UiS Open Journals (Univ. of Stavanger)
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Was your father a problem drinker? The challenges of life story interviewing in researching adult sons of problem drinking fathers
Get PDFIn this article, the challenges of carrying out life story interview research on the adult sons of problem-drinking fathers will be discussed. Earlier studies have shown that parents’ problem drinking can disturb family life and be harmful in various ways to children. In the case of a problem-drinking father and his son, aspects of the father-son relationship and of the father as a male role model also assume major importance. Consequently, fathers’ drinking may continue to be a sensitive and a painful topic for their sons in adulthood. Moreover, several studies indicate that recruiting young men as a focus group for interview study is complicated. In addition, family matters are often perceived as something private, not to be talked about or shared with outsiders.For these reasons the life story interview method can be problematic for the researcher interested in collecting and interpreting interview data on sons’ childhood experiences. In my study, both finding interviewees, carrying out interviews on a sensitive topic and interpreting the data “truthfully” were challenging tasks presenting a number of ethical considerations. The data used in the study consist of 21 life story interviews with young Finnish men aged 21-42. While these young men were growing up, their fathers were problem drinkers. In the interviews the young men produced narratives or stories about their lives from an adult perspective. Thus narrative analysis is suggested to be applied in analysing the interviews
The use of Triangulation in Social Sciences Research: Can qualitative and quantitative methods be combined?
Get PDFThis article refers to a study in Tanzania on fringe benefits or welfare via the work contract1 where we will work both quantitatively and qualitatively. My focus is on the vital issue of combining methods or methodologies. There has been mixed views on the uses of triangulation in researches. Some authors argue that triangulation is just for increasing the wider and deep understanding of the study phenomenon, while others have argued that triangulation is actually used to increase the study accuracy, in this case triangulation is one of the validity measures. Triangulation is defined as the use of multiple methods mainly qualitative and quantitative methods in studying the same phenomenon for the purpose of increasing study credibility. This implies that triangulation is the combination of two or more methodological approaches, theoretical perspectives, data sources, investigators and analysis methods to study the same phenomenon.However, using both qualitative and quantitative paradigms in the same study has resulted into debate from some researchers arguing that the two paradigms differ epistemologically and ontologically. Nevertheless, both paradigms are designed towards understanding about a particular subject area of interest and both of them have strengths and weaknesses. Thus, when combined there is a great possibility of neutralizing the flaws of one method and strengthening the benefits of the other for the better research results. Thus, to reap the benefits of two paradigms and minimizing the drawbacks of each, the combination of the two approaches have been advocated in this article. The quality of our studies on welfare to combat poverty is crucial, and especially when we want our conclusions to matter in practice
Discourses Within and About Social Work
Get PDFIs it possible to gain a fuller understanding of social work by using the concept of discourse? In this article I examine social work as a discursive practice. My aim here is to discover whether this kind of discursive framing may add to our understanding of the discipline of social work. Discourse11, as I understand it, is a social phenomenon based upon a social and a cultural relationship serving as a foundation for making shared assessments (Magnusson 1998, Fook, 2002). As used here, discourse refers to a more extensive social phenomenon both formed and spread by language and which involves the contributions of many people through time (Magnusson, 1998:182). When this is related to a discipline such as social work, discourse also involves issues involving competency as linked to a position or status
Family Therapy and Young Abusers: Experiences from the multi-agency treatment service TVERS in Vest-Agder County, Norway
Get PDFThis article focuses on young abusers participating in a treatment program for families where one or more children have experienced child sexual abuse and/or have abused other children. TVERS is a multiprofessional team where the treatment is performed within a frame of control ,“care and control hand in hand”. Three trained family therapists from three different agencies come together and form the therapy. The caseworker from the child care protection service (Children`s Service) becomes a part of the TVERS-team during their therapeutic work with the young abuser and his family. The therapists are given access to all reports and documents from the police, the court and medical services. The caseworker can follow up the family between appointments as well as initiate child protection procedures if necessary. The article describes our experience of working with families where the son in the family has abused other children outside or inside their own family
Close but not too close. Distant but not too distant: Reflections on the client-social worker relationship from single mothers and social workers in Australia, USA, Canada, Russia and Norway
No full textIn this explorative and comparative article a suitable social distance in the client-social worker relationship will be in focus. When do clients need a social worker “as if she is a friend” and when do they appreciate a professional “as if she is a stranger”? How does context have an impact on what we see as legitimate relationships? We will be listening to voices on these issues from poor single mothers and social workers in five countries – Australia, USA, Canada, Russia and Norway
A cultural approach to social work studies
Get PDFMore than ever social workers have to face people from cultures other than their own. How can this professional group best meet the multicultural reality of today’s society? It is in the social work study programs that the basis is laid for good cultural understanding in social work practice. It is also there that the basis is laid for social workers to orientate their work towards cultural processes that are relevant to the welfare situation of people
Poverty, Public Assistance and Single Mothers: A Comparative Look at Norway, Russia and the U.S
Get PDFThis article presents some of the perceptions and experiences of mothers on public assistance and their social workers in three countries—Norway, Russia and the US. Based on in-depth interviews in each country with social workers and the women, five themes emerged that will be presented here. The mothers spoke of the inadequacy of economic support to meet their needs, a life of poverty that sometimes involved discrimination of them as mothers, and a loss of hope that their lives could be different. Two themes that stood out in the interviews with social workers was the lack of resources needed to help their clients and the dilemma faced as an agent of social welfare institutions balanced with being an advocate for the mothers’ needs
Restorative Justice Across the East and West
Get PDFBook Review:Restorative Justice Across the East and Wes