Patterns of parental bereavement following the loss of a child and related factors

This study investigated the patterns of parental bereavement in 20 parents who have lost a child to cancer, congenital heart disease, meningitis, or drowning in the last 19 months, using semi-structured interviews and standardized questionnaires of depression and grief. Qualitative content analysis of interviews identified three bereavement patterns: The majority of parents (65%) presented uncomplicated, Integrated Grief five mothers were Consumed by Grief and one mother and one father expressed Minimal Grief. Quotes from parents exemplified these patterns. Parental gender, symptoms of depression, and pre-death relationship between parents and their deceased child differentially related to these patterns. Having surviving children, social support, and being active appeared to help to integrate grief into daily life. These findings illustrate differential patterns of parental bereavement and related factors, information that has important implications for identifying at-risk parents for complicated bereavement.     

Role of bisphosphonates in the management of postmenopausal osteoporosis: an update on recent safety anxieties

Following their introduction in the 1990s, bisphosphonates have become the mainstay of treatment in the management of postmenopausal osteoporosis, and their use continues to rise. Commonly noted adverse effects in clinical practice include gastrointestinal side-effects, acute phase reactions (predominately seen with intravenous preparations) cutaneous reactions and more rarely, ocular side-effects. However, recent reports of potentially serious adverse effects of bisphosphonate therapy, including atypical subtrochanteric and femoral shaft fractures, atrial fibrillation, oesophageal carcinoma and osteonecrosis of the jaw, have prompted concerns regarding the long-term safety of this class of drugs. This review summarizes the benefits and potential adverse effects of bisphosphonates used in the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Although evidence of a definitive casual relationship between bisphosphonate therapy and serious adverse effects is lacking, concern remains particularly in relation to atypical subtrochanteric and femoral shaft fractures. This has important consequences in terms of determining optimum duration of therapy and how best to target therapy at those most at risk. Recently, attention has focused on individual fracture risk assessment in order to optimize the risk-benefit ratio of treatment for individual patients. A review of the role of hormone replacement therapy in younger women with significant risk of osteoporotic fractures may be timely in these circumstances.     

The Dickensian Occupational Structure

Twelve of the novels of Charles Dickens provide a sample of 349 characters whose occupational achievement and mobility are investigated. The mobility patterns indicate more inheritance than in the United States. This cannot be accounted for by education, material inheritance, or morality (being a good or bad person). A model of quasi-perfect mobility, taking all diagonal frequencies as given, more closely represents the patterns. Determinants of achievement considered are social origins, number of siblings, education, marital status, morality. The characters from large families do better occupationally than those from small. Education functions primarily to redistribute success. The married are superior to the unmarried, with marriage functioning not as a selective mechanism, but exerting causal impact of its own. The evil are rewarded in this life. The basic path model of the stratification system of Dickens is similar to that of the United States.     

Engaging families of court-mandated youths in an alternative to institutional placement

In a family-centered diagnostic assessment program for youths adjudicated as P.I.N.S. or J.D., placement in short-term foster homes was combined with outreach efforts to engage families in family counseling. Results demonstrated positive feedback by parents and a sharp reduction in the percentage of youths needing institutional placements.     

Prevention of placement: critical factors in program success

Initial studies of home-based family counseling programs have demonstrated success in keeping children out of institutional placements: little is known, however, about the characteristics of families or children or service utilization that might predict program success. This study of families where placement was avoided and families where a child ended up in placement throws light on the issue.     

Immigrant Settlement Patterns: The Role of Metropolitan Characteristics*

Immigration continues to change the social, economic, and political landscapes of urban America. Consequently, scholars, as well as the general public, are interested in the internal migration patterns of immigrants. In this research, we identify and explain the characteristics of metropolitan areas that have the strongest effects on the percentage change in the foreign‐born population between 1990 and 2000. Using lagged independent variables and a sample of 150 metropolitan areas, we find that settlement patterns among immigrants are diverging from traditional patterns. That is, those metropolitan areas that had moderately high levels of globalization and lower costs of living as well as lower disadvantage indicators (e.g., percentage poverty) in 1990, had larger increases in percentage foreign‐born between 1990 and 2000 compared to areas with lower levels of globalization and higher costs of living and disadvantage. These trends suggest the increasing importance of second‐tier metropolises such as Atlanta, Phoenix, and Las Vegas in understanding where immigrants settle.     

Some alternatives to Edgeworth

The Edgeworth expansion is well known as a means for obtaining approximate tail probabilities from information concerning the moments of the distribution. Recent saddlepoint and asymptotic methods lead to several alternative approximations. These alternatives are developed and compared by means of average relative error.     

Deprivation and Child Abuse: Implications for Strategic Planning in Children's Services

SUMMARY. The paper reviews the association between material deprivation and child abuse and considers the implications of the association for preventive strategies. The authors conclude that community-wide strategies aimed at supporting all child carers are more likely to succeed in preventing child abuse than those based on identification of high risk' groups. Common elements of successful community-wide strategies are presented as are the implications for child protection policy making.