Working HIV care-givers in Botswana: Spill-over effects on work and family well-being

Families provide most of the care to the tens of millions of HIV-infected and -affected in Africa. Little research exists on how care-givers balance the demands of holding a job with providing care for those who have become ill or orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Using data from a large survey administered to 1,077 working care-givers in Botswana, we compared the experience of HIV care-givers with non-HIV care-givers. Compared to non-HIV care-givers, HIV care-givers were more likely to worry about routine childcare (44% vs. 31%) and sick childcare (64% vs. 49%). Amongst those working far from home, more HIV care-givers were concerned that their children were not receiving adequate academic support (39% vs. 20%) and emotional support (57% vs. 33%). Parents who were HIV care-givers were less able to spend time with their own children. Children of HIV care-givers were more likely to have physical, mental and academic problems. While HIV care-givers were more likely to take leave from work for care-giving (53% vs. 39%), and for longer periods of time (13 vs. 7.6 days), this leave is more likely to be unpaid. Strategies to support those directly and indirectly affected by HIV and to avoid economic responsibility are discussed.     

Minimum aberration and model robustness for two-level fractional factorial designs

The performance of minimum aberration two-level fractional factorial designs is studied under two criteria of model robustness. Simple sufficient conditions for a design to dominate another design with respect to each of these two criteria are derived. It is also shown that a minimum aberration design of resolution III or higher maximizes the number of two-factor interactions which are not aliases of main effects and, subject to that condition, minimizes the sum of squares of the sizes of alias sets of two-factor interactions. This roughly says that minimum aberration designs tend to make the sizes of the alias sets very uniform. It follows that minimum aberration is a good surrogate for the two criteria of model robustness that are studied here. Examples are given to show that minimum aberration designs are indeed highly efficient.     

Multiple pathways to adulthood: expanding the learning options for urban youth

Some learning environments show particular promise of creating pathways to postsecondary education, careers, and engaged citizenship for urban young adults from ages fifteen to twenty-four.     

Characteristics of Gambling Helpline Callers with Self-Reported Gambling and Alcohol Use Problems

The characteristics of problem gamblers calling the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling (CCPG) gambling helpline during the years 2000–2001 (n = 960) were examined based on the presence or absence of self-reported alcohol use problems. A relatively low proportion of callers reported a problem with alcohol use (173/960 or 18.0%), and of those acknowledging an alcohol use problem, the majority reported a past rather than current problem (143/173 or 82.7%). A logistic regression analysis found that, as compared with problem gamblers denying any alcohol use problems, those reporting past or current alcohol use problems were more likely to be male and more frequently acknowledged problems with more forms of gambling, suicide attempts related to gambling, arrests secondary to gambling, daily tobacco use, drug use problems, prior substance abuse treatment, and family histories positive for alcohol and drug use problems. The findings highlight the strong relationship between alcohol use problems and other substance use problems, and suggest that problem gamblers with as compared with those without alcohol use problems demonstrate greater problems in multiple areas (arrest, attempted suicide) linked by impaired impulse control.Please address correspondence to Marc N. Potenza, Director, Problem Gambling Clinic; Director, Women and Addictive Disorders Core, Women’s Health Research at Yale; Yale University School of Medicine, Connecticut Mental Health Center, Room S-104, 34 Park Street, New Haven, CT 06519. E-mail: marc.potenza@yale.edu.     

We Know Some Things: Parent–Adolescent Relationships in Retrospect and Prospect

This article examines the most important ideas to have emerged from the last 25 years of research on adolescent development in the family context and suggests some directions for the future. Two major sets of questions organize the review. First, how can we best characterize normative family relationships during adolescence, and, more specifically, is adolescence a time of parent à child conflict? Second, how do variations in parent – child relationships affect the developing adolescent? The answer to the first question depends on what is meant by conflict and, more importantly, from whom one gathers data. There is a need for a new perspective on the family, one that emphasizes the different viewpoints and stakes that parents and adolescents bring to their relationship with each other. Special attention should be paid to studies of the mental health of parents of adolescents. With regard to the second question, it is argued that there is enough evidence to conclude that adolescents benefit from having parents who are authoritative: warm, firm, and accepting of their needs for psychological autonomy. Therefore, it would seem most beneficial to institute a systematic, large‐scale, multifaceted, and ongoing public health campaign to educate parents about adolescence, one that draws on the collective resources and expertise of health‐care professionals, scientists, governmental agencies, community organizations, schools, religious institutions, and the mass media.     

Some social indicators for multiple family housing

This research suggests some social indicator candidates for families housed in multiple-family environments. Objective, subjective, and behavioral data sets are all represented in the analysis. This range of social statistics and the utilization of appropriate statistical analysis are viewed as necessary conditions for generating social indicators rather than simply relying on arbitrarily selected social statistics and assume they are indicators. Analysis of 1253 interviews in 88 Alberta subsidized housing projects reveals that subjective data from the tenant category of housing variables rank highest in accounting for present levels of user satisfaction and are viewed therefore as reasonable social indicators with respect to that issue.     

Social indicators,health policy,and the elderly

Health-service researchers, policy analysts, and politicians face several problems in attempting to evaluate health care programs and make relevant policy decisions. The possible rôle of social indicators is discussed in these regards and is applied in an important health care context, the utilization of ancillary health services by the elderly. A Western Canadian research study substantiates the academic and applied value of the social indicators approach with respect to health services planning, research, and policy decision-making.     

Donning the Mask of Motherhood: A Defensive Strategy,a Developmental Search

Psychoanalysis has begun to place motherhood in a theoretical context, but mainly mothering is seen through the unconscious fantasies of children and adults in analysis who are reflecting on the mothers of their childhood. Little has been written about how mothers unconsciously view themselves and their mothering. Through the analyses of two women and their mothering anxieties, I focus on the intrapsychic conflicts of gender identity that can be masked by a culturally sanctioned obsessive preoccupation with their children. I describe how their developmental search for their female selves leads them to disavow states of being that they concretely deem as masculine.