This study examined the clinical challenges that male practitioners face in their work with high-risk, female youth clients. Sixteen male practitioners from 9 different youth-serving agencies were interviewed. The study found that male practitioners working with female youth clients experienced several unique challenges within three sequential stages of therapy. These stages were characterized by transference onto the practitioner, rage against the practitioner, and therapeutic work. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.

This paper describes domestic violence from the perspective of 56 preschool and school-age children during their temporary residence at a shelter for battered women. Data were extracted from transcripts of individual counseling sessions that explored the childrens' feelings about the abuse and the abuser, their strategies for coping with aggression and conflict in their families, and their understanding and feelings about their need for shelter placement. Content analysis of session data revealed that the children viewed the violence as unambiguously negative, although ambivalence about the abuser was sometimes expressed. Coping strategies varied and tended to be focused on emotional disengagement. Most children were able to articulate causal links between episodes of parental violence and need for shelter placement. Feelings about the shelter were generally positive and centered around themes of personal safety and comfort. Family reunion was frequently expressed as a desired outcome. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the educational opportunities available to community youth development professionals in the United States. Given the complexity of the needs of today’s young people, it is both timely and prudent to increase the type, quality, and quantity of educational experiences available to community youth development professionals. Researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and funding agencies have all begun to explore the importance of providing educational opportunities to community youth development professionals. The findings of this investigation indicate a need for a comprehensive multidimensional educational system to provide community youth development professionals with the knowledge and skills essential to successfully meet the challenges they encounter in their daily work.

Residential group care has often been viewed as antithetical to healthy normalizing developmental processes for troubled or “at-risk” children and youth, yet it appears in other settings to be the method of choice for leadership preparation for the elite. This chapter examines group care generically and attempts to bring implications from programs in the latter category to bear on those in the former.

In the tradition of Redl's vigorous advocacy papers, Beker examines the current “holiness game” of damning inpatient treatment on the basis of ideology, cost, assumed abuse, and effectiveness. He reviews Redl's position on the potential of such settings and proposes that we look at new possible ingredients for residential work coming from his extensive experience in therapeutic camping.

Many states are beginning to coordinate services and programs to assure that a professional development system is in place to serve teachers in the field of early care and education. One state that adopted a systematic philosophy is North Carolina. In reflecting on the past 10 years, recommendations and practices can be shared with other states initiating similar systems.

The Youth Development Leadership Master of Education (M.Ed.) Program, a professional studies graduate program in the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) at the University of Minnesota, has been in existence for twelve years. In this article, faculty describe the program philosophy, pedagogy, leadership, and curriculum; share insights into the student experience of youth development, and; reflect on the important lessons learned that have shaped the program over time as well as the challenges that continue today.