Immediate and Longer-Term Connections Between Support and Stress in Pregnant/Parenting and Non-Pregnant/Non-Parenting Adolescents

Despite the substantial amount of literature focusing on social support for pregnant and parenting adolescents, few studies have directly examined the relationships among stress and social support across their transition to parenting. The present study investigates the nature of the relationship between stress and support both before and after the birth of the baby. Two groups of adolescent females (one group facing parenthood and one not) completed measures of support and stress across a 7-month period (N = 231) to coincide with the transition to parenthood. In general, support and stress were negatively related when measured concurrently and positively related over time for parenting adolescents but not the non-parenting group. Understanding how long social support impacts stress will enable practitioners to identify when best to provide interventions for pregnant and parenting adolescents.     

Editorial

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

The roller-coaster of experiences: becoming the parent of a deaf child

When early testing indicates a hearing loss, parents find themselves on a roller-coaster of experiences leaving little time or space for reflection. This study is based on interviews with families in the Flemish region of Belgium, one of the earliest in the world to introduce universal neonatal screening for hearing loss. Starting from a phenomenological approach, we explore parents’ accounts of their experiences in order to uncover the meanings of early parenting of a child identified with a label. Soon after birth, these parents encounter a different world in which intertwined discourses construct parenthood with a deaf child. During the process of becoming a parent, representations of deafness as impairment were omnipresent. In contrast to a medical and technological perspective that insists on the need to intervene as fast as possible, it is argued that the private and social implications of rapid intervention require explicit consideration.     

The quincunx: history and mathematics

Received: December 30, 1999; revised version: July 19, 2000     

What Works in Group Care? - A Structured Review of Treatment Models for Group Homes and Residential Care

This paper presents findings from a structured review of treatment models that are relevant to group care and residential treatment settings for children involved with the child welfare system. Initiated and guided by The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare, five treatment models — Positive Peer Culture, Teaching Family Model, Sanctuary Model, Stop-Gap Model, and Re-ED — were reviewed for effectiveness. In this paper, each model's treatment features are described and relevant outcome studies reviewed in terms of their effectiveness as well as relevance for child welfare practice. Findings indicate that four of the models are either supported or promising in terms of evidence for effectiveness. Implications for group care practice and research are discussed.     

Mixed contracts for the newsvendor problem with real options and discrete demand

In this paper we consider the newsvendor model with real options under discrete demand. We consider a mixed contract where the retailer can order a combination of q units subject to the conditions in a classical newsvendor contract and Q real options on the same items. We provide a closed form solution to this mixed contract when the demand is discrete and study some of its properties. In particular we demonstrate that a mixed contract may be superior to a real option contract when a manufacturer has a bound on how much variance she is willing to accept.     

Outpatient Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents Engaged in Deliberate Self-Harm: Conceptual and Methodological Considerations

The current review examines conceptual and methodological issues related to the use of dialectical behavior therapy for adolescents (DBT-A) in treating youth who engage in deliberate self-harm. A comprehensive review of the literature identified six studies appropriate for the review. Results indicated several inconsistencies and limitations across studies including the mixing of various forms of self-harm; variations in diagnostic inclusion/exclusion criteria, insufficient use of standardized self-harm outcome measures, variable lengths and intensity of provided treatment, and inadequate attention paid to DBT adherence. Each of these areas is reviewed along with a discussion of ways to improve the quality of future research.     

Sexual risk behaviors among youth in the child welfare system

This study uses data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) to provide estimates of sexual risk behaviors for 877 youth, age 11–14 at baseline, in the child welfare system. It examines the association between baseline psychosocial risk and protective factors on engagement in sexual risk behaviors after 36 months. It further compares rates of sexual risk behaviors between youth placed in out-of-home care and those who remained with their biological family. Key findings include a high rate of pregnancy, a high percentage of youth who initiated sexual activity at or before age 13 as well as a limited role of protective factors in moderating sexual risk behaviors. A history of placement into out-of-home care is not significantly associated with greater engagement in sexual risk behaviors. Implications for intervention development and child welfare policy for this population are discussed.     

Evaluationsstudien zum Mentoring

There is a lack of evaluation of mentoring programs which however, in the practice, gains more and more in importance. Therefore, quantitative and qualitative evaluation studies, concerning the process of mentoring have been made in several different size companies as well as in frame of a comparison of mentoring-models in Austria and Germany.A case study which is connected to an evaluation-interview-study completes the perspective of the “women mentees”. At the end, a short is-analysis will be made which shows to what extent, evaluation of mentoring programs are evaluated by companies.The article concludes with a coaching or training program which enables mentors to establish a collegial support based on a structured advisory methodology.