Subjective evaluations of alcohol-related consequences among college students: Experience with consequences matters

Objective: Research suggests college students rate some alcohol-related consequences less negatively than others, yet it is unclear how or when these differences in perception develop. The current study compared college students' subjective evaluations of alcohol-related consequences that they had and had not experienced in order to test the hypothesis that students become desensitized to the consequences they experience. Participants: Participants were 269 undergraduate students enrolled at a large, public, Midwestern university. Methods: Participants completed measures of drinking behaviors, consequences experienced, and subjective evaluations of consequences via an online survey. Results: Participants rated the consequences they had personally experienced more positively than those they had not experienced. Similarly, individuals who reported experiencing consequences rated them as significantly more positive than those who had not experienced the same consequences. Conclusions: Experience with consequences is associated with more positive evaluations of those consequences. Therefore, it may be important to consider individuals' experiences with, and evaluations of, alcohol-related consequences in college student drinking interventions.     

Creating Foster Care Youth Biographies: A Role for the Internet

ABSTRACT

Large numbers of youth continue to enter foster care despite federal and state efforts to minimize placement. Some youth will experience lengthy tenure in care with multiple placements and be at risk for adverse events. They are also at risk for losing an accurate biography of their childhoods. We suggest a two-tiered approach to help youth develop a personal history. Agencies can establish a digital depository of basic information including pictures that document the life course of the youth. Agencies can help youth procure e-mail accounts. These e-mail accounts are under the control of the youth and can function as an electronic diary. Thus, youth would have a portable life biography and sense of self over time.     

Perceived consequences of hazing exposure during the first year of college: Associations with childhood victimization

Objective: This study investigates the association between histories of childhood victimization and perceived consequences of college hazing. Participants: First-year college students at four US universities (N?=?120). Method: Participants completed Web-based surveys asking about childhood victimization (eg, child maltreatment), peer victimization, and perceived consequences of hazing during college. Results: Results indicated that college students with childhood victimization histories perceived hazing to be negative. In particular, physical dating violence and a greater total number of childhood victimization exposures were related to a higher number of perceived negative consequences. Conclusion: Past victimization exposures confer risk on college students who experience hazing, in that these students are more likely to perceive negative consequences of hazing. Hazing-related policies and outreach efforts should consider these potential negative consequences, and counselors should be aware of the link between past victimization and how hazing might be experienced.     

Designing Successful Gardens and Outdoor Spaces for Individuals with Alzheimer's Disease

SUMMARY

There are many benefits derived from exposure to the outdoors for older adults with Alzheimer's disease, which include exposure to fresh air, sunlight and opportunities for walking and other forms of exercise. There are also opportunities for socialization that can minimize feelings of isolation and vulnerability, improve depression, enhance self-esteem, and simply experience the joys and surprises of nature.

While there seems to be universal agreement of the health and quality of life benefits in getting institutionalized persons into appropriate outdoor settings, in many ways gardens and outside spaces have failed. Time after time visitors stroll through the gardens admiring the landscaped grounds, the abundance of beautiful and fragrant flowers and other features, while noting the absence of residents.

Creditable research studies support the health benefits of exposure to the outdoors and nature. This discussion of design issues, barriers to use, the role of activity, the necessity of staff involvement, and design recommendations supports the urgent need for empirical research to inform the development of effective gardens and outdoor spaces to benefit older adults with Alzheimer's disease.     

Service Delivery Issues in Early Termination of Latino Clients

Abstract

This paper explores the nature and meaning of the early termination experience from outpatient counseling among Latinos. A theoretically grounded perspective is forwarded to explain the nuances of minority group interface with human services (Green, 1995), and the early termination phenomenon among this population. The authors offer an explanatory model, referred to as the repelled client, which undergirds their central argument concerning the need to reexamine important aspects of cross-cultural counseling practice.     

Short-Term Prospective Effects of Impulsivity on Binge Drinking: Mediation by Positive and Negative Drinking Consequences

Abstract. Objective: Although the association of impulsivity with diverse alcohol outcomes has been documented, the mechanisms by which impulsivity predicts drinking over time remain to be fully characterized. The authors examined whether positive drinking consequences, but not negative drinking consequences, mediated the association between impulsivity and subsequent binge drinking, over and above prior binge drinking. Participants: Participants were 171 college students. Methods: Participants completed 2 online surveys with an average interval of 68 days between assessments at Time 1 (September to October 2012) and Time 2 (November to December 2012). Results: Path analysis showed that, among 5 facets of impulsivity, the effect of sensation seeking on subsequent binge drinking was completely mediated by prior positive consequences. No mediating effects of negative consequences were found. Conclusions: Prior experience of positive drinking consequences may serve as one of the risk pathways by which sensation seeking shapes binge drinking over time. Personalized intervention strategies may utilize information about students’ impulsivity facets to address their binge drinking and alcohol-related consequences.     

What Is Sexual Pain? A Critique of DSM's Classification of Dyspareunia and Vaginismus

Abstract

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R) introduced the term “sexual pain disorder” to classify dyspareunia and vaginismus as sexual dysfunctions (American Psychiatric Association, 1987). However, the notion of sexual pain as well as the diagnostic criteria for dyspareunia and vaginismus are questionable both on theoretical and empirical grounds. Recent studies support the view that dyspareunia is better classified as a pain disorder and challenge the validity of the vaginal spasm criterion for vaginismus. Alternative conceptualizations of these conditions are presented.     

Resisting Fragmentation,Living Whole

SUMMARY

This paper presents interviews with four male-to-female transgender students of color under the age of 21 at an alternative school in the Northeast. The interviews expose the need to advocate for education that acknowledges and addresses the ways that race, sexuality, class, ethnicity, and gender together inform life experience and identity, especially within the context of educational institutions. These interviews point to the need to include an activist-oriented curriculum in schools, a curriculum relevant to the lives of gay, lesbian, and transgender students of color.     

Worry and rumination: Explanatory roles in the relation between pain and anxiety and depressive symptoms among college students with pain

Objective: Pain affects a significant proportion of college students in the United States and has been linked to anxiety and depressive symptoms. Rumination and worry, two transdiagnostic factors linked to comorbidity, may explain the relationship between pain and mental health symptoms.

Current Study: The current study examined worry and rumination as explanatory factors in the relationship between pain and anxiety and depressive symptoms in a sample of college students with pain (n?=?1,577; 79.9% female).

Results: Results indicated that both rumination and worry explained the relationship between pain and depressive and social anxiety symptoms, while rumination alone explained the relationship between pain and anxious arousal symptoms.

Conclusion: The current study provides novel empirical evidence that worry and rumination each help explain the relationship between pain and anxiety and depressive symptoms among college students with current pain, and college students in pain may benefit from targeted psychosocial strategies aimed at decreasing worry and ruminative responses.     

Creating Cultural Safety as an Aboriginal Teacher in a Class of Non-Aboriginal University Students

ABSTRACT

Creating a culturally safe learning environment is critical for Aboriginal teachers in universities. This paper explores my experience as a new lecturer convening an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social work course at an Australian university. As an Aboriginal woman teaching to a large class of non-Aboriginal students, establishing cultural safety became a priority early on. Through reflecting on my journey from feeling vulnerable at the beginning of the course, to developing a safe and collaborative learning and teaching experience, this paper presents the rare perspective of an Aboriginal academic in the teaching space, and offers practical ways to develop cultural safety in university classrooms.

IMPLICATIONS

• Aboriginal social work teaching academics need to feel culturally safe in the classroom setting to sustain them in their role.

• Engaging non-Aboriginal students to feel safe through collaborative learning enhances the learning and teaching experience for everyone and contributes to cultural safety for Aboriginal academics.

• Aboriginal academics teaching Aboriginal-specific content risk being traumatised through intensive and consistent exposure to traumatic content that may be personal to them.

• Universities need to provide practical support to new teaching academics to best equip and prepare them for the role.

     

One Woman's Experience of Living with Chronic Pain

ABSTRACT

Emphasis within chronic pain literature is placed upon lost productivity of patients, escalating health care costs, and denunciation of compensation/disability claims, with exiguous recognition of the personal costs of chronic pain. Sufferers, particularly women, are vulnerable to being pathologized and labeled through the psychologizing of their pain and subsequently silenced in the pursuit of health care services. By means of an illness narrative, this article illustrates the invaluable contribution the chronic pain sufferer can make towards the understanding of her pain. Social work, as a health profession, will be challenged to listen to women's stories and to empower sufferers in the proclamation of their own voices, in an efficient movement towards participatory service delivery.     

Best Practices in the Treatment of Substance-Abusing Women in the Child Welfare System

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews the literature on women's chemical dependency and its effects on their children. Many risk factors (e.g., a history of traumatic exposure) and consequences (interference with parenting) of substance abuse are unique for women, giving rise to special treatment needs of substance-abusing women with children. Substance-abusing mothers also experience unique barriers to receiving the services they need to recover, such as absence of child care and lack of gender-specific treatment in their communities. Model programs are described and recommendations are offered for best treatment practices for women with chemical dependency who present in the child welfare system.     

A life course approach to understanding homelessness of shelter residents

ABSTRACT

Using in-depth interviews of 40 residents from a homeless shelter in El Paso, Texas in the United States, this study examines the etiology, processes, and patterns of homelessness by assessing those confronting homeless spells at different time points and for varying reasons. Our study is guided by the research questions: How did residents of homeless shelters experience transitions and turning points of homelessness? What were the coping resources that homeless people drew on to overcome life adversities? Overall, we found that risk accumulation as a result of different traumatic events, such as death of a family member, marital or relationship breakdown, victimization, unemployment, substance addiction, poor mental health, or discrimination confronted in varied contexts, could serve as precursors or consequences that exacerbated the housing crisis over the course of a life. We recommend that efforts geared toward remediating, alleviating, or preventing homelessness be life course driven. It is only through compassion and empathy rather than criminalizing and stigmatizing that we can help stop the triggers and spread of the downward spiral of homelessness.     

Sleep Quality and Alcohol Risk in College Students: Examining the Moderating Effects of Drinking Motives

Abstract

Objective: Sleep problems and alcohol misuse are common issues experienced by college students that can have detrimental effects on overall health. Previous work indicates a strong relationship between poor sleep quality and alcohol risk in this population. This study explored the moderating effect of drinking motives in the relationship between global sleep quality and experience of alcohol-related negative consequences. Participants: College students (N = 1,878) who reported past-month drinking. Methods: Participants completed online surveys assessing sleep and alcohol-related behaviors. Results: Poorer sleep quality and higher drinking motives (coping, conformity, and enhancement) predicted greater alcohol-related consequences, controlling for drinking. Further, coping motives moderated the relationship between sleep quality and consequences such that participants reporting poor sleep and high coping motives experienced heightened levels of consequences. Conclusions: These findings advance the understanding of the relationship between sleep problems and alcohol-related risk and provide implications for targeted campus-based health promotion interventions.     

Qualitative evaluation of historical and relational factors influencing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection risks in foster youth

PurposeTo explore how attitudes, norms, behaviors, responses to early life experiences, and protective factors influence pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection risks from the perspectives of current and former foster youth to inform the development of prevention strategies.MethodsWe conducted semi-structured individual qualitative interviews with a diverse sample of 22 current/former foster youth aged 15–21 years (63% female; average age = 18.6 years). We then used Theoretical Thematic Analysis to systematically analyze the data for key themes related to sexual health in four categories: 1) norms and attitudes, 2) responses to early life experiences, 3) protective factors, and 4) youth-driven intervention ideas.ResultsParticipants reported a range of sexual experience levels, varied sexual orientations, and also reported varied life experiences prior to and during foster care. We detected several norms and attitudes that likely contribute to risks of early pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. These included that one can tell by looking whether a partner is trustworthy or has a sexually transmitted infection, that condoms aren't necessary with long-term or infrequent partners or if birth control is used, and that teen pregnancy is an inevitable event. With respect to responses to early life experiences, youth frequently described difficulties dealing with strong emotions in the context of romantic and/or sexual relationships; many attributed these difficulties to early experiences with biological family members or in foster care. Participants linked emotion regulation difficulties with struggles in trust appraisal, effective communication, and impulsive behaviors. Youth also described a variety of protective factors that they felt helped them prevent sexual risk behaviors or improved their lives in other respects. Finally, participants endorsed factors likely to improve intervention acceptability and efficacy, including an open, non-judgmental group-based environment, involvement of peer mentors, and inclusion of caregiver and caseworker training components.ConclusionsTrauma-informed, tailored intervention strategies which address key norms and attitudes and provide broad-based assertiveness and emotion regulation skills are likely to be the most effective strategies to reduce risks of teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections among teens in foster care. Group-based interventions that involve peer mentors and caregiver and caseworker components may be especially acceptable and effective for teens in foster and/or kinship care.     

Experienced harms from substance use among college students: A latent class analysis

ABSTRACT

Many college students experience personal consequences from their own substance use as well as secondhand effects resulting from other students’ substance use. Our study identifies meaningful subgroup response patterns representing the construct of experienced harms, that is, the combined harms resulting from personal substance use and the substance use of others. In this sample six latent classes of harms experienced by participants were identified. The classes ranged from a No Harms group to a group of eleven harms – Severe Harms. We demonstrated that harms class membership was directly related to the level of involvement with substances. As the level of substance use increased – demonstrated by membership in latent classes of progressive involvement with substances – the odds of membership in a more serious experienced harms class increased. Participants reporting early onset of any substance were more likely to be members in any of the experienced harms latent classes than members of the No Harms class. Elucidating the exposure to harm associated with college student substance use behavior through an expanded focus on the patterns of experienced effects (i.e., personal consequences and secondhand effects) advances current research on a nationally-recognized problem.     

Life Course Social Science Perspectives on the GLBT Family

Abstract

The life course perspective in the social sciences focuses on the place of generation-cohorts in understanding social life. Emphasizing shared understanding of self and society among a group of persons born in some adjacent birth years (often a decade) and the impact of the experience of certain events (a reminiscence bump) taking place across the early adult years, this approach to the study of social life and social change emphasizes social timing and role changes in understanding the course of life. The life course perspective is used in this discussion in understanding sexual minority families including both families in which an offspring self-defines as GLBT across the years of young adulthood, and families in which a parent self-identifies as GLBT, and which includes offspring of one or both partners. Issues in family formation and morale of family members are explored from this life course perspective emphasizing time, social change and the role of the state as factors influencing sexual minority families.     

Psychosocial Factors and Low Back Pain Among College Students

Objective and Participants: The authors evaluated psychosocial factors of stress and their effects on the prevalence of low back pain (LBP) among a population of college students in a major university in Colorado. Methods: This was a nested cross-sectional study of 973 respondents who completed the National College Health Assessment survey. The authors evaluated a subset of questions pertaining to psychosocial stressors against the presence of LBP. Results: The annual prevalence of LBP among the population studied was 42.8%. The stressful psychosocial variables of feeling very sad, exhausted, and overwhelmed were associated with the prevalence of LBP. Conclusions: The prevalence of LBP among this younger population is significant and understudied.     

Cognitive and health-related outcomes after exposure to early malnutrition: The Leiden longitudinal study of international adoptees

BackgroundWe followed 190 internationally adopted children from infancy to young adulthood to examine the long-term consequences of early malnutrition on cognitive and health-related outcomes.MethodWe measured birth weight and physical condition in infancy, IQ and somatic problems in middle childhood, adolescence and young adulthood; in young adulthood, socioeconomic success was also assessed.ResultsEarly malnutrition negatively affected IQ in middle childhood and to a lesser extent IQ in young adulthood, but a negative effect on socioeconomic success was absent. Higher levels of early malnutrition predicted more somatic problems in middle childhood.ConclusionsVariation in early malnutrition explains differences in cognitive and health-related outcomes, with early malnutrition predicting lower IQs in middle childhood and in young adulthood. Early malnutrition did however not negatively affect the young adult's socioeconomic success, indicating that early malnutrition may be compensated by later experiences.