Gary L. Bowen

Effects of Crime and Violence in Neighborhoods and Schools on the School Behavior and Performance of Adolescents

Drawing from a national probability sample of middle and high school students who recently completed The National School Success Profile (SSP), this article focuses on students’reports of their exposure to neighborhood and school danger, and the effects of exposure on their attendance, school behavior, and grades. Males, African Americans, high school students, school lunch recipients, and urban students tended to report higher exposure to environmental danger. Measures of neighborhood and school danger both contributed significantly to the prediction of each school outcome, especially attendance and behavior. Measures of neighborhood danger were slightly more predictive of outcomes than measures of school danger. The findings contribute to the identification of adolescents most likely to live in a context of fear and danger, and provide support for an ecological approach to promoting students’school success.

Social Support Networks and School Outcomes: The Centrality of the Teacher

This investigation compares school outcomes for students who differ in the extent to which they perceive their parents, friends, and teachers—each alone and in combination—as important sources of social support. Findings indicate that middle and high school students who perceive high supportiveness from all three sources of support, as opposed to none, one, or two, have better attendance; spend more hours studying; avoid problem behavior more; have higher school satisfaction, engagement, and self-efficacy; and obtain better grades. Positive school outcomes are promoted when teacher support is perceived in combination with perceived support from parents and friends. Implications of the results for human service providers are presented.

Poverty, Neighborhood Danger, Social Support, and the Individual Adaptation Among At-Risk Youth in Urban Areas

This article examines the relative contribution of measures of objective and subjective neighborhood danger and measures of social support from neighbors, teachers, parents, and friends on the individual adaptation of at-risk youth in two urban areas in the southeastern United States. In support of earlier research, the findings suggest that the adaptation of these youth is influenced more by the availability of social support, especially from parents, than from their reports and perceptions of neighborhood danger. Results are discussed in the context of a recent national public opinion poll about young adults at risk.

Neighborhood Social Disorganization, Families, and the Educational Behavior of Adolescents

Using data on 1,757 middle and high school students from a nationally representative sample, relationships among youth perceptions of neighborhood characteristics, parenting processes, and their own school behavior, attendance, and grades were tested using structural equation modeling. A model with direct neighborhood effects on selfreported educational behavior as well as indirect effects mediated through perceptions of supportive parenting and parental educational support fit the data well in calibration and validation samples. Perceived neighborhood social disorganization exerted a larger effect than did family processes on self-reported educational behavior. The importance of including measures of neighborhood environment in future research on educational outcomes is discussed in the context of their substantial contribution in the present investigation.

Effects of Leader Support in the Work Unit on the Relationship Between Work Spillover and Family Adaptation

This study examines the direct versus the buffering effect of leader support in the work unit on the relationship between work spillover and family adaptation. The analyses use data from a probability sample of 3,190 married soldiers in the U.S. Army who participated in the 1989 Army and Family Survey, and the data are analyzed by the gender of the respondent. Two types of work spillover are examined in the analysis (energy and time interference), and both internal and external types of family adaptation are hypothesized and supported by the empirical analysis. Only modest support is found for the buffering effect hypothesis. In support of the direct effect hypothesis, the findings indicate that leader support in the work unit decreases perceptions of work spillover, which is a preventive effect, and enhances perceptions of external adaptation, which is a therapeutic effect.

Preventing intimate partner violence : A community capacity approach

ABSTRACT Bringing together the energy, resources, creativity, and good will of citizens enhances community resilience. The shared responsibility and collective competence that emerge from community members banding together can be a powerful and ongoing positive influence on the quality of community life, including the relationships between intimate partners. We explore the importance that the community has for preventing intimate partner violence (IPV). We argue for active, network-oriented prevention efforts. We discuss key community principles and concepts (including a definition of the nature of community), explore a social organization perspective on communities, and present a theoretical approach to building community capacity. We posit implications for program development that include community as a place for prevention, a target for prevention, and as a force for prevention. Our implications for research include examining multiple community layers, the nexus of informal and formal social care systems, and contrasting extreme groups on pivotal social organization processes.

Cognitive Pretesting and the Developmental Validity of Child Self-Report Instruments: Theory and Applications.

In the context of the importance of valid self-report measures to research and evidence-based practice in social work, an argument-based approach to validity is presented and the concept of developmental validity is introduced. Cognitive development theories are applied to the self-report process of children, and cognitive pretesting is reviewed as a methodology to advance the validity of self-report instruments for children. An application of cognitive pretesting is presented in the development of the Elementary School Success Profile. Two phases of cognitive pretesting were completed to gather data about how children read, interpret, and answer self-report items. Cognitive pretesting procedures identified validity problems with numerous items leading to modifications. Cognitive pretesting framed by an argument-based approach to validity holds significant potential to improve the developmental validity of child selfreport instruments.

Sex-Role Congruency and Marital Quality.

Drawing upon a probability sample of 331 military couples (662 spouses) on nine United States and seven European bases; the present study examined the congruency of sex-role attitudes of husbands and wives and assessed how these attitudes are related to the quality of the couples relationship. The results of the study documented the importance and independence of sex-role attitude congruency as an explanatory variable in marital research. Although it was predicted that couples with congruent sex-role attitudes would report higher marital quality than couples with incongruent sex-role attitudes, this prediction was only partially supported. The marriages found to have the lowest evaluation of marital quality were those with a traditional husband and a modern wife. The results from the study were discussed in the context of past research that failed to find a significant relationship between sex-role attitudes and marital quality. Implications for future research were suggested.

Peer Group Acceptance and Academic Performance Among Adolescents Participating in a Dropout Prevention Program

This investigation examines the relationship between peer group acceptance and academic performance among adolescents participating in a dropout prevention program. Three variables assessing school-related attitudes and behavior are identified as potential links between peer group acceptance and academic performance and the results are examined in the context of the gender and racial/ethnic group identification of adolescent respondents. Peer group acceptance is found to have an indirect rather than a direct influence on academic achievement. The behavior variable, avoidance of problem behavior, provides the strongest path of connection between peer group acceptance and academic performance. Implications of the findings for social work practice in the school setting are discussed.

Family Adaptation of Single Parents in the United States Army: An Empirical Analysis of Work Stressors and Adaptive Resources.

This article examines the relative contribution of work stressors, family and community resources, and Army support resources to the family adaptation of a sample of 238 single parents serving on active duty in the US. Army. The results indicate that the adaptation of single-parent families to Army demands is influenced more strongly by the availability of family, community, and Army resources than by the presence of work stressors. Recommendations are offeredforpolicy andpractice.