ST addressed, measures used, and the type of interventions. Based on the number of in-progress and not-yet-published trials, the number of completed, published reports will double in the next three years. Most of the studies were funded by federal sources. General populations, not restricted by race, gender, or weight status, were targets of most interventions with children ages 9-12 yeas as the modal age group. Most trials used randomized control trials in which the majority of control or comparison group received an intervention. The mean number of participants was 242.8 (SD=314.7) and interventions were delivered over an average of 10.5 months and consisted of approximately 16 sessions, with a total time of about eight hours. The majority of completed trials evaluate each of the four constructs, however, most studies have more than one measure to assess each construct (e.g., BMI and tricep skinfold thickness to evaluate adiposity) and rarely did studies use the same measures. This is likely why the majority of studies produced at least one significant intervention effect on each outcome that was assessed. The four major outcomes should be evaluated in all interventions attempting to reduce screen time in order to determine the mechanisms involved that may contribute to obesity. More importantly researchers should work together to determine the best measures to evaluate the four main constructs to allow studies to be compared. Another area for consensus is the definition of ST. ^