http://aff.sagepub.com/
Affilia
http://aff.sagepub.com/content/19/2/199
The online version of this article can be found at:
DOI: 10.1177/0886109903262759
2004 19: 199Affilia
Christian Kullberg
Work and Social Support: Social Workers' Assessments of Male and Female Clients' Problems and Needs
Published by:
http://www.sagepublications.com
can be found at:AffiliaAdditional services and information for
http://aff.sagepub.com/cgi/alertsEmail Alerts:
http://aff.sagepub.com/subscriptionsSubscriptions:
http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.navReprints:
http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navPermissions:
http://aff.sagepub.com/content/19/2/199.refs.htmlCitations:
What is This?
- May 1, 2004Version of Record>>
at LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES on January 6, 2012aff.sagepub.comDownloaded from
10.1177/0886109903262759 ARTICLEAffilia Summer 2004 Kullberg
Work and Social Support:
Social Workers’ Assessments of Male
and Female Clients’ Problems and Needs
Christian Kullberg
This study investigated how social workers assess single mothers’and fathers’needs
in the areas of paid work and social support. It found that social workers conform to
gender “heteronormative” expectations. A father’s problems are assessed as being
more closely linked to paid work than are a mother’s, whereas a mother’s problems
are assessed as being related to difficulties in the area of social networks.
Keywords: gender; single parents; social welfare; social work
The ways in which social welfare policy emphasizes the opportunities for
men and women to share the responsibility for paid work and family life are
crucial to how power is distributed between men and women in a welfare
state (Bryson, 1992). One of the mainstays of social welfare policy in the
Nordic welfare states, as well as in the other Western European countries, is
to make it possible for both men and women to balance paid work with family
and caregiving (cf. Sainsbury, 1999; Skevik, 2001). It is assumed that
men’s greater participation in matters involving the family can enable
women to achieve the power and influence that result from a strong position
in the labor market. In recent decades, several significant political initiatives
have been implemented in Sweden with the aim of strengthening the position
of women in the labor market and persuading men to take more active
responsibility for the home and child care. Consequently, it is important to
investigate how the welfare state’s professions deal with these two areas.
Research has shown that social workers’ assessments are not always in
line with the intentions of policy makers (see, e.g., Hagen & Wang, 1994;
Kingfisher, 1998; Lipsky, 1980; Mayers, Glaser, & Mac Donald, 1998). That is,
the relative autonomy of the welfare state’s professions vis-à-vis social policies
may lead, in many cases, to the reproduction, rather than the solution,
of the social problems of men and women, as has been found in research on
the implementation of the goals of men’s active participation in the care of
AFFILIA, Vol. 19 No. 2, Summer 2004 199-210
DOI: 10.1177/0886109903262759
© 2004 Sage Publications
199
at LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES on January 6, 2012aff.sagepub.comDownloaded from
their children (Daniel & Taylor, 1999; Edwards, 1998; Jaffe, 1983; Kullberg,
1996; Lazar, Sagi, & Frazer, 1991). In the case of paid work, men and women
also tend to be treated differently by the social authorities (Bäckström, 1994;
Bryson, 1992; Kullberg & Cedersund, 2001; McIvor, 1998). One such difference
is that men are given preferential treatment in employment counseling
and other services and tend to be given help more quickly in finding jobs
(Bäckström, 1994; Bryson, 1992).
The study presented here investigated how the Swedish welfare state’s
professions help male and female clients to balance paid work with family
life and caregiving. It did so by examining how social welfare officers assess
unemployed single parents’ problems and needs with regard to finding jobs
and establishing and maintaining social networks—two areas that have
proved to be important forsingle parents (see Atwood &Genovese, 1993).
The work of Swedish social welfare officers is regulated by the Social Services
Act of 1982. This law clearly states that all residents have equal rights
to receive support for upkeep and other living requirements. Financial support
is determined by a means test, and there is no time limit on how long it
may be received. According to the law, male and female clients who are single
parents have the same right to obtain both financial and social support
(i.e., in the form of guidance in their parental role). If they are fit to work,
they are also equally obliged to seek employment during the time they are
receiving financial support. The two forms of help (financial support and
social support), officially termed “assistance,” can be distributed, if necessary,
by the same social worker. Financial support is not a general allowance
intended to compensate parents for the increased economic burden of having
children. Instead, the aim is to compensate individuals during a transitional
period while they are seeking employment or are receiving income
from other sources (related to the labor market or social policy), such as
unemployment benefits.
METHOD
Hypotheses
The study took a gender-comparative approach (see Goldberg, 1968; Kernes
& McWhirter, 2001; Kiesler, 1975; Malchon & Penner, 1981). Two hypotheses
were formulated concerning how Swedish social workers, in general, assess
men’s and women’s problems in relation to paid work and social networks
and social support, respectively.
Hypothesis 1: Social workers, assuming that all other background variables (such
as class, race, and age) are the same, tend to assess men’s problems and need
for support in the area of paid work as being greater than those of women.
200 Affilia Summer 2004
at LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES on January 6, 2012aff.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Hypothesis 2: Social workers, assuming that all other background variables (such
as class, race, and age) are the same, tend to assess women’s problems and
needfor helpin thearea of social supportas being greater thanthoseof men.
In the study, four questions were used to test the first hypothesis. These
questions concerned the seriousness of the client’s problems in the area in
question, the importance of paid work to the client’s self-image, the importance
of work for the client’s own support, and the importance of paid work
in helping to ease the client’s social isolation. The second hypothesis was
tested with 11 items. These items concerned the possible support that the
social worker could give the client and the support that the client could get
from his or her mother, father, other relatives, and friends.
Vignette
The vignette method, in combination with the questionnaire, was used to
implement the comparative approach. The vignette that was chosen for use
in the study was designed and tested in a study of social workers in Norway
(Alve, 1999). It was constructed on the basis of a “typical case” or
“typology” (see Bailey, 1994; McKinney, 1966), which summarizes the characteristics
of a Swedish single mother with a long-term need for income support
(for a review of the characteristics of Swedish men and women who
receive income support, see Kullberg, 2003). Two variations of the vignette
were used: one in which the client was said to be a woman (called Anne) and
one in which the client was said to be a man (called Arne).
The vignette is a brief account of the client’s life that reflects the client’s
current situation. It was written in such a way that it resembles as closely as
possible the type of accounts that are frequently found in case files of Swedish
social service agencies. Social workers at two social welfare offices in
central Sweden judged it to be a realistic account of the situation faced by a
single mother with a long-term need for financial support. Thus, this aspect
of the instrument has good face validity (see Fink, 1995).
The text describes a 27-year-old client who is living in a medium-sized
town in Sweden and has been unemployed for the past 2½ years. The client
has a relatively low educational level (he or she did not graduate from upper
secondary school) and has been a single parent of two preschool-age children
(a 5-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy) for the past year. Because of
insufficient income, the client has incurred personal debts (about SEK
17,000 or US$2,350). The client’s living conditions are good, but he or she
spends little time with relatives, friends, and acquaintances; feels “very
lonely and isolated”; suffers from allergies and insomnia; and finds it difficult
to get the children to do as they are told.
Municipal child care is not available for the children. The client’s selfconfidence
is too low for the client to continue his or her education. The client
has received an offer of a job at a relative’s company. Although the
Kullberg 201
at LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES on January 6, 2012aff.sagepub.comDownloaded from
client is considering this offer, he or she “doesn’t really have the energy” to
pursue it.
Procedure
The vignette and questionnaire were mailed to a random sample of social
workers with the professional title of Socialsekreterare (social welfare officer).
These social workers were selected from a register of social welfare officers
who were members of the Swedish Association of Graduates in Social Science,
Personnel and Public Administration, Economics and Social Work.
The total sample consisted of 880 persons, 700 of whom were female (corresponding
to 12% of the female social welfare officers who, according to the
association’s register, were professionally active at that time) and 180 of
whom were male (corresponding to 15% of the number of male social
welfare officers who were professionally active).
A total of 417 questionnaires (48% of all the questionnaires that were
mailed) were returned. A post hoc test, using the statistical computer program
G*Power (Buchner, Faul, & Erdfelder, 1997; Erdfelder, Faul, & Buchner,
1996), showed that the 417 returned questionnaires were sufficient to
give the study a power (a beta value) of 94% under the same conditions as
those applying to the power analysis, which was performed before the data
were collected.
The data program for statistical processing, Statistical Package for the
Social Sciences, was used. The data were assessed with the Mann-Whitney
rank-sum test and the chi-square test—the types of statistical methods that
are recommended for data at the ordinal-scale level (see, e.g., Svensson,
2001).
RESULTS
The Respondents
Of the 415 respondents who listed their gender, 333 (80%) were women and
82 (20%) were men. The overwhelming majority (87%) were aged 26 to 55;
only 15 (3%) were aged 25 or younger, and 35 (8%) were aged 56 or older.
The distribution of the respondents in the age ranges of 26 to 35, 36 to 45, and
46 to 55 was relatively even, with about 120 (29%) in each age range.
The respondents had worked for an average of 11.8 years in professions
that usually require a B.Sc. and had worked an average of 10.7 years in the
municipal social services. The majority had experience working with clients
who required financial support (83%) and had B.Sc. degrees in social work
(87%), and all but 1 had a university degree.
202 Affilia Summer 2004
at LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES on January 6, 2012aff.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Testing the Hypotheses
As expected, the hypotheses were confirmed. The female client’s (hereafter
Anne) problems and need for support in finding work were judged to be
less pressing (p = .016) than were the male client’s (hereafter Arne), and
Arne’s problems and need for help in the area of social support were judged
to be less pressing than were Anne’s (p = .018). The calculation was performed
with the Mann-Whitney rank-sum test, in which all the responses
for paid work and social support, which were specified in the cases of Anne
and Arne, are ranked and then compared.
Paid work. Despite the confirmation by the Mann-Whitney rank-sum test
of the hypothesis concerning the social workers’ assessment of Anne’s and
Arne’s work situation, only one of the four questions that were asked in this
area was significant when each question was considered individually. Of
the three questions about the extent to which the client could be helped by
getting a job (see Table 1), only one displayed a significant difference in the
social workers’ assessment of the two clients’ situations. This item concerned
whether the social welfare officer should motivate the client to
accept offers of work that he or she received because doing so could help
ease the client’s social isolation. On this item, there were more who agreed in
the case of Arne (98%) than in the case of Anne (92%) (p = .05).
For the other two questions, which concerned the importance of a job for
increasing the client’s income and self-image, respectively, there were only
small differences that were not significant. Nor were the differences significant
(p = .07) in the case of the respondents’ assessments of the seriousness
of Anne’s and Arne’s problems in the area of paid work. The results indicated
that a somewhat higher proportion of the respondents agreed that
Kullberg 203
TABLE 1: The Social Welfare Officers’ Assessments of the Client’s Needs and Possible
Measures to Be Taken Regarding the Client’s Work Situation
Client
Anne Arne
Statement (n = 211) (n = 205) p
The social welfare officer should motivate the client to
accept offers of work that he [she] receives, since this could
contribute to breaking his [her] social isolation. 92% 98% .05
Getting a job again is important for the client’s self-image. 88% 91% .21
The social welfare officer should motivate the client to accept
offers of work that he [she] receives, since this could contribute
to increasing his [her] income. 80% 82% .17
NOTE: Percentages shown include those who responded completely agree and very much agree.
at LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES on January 6, 2012aff.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Arne had serious or very serious problems (76%) than agreed that Anne did
(66%).
Social support. Of the 11 questions that were used to measure social support,
1 concerned the degree of seriousness of the client’s social-support
problem, 2 concerned possible measures that could be taken by the social
services officers, and 8 concerned the client’s own networks. Adistinct trend
in the responses was that with the exception of the question on support from
a permanent partner, Anne was considered to be in greater need of support
than was Arne.
The responses to 10 of the questions about the client’s social networks are
shown in Table 2. For 7 of these questions, the differences were significant.
For Question 11, which is not included in the table, the difference was also
significant. This question concerned how the respondents assessed the seriousness
of Anne’s and Arne’s social-network problems. For this question,
84% of the respondents thought that Anne had serious or very serious problems,
whereas 69% thought that Arne did (p = .03).
204 Affilia Summer 2004
TABLE 2: The Social Welfare Officers’ Assessments of the Client’s Needs and Possible
Measures to Be Taken Regarding the Client’s Social Support
Client
Anne Arne
Statement (n = 211) (n = 205) p
The social welfare officer should offer the client advice and
guidance that could help the client establish a social network. 78% 71% .02
The client is in great need of support contact persons arranged
by the social welfare office. 75% 64% .02
It is unfortunate that the client’s mother lives so far away, since
this makes it difficult for her to help the client. 51% 36% .01
It is unfortunate that the client’s father is not alive because he
could have helped the client. 40% 23% .00
It would have been easier for the children to be well cared for
if the client’s father had still been alive. 30% 19% .02
It would have be easier for the children to be well cared for if
the client’s mother lived closer to the client. 33% 36% .50
The client’s friends should be able to provide important social
support in the client’s current situation. 84% 78% .18
The client’s relatives should be able to provide important social
support in the client’s current situation. 66% 76% .14
Having a permanent relationship would help the client
considerably to cope with everyday life. 24% 20% .08
Having a permanent relationship would mean a lot for the
client’s self-image 25% 32% .01
NOTE: Percentages shown include those who responded completely agree and very much agree.
at LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES on January 6, 2012aff.sagepub.comDownloaded from
There were substantial differences in the responses to the 10 questions
presented in Table 2. The responses to the two questions concerning support
by the social welfare officers to help the client establish a social network
showed that more respondents thought that the social welfare officers
should offer such support and guidance to Anne (78%) than to Arne (71%)
(p = .02). The same trend can be seen in the responses to the statement that
the client was in great need of support contact persons arranged by the
social welfare office.
The questions for which there was the largest difference in the social
workers’ assessments of the two clients’ situations were related to the possible
support that the client could be given by his or her mother and father. In
regard to the statement that “it is unfortunate that the client’s mother lives
so far away her, since this makes it difficult for her to help the client,” more
respondents agreed in Anne’s case (51%) than in Arne’s (36%) (p = .01). The
father’s support was also considered to be a greater resource for Anne than
for Arne and in relation to the care of Anne’s children. In response to the
statement “It is unfortunate that the client’s father is not alive because he
could have helped the client,” 40% agreed in Anne’s case and 23% agreed in
Arne’s case (p = .00). With regard to the statement “It would have been easier
for the children to be well cared for if the client’s father had still been alive,”
30% agreed in Anne’s case and 19% agreed in Arne’s case (p = .02).
For the statement “A permanent relationship would have helped the client
considerably to cope with everyday life,” a slightly higher proportion
agreed in the case of Anne (24%) than in the case of Arne (20%) (p = .08);
however, this difference was not significant either. On the other hand, 25%
agreed in Anne’s case and 32% agreed in Arne’s case with the statement “A
permanent relationship would mean a lot for the client’s self-image” (p =
.01).
Questions 7 and 8, about the possible support that the client’s relatives
and friends might be able to give, did not result in any significant differences.
Nor were there any significant differences between how Arne’s and
Anne’ children might be affected if the mother lived closer to the client
(Question 6; see Table 2).
DISCUSSION
The Swedish social workers assessed Arne’s need for gainful employment
as being more important than Anne’s. However, the one individual question
for which there was a significant difference concerned a social aspect of
work, not the importance of work as a source of income. It is expected that
work could help ease Arne’s social isolation more than Anne’s. The results
also indicate that in their assessments of Anne, the social workers applied a
broader definition of what parts of the social network could be important
sources of support than they did in their assessments of Arne. All parts of
Kullberg 205
at LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES on January 6, 2012aff.sagepub.comDownloaded from
the social network—the client’s mother and father, the social services office,
and the social welfare officer—were considered to be more important components
of the social network of Anne than of the social network of Arne, for
whom a permanent relationship with a partner (of the opposite sex) was
considered to be more important.
The results indicate that when it comes to equal opportunities for men
and women to balance paid work with family life and caregiving, there is a
gap between the official goals of the Swedish social welfare legislation and
the individual assessment of the professional helpers. These findings can be
compared with research that has shown that the implementation of social
policy from a central political level to the actual realization of measures in
the welfare state’s institutions is shaped in a complex interplay among organizational
limitations, administrative demands, professional knowledge,
and personal values (Hagen & Wang, 1994; Hasenfeld, 2000; Kingfisher,
1998; Lipsky, 1980; Mayers et al., 1998). On the basis of this type of research,
it is likely that the assessments of the social workers in this study were a
product of the social workers balancing the administrative and organizational
considerations in their daily work with their private opinions on
men’s and women’s positions in the gender structure. Both the area of paid
work and the social network have been traditionally considered to be, and
to some extent are, closer to one or the other gender. Paid work and the role
of the breadwinner, in Sweden as well as in other welfare states, have traditionally
been the province of men, whereas the home and the family’s social
network have traditionally been the province of women (Pleck, 1992; Rubin,
1983).
A reasonable interpretation of the results with respect to the possibility
that social workers took administrative and organizational considerations
into account could thus be that they based their assessments on their previous
experience in finding paid work for single fathers and in reinforcing
social networks for single mothers. It also seems reasonable to assume that
the social workers’ different assessments of men’s and women’s problems
and needs indicated the kind of “heteronormative” values (Nielsen, 2000;
Peel, 2001) that prescribe the meaning of men’s and women’s “normal” and
“deviant” behavior in different life situations (Schur, 1984)—values that, in
this case, are not in line with the official goals of the Swedish Social Services
Act.
It is also interesting to scrutinize the results in light of gender-sensitive
social work having become a topical issue in social work (see, e.g., Kruk,
1994; Nelson-Zluoko, Kauffman, & Morrison, 1995; Norman & Wheeler,
1996). From this perspective, a legitimate question is whether the differences
in assessments of the male and female clients’ job situations and social
support can be said to be adapted to the needs of single mothers and fathers.
If the results are viewed from this perspective, the differences in the assessments
of the male and female clients’ work situations could be interpreted
as the respondents’ attempts to adjust their assessments to a reality in which
206 Affilia Summer 2004
at LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES on January 6, 2012aff.sagepub.comDownloaded from
paid work has not traditionally been as important for women as for men
and that it is easier for women to adapt themselves to household chores and
to being unemployed (Bielby, 1992; Kulik, 2000, 2001; Nordenmark, 1999).
However, such assessments are not in line with values held by men and
women in the age range and type of household that were studied or with the
“actual” needs of unemployed single mothers and fathers. The fact is that in
the case of single mothers and fathers in this age range, research in the
Swedish context has indicated that women, not men, value the importance
of paid work the most (Nordenmark, 1999). Irrespective of how single men
and women value paid work, research has also shown that single mothers,
not single fathers, are generally in the most precarious position when it
comes to access to paid work (Björnberg, 1997; Polokow, Halskov, & Schultz
Jørgensen, 2001; Skevik, 2001). For example, nearly 30% of Swedish single
mothers with preschool children are unemployed, and similar proportions
are unemployed in Denmark (Polokow et al., 2001) and in Norway (Skevik,
2001). The greater vulnerability of single mothers can also be seen in the statistics
on those who are receiving social welfare. In comparison with single
fathers, single mothers had higher levels of long-term income support
throughout the 1990s (see, e.g., National Board of Health and Welfare, 1995,
1999, for conditions in Sweden, and Polokow et al., 2001, for conditions in
Denmark). In light of the data just presented, it seems evident that gendersensitive
social work would involve paying special attention to single mothers,
more than single fathers, in relation to paid work.
The gender sensitivity in the respondents’ skewed focus on the mother’s
and father’s situations with respect to social networks and social support
can also be questioned. Research has generally found that men typically
have weaker social support than do women (Antonucci & Akiyama, 1987;
Courtenay, 2000; Fritzell & Lundberg, 2000; Kandrack, Grant, & Segall,
1991; Verbrugge, 1985). Research has also indicated that single fathers may
have weaker social networks than do single mothers (Arendell, 1995). That
is, fathers who actively maintain their parental responsibilities by having
their children live with them after a divorce are likely to run a greater risk of
becoming socially isolated than are women in the same situation (Arendell,
1995). Studies that were conducted in Germany and the United States also
found that several years after their divorce, men are still in much poorer
mental health and have weaker social networks than do married men and
women (Decurtins, Niklowitz, & Meyer, 1997; Verbrugge, 1985). In other
words, it seems that single fathers are in an even more precarious position
than are single mothers in regard to support from their social networks (see
Arendell, 1995; Tietjen, 1985). Accordingly, it could be claimed that gendersensitive
social workers should devote special attention more to the social
networks of single fathers than to the social networks of single mothers. One
may speculate that providing support to strengthen the social networks of
single fathers may also be an effective means of moving single fathers into
the labor force in the long run.
Kullberg 207
at LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES on January 6, 2012aff.sagepub.comDownloaded from
REFERENCES
Alve, S. (1999, June). The making of women and men clients: An experimental study of the social construction
of gender in social work. Paper presented at the conference on “European Social
Work: Building Expertise for the 21st Century,” Helsinki, Poland.
Antonucci, T. C., & Akiyama, H. (1987). An examination of sex differences in social support
among older men and women. Sex Roles, 17(11-12), 737-749.
Arendell, T. (1995). Fathers and divorce. London: Sage.
Atwood, J. D., & Genovese, F. (1993). Counseling single parents. Alexandria, VA: American
Counseling Association.
Bäckström, I. (1994). Rehabilitering för män? En undersökning om arbetsrehabilitering av
långvarigt sjukskrivna kvinnor och män [Rehabilitation for men? A study of occupational
rehabilitation of long-term sick-listed women and men]. Report No. 37. Umeå, Sweden:
University of Umeå, Institute for Social Work.
Bailey, K. D. (1994). Typologies and taxonomies. An introduction to classification technologies. London:
Sage.
Bielby, D. (1992). Commitment to work and family. Annual Reviews, 18, 281-302.
Björnberg, U. (1997). Single mothers in Sweden: Supported workers who mother. In S.
Duncan & R. Edwards (Eds.), Single mothers in an international context (pp. 241-267). London:
UCL Press.
Bryson, L. (1992). Welfare and the state. Who benefits? Basingstoke, Great Britain: Macmillan.
Buchner, A., Faul, F., & Erdfelder, E. (1997). G!Power: A priori, post-hoc, and compromise power
analyses for the Macintosh (Version 2.1.2) [Computer program]. Trier, Germany: University
of Trier.
Courtenay, W. H. (2000). Behavioral factors associated with disease, injury and death among
men: Evidence and implications for prevention. Journal of Men’s Studies, 1(9), 81-141.
Daniel, B., & Taylor, J. (1999). The rhetoric versus the reality: Acritical perspective on practice
with fathers in child care and protection work. Social Work, 4, 209-220.
Decurtins, L., Niklowitz, M., & Meyer, P. C. (1997). Lebensformen nach dem bruch.
Auswirkungen der lebensform geschiedener vater auf sozialebeziehungen und
gesundheit im vergeich zu verheiratete vater [Lifestyle after the breakup: Consequences
of different lifestyles for fathers after divorce in the social network and health in comparison
with married fathers]. System familie, 10(4), 166-173.
Edwards, J. (1998). Screening out men: or “Has Mum changed her washing powder
recently?” In J. Popay, J. Hearn, & J. Edwards (Eds.), Men, gender divisions and welfare state
(pp. 259-286). London: Routledge.
Erdfelder, E., Faul, F., & Buchner, A. (1996). G*Power: A general power analysis program.
Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 28, 1-11.
Fink, A. (Ed.). (1995). The survey handbook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Fritzell, J., & Lundberg, O. (2000). Välfärd, ofärd och ojämlikhet: Levnadsförh llanden under 1990talet.
Rapport fr n kommittén välfärdsbokslut [Welfare, misfortune, and inequality: Living
conditions in the 1990s. Report from the Balance Sheet for Welfare of the 1990s]. Stockholm:
Fritzes.
Goldberg,P.A.(1968,April).Arewomenprejudiced againstwomen?Trans-Action,pp.28-30.
Hagen, J. L., & Wang,L. (1994). Implementing JOBS: The functions of frontline workers. Social
Service Review, 40, 523-533.
Hasenfeld, Y. (2000). Organizational forms as moral practices: The case of welfare departments.
Social Service Review, 74, 329-351.
Jaffe, E. D. (1983). Fathers and child welfare services: The forgotten client? In M. E. Lamb & A.
Sagi (Eds.), Fatherhood and family policy (pp. 129-138). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Kandrack, M., Grant, K. R., & Segall, A. (1991). Gender differences in health related behavior:
Some unanswered questions. Social Science and Medicine, 32, 579-590.
Kernes, J. L., & McWhirter, J. J. (2001). Counselors’ attribution of responsibility, etiology, and
counseling strategies. Journal of Counseling and Development, 79, 304-313.
Kiesler, S. B. (1975). Actuarial prejudice toward women and its implications. Journal of Applied
Social Psychology, 5, 201-216.
Kingfisher, C. P. (1998). How providers make policy: An analysis of everyday conversations
in a welfare office. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 8(1), 119-136.
208 Affilia Summer 2004
at LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES on January 6, 2012aff.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Kruk, E. (1994). The disengaged noncustodial fathers: Implications for social work practice
with the divorced family, Social Work, 39, 15-25.
Kulik, L. (2000). Jobless men and women: Acomparative analysis of job search intensity, attitudes
towards unemployment, and related responses. Journal of Occupational and Organizational
Psychology, 73, 487-500.
Kulik, L. (2001). Assessing job search intensity and unemployment-related attitudes among
young adults: Intergender differences. Journal of Career Assessment, 9, 153-167.
Kullberg, C. (1996). Swedish fathers and the welfare state institutions. In U. Björnberg & A. K.
Kollind (Eds.), Men’s family relations (pp. 175-189). Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.
Kullberg, C. (2003). Manliga och kvinnliga socialbidragstagare: En litteraturstudie [Male and
femalesocial welfarerecipients: Aliteraturestudy].Örebro,Sweden:ÖrebroUniversity.
Kullberg, C., & Cedersund, E. (2001). Images of encounters in social work—with a focus on
social interaction, morality and gender. In M. Seltzer, C. Kullberg, S. P. Olesen, & I. Rostila
(Eds.), Listening to the welfare state (pp. 3-38). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Lazar, A., Sagi, A., & Frazer, M. W. (1991). Involving fathers in social service. Children and
Youth Service, 13, 287-300.
Lipsky, M. (1980). Street-level bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public service. New York:
Russell Sage Foundation.
Malchon, M. J., & Penner, L. A. (1981). The effect of sex and sex-role identity on the attribution
of maladjustment. Sex Roles, 7, 363-378.
Mayers, M. K., Glaser, B., & Mac Donald, K. (1998). On the front lines of welfare delivery: Are
workersimplementingpolicy reforms? Journalof Policy AnalysisandManagement,17,1-22.
McIvor, G. (1998). Jobs for the boys? Gender differences in referral to community service.
Howard Journal, 37, 280-290.
McKinney, J. C. (1966). Constructive typology and social theory. New York: Meredith.
National Board of Health and Welfare.(1995).Socialbidragstagareoch socialbidragens utveckling:
Stockholm [Social welfare recipients and the development of social welfare allowances:
Stockholm]. Stockholm: Socialstyrelsen.
National Board of Health and Welfare. (1999). Långvariga socialbidragstagare under 1990-talet
[Long-term social welfare recipients in the 1990s]. Stockholm: Socialstyrelsen.
Nelson-Zluoko,L.,Kauffman,E.,& Morrison,D.M.(1995).Genderdifferences indrugaddiction
and treatment: Implications for social work interventions with substance-abusing
women, Social Work, 40, 45-54.
Nielsen, J. M. (2000). Gender heteronormativity: Empirical illustrations in everyday life.
Sociological Quarterly, 41, 283-296.
Nordenmark, M. (1999). Employment commitment and psychological well-being among
unemployed men and women. Acta Sociologica, 42, 135-146.
Norman, J., & Wheeler, B. (1996). Gender-sensitive social work practice: A model for education.
Journal of Social Work Education, 32, 203-213.
Peel, E. (2001). Mundane heterosexism: Understanding incidents of the everyday. Women’s
Studies International Forum, 24, 541-554.
Pleck, J. (1992). Men’s power with women, other men and society: Amen’s movement analysis.
In M. Kimmel & M. Messner (Eds.), Men’s lives (pp. 5-12). New York: Macmillan.
Polokow, V., Halskov, T., & Schultz Jørgensen, P. (2001). Diminished rights: Danish lone-mother
families in international context. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.
Rubin, L. (1983). Intimate strangers: Men and women together. New York: Harper & Row.
Sainsbury, D. (1999). Gender and social-democratic welfare states. In D. Sainsbury (Ed.), Gender
and welfare state regimes (pp. 75-114). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Schur, E. M. (1984). Labeling women deviant: Gender, stigma, and social control. New York: Random
House.
Skevik, A. (2001). Lone parents and employment in Norway. In J. Millar & K. Rowlingson
(Eds.), Lone parents, employment and social policy: Cross-national comparisons (pp. 87-105).
Bristol, UK: Policy Press.
Svensson, E. (2001). Guidelines to statistical evaluation of data from rating scales and questionnaires.
Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 33, 47-48.
Tietjen, A. M. (1985). The social network and social support of married and single mothers in
Sweden. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 47, 489-496.
Kullberg 209
at LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES on January 6, 2012aff.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Verbrugge, L. M. (1985). Gender and health: An update on hypotheses evidence. Journal of
Health and Social Behavior, 26, 156-182.
Christian Kullberg, Ph.D., is a senior lecturer in the Department of Behavioral, Social, and
Legal Sciences, Örebro University, SE 702 30 Örebro, Sweden; e-mail: christian.kullberg@
bsr.oru.se.
210 Affilia Summer 2004
at LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES on January 6, 2012aff.sagepub.comDownloaded from