Functional disability among chronic pain patients receiving long-term opioid treatment

This study of 2,163 adult chronic, non-cancer-pain, long-term opioid therapy patients examines the relationship of depression to functional disability by measuring average pain interference, activity limitation days, and employment status. Those with more depression symptoms compared to those with fewer were more likely to have worse disability on all 3 measures (average pain interference score >5, OR = 5.36, p < .0001; activity limitation days ≥ 30, OR = 4.05, p < .0001; unemployed due to health reasons, OR = 4.06, p < .0001). Depression might play a crucial role in the lives of these patients; identifying and treating depression symptoms in chronic pain patients should be a priority.     

The Contextual Experiences of Rural Custodial Grandparents and Opportunities for Social Work

Rural custodial grandparents have been understudied. As the grandparent caregiving population increases, more attention is needed to understand custodial grandparents in rural settings. This article explores the state of knowledge of the experiences of rural grandparents. A systematic review of the caregiving literature is conducted to understand the issues affecting this caregiving population. The results suggest that rural grandparents often are minority grandmothers with limited resources who provide care to older grandchildren in isolated environments. Attention is given to the social ecological framework as one model that can help to inform how social workers intervene with this population. Recommendations are offered for social work research, practice, and policy.     

Film in the social sciences of Tromso,northern Norway

The following article is a presentation of how a milieu of filmmaking has become a growing part of one of the Norwegian universities. The presentation was made at the IVth International Conference on Visual Sociology in Bielefeld, estern Germany in June.     

Exploring the Moderating Influence of Delinquent Peers on the Link Between Trauma, Anger, and Violence Among Male Youth: Implications for Social Work Practice

This study’s objective was to explore the influence of delinquent peer exposure, on the relationship between male youths’ histories of trauma, anger, and violent behavior. Using a nationally representative sample of male adolescents aged 12–17 and self report interviews, information was gathered on their levels of exposure to violence, stressful life events (SLE), anger, depression, delinquent peer exposure, and violent behavior. Results of a moderation analyses revealed that youth who reported higher levels of exposure to trauma, anger, and delinquent peers were at an increased risk for anger and for violent offending. Delinquent peer exposure exerted a significant interaction effect on the relationship between anger and violent offending. The implications for prevention and intervention efforts are delineated.     

Does familiarity breed contempt?: Analyses of the relationship among company familiarity,company reputation,company citizenship,and company personality on corporate equity

The effects of familiarity have received little attention in the areas of public relations. This study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to predict the influence of familiarity on corporate equity, which is measured by willingness to invest in a corporation or purchase its products or services using several mediating variables such as citizenship, reputation, and personality. The Roper Corporate Reputation Scorecard was used to study these variables using an online panel survey from NOP World of 1500 participants. Results found familiarity does have a positive relationship in each industry regarding citizenship, reputation, and personality. In addition, the latter three variables had a significant positive effect on corporate equity.     

What's wrong is right: A response to the state of the discipline

In the June issue ofSociological Forum, several authors addressed the question, What's Wrong with Sociology. Answers included increased fragmentation of the discipline, and the lack of an identifiable cumulative core of sociological knowledge. This paper examines many of the claims made by the contributors to the June 1994Sociological Forum, reframes their arguments, and by placing debates regarding the problems in sociology in a broader perspective, identifies many of the recent advances made by the discipline. Focusing on such notable contributions to the field as feminist and postmodern scholarship, we locate the positive side of multiple perspective research.Feminist Scholars in Sociology is a collective of researchers and teachers at the University of Colorado interested in exploring and sharing feminist theory and methodology.     

Robust Confidence Intervals for the Bernoulli Parameter

Despite the simplicity of the Bernoulli process, developing good confidence interval procedures for its parameter—the probability of success p—is deceptively difficult. The binary data yield a discrete number of successes from a discrete number of trials, n. This discreteness results in actual coverage probabilities that oscillate with the n for fixed values of p (and with p for fixed n). Moreover, this oscillation necessitates a large sample size to guarantee a good coverage probability when p is close to 0 or 1.

It is well known that the Wilson procedure is superior to many existing procedures because it is less sensitive to p than any other procedures, therefore it is less costly. The procedures proposed in this article work as well as the Wilson procedure when 0.1 ≤p ≤ 0.9, and are even less sensitive (i.e., more robust) than the Wilson procedure when p is close to 0 or 1. Specifically, when the nominal coverage probability is 0.95, the Wilson procedure requires a sample size 1, 021 to guarantee that the coverage probabilities stay above 0.92 for any 0.001 ≤ min {p, 1 ?p} <0.01. By contrast, our procedures guarantee the same coverage probabilities but only need a sample size 177 without increasing either the expected interval width or the standard deviation of the interval width.