Substance use and vulnerability to sexual and physical aggression: a longitudinal study of young adults

Using data from 2,170 individuals who participated in Waves 8 (age 23) and 9 (age 29) of a multiyear panel study, this study examined whether alcohol and marijuana use in young adulthood increase one's risk for experiencing subsequent sexual or physical assault victimization, whether victims' own violent behavior or involvement in the sale of drugs explain any effects of substance use on victimization, and whether these associations differ by gender. Controlling for prior victimization, we found that marijuana use, but not alcohol use, predicted women's and men's subsequent sexual victimization and men's subsequent physical assault victimization, and that heavy alcohol use, but not marijuana use, predicted women's subsequent physical assault victimization. Whereas the links from marijuana use to victimization were explained by users' own violent behavior, the link from alcohol use to women's physical assault victimization was not.     

An assessment of the quality of developmental day center playgrounds for exceptional children

This study assessed the playgrounds of developmental day care centers and compared them with playgrounds of regular certified day care centers. Twenty playgrounds, randomly selected from the listing of developmental day centers, were compared with a matched sample of 20 playgrounds from certified day care centers in one state. A revision of Frost's Playground Rating System (1978b) was employed to rate the two groups of playgrounds on content, safety, and function. Data were analyzed using an analysis of variance technique. The quality of developmental day center playgrounds for exceptional children was inferior to that of regular day care center playgrounds in terms of playground content. No significant differences were noted on safety or function.     

Social context and adolescent health behavior: does school-level smoking prevalence affect students' subsequent smoking behavior?

This paper examines the links between individual adolescent smoking behavior and actual and perceived smoking behavior in the individual's school cohort. We hypothesized that students enrolled in schools with higher smoking prevalence among students in their grade are more likely to smoke subsequently. We also expected perceived school-level prevalence of smoking to have a greater impact than actual prevalence because the former is a more direct measure of perceived norms. Adjusting for demographics, actual school-level prevalence at baseline (grade 7) was strongly associated with smoking frequency one year later. However, the association disappeared after adjusting for individual smoking frequency at baseline. School-level prevalence did not moderate the association between individual's baseline and subsequent smoking frequency. Perceived prevalence of smoking among grade 8 students and two measures tapping the behavior of smaller peer groups--cigarette offers and exposure to friends and other peers who smoke--were associated with increased risk of smoking.     

Heavy episodic drinking and college entrance

The college environment appears to encourage heavy drinking. Consequently, correlates of student drinking were assessed at college entrance. First-semester freshmen (N = 520, 54 percent women) completed self-report measures of social affiliation and self/peer drinking for high school and college. Analyses indicated that: 1) increased drinking at college entrance mirrored perceived increases by peers, 2) perceptions of peer drinking were robustly overestimated with women displaying the larger overestimation bias; and 3) social affiliation was associated with men's drinking and moderated its relation to perceived peer drinking at college entrance. These results advance understanding of the manner in which heavy drinking patterns emerge as men and women enter college, and campus programs that consider these factors may better promote health and reduce the harms associated with heavy drinking among college students.     

Conservatism of the Accident Sequence Evaluation Program HRA Procedure

This paper presents a limited assessment of the conservatism of the Accident Sequence Evaluation Program (ASEP) human reliability analysis (HRA) procedure described in NUREG/CR-4772. The data for this study are derived from simulator examination reports from the NRC requalification examination cycle for nuclear power plant operators. The ASEP procedure was used to estimate human error probability (HEP) values for critical tasks, and the HEP results were compared with the failure rates observed in the examinations. The ASEP procedure was applied by PNNL operator license examiners who supplemented the limited information in the examination reports with expert judgment based upon their extensive simulator examination experience. Comparison of the average of the ASEP HEP values with the fraction of the population actually failed and demonstrated that the ASEP HEP values are larger (conservative) by a statistically significant average factor of two. Partitioning of tasks into subgroups based on the ASEP HEP values and comparison of the subgroup average ASEP HEP values with observed subgroup failure rates showed little or no conservatism for small ASEP HEP values, but considerable conservatism for larger ASEP HEP values.     

Governance in Public-Private Community Health Partnerships: A Survey of the Community Care Network SM Demonstration Sites

This review of the governance practices of twenty-five public-private partnerships involved in addressing a broad range of community health needs shows that governance in public-private community partnerships departs significantly from traditional notions of institutional governance. Governance structures and degrees of progress toward governance goals vary widely and appear to be systematically related to the organization, composition, location, and activity of each partnership.     

Personalization of Mail Surveys for General Public and Populations with a Group Identity: Results from Nine Studies*

Abstract The effect of personalization on mail survey response rates was examined in nine studies that included 17 comparisons under several research conditions. A study of this variable across multiple experiments in five agricultural experiment stations was undertaken because of conflicting results from previous research and from concern that the effectiveness of personalization might have decreased over time. Results show that, while response to general public surveys appeared to increase modestly across all treatment groups, there was no positive effect for populations in which a group identity (e.g., Dear Oregon Gardner or Dear ATV Owner) is employed to address respondents in cover letters. Personalization appears to remain useful for improving response in surveys of the general public.     

Providing mental health services to older people living in rural communities

Rural dwelling elders who experience mental health problems often have difficulty finding help since rural communities often lack adequate mental health service providers. This paper reports on the initial phase of a 5-year, interdisciplinary clinical research study that is testing the effectiveness of providing a home delivered, therapeutic psychosocial intervention, aimed at improving the emotional wellbeing and the quality of life of medically frail elders who live in rural communities. In the early phases of this study, the clinical research team encountered a number of interesting and often unanticipated challenges as it attempted to recruit study participants and provide services to them. In this article, we examine these challenges and share what we have learned so far about providing mental health services to elderly persons living in rural environments.