How close is too close?: The negative relationship between knowledge of HIV transmission routes and social distancing tendencies

Data measuring respondents’ knowledge of HIV's transmission routes was obtained via a statewide RDD sample of 603 Nevadans to determine if disease knowledge influences respondent efforts to socially and physically distance themselves from a hypothetical HIV-positive person. Four separate dependent variables (scenarios) are created in which the geographic distance between the respondent and a hypothetical HIV-positive person decreases; while, at the same time, physical personal contact, or potential for contact, increases. Findings show 84.2% of the respondents had sufficient knowledge of HIV transmission routes, and the majority felt comfortable across all four social scenarios. However, multiple logistic regression analyses indicate that respondents with sufficient knowledge of how HIV is transmitted are significantly more comfortable with casual social interactions than those respondents with insufficient knowledge. The results from this study confirm the importance of HIV-knowledge as a tool to combat AIDS-related stigma.     

Is failure to raise concerns about misconduct a breach of integrity? Researchers’ reflections on reporting misconduct

This article describes and discusses the views of researchers on the significance of raising concerns about scientific misconduct in their work environment and the reasons or circumstances that might deter them from doing so. In this exploratory qualitative research study, we conducted in-depth interviews with 33 researchers working in life sciences and medicine. They represent three seniority levels and five universities across Switzerland. A large majority of respondents in this research study argued that failure to raise concerns about scientific misconduct compromises research integrity. This is an encouraging result demonstrating that researchers try to adhere to high ethical standards. However, further interaction with respondents highlighted that this correct ethical assessment does not lead researchers to take the consequent action of raising concerns. The factors that discourage researchers from raising concerns need to be addressed at the level of research groups, institutions, and by setting a positive precedent which helps them to believe in the system’s ability to investigate concerns raised in a timely and professional manner. Training of researchers in research integrity related issues will have limited utility unless it is coupled with the creation of research culture where raising concerns is a standard practice of scientific and research activities.     

The Effect of the Mobbing on Organizational Commitment in the Hospital Setting: A Field Study

ABSTRACT

Mobbing includes any kind of systematic behaviors, such as threats, humiliation, and violence, committed by an employee against his or her colleagues, subordinates, or managers. In recent years, reoccurring and persistent mobbing behaviors that result in a power imbalance between harasser and victim are increasing. These unethical behaviors can affect organizational commitment, employee efficiency, motivation, job satisfaction, and potential staff burnout. To measure this concept a questionnaire was given to 320 administrative staff in a university hospital in Ankara, Turkey. Significance was noted between mobbing and affective responses and continuance of employment. In addition, findings support that the majority of the respondents (79%) reported experiencing mobbing and of these 32% reported that these behaviors continued for a duration of 2–5 years. Reasons for these types of behaviors in the work environment included: job stress, administrative/supervisor/management problems, and work performance. The majority of the respondents who were victims did nothing in response. In closing, a correlation analysis was conducted to specifically address the relationship between mobbing and organizational commitment and no significant relationship was found. Reasons for these responses are discussed along with suggestions and practice implications.     

CONTESTING FAIRNESS AND FRAGMENTING GROUPS: CULTURAL NARRATIVES OF TAXATION AND CITIZENSHIP IN GLOBALISING AUSTRALIA

This paper explores the relationship between culturally mediated narratives of fairness, conceptions of the state, group and individual identities, citizenship and debates about globalisation in Australian perspectives on tax administration. It is based on a qualitative analysis of 2374 responses to a survey of attitudes to the Australian tax system. This paper emphasises that taxpayer's statements can be read as cultural acts that enrich our understanding of how people give meaning and significance to their lives. The majority of respondents reported that taxation should be levied fairly across social groups. However, this sense of fairness is being eroded by the widespread perception that the wealthy are avoiding their “fair share” of taxes. However, although citizens view tax administration as increasingly unfair, there is no evidence of wholesale disengagement from the system. The majority of people believe that the tax system has legitimacy and that it can be reformed. There is still scope for policy innovation that reinstates a sense of fairness, equity and balance to the tax system.     

Supervisor ideology and organizational response: HIV/AIDS prevention in outpatient substance abuse treatment units

Distinct practice ideologies or ideologies of care are deemed to influence greatly the selection of intervention methods and the mix of services adopted by the providers. Examined here is the relation between clinical supervisor ideology and variation among human service organizations in their provision of HIV/AIDS prevention services. Data were drawn from a 1990 national, representative sample of outpatient substance abuse treatment (OSAT) units. The study affirms that ideology is central to both means and ends in HSOs, helping to define the organization's mission and goals, and establishing guidelines for practice and procedures. Future research on the relationship between ideology and HIV/AIDS education can benefit from efforts to develop alternative strategies for measuring ideologies of care among both managers and staff in substance abuse settings.     

Social welfare services staff burnout in Cyprus: Who is responsible?

This is the first study to explore among social welfare services staff in Cyprus the main stress factors that lead to burnout. Using focus groups, the study explored and analysed the perceptions of 120 social welfare services staff members. The aim of the focus group meetings was to identify methods that could minimise the risk of employee burnout. The main stressors that participants experienced were: inadequate appreciation from the management, lack of support and guidance, lack of autonomy, complex responsibilities, lack of recognition and respect in their workplace, low self‐confidence, low self‐respect and feelings of rejection. Participants suggested that continuous education and training could reduce work stress; for example, new knowledge, the development of new skills, the improvement of their ability to prioritise tasks and become organised and the improvement of self‐criticism and self‐knowledge.     

Ego Psychological Contributions to Understanding Psychopharmacology and Clinical Practice in Social Work Education

Due to increasing evidence that supports the efficacy of combined pharmacology and psychotherapy in the treatment of multiple psychiatric disorders, an educational focus on integrated approaches is growing in social work and related fields. However, there are few guiding clinical theoretical models that can help students integrate pharmacology and clinical issues. The authors propose that ego psychology can advance clinical knowledge by helping students understand pharmacological issues and integrate pharmacotherapy with psychotherapy. Assessing ego functions in response to medication referral and use contributes to enhanced assessment and treatment.     

Job Sharing in Teaching: Attitudes of Teachers Employed by the New South Wales Department of Education

Five hundred and one teachers employed by the New South Wales Department of Education responded to a survey instrument designed to ascertain the attitude of teachers to the possibility of job sharing. These respondents were employed in randomly selected secondary and primary schools in both the city and country regions of New South Wales. They were asked to respond to questions of a biographical kind, to questions which specified general attitudes to job sharing and to questions which asked for their personal views on the subject. The biographical data indicated that the sex breakdown across both the primary and secondary schools closely matched the breakdown in the teaching population. Fifty percent of the sample considered that the introduction of job sharing should be given high or very high priority, and the majority of respondents thought that it would improve teacher job satisfaction, health and well being, absenteeism and work load, but that administration, promotional opportunities and staff/parent relationships would be negatively affected. Fifty five percent of the respondents said that they were interested in a job sharing position, and 56 percent of these interested teachers said that they would like the position now. The pursuit of other interests was the main reason given for wishing to teach in a job sharing capacity. It was concluded that the likely benefits of job sharing probably out-weigh its costs.     

Retirement Decisions and Expectations: A Case Study of Older Workers in the Motor Vehicle Industry

The main intention of this study was to explore the circumstances of the workers' decision to retire, and to investigate their adjustment to retirement. A small sample (59) of recently retired men from both the payroll and salary sectors of the workforce at the Ford Geelong plant was interviewed in depth. The information collected provides a detailed picture of decisions made in the face of particular retirement packages provided to payroll and salary employees. The data give a picture of the extent to which various expectations about retirement were realised by the respondents. Comparisons have been made in the main between the payroll and salaried staff but some differences within each group have also been investigated.     

Nativity Status and Depressive Symptoms among Hispanic Young Adults: The Role of Stress Exposure

OBJECTIVE: This article documents nativity differentials in depressive symptoms among Hispanics during their initial years of adulthood and explores how ethnicity, socio-demographic characteristics, and exposure to stressful life events and changes in social roles help to explain those differentials. METHODS: Data is drawn from a large-scale two-wave community study of stress, psychiatric well-being, and substance use disorders among young adults. Our analytic sample includes 553 Hispanic respondents and we employ multivariate regression techniques. RESULTS: Regardless of age at immigration, foreign-born women experience greater declines in depressive symptoms than native-born women during early adulthood. This advantage is explained by differences in perceptions of discrimination, family-based stress, and social role changes. The association between nativity and depressive symptoms is not conditioned by ethnicity, but ethnicity does condition the association between stressful events and depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that mental health treatment and prevention efforts should focus more heavily on stress exposure.     

Euthanasia and assisted suicide: a survey of registered social workers in British Columbia

This anonymous postal survey explores the attitudes and experiences concerning voluntary euthanasia (VE) and assisted suicide (AS) held by professionally registered members of the British Columbia Association of Social Workers. Social workers determine only a minor moral distinction between VE and AS and a large majority believe both acts should be legal, in certain circumstances (VE 75.9 per cent; AS 78.2 per cent). Approximately 80.0 per cent feel that social workers should be involved in social policy development concerning VE and AS, and, if such acts were to be legal, 70.0 per cent believe social workers should be involved in the decision making process with clients. Over 21.0 per cent of all social workers and nearly 40.0 per cent of social workers with medical employers have been consulted by a patient about VE or AS. Six respondents (1.1 per cent) reported assisting the death of a patient by VE. None had involvement in AS. Further research and education is required to better inform social work practice in this ethical area. Given the unique position of social workers in health care, they should, for the benefit of patients, families, and physicians, actively participate in the discussion concerning end of life decisions.     

食品包装知识、态度和行为（KAP）的调研分析

对广州市部分社区居民的食品包装知识、态度及行为( KAP )进行调查,为食品安全营养健康教育提供依据。随机抽取越秀区和白云区的社区居民进行食品包装知识、态度及行为问卷调查。被调查者的食品包装知识的平均得分4.38±1.42分,其中60岁以下女性的得分最高(5.93±1.91分),60岁以上男性得分最低(3.56±1.41分),差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。报纸、网络媒体或杂志是居民获得食品包装知识的主要途径。58.08%的被调查者购买食品时会仔细看包装,但也有4.04%的被调查者表示从来不看食品包装。有78.80%的被调查者认为有必要在食品包装上标注“食品包装材料”字样,仅有7.07%的被调查者能正确认知塑料包装底部的三角形标识。生产日期及保质期是被调查者最为关注的食品包装上的信息,其次是“QS”质量安全标志,配料成分是关注度排名第3的信息。被调查居民的食品包装知识得分不高,需要加强宣教和引导,普及相关知识,提高居民对食品包装的认知和科学使用。     

Geriatric Case Managers’ Perspectives on Suicide Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults

It has been suggested that clinical screening for suicide, along with firearm assessment and safety counseling, are important in service provision to older adults. It is unclear, however, how geriatric case managers respond to these issues. This study surveyed geriatric case managers (n=161) from Area Agencies on Aging in Ohio on their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to suicide, firearm assessment, and safety counseling. Results indicated that the majority of respondents (70%) agree their clients are at risk for suicide. However, few (30%) in this study reported that they assess for firearms and less than half (48%) discuss firearms with their clients/family members when specifically assessing for suicide. Analyses identified barriers that contribute to the decreased likelihood that routine firearm assessment and safety counseling would occur, such as lack of training and time. Implications include the need for training with geriatric case managers that addresses barriers to suicide, firearm assessment and safety counseling as a means to decrease these population risks.     

Treatment progress of foster care adolescents with severe behavioural problems: Factors conditioning their performance in the residential treatment centres

Behavioural problems are a recurring issue in the child welfare system population. Normative residential centres do not have the characteristics to address the specific needs of these adolescents, so they are usually treated at therapeutic residential centres. In Catalonia (Spain), these cases are treated in intensive educational residential centres (CREIs), a variant of therapeutic residential care (TRC) facilities. This exploratory study seeks to understand the treatment progress of adolescents with severe behavioural problems who were placed in the CREIs, a variant of TRC facilities. Data from 206 cases, the totality of population under treatment in the CREIs, were collected using a questionnaire administered to the treating team. A cross‐sectional design was used, applying quantitative methods to analyse the incidence and interrelation of a series of variables related to the progress of adolescents in the CREIs. Significant differences among profiles by sex, place of origin, criminal offences, substance abuse and mental health disorders were found. Furthermore, adolescents who performed a positive treatment progress according to the professional staff arrived at the CREI at an earlier age and had longer stays than the group with an unremarkable progress. Logistic regression indicated that duration of stay in the centre and runaways predict the adolescents' treatment progress. This treatment is working well with the milder cases; however, it does not tend to be successful for adolescents with greater difficulties. It is recommended that interventions focus on factors that engage the adolescents in their own rehabilitation process, include substance abuse programmes and consider the gender perspective.     

Risk and resilience factors for substance use among street adolescents: Assessment and development of an integrative model

In this study, risk and protective factors for substance use were explored to develop an intervention program and test its efficacy among male street‐based adolescents. Twenty expert interviews and key informant interviews were conducted. In addition, 30 street adolescents (15 substance‐users and 15 non‐users) participated in four focus group discussions for needs assessment, wherein risk and protective factors were discussed. Based on the identified needs, an intervention package was developed and validated by experts. The package was implemented in a natural environment of 50 street adolescents. After the intervention, about 60% of the respondents quit or cut down on their substance use substantially, and approximately 40% of the respondents agreed to reunite with their respective families, while 20% did not change their substance use habits. The results showed that if several protective factors were present, there was a lower risk of substance use. Many factors contribute to substance use and protective factors need to be strengthened in order to make interventions effective.     

Childhood maltreatment among Norwegian drug abusers in treatment

This article reports on the investigation of the correlation between the European Addiction Severity Index (EuropASI) and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) among 102 Norwegian drug abusers admitted to treatment. The aim of the study is to explore how different types and levels of childhood trauma and social and psychiatric factors, medical situation and experienced family history are interrelated. The study addresses three main questions: 1) What is the prevalence of different kinds of childhood trauma among drug abusers in treatment? 2) Does type or level of maltreatment in childhood predict specific substance abuse problems as adults and/or specific social, psychiatric and medical problems as adults? 3) Do substance abuse problems and mental health problems in the primary family predict different types and levels of childhood maltreatment? Twenty‐five per cent of the total sample was included in the high‐level trauma group and 54% in the intermediate‐level group. Females had significantly higher scores than males in all types of childhood trauma. The strongest correlations were found between childhood trauma and lifetime psychiatric problems and psychiatric status during the last 30 days before admission for treatment. More research, and especially prospective studies, is needed to clarify the importance of parents' substance abuse and psychiatric problems in childhood/adolescent compared with trauma in the client's childhood and the client's current psychiatric status.     

Factors affecting the constancy of the intelligence quotients of problem children 1

Abstract

This theoretical study is based on the premise that the dynamics of metaphor, the joining of two disparate entities in a single relational field to produce a new concept, represent a prototype of change. Literature is reviewed as it applies to certain relationships between metaphor and psychotherapy. As both metaphor and psychotherapy are rooted in language, language is viewed both as it informs the self and as it is used as a tool of psychotherapy. Psychoanalytic theory of language development is presented as are theories of how language, specifically metaphor, might be integrated and influence the change process.     

Measuring the Effectiveness of Substance Abuse Treatment

Building systematic knowledge about the treatment of alcoholism and substance abuse is constrained by the scarcity of refined measurement instruments that have been developed from a base in theory. A five dimensional index was constructed from a basic set of characteristics of substance abuse problems. Preliminary field testin with 51 clients at three stages of treatment revealed strong reliability estimates as well as evidence of construct and differential validity. Further refinements and uses in program evaluation and knowledge building are discussed.     

Sociocultural Perceptions and Patterns of Cigarette and Alcohol Use among College Students in Vietnam

This empirical study was conducted in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to investigate cross‐sectionally the influences of sociocultural contexts on the patterns of addictive substance use cigarette, alcohol, and illicit drugs. A sample of 202 monolingual adults who were enrolled in college courses at the University of Hanoi in Vietnam responded to a self‐reported questionnaire in their native language on the frequency, quantity, and occasions of addictive behavior. The project staff were fluent in English and Vietnamese. The questionnaire was critically reviewed for its face validity and cultural appropriateness before being translated into Vietnamese. In addition to patterns of use, this research explored the central role of drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes in peer socialization among college adults. Vietnam, like other Asian cultures, emphasizes initiation and conformity to social traditions and norms. The empirical findings provide invaluable knowledge of the complex roles of cigarette and alcohol in the social processes and relationship‐building among college adults in Vietnam. Further knowledge will assist in identifying intervention approaches and health prevention that is more focused and congruent with cultural and social beliefs about this behavior and these substances. Its implications for research into culturally appropriate intervention and prevention are also discussed.