Typologies of Childhood Exposure to Violence: Associations With College Student Mental Health

Abstract

Objective: This study examined typologies of childhood violence exposure (CVE) and the associations of profiles with current demographic characteristics and mental health in emerging adulthood. Participants: The study evaluated a sample of college students from 2 US geographic regions (Midwest, n = 195; Southeast, n = 200). Methods: An online questionnaire (collected 2013–2014) assessed CVE and current mental health. Latent class analysis was used to identify typologies of CVE. Follow-up analyses were conducted to distinguish differences between typologies in demographic characteristics and mental health. Results: Four distinct profiles emerged: High-Exposed, Domestic-Exposed, Community-Exposed, and Low-Exposed. High- and Domestic-Exposed groups were more likely to be first-generation college students and to experience symptoms of psychopathology. Conclusions: This study offers a unique presentation of CVE profiles and a nuanced interpretation of their differential relationship to current demographic characteristics and mental health. It may befit university mental health initiatives to engage first-generation students and utilize comprehensive assessments of previous victimization.     

Klebsiella pneumonia liver abscess syndrome: Case presentation to a college student health clinic

ABSTRACT

The authors describe a case of Klebsiella pneumoniae liver abscess (KPLA) in a student presenting to a university student health center. The authors also provide a review of KPLA and invasive Klebsiella pneumoniae liver abscess syndrome (IKPLAS), including epidemiology, common clinical manifestations, standard diagnostic work-up, management options, and potential complications.     

The Personhood in Dementia Questionnaire (PDQ): Establishing an association between beliefs about personhood and health providers' approaches to person-centred care

Purpose of the studyInterest in person-centred dementia care has flourished in the last two decades. Despite growing interest in the development and implementation of person-centred approaches to dementia care, important empirical questions remain. For instance, although Kitwood (1997) emphasized that personhood, a status extended by others, is at the heart of person-centred care, to our knowledge, no one has demonstrated empirically that beliefs about patient status influence how care is provided. The purpose of this series of three studies was to operationalize Kitwood's definition of personhood in order to test this hypothesis.Design and methodsTo operationalize Kitwood's definition of personhood, we generated items to create the Personhood in Dementia Questionnaire (PDQ; Study 1). We then completed preliminary tests of the PDQ's convergent and discriminant validity (Study 2). Finally, we examined the PDQ's relationships with other constructs such as burnout and job satisfaction, and we used linear regression to test the hypothesis that health providers' beliefs about personhood influence intended approaches to dementia care (Study 3).ResultsIn Study 1, we generated a pool of 64 potential questionnaire items. In Study 2, a 20-item version of the PDQ demonstrated good internal consistency, resistance to socially desirable responding, and evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. In Study 3, PDQ scores accounted for a significant proportion of variance in health providers' intended approaches to dementia care, including pain management. PDQ scores were not related to job satisfaction or to most aspects of burnout.ImplicationsThese results provide the first direct empirical evidence of Kitwood's (1997) theory that beliefs about patient personhood have the potential to influence health providers' care decisions, including decisions about pain management.     

The representation of future generations in newspaper coverage of climate change: A study of the UK press

Climate change will rob future generations—today's children and those yet to be born—of the stable climate that previous generations have enjoyed. The article explores how future generations are represented in climate change coverage in the UK national press. We examine the ‘popular’ (Mail, Mirror) and ‘quality’ (Guardian, Telegraph) press from 2010 to March 2019. We found that little attention was given to future generations; young people rarely spoke and, along with those yet to be born, were represented in ways that obscured the temporal and social inequalities that are built into climate change.     

Exploring Group Dynamics in Activity-Based Group Work with Young People Experiencing Homelessness

This article explores the development of group dynamics in an activity-based group comprising four young people experiencing homelessness and one group facilitator. Over the course of 12 sessions, the group produced a coconstructed audio documentary. Nine group sessions were recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed for patterns of group dynamics, including communication and interaction patterns, cohesion, social integration and influence, and culture. Findings suggest that the task-oriented nature of coproducing the audio documentary facilitated the development of interpersonal dynamics, provided young people with opportunities for personal growth, and provided them with opportunities to engage their strengths as well.     

Engaging with families in child protection: lessons from practitioner research in Scotland

This paper reports findings from practitioner-led research on engagement with families in the child protection system in Scotland. Engagement is here defined in a participative sense, to mean the involvement of family members in shaping social work processes. Key findings include the importance of workers building trusting relationships; the value of honest and clear communication, information, and explanation; and the potential for formal structures such as reports and meetings to hinder family engagement. These findings contribute to a growing critique of managerialism in social work.     

“We’re a movement”: crowdfunding,journalism, and feminism

As media organizations struggle to remain financially viable, and layoffs become more common, crowdfunding has been championed as one way for journalists to finance new ventures and create work outside of mainstream media. There is a growing body of research that is starting to critically examine the relationship between journalism and crowdfunding. This research, however, has tended to look at journalism as a whole, rather than specific genres. The purpose of this paper is to look at how crowdfunding is being used to create feminist online magazines, online spaces, and freelance journalism to tell stories about women, or aimed at a female-identified audience. It argues that beyond simply wanting to write and produce content the hope is to create change and often the crowdfunding campaigns are positioned as trying to create a “community” and/or a “movement.” This article uses a political economic framework, drawing on the concept of structuration, to analyze how these crowdfunding campaigns are being used to push back against, and open up, mainstream dialogues of what it means to be a woman or female-identified, as well as create safe and open spaces for these conversations.     

Enhancing engagement between the population,environment, and climate research communities: the shared socio-economic pathway process

Demographers have much to contribute to climate change science. This paper describes a new framework being developed by the climate research community that holds potential as an organizing tool for population–climate scholarship, as well as being useful for identifying demographic research gaps within the climate change field. The shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs) represent plausible alternative trends in the evolution of social and natural systems over the twenty-first century at the scale of the world and large regions. The SSPs can help identify population–environment research gaps by illuminating areas of intersection that will shape climate futures but require deeper scientific understanding—the association between urbanization and energy consumption is an example. Also, to vastly enhance the policy relevance of local case studies, the parameters outlined within the SSPs can offer a basic level of harmonization to facilitate generalization. In this way, the SSP framework can increase the relevance and accessibility of population research and, therefore, offer a mechanism through which demographic science can truly offer policy impact.