Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy: Some Practice Implications for Social Workers

The medical and psychosocial complexities involved in cases of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy typically necessitate carefully organized interdisciplinary responses. The role of social work in the effectiveness of such responses is both crucial and historically under-considered in the existing literature. This article presents the historical and specific diagnostic components of this complex and perplexing condition, along with practice guidelines for clinical responses, with information relevant to child protection issues across multiple settings.     

Personality predictors of career exploration: A meta-analysis

In this meta-analysis, correlations of personality traits and career decision-making self-efficacy with self and environmental career exploration were estimated across 71 samples and a pairwise sample of 19,846. Traits included the Big Five personality traits, shyness, locus of control, vocational decision styles, and stress. Many measures of career exploration were based on scores of self and environmental exploration on the Career Exploration Survey. Results varied by characteristics with the largest effects for locus of control, vocational decision style: thinking-feeling and self-efficacy. Environmental exploration and self-exploration were moderately correlated and demonstrated different relations with traits that were consistent with theory. Self-exploration was related to openness to experience and unrelated to extraversion, while environmental exploration was correlated with extraversion. Both were similarly correlated with conscientiousness such that conscientious individuals were more likely to engage in career exploration.     

The Making of Multiple Personality Disorder: A Social Constructionist View

This article explores the social construction of multiple personality disorder by analyzing professional agreements about the nature of the diagnosis, while locating these within their historical and cultural context. First, a historical review of the disorder traces various overlapping streams of discourse that have shaped the construction of the diagnosis. This is followed by a cross-cultural comparison of MPD and dissociative phenomena in several non-Western societies. The article concludes with some reflections on the cultural meanings of MPD in contemporary America.     

Personality and labor force participation across the life course: A longitudinal study of women's careers

The influences on and consequences of women's labor force experience are examined using data from members of the Berkeley longitudinal studies born between 1920 and 1929. In adolescence, these women were overwhelmingly oriented toward marriage and family rather than career, yet more than two-thirds eventually spent substantial time in the paid labor force. Consistent labor force participation was lower for women who had been attractive, outgoing, feminine, self-confident, and status seeking in their high school years. High labor force participation, however, was associated with increases in self-confidence, status seeking, assertiveness, and intellectual investment between adolescence and later adulthood. The demographic correlates of labor force participation changed over the life course: as family responsibilities diminished in the later middle years, both family composition and husband's occupational status decreased in importance, while the importance of a woman's own education level and her husband's expected retirement income increased.     

Micro-structure in micro-neighborhoods: A new social distance measure,and its effect on individual and aggregated perceptions of crime and disorder

This study links social network methodology with the social disorganization literature to test the effect of block-level social distance on neighborhood perceived crime and disorder. Employing a unique study design that allows creating matrices of social distance (based on demographic characteristics) between 11 residents on each of over 650 blocks at three time points, we find that more socially distant residents perceive more disorder than their neighbors. Consistent with the bridging social capital literature, overall social distance in the block has a curvilinear relationship with perceived crime. And blocks with two cohesive subgroups, based on social distance, have lower levels of perceived disorder.     

Influence of the Caldwell report,and other computer generated interpretive reports,in child custody evaluations: A brief report

Abstract

This brief report reviews the use of MMPI-2 computer-generated interpretive reports in child custody evaluations. Particular attention was aimed at the Caldwell Report’s MMPI-2 Custody Report. Considering the recent temporary closure of the Caldwell Report, this article will discuss what scoring and report options remain currently for interpretive custody reports. A perspective is shared that a dependence on computer-generated interpretive reports is detrimental to the science and practice of custody evaluation work. Finally, the author calls for future and revised computer-generated interpretive reports to include more information regarding a link to conclusions, gender bias, and peer reviewed research.     

Reaching a representative sample of college students: A comparative analysis

ABSTRACT

Objective: To explore the feasibility of a random-digit dial (RDD) cellular phone survey in order to reach a national and representative sample of college students. Methods: Demographic distributions from the 2011 National Young Adult Health Survey (NYAHS) were benchmarked against enrollment numbers from the Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS). The sample quality was compared with the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (1993), National College Health Risk Behavior Survey (1995), and National College Health Assessment (2011). Results: Overall, the NYAHS performed as well, if not better, than previous college health surveys at reaching important demographic subgroups. Conclusions: Cellular phone RDD is one feasible approach for studies of the general population of college students that can potentially generate national estimates of health behavior.     

The experiences of African immigrant mothers living in the United Kingdom with a child diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder: an interpretive phenomenological analysis

Interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to investigate the experiences of six African immigrant mothers living in the United Kingdom with a child diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The mothers took part in one-off, semi-structured interviews. Four themes were identified: caring for a child we did not expect, the pain of stigma and rejection, frameworks of meaning, and negotiating conflicting cultural beliefs. Many aspects of the mothers’ experiences appear related to their position as immigrants from cultures with contrasting belief systems regarding child development and disability. Conflicts between African cultural beliefs and a western, medical understanding of ASD appeared to create a feeling of cognitive dissonance for the mothers. The strategies used to negotiate this appear to map onto Berry’s acculturation strategies, suggesting that the experience of having a child with ASD impacts upon the acculturation process. Implications for clinical practice and policy are discussed.     

Distributive justice: an ordering of priorities. A comparative analysis of European opinions

As far as distributive justice is concerned, an important issue is to know whether the different principles by which a given distribution of goods is judged fair or unfair are exclusive or complementary. The European Values Survey carried out in 1999 shows clearly the priorities of Europeans in this matter. The first concerns the guarantee that ‘basic needs are met for all’, then comes ‘recognizing people on their merits’ and finally ‘eliminating big inequalities in income’. The consensus on this hierarchy is not altered by national, demographical, social, economic or political divisions. These different divisions do indeed influence opinions on each criterion, but, with very few exceptions, they are not sufficient to upset this order of priorities. Thus, the usual applied principles of distributive justice do not define competing spheres. Their nested (or ‘lexical’) order is compatible with the purely procedural condition of ‘equal liberty’.     

Correlates of caregiving burden in schizophrenia:A cross-sectional,comparative analysis from India

Schizophrenia is a global mental health issue that has serious implications not only for the person with the diagnosis, but for caregivers as well. In Asian societies, the family tends to be the “natural” caregiver in such situations and the caregiving function is usually shouldered by parents or the spouse. Asian communities tend to be more closely knit, and it would be expected that more social support would be available to those facing distressing circumstances such as managing the demands of a person with mental illness. This study seeks to explore the perceived burden in family caregivers of persons diagnosed with schizophrenia, the coping strategies that come into play, as well as the extent of social support available to them. Standardized instruments were administered to collect data at a teaching cum treatment facility in south India. A quantitative methodology was used to analyze cross-sectional data from 75 primary caregivers of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and a reference group of caregivers of patients with general medical ailments. Results indicate higher levels of burden, low social support, and poor coping in the caregivers of people with schizophrenia than the reference group. Implications for intervention with caregivers are also discussed in this article.     

Beyond Munchausen by Proxy: A Proposed Conceptualization for Cases of Recurring,Unsubstantiated Sexual Abuse Allegations

In the emerging literature, cases involving recurring, unsubstantiated allegations of child sexual abuse have generally been categorized as Munchausen by proxy. Recent scholars have recommended restricting the label to the original conceptualization, involving purposeful deception motivated by psychological needs for medical attention. This leaves many cases unclassified that do not fit the Munchausen by proxy criteria, involve significant risks to the child, and ultimately fall outside of existing structures for Child Protective Services/legal intervention. This paper presents a reconceptualization of such cases, proposing to label them “recurring sexual abuse allegation” cases. Defining the set of cases more clearly can aid child protection workers in their management and encourage research on prevalence, consequences to children, treatment strategies, and needed legal reforms.     

Leadership succession and the performance of nonprofit organizations: A fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis

Leadership succession is critical to the performance of nonprofit organizations. Existing research has mostly treated leadership succession as an instantaneous event, and it has examined the independent effects of certain factors on organizational performance. However, little research has focused on the combinations of causally relevant factors. This article integrated organizational life cycle, resource dependence, and institutional theories, as well as the organizational fit literature, to explain how contextual and strategic factors combine to affect postsuccession performance. A fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was used to analyze 15 succession events in Chinese environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The study identified four pathways to good NGO performance after succession. It also highlighted that it is not succession per se but the succession context (i.e. founders' control, board governance, professionalization, and political environment) and the strategic orientations of the successor that affect postsuccession performance in nonprofit organizations.     

Balancing uniqueness and similarity: A content analysis of textual characteristics in Dutch corporate stories

Writing corporate stories to articulate identity is challenging because one must balance between the recognizable similarities with other companies (e.g., core activities, type of industry) and the company's own uniqueness. In the present study, we propose a conceptualization of corporate stories in terms of similarity and uniqueness, and present a scheme of six main categories of textual characteristics: general, style, structure, content, genre, and layout. The scheme is illustrated in a content analysis of 45 Dutch consumer-focused corporate stories. The results indicate that, contrary to the literature and guidelines on corporate stories, similarities in textual characteristics with other corporate stories are as typical for a corporate story as its uniqueness. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Fear of Intimacy and Hardiness Among Single Mothers by Choice: A Comparison to Divorced and Married Mothers

The phenomenon of nonmarital motherhood among upper-middle-class, educated women has increased dramatically over the last few decades in most industrialized countries. The purpose of the current research is to examine how women who elect nonmarital motherhood compare with women who elect other family configurations with respect to their personality characteristics. This research compares the fear of intimacy in close heterosexual relationships and hardiness of 61 single mothers by choice to that of 53 divorced and 60 married mothers in Israel. The findings indicate that single mothers by choice have a significantly higher level of fear of intimacy in heterosexual relationships compared to married mothers. No significant differences were found between the three groups of mothers in hardiness. Limitations and implications of the findings are discussed.     

Industrial relations and adjustments to the crisis: A comparative micro‐statistical analysis of France and Great Britain

In this comparative study, the authors analyse the relationships between industrial relations and workforce or wage adjustments in response to the 2007–08 crisis, using two highly comparable establishment‐level surveys conducted in Great Britain (WERS) and France (REPONSE) in 2010–12. Notwithstanding contextual differences in the countries’ productive systems and the timing and impact of the crisis, the relationships between industrial relations and adjustment strategies appear to have been similar (trade union presence not preventing adjustments). Differences in industrial relations are therefore not found to provide an explanation for the different modes of adjustment observed at the macroeconomic level.     

A community of singers: employing exploratory cluster analysis to reveal profiles of psychosocial characteristics among members of a street choir for homeless and formerly homeless individuals

This exploratory study employed cluster analysis to identify profiles of resilience, social support, stress, and mental health among members of a homeless and formerly homeless street choir; we examined the association between choir attendance and cluster membership, and the interaction of cluster membership and race. Respondents (N?=?111, 66% African American, 84% homeless) had participated in the choir for an average of 12 months (SD?=?12.02). We stratified the analysis according to homelessness status. Among those housed, k-means cluster analysis revealed two profiles: (1) relatively resourced but lower resilience, and (2) high resilience. Three profiles emerged among the homeless: (1) psychologically vulnerable, high stress and mental health concerns; (2) relatively resourced, showing average levels of mental health concerns and social support, minimally elevated stress, and higher resilience; and (3) low resilience. Examining the interaction, non-African American, housed participants in the high resilience cluster reported the most frequent choir attendance (M?=?4.00, SD?=?0.00); among the homeless, non-African Americans in the psychologically vulnerable cluster reported the most frequent attendance (M?=?3.88, SD?=?1.25). Results support the need for programs that address higher order needs concurrently with housing; they also highlight the ongoing need to provide particular outreach to minority populations.     

Social construction of public relations knowledge by academic institutions worldwide: A bibliometric network analysis

This VOSviewer-enabled bibliometric study examines scientific knowledge construction in public relations research since 1955. A co-citation analysis indicates that while sustaining its cross-disciplinary nature, public relations increasingly relies on scholarship generated within its own discipline, with Public Relations Review, Journal of Public Relations Research and Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly most cited academic sources. A citation analysis of author affiliations revealed a number of findings, including universities with the highest count of publications, university pairs that tend to cite each other, as well as regional university groups and large clusters within a broader, citation-based network. Among the 108 most productive academic institutions from four continents included into the study, U.S.-based universities produced the highest number of publications in nine peer-reviewed journals. Cross-referencing citation relationships among university clusters in different world regions illustrates an ongoing pattern of globalized construction of public relations knowledge.