The Long‐Term Effects of Building Strong Families: A Program for Unmarried Parents

The authors present findings from a large‐scale, random‐assignment evaluation of Building Strong Families (BSF), a program offering group sessions on relationship skills education to low‐income, unmarried parents who were expecting or had recently had a baby. Findings based on a 3‐year follow‐up survey of over 4,000 couples indicate that BSF did not succeed in its central objectives of improving the couple relationship, increasing the quality of coparenting, or enhancing father involvement. In fact, the program had modest negative effects on some of these outcomes. BSF also had little impact on child well‐being, with no effect on children's family stability or economic well‐being and only a modest positive effect on children's socioemotional development. Impacts varied across the 8 study sites. Although attendance at group sessions was relatively low, there is little evidence of program effects even among couples who attended sessions regularly.     

Reducing Overconfidence in the Interval Judgments of Experts

Elicitation of expert opinion is important for risk analysis when only limited data are available. Expert opinion is often elicited in the form of subjective confidence intervals; however, these are prone to substantial overconfidence. We investigated the influence of elicitation question format, in particular the number of steps in the elicitation procedure. In a 3‐point elicitation procedure, an expert is asked for a lower limit, upper limit, and best guess, the two limits creating an interval of some assigned confidence level (e.g., 80%). In our 4‐step interval elicitation procedure, experts were also asked for a realistic lower limit, upper limit, and best guess, but no confidence level was assigned; the fourth step was to rate their anticipated confidence in the interval produced. In our three studies, experts made interval predictions of rates of infectious diseases (Study 1, n = 21 and Study 2, n = 24: epidemiologists and public health experts), or marine invertebrate populations (Study 3, n = 34: ecologists and biologists). We combined the results from our studies using meta‐analysis, which found average overconfidence of 11.9%, 95% CI [3.5, 20.3] (a hit rate of 68.1% for 80% intervals)—a substantial decrease in overconfidence compared with previous studies. Studies 2 and 3 suggest that the 4‐step procedure is more likely to reduce overconfidence than the 3‐point procedure (Cohen's d = 0.61, [0.04, 1.18]).     

The Ethical Challenges of Field Research in Conflict Zones

Drawing on 26 months of field research in El Salvador during the civil war, I analyze some ethical challenges that confront field researchers working in conflict zones. After briefly summarizing the purpose and general methodology of my research, I discuss in detail the research procedures I followed to implement the “do no harm” ethic of empirical research. I first analyze the particular conditions of the Salvadoran civil war during the period of research. I then discuss the procedures meant to ensure that my interviews with people took place with their fully informed consent—what I understood that to mean and how I implemented it. I then turn to the procedures whereby the anonymity of those interviewed and the confidentiality of the data gathered were ensured to the extent possible. Throughout I discuss particular ethical dilemmas that I confronted, including issues of self-presentation and mistaken identity, the emotional challenges of field work in highly polarized settings (which if not well understood may lead to lapse in judgment), and my evolving questions concerning the researcher role and its limitations. I also discuss the dilemmas that arise in the dissemination of research findings and the repatriation of data.

Assessment of locus of control: Situational specificity in the sexual context

Past research indicates that one's beliefs about the control of rewards and aversive events critically affect the quality of one's life. The concept of locus of control (LC) has been a focal point for this prior work. Few studies have examined the explanatory power of the LC concept in sexual (excluding reproductive) contexts. Problematic for past work has been the use of LC measures not developed specifically for sex research. The present study discusses methodological and conceptual issues involved in assessing LC, reports on the development of an LC measure relevant to the sexual dyad (the DSR), and compares the DSR to a general LC measure not developed expressly for sex research (the NSLC). The DSR was found to (a) have satisfactory reliability and validity, (b) correlate with sexual dyadic variables (e.g., frequency of orgasm, dyadic sexual satisfaction) but not monadic variables (e.g., masturbation frequency, masturbation attitudes), and (c) have significantly larger correlations with dyadic sexual variables than has the NSLC. Accordingly, when LC is assessed in a sexual context, LC scale items should incorporate relevant features of the sexual situation. Lastly, expected sex differences in perceptions of control were not found. Possible reasons for this result are discussed.     

All in the Family

Abstract

This study of sore throats in a college population revealed predominately mild physical abnormalities and a low incidence of group A beta hemolytic streptococci. A concern is raised about the criterion for the interpretation of the bacitracin disc test.

In the endemic or usual circumstance, the generally healthy adult complaining of sore throat while living in a good environment and having no major physical findings has an acute rheumatic fever risk approaching zero. The risk of an adverse reaction to penicillin would appear to be greater. The physician must consider the host, the environment, and the epidemiologic factors that may affect the rheumatogenicity of the organism.

In light of these ambiguities, the practicing physician should reevaluate the medical ritual of throat culturing.     

Understanding Men's Health and Illness: A Gender-relations Approach to Policy,Research, and Practice

Abstract

Men's health has emerged as an important public concern that may require new kinds of healthcare interventions and increased resources. Considerable uncertainty and confusion surround prevailing understandings of men's health, particularly those generated by media debate and public policy, and health research has often operated on oversimplified assumptions about men and masculinity. A more useful way of understanding men's health is to adopt a gender-relations approach. This means examining health concerns in the context of men's and women's interactions with each other, and their positions in the larger, multidimensional structure of gender relations. Such an approach raises the issue of differences among men, which is a key issue in recent research on masculinity and an important health issue. The gender-relations approach offers new ways of addressing practical issues of healthcare for men in college environments.     

“No One Talked About It”: Social Work Field Placements and Sexual Harassment

ABSTRACT

Increasing student safety is an important part of Title IX compliance for colleges and universities. Sexual harassment is an all too common experience for college students, although little is known about incidences in social work field placements. The extent of training and preparation received by students from social work program and field instructors is also unknown. This study explores the extent of training and knowledge about sexual harassment in social work field placements from a sample of 535 BSW and MSW students. Only 51% of social work students received training about sexual harassment, with 21% receiving training from their school’s field office. Participants who had received training felt more prepared to address safety concerns in field. Implications for social work education are discussed.     

Homelessness Among Out-of-Treatment Drug Users in Long Beach,CA*

Abstract

Two studies were conducted to determine the reliability of measures of homelessness (Study 1), and to use these measures to predict homelessness from data collected over a 1O-year period (Study 2). For Study 1, to determine test-retest reliability, the Risk Behavior Assessment (REA; National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1991) was administered twice within a 48-hour period. Cohen’s kappa was calculated at .86 for the two REA measures of homelessness. For Study 2, to predict homelessness from data collected over a 10-year period, a logistic regression model was built. Earlier homelessness and illegal income were identified as risk factors; number of times tested for HIV and Black ethnicity were identified as protective against homelessness. Predictive accuracy was assessed with a reduced bias method approximating jackknifing techniques. These findings point to the need to provide enhanced services-including HIV testing opportunities andjob training- to the homeless.