Modeling the mental health service utilization decisions of university undergraduates: A discrete choice conjoint experiment

Objective: We modeled design factors influencing the intent to use a university mental health service. Participants: Between November 2012 and October 2014, 909 undergraduates participated. Method: Using a discrete choice experiment, participants chose between hypothetical campus mental health services. Results: Latent class analysis identified three segments. A Psychological/Psychiatric Service segment (45.5%) was most likely to contact campus health services delivered by psychologists or psychiatrists. An Alternative Service segment (39.3%) preferred to talk to peer-counselors who had experienced mental health problems. A Hesitant segment (15.2%) reported greater distress but seemed less intent on seeking help. They preferred services delivered by psychologists or psychiatrists. Simulations predicted that, rather than waiting for standard counseling, the Alternative Service segment would prefer immediate access to E-Mental health. The Usual Care and Hesitant segments would wait 6 months for standard counseling. Conclusions: E-Mental Health options could engage students who may not wait for standard services.     

The Evolution of Food Safety Policy–making Institutions in the UK, EU and Codex Alimentarius

After the British government announced in March 1996 that a novel fatal human disease (now called variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease) had emerged and was almost certainly caused by consuming BSE–contaminated food, national and international authorities have been struggling to deal with the consequences of a serious loss of public confidence in the safety of foods and in food safety policy–making institutions. One of the main ways in which governments and officials have responded to those challenges has been by initiating a broad range of structural and procedural reforms to the ways in which public policies are decided, legitimated and communicated. This paper outlines some of the more important respects in which national and international authorities have changed the ways in which they assess and manage the risks to human consumers of food–borne hazards. The focus is on developments in the UK, the EU and, at the global level, the Codex Alimentarius Commission; the period covered runs from the late 1960s until summer 2002. The discussion focuses on the case for separating the responsibilities for regulating and sponsoring the agricultural and food industries, for conducting risk appraisals and decision–making in open and democratically accountable ways and for drawing on experts representing a wide range of interests and expertise rather than on a narrow industry–based group. The paper concludes by indicating some key structural and procedural conditions for effectively differentiating the scientific from the political aspects of risk appraisal and decision–making, and then for coupling them together in ways that would provide both scientific and democratic legitimacy.     

Coming of age in Spain: the self-identification, beliefs and self-esteem of the second generation

We review the literature on determinants of ethnic/national self-identities and self-esteem as a prelude to examining these outcomes among a large, statistically representative sample of second generation adolescents in Madrid and Barcelona. While these psycho-social outcomes are malleable, they still represent important dimensions of immigrant adaptation and can have significant consequences both for individual mobility and collective mobilizations. Current theories are largely based on data from the USA and other Anglophone countries. The availability of a new large Spanish survey allows us to test those theories in an entirely different socio-cultural context. The analysis concludes with a structural equations model that summarizes key determinants of national identities and self-esteem among children of immigrants in Spain. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Breadth or depth? A content analysis of the use of public relations theory

In a 2003 content analysis of scholarly public relations journal articles, Sallot, Lyon, Acosta-Alzura and Jones stated that, although no dominant paradigms had yet emerged, scholarship and theory building in public relations was well on its way. Entering into this project, the authors expected to see public relations at a stage where the majority of public relations research and scholarly journal articles were focusing on a centralized body of theory as the field entered the first decade of the 21st century. The results of the study presented in this article, however, suggest that this expectation was unduly optimistic. The evidence demonstrates that, after more than three decades of scholarly efforts, it is still not the case that public relations has enough of a central focus in its research and theory building to be deemed a mature discipline.     

Teaching minority students within minority schools: teachers’ conceptions of multicultural education in Swedish‐speaking schools in Finland

Finland is experiencing increased cultural diversity due to immigration and is facing challenges in developing multicultural education (ME) in schools. There is a Swedish‐speaking minority in Finland, and immigrant students entering Swedish‐speaking schools hence become a minority within a minority. In this study, using open‐ended interviews, we explore the views of Swedish‐speaking teachers of ‘minority within a minority students’ and of ME. We found that Swedish‐speaking teachers have a positive attitude towards cultural diversity. On the other hand, they consider teaching to be independent of culture and take a colour‐blind approach to their work. Being minority language speakers themselves does not necessarily affect their views and understanding of immigrant students.     

Comparing a survey and a conjoint study: the future vision of water intermediaries

This paper compares and contrasts two methods of obtaining opinions using questionnaires. As the name suggests, a conjoint study makes it possible to consider several attributes jointly. Conjoint analysis is a statistical method to analyse preferences. However, conjoint analysis requires a certain amount of effort by the respondent. The alternative is ordinary survey questions, answered one at a time. Survey questions are easier to grasp mentally, but they do not challenge the respondent to prioritize. This investigation has utilized both methods, survey and conjoint, making it possible to compare them on real data. Attribute importance, attribute correlations, case clustering and attribute grouping are evaluated by both methods. Correspondence between how the two methods measure the attribute in question is also given. Overall, both methods yield the same picture concerning the relative importance of the attributes. Taken one attribute at a time, the correspondence between the methods varies from good to no correspondence. Considering all attributes together by cluster analysis of the cases, the conjoint and survey data yield different cluster structures. The attributes are grouped by factor analysis, and there is reasonable correspondence. The data originate from the EU project 'New Intermediary services and the transformation of urban water supply and wastewater disposal systems in Europe'.     

Secondary Trauma: A Team Approach

Bearing witness to trauma stories can evoke in clinicians the confusion and emotional turmoil their clients experience, known as secondary trauma. Given the complexities of trauma work, practitioners need help to clarify issues and feel more effective. The terror attacks of September 11, 2001 further compound the task, as therapists may themselves be feeling the impact of those events. Presented here is a team model for structured case discussion which can help workers identify and deal with their reactions to both client trauma stories and their own experiences. The model is explained and illustrated with examples, and the process by which it was piloted and evaluated is discussed.     

Defense Industry Restructuring: Trends in European and U.S. Defense Companies

The national defense industries have recognized that world circumstances have changed and consequently some radical changes are also required in their own structures. Increased concentration of defense production indicates that the central defense-industrial policy dilemma between the benefits of economies of scale and the benefits of competition has gradually been resolved in favor of scale economies. This article analyses the restructuring underway from a political-business perspective. It compares the different forms of corporate linkage ranging from full merger and takeover via less dramatic ties associated with strategic alliances and minority shareholdings to joint ventures. In particular, it explores these approaches from the perspective of their suitability to restructuring in the politically sensitive defense industry when the process spans national boundaries. The structure of the analysis involves an assessment of the progress of the U.S. defense industry and identification of the drives for change and the underlying dynamics of this industry. This gives a platform for a parallel analysis of pressures and changes among the European defense industry, leading to an analysis of how U.S. and European companies are placed regarding the industrial trends towards globalization.