Achieving the vision of deinstitutionalization: A role for foster care?

This paper addresses the potential of specialized foster care for deinstitutionalizing young people. We review studies of factors related to recruitment and placement stability. In discussing these respective factors we argue for a more empirically oriented approach to program planning and development. We suggest a strong focus upon systematic study of selection, payment, professional status, training, and relief levels in order to document optimal placement stability in expanding the use of specialized foster care.     

Personal space claims as a function of interpersonal threat: The mediating role of need for control

Previous research suggests that the concept of control is central to understanding spatial regulation. Similarly, control motivation appears to underlie the individual difference variable of Type A behavior. Based on this commonality it was hypothesized that Type A behavior would mediate spatial claims in response to situational threat. Results confirmed this hypothesis. Type A's claimed larger spaces overall, and more space in front of the body in response to threat, than Type B's. Differential results for size and shape of personal space suggest the multidimensional nature of spatial regulation.     

Family strengths in long-term marriages

Considerable interest exists in identifying the characteristics of families that exhibit a high level of functioning. Since family strengths may be related to family stability, it is logical to examine long-term marriages for characteristics of strong and durable relationships. The present sample consists of 116 couples divided into two groups, higher family strengths and lower family sterngths, based on an empirical measure. Differences in the qualities of these families were identified. In most respects strengths found to be important in earlier studies of younger families also discriminated within long-term marriages. However, some variables may be more important in long-term marriages, including health, sexual relations, financial matters, and personality issues.     

The impact of school and college expenditures on the wages of southern and non-southern workers

Based on previous evidence of diminishing earnings returns to greater educational expenditures, the hypothesis that southern schools and colleges have greater returns than non-southern schools and colleges is tested but is not accepted. Per pupil expenditures for both school and college, however, significantly raise earnings for southern male full-time workers. The elasticity of expenditure with respect to the wage for high school graduates is 0.1212 for southerners and 0.0360 for non-southerners, and the elasticity for college expenditure is 0.0468 for southerners and 0.0260 for non-southerners. The author is grateful to Philip R. P. Coelho, W. Lee Hansen, Wayne H. Joerding, Victor J. Tremblay, and an anonymous referee for helpful suggestions and to the Mississippi Research and Development Center for support of this research.     

The Guijin Therapist and the Nature of Therapeutic Truth: A Relational Perspective

The professional literature is replete with examples of the benefits of the client–clinician dyad being of the same ethnic group. Noted advantages include a perceived implicit understanding of the clients subjective experience and a furthering of the therapists personal and professional growth as a result of the therapeutic interaction. This paper suggests that there are also benefits to the clinician being considered a guijin or outsider to the clients culture of origin. Utilizing a relational perspective with an emphasis on multiple self-state theory, this paper will discuss the advantages of being perceived as an outsider when working with an Asian bicultural client.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual International Conference for the Advancement of Private Practice in Clinical Social Work in Lisbon, Portugal on June 8, 2002.     

Survey reveals emphasis on tying pay to quality. Physician executive pay increase holds steady near 7 percent

Double-digit increases were seen in three physician executive positions and there are strong indications that the patient safety movement is impacting the way physician executives are paid.