Suchergebnisse

Objective: The comprehensiveness of Social Work Abstracts (SWA) as a database was examined. Method: The coverage of articles of Research on Social Work Practice and Social Work Research in SWA from 1995 to 2005 was examined. SWA was compared with other databases on several dimensions. A case study based on the author's publications was conducted. Results: Not all articles published in these two journals were indexed in SWA. The number of social-work-related articles in SWA was lower than those in other databases. Articles relevant to social work and the allied helping professions were omitted in SWA . Conclusions: The comprehensiveness of journal articles indexed in SWA was not high.

Objective: There is no validated self-report measure of parental psychological control in the Chinese culture. The reliability and validity of the Chinese Paternal Psychological Control Scale (CPPCS) and Chinese Maternal Psychological Control Scale (CMPCS) were examined. Method: A total of 3,017 Chinese secondary school students responded to the CPPCS and CMPCS and measures of psychological well-being, parent-child relational qualities, parental knowledge, parental monitoring, and perceived parental endorsement of traditional Chinese parenting beliefs. Results: The CPPCS and CMPCS were internally consistent in different samples. Evidence supporting the convergent validity (negative relationships between the CPPCS and CMPCS with psychological well-being, parent-child relational qualities, and parental knowledge but positive relationship with perceived parental endorsement of traditional Chinese parental beliefs) and discriminant validity (weak relationship between psychological control measures and parental monitoring) of these two measures was found. Conclusions: The present study suggests that the CPPCS and CMPCS possess sound psychometric properties that can objectively assess perceived parental psychological control in Chinese adolescents.

The adoption of the open-door policy and economic reforms in China since the late 1970s have placed Chinese families, which have deep roots in traditional Chinese cultural values and Chinese socialist thoughts, under the strong influences of Western cultural values, market economy, and globalization. This article examines the puzzles intrinsic to Chinese family research and the related progress as highlighted by the articles in this special issue. Several issues regarding research paradigms in Chinese family research are identified, including quantitative versus qualitative approach, cross-sectional versus longitudinal study, simple versus complex statistical analyses, local versus comparative research, intuitive versus validated assessment tools, assessment based on single perspective versus multiple perspectives, and indigenous versus imported family concepts and theories. Finally, the question of how Chinese family research may inform public policies is discussed.

This longitudinal study examines the relationships between perceived family functioning and adolescent psychological well-being and problem behavior in Chinese adolescents with economic disadvantage ( N = 199). Results showed that perceived family functioning was concurrently related to measures of adolescent psychological well-being (existential well-being, mastery, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and general psychiatric morbidity) and problem behavior (substance abuse and delinquency) at Time 1 and Time 2. Longitudinal and prospective analyses (Time 1 predictors predicting Time 2 criterion variables) suggest that the relations between perceived family functioning and adolescent psychological well-being and problem behavior were bidirectional in nature. The longitudinal linkages between family functioning and adolescent adjustment were found to be stronger in Chinese adolescent girls than in Chinese adolescent boys with economic disadvantage.

Objective: Existing studies of lay explanations of poverty in the social work literature are plagued with methodological problems. The psychometric properties of the 13-item Chinese Perceived Causes of Poverty Scale (CPCPS), which assessed four categories of explanations of poverty, were examined. Method: Chinese parents and their adolescent children from 229 families experiencing economic hardship were asked to respond to the CPCPS. Results: Results consistently showed that four factors were abstracted from the scale: Personal Problems, Exploitation, Lack of Opportunity, and Fate. The four related subscales were also found to be internally consistent, and there was some support for their construct validity. Conclusions: The present study suggests that the CPCPS possesses sound psychometric properties. The findings also point out the importance of empirically demonstrating the existence of measures assessing different constructs when social work practitioners and researchers examine lay explanations of poverty.

Objective: The reliability, validity, and factor structure of the Chinese version of the McMaster Family Assessment Device were examined in three studies. Method: In Study 1, data based on 361 adolescents were examined. In Study 2, data analyzed from a clinical group and a nonclinical group (N = 281 and 451, respectively) were carried out. In Study 3, data based on 3,649 secondary school students were analyzed. Results: Findings support the internal consistency, concurrent validity, and discriminant and construct validity of the scales in different samples. In contrast to the proposal that there are seven dimensions in the scale, three stable factors could be extracted from the Chinese version, and the related subscales had adequate internal consistency, temporal stability, and construct and discriminant validity in different samples. Conclusions: The Chinese device possesses good psychometric properties, although its factor structure might differ from that based on the original English version.

Objective: The psychometric properties of the Chinese Self-Report Family Inventory (SFI) over time were examined. Method: The Chinese SFI was administered to 756 Chinese parents and their adolescent children (N = 378) on two occasions separated by 1 year. Results: The Chinese SFI was internally consistent in different samples at different times. Factor analyses revealed that two factors were abstracted from the scale (Family Health and Family Pathology), and they could be replicated in different samples at different times. Conclusions: The temporal stability of the psychometric properties of the Chinese SFI is supported by the present findings. This study demonstrates the importance of utilizing longitudinal data based on different samples to examine the psychometric properties of measures of psychosocial and family functioning in the social work context.