School-related predictors of smoking, drinking and drug use: Evidence from the Belfast Youth Development Study

Objective

To examine whether students’ school engagement, relationships with teachers, educational aspirations and involvement in fights at school are associated with various measures of subsequent substance use.
Methods

Data were drawn from the Belfast Youth Development Study (n = 2968). Multivariate logistic models examined associations between school-related factors (age 13/14) and substance use (age 15/16).
Results

The two factors which were consistently and independently associated with regular substance use among both males and females were student–teacher relationships and fighting at school: positive teacher-relationships reduced the risk of daily smoking by 48%, weekly drunkenness by 25%, and weekly cannabis use by 52%; being in a fight increased the risk of daily smoking by 54%, weekly drunkenness by 31%, and weekly cannabis use by 43%. School disengagement increased the likelihood of smoking and cannabis use among females only.
Conclusion

Further research should focus on public health interventions promoting positive relationships and safety at school.

Political Violence and Child Adjustment in Northern Ireland: Testing Pathways in a Social-Ecological Model Including Single- and Two-Parent Families

Moving beyond simply documenting that political violence negatively impacts children, we tested a social ecological hypothesis for relations between political violence and child outcomes. Participants were 700 mother child (M = 12.1 years, SD = 1.8) dyads from 18 working-class, socially deprived areas in Belfast, Northern Ireland, including single- and two-parent families. Sectarian community violence was associated with elevated family conflict and children's reduced security about multiple aspects of their social environment (i.e., family, parent child relations, and community), with links to child adjustment problems and reductions in prosocial behavior. By comparison, and consistent with expectations, links with negative family processes, child regulatory problems, and child outcomes were less consistent for nonsectarian community violence. Support was found for a social ecological model for relations between political violence and child outcomes among both single- and two-parent families, with evidence that emotional security and adjustment problems were more negatively affected in single-parent families. The implications for understanding social ecologies of political violence and children's functioning are discussed.

Social Work Students Learn about Social Work Values from Service Users and Carers

Teaching on social work values is centrally important in social work education as a core aspect of underpinning knowledge in preparing students for practice. This paper describes an innovative project occurring within the first year of the degree in social work, where service users and carers have assisted students with their understanding of social work values. The positive contribution of service users and carers in facilitating students to make links between theory and practice is now well documented. Applying this user perspective to the educational domain of values, however, is relatively uncharted territory given the challenges that have traditionally accompanied the teaching of values. Importantly, this paper describes the ‘value talk’ which occurred when first-year students sought further meaning from service-user and carer groups in their community settings following classroom teaching on values. The paper not only discusses the detailed preparations involved in the project but also the learning which resulted, drawing on the evaluation findings from the students and participating groups. Whilst the findings show that the students' understanding of social work values has been most significantly influenced by the contributions from service users and carers, it is recognized that further research is needed to monitor the longer term impact on social work students' practice after they qualify.

Political Violence and Child Adjustment: Longitudinal Tests of Sectarian Antisocial Behavior, Family Conflict, and Insecurity as Explanatory Pathways

Understanding the impact of political violence on child maladjustment is a matter of international concern. Recent research has advanced a social ecological explanation for relations between political violence and child adjustment. However, conclusions are qualified by the lack of longitudinal tests. Toward examining pathways longitudinally, mothers and their adolescents (M = 12.33, SD = 1.78, at Time 1) from 2-parent families in Catholic and Protestant working class neighborhoods in Belfast, Northern Ireland, completed measures assessing multiple levels of a social ecological model. Utilizing autoregressive controls, a 3-wave longitudinal model test (T1, n = 299; T2, n = 248; T3, n = 197) supported a specific pathway linking sectarian community violence, family conflict, childrens insecurity about family relationships, and adjustment problems.

Developing Social Work Education: Academic Perspectives

During the past decade, a new culture of pedagogic research has emerged in social work in the UK. A succession of child-care tragedies that have led to government and public criticism of social work have highlighted the need for improvements to professional standards and stimulated renewed interest in social work education. Research aimed at developing knowledge of ‘what works’ in the educational process have included studies of student experiences and the perspectives of other stakeholders including service users and practice teachers. However, there has been little systematic investigation of the role of academics in social work education and their perceptions of what needs to be done to improve the quality of provision. This paper aims to address this gap in research by examining the perceptions of academics about their work. The authors utilise an adaptation of the conceptual model developed by Fraser and Bosanquet (2006) as a theoretical framework for analysing the findings and exploring the complex interrelationship between academic perspectives and the variety of concepts, ideas and stakeholder expectations that shape pedagogical practice. The findings should provide important lessons of relevance to educators in the UK and in other countries seeking to develop social work education.

Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences in a University Population: Associations with Use of Social Services

This paper is part of a series published by the Multiple Adverse Childhood Experiences research group based at QUB. First-year undergraduates took part in an online survey, self-reporting on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) and measures of social service contact. The 10-item ACE questionnaire measures abuse, neglect and household dysfunction (current sample ?????????The study achieved a response rate of 18.6%. (N=765; 552 (72.7%) females and 212 (27.2%) males; 21.8% reporting having been educated at a ‘Protestant’ school, 42% reporting having been educated at a ‘Catholic’ school and 20.4% reporting previous school religious affiliation as ‘other’). Despite obvious non-response bias, ACE scores for this student population are comparable with college-educated populations in the US. Current respondents with previous social service contact are over twenty three times more likely than peers to have experienced multiple adversities. Findings support the hypothesis that social service contact, alone, acts as a proxy indicator for the presence of multiple adverse childhood experiences, with no significant elevation in ACE scores for those going through court proceedings or subject to child protection registration. This study supports current concerns by policy makers to target those children experiencing multiple adversities.

Telling stories of 21st Century welfare: the UK Coalition Government and the neo-liberal discourse of worklessness and dependency’ Critical Social Policy

Policy documents are a useful source for understanding the privileging of particular ideological and policy preferences (Scrase and Ockwell, 2010) and how the language and imagery may help to construct society’s assumptions, values and beliefs. This article examines how the UK Coalition government’s 2010 Green Paper, 21st Century Welfare, and the White Paper, Universal Credit: Welfare that Works, assist in constructing a discourse about social security that favours a renewal and deepening of neo-liberalization in the context of threats to its hegemony. The documents marginalize the structural aspects of persistent unemployment and poverty by transforming these into individual pathologies of benefit dependency and worklessness. The consequence is that familiar neo-liberal policy measures favouring the intensification of punitive conditionality and economic rationality can be portrayed as new and innovative solutions to address Britain’s supposedly broken society and restore economic competitiveness.

Psycho-educational group intervention for family caregivers of hospitalized palliative care patients:pilot study

Family caregivers of patients requiring palliative care commonly experience physical, social, and psychological burdens. Although family caregivers are acknowledged as valid service recipients of palliative care, many have unmet needs, and systematic reviews have shown there are limited evidence-based supportive interventions.

Social work education and political conflict: preparing students to address the needs of victims and survivors of the Troubles in Northern Ireland

This paper reports on the evaluation of a European PEACE III sponsored teaching and learning project that was designed to enable social work students to better understand the needs of victims and survivors of the conflict in Northern Ireland. The paper begins with an introduction to policy, practice and educational contexts before reviewing the literature on social work, conflict and trauma. It also summarises key, innovative pedagogical approaches used in the teaching, including the use of ground rules, teaching teams consisting of lecturer and service user dyads, learning exercises and case studies. The paper then explains the evaluation methodology. This involved two surveys which returned 144 student and 34 practice teacher questionnaires. The findings revealed that
students were generally committed to this form of teaching and engagement with victims and survivors of the conflict, although some students reported that their attitudes towards this subject had were not changed. Some students also discussed how the conflict had affected their lives and the lives of families and friends; it is argued that such biographical details are crucial in developing new pedagogical approaches in this area.
Practice teachers who supervised some of these students on placement reported general levels of satisfaction with preparedness to work with conflict related situations but were less convinced that organisations were so committed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the study limitations and a recommendation for more robust methods of teaching and evaluation in this area of social work education and practice.

Enabling Social Work Students to Deal with the Consequences of Political Conflict: Engaging with Victim/Survivor Service Users and a ‘Pedagogy of Discomfort’

This paper describes the evaluation of an educational project, delivered in a Bachelor in Social Work degree (BSW) program in Northern Ireland. The project aimed to equip social work students to be more culturally competent in this divided society, with a central focus on including victim/survivor service users in social work training. A number of pedagogical approaches are noted, with particular consideration of Boler's ‘pedagogy of discomfort’ as a model that includes the multidimensional nature of the learning process when topics carry a high emotional tariff. The evaluation of the students' experience indicated that: there was strong support among students for the project; the unique contribution of service users was affirmed; and the project appeared to increase students' awareness and capacity to practice in a divided society. The evaluation of the trainers' experience highlighted key processes in the delivery of collaborative training. The authors argue that the lessons learned are broadly applicable to other forms of service user and carer involvement in social work training and in other societies in which health and social care professionals have to deal with the legacies of political conflict.

Educational assessment policy and practice - a matter of ethics

Long-standing concerns within the field of educational assessment consider the impact of assessment policy and practice as matters of equity, inequality and social justice.Yet educational assessment policy and practice continues to have powerful social consequences for key users such as children and young people.This paper re-positions these consequences as a matter of ethics.It uses the work of Messick to frame how ethical matters extend beyond test instruments into the realm of uses and impact. A case study of the 11+ school transfer system in Northern Ireland is presented to illustrate ethical dilemmas emerging as a consequence of actions and decisions of using assessment systems for particular purposes.In looking forward to how we might attend to ethical matters in assessment policy and practice, a consideration of a children’s rights approach is outlined that may provide a moral and legal framework for action.

Welfare regime and social class variation in poverty and economic vulnerability in Europe: an analysis of EU-SILC

In this paper we address a set of interrelated issues. These comprise increasing concerns about reliance on nationally based income poverty measures in the context of EU enlargement, the relative merits of one-dimensional versus multidimensional approaches to poverty and social exclusion and the continuing relevance of class-based explanations of life chances. When identifying economically vulnerable groups we find that, contrary to the situation with national income poverty measures, levels of vulnerability vary systematically across welfare regimes. The multidimensional profile of the economically vulnerable sharply differentiates them from the remainder of the population. While they are also characterised by distinctively higher levels of multiple deprivation, a substantial majority of the economically vulnerable are not exposed to such deprivation. Unlike the national relative income approach, the focus on economic vulnerability reveals a pattern of class differentiation that is not dominated by the contrast between the self-employed and all others. In contrast to a European-wide relative income approach, it also simultaneously captures the fact that absolute levels of vulnerability are distinctively higher among the lower social classes in the less comprehensive and generous welfare regimes while class relativities are significantly sharper at the other end of the spectrum.

Understanding Parental Influence on Educational Outcomes Among 9 Year Olds in Ireland: The Mediating Role of Resources, Attitudes and Children's Own Perspectives

The relationship between parental background and children's educational outcomes has been a dominant theme within the sociology of education. There has been an on-going debate as to the relative merits of explanations which focus on the role of socio-cultural reproduction and those which focus on rational choice. However, many empirical studies within the social stratification tradition fail to allow for children's own agency in shaping the relationship between social background and schooling outcomes. This paper draws on the first wave of a large-scale longitudinal study of over 8,000 nine-year-old children in Ireland, which combines information from parents, school principals, teachers and children themselves. Both social class and parental education are found to have significant effects on reading and mathematics test scores among nine year olds. These effects are partly mediated by home-based educational resources and activities, parents' educational expectations for their child, and parents' formal involvement in the school. More importantly, children's own engagement with, and attitudes to, school significantly influence their academic performance. The influence of children's own attitudes and actions can thus reinforce or mitigate the effect of social background factors. The analysis therefore provides a bridge between the large body of research on the intergenerational transmission of inequality and the emerging research and policy literature on children's rights.

Explaining Social Class Inequalities in Smoking: The Role of Education, Self-Efficacy, and Deprivation

Rates of smoking have decreased dramatically in most Northern European countries over the last 50 years or so, but manual working class groups are substantially more likely to smoke daily than are the professional and managerial classes. This article examines three hypotheses about the processes producing these inequalities. The first argues that social class inequalities reflect differences across education groups in knowledge of the risks of smoking. The second suggests that the living conditions of lower social class groups leads to the development of lower self-efficacy and a lower propensity to quit smoking. The third states that smoking has a functional use among poorer individuals. This article draws upon data from the Republic of Ireland to assess these hypotheses. Our analysis provides some support for the first hypothesis in that education independently reduces the odds of a manual class person smoking relative to a non-manual by 12 per cent. The second hypothesis is not supported by the data. The third hypothesis gains the most support: measures of disadvantage and deprivation account for almost one-third of the class differential in smoking. The results suggest that smoking cessation policy should reflect the importance of social and economic context in quitting behaviour.

Class inequalities in educational attainment among the adult population in the Republic of Ireland

Substantial increases in participation rates at secondary and third level in recent years have often been assumed to be associated with increased equality of opportunity. However, there is little evidence from elsewhere that expansion per se, except when it takes the form of saturation of the demand from higher classes, leads to a reduction in class inequalities. In exploring the factors that contribute to trends over time, or to a distinctive position in comparison with other countries, we have drawn on the recent literature to argue that the crucial factors are those which affect decisions to continue in education. We have also operated on the assumption that students and their parents rationally consider the costs and benefits associated with educational choices. The most recent evidence relating to the adult population provides no support for the existence of any trend towards equality of educational opportunity. It is, rather consistent with the class reproduction perspective that stresses the ability of privileged classes to maintain their advantages.