Laughing Your Way to Peace of Mind: How a Little Humor Helps Caregivers Survive

As the numbers of caregivers continue to increase, more attention is being focused on the unique stresses these individuals experience. Caring for a loved one tests the limits of even the most resilient, regardless of professional status or experience. Laughter is a universal elixir which allows people to cope more sanely with stress and caregiving responsibilities. Research on the emotional and physical benefits of laughter supports the use of humor by professionals and family members who occupy caregiving roles. This article addresses this research and examines common caregiver emotions while providing concrete guidelines for developing humor. Case examples demonstrate how laughter and wit are utilized by those caring for a loved one.     

Top 10 reasons to take your graduate program in psychiatric nursing online

1. Removing barriers to graduate psychiatric nursing education is possible by delivering courses via the Internet. 2. The Internet is full of valuable resources for graduate psychiatric nursing education. 3. Successful online learning environments involve a paradigm shift on the part of faculty from traditional teaching to facilitating the learning of adult students. 4. Increasing the number of advanced practice psychiatric nurses through Web-based education will transform the delivery of mental health care.     

The Maltreatment of Children: A Review of Theories and Research

This article reviews the literature pertaining to the causes of child maltreatment. The review discusses 68 articles from various disciplines and organizes them into four predominant theories; psychodynamic, social learning, social psychological, and sociological. Research evidence supporting each of the theories is described and critiqued.     

Alcohol and substance use disorders as predictors of child to adult sexual revictimization in a sample of community women

Alcohol- and substance-related diagnoses were examined as factors in child to adult sexual revictimization. Three hundred community women completed interviews and self-report instruments to obtain information regarding victimization and to diagnose substance use disorders (alcohol and substance abuse/dependence). Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivors were more likely than nonvictims to meet criteria for both substance use disorders and to report rape (e.g., unwanted intercourse due to threat or use of force, or due to the inability to consent due to the respondent's alcohol or drug use) and coerced intercourse (e.g., unwanted intercourse due to verbal coercion or misuse of authority by the perpetrator) by acquaintances, strangers, and husbands. In general, both CSA and substance use disorders were predictive of adult sexual victimization, but there were no significant interactions between these factors. Overall, substance use disorders were related to rape for all women; this relationship was not unique to CSA survivors. Alcohol- and substance-related diagnoses predicted rape by all three types of perpetrators, but CSA was predictive of rape only by acquaintances and strangers and not husbands. In contrast, CSA predicted coerced intercourse by all three perpetrators, while alcohol- and substance-related diagnoses predicted coerced intercourse by acquaintances and strangers, but not husbands. Results highlight the need to continue the study of revictimization of CSA survivors, including examination of both rape and sexually coercive experiences by different types of perpetrators. Findings support continued research of substance use disorders as risk factors for sexual victimization among all women.     

HOW DO ELECTORAL SYSTEMS AFFECT FISCAL POLICY? EVIDENCE FROM CANTONAL PARLIAMENTS, 1890–2000

Using a new data set on Swiss cantons since 1890, we analyze how the adoption of proportional representation affects fiscal policy. In line with economic theory, we show that proportional systems shift spending toward broad goods (like education and welfare benefits) but decrease spending on geographically targetable goods (like roads). We find little evidence that proportional representation increases the overall size of government. An analysis of the underlying theoretical mechanisms reveals that proportional representation increases electoral turnout, left‐wing representation, and political fragmentation. These changes in political representation explain a substantial share of the rise in education spending, but a small share of the rise in welfare spending or the decline in road expenditures.     

Social Amplification of Wildfire Risk: The Role of Social Interactions and Information Sources

Wildfire is a persistent and growing threat across much of the western United States. Understanding how people living in fire‐prone areas perceive this threat is essential to the design of effective risk management policies. Drawing on the social amplification of risk framework, we develop a conceptual model of wildfire risk perceptions that incorporates the social processes that likely shape how individuals in fire‐prone areas come to understand this risk, highlighting the role of information sources and social interactions. We classify information sources as expert or nonexpert, and group social interactions according to two dimensions: formal versus informal, and generic versus fire‐specific. Using survey data from two Colorado counties, we empirically examine how information sources and social interactions relate to the perceived probability and perceived consequences of a wildfire. Our results suggest that social amplification processes play a role in shaping how individuals in this area perceive wildfire risk. A key finding is that both “vertical” (i.e., expert information sources and formal social interactions) and “horizontal” (i.e., nonexpert information and informal interactions) interactions are associated with perceived risk of experiencing a wildfire. We also find evidence of perceived “risk interdependency”—that is, homeowners’ perceptions of risk are higher when vegetation on neighboring properties is perceived to be dense. Incorporating social amplification processes into community‐based wildfire education programs and evaluating these programs’ effectiveness constitutes an area for future inquiry.     

Understanding Gaps Between the Risk Perceptions of Wildland–Urban Interface (WUI) Residents and Wildfire Professionals

Research across a variety of risk domains finds that the risk perceptions of professionals and the public differ. Such risk perception gaps occur if professionals and the public understand individual risk factors differently or if they aggregate risk factors into overall risk differently. The nature of such divergences, whether based on objective inaccuracies or on differing perspectives, is important to understand. However, evidence of risk perception gaps typically pertains to general, overall risk levels; evidence of and details about mismatches between the specific level of risk faced by individuals and their perceptions of that risk is less available. We examine these issues with a paired data set of professional and resident assessments of parcel‐level wildfire risk for private property in a wildland–urban interface community located in western Colorado, United States. We find evidence of a gap between the parcel‐level risk assessments of a wildfire professional and numerous measures of residents’ risk assessments. Overall risk ratings diverge for the majority of properties, as do judgments about many specific property attributes and about the relative contribution of these attributes to a property's overall level of risk. However, overall risk gaps are not well explained by many factors commonly found to relate to risk perceptions. Understanding the nature of these risk perception gaps can facilitate improved communication by wildfire professionals about how risks can be mitigated on private lands. These results also speak to the general nature of individual‐level risk perception.     

Stress management for pregnant adolescents and adolescent mothers: A pilot study

A five week stress management program for pregnant adolescents and adolescent mothers emphasizing deep muscle relaxation and cognitive control methods was pilot tested with 23 experimental and 12 control subjects. The experimental group demonstrated a significantly greater reduction in cognitive and affective manifestations of stress and an increased belief in their ability to deal with stress. While the differences between the groups did not reach statistical significance with respect to changes in overall stress levels or use of specific coping strategies, a consistent trend was demonstrated in the data for more positive changes in the experimental group. Recommendations were made for an expanded program, the inclusion of incentives, and the program's inclusion in the school schedule.