The purpose of this field study was to determine the association between clients' perceptions of the level of four relationship factors and scores on 10 outcome criteria measures. The outcome criteria were the adjusted difference in seven before-after marital and psychological behavior measures, a change index, clients' assessment of improvement in family relationships and four outcome groups related to aspects of continuance and termination. The four relationship factors measured between pretest and post-test were clients' subjective experience of the level of accurate empathy, congruence or genuineness, regard, and unconditional positive regard communicated by their social workers. A fifth relationship variable was the sum score of the four individual factors. This highly intercorrelated system of five variables was also compared to twenty-two other independent variables for their relative ability to account for as great or greater a proportion of the variation in scores on the ten outcome criteria. These twenty-two other variables were classified into the domains of aspects of the client, aspects of the worker, aspects of the treatment system, and post-test case status. A further attempt was made to find combinations from all twenty-seven independent variables together that consistently predicted the greatest proportion of variation in outcome scores. Prior research in other than primary social work settings and theoretical literature supported the expectation that a positive association would be found between the relationship factors and outcome in this sample of clients receiving social case-work treatment. The total sample was composed of eighty-three clients reporting family related problems who were seen by twenty-three social workers with MSW degrees in three family service agencies. Clients were not randomly assigned but rather entered the study on a first come first served basis within the data collection time limit. Measurement instruments, all uniformly self administered, were the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test, the Semantic Differential, a measure designed by the FSAA, several questionnaires, and the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory. The statistical methodology was the use of multiple regression techniques including step-wise analyses. It was found that clients' subjective experience of the level of relationship factors predicted the scores on all of the ten outcome measures. Levels of significance ranged from .05 to .001. Relationship factors predicted as great or greater a proportion of outcome variance as any other single variable 9 out of 10 times, and in 8 out of the 10 outcome measures as any other set of independent variables that were grouped together. However, various combinations of all twenty-seven variables together were always able to predict a greater proportion of outcome variance than the five relationship factors by themselves. These factors did not account for even half of the total variation in outcome scores despite the fact that they were the most consistent significant outcome predictors. Therefore, the experienced level of the relationship factors might be necessary but not sufficient conditions to account for all change. It was concluded that further research is needed to see if this positive association applies to a wide cross section of social casework samples employing different interventive procedures and different outcome criteria. If the association is universal in social casework practice, it is relevant to discriminate specific worker behaviors, as well as interaction processes, that in general facilitate clients' experience of higher levels of the relationship factors. Also the relationship factors need to be accounted for as intervening variables in future studies of the relative effectiveness of different models of social casework intervention.

This study, conducted in New York City in 1988, examined the performance of 86 visually impaired elders on five adaptive tasks: maintenance or restoration of self esteem, use of help, activities of daily living, social and recreational activities and understanding of loss. These adaptive tasks were chosen because they are most frequently cited in the literature of disability; arising from the fields of aging, chronic illness, and blindness. Intervening variables were health, social supports, and coexisting life events of change and loss. Respondents ranged in age from 60-99 years and had three times of onset since vision loss: 0-1 year, 2-3 years, and 4+ years. Data were collected in in-person interviews of approximately one hour's duration. Frequency distributions, bivariate correlations, and multivariate analytic techniques were used to identify the salient variables associated with performance of each adaptive task. Study findings indicate that age and time since onset do not influence performance of adaptive tasks. Dependence in activities of daily living is a predictor of low self esteem. Medical problems are a predictor of dependence in activities of daily living. Decreased participation in social and recreational activities and dependence in activities of daily living are more frequently due to vision loss than to other health problems. Both need and availability are predictors of use of help. Understanding of loss is associated with higher education, low self esteem, and living alone. Vision impairment has a great subjective importance to the elderly who give up much that has meaning to them in their struggle to adapt to diminished sight. Implications for clinical practice and further research are discussed.

The basic conceptual idea of this study is that interaction between the personal characteristics of the worker and of the client is a major factor in determining the quality of the casework relationship. Workers possessing differing personal characteristics will have differential success in forming relationships with clients possessing differing personal characteristics. The influence of a specific personal characteristic, cognitive style, was investigated. Cognitive style, manifested perceptually as field-dependence--field-independence, is a salient dimension influencing characteristic modes of functioning in a diversity of areas. The major hypothesis was that clients would perceive the relationship as being relatively more positive when their cognitive styles were congruent with their workers' cognitive styles than when they were incongruent. Since differences in relationship levels were viewed as being strictly a function of interaction, the individual styles of the workers and the individual styles of the clients were not expected to have an influence. These hypotheses are derived from previous. studies which suggest that persons having similar cognitive styles are able to communicate more effectively and form more positive relationships than persons having dissimilar styles. A second portion of the study dealt with the association between cognitive styles and worker's choice of treatment techniques. Prior studies suggest that differential treatment methods are appropriate for clients having differing cognitive styles. The evidence suggests that field-dependent persons with their global cognitive orientation seek external structure whereas field-independent persons with their discrete cognitive orientation prefer to structure their own experiences. This led to the hypothesis that there would be a significant difference between the choice of treatment methods employed by workers when treating clients having differing cognitive styles. With field-dependent clients, workers would place relatively more emphasis on supportive techniques. With field-independent clients, workers would place relatively more emphasis on techniques that promote self-awareness. The data were collected in five offices of two family service agencies. The sample consisted of twenty-two experienced caseworkers and fifty-one of their clients, women experiencing interpersonal problems. Workers' and clients' scores on the Embedded Figures Test and evaluations of figure drawings were used to measure cognitive style. Client perception of the relationship was evaluated through the use of the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory. This provided measures of worker regard, empathy, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness, as well as a total score. It was administered individually to each client immediately following the fifth interview. Classification of casework method was derived from worker judgments of the techniques considered most significant in achieving casework goals with each client. All of the hypotheses received mild but consistently significant support from the data when the Embedded Figures Test was used as the measure of cognitive style. Client perception of regard, empathy, genuineness, and the total relationship were significantly more positive when worker- client cognitive styles were congruent than when they were incongruent. As predicted, the interaction effects were the only significant effects. Differences in worker styles and differences in client styles did not have independent effects on relationship levels. There was a significant difference between the choice of methods workers considered to be most influential in achieving casework goals with clients having differing cognitive styles. With field-dependent clients, workers placed relatively more emphasis on supportive techniques and with field-independent clients, workers placed relatively more emphasis on techniques that promote self-awareness. In addition, although not stated as an hypothesis, it was found that field-independent clients showed, as anticipated, greater specificity in differentiating relationship qualities than did field-dependent clients.

This study examines attitudes toward sources of assistance in a white, working class, ethnic neighborhood in east Baltimore. The study is based on a random sample of one hundred ethnic neighborhood residents. The sample includes fifty Polish-Americans and fifty Italian-Americans between the ages of twenty-one and fifty. The primary method of data collection is the face-to-face interview. The interview schedule includes structured and unstructured questions in addition to six reaction vignettes developed by Shirley Star. The study is an attempt to provide up-to-date information regarding preferred sources of assistance in an urban, ethnic neighborhood. The major finding of the study is that working class, ethnic, Catholics prefer traditional structures for meeting social needs. Traditional structures such as the family, the church, and to some extent the ethnic voluntary association, have not been significantly overshadowed by functionally specialized service organizations of the wider community. Members of the extended family and traditional professionals such as the clergy and the general physician are key gatekeepers and preferred sources of assistance. The data in the study provide a basis for suggesting adaptations in case services and greater pluralism in social service delivery strategies.

An extraordinary number of scholarly works have been produced about community-level power in America. The focus of attention, however, has been primarily upon the Anglo-Saxon community. Virtually all these reports contained serious inaccuracies about black leaders. Where exceptions existed they were based solely upon data gathered during the legally sanctioned biracial system or immediately thereafter. Conclusions about contemporary blacks tend to rely upon these earlier, suspect explanations. The most persistent theme can be stated as "black leadership is chaotic, episodic, non-representative, ineffective and uncontrolled by the black community." This appalling lack of knowledge about contemporary black leadership has provided the framework for the case study of a medium sized southeastern United States city, Chattanooga, Tennessee. Twin (although not identical) hypotheses underlie the study: First, efforts made by black and white communities to designate and control the actions of black leaders resulted in a bifurcated leadership structure. The findings of the study were that the interpenetration between the black and white communities altered and affected the patterns of power and influence in each. Second, these two designated black leadership segments took different positions on issues because they represented the interests of different constituencies. The three operative variables--the years 1970-79, black leadership and designation sources--were measured with a range of data and methodologies. For example, modified-stratified samples of 29 white and 57 black respondents were used. Data extracted from newspapers and organization records were correlated with issues, events, and leaders and their activities. The research data supported the major hypotheses, revealing that whites employed five major strategies which weakened and, at times, defeated blacks' goals. Evidence emerged to substantiate the existence of a decidedly cohesive black leadership which fashioned a set of skillfully designed and executed strategies while simultaneously coping with a counter black leadership structure supported by the white leadership.

This is an exploratory, descriptive study that examines perceptions of the helping experience taking the views of a group of Puerto Rican adolescents from Newark, New Jersey and comparing them with the views of a group of adult helpers also from Newark, New Jersey. The study samples are selected using a purposive, non-random approach. A major purpose of the study is to examine the impact that the ethnic background of a helper might have on congruence or dissonance of perception with a group of Puerto Rican teenagers. With this idea in mind the helper sample is quota selected yielding roughly even numbers of Black, Latino and White helpers. A major assumption of the study is that congruence of views between a helper and client will have a positive impact on the helping experience. The study first describes the demographics and perceptions of its adolescent subjects. It then goes on to describe the demographics and perceptions of its adult helpers employing tests of significance to do inter-group comparisons. Finally the demographics and perceptions of the Puerto Rican adolescent subjects in the study are compared with each of the adult groups. The study hypothesizes that the ethnic background of a helping person will have an impact on congruence or dissonance of views with an adolescent group. More particularly the study hypothesizes that the views of Puerto Rican adolescents will be closer to the views of helpers of their own ethnic background or at least to helpers of a minority background and further away from the views of non-minority helpers. An instrument using both scaled and open-ended items was developed based on an operationalized definition of the helping experience. Data elicited through the instrument is analyzed using frequencies, chi-square and tests of significance. Qualitative material, which is used supportively relative to the central issues of the study, is analyzed using an inspection technique. Outcomes suggest that the Puerto Rican adolescents in the study feel more positively about a helping experience than do any of the adult groups. They tended to be closer to the Latino helpers than to the Black or White helpers in their perceptions, particularly in negative self perceptions and perceptions of their communities. Generally, they were closer to Whites than to Blacks in their perceptions. Beyond these general findings an analysis of congruence and dissonance of views between the adolescents and adult helpers in this study presents a very mixed picture, suggesting that for the population in this study there is not a consistent, overriding pattern. The study does establish that for its subjects the ethnicity of a helper is of importance but not of major importance in a helping experience. Competence and human qualities of warmth and caring are equally important. The study strongly suggests the need for basic research having to do with a significant population at risk - Puerto Rican adolescents - and the development of supportive counseling programs that are capable of reaching this population.

A short-term longitudinal study was undertaken to explore the process of settling-in to foster home care as reflected in the patterned sequences in the behaviors of 29 children. The 16 boys and 13 girls, ranging in age from two to 15 years, were received into the care of six voluntary agencies serving New York City in 1971. The sampling plan included only children who were experiencing their first formal placement and who were received directly into foster care without an interim period in congregate care facilities. Foster mothers, the principal respondents, were considered participant-observers. Data consisted of their detailed descriptions of the way the children behaved in a wide variety of everyday situations during the first 24 hours of placement and thereafter at two-week intervals from the second to the eighth week, and their responses to the child behavior characteristics schedule and to a list of symptoms of physical and behavioral disturbances. In addition, the behaviors of the children were observed in the foster home at the time of the first and the final interviews, and the social workers reported their observations. Background data were gathered from agency case records. Initial and final interviews were conducted by telephone. Initial interviews were made as soon after placement as feasible. In the analysis of the data each child's temperament or behavioral style was identified according to nine formal categories of behavioral reactivity: activity level, approach-withdrawal tendencies, mood, intensity, adaptability, response threshold, distractibility, attention span - persistence, and rhythmicity, The process of adjustment posited by the crisis concept, the prevalence of symptoms of physical and behavioral disturbance, the foster mothers' interpretations of the children's behaviors and their assessments of both the seriousness of the children's problems and the ease or difficulty of rearing the children were examined in relation to temperament. The findings highlight the individuality of the behavioral response patterns of the children and the complexity of the process of adjustment to foster care. All children exhibited behaviors characteristic of some or all of the four phases of adjustment posited by the crisis concept (pre-protest, protest, despair, detachment) and the phases appeared to be sequential, but there was great variation among the children in the duration of each of the phases and in the intensity with which each was expressed. No two children had identical patterns of temperament. Findings suggest that the children at risk of failure of the placement included those who exhibited various combinations of negative mood, intensity of response, irregularity in habits or bodily functions, persistence and non-distractibility, slow adaptation to changes in the environment, and a tendency to withdraw from anything new. There appeared to be a tendency to interpret their behaviors as manifestations of stubbornness and defiance, emotional problems, or learning problems rather than as expression of behavioral style. Findings suggest, also, that the tendency of older children to delay engaging the process of adjustment might place them at risk. When there was a long delay between the event of placement and the appearance of behaviors characteristic of the protest phase of adjustment the behaviors tended to be interpreted as manifestations of breakdown in the relationship between child and foster family rather than as expression of the process of adjustment. Crisis formulations concerning adaptation to environmental change, and temperament or behavioral style appear to be concepts potentially useful to social work practice in child placement. Implications of an ethological approach to the study of the behaviors of foster children were discussed.

This dissertation addresses two issues. One is the means by which particular policy science concepts and technologies inform social workers functioning as analysts of social policy. The second is the caveat of social work regarding the analysis and development of social policy. Because, among social scientists, economists, systems analysts, political scientists, and policy scientists most frequently contribute to the development and analysis of social policy, their disciplines have been chosen for study. The concepts and perspectives unique to each have been described with regard to how they are applied to the development of social policy. The first element of the study design is the introduction of the concepts, techniques and perspectives of economics, systems analysis, political science, and the policy sciences as they are pertinent to the development of social policy. Policy analyses are presented illustratively in order to stress discipline-based differences in methodological and/or conceptual foci. Distinctive underlying decision-rules by which policy choices are made by different analysts are described. The study is also designed to explore means by which the knowledge and skill base of the policy sciences can be useful to a social worker in the role of policy analyst. Concepts, techniques and underlying decision rules are presented as they can be "borrowed" by social workers who analyze policy. Finally, an interpretation of the role of the social worker as policy analyst is presented. The strengths and limitations of each macroscience are recapitulated. The synthesizing of concepts and methods of inquiry that are relevant to the analysis and development of social policy is elucidated.

Much of the relevant literature has indicated that age homogeneity of the neighborhood is beneficial for the elderly in increasing life satisfaction and morale, in fostering contacts with friends and neighbors, and in creating a high level of social activity. However, the dependent variables used in these studies may create distortions in comparing age homogeneous and age heterogeneous neighborhoods. Life satisfaction and morale may be too global as dependent variables and based on too many factors in a person's environment to compare the effects of different neighborhood structures. Contacts with neighbors and friends may not be meaningful in all areas requiring primary group supports. Therefore, in this study of 1423 elderly people in New York and Florida, Litwak's "Theory of Shared Functions" is used to suggest the application of another type of dependent variable (performance of primary group functions) to compare age homogeneous and age heterogeneous areas. The effect of homogeneity would depend on the degree the structure of primary groups available matches the requirements for the function to be performed. Age homogeneity, while increasing the concentration of proximate age peers, may create distance from kin who have the most long term commitment. Therefore, one type of function (participation in leisure), which is based on common or age-related interests, is shown to be strongly facilitated by age homogeneity. Another (watching one's place), which benefits from proximity of neighbors, but not from a loss of speed of reaction by the elderly, is weakly facilitated. Another (help in long illness), which is based on long term commitment, is affected little by age homogeneity. With moderate long term commitment required, neighbors and friends are able to substitute for kin. However, when larger degrees of long term commitment are required, for help with money matters, or help in long illness for those who are disabled, very old, or have low income, there is a significant decrease in the level of primary group aid between age heterogeneous and age homogeneous areas. This is particularly so for the elderly who are handicapped or who have multiple resource deficiencies, and are most affected by lack of kin. The effects of homogeneity are found to be largely independent of state of residence.

In recent years the child welfare system in New York City has come under criticism for placing most of its resources in providing services to the child away from home. Due to the reimbursement agreement between the public sector responsible for these children and the voluntary agencies which provide care, few "in home" or preventive services have been available. In response to this criticism the Preventive Service Demonstration Project was established, in which intensive family services were provided to families of children in jeopardy of being placed. Evaluation of this project showed that such services did, in fact, reduce the number of children entering foster care and the time spent in care of those who entered. This research investigates the impact of preventive service units on the workers' attitudes and perceptions of the need for placement. Five groups of child welfare workers were participants in the study. Two of the groups were primarily concerned with providing preventive services (n=55), while three provided traditional under care services (n=109). The subjects in the research were administered an instrument which collected social/demographic information and measures of six attitudes. In addition, the subjects were presented five case analogues and asked to judge six case elements and whether the child should be placed in an appropriate foster care setting. Results of the analysis showed that workers in preventive units were different in their attitudes than workers in traditional settings -- they were more likely to feel preventive services were useful, to see the continuing importance of biological parents and to feel that foster care was a damaging experience for children. In addition. while all workers saw the elements of the five cases in about the same way, workers in preventive units placed fewer of the five children in the case analogues (a Guttman scale of Placement Proneness) than other workers. The greatest variation in the placement decision occurred in the "mid-range" case, confirming the results in a number of other studies. Several of the social/demographic variables were also related to the workers' attitudes. and these variables as well as the workers' attitudes were related to the judgment of case elements and the decision to place a child. In order to determine the importance of the variables in explaining a workers' placement proneness score a number of regression analyses were performed. The worker's setting was shown to be a strong predictor of the placement proneness score. In addition, the worker's attitude toward preventive services, judgments of a number of case elements, attendance at courses, ethnicity and the client group with which he/she had contact were also found to be predictive of this score. A total of 34% of the variance in the placement proneness score and 48% of the variance in the placement decision on the mid-range case was explained by these variables. The research gave rise to the following recommendations: (1) the creation of educational preventive units which, at least initially, are administratively separate from the under care units of the agency and the establishment of new funding patterns in the foster care system in order to facilitate their creation; (2) the redefinition of jobs within the foster care system so as to encourage contact between all workers and all parties in· the foster care triangle; (3) the education and training of workers in the area of preventive services in order to increase the workers perceptions of their effectiveness; and (4) an increased emphasis in the training of workers on the skills needed to discern strengths in clients.