William Meezan – författare

Care and Commitment is the first book to address the growing issue of foster parent adoption. Meezan and Shireman go directly to the source to find out why some foster parents, when given the opportunity, choose to adopt the children in their care while others do not. Differences between the two sets of families are explored in terms of family characteristics, child characteristics, family-child interaction, and child welfare agency service.The culmination of a two-year study, this book presents the perspectives of both families who have made the decision and their social workers. It affords also the first look at foster parent adoptions that have failed, highlighting the importance of agency service in such adoptions. The book's timely and original findings are crucial for child welfare practitioners and all those interested in permanency planning for children and in the processes of family formation.

Take an in-depth look at what worksand what doesn'tin research with GLBT populations! This essential book examines the usefulness of current frameworks for research with GLBT populations and highlights the necessity for greater complexity in the conceptualization and design of research with these populations. It will help you understand the need for more inclusive and representative samples and the need to protect the privacy of GLBT research participants-and ways to accomplish these goals. In addition, Research Methods with Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations considers the advantages and limitations of having an inside perspective when conducting research with these populations. It also explores the myriad ways in which this research can be used to better understand issues facing GLBT communities. Specifically, Research Methods with Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations discusses:eight strategies that outsiders can use to overcome barriers to doing their work the challenges of finding and studying older members of gay and lesbian communities the special challenges that studying gay drug users pose to the researcher factors affecting research with urban Black and African-American GLBT populations sampling issues, including ways to overcome the challenges of conducting research with sexual minority adolescents, issues related to dealing with institutional review boards, and lessons derived from empirical articles in the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services unique features of AIDS service organizations to consider when developing an evaluation strategy ethical standards for research and evaluation with GLBT populations and a great deal more!From the Foreword, by Anthony R. D'Augelli: In social science research, the effort to extract durable principles of social causality from the apparent randomness of everyday life requires the construction of reliable, if tentative, knowledge that is significantly more informative than mere speculation. With our ever-increasing knowledge base, increasingly sophisticated and powerful quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and with an ever-expanding cadre of researchers, our ability to discern patterns of development of GLBT people from birth to death, the unique qualities of their relationships, and the impact of communities and cultures on the ways in which their sexualities are manifested, will come into sharper focus. In this way, research becomes a tool by which GLBT people transcend invisibility and marginalization. As new research accumulates, the unique contributions that GLBT lives make to our understanding of the nature of human development will be documented in ways never before thought possible. Within the larger context of social science research on GLBT populations, this book describes the current status of social service researchers in their quest for methodological sophistication and conceptual complexity. The work of the contributors to this volume exemplifies the progress that has been made since the first research reports on this topic were published.

Take an in-depth look at what worksand what doesn'tin research with GLBT populations! This essential book examines the usefulness of current frameworks for research with GLBT populations and highlights the necessity for greater complexity in the conceptualization and design of research with these populations. It will help you understand the need for more inclusive and representative samples and the need to protect the privacy of GLBT research participants-and ways to accomplish these goals. In addition, Research Methods with Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations considers the advantages and limitations of having an inside perspective when conducting research with these populations. It also explores the myriad ways in which this research can be used to better understand issues facing GLBT communities. Specifically, Research Methods with Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations discusses:eight strategies that outsiders can use to overcome barriers to doing their work the challenges of finding and studying older members of gay and lesbian communities the special challenges that studying gay drug users pose to the researcher factors affecting research with urban Black and African-American GLBT populations sampling issues, including ways to overcome the challenges of conducting research with sexual minority adolescents, issues related to dealing with institutional review boards, and lessons derived from empirical articles in the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services unique features of AIDS service organizations to consider when developing an evaluation strategy ethical standards for research and evaluation with GLBT populations and a great deal more!From the Foreword, by Anthony R. D'Augelli: In social science research, the effort to extract durable principles of social causality from the apparent randomness of everyday life requires the construction of reliable, if tentative, knowledge that is significantly more informative than mere speculation. With our ever-increasing knowledge base, increasingly sophisticated and powerful quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and with an ever-expanding cadre of researchers, our ability to discern patterns of development of GLBT people from birth to death, the unique qualities of their relationships, and the impact of communities and cultures on the ways in which their sexualities are manifested, will come into sharper focus. In this way, research becomes a tool by which GLBT people transcend invisibility and marginalization. As new research accumulates, the unique contributions that GLBT lives make to our understanding of the nature of human development will be documented in ways never before thought possible. Within the larger context of social science research on GLBT populations, this book describes the current status of social service researchers in their quest for methodological sophistication and conceptual complexity. The work of the contributors to this volume exemplifies the progress that has been made since the first research reports on this topic were published.

Handbook of Research with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations provides a detailed examination of the current methods and theoretical frameworks for conducting research with LGBT populations. Introducing greater nuance in designing and implementing research models for working with these populations, Handbook of Research with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations provides guidelines for defining these groups, strategies to obtain more inclusive and representative samples, and methods for engaging these populations to produce consistent and relevant data. Collecting essays by notable researchers and scholars in the field, Handbook of Research with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations provides meaningful analyses of the ethics and practical constraints that researchers confront in dealing with LGBT populations--including protection of privacy--which is a special concern for many. For students, teachers, social workers, mental health professionals, and researchers of all backgrounds, this is an invaluable resource and guidebook for anyone seeking a better quality of understanding and engagement with LGBT individuals and communities.