A Short Form of the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children

A short form of the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children was derived from the original 90 items. An exploratory factor analysis of each factor identified the four items from each of the original factors with the highest eigenvalues. These items were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis. The best fit was obtained for an 8-factor, 32-item model. The short form evidenced good convergent validity with parent ratings obtained from the Child Behavior Checklist, the Child Sexual Behavior Inventory, and the University of California at Los Angeles Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index (UCLA PTSD RI). Norms (t-scores and percentiles based on raw scores) were calculated by age and by gender. The short form has promise as a screening measure with parents in settings like a child advocacy center.     

The Control Narrative of the Internet

This article examines how mediation and control operate in cyberspace through a control narrative, or actors' awareness and expectation that symbolic meanings may be monitored and used by diverse audiences for various purposes. A control narrative is implicated in numerous attempts and logics to monitor and regulate Internet use. The control narrative is more explicit as fear and control are reflexively joined to virtual communication. The focus is on recent developments in surveillance, deception, and entrapment in “Internet stings” by formal agents of social control in the name of protecting children from predators and pedophiles and U.S. citizens from terrorism. Several implications of the control narrative for communication are offered, along with questions for further research.     

The Founding of the Clinical Sociology Association: A Personal Narrative

This paper discusses the rediscovery of clinical sociology in the 1970s and the founding of the Clinical Sociology Association in 1978. The author recounts his role in these events and traces their origin in his personal life.     

The Russian Military Spending: Modernization Not Rearmament

The Russian Federation has come back on the international scene, in the past years, thanks to its economic expansion and its political stability. The defence sector, a pillar of the Soviet regime, takes advantage of this situation and is receiving increasing funds, although the fraction of the GDP remains constant. Some experts fear a renewed arms race and a new threat for the world security. The analysis of the overall figures leads to a more moderate view. The situation of the Armed Forces suffers from many problems and it is far from being dangerous for the world stability. The core of the Army, the personnel, is in a terrible situation with a huge gap compared with other developed nations. In addition, Russia endures a demographic collapse and it will be always more difficult to find capable arms that use the new generation armaments of the proclaimed modernization plans.

The Political Configuration of Historical Narrative: The Case of Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT

As time has progressed, Russia has shed the historical legacy of the Soviet era. The same process is going on in Central Asia. The obliteration of the Soviet historical legacy reflects the dying out of the memories of the Soviet Union and the very fact that all these countries had been parts of one state in the not-so-distant past. At the same time, some of these states started to engage in bitter rivalry. The historical legacies were adjusted to new realities. Here, two models compete: one could be called “Turkic” and the other “Iranian.” The “Turkic” model implies that Turkic people are truly autokthonous and have lived in Central Asia since the Bronze Age, and that Iranians/Indo-Europeans are newcomers, without much legitimacy. The “Iranian” model implies that it is Iranians/Indo-Europeans who are truly autokthonous people of Central Asia, and creators of the ancient culture. At the same time, Turkic people are nothing but destructive brutes. Meanwhile, China increasingly fills the discursive and geopolitical vacuum.     

The Value Shift of the Russian Greens

The Green movement in the USSR/Russia has existed for more than forty years. During this period, seven groups have been shaped and consolidated within the movement (the conservationists, the alternativists, the traditionalists, the civil initiatives, the ecopoliticians, the ecopatriots, and the ecotechnocrats). The aim of this article is to consider the value shift each group underwent during the decade 1992–2001 within the context of the broader changes in the Russian society. The article emphasizes key influences conditioning the transformations of values. These include changing of local and national contexts caused by the overall process of society's westernization and globalization, as well as by the changes in each group's positions vis-a-vis the state, market economy, science and local population.     

The Effects of the September 11 Terrorist Attacks on Russian Immigrants

ABSTRACT

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 changed the course of American history. Because of the scope and proportion of the disaster, its impact on witnesses was unprecedented both with regard to the numbers of people who were psychologically affected as well as the intensity of individual reactions. To better understand how different groups of people witnessing the events through the mass media were impacted, we conducted a qualitative study of a sample of Russian immigrants. The data illustrate the emotional and cognitive reactions of the participants and their coping with the traumatic effect of the events. Possible links between the properties of Russian immigrants as a group and their responses to this traumatic effect are discussed.     

Jacob Lawrence's The Migration Series: Art as Narrative History

Because art is a reflection of cultural heritage, a natural affinity exists between art and social studies. In Jacob Lawrence's The Migration Series, art serves as narrative history, with visual images telling the story of the Great Migration, a movement of African American people from the South to the North around World War I. Social studies and the arts can be effectively integrated using principles of discipline-based arts education and comprehensive arts education. In this article, the author provides (1) background information on the historical period, artist, and art, (2) objectives, (3) sample guided discussion questions and extension activities, and (4) sample assessment ideas. He also outlines a complete sample lesson, synthesizing the principles and ideas into a meaningful whole in which social studies studies enhances teaching and learning in the arts and vice versa.     

The Russian Economy and the Oil Price: A Co-integrated VAR Approach

Using a co-integrated VAR model, this paper analyzes the dynamic effects of oil price and interest rate shocks on the Russian economy for the period 1995:Q1-2008:Q2. The co-integration analysis leads to the finding that a 1% increase in oil prices contributes to real GDP growth by 0.8%, suggesting an increase four times that reported by Rautava (2002), in the long run. Furthermore, the impulse response analysis suggests that the impacts of the shock on inflation and real GDP are positive over the next eight quarters (short run), whereas the tightening of monetary policy through interest rate channel is immediately associated with a decline in inflation as predicted by theory, but with an increase in real GDP over the preceding quarters.      

Family Work in Oncology: Trusting the Narrative

The author describes her work with a dying patient, work that extends from the patient to his wife and adult offspring, and has transformative benefits for the family.     

The Influence of Child Sexual Abuse on the Self from Adult Narrative Perspectives

The impact of child sexual abuse on the adult self is not yet clearly understood. We explored adult perspectives through the use of narrative interviews (N = 30). Three key themes or views of self were identified in all narratives to varying degrees: the worthless self, the self as unknown, and the potential/developing self. Ambivalence and tension were present in all narratives. Individuals were challenged to integrate the sexual abuse experience in a constructive way and develop a more coherent perception of the self. The narrative method highlighted the dynamic nature of peoples’ experiences at the same time recognizing that the narratives themselves are in progress. Reactions to disclosure, social support, and interpersonal connections are crucial at every turn.