Social and psychological resources among homeless youth: protection against risk for physical victimization?

ABSTRACT

This study examines child physical abuse, social and psychological resources, and street physical victimization among 150 homeless youth from the Midwest. Path analyses results show that males have higher self-efficacy than females, while older youth and those who experienced less child physical abuse reported higher self-esteem. Self-efficacy and self-esteem were positively associated with social support as was being younger and having experienced less child physical abuse. Younger respondents reported fewer difficulties obtaining basic necessities, and those who had less trouble finding these necessities experienced less street physical victimization. Females, younger youth, and those who experienced less child physical abuse reported lower rates of physical victimization. Agencies should be aware that many youth experiencing homelessness have trouble obtaining basic necessities, which increases risk for victimization. Moreover, the ability to obtain necessities appears to override the influential role of social support, further affirming the foundational importance of agencies helping youth meet their basic needs.     

Bisexuality in the male

Research into factors pertinent to incest is hampered and confused as a result of lacking clear‐cut definitions. A distinction is made here between consanguine and affinal relationships, and it is suggested that biological consequences as well as psychological problems allegedly resulting from incest could be more clearly determined, and the effectiveness of the incest taboo, its origin and psychological internalization could be studied more effectively. Instances from literature are cited to exemplify these concepts.     

FROM THE SANCTUARY TO THE SLAMMER: EXPLORING THE NARRATIVES OF EVANGELICAL PRISON MINISTRY WORKERS

Current survey research reveals that religious conservatives exhibit more punitive attitudes toward criminal offenders than their nonreligious and mainline counterparts. Despite the pervasiveness of conservative Protestant support for the punitive treatment of criminal offenders, evangelical-run prison ministry programs have proliferated in recent decades. This study uses in-depth interviews to examine the motivations of prison ministry workers. The narratives demonstrate that prison ministry workers embrace a distinctive orientation of compassion and, through sustained contact with inmates, they negotiate the tension between conservative religious values and their practical experiences working in prison ministry. From this overarching theme of compassion, three important subthemes emerged: (1) the calling of prison ministry, (2) special connections to the prison context, and (3) a sense of comfort and security with inmates. Overall, we observe how prison ministers negotiate two competing moral logics—judgment and compassion—in light of their religious convictions and experiences with inmate outreach.     

An Evaluative Review of Outcome Research on Universal Mental Health Promotion and Prevention Programs for Higher Education Students

Abstract

Objective: This review is the first large-scale attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of universal promotion and prevention programs for higher education students on a range of adjustment outcomes. Participants/Methods: The current review examined 83 controlled interventions involving college, graduate, and professional students, with a focus on 3 main outcomes: social and emotional skills, self-perceptions, and emotional distress. Results/Conclusions: Skill-oriented programs that included supervised practice demonstrated the strongest benefits, thus showing promise as a successful mental health promotion and preventive intervention. In comparing different intervention strategies, mindfulness training and cognitive-behavioral techniques appear to be the most effective. Furthermore, interventions conducted as a class appear to be effective, suggesting the potential for exposing higher education students to skill training through routine curricula offerings. This review offers recommendations for improving the experimental rigor of future research, and implications for enhancing campus services to optimize student success in psychosocial—and thus ultimately academic—domains.     

‘Race isn't what defines me’: exploring identity choices in transracial,biracial, and monoracial families

Transracial adoption [TRA], particularly the adoption of black children by white parents, has been a controversial issue in the United States for more than half a century. Much of the criticism surrounding transracial adoption has dealt with concerns that black children raised in white homes will fail to develop a positive black identity. Such critiques are often based on assumptions about the identity of black children raised by their biological parents, yet studies of transracial adoption rarely address identity development struggles experienced by black children raised in black homes. Moreover, while the race of parents in relation to children is at the center of the transracial adoption debate, TRA studies rarely delve into socialization practices of biracial families headed by one white and one black parent. This study addresses a void in the literature by examining the experiences of young black adults whose parents may or may not be of the same race. The impact of varying racialized family structures on black identity development is examined by comparing the experiences of young black adults raised in families with two black parents (monoracial), one white and one black parent (biracial), and two white parents (transracial). Drawing from 32 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with middle-class young black adults between the ages of 18 and 30 years old, findings indicate that all informants, regardless of racialized family structure, approach racial identity development similarly by de-emphasizing the ascribed status of race in favor of achieved statuses as part of the identity construction process.     

Economic Well-Being Among Older-Adult Households: Variation by Veteran and Disability Status

This analysis uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to examine whether veteran and disability statuses are jointly associated with poverty and material hardship among households that include an older adult. Compared to households that do not include a person with a disability or veteran, disabled nonveteran households are more likely to be in poverty and to experience home hardship, medical hardship, and bill-paying hardship. Disabled veteran households are not significantly different in terms of poverty, but exhibit the highest odds of home hardship, medical hardship, bill-paying hardship, and food insufficiency. The implications for social work practice are discussed.     

新闻框架的倾向性研究

美国媒介的自由主义神话使人们常常认为美国新闻记者是监督政府、捍卫民权的领袖,然而,这种媒介自由主义偏见却受到越来越多的质疑。美国主流媒体对儿童医疗保险计划报道的个案显示,新闻框架存在显著的倾向性。这种倾向性不仅表现为新闻偏见的简单正负二分,更彰显于谁是政策受益者、推理基础何在以及争论复杂性如何等三个不同的信息维度。美国政治文化中的个人主义,相对单纯、政治冷漠的受众,媒介对官方信息来源的依赖,以及媒介对于那些有权操纵结果的政府官员的偏向,使得新闻报道并没有像人们想象的那样站在公众一方。新闻倾向性成为新闻决策偏见和官方新闻管理技巧之间互动的产物。     

Promotional Opportunities: How Women in Corrections Perceive their Chances for Advancement at Work

Utilizing a theoretically derived sample, selected women who worked in corrections were interviewed in order to better understand what barriers women thought most impeded their success in moving up the organizational ladder. This work rests on the qualitative case study methodology. Three major themes emerged from interviews. Women believed that their chances for promotion within corrections were negatively impacted by: a belief that they could not perform the job as well as comparable men, an environment marked by sexual harassment, and problems in balancing work and home responsibilities. Male correctional officers were viewed as dominating the field. Further, there was a belief among these women, who worked in corrections, that comparable men were generally perceived as more capable.     

Racial Disparities in Access to Mortgage Credit: Does Governance Matter?*

Objectives. This article examines the effect of community organizing on the likelihood that minority borrowers pursue home mortgage credit from regulated lenders. Methods. Governance perspectives suggest that community organizations exert significant influence on policy outcomes. We use logistic regression with interaction terms to test the effect of community organizing on the lending outcomes of minority borrowers. We use a matched control sample of cities, drawing on 2004 loan data from two midwestern cities similar in racial and economic composition but with different histories of organizing around the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Results. We find differential effects based on an applicant's race or ethnicity. Overall, African‐American applicants are less likely to pursue mortgage credit for home ownership from regulated lenders than their white, non‐Hispanic counterparts. However, African Americans seeking mortgage credit in a city with a history of CRA organizing are more likely to apply to regulated lenders than their racial counterparts in a city without CRA organizing. However, while organizing reduces the disparities between white and African‐American applicants, a gap still remains. Conclusion. African‐American borrowers living in cities with a history of community organizing around CRA appear more likely to pursue mortgage credit from traditional, regulated lenders, suggesting that governance matters.     

Optimal designs for threshold-determining limiting dilution assays

In common with other non-linear models, the optimal design for a limiting dilution assay (LDA) depends on the value of the unknown parameter, θ$\theta$, in the model. Consequently optimal designs cannot be specified unless some assumptions are made about the possible values of θ$\theta$. If a prior distribution can be specified then a Bayesian approach can be adopted. A proper specification of the Bayesian approach requires the aim of the experiment to be described and quantified through an appropriate utility function. This paper addresses the problem of finding optimal designs for LDAs when the aim is to determine whether θ$\theta$ is above or below a specified threshold, _θ0${\theta }_0$.