Amnon Lazar

Faculty, Practitioner, and Student Attitudes toward Research.

Abstract This article reports the findings of a study that examined Israeli faculty, practitioner, and student attitudes toward research, their perceptions of the attitudes of social work students to research, and the extent to which social work faculty incorporate methodological issues into their nonresearch classes. Overall, the orientation of the three groups to research is positive. Faculty and practitioners, however, perceive students as less favorably disposed to the incorporation of research than do the students themselves. Because of their low evaluation of student attitudes, faculty and practitioners who instruct students in the field may feel constrained to limit research content. Thus, they may convey a negative message to students about the importance of research in social work practice.

The Willingness to Seek Help: A Cross-National Comparison

Building on previous research that provides the basis for treating the willingness to seek help as a stable attitudinal set, present in varying degrees in differentpersons, and predictive of behavior, this study addresses two questions: First, to what extent is the willing ness to seek help associated with culture? Second, how do the factors influencing willingness to seek help differ across cultures? Young adults in Hungary, Israel, and the United States (N = 384) provided sociodemographic information and filled out a questionnaire designed to measure their willingness to seek help. The results of the analyses indicate differences between the three countries in the overall willingness to seek help and in the variables predictive of the willingness to seek help. These differences are attributed to differential features of the cultures from which the three subsamples were drawn.

Professional commitment among graduating BSW students in Israel

The verb ’commit’ is a curious one. It can refer to an internal state, to external actions, or to the linkage between the two. When one commits oneself to an ideal or to a religious doctrine (the intransitive use of the verb), the reference is to a promise or resolution, which may or may not require action at some future time. On the other hand, to commit suicide, murder or an act of charity (the transitive use) is to perform a concrete deed. The third use of the term, commitment as ’a decisive moral choice that involves a person in a definite course of action’ (Gove, 1986: 457), subsumes the resolution, the deed, and the relationship between them. It is this last use that is germane to the discussion of commitment to the social work profession. The social work profession has been consistent in its emphasis

The efficacy of probation versus imprisonment in reducing recidivism of serious offenders in Israel

This is a study of 202 adult offenders, all convicted of serious felonies and all recommended for probation supervision by the investigating probation officers. Ninety-seven (48 percent) were granted probation; the rest were sentenced to prison terms of up to seven years. The police records of the two groups for the five-year period following completion of probation or prison showed no significant differences in recidivism. Using multivariate techniques and diverse measures of recidivism, the research could find no significant influence for type of sentence. Various offenders attributes, particularly lack of education, were the best predictors of recidivism.

Positive Consequences of Parental Divorce Among Israeli Young Adults: A Long-Term Effect Model

Abstract Within the framework of cognitive theories that define crisis as a challenge to self-development, this study explored the positive long-term outcomes of coping with parental divorce in young adults. Data were collected from self-reports of 158 Israeli young adults whose parents divorced when they were adolescents. Together with painful feelings, almost half the participants reported “more positive than negative outcomes” and less than a quarter thought that the divorce had “more negative than positive outcomes.” The various positive outcomes were found to form three constructs reflecting maturity and growth: empowerment, empathy, and relationship-savvy. Coping styles used by the participants proved strongly connected to long-term outcomes. Reciprocal support was the main coping style used by the young adults and their significant others, and was connected to positive long-term outcomes. Based on multiple regression analyses, the study proposes a sequential model that charts a developmental sequence that enhances long-term positive outcomes. These and other results are discussed within the framework of posttraumatic growth perspective.

Mother's or Father's Custody: does it matter for social adjustment?

Abstract The present study examines the same‐sex parent‐child hypothesis within the context of mothers versus fathers custody. More specifically, it tests the degree to which autonomy, school adjustment and sociability of adolescents of divorced parents are a function of the interaction of the match between the custodial parents and the childrens gender. The study sample consisted of 59 junior high school students of three family types: Fathers Custody (N = 16), Mothers Custody (N = 23) and Intact Family (N = 20). The main findings show that the gender of the custodial parent matters very little for the social functioning of their children. It was also demonstrated that the social adjustment of adolescents of divorced parents is somewhat poorer than that of adolescents from intact families. No differences in the degree of autonomy were found between the adolescents of the three family types. These results are discussed in light of the same‐sex and gender‐differential parenting hypotheses.

The telephone helpline as social support

This study examines ERAN, Israel’s unique national telephone helpline. We consider the role of the helpline in providing social support for single and married callers, an issue that has received little attention in the literature. We also examine how helpline use in Israel compares with what studies have shown about helpline use in other countries. Focusing on the issue of social support, the study compares married and single calls in their utilization of ERAN. The specific research questions were: (1) what kinds of problems do callers present? (2) what kinds of help do callers request?. Helplines have become an established component of many communities’ social services. Their popularity stems from the helplines’ accessibility, an increased willingness of people to seek help in times of stress, declining opportunities for intimate relationships, and, as some suggest, a preference for a ’quick fix’ over traditional therapies (Goud, 1985). Ouchi and Johnson (1978) attribute the increase of helplines to the weakening of traditional sources of social support the family, church, and community. Indeed, several studies have suggested that callers to helplines

Withdrawal Threshold in Interpersonal Conflict Among Adolescents of Divorced Parents

ABSTRACT The present study examines one possible explanation for the intergenerational transmission of divorce: a long‐term effect of learned lower withdrawal threshold. The underlying assumption here is that people differ in their readiness to struggle in a relationship before reaching the point at which they withdraw and that this withdrawal threshold is modelled and learned in the family. More specifically, the study tests the hypothesis that adolescents of divorced parents exhibit a lower withdrawal threshold in various depicted interpersonal conflict situations. The studys sample consisted 215 adolescents, including 58 (25 boys and 33 girls) of divorced parents and 157 (74 boys and 83 girls) of married parents. Two questionnaires were specially constructed to test the present studys research question: the Adolescents’ Withdrawal Threshold in Interpersonal Conflicts Questionnaire, which depicted 30 different interpersonal conflict situations, and the Adolescents’ Perception of Divorce as Indicator o...

Parental Authority in Divorced Families

This work examines the possible differences between divorced mothers and mothers of intact families in their inclinations to exert parental authority, and the possible relationship between the degree of parental authority and childrens personal and social adjustment. For the purposes of the study, we developed the Haifa Parental Authority Questionnaire, which is a situation-depicted test based on a conceptual analysis of the construct of authority. The participants were 88 mother–child dyads, 56 from single (divorced) families and 32 from two-parent families. The results show that married mothers are more disposed than are divorced mothers to use their authority. Although adding family status and parental authority scores to the regression analysis yielded insignificant models for the two childrens adjustment variables, the interaction between the variables was found to be significant. In the divorced family the more authoritarian the mother is, the worse is the childs personal adjustment, whereas in the intact family the more authoritarian the mother is, the better is the childs social adjustment. The results are discussed in the wider context of the mother–child relationship, the breakdown of the familys hierarchical structure following divorce, and the relationship of these factors with the exertion of parental authority.