Problems of Research in Male Child Sexual Abuse

The focus of the present paper is the main problems found in the study of male child sexual abuse. Aspects of child sexual abuse of males reviewed here include (a) definitions, (b) prevalence rates and under-reporting, (c) effects, (d) possible mechanisms of how sexual abuse affects male victims, (e) gender related risks, (f) types of abuse, (g) perpetrators of abuse, and (h) the victim/perpetrator cycle. We conclude that while much research is urgently required in this area, some tentative conclusions are warranted and some important trends are beginning to emerge for future research directions.     

Levels of uric acid in erectile dysfunction of different aetiology

Erectile dysfunction is a common disease characterized by endothelial dysfunction. The aetiology of ED is often multifactorial but evidence is being accumulated in favor of the proper function of the vascular endothelium that is essential to achieving and maintaining penile erection. Uric acid itself causes endothelial dysfunction via decreased nitric oxide production. This study aims to evaluate the serum uric acid (SUA) levels in 180 ED patients, diagnosed with the International Index of Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5) and 30 non-ED control. Serum uric acid was analyzed with a commercially available kit using ModularEVO (Roche, Monza, Italy). Within-assay and between-assay variations were 3.0% and 6.0%, respectively. Out of the ED patients, 85 were classified as arteriogenic (A-ED) and 95 as non-arteriogenic (NA-ED) with penile-echo-color-Doppler. Uric acid levels (median and range in mg/dL) in A-ED patients (5.8, 4.3–7.5) were significantly higher (p?p?相似文献   

Toward Negating Authoritarianism in Appraisals of Performance in Social Work Education

In a national study of admissions practices at the undergraduate level, the author sought to ascertain, (1) degree of program control over admission, (2) time of entry, (3) methods utilized, and (4) anticipated future changes. A majority of programs controlled the screening of all or a portion of their student population. No association of degree of control with public or private sponsorship was noted. Programs with complete control predominantly delayed entry. Methods of admission showed much innovation and use of preadmission field experiences and courses to determine entry, in addition to more traditional approaches.     

Exploring personhood in dining experiences of residents with dementia in long-term care facilities

Despite the shift toward using person-centered approaches in dementia care, the relevance and applicability of the concept “personhood” remains unclear in everyday practice and activities, such as mealtime experience for residents with dementia. Based on a qualitative study, this paper presents emergent themes at mealtimes that support or undermine personhood of twenty residents with dementia in two long-term care facilities. Methods of data collection included conversational interviews with residents with dementia, participant observations, focus groups with staff and examination of available documents. Data analysis identified eight themes: (1) outpacing/relaxed pace, (2) withholding/holding, (3) stimulation, (4) disrespect/respect, (5) invalidation/validation, (6) distancing/connecting, (7) disempowerment/empowerment, and (8) ignoring/inclusion. These findings raised questions about current practice and identified areas for improvement. Although staff approaches seemed to have the greatest impact on residents' experiences, the physical environment and organizational milieu were also responsible for hindering and facilitating staff to provide the best possible care and interaction.     

Correlates of Engagement in Family Therapy

Sixty-five families who continued in conjoint family therapy were compared on a variety of antecedent variables to 65 families who dropped out. The following factors were found to be associated with engagement in therapy: (a) age of the identified patient; (b) number of children in the family; (c) the family's prior involvement with community agencies; (d) the presence or absence of antisocial acting-out; and (e) attendance of father at both the initial intake interview and early treatment sessions. Maximal discrimination between continuing and dropout families was demonstrated by simultaneous consideration of several significant variables. The implication of these results for family therapy selection criteria are discussed.     

Role of urban governance in the process of bus system reform in Seoul

The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) executed an innovative bus system reform in July 2004. The bus lines were reorganized as trunk, feeder, and circular routes; and bus numbers were arranged into eight areas. The monopolized route systems were reorganized as a semi-public operation, with a route tendering system to induce competition. A unified fare system was introduced taking into account transfers between buses; buses and the subway, and other modes of public transportation, all with the development of a new transportation card system. Exclusive median bus lanes were constructed in three major corridors. The main purposes of this paper are to (1) discuss the background and necessity of the bus system reform; (2) review the composition and functions of the Bus System Reform Citizen Committee (BSRCC), which instigated the reform; (3) analyze the role of BSRCC as a type of urban governance; and (4) provide policy implications. The study employs three techniques—literature reviews of the realities of bus service, in-depth interviews with stakeholders to analyze the roles and benefits of the BSRCC, and participant observation via a BSRCC member. All these help to shed light on a new form of urban governance which broke from the execution lead only by officials of the SMG.     

Prevalence of childhood abuse in mothers taking part in a study of parenting their own children

This paper describes the incidence of maltreatment histories in a community sample of mothers of one‐year‐old infants in Northern Ireland. The occurrence of five subsets of childhood maltreatment is examined: emotional abuse, emotional neglect, physical abuse, physical neglect and sexual abuse. Of the 201 women who completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, 70 mothers (35%) reported that they had experienced one or more types of maltreatment during childhood. Forty‐eight mothers (24%) gave a history of being emotionally abused, 43 (21%) of emotional neglect, 27 (13%) of physical abuse, 20 (10%) of sexual abuse and 19 (10%) of physical neglect. Physical abuse was the only type of maltreatment which showed an association with maternal socio‐economic status, with a higher incidence reported amongst Occupational Classes 4 and 5 (lower supervisory and technical occupations and semi‐routine and routine groups). More than half of those with a history of abuse experienced more than one type of maltreatment (42 mothers or 60% of those reporting maltreatment). Differences in rates of incidence to more recent studies on younger adults are discussed, as well as implications for prevention and intervention. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Predictors of Cycling in College Students

Abstract

Objectives: To (1) assess cycling-related questions that have been added to the electronic version of the American College Health Association National College Health Assessment II (ACHA-NCHA), (2) examine cycling prevalence, and (3) identify predictors of cycling in college students. Participants: Predominately female (69%), undergraduate (89%), and white (85%) students (N = 949) from a large, urban, northwestern, bicycle-friendly university completed the electronic version of the ACHA-NCHA II. Methods: Thirty cycling-related questions were added to the ACHA-NCHA II and a subsample of questions was analyzed. Results: Cycling questions added to the ACHA-NCHA II scale were reliable and valid, based on the psychometric data analysis. More than half (59%) of this sample cycled; of those, 58% cycled for transportation and 44% for recreation. Facilitators and barriers to cycling were different for cycling in general and cycling for transportation. Conclusions: Cycling questions added to the ACHA-NCHA II can be utilized to enhance knowledge relative to cycling on college campuses.     

A comparative study of occupancy and patient care quality in four different types of intensive care units in a children's hospital

This paper reports a comparative study of occupancy and patient care quality in four types of intensive care units in a children's hospital,: an Infant Care Center (ICC), a Medical/Surgical (Med/Surg) unit, a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), each featuring a mix of multi-bed and private room (PR) patient care environments. The project is prompted by interest by the project sponsor in a pre-occupancy analysis, before the units are upgraded to exclusive PR designs. Methods comprised, for each unit: (1) observations of ergonomic design features; (2) task activity analyses of job performance of selected staff; and (3) use of a survey to collect perceptions by unit nursing and house staff (HS) of indicators of occupancy and patient care quality. Conclusions: (1) the five most common task activities are interaction with patients, charting, and interaction with equipment, co-workers and family members; (2) job satisfaction, patient care, work environment, job, patient care team interaction, and general occupancy quality rankings by ICC and/or NICU respondents are significantly higher than those by other staff respondents; and (3) ergonomic design shortcomings noted are excess noise, problems with equipment, and work environment, job-related health, and patient care quality issues.     

Raising awareness of psychosocial factors in the occurrence of low back symptoms in developing countries

Although there is strong evidence that single physical, psychosocial and organisational risk factors are each independent predictors of low back symptoms (LBS), little is known about their combination/interaction, particularly in those working in developing countries. A total of 1294 Indonesian coal mining industry workers reported information about physical, psychosocial, and organisational factors using self-reported questionnaires and were placed into one of four combination exposure groups: 1) high physical (working with bent trunk; whole body vibration exposure; lifting) and high psychosocial (high effort; low reward; work stress), 2) high physical and low psychosocial, 3) low physical and high psychosocial, and 4) low physical and low psychosocial (as the reference group). The odds of LBS in the high physical and high psychosocial group was 5.15 times (95% confidence interval 2.69-9.86) that of the reference group. Psychosocial factors played a more important role than physical factors in increasing the likelihood of reporting LBS. Permanent and night shift workers were more likely to report LBS. These findings imply that efforts to reduce LBS in this workplace should address both psychosocial and physical factors but psychosocial factors should be the priority, with a special focus on permanent and night shift workers.     

Counselor confounds in evaluations of vocational rehabilitation methods in substance dependency treatment

Evaluation research on vocational counseling in substance dependency treatment should distinguish between the effects of counselors and counseling methods on clients' employment outcomes. Three experimental designs permit investigation of possible confounds between these types of effects: (a) nested designs (each counselor delivers one counseling method so counselors are nested under methods), (b) crossed designs (each counselor delivers all counseling methods so counselors are crossed with methods), and (c) no-treatment control group designs (experimental group's counselors all deliver the same method). Each design is optimal for one stage of evaluation research. No-treatment control group designs are best for exploratory evaluations of new types of vocational counseling. Nested designs are best for outcome evaluations of different types of interventions. Crossed designs are best for (causal) process evaluations of counseling methods of demonstrated efficacy. Despite the importance of methodological issues and problems, vocational rehabilitation in substance dependency treatment has a greater need for stronger interventions than better evaluation designs.     

Field education in crisis: experiences of field education coordinators in Canada

Significant multi-layered challenges with delivering quality practicum experiences to social work students have led field education coordinators to release a joint statement that social work field education in Canada is in a state of crisis. This article presents the results of a two-year mixed methods study that sought to investigate and describe the challenges in order to enhance understanding of the crisis from the perspective of Canadian social work field education coordinators. The results indicate that social work education programs in Canada face four key challenges in regard to field education that can be further divided into two sections: (a) the social work practice field and (b) social work field education administration. The two key challenges associated with the social work practice field are: (a) social work practice contexts and realities and (b) practicum shortages and saturation. The two key challenges associated with social work field education administration are: (a) practicum procurement and field instructor recruitment and retention; and (b) expectations and workloads of field education coordinators. To address these challenges, collaborative development of a multi-level strategy aimed at moving beyond the current state of crisis toward a sustainable model of social work field education in Canada is recommended.     

Characteristics of Communication in Families of Alcoholics

In the United States, roughly 43% of adults have encountered alcoholism in their family, and one in four children lives with an alcoholic parent (Grant, 2000). Prior research suggests that alcoholism can negatively impact the nature and quality of family relations, but studies rarely consider the specific ways in which family communication dynamics are impacted by the disease. Thus, the goal of this study was to identify the characteristics of communication in families of alcoholics and to develop a larger conceptual model to guide future inquiries in this context. A national sample of 682 adult children of alcoholics were asked to describe the communication dynamics in their family of origin. A theme analysis of the open-ended data revealed four overarching themes that were comprised of nine subcategories: (a) aggressive communication (e.g., heightened conflict, tense communication, and secretive slandering); (b) protective communication (e.g., superficiality, limited or indirect communication, and sober parent buffering); (c) adaptive communication (e.g., functional communication); and, (d) inconsistent communication (e.g., struggles over power and control, mood fluctuation). We draw on the results of this analysis to propose a model depicting communication dynamics in families of alcoholics and the antecedent conditions and consequent outcomes of such communication patterns in the family.     

A study of sign adjustment in weighted signed networks

We analyse the adjustment of networks comprising of weighted positive (P) and negative (N) symmetric relations under the impact of various balancing rules. Five kinds of rules are studied: (1) a local minimal edge adjustment which is a special case of, (2) a local pressure based rule, (3) a local sign based rule, (4) a global rule and (5) rules varying on a local to global dimension. The convergence and convergent proportions of different 3-cycles and, thus the impact upon β(3) balance, under the different kinds of adjustment rule are studied both analytically and through simulation. The effects of network size (n), density (d) and the initial proportion of positive edges (α₀) upon the convergence of 3-cycles and, thus, balance and the eventual implications for the process of group formation are explored.     

The Role of Supervisory Referral in Employee Assistance Programs

Abstract

A growing number of organizations offer Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) to help employees with their personal problems. Many organizations rely on their supervisors to help identify and refer troubled employees to the EAP for assistance, yet very little conclusive evidence exists regarding the factors that influence whether or not supervisors identify and intervene with troubled employees. A previous review of the literature (Nord & Littrell, 1989) found that the following variables were consistently related to referral: (a) degree of management support for the EAP, (b) gender of supervisor, (c) gender of subordinate, (d) existence of a supervisor network, (e) occupational category of the employees supervised, (f) social distance between supervisor and troubled employee, (g) supervisors' attitude toward their role in referral, and (h) supervisor knowledge of the EAP. However, results of some of the studies reviewed for the current paper were inconsistent with Nord and Littrell's (1989) findings. Additional research is needed in this area, including research on the effectiveness of EAP supervisory training, in order to provide guidelines for the administration of effective EAP programs.     

Social network thresholds in the diffusion of innovations

Threshold models have been postulated as one explanation for the success or failure of collective action and the diffusion of innovations. The present paper creates a social network threshold model of the diffusion of innovations based on the Ryan and Gross (1943) adopter categories: (1) early adopters; (2) early majority; (3) late majority; (4) laggards. This new model uses social networks as a basis for adopter categorization, instead of solely relying on the system-level analysis used previously. The present paper argues that these four adopter categories can be created either with respect to the entire social system, or with respect to an individual's personal network. This dual typology is used to analyze three diffusion datasets to show how external influence and opinion leadership channel the diffusion of innovations. Network thresholds can be used (1) to vary the definition of behavioral contagion, (2) to predict the pattern of diffusion of innovations, and (3) to identify opinion leaders and followers in order to understand the two-step flow hypothesis better.     

The Structure of Empathy in Social Work Practice

This article presents a detailed theoretical framework demonstrating how empathy is used in the practice of social work. This consists of affective, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions of empathy and delineates six latent constructs that make up these dimensions. These constructs are (1) caring, (2) congruence, (3) interpersonal sensitivity, (4) perspective taking, (5) altruism, and (6) the therapeutic relationship. Evolutionary, sociological, and neuroscience theories are used to describe empathy's origins as a historically adaptive and interactional process, and social work theories emphasize empathy as an interpersonal helping strategy and organizing principle essential to the practice of social work.     

Characteristics of effective summer learning programs in practice

The Center for Summer Learning examined various summer program models and found that there are nine characteristics that provide a framework for effective summer programs. In this chapter, the authors demonstrate how effective practices lead to positive results for young people. The nine characteristics of effective summer learning programs are (1) accelerating learning, (2) youth development, (3) proactive approach to summer learning, (4) leadership, (5) advanced planning, (6) staff development, (7) strategic partnerships, (8) evaluation and commitment to program improvement, and (9) sustainability and cost-effectiveness. These characteristics are divided into two sections. The first three characteristics address a program's approach to learning. Summer instructional techniques are most effective when academic learning is woven into enrichment activities and youth development. The second section covers program infrastructure to ensure the organization achieves and maintains quality programming. The nine characteristics complement each other to ensure a strong program that works to prevent summer learning loss and narrow the achievement gap. To demonstrate the variety of high-quality programs that include the nine characteristics, thirteen program profiles at the conclusion of the chapter each highlight one of the characteristics. These profiles show the various approaches that different summer programs have developed to accelerate academic achievement and promote positive development for young people in their communities.     

Volatility and Growth in Populations of Rural Associations

This article uses unique community‐level data aggregated from censuses of associations to analyze growth and volatility in rural populations of grassroots associations. A qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) shows that the two main paths to growth were (1) centralization in polycephalous (multicentered) municipalities and (2) population growth in secular municipalities. High volatility occurs in (1) societies exposed to metropolitan sprawl and (2) traditional peripheral communities with high organizational density and little sociocultural change. Despite this volatility, associational life expanded in the sprawling areas that underwent extensive sociocultural change as well as in the peripheral areas where centralization took place. By contrast, more static peripheries experienced decline. The findings challenge romanticized images of stable, small‐scale communities and nuance the negative view on metropolitan sprawl.     

Patterns of Autonomic Arousal in Imaginal Situations of Winning and Losing in Problem Gambling

AIMS: To examine changes in skin conductance level (SCL), for problem gamblers in response to personally relevant imaginal tasks, representing winning or losing. SETTING, DESIGN, PARTICIPANTS AND MEASUREMENTS: SCL and subjective arousal were compared for problem poker machine gamblers (n = 13) and a control group (n = 20). Participants were asked to describe a situation in which they had (a) won and (b) lost during a period of gambling. Before and during the task, recordings of SCL were taken. FINDINGS: There were significant differences between responses of problem and social gamblers. A significant interaction indicated that social gamblers became more aroused in reaction to winning than losing, whereas problem gamblers became equally aroused in response to both tasks. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that it may be responses to losing, rather than winning that are paramount to the development and maintenance of problem gambling.