Expectancies and Mental Models as Determinants of Adolescents' Smoking Decisions

Cigarette smoking has been identified as the single most preventable source of mortality and morbidity in the United States. Experimentation with tobacco typically begins in adolescence, and smoking during this period is one of the strongest and most consistent predictors of adult smoking status. In the present paper, we review several prominent decision models that have been applied to adolescent smoking, and point out important limitations of these models. We then propose a new process-oriented framework of decision-making based on the concept of mental models, and discuss the implications of this framework for developing effective smoking prevention and cessation interventions for adolescents.     

Gaining Satisfaction? An Exploration of Foster-Carers' Attitudes to Payment

The payment of foster-carers has long been controversial, reflectingboth philosophical debates as to whether fostering should bea voluntaristic or professional activity and concerns aboutplacement provision and service delivery for children. Althoughmany research studies have touched upon the question of foster-carers’satisfaction with payments, this has not been explored in anydepth. Drawing on findings from a study involving 1,181 foster-carersin twenty-one agencies, this article attempts to provide suchan analysis with four main objectives. These comprised: examiningassociations between attitudes towards payment and demographic,socio-economic and fostering career variables; comparing responsesbetween carers based in local authorities (grouped accordingto levels of payment and performance criteria) and independentagencies (IFAs); gauging the influence of carers’ ‘orientations’towards foster-care as a ‘professional’ task; andanalysing payments in terms of their different components, suchas fees, maintenance and certain designated expenses. Amongmany detailed findings to emerge were the generally low levelof satisfaction among local authority carers, especially incomparison with their IFA counterparts and the growing supportamong carers for salaried status. There was mixed evidence onlinks between attitudes towards remuneration and the performanceof agencies.     

Health care segregation and race disparities in infectious disease: the case of nursing homes and seasonal influenza vaccinations

Examining nursing home segregation and race disparities in influenza vaccinations, this study demonstrates that segregation may increase both susceptibility and exposure to seasonal flu for black Americans. Evidence based on the 2004 U.S. National Nursing Home Survey shows that individuals in nursing homes with high percentages of black residents have less personal immunity to flu because they are less likely to have been vaccinated against the disease; they may also be more likely to be exposed to flu because more of their coresidents are also unvaccinated. This implies that segregation may generate dual disease hazards for contagious conditions. Segregation appears to limit black Americans' access to personal preventive measures against infection, while spatially concentrating those people who are most likely to become contagious.     

Predicting social adjustment in middle childhood: the role of preschool attachment security and maternal style

Children's social and emotional adjustment at age 8 were examined in relation to attachment security, parenting style, setting conditions, and social and emotional adjustment at age 4. Seventy-nine children participated in videotaped interaction sessions with their mothers and with unfamiliar peers at the two ages. Data were derived from videotape coding, mother questionnaires, and child sociometric ratings. Results indicted that internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and social engagement were related at the two ages. After removing the variance due to the relationship between child behaviors at the two ages, a comparison of mother-child relationship predictors indicated that attachment security at age 4 was the strongest predictor of internalizing problems and social engagement/acceptance at age 8, while maternal style was the strongest predictor of externalizing difficulties. Results point to the importance of both aspects of the mother-child relationship, and indicate that the nature of family and peer links may vary depending upon the specific social domain assessed.     

Matches and Mismatches: The Contribution of Carers and Children to the Success of Foster Placements

Correspondence to Professor Ian Sinclair, Social Work Research and Development Unit, University of York, York YO10 5DD. E-mail: acs5{at}york.ac.uk Summary Data were collected on 472 foster children at an interval of14 months. The children's social workers, the family placementsocial workers and the foster carers reported on disruptions,and the reasons for placement success or lack of it. These views,combined with comments from the children, led to hypothesesabout the origins of successful placements. Statistical testsof these hypotheses suggested that success depended on threeaspects of the placement. First of these was the children'scharacteristics. Children, who wanted to be fostered (had attractivecharacteristics and low levels of disturbance), did better.Second were the qualities of the foster carer. Placements withwarm, child-oriented carers were more successful. Third wasthe interaction between carer and child. The findings emphasizethe crucial importance of the foster carers to outcomes. Theyalso support the need to pay close attention to children's views,and the potential importance of early intervention to preventnegative spirals of interaction between carer and child.     

Men Who Murder Children Inside and Outside the Family

The focus of this paper is on men who murder children. The dataare drawn from a larger study of Murder in Britain,¹ which examinedall types of murder and included data from a total sample of866 case files of both men and women convicted of murder andserving a life sentence in England or Scotland. This analysisis based on a subset of ninety cases of men convicted of themurder of a child. Two types of child murder are compared: menwho kill children within the family (FM, n = 49) and men whomurder children outside the family context (NFM, n = 41). Thetwo types of murder are compared in terms of the childhood andfamily backgrounds of the perpetrator, the circumstances atthe time of the murder and elements of the murder event itself.The main findings reveal many significant differences betweenthe two groups of perpetrators, indicating a need for more nuancedpolicy and practice responses to the murder of children.