Parental perceptions of the Children In Need Of Treatment dental program

This paper discusses the collaborative partnership involving the Middlesex-London Public Health Research, Education and Development site, the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion and Sport, then Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Branch, and an academic institution in the first-ever research of parental perceptions of the Children In Need Of Treatment. This paper provides an overview of the Children In Need Of Treatment program, reviews the results of the research (a mailed, self-administered survey with a systematic random sample of parents from three health units whose children received dental treatment that was paid by Children In Need Of Treatment in 2006), and its subsequent recommendations. How these recommendations affected program planning and policy are examined. In conclusion, parents were very satisfied with the treating dentist and the Children In Need Of Treatment program, and found Children In Need Of Treatment to be vital in addressing the health of their children by attending to their urgent dental needs.     

Adoptive Mothers’ Perceptions of Reactive Attachment Disorder Therapy and its Impact on Family Functioning

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore adoptive mothers’ perceptions of attachment therapy and its impact on family functioning. Sixteen mothers were interviewed 3 years after therapy. Analysis of the data revealed two sets of parental perceptions: first, attachment therapy was consistently supportive, emotionally painful, and physically safe; second, therapy preserved family structure, mothers remained committed to their children, and parenting was continuously stressful. This study highlights the need for further research on the treatment of children with attachment disorders and is not intended as a treatise on the efficacy of attachment therapy as a treatment modality.     

Making the Sociological Promise: A Case Study of Rosemary Brown's Autobiography*

Cet article reprend les formules de C. Wright Mills, la « promesse sociologique » et l'« imagination sociologique », et considère son engagement, de même que l'engagement de la sociologie, envers les récits populaires. On se rappelle que, selon Mills, la pensée sociologique est une question de narrations biographique et historio-graphique, des pratiques le mieux illustrées, affirme-t-il, par la prose non savante. En examinant une autobiographie populaire - celle de Rosemary Brown, femme politique et activiste canadienne -, on avance qu'une imagination sociologique à la fois exemplaire et créatrice est située dans ses constructions discursives de la parole, de la mémoire et de la subjectivité. Enfin, on recommande que les sociologues étudient les récits populaires afin de mettre en valeur et d'encourager les aperrçus qu'ils incarnent implicitement. This article takes up C. Wright Mills' formulations of the “sociological promise” and the “sociological imagination,” and considers his commitment, and sociology's commitment, to popular narratives. It is recalled that for Mills sociological thought is a matter of biographic and historiographic story-telling, practices he claims are often best exemplified in non-academic prose. By considering one popular autobiography—that of Canadian politician and social activist Rosemary Brown—it is argued that an exemplary and creative sociological imagination is located in her discursive constructions of speech, memory, and subjectivity. Finally, it is recommended that sociologists study popular narratives to point to and encourage the sociological insights that they often implicitly embody.     

Family-Based Social Capital Considerations as Predictors of Attainments Among Appalachian Youth

The purpose of this study was to explore social and human capital theory in application to status attainment research using a sample of 463 low-income youth from rural Appalachian families. Comparisons were made between social capital variables based in the family of origin and social interaction variables based in the broader community as influences on the status attainment of youth. Surveys of youth were conducted during a ten-year longitudinal study (i.e., three assessments conducted during fifth/sixth grades and eleventh/twelfth grades, and for ages twenty-one/twenty-two). Path analyses confirmed some of the social interaction hypotheses but demonstrated eve greater support for individual human and family social capital variables in explaining young adult attainment outcomes. Support was provided for the inclusion of family-based social capital variables as a means of gaining a broader understanding of youth attainment.     

Decline and fall: Unemployment among Britain's non-white ethnic communities 1960–1999

The declining employment fortunes of Britain's non-white communities, relative to whites, are explained. To achieve this comparison, some historical official sources of unemployment data are reviewed. The earliest known official time series on unemployment of non-whites dates back to 1960. This historical context is explored, especially the reluctance to make the early data more widely known. An unemployment series for non-white males and females from 1970 to 1999 is derived in two separate ways by splicing together official sources. These series are compared with unemployment of whites to demonstrate a relative increase in unemployment of non-whites.     

The Relationship Between Work-Life Policies and Practices and Employee Loyalty:A Life Course Perspective

Using a representative sample of 3,381 American workers, this study investigates relationships among work/life policies, informal support, and employee loyalty over the life course (defined by age and parental status and age of youngest child). The central thesis is that our understanding of the impact of work/life policies on employee loyalty will be enriched by consideration of the non-work and work contexts that influence employee attitudes and behavior. The relationship between employee child care policies and loyalty varies for women and men at different stages of parenthood. Flexible-time policies have a consistent, positive association with employee loyalty with some variation based on life stage. Informal support (via supervisors and co-workers) has the greatest positive relationship with employee loyalty.     

Impact of urbanization on the water quality,fish habitat,and fish community of a Lake Ontario marsh,Frenchman’s Bay

Frenchman’s Bay is a barrier beach wetland with a highly urbanized watershed located east of Toronto, along the north shore of Lake Ontario. Degradation of water quality has reduced the historically large stand of emergent vegetation to fringe emergent beds to the north and south of the Bay. Altered hydrology and runoff from the urban watershed and a nearby major highway have resulted in poor water quality, and warmer waters at the northern site. By contrast, the southern site has considerably cleaner and cooler water, as it is influenced by exchange of good-quality water with Lake Ontario. These differences in water quality were reflected in the composition of the fish assemblages that were sampled at the two sites over a 2-year period. Comparisons with past studies indicate that the dominant fish community of Frenchman’s Bay has been relatively stable for the last 20 years. Scores for the Wetland Fish Index, an indicator of wetland condition, were significantly higher in the south site than in the north site, which corresponded to significant differences in Water Quality Index scores. Although the northern portion of Frenchman’s Bay shows clear signs of degradation, the southern portion contains important fish habitat for western Lake Ontario.     

Gaze in married couples

This study examined the looking behavior of married couples during a 10 minute interaction segment. The variables examined included marital adjustment level, interaction role (speaking or listening) and type of message. Wives were more likely to look at their spouses than husbands were, and speakers were more likely to look at their partners than were listeners. While high marital adjustment spouses looked less over all types of mesages, low marital adjustment spouses particularly looked more than the highs on negative messages, suggesting either a confrontation component to the looking, or a strong need to monitor the partner's reactions in such situations. There was also evidence of more displayed competitiveness in the low marital adjustment couples. Correlational analyses revealed that there were different relationships between the looking behavior of the speaking spouse and the looking behavior of the listening spouse, and between the spouses' patterns of looking when speaking or listening and that these differences were dependent on marital adjustment level.