Writes of Passage: Writing an Empirical Journal Article

This article provides advice about preparing research reports for submission to professional journals in general and Journal of Marriage and Family in particular. In addition to working through all the major parts of a research paper, I provide some general advice about writing, editing, and revising. The article is intended to help new professionals improve the quality of their journal submissions and the likelihood of successful publication.     

Demographic, psychosocial, and personality characteristics of lesbian batterers

Prevalence of domestic violence (DV) in lesbian and heterosexual relationships appears to be similar. Despite this, few studies have examined factors associated with DV in lesbian relationships, and even fewer have examined characteristics of lesbian batterers. Demographic and psychosocial characteristics and personality traits were examined in 100 lesbians in current relationships (33 Batterers and 67 Nonbatterers). Results indicated that Batterers were more likely to report childhood physical and sexual abuse and higher rates of alcohol problems. Results from the MCMI-III indicated that, after controlling for Debasement and Desirability indices, Batterers were more likely to report aggressive, antisocial, borderline, and paranoid personality traits, and higher alcohol-dependent, drug-dependent, and delusional clinical symptoms compared to Nonbatterers. These results provide support for social learning and psychopathology theoretical models of DV and clinical observations of lesbian batterers, and expand our current DV paradigms to include information about same-sex DV.     

Attitudes of low-income parents toward seeking help with parenting: implications for practice

Fifty-two low-income parents were surveyed to determine attitudes toward parenting and help seeking. Although a majority agreed that most parents, even "good" parents, need help or advice about parenting and thought they would seek help with parenting, low-income parents were less likely to believe in or seek out help than those with higher incomes. The most frequently selected sources of help were family, books and videos, telephone help-lines, and friends. The least likely sources of help were child protective services, school personnel, clergy, and social service/counseling agencies. Parent support and education groups were likely sources of support for only one in four low-income parents.     

Healthcare providers' treatment of college smokers

About 28% of college students smoke tobacco, and many will continue smoking into adulthood. Although little is known about how to help college students quit smoking, 1 promising strategy is healthcare providers' advice. To estimate their life-time receipt of brief advice and to identify characteristics that predict who may receive that advice, 348 college students completed a survey about their smoking and related practices. Seventy-seven percent of the smokers (73% of the students) were asked about smoking. Of those smokers, 57% were advised to quit, 22% were given advice about quitting, 5% were helped with setting a quit date, and 4% were offered follow-up. Occasional smokers were less likely than daily smokers to be advised to quit. Although 36.2% of the smokers did not report their smoking accurately, smokers who were accurate were more likely to be advised to quit and to be given advice about quitting.     

Managing Secrecy and Disclosure of Domestic Violence in Affluent Communities

Although it is widely acknowledged that domestic violence (DV) can happen to anyone, there is scant research on affluent women's DV experiences. Using grounded theory, the present study examined how affluent mothers managed secrecy and disclosure of DV in the context of their community. Data consisted of interviews with 10 mothers and 17 service providers from one affluent community. The process of managing secrecy and disclosure of DV was nonlinear, ongoing, and strongly influenced by community culture and familial status. Mothers' secrecy and disclosure decisions (i.e., how and when mothers disclosed) and experiences (i.e., the type of responses they received upon disclosure) varied depending on whether they bought in or opted out of the culture of affluence during marriage. The resulting grounded theory has implications for future research on DV in affluent families and the broader literature on secrecy and DV disclosure.     

Where do intra-organizational advice relations come from? The role of informal status and social capital in social exchange

Social status and social capital frameworks are used to derive competing hypotheses about the emergence and structure of advice relations in organizations. Although both approaches build on a social exchange framework, they differ in their behavioral micro-foundations. From a status perspective, advice giving is a means to generate prestige, whereas asking advice decreases one's relative standing. At a structural level these motivations are expected to result in an overrepresentation of non-reciprocal dyads and non-cyclical triadic structures in the advice network, as well as in active advice seekers being unlikely to be approached for advice, especially by active advice givers. From a social capital perspective, advice seeking creates obligations for the advice seeker. At the structural level, this results in an overrepresentation of reciprocal dyads and cyclical triads, and active advice seekers to be unpopular as targets of advice seeking, especially for active advice givers. Analyses of four waves of a longitudinal sociometric study of 57 employees of a Dutch Housing Corporation provide partial support for both approaches. In line with the social capital perspective, we find reciprocal advice relations to be overrepresented at the dyad level. Results at the triad level support the social status arguments, according to which high status individuals will avoid asking advice from low status individuals. The implications for macro-structural properties of intra-organizational advice network are discussed.     

How Runaway and Homeless Youth Navigate Troubled Waters: The Role of Formal and Informal Helpers

Most adolescents navigate the transition from adolescence to young adulthood with relative success. However, runaway and homeless youth experience formidable obstacles in their paths and engage in dangerous behaviors that threaten their well being and long-term prospects. This study is part of a larger exploratory research effort aimed at understanding how runaway and homeless adolescents navigate the troubled waters of their adolescence to make successful developmental transitions into young adulthood. The focus of this paper is to report findings related to the formal and informal helping resources that enable runaway and homeless youth to resolve difficulties, deal with hazards, and achieve some level of self-defined success in young adulthood. This study utilized a qualitative research design, and the primary data collection method was in-depth interviews with 12 formerly runaway and homeless young people. The constant comparative method was used to analyze the data. Evidence emerged regarding who provided help, the types of help provided, conditions that facilitated acceptance of help, and advice to helping professionals. The findings illustrate the experiences youth had with helpers that they found valuable and experiences they perceived as detrimental.     

Ask and you shall receive: Social network contacts’ provision of help during the job search

Social network contacts—the people who are asked to help with others’ job searches—are key players in the job networking process. Before job seekers can become employed with the help social networks, contacts must first be able and willing to share the social resources job seekers need for their search. Little is known about the factors that affect contacts’ ability and willingness to do this. Analyses of a unique dataset of contacts show that they typically have access to resources and help job seekers by sharing them. Still, contacts are better able to help when they are male, employed, and better educated than job seekers. They are more willing to help when they perceive job seekers to be “good” workers. In identifying the conditions in which contacts provide social resources, this study illustrates how social networks are a productive job search strategy for some, but not all, job seekers.     

Domestic Violence Assessment Procedures Among Couple Therapists

Guidelines for addressing domestic violence (DV) in couple therapy have been published, but reports of whether therapists routinely follow these suggestions are few. A national survey of 620 couple therapists randomly selected from American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy members was conducted in 2000 to assess therapists' strategies for assessing DV and selecting a treatment modality when violence is discovered. Less than 4% of respondents indicated consistently following key published guidelines for DV screening (universal screening using separate interviews and questionnaires). A minority indicated that they consider the victim's safety as a factor in treatment modality selection. DV may be under-identified by couple therapists and therapists may be using conjoint therapy with couples for whom such therapy is contraindicated because of relationship violence.     

Responsibility Inferences and Intergenerational Obligations to Parents and Stepparents: Are Step/Children Less Obligated When Older Adults Are at Fault for Their Problems?

Beliefs about intergenerational obligations to assist older adults are known to be influenced by contextual variables such as the type of kin relationship (i.e., stepparent, parent) between older and younger adults. One contextual variable that has not been studied is the degree to which older individuals are seen as culpable for their problems. If older kin are perceived to be at fault for their problems, are they seen as less deserving of help than if they are not to blame? Do judgments about being at fault for problems affect beliefs about helping parents differently than beliefs about helping stepparents? A random national sample of 229 men and 274 women responded to vignettes about an older parent or stepparent who needed help managing diabetes, which was presented as either the consequence of the older adult's actions or as an inherited illness. Respondents were asked about younger family members' obligations to help older adults, how much help younger adults and public agencies should provide, and how much older adults were responsible for themselves. The effects of older adults' marital status and sex of both adults also were examined. Obligations to stepparents were less than obligations to parents. The amount of help respondents thought should be provided was moderated by older adults' marital status. Obligations and aid to parents and stepparents generally were not affected by the older adults' culpability for the problems.     

Who is dropped and why? Methodological and substantive accounts for network loss

High rates of egocentric network turnover are frequently observed but not well explained. About 1000 respondents to the UCNets survey named an average of 10 names in each of two waves a year apart. Consistent with prior studies, respondents in wave 2 failed to relist about half of the names they provided in wave 1. Asked why, respondents explained that they had forgotten the alter for about 40 percent of the missing names. Other common answers, such as no “occasion… to be in touch,” also suggest that the true rate of alters being dropped is probably under 20 percent. Multilevel logit models identified the predictors of alters being dropped (neither relisted nor forgotten) versus retained. Immediate kin were likeliest to be retained and roommates, coworkers, and acquaintances to be dropped. Alters who provided companionship, confiding, advice, and emergency help were especially likely to be retained, as were those to whom respondents felt close. Little about the respondents themselves affected drop rates: having moved recently, having a close friend die, or having had an important relationship break up. Results are consistent with the argument that a tie’s degree of constraint (notably being close family) and its balance of rewards determine the likelihood of it being dropped or demoted.     

The Influence of Divorcing Mothers' Demeanor on Custody Evaluators' Assessment of Their Domestic Violence Allegations

A gap exists between empirical evidence demonstrating the risks posed by domestic violence (DV) and the weight that evidence is given by custody evaluators. This gap may result from common beliefs about DV that diminish or deny its seriousness, which include that mothers often make false allegations to gain advantage and that DV and high conflict are synonymous and do not require differential approaches. Using a multiple segment factorial vignette design, we systematically assessed how these beliefs influenced custody evaluators' (N = 603) recommendations and judgments of the believability of allegations. Mother's demeanor (i.e., hostile vs. pleasant) was the most consistent predictor of evaluators' recommendations and judgments of credibility. Findings have implications for providing research-based education and training for evaluators.     

Reclaiming Life: Six Consumers of Mental Health Services Talk About What Helped and What Did Not Help Them Get Their Lives Back

This article summarizes a roundtable discussion held at Thresholds in Chicago, Illinois in September 2012, where six people diagnosed with serious mental illness talked about what helped and did not help them recover and successfully reclaim their lives. Their comments, taken as part of their personal narratives, can help enhance understanding of the recovery process. The discussion is organized by the themes that emerged: considering life as distinct from diagnosis, meeting basic needs, empowerment, education, community, faith and hope, healthy thinking, peers, and focus on wellness. Panel members also offer advice for mental health service providers.     

Help-Seeking for Sexual Difficulties and the Potential Role of Interactive Digital Interventions: Findings From the Third British National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles

Sexual difficulties are common and can negatively impact health and well-being. A wide range of support is available, but there are multiple barriers to accessing help. Interactive digital interventions (IDIs) for sexual difficulties have the potential to provide a convenient, wide-reaching, and cost-effective source of support, but little is known about who might use them. We explored the potential reach of IDIs by assessing the prevalence of help-seeking among people with distressing sexual difficulties, including who seeks which sources of help. Data came from sexually active men and women, ages 16 to 74, participating in Britain’s third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3) (N = 11,637). Help/advice was sought by less than half of those with distressing sexual difficulties, and help-seeking was associated with younger age in women but not men. The most popular sources of support were family doctor (47.5% to 54.8%), Internet (22.0% to 25.6%), and family/friend (20.7% to 41.8%), with older participants (≥ 35), particularly men, preferring to seek help from a family doctor, and younger participants (<35) preferring to seek help from the Internet or family/friend. Despite a paucity of good digital support sites for sexual function, the Internet is a common source of help. As Internet access continues to increase, so too does the potential for well-designed IDIs to support those with sexual difficulties.     

Affecting Lives: How Winning the US Diversity Visa Lottery Impacts DV Migrants Pre‐ and Post‐Migration

Usual debates about the diversity visa (DV) programme revolve around the impact of DV initiated mass migration on African countries’ development, on whether the programme sufficiently diversifies U.S. immigrant streams, and on whether there is a tradeoff in immigrant quality for diversity. This article seeks to extend the focus of these debates by examining the impact of the diversity visa programme on DV migrants at the micro‐level pre‐ and post‐migration. Based on in‐depth interviews with sixty‐one diversity visa lottery winners from Ghana and Nigeria, the article examines how this immigration policy has become a contextual determinant of immigrant incorporation. It argues that an account of the impact of immigration policies on immigrants pre‐ and post‐migration must be added to theorization of state agency in shaping migration flows. It concludes with a discussion on ways the diversity visa programme can be modified to facilitate incorporation of DV migrants in the United States.     

Comparing Advice from Military Parents,Partners, and Veterans about How Families Can Encourage Service Members to Seek Behavioral Health care

This study compared advice that three groups—military parents, partners, and Veterans—gave regarding how military families can encourage service members (SMs) to seek professional help when needed. Based on identity implications theory and the normative model of social support, common themes regarding how families might pursue task, relational, and identity goals were expected (RQ₁). Based on their unique positions, we investigated whether the three groups stressed different themes (RQ₂). Military parents (n = 51), partners (n = 74), and Veterans (n = 112) read a scenario in which a SM was having difficulty reintegrating after deployment; all three groups offered advice about how military families should handle similar situations. Common themes regarding task, relational, and identity goals emerged in the advice from all three groups; however, parents, partners, and Veterans also differed significantly in how often they mentioned six themes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Challenges,pride, and connection: A qualitative exploration of advice transgender youth have for other transgender youth

Abstract

Transgender youth experience a variety of risk and resilience factors that impact their wellbeing. However, the research on these factors rarely includes the personal perspectives or authority of transgender youth. To address this gap, we collaborated with a transgender youth advisory board to conduct qualitative interviews with 19 transgender youth (15–22?years-old). Participants lived in two Midwestern states to provide the perspective of transgender youth often missed by research. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and resulted in three categories of advice: challenges are real, have pride, and you are not alone. Participants acknowledged that challenges are a salient aspect of growing up as a person who is transgender but provided advice for their peers to persevere, feel proud of their identities, and support development and wellbeing through connections to others. Findings provide important implications for practitioners working with transgender youth and researchers aiming to promote resilience and reduce risk. Additionally, providing opportunities for transgender youth to participate in research as the experts and share their perspectives may also help promote resilience.     

The use of mental health care,psychotropic drugs and social services by divorced people: does informal support matter?

This study compares the mental health care, psychotropic drugs and social service use of divorced people (re-partnered or single) with that of married people. This paper questions whether the availability of informal support facilitates or substitutes for formal care seeking. Data from the Divorce in Flanders survey of 2009–2010 are used. Logistic regression analyses are performed separately for women (N = 3450) and men (N = 3020). Greater use of mental health care, psychotropic drugs and social services by single divorced men is explained by their higher need for care, while divorced women (especially single divorced) more frequently contact a general practitioner (GP), a psychiatrist, or a psychologist, regardless of their mental health, socio-economic background and informal support. Women who have support from non-family members are more inclined to use social services and to contact a GP, while support from family members is only positively related to GP consultations. With regard to men, informal support from non-family members positively influences each type of formal care seeking. Our results suggest that non-family members (and only among women, family members as well) can provide help and advice about seeking professional mental health care and social services, but they do not have an influence on psychotropic drug use.