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Despite efforts to maintain a satisfactory quality of life, a significant proportion of American workers face substantial material hardship. However, studies of material hardship have paid scant attention to lower-wage workers; hospital service, clerical, and technical workers represent a crucial yet understudied subset of this population. Using survey data from hospital workers employed by a large hospital in Pennsylvania, this research identified prevailing patterns of material hardship among these workers and investigated contributing factors, including hourly wages, utilization of public benefits, and demographics. The findings revealed the presence of two distinct material hardship groups: the high-hardship group (those with a high risk of experiencing multiple hardships concurrently) and the low-hardship group (those with a low risk). Notably, higher wages, better health, and being White were associated with a reduced likelihood of belonging to the high-hardship group. Conversely, an increased number of children in a household and utilization of a utility bill assistance program were associated with an elevated risk of belonging to the high-hardship group. The results hold several policy implications, including the need to increase hourly wages, enlarge antipoverty policy initiatives, enhance access to preventive health services, and offer more comprehensive childcare support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volunteering is viewed as an empowerment process whereby older adults actively participate in the community and improve their well-being and health. Yet little is known about racial differences in volunteering, and even less in terms of perceived benefits from volunteering as a means of empowerment. The present study addresses this research gap by examining the differences in volunteer experience and perceived benefits from volunteering between older black people and white people. Purposive and convenience samples were drawn from the city of Pittsburgh and questionnaires were completed by 180 adults ages 60 and over. Bivariate and multivariate analyses showed that black participants were less likely than their white counterparts to volunteer in formal organizations; however, once engaged, they committed more time and perceived more psychosocial benefits from volunteering. Also volunteering and self-reported health demonstrated a stronger relationship in the black sample than among the white sample. This study suggests that black older adults have more to gain from volunteer engagement and feel empowered through meaningful involvement in the community and improved physical and emotional quality of life.

Significant attention has been given to the educational shortcomings of African American students. This study examined predictors of educational success among African American high school sophomores. It explored factors that predict differences in students' academic intention to complete the school year, and how these factors differ by gender. The study was guided conceptually by the theory of planned behavior (TPB). We also assessed perceptions of self. Results indicated that most students had positive predispositions toward school-year completion, with females being more positively oriented toward academic success than males. The TPB's attitude component was the only predictor tested to operate differentially across gender. Having a positive attitude toward school was a significantly greater predictor of intention to complete the school year for males than for females.

Research on welfare levels from 1940-1995 have shown declines in assistance beginning in 1975, especially for higher-paying states. This lessened commitment to maintaining families above the poverty line places those receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families in significant difficulty.

The struggles of low-wage workers have increasingly become the focus of public debate, legislative activity, and widespread advocacy. Advocacy can be viewed from the vantage point of claims-making, that is, how individuals and groups define and shape a social problem to influence policy. This paper describes the wage-related claims posted online by 17 experts who testified to a City Council Wage Review Committee in Pittsburgh. Our primary aim was to understand how experts constructed their claims; secondarily, we were interested in the rationales they offered for raising wages. We thematically analyzed the testimonies to identify how they shaped and defined their claims in favor of increasing wages. Experts described the challenges faced by minimum wage workers and their families as well as by the community. They cited economic considerations, social and economic justice concerns, and moral justifications for raising the minimum wage, often combining arguments. Social work advocates are important claims-makers, yet how they “speak truth to power” is not often systematically assessed. Our analysis suggests social work advocates must be prepared to provide multiple arguments and to put a human face to any data presented. Appeals should be made to both the heads and hearts of decision-makers, while keeping social and economic justice arguments front and center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research and theory on violent behavior have treated aggression between intimates and aggression between strangers as separate phenomena. Major criminological works on violence and aggression have generally overlooked violence in the home. As a result, independent and distinct bodies of theoretical and practical knowledge exist regarding family violence and aggression toward strangers, and the relationship between family violence and violence directed against strangers is little understood. Estimates of the intersection of these behaviors vary extensively. Severity of domestic violence is associated with violence outside the home. Exposure to violence as a child consistently emerges as a strong explanatory factor for both domestic violence and the behavior of "generally" violent men. Behavior patterns appear to shift over time, from domestic violence only to violence toward both strangers and family members. However, an integrated theory of violent behavior by males provides explanations of both stranger and family violence. Early childhood socialization toward violence, modified by social and cultural supports during adolescence and adulthood, suggests a social learning paradigm. Hypotheses are developed that integrate and unify theories of stranger and family violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the passage of the Pennsylvania Protection from Abuse Act in 1976, many states have enacted legislation to provide civil restraining orders for battered women. These orders, which offer a civil court alternative to criminal sanctions, are court- issued temporary or permanent orders which direct an assailant to refrain from further abusive conduct. Interviews with recipients of restraining orders suggest that the orders are generally ineffective in reducing the rate of abuse or violence. However, they were effective in reducing abuse for women with less serious histories of family violence or where the assailant was less violent in general. They were ineffective in stopping physical violence. Measures to improve restraining order mechanisms should: more clearly codify abuse and violence, improve access for those not married or cohabitating, streamline procedures and shorten waiting periods, address a full range of child-related concerns, strengthen sanctions, and mandate official responses to violations. Additionally. comprehensive legislation is needed to coordinate civil and criminal remedies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite recent attention both to sex offenders and violent delinquents, there is little empirical knowledge on the causes and correlates of juve nile sex offenses. Juvenile sex offenders (N = 34) were identified among a sample of chronic violent offenders (N = 242) from official records and face-to-face interviews. Juvenile sex offenders were 14. 1 percent of the sample. Sex offenders more often lived with their birth parents while violent offenders often lived in single parent families. Sex offenders had fewer nonviolent offenses, but more often had been incarcerated. Sex offenders had lower self-reported delinquency, fewer drug and alcohol problems, and less often were gang members. Their families, their sib lings and friends had less justice system involvement. However, sex offenders more often came from families with spousal violence, child abuse, and child sexual molestation, according to both official and self reports. They appear to be more sexually and socially isolated, less often have girlfriends or report sexual activity, interest or experience. They had stronger beliefs in the law, but fewer internal behavioral controls. Juve nile sex offenders appear to be a "hidden" population, more closely resembling normative populations than delinquent populations on a vari ety of social factors and attitudinal variables. Further research is needed on broader populations of sex offenders to expand and validate these preliminary findings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Family is central to contemporary theories of delinquent and violent behavior. Yet, the processes by which families shape violent behavior in their children are not well understood. In the past, structural views posited that a weak family exposed a child to the evils of the street. More recently, functionalists have suggested that the family plays an active role in socializing youths to violent behaviors through supervision and discipline practices and modeling and reinforcement of antisocial behaviors. Integrated theories presume that socially disorganized families weaken children's conventional bonds and attachments, leading to associations with delinquent peers and in turn antisocial behavior. However, the influence of the family as a socializing environment may shift over time, and some suggest that its influence is overshadowed during adolescence by that of other social domains-schools, neighborhoods, peers, and work. This study describes the family processes and environments of(n = 98) chronically violent delinquents. Interviews with youths and their mothers assessed family social process and environments and the social domains and institutions with which they interact. Analyses of youth reports of family environments and processes yield three family types: "interactionist" families exhibiting a high degree of internal interaction and bonding; "hierarchical families characterized by parental dominance and the presence of family bond and interaction patterns; and "antisocial" families marked by criminality and family violence. Family variables have weaker explanatory power than do other social influences on violent delinquency. The relative contributions of family supervision practices and school environment varied by crime type. Social influences outside the family appear as stronger contributors to delinquency and violence during adolescence, regardless of early childhood experiences. The results underscore the importance of integrating social policies regarding family, crime, and neighborhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social workers in a variety of fields have been called upon to respond to AIDS, one of the most pressing public health problems confronting our country. Yet few materials describe how social work students are being prepared to handle AIDS-related issues. To investigate educational needs, a survey was conducted of second-year social welfare master's students. Knowledge scores were variable, while attitude measures suggest the success of social work education in socializing students to the values of the profession. The findings illustrate the need for incorporating AIDS information in social work education and highlight the central role of curricula in professional preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]