A Scoping Review of Challenges in Adult Intimate Relationships After Childhood Sexual Abuse

Childhood sexual abuse is a severe problem worldwide. Childhood sexual abuse can be detrimental to children and their abilities to cope with and communicate in their subsequent adult intimate relationships. The aim of this review was to generate and summarize knowledge about how childhood sexual abuse manifests in adult intimate relationships so healthcare professionals can incorporate this knowledge into treatment and care. A scoping review methodology was selected because it supports examination of the extent, range, and nature of research activity. A content analysis of the studies included in this review led to three thematic categories of challenges in adult intimate relationships after childhood sexual abuse: (a) relationship satisfaction, (b) sexual satisfaction, and (c) communication and trust.     

Conditions for Exercising Residents’ Voting Rights in Long-Term Care Residences: A Prospective Multicenter Study

To assess voting conditions in long-term care settings, we conducted a multicenter survey after the 2009 European elections in France. A questionnaire about voting procedures and European elections was proposed in 146 out of 884 randomized facilities. Sixty-four percent of facilities answered the questionnaire. Four percent of residents voted (national turnout: 40%), by proxy (58%) or at polling places (42%). Abstention related to procedural issues was reported in 32% of facilities. Sixty-seven percent of establishments had voting procedures, and 53% declared that they assessed residents’ capacity to vote. Assistance was proposed to residents for voter registration, for proxy voting, and for voting at polling places, respectively, in 33%, 87%, and 80% of facilities. This survey suggests that residents may be disenfranchised and that more progress should be made to protect the voting rights of residents in long-term care facilities.     

Reading Ibn Khaldun in the Formative Period of Sociology

‘Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), the founder of the science of society, became known to modern sociologists during the formative period of sociology, that is, the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. There was something of a reception of Ibn Khaldun in Europe at that time by sociologists and other scholars who were not necessarily involved with Islamic or West Asian studies. In fact, the reception of Ibn Khaldun by modern scholars in the West can be differentiated into Eurocentric or Orientalist as opposed to more disciplinary attitudes. While much has been said about the Eurocentric reception of Ibn Khaldun, less is discussed about the disciplinary approach to Ibn Khaldun among thinkers who wrote when the modern science of sociology was emerging in Europe. This special issue on Ibn Khaldun in the Formative Period of Sociology provides English translations of six articles originally written in Italian, French, German, Polish, Spanish and Turkish between 1896 and 1934. Not all of these articles were written by sociologists. Together, they provide some background as to how Ibn Khaldun was conceived of in non-area studies circles, in the social sciences and humanities.     

On the pattern of cohort fertility

Abstract An examination of the patterns of cohort fertility rates in a number of populations revealed the existence of a common pattern showing how mean family sizes of the different age-at-marriage groups of a given marriage cohort are built up over the reproductive span. Standard schedules of fertility patterns are generated by the use of the Gompertz function which defines the distribution of cumulative fertility rates of a given marriage cohort by marriage duration by means of only three parameters. The generated system is tested with the historical series for England and Wales and Sweden and is found adequate to describe widely different childbearing patterns. Some of the demographic implications of the existence of common fertility patterns are examined and the usefulness of the generated system in projecting future fertility trends is briefly discussed.     

Reciprocal Engagement and NGO Policy Influence on the Local State in China

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - While existing literature has conceptualized the multiple, complex ways in which NGOs might relate to the state, it has...     

The social work services in screening process of compulsory treatment interventions in addicts in Iran: A content analysis study

Compulsory treatment has had a detrimental impact on drug abuse treatment policies and programs in Iran. Physicians are currently required to conduct initial treatment screening. Social workers are a part of the treatment team but have no authority to initiate a compulsory drug treatment plan. For this reason, the present article investigates social work service participation in the process of compulsory drug treatment. The study methodology is content analysis. Nine social workers participated in seven focus group discussions. Overall, 110 codes were extracted from the sessions and were categorized into five main themes: interview and initial assessment; referral; investigation of ineligibility criteria; report to judicial authority; and follow‐up and advocacy. The results of this research suggest amending executive bylaws based on a social work approach to the screening process for compulsory drug treatment.     

Comparison of different estimation methods in growth curve models for categorical data: A simulation study

This simulation study aims at investigating the performance of maximum likelihood and weighted least-square estimation approaches in growth curve models with categorical data. The goodness-of-fit indices were compared with a number of scenarios (different trajectories, sample sizes, replications, and number of categories). The results show that when the number of categories and replications are small, using weighted least-square estimating methods leads to better goodness-of-fit indices. However, when the number of categories and replications are large, both maximum likelihood and weighted least squares in estimating methods will result in similar fit indices.     

On the tempo of childbearing in England and Wales

Abstract The paper describes a computerized model developed to simulate the fertility of a hypothetical marriage cohort in a closed population. The model was applied to England and Wales fertility data of marriage cohorts of the years 1951 to 1970. For each of these cohorts, the computer was programmed to construct five series of tables showing birth-order probabilities, family size frequency distribution, mean length of intervals between marriage and successive births, parity progression ratios and mean family sizes of fertile women. The results showed that the fertility of the cohorts of women who married between the middle 1950s and the early 1960s was character ized by a declining trend in the frequency of childlessness and by a dramatic increase in the proportion of marriages with two or more children. Since 1964 or so, there has been a downward trend in duration-specific birth-order probabilities. The analysis suggests that the recent drop in fertility may well prove to be the effect of an upward shift in the timing of births as well as a fall in completed fertility.     

Diagnosing and treating testosterone deficiency in different parts of the world. Results from global market research

Aim. This study analysed variations between different regions of the world in diagnosing and treating testosterone (T) deficiency.

Methods. Physicians were interviewed in Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, in Brazil, in Saudi Arabia and South Korea. Items in the survey: 1) reasons/motivation to use or not to use T; 2) what category of patients would not receive T on the basis of these concerns; 3) concerns about prostate pathology in the decision not to provide T treatment; 4) phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE-5) inhibitors are efficacious, but T treatment makes a comeback.

Results. Between 5% and 10% of consulting patients suffered from T deficiency. The fear to induce prostate cancer appeared very powerful. About 68% of physicians associate the use of T more with risks than benefits, more so in Europe than elsewhere. As a result about 35% of hypogonadal men do not receive treatment. The PDE-5 inhibitors are very prominent in the treatment of erectile dysfunction. Of patients suffering from erectile dysfunction, 18% to 29% have T deficiency which is not always diagnosed and treated.

Conclusion. World-wide physicians require more education on diagnosing T deficiency, on the role of T in erectile dysfunction and the relative safety of testosterone treatment.     

Cohort nuptiality in England and Wales

Summary A computerized nuptiality system, called GENMAR, has been developed to investigate trends in cohort nuptiality in England and Wales. This system has five main programmes dealing with first marriage, the effects of changes in mortality on nuptiality measures, divorce, re-marriage, and marital status distribution. This paper summarizes the results of the application of the first programme to England and Wales data on first marriages of persons who were born in every single year since 1900. GENMAR-1 generated for each of these cohorts a 'complete' gross nuptiality table. The analysis shows that there have been substantial increases in the intensity of first marriage at young ages, a downward shift in the modal age at marriage, and a significant rise in the proportion ever married among women. The cohort nuptiality tables also show that the change in the nuptiality of women was due to changes in both the tempo and level of nuptiality, whereas the change for men was mainly the effect of shifts in the temporal pattern of nuptiality. There are, however, signs of a slow down of marriage among the cohorts born since the early 1950's.