Assessing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Using the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children∗

ABSTRACT

This pilot study assessed the performance of the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children (TSCYC) in correctly classifying the presence or absence of PTSD, as determined by the Diagnostic Interview for children and Adolescents-Parent (DICA-P). Participants included 34 children, ages 4 to 12, referred for outpatient treatment. The 11 PTSD-positive participants scored significantly higher than the 23 PTSD-negative participants on scales assessing intrusive symptoms, arousal symptoms, and total posttraumatic stress (PTS). A model including the PTS-Intrusion, PTS-Avoidance, and PTS-Arousal scales, and the sexual concerns, dissociation, and anger/aggression scales correctly classified 100% of the PTSD-negative and 72.7% of the PTSD-positive participants. These findings suggest that the TSCYC may be used as an economical and time-efficient screening device for PTSD.     

How stable is the core discussion network?

Researchers have paid increasing attention to the core discussion network, the set of people we turn to when discussing important matters. Because the core discussion network is theorized to be composed of people's closest ties, not fleeting acquaintances, it is expected to be largely stable, evolving slowly over the span of people's lives. However, recent studies have shown that networks are strongly affected by the contexts in which people interact with others, and as people experience life course transitions, they also often enter new contexts – school, college, work, marriage, and retirement. We ask whether, as actors enter new social contexts, the core discussion network remains stable or changes rapidly. Based on original, longitudinal, qualitative and quantitative data on the experience of first-year graduate students in three academic departments in a large university, we examine the stability of the core discussion network over the first 6 and 12 months in this new context. We test four competing hypotheses that focus on strength of ties, new opportunities, obligations, and routine activity and predict, respectively, stasis, expansion, shedding, and substitution. We find that the core discussion network changes remarkably quickly, with little or no lag, and that it appears to do so because both the obligations that people face and the routine activities they engage in are transformed by new institutional environments. Findings suggest that core discussion network may be less a “core” network than a highly contextual support network in which people are added and dropped as actors shift from environment to environment.     

A Self-help Website for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Who is Accessing the Website?

The OCD Challenge is an interactive self-help website for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD is often untreated and many barriers prohibit access to an evidence-based intervention including cost, lack of providers, and stigma. Analysis of 436 website participant's demographic data revealed that 63.1% were female, 80.5% were Caucasian, the mean age was 33.37 and the mean age of onset was 15.37. Results of the 436 website users showed a significant positive correlation between Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) assessment scores and disability as well as anxiety and stress scores. Future studies should examine the feasibility of the OCD Challenge at decreasing OCD, disability, depression, anxiety, and stress scores.     

Adoption and the Race Factor: How Important is It?

As of 1997 federal law prohibits a state from delaying or denying adoption on the basis of race, color, or national origin. This article reports the major research findings, going back over 25 years, pertaining to transracial adoptions. The findings show that transracial adoptions serve the children's best interest and are consistent with the recently enacted federal law.     

How serious is the ‘carelessness’ problem on Mechanical Turk?

This study compared the quality of survey data collected from Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers and college students. Three groups of participants completed the same survey. MTurk respondents completed the survey as paid workers using the Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing platform. Student Online respondents also completed the survey online after having been recruited in class. Finally, Student Paper-and-Pencil respondents completed the survey on paper in a classroom setting. Validity checks embedded in the survey were designed to gauge participants’ haste and carelessness in survey completion. MTurk respondents were significantly more likely to fail validity checks by contradicting their own answers or simply completing the survey too quickly. Student groups showed fewer careless mistakes and longer completion times. The MTurk sample tended to be older, more educated, and more ethnically diverse than student samples. Results suggest that researchers should pay special attention to the use of validity checks when recruiting MTurk samples.     

Long-term Cereal Price Changes: How Important is the Speculative Element?

The objective of this article is to provide an analysis of the relationship existing between cereal prices and several variables (population, income, exports, the exchange rate, and speculation), by using a linear regression analysis. Specific emphasis is placed on the speculative dimension. Our results show that speculation has played a crucial role during the period June 2001–December 2009. Exports, in some ways connected to the former variable, occupy second place, in terms of significance. However, their impact on cereal prices is less relevant than that of biofuel production. Population growth acts in the opposite direction due to the change in diets, implying that population increases would tend to affect primarily other agricultural markets. Excessive volatility in food prices is a dramatic question. From a demand point of view, consumers in developing countries and vulnerable income groups in other countries (farmers) have to be protected. More than one policy has to be introduced.     

The Asian Games:How Much Gold is in the Gold Medals?

DESPITE China's glorious victoryin Bangkok at the last AsianGames of this century,in whichthe Chinese team topped the list with129 gold medals,the Chinese athletesare asked to keep their fingers crossedfor the Olympic Games.After a briefrest,the Chinese athletes have returnedto their training ground in preparationfor the fiercer competition at the 2000     

Who is responsible for household tasks in long term marriages of the “young-old” elderly?

Little is known about the way in which golden anniversary couples divide the responsibility for household tasks. This article examines the division of responsibility for 12 households tasks within a sample of 18 couples. At least one partner is under 75 years of age, the findings indicate that these young-old couples have developed interdependent, gender differentiated divisions of household tasks, although they share several tasks. There is congruence between what they expect and how they actually divide the responsibility for household tasks.     

Parental unemployment and children's educational attainment: How big is the role of aspirations?

Children exposed to parental unemployment have been found to lag behind in school, but research has struggled to pin down the underlying explanation. One hypothesis is that parental unemployment may dampen children's aspirations to do well and go far in school. Yet, few studies on parental unemployment have relied on actual measures of children's aspirations or devised a formal analysis of this mechanism. Using the UK Household Longitudinal Study (Waves 1–12, N = 1067), I investigate the role of educational aspirations in children's General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) attainment. I compare adolescents exposed to parental unemployment before or only after the typical age at which GCSE exams are taken. In adjusted models, children exposed to parental unemployment before their GCSEs are around 6 percentage points less likely to attain any GCSE qualification by age 17. On average, children have high educational aspirations, although intentions to enrol in college or university are relatively lower among children exposed to an early spell of parental unemployment. Nevertheless, a hypothetical intervention setting these aspirations to the same level for all children only accounts for a modest portion of the educational penalty tied to an early spell of parental unemployment. Several sensitivity and robustness tests support this conclusion. This note seeks to stimulate more research on the mechanisms underpinning the intergenerational effects of unemployment. Findings cast doubts on the idea that children's aspirations, the target of broader policy discourse and interventions, are a crucial part of the equation.     

How strong is the Social Security safety net? Using the Elder Index to assess gaps in economic security

Older Americans rely heavily on Social Security benefits (SSBs) to support independent lifestyles, and many have few or no additional sources of income. We establish the extent to which SSBs adequately support economic security, benchmarked by the Elder Economic Security Standard Index. We document variability across U.S. counties in the adequacy levels of SSBs among older adults. We find that the average SSBs fall short of what is required for economic security in every county in the United States, but the level of shortfall varies considerably by location. Policy implications relating to strengthening Social Security and other forms of retirement income are discussed.     

Testosterone/estradiol ratio,is it useful in the diagnosis of erectile dysfunction and low sexual desire?

Erectile dysfunction and low sexual desire are multifactorial diseases. The decrease in testosterone levels is one of the causes, but the effect of estradiol is not well known. Moreover, study has shown that the testosterone/estradiol ratio has more influence over sexuality than does estradiol alone. The aim of the study was to determine whether the balance between testosterone and estradiol has any relation to some aspects of sexual function. It was an ambispective study of 230 patients with urological problems unrelated to sexuality. They underwent a detailed history and hormone study including total, free, bioavailable testosterone and estradiol. They completed the Sexual Health Inventory for Men and questions 11 and 12 of the IIEF15 were used to assess impairment in sexual desire. The T/E ratio was calculated, and the relationship between the different parameters and erectile function and sexual desire were studied by univariate and multivariate analysis. The mean age was 66.32?±?8.17 years. The percentage of patients with erectile dysfunction was 60.9% (7% severe, 14.3% moderate, 12.6% mild to moderate and 27% mild) and decreased sexual desire was 46.5%. Age, free and biodisponible testosteron were the only variables with a positive linear association with erectile dysfunction and decreased sexual desire. Age was the only independent variable for both, erectile dysfunction and sexual desire, in the multiple linear regression. There was no association between a testosterone/estradiol imbalance and an alteration in erectile function and sexual desire. Consequently, in the clinical study of these patients, it is not necessary to request estradiol in the laboratory analyses.     

How is a sense of well-being and belonging constructed in the accounts of autistic adults?

This small-scale exploratory study sought to develop an understanding of the meaning of well-being and social belonging as represented within the narratives of adults on the autism spectrum. Employing an interpretivist approach facilitated the investigation of potential contributory factors to these lived experiences in order to inform further research regarding both this topic, and service provision for adults on the autism spectrum. The project involved a thematic analysis of issues of the magazine Asperger United (AU). Four broad main themes were identified: meeting personal needs, living with the consequences of an ‘othered’ identity, connection and recognition, and relationships and advocacy. Autistic adults reported many barriers to feeling that they belonged in a number of social spaces and the detrimental effect this had on their wellbeing. Fundamental to positive narratives of wellbeing, were feelings of connection and recognition from others and positive accepting relationships, with autistic-led spaces, particularly the Autscape conference, being frequently cited as of central significance in increasing feelings of wellbeing and belonging. This study has demonstrated a need for less focus on remediation and more on limiting the social isolation of autistic people.     

Inequality of opportunity and (unequal) opportunities in the youth labour market: How is the Arab world different?

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) labour market is emblematic of widespread youth unemployment and high discouragement rates, experiencing disproportionately high levels of unemployment among educated young people. Using ILO School-to-Work Transition Surveys for Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia, the authors explore whether this is related to inequality of opportunity or to deeper structural characteristics that create a mismatch between skill demand and supply on the labour market. The low availability of high-skilled jobs and the low value placed on skills gained through the system of vocational training are found to have high explanatory power.     

“Me and the Law is Not Friends”: How Former Prisoners Make Sense of Reentry

This article examines how former prisoners of color conceptualize their political, social, and economic futures and how these conceptualizations relate to the racialized social structural obstacles encountered upon reentry and decisions to re-engage criminal labor. I find that, presented with similar post-prison challenges, excarcerated men take several approaches when reentering society. I argue that the differences among their approaches lie in their varying interpretations of how they can act as individuals against and within their social structural limitations. Their decisions to rejoin or forfeit participation in criminal economies are thus shaped by experiences confronting the limitations of material conditions but also emerge from their critiques of racialized structures.

How Green is My Valley? Tracking Rural and Urban Environmentalism in the Southern Appalachian Ecoregion1

Abstract Research on the social bases of environmentalism in the United States has generally found that urban residents are more concerned about the environment than rural residents. Recent research suggests this may no longer be the case, particularly in specific settings or under certain conditions. This paper examines the issue by reviewing recent survey research on rural and urban environmentalism. Tests for significant differences between urban and rural inhabitants of the Southern Appalachian Ecoregion on cognitive and behavioral dimensions of environmentalism are also conducted using data obtained from 1,239 telephone interviews. Findings are consistent with previous research showing that younger people, those with higher levels of education, and political liberals generally express higher levels of environmentalism. However, no significant rural-urban differences were found on several indicators of environmentalism. A range of conditions that are rapidly changing the character and composition of the region may help to explain why the findings do not conform to the general pattern of rural-urban differences. Overall, it appears that environmentalism has broadened its appeal in rural areas, especially in communities located near national and state parks, wildlife refuges, and other outdoor recreation sites.     

How radical is radical?: Understanding the role of activists’ communication strategies on the formation of public attitude and evaluation

This study examined whether the public evaluated radical and moderate activists differently in terms of the activists’ communication strategies (i.e., protests, humiliation, and terrorism). Results found that participants were more likely to electronically spread information about the activists when the organizational stances are radical. Among the three communication strategies examined, participants evaluated activists’ protests most positively and were more likely to spread the information of activists via social media. Participants’ intent to donate to activists was also the highest when activists utilized protests, compared to humiliation and terrorism.